


Sick Snow

by TheAnimeTrain



Series: SS and side stories [1]
Category: World Trigger (Anime & Manga)
Genre: 18 Year Olds are Metaphorical Cannibals, Action, Aftokrator, Aftokrator Invasion, B-Rank Wars, Border - Freeform, Border Chat, Canon Compliant, Comedy, F/F, F/M, Family Issues, Galopoula, M/M, Multi, Multiple Pairings, Not Beta Read, Original Black Triggers, Original Character Crossover, Original Character-centric, Original Triggers, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:13:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 136
Words: 867,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24689695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAnimeTrain/pseuds/TheAnimeTrain
Summary: Ever since the first invasion on Mikado City, Border had been growing ever large with the number of people entering. Multiple teams have appeared throughout that time with each having their own strengths. One such team is made up of nothing but crazies and ever changing members. This is a story just for them.
Series: SS and side stories [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1801813
Comments: 7
Kudos: 11





	1. Yuki Tsukiko

_In Mikado City, home to 280,000 people, a Gate to another world opened one fateful day._

_Invaders from another dimension known as Neighbors poured through._

_The city then knew true fear._

_The Neighbors' technology makes them immune to most Earth weapons. Most believed the fall of the city was only a matter of time._

_But then..._

_A mysterious group drove off the invaders and delivered a message._

_"Leave the Neighbors to us. We have long trained for this."_

_They studied Neighbor technology and created an organization to defend the world from them._

_The defense organization that was known as Border._

_The group built a tremendous base in a very short time and prepared defenses against the invaders._

_Four years later..._

_Though the Gate is still open, and the Neighbors still come through, most of the city's population has chosen to remain. Perhaps due to their faith in Border, the regular explosions and flashes hardly even faze the people living in Mikado City._

* * *

Outside the Forbidden Zone of Mikado City, a Border team stood atop and around three fallen Marmods. Their expressions carefree or uncaring about the mild destruction around them. They wore similarly styled outfits of consisting of a long-sleeved, gray jacket and loose pants. The three males there had their collars raised up while the girl there has the ends of the collar bent outward.

They had been sent out to take care of the Neighbors who had come through the Gate that opened up. The end result was what someone would expect from this particular team; holes in the ground, a few things cut up that were suppose to stay in tact, and three beaten Neighbors. Thinking that this was something out of the ordinary would only bring forth multiple strange looks from others.

The only girl standing there looked around at the three Marmods. She flipped her hair while speaking in a melodious tone that also gave off the feeling of a teasing older sister.

"That was honestly some of my best work yet. It's just a sad thing that Toby had to go and get in my way a few times."

"Did that even matter!? You still took the shot! If it wasn't for my reflexes you would have made me Bail Out!"

A boy with brown hair caged in a trapper hat gave a scowl towards the girl. His eyes seeming to be much more animalistic than human.

She didn't even look in his direction.

Clicking his tongue, the trapper hat boy fixed his gray hat that managed to cover his ears.

Ignoring what his two teammates were going on about, a boy with gray hair and a gray scarf looked over at their team's captain.

With a dull and flat tone that sounded like he could care less about what was going on around him, the boy asked, "Yuki-senpai, are you alright?"

The sickly looking captain of theirs gave a kind smile towards the boy.

"Yeah. I'm fine."

Tsukiko Yuki was the oldest person there, yet seemed rather young for an 18-year-old. He had black hair that was long on his left side, covering his nice onyx eye. His smile gave off a warm feeling, but it also seemed like it held something else behind it.

"Take, you knew that Yuki isn't so weak as to even get a scratch against these damn things."

Before anyone else could say anything, a soothing voice that sounded like it belonged to a mother come through to them through their earpieces.

_"Calm down now. I'm sure Yuki-kun doesn't want to break up another fight. The last time he had to do that he also had to write a letter of apology to the directors. So please, stop before I get paper out."_

"Yes, ma'am..."

None of them could see her but all four of them knew that their Operator was giving a smile while nodding her head.

_"By the way, you guys did well, and your teamwork is growing. You're really starting to earn your spot as a top tier team. At least by B-Rank standards."_

"With a leader like Yuki, there's no way we're _not_ great! Although that did sound a bit harsh, Mei. We've always been good enough for our spot."

Yuki said nothing. He gave a sheepish smile that seemed more like a brother's when his sibling just embarrassed him without trying.

Seeing the smile on her captain's face, the melodious girl spoke up in order to change the subject.

"Anyways... Don't you guys find it kinda weird that there have honestly been this many Gates opening up outside of the Forbidden Zone? A few a day is fine and all, but honestly, how many is that today? There has to be something up with it."

"I had asked some of the A-Rank agents about it, but they weren't really sure themselves," Yuki said as he got a thoughtful expression. "Maybe Jin-san or Amo-kun would know."

"Well, they better figure it out soon! Like Suzume said; this is happening waaaaay too much! Yuki shouldn't have to use his off time for something like this!"

The trapper hat boy kicked the Neighbor as the scarf boy jumped down from it.

"Must you be so loud? We already know that Yuki-senpai has better stuff to do than this. He doesn't need you giving him a headache just because you're like some wild animal."

Three green orbs that had been floating lazily around his head started to dissipate until they were completely gone. The other three didn't seem surprised by the orbs in the slightest.

"It's not my fault that HQ isn't working faster. I mean, seriously, don't they know how fragile Yuki is? He already does more than enough when he's on duty, they shouldn't make him do extra when he's off the clock."

"They are trying their hardest, I'm sure. But, I do agree they should hurry up before Yuki-senpai's body gives out."

The other two looked on as the Attack and Shooter's argument went on. One watched with a sheepish smile and the other watched with an irritated expression. They both knew this argument was pointless, and almost a daily thing, but they also knew they couldn't really do much about it.

Misaki Suzumebachi - the melodious girl - sighed as she shook her head.

Quickly getting tired of the argument, she turned to her captain and asked, "Can I just hit them now? We both honestly know this will go on for the rest of the day."

_"You should let her. It makes things easier for us all."_

"Don't you honestly find it a little insulting that they're saying you're basically so weak that you need protection? We all know that your better than any one of us."

"It's fine. Those two don't mean any harm. Besides, I'm only really strong when I'm in this body. Out of it... I might as well be in bed with a bowl of soup next to me. Thank you anyways, Suzu-chan."

"Don't you have any pride as a man? I mean, you are the oldest between the four of us and they treat you as if you are a kid." She let out a small sigh and shook her head. "I suppose my breath is just honestly being waisted on you, though. Whatever. They at least give me some good material."

Yuki only smiled an apologetic smile towards her.

"You're honestly too nice most of the times, Yuki-san."

Seeming to be fine with that, Yuki looked over at his two arguing teammates. He gave them a fond look but said nothing.

Seeing the look they were getting Kotowari Takeshi - the scarf boy - turned away from his argument to ask a question.

"Now that I think about it, we haven't reported back to HQ yet, right?"

_"It's fine. While you all were talking, I took the liberty of sending in the report. They said you were all free to go. I still have some work to do, so I'll be staying over here."_

"Try not to go overboard, Mei-chan."

 _"I should be telling_ you _that. Either way, don't worry. I promised someone that I'd treat them later on. I'll see you guys later."_

There was a bit of silence between them all as they waited for a while for other agents to come and pick up the fallen Neighbors.

The two who had been previously arguing easily got out of their Trion bodies.

Suzume huffed as she turned off her Trigger and flipped her hair.

"That person is either Kako-san or Kō-san."

Toby Awdry fixed his gray trapper hat.

"Maybe it's both. She's honestly on really good terms with both teams so it wouldn't be surprising if both teams actually went along."

Takeshi brought up his gray scarf to shield himself from the breeze that passed by him.

"Says the one who always tries to invite Kusakabe, Shor, and Arashiyama squads for lunch every week."

"Shut up, asshole! So what if I'm more social than you? Just leave me alone."

"But if any one of us seems closest to others, it's honestly Yuki-san."

"Yeah. Now that you mention it..."

Yuki gave a small chuckle as his team continued to walk away.

He enjoyed being around them, when he was able to leave his house. There was never any malice coming from them when they talked about him. It always felt more like he was watching three child talk like they were grown people.

He could easily remember when he had met all of them and let out a content sigh at the fond memories. They had always taken care of him when he wasn't able to do much, and he always cared about their wellbeings when they were having their own troubles.

_They're always entertaining to be around as well._

* * *

Tsukiko Yuki was happy.

It was the beginning of the day and he was feeling well enough to go out instead of staying in bed and feeling like crap.

You see, due to a certain incident, Yuki had been gotten an illness that took effect for a good portion of his days. He was able to move around and stay in Border by being in his Trion Body whenever he could. It was an irritating thing, yet one he could not get rid of.

That did not mean he would not try and live his life.

He let out a silent sigh as he walked through the street and received multiple greetings from the other people out. Being the person he was, he returned all of them.

"It's nice to be out. But it looks like everyone's worrying again."

"That's not too shocking. You are quite popular for being a Border agent, and just for being so... kind."

Yuki turned to see a beautiful girl with black hair cut short walking next to him as she gave her own greetings to some people. She gave a proper greeting to him as well. Her voice was a soothing one that mothers usually had when speaking to their children. That may have been why he was always happy to hear it.

She was Takato Mei - Tsukiko Squad's Ultimate Operator.

It was nothing new to see the two together. Especially since they lived near each other.

The two walked through their neighborhood with no particular place in mind.

While he got entertainment from the other three agents in his team, he enjoyed the calming nature of their Operator from time to time. She was only a year older than him yet he was grateful for all the help he had received from her before.

"Have you heard about what happened?"

"It's a possibility I have."

"Apparently, there was another attack yesterday. This time it was a middle school, and a C-Rank agent took down two Marmods. Kitora also took down some kind of new Neighbor. I guess that's to be expected of an A-Rank agent."

"That really is amazing. I know how strong Kitora is, so that isn't really shocking. But a C-Rank agent beating two Marmods is quite amazing as well. Well, I can tell what's a lie when k hear it. Also, I find it kind of funny that you speak like that about A-Ranks."

"Oh yeah. Jin was also at HQ yesterday." Mei let out a huff and grumbled. "He's the same as always. A good punch keeps him at bay."

"He probably doesn't mean anything by it. Besides, you're really pretty, so I'm sure any guy would want to just be around you. You can't really blame him."

That was when it happened. One of the worst possible things that could ever happen when Takato Mei was involved almost did.

She got a blush on her cheeks.

Noticing what he said, Yuki got ready for at least a headbutt. He tried to quickly cover it up.

"O-oh yeah! Oh yeah! It's really nice that you get along so well with him! I th-thought you two would be at odds! Glad I was wrong! Hahaha..."

"..."

Mei let out a sigh.

"Yeah... Well... We have a bit in common. Besides you, he kind of understands what's going on."

"Is that so... Oh! Maybe we could all drop by Tamakoma later on! I'm sure Konami would like to talk to you and Suzu! Besides! I still need to teach Karasuma a thing or two! It's easy to trick Konami, but we're still working on Reiji-san!"

Yuki sighed as he put a hand on his heart.

Being sick was bad enough. Having this girl get embarrassed was something he would rather avoid at all costs. He did not want to die due to severe injuries or a heart attack.

With that crisis averted, the two continued on with their walk.

They had known each other for quite some time now. They knew each other best, and knew what the other would be thinking most times. They were also seen by others as some of the only people who could keep Tsukiko Squad in line.

It may have slipped that the three younger ones would call Mei their mom from time-to-time. But no one - _absolutely no one -_ would say that Yuki was like a dad. That would bring hell onto the world via Takaoto Mei.

"So, are you and Jin still trying to find a way around everything?"

"Always. Until we find the perfect way to help you... We will continue to keep track of everything. You might not think this is all worth it, but we do."

"Alright, alright. I'm not going to stop you two. All I will say is that there really isn't that much of an issue. If it does come down to that, I'm fine with whatever. The only ones that will really care too much are those three, you and Kō. Even then, I'm sure you all can get over it rather quickly."

"Do you want to get punched? I really will punch you."

"Sorry, sor-"

Their conversation had ended up being cut short by the sound of a scream. Yuki and Mei looked at each other before making their way over to where they heard the scream. They wasted to time to finding out what was wrong.

When they got there they saw a group gathered around something in one of the area's parks.

After showing themselves, the crowed quickly moved out of the way to allow the two to get through. What they saw had them confused.

It was a small six-legged robot-like creature.

Just as Yuki was going to grab it, the robot-like creature backed away, and a Gate started to open above it. Before it could fully form, the creature was stabbed and fell to the ground.

At that time, a voice came through to Yuki that said, _"Attention, all Border agents! There has been an infestation of a new kind of Neighbor! You are all to find every one of these new Neighbors and destroy them!"_

Then a man appeared on most of the crowd's phones. He held up a picture of the creature and spoke, _"Border has found the reason for the Gates opening in the city. These small Neighbors. Border is exterminating them right now. If you see one, contact Border at once!"_

Yuki turned to Mei and saw her eyes looking more dull than they were a few seconds ago. He knew exactly what was going on and let out a small sigh while standing straight up.

"So that's how it is... Looks like we're gonna be busy today."

Yuki turned towards the whispering crowd behind him and clapped his hands.

"Alright, everyone! As Netsuki-san had just said on your devices, if you find any more of these small Neighbors, contact a Border agent and someone will be there as quickly as they can! I will be leaving to help the search, but will make sure to get rid of any in this area!"

The crowd started to disperse as Yuki let out a small sigh and turned to Mei. He gave a small smile and a mock salute before quickly leaving to search for any of the new Neighbors.

* * *

After searching the whole day, all the small Neighbors were delt with and every agent was now relaxing from the long search. They had gotten some help here and there from civilians, which did make things easier for them, but it was still difficult to find all of them.

The small Neighbors had been small enough to fit in places like a sewer drain or under houses, so having to find them by sight alone was troublesome. Even with the trouble, Border had been able to get a better reading in where they had been and made things go by much quicker.

Now that all was said and done, Yuki happily stretched his arms as he walked around.

"Looks like we've got them all. Man, that was a good workout. Too bad this doesn't effect my real body. I would love if I could feel it afterwards. Getting in real exercise recently has been so hard."

Yuki himself had met up with his team a little after the announcement and had quickly disposed of a number of the small Neighbors. They were easy enough to take out. One hit from a simple Trigger was all it took to take them down. They were rather weak overall.

"Sometimes it just feels nice to have things quiet around me. Minoru's not wrong when he calls them puppies. Still, they don't mean any harm. At least I get some breaks like this anyways."

It had been rather difficult to get away from his team when they worried constantly about him and his health. It had not just been his team but others he had passed by had asked if he was feeling alright.

He had been a bit annoyed by the attention but let it go as easily.

"At least we can all take a break now. Maybe I could go get some ice cream later on with Akane and Yoshi."

Easy days like these would make anyone have simple thoughts like this.

It was always a relief to know that calm moments like this were able to be had when things could get hectic at any moment due to the Gates opening around Mikado City.

_Still... Things like today can cause issues later on. Jin is the one who can see the future, and I'm sure he only wants us to go down the best path. Even so, he can't control everything all at once. Those spots need to be filled with improvisation by the rest of us. It can cause some delay in how things go and won't work out every time. Peaceful days are nice, but I need to be on guard when it matters._

Even if one person was having a good day, it may be hell for another. Yuki had always known this, so thinking about these kinds of things were important to him.

He let out a sigh before shaking his head.

"I need to stop that. It's making me sound like those two..."

He could only clench his fists and look up with determination.

There was only one thing to do at times like these.

"Let's go get that ice cream!"

"I've be told to keep you away from ice cream for a while."

Turning around, Yuki saw a guy in a semi-strange uniform consisting of a hoodie under what looked to be a yukata top and pants that had knots at the ankles as well as just above the knees. The person's actual appearance was a boy who was a year or so younger than Yuki, although taller than Yuki, with heterochromatic red and blue eyes. His hair was as black as Yuki's, but he had the tips of his hair dyed white.

"Hm? I don't see your team anywhere."

"Heh heh heh... Yeah. I was able to escape them for the time being... What about you, Oshiro? Where's your team? They're just as persistent as mine when it comes to being around their captain. I'm a bit surprised."

"Oh! Kirai-kun went off somewhere. Hitsu-chan followed after him. She probably wants to make sure he doesn't cause any trouble for me."

"Ah... He probably went to 'gather more information', right?"

"Yeah... You're probably right."

"Well, if he ever quites Border, he can become a great informant. Although I'm sure that even then people would not want to be around him."

Letting out a laugh, the two continued to walk.

They figured they would go to the benches nearby.

The two may not have been actual brothers but no one would suspect otherwise. They seemed so much alike with only a few people knowing just how different the two really were. Those differences were what kept them from working together for the most part.

They continued to talk as they walked rather aimlessly to the benches nearby. It wasn't until they were a few meters away that they heard a familiar voice.

"Because there's someone you want to help?"

They both looked over and saw an Elite S-Rank Agent talking with a C-Rank agent wearing glasses, a young-looking boy with white hair, and some sort of machine-like thing. They both knew who the S-Rank was, but the others were new faces.

Deciding that there was no harm in it, they went over to greet the small group and introduce themselves.

.

Jin Yuuichi grinned as he spoke to the ones in front of him. He looked towards the one with glasses on, but knew that the other two were paying just as much attention.

He had decided to ask a rather simple question. His answer did not come since he had heard his name being called out.

"Jin-san, hello!"

The four turned to see Yuki and Oshiro walking up to them. The one with glasses started to freak out a little bit while the machine-like thing started to move behind the white haired kid.

The two B-Ranks took notice of this, but said nothing about it.

"Oh, hey, Yuki. Hogo. Are you feeling well enough to be out right now?" Jin asked with less worry, and more curiosity, in his voice.

Yuki could see a glint in his eyes as he spoke. It was something he would usually see when both Jin and Mei were in the same place. Deciding to let it go for the time being, Yuki gave a small laugh before answering.

"Yes. I am feeling fine right now."

"Must suck that you had to search with us when you finally feel alright."

"Not really. I got to get out so this is no problem for me. By the way..." Yuki trailed off as he looked at the two behind Jin with a curious expression. "If I may ask..."

Jin noticed the look and moved to the side so that the other two could get a better view. A grin never left his face the whole time.

The white-haired boy seemed to be sizing the two up.

"Right. Guys, these two are Mikumo Osamu and Kuga Yuma. The one behind Yuma is Replica-sensei."

Jin noticed the shocked and questioning looks he got from the two behind him, so he turned to them with his grin in place. He knew there was no reason for them to be wary of the two who had just come onto the scene.

Yuki also noticed their reactions. He said nothing about it in case the wrong words came out.

"No need to worry about these two. The only bias they ever really show is towards very specific things. They also keep secrets rather well."

"Hello, Mikumo-kun, Kuga-kun, Replica-sensei," Yuki said with a low bow.

The three gave their own greets in response to the formality they saw. The two in front of them were their seniors, meaning they showed the right amount of respect from the start.

"So, Jin-san, were you the one to figure out that these things were the cause of the Gates?"

"Nope. It was Megane-kun here. He's a C-Rank rookie right now, but he'll probably be moved up to B-Rank like you guys after this."

"Really? Then if you need anything, you can just ask, Mikumo-kun. We're always happy to help."

"Right."

"Hey, they're like you then, Osamu. You are people who can't help but to...help."

Yuki continued to listen to the two younger boys talk while keeping an eye on Jin.

There was something wrong with what Jin had said and they both knew that Yuki would figure that out. Even so, the two said nothing about it due to the other person that was there. A reason was always made whenever something like this came up between the two.

That was the main reason Jin was quick to chance subjects in front of him.

"While we're talking about moving up in the ranks. Yuki, when are you planning on joining the A-Ranks? I've been hearing that complaints are piling up because of you. Some from Ikomacchi and others from Tachikawa-san."

"That's the first I've heard of it. They have been talking to me personally, but this is the first time I've heard that they were complaining to others about it. That's actually my bad then..."

"Is that so?"

From the corner of his eye, Yuki could see Kuga giving the two of them a look that seemed like he was paying close attention to what they were saying. That was enough reason for him to move his own focus to the glasses boy instead.

That was the best place to once again change topics.

"Is there something you want to ask, Mikumo-kun?"

The glasses-boy stood straight when the attention went to him. He was caught off guard while being unaware of how his expressions gave him away.

Thinking it was best to just go with every thing he spoke up.

"I was just thinking that you must be strong if Jin-san and others want you to become A-Rank so badly. If I hadn't heard you guys talking just now I would have assumed that you were already at their level."

"Ah... Hahaha. That's rather flattering. But those guys just want to mess with me really. I am no better than any other B-Rank. They tend to get overexcited with these kinds of things. That's there is to it. Nothing more and nothing less."

"Always the modest type, huh?" Jin put an arm around Yuki's shoulder and started talking to the other three again. "This guy is strong, when he wants to be. He could easily be an A-Rank and go toe-to-toe with some of the best. He doesn't take the offer though because he wants to go to A-Rank with his whole squad."

"Jin-san, you're exaggerating! I would quickly lose if I fought against an A-Rank! And I don't take the offer because I know I'm not strong enough to be A-Rank."

"Ah~ That silver tongue you have-"

"Jin."

.

Kuga looked between Jin and Yuki with his head tilted to the side a bit. The words that the two were saying came out clear as day, yet there was something wrong with their conversation. Jin spoke only the truth when it came to Yuki; there were no gray areas and nothing was false. Those words were countered by nothing but gray from Yuki. He spoke in a way that made it hard for Kiga to tell what exactly what the truth and what were lies.

"Well, Kuga? Which one is telling the truth?" Osamu whispered, looking down at him.

That was the question he was still trying to answer.

The easy answer was to say that Jin was the one speaking the truth, but that did no feel right. Giving that answer would be saying that what Yuki was saying was nothing but hollow words to keep others from knowing the truth.

Except his words also held truth in them.

Deciding that he would just keep that to himself, Kuga said nothing particular and gave a half-hearted answer. It was the best course of action.

He was rather glad once he heard the next words that came from Jin.

"You two should probably be getting back to your teams before they start harassing the other agents for information on where you are. I'm sure you guys didn't forget what happened last time."

"True..." Yuki faced the other three again. "Anyways. It was a pleasure to meet you three. If you need anything, don't be hesitant to ask. If you need anything at all, Jin-san can just tell you where our rooms are."

Kuga and Mikumo nodded while watching the two older males start to walk away.

Once they were outside of hearing distance, Kuga turned to Jin. His face had a relaxed expression while talking to the S-Rank agent.

There was no harm in asking what he wanted.

"Jin-san, what exactly-"

"Hm~ Sorry. I can't tell you guys anything about that guy. Like I said before; he's good at hiding secrets. I might accidentally tell you something completely false since I don't know everything."

"I see..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just as a heads up. I am planning to split this story up into smaller ones and put it as a series. There will be a bit more added to those than what this story has. Mostly for the parts up to Aftokrator and the invasion itself. So feel free to wait for those or just read this story to know what will happen.


	2. Tsukiko Squad

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "()" means a different language.

"Indian!"

"Japanese."

" _Honestly, you idiots don't know anything. Originally made by someone is best. Just ask Mei-san."_

_"Should you guys really be talking about curry when you're suppose to be destroying a opponent? You should pay more attention. Although I must agree with Suzume about this."_

The sigh that escaped Yuki's lips was an involuntary one, but it was still there.

The whole team was busy fighting against some Neighbors that had come through a Gate. It would normally be really easy for them all to take it out in under five minutes or so, but this one was a bit different.

"This doesn't concern you, so stay out of it."

_"Repeat that."_

"Nothing was said, ma'am!"

"She's right though. We need to get this over with now."

Another reason was that the three younger members were arguing over a trivial and pointless thing once again. It even seemed that the usual calm, collected, and overal great Operator was being dragged into it without really noticing it.

"!"

The four who were in their pointless argument looked over as a large sound was heard thought the area. They were the team in charge of the area at the moment and so hearing another fighting going was made them a bit curious as to who it was.

_Maybe it's someone new? Possible just a team who wants to show off._

Yuki couldn't help but shake his head again as he, Toby, and Takeshi moved away from another attack from the giant Neighbor.

They had barely started the fight and were trying to contain as much damage as they could. Which was already difficult for Yuki.

Deciding they had spent enough time on this, Yuki looked straight up at the Neighbor and was gone in an instant. He appeared in front if it, pulled out the blade at his hip from its sheath and cut through the Neighbor's head.

The top of the Neighbor's head fell to the ground with the body following it. The clean cut had managed to end the fight right then and there.

When he landed back on the ground with a huff he was quickly flocked by the other three.

"Are you crazy!? What if that thing had landed a hit!? What if you missed!? Don't just do things without informing your teammates here! We're here to help you out in fights!"

"I would rather you notworry us to the point of us having to keep an eye on you, Senpai. I already have to take care of this dog as it is, so adding on to it isn't nice."

"Even if that was honestly great, don't do it again."

Yuki gave a sheepish look towards the three.

_They do know that I wouldn't have gotten hurt..._

Yuki continued to get scolded by his team for a good two minutes before they finally settled down. It wasn't like this was anything new, so he simply smiled and nodded his head.

He looked over at the fallen Neighbor and allowed his mind to wander off a bit to what they had just fought. It appeared to be rather new with the attack pattern being different from any of the ones that had gone through a Gate so far. Something to note was the laser it had fired at them from a distance.

_Curiouser, and curiouser. All the others have been close-range attackers. Having this one be a distance one is something to worry about, but overall something we can deal with._

Nodding his head a bit, Yuki put a hand to his ear and started to speak.

"Mei-chan, did you tell HQ we were able to defeat the Neighbor? As you can tell, I was a little busy."

_"Yeah. I reported everything. By the way, Yuki-kun, Shinoda-san said he wanted to see you."_

Those words is at toy got the attention of every me never on the team.

The first to voice their response had been the hat-boy Toby.

"Oooooooohhhh! Maybe it's to promote you! He finally sees how strong you are and is ready to make you an A-Rank! I say we celebrate! Take's paying!"

Yuki, Takeshi, and Suzume just stared at their fourth member as he got excited from his own thoughts. They did not feel like wrecking his little fantasy, so they just went with it. Even Takeshi, who was always ready to pop the other's bubble, felt sorry for the boy.

Also for the fact Takeshi knew he would have to deal with it later the most.

Mei's voice could be heard through their earpieces, saying exactly what they were all thinking,

_"You can't really blame him. None of you have told him that Yuki-kun has been rejecting all the offers so far. Don't forget that he barely joined the team not too long ago. The last offer Yuki-kun got was before he came into the picture."_

"We know," the three said simultaneously.

"We all _hope_ it's for that, but it honestly doesn't matter since Yuki-san will probably reject again." Suzume flipped her hair. "If anything, he'll do it just to annoy us all."

"Either way, it must be pretty important if Director Shinoda wants to see him."

_"Maybe he's gonna let Yuki-kun go."_

"Like hell he would! If you say that again, I'll give you a good punch!"

_"Try it."_

Yuki could not help the chuckle that came out when he heard the rest of his team threaten their operator. And in return get scared by said Operator.

He was also wondering what he was needed for, highly doubting it was to let him go from Border. That specific director was one of the reasons he was in Border to begin with. The reason may indeed have been to grant him special permission to enter A-Rank. That meant he really would be rejecting it.

_Still, something like that isn't what I should be thinking about..._

As soon as Yuki turned off his Trigger, it happened. In less than a few seconds after going back to his real body, Yuki started coughing before falling to the ground. He continued to cough from his spot on the ground, covering his mouth as he did so.

All of this caught everyone else's attention. The Combatants quickly went to their captain. They tried to sooth him by rubbing circles on his back and even asked if they needed to take him to the hospital.

After about two minutes he finally stopped coughing, now only sweating and panting. There were a few coughs here and there, but it didn't lead to anything else.

"Captain, are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. I'll go over to HQ and take my pills."

_"I can tell Shinoda-san. I'm sure he'll understand if you need to see him later. There is no need to push yourself while you're like this."_

They could all hear the worried, and slightly scared, tone in their Operator's voice. Whenever this kind of thing happened she would always speak with that tone. They all understood that, as the one who knew him longest, she was the most worried about his health.

The pain of not being able to help him was something they had delt with since meeting him. That pain only increased when they learned that even the Ultimate Operator herself could not help either.

Seeing the worried looks of his teammates and hearing the tone of his Operator, Yuki gave his best smile.

"It's fine. When I'm done there I'll just go home and get some rest. I should be better by tomorrow. If not then I may have to take some days off."

Yuki tried to stand only to fall back down seconds later.

Takeshi went over to help his captain.

"Thanks for this."

* * *

Mei could only sigh at her captain's stubbornness.

She knew exactly how he felt about getting help from others. Her attempts at helping him were all blocked out by him. To others it always seemed like to he didn't want to trouble other people, but to her it was different.

The real reason Tsukiko Yuki did not want to get help from others was simply because he never wanted help. The few people he asked for help from before or willingly took help from could be counted on a single hand.

She was not one of those people.

That fact alone made her feel a bit down when she thought about it.

_I think this is the only time I am allowed to be jealous of Murakami, Shinoda-san, and Sensei. He has never asked me once for help and he always rejects my help. He truly is an idiot who needs to learn how to rely on others._

Shaking her head, Mei pulled out her phone and scrolled through her contacts. Once she found the one she was looking for she pressed the button to call the person.

She needed to tell one of the few people who had been able to help Yuki.

* * *

The three younger members of Tsukiko Squad looked worriedly at their captain as he took his medicine. None of them wanted to just leave their leader at times like these. Even after making it to the Border base they had demanded that they stay by his side.

"I'll treat you guys to something later on, okay? Under the condition that you guys behave while I'm gone and don't make too much of a ruckus around here."

"We're honestly not children, Captain."

Suzume knew that what she was saying went through one ear and out the other, so she simply grabbed the backs of Toby and Takeshi's shirts to pull them away.

It took a lot of arguing before they had settle on a deal. They would be meeting up once he was done speaking to Director Shinoda. Toby and Takeshi had almost been forced to agree while Suzume had simply agreed while dragging the other two away.

That left Yuki to wave at the three with a kind smile.

When the rest of the squad was gone, Yuki pulled out a small case from his pocket. He opened the lid and took out two decent sized pills. The disdain in his eyes was obvious as he took two of the pills out. The disgust that came with taking the pills was evident as he swallowed the, down with some water.

There was no way to enjoy the pills when the foul taste was able to regular medicine to shame. Even if taking it made his team happy, he himself would never be happy about it. It was only made worse when he remembered that the pills did nothing except hold off his illness for only a few minutes. Even while he coughed up blood at times he would always stand back up to do his stubbornness to not lose to the illness.

Yuki let out a sad sigh when a certain memory came back to him. He spoke absentmindedly while thinking about the memory.

"I know they're suppose to help me, but why are they so big...? It's like they prefer me to die choking on these pills instead of by the actual thing. Either way it will be painful. I plan to at least live for another three years..."

"I highly doubt that's why they make them that big."

Hearing a new voice getting closer, Yuki looked over to see Director Shinoda Masafumi walking towards him. The smile on his face fell once he saw just how pale Yuki was.

Yuki had a guess as to where that look came from.

"'Mei' told me about your coughing fit earlier. Are you all right? We could have spoken at another time."

"It's fine. I'm okay. Thank you for worrying about me though, Director."

"No need for titles. It's not like anyone's gonna notice small stuff like that. Besides... With you and 'Mei' it feels a bit awkward." Giving a smile again, Shinoda continued to say, "Why don't we go for a snack. My treat."

Having no reason to object Yuki followed the man.

Even if he had made plan for lunch with his team, he didn't want to pass up a snack with this man. It would be a bit insulting after what Director Shinoda had done for him. The foul taste of the medicine was also stuck to his tongue, meaning he wanted to get it off as soon as possible.

As they walked, Yuki could not help but think about what the man next to him wanted to talk about. They have had regular conversations before, but this one seemed odd since he was called by the older male instead of them just meeting randomly.

Although he would be lying to himself if he were to say that it most likely did not have anything to do with the obvious question hovering above them.

"This wouldn't happen to be about moving up, would it?"

"Partly. But, we'll save that for later. I just want to have a normal conversation and ask you some stuff. We can even go through some banter before we get down to the heavy stuff."

"Oh. Okay."

* * *

"Ah! Can you guys wait for a moment? I want to go say hi to someone. I'll be right back!"

Takeshi tilted his head to the side while Suzume put a hand on her hip.

The three were going to meet up with their Operator so they could all wait for Yuki to be done talking with Director Shinoda. None of them had planned on going out if their way to meet anyone else, so it was a bit odd to see Toby just run off.

Seeing him go was an everyday thing, but what wasn't was for him to leave them to talk so a single person. A girl at that.

Seeing the Attacker head straight for a single girl, Suzume quickly pulled out her phone. She took a quick picture and started writing on a small notepad that had somehow appeared in her hands.

Takeshi took a step away from the Sniper, already knowing what was going on. While he was amazed that she could pull the notepad out of her pocket at record time, he did not want to be involved with her odd ideas.

Letting out a sigh, the Shooter looked back over at Toby and the girl he was talking to.

_Kōchō Kashi. Two or so years older than us. Shooter. Her fighting ability is weaker than Nasu's, but stronger than Asano's. Not much there._

Nodding to himself, Takeshi started walking away.

To him there was no point in waiting for how two teammates. Neither one of them were doing anything that particularly interested him. That meant he would just meet up with Mei and occupy himself with something else.

As he walked away, he could hear loud and fast footsteps. He ignored them.

"I said to wait for me!"

* * *

After the two had gotten what they wanted, they found a seat with the director having a plate of rice with shōyu on it and Yuki looking longingly at a full bowl of ice cream in front of him. He would have taken the whole machine if he could but was held back from doing so.

The younger of the two quickly thanked the older one and dug into the dessert with a happy expression.

Director Shinoda gave a questioning, and slightly disturbed, look at the odd colors that were being made from the different favors being mixed in the bowl. What did not help was the syrup and topping put on and in the bowl. Overall it looked very odd.

So he tried not to focus on that.

"Are you sure you didn't want any food? I did say I was treating."

"Well, I had actually planned on meeting up with my team later on and getting something to eat, but I couldn't resist getting some ice cream," Yuki said before putting more in his mouth, savoring the flavor. "Take and Toby are always worried that if I eat too much ice cream that it will wreck my health beyond repair, so I have to eat the stuff when they're not around. Mmm~ So good~!"

"I can see their point. You eat it so quickly that I'm shocked you don't get a brain freeze. Most people would be withering in pain at the rate you're going."

"I don't really get it either, but I'm not complaining. Besides, hearing stuff like that from those two is kinda insulting when they're basically living together. What's more is that Toby loves chocolate as much as I love ice cream."

"I wouldn't go that far... Oh yeah. Weren't you the one who suggested they live next to each other? I believe that everyone besides you and Mei were against that idea in the first place."

"So, Sir, are you on break or something?"

Director Shinoda gave a chuckled at the quick change of subject, but answered anyways.

"Yeah. I need to go back and discuss some stuff with others afterwards."

"Sorry that I'm using up your break then."

"It's fine. I'm the one who called you over. Besides, you're the one who has to use his off time to help the city. I really appreciate it. Even if you aren't in any faction."

"Yeah, well, even if I do, I won't be joining any factions any time soon. Even if it's yours. If anything... I suppose I'm in Sensei's 'faction'. Even if it's not really a faction. I just prefer to do things my way. Besides, I don't have to deal with certain things this way."

"I never expected you to join. You and Chishi are too much alike, so I already know how you think on matters like these. That's not mentioning the fact that you would still go about doing things your way, regardless of what others told you."

"Still, I'm sure you need as much rest as you can get to handle the city's defenses, and for dealing with people like Director Netsuki. I feel bad that he's basically trying trying to make Chano Squad into another Arashiyama Squad..." Yuki thought about what he said for a second and got a little panicked. "Ah! That's not to say there's anything wrong with Arashiyama Squad or anything!"

"Hahaha! It's fine. I know you don't mean any harm to either team. And I understand what you're saying, but he's just doing it to improve our publicity. You shouldn't think too badly about him. It's in our best interest."

"I know, but still..."

Director Shinoda gave a fond smile as he remembered when he had first met Yuki and when the younger one had first entered Border. He was glad to see how much he had changed and cared about other agents.

Or at least how it seemed like he cared.

"I'm glad to know you're fine. Chishi hasn't told me much about what you've been up to outside of Border, so I was a bit worried. Even Kei seems to want to annoy me by saying the most nondescript things."

"Yeah. That sounds like them. Although I'm sure that Sensei is just focused on teaching right now. If not that then he might be going crazy with his students while having to hear 'Kinkoun Kinkoun' every time the bell rings."

Two two shared a good laugh at the expense of someone else.

The two were glad to share in the calm that surrounded them. It lasted only a few minutes but it was still nice for what it was.

"Now that we've had some fun... I think it's about time for your answer."

Yuki frowned and looked down at hearing this.

The plan had been to use up the rest of Director Shinoda's time so that he could get away without answering. The plan had been flawed since the start. It was due to that fact that he had been thinking about his answer since the start of their conversation. It was the answer as to why he always rejected the offer in front of him.

Even before that, when he watched his team training and he could only sit by because they would be too worried, he was thinking about the answer. It was clear that it was what everyone wanted for him - and even he wanted it - but he still could not fully take on the responsibility.

If he took this up then he would feel he was being put on the same level as a certain girl. The strength he had seen from here was something he knew he could never get to in his lifetime.

"It's not just me and your team. Arashiyama Squad, Kako Squad, Tachikawa Squad and multiple B-Rank teams are vouching for you. Kei has even been telling me to just force you to move up in rank. Not only that, Suzunari and Tamakoma are waiting for you to be A-Rank. I know you want to make it to A-Rank with your whole team, but it's been a year since you made it to that point and we all think it's time you took up the offer. That's not me mentioning that Chishi will probably give you a good smack if he ever found out about it."

It was hard to see Yuki's face as he spoke.

"Why do they care this much if I become an A-Rank or stay a B-Rank?"

He looked up with a chilling expression on his face that made Director Shinoda remember what had happened the last time he saw it. It held no malice or sinister intent. The look was a dull one that looked very off on this boy's face.

"I don't see how much would change if I went up in rank. It doesn't matter what rank I am as long as I get the job done, right? There no point in becoming an A-Rank when I'm fine where I am."

"It's because they all consider you their friend and want you to get what you deserve for your hard work. While you worry and help others, they worry and help you. That's how most humans are and you know it."

Yuki stuck out his tongue and pointed it.

"And what about this? I'm sure those who say I have a silver tongue may have a thing or two to say about this whole situation."

"Let me deal with those people. You're only issue should be celebrating at that point."

Yuki looked down once more, this time contemplating everything from the start. The thoughts of others wanting him to become A-Rank would be spat on should he continue to reject them as if they meant nothing. Their thoughtfulness had been a factor in him continuing on to assist Border.

Not finding another good reason to reject, Yuki let out a sigh. He looked up at Director Shinoda with the same dull look.

"Alright. I'll take the promotion this time."

That was a surprise.

Director Shinoda could not hide his shock at how little it took for Yuki to agree this time. His curiosity was peaked when he remembered just how stubborn he could be on certain matters. The fact that Yuki would not be completely happy about this would hidden by others being happy for him. It was something Director Shinoda knew he should not mention.

The ones who knew him better would not be so happy either.

"Not that I'm not glad... May I ask what made you change your mind? You aren't this cooperative when it comes to these kinds of things. I had figured that you would just reject it like you have before."

He figured it was what he had said, but could not be too sure. When it came to Yuki, you could never be too sure.

"I changed my mind because... I want them to know what it's like to have an emblem... Even for a little bit."

Director Shinoda narrowed his eyes at the comment. Taking anything the boy said lightly or offhandedly was a big mistake for anyone. There was absolutely no way what he had said meant nothing particularly.

"Sorry, Tora-san, but I will only take the promotion on one condition."

* * *

"Girigiri."

"Ashita no Hikari."

"Dream Trigger."

"Why do you get into arguments over the stupidest things? I honestly wonder if the people you are hanging out with are bad influences. Although, I suppose even Kitora-chan would have a hard time with you."

Border agents who were simply passing by went around a specific area instead of walking through said area. They already knew not to get within 5 feet of the team when they got into one of their arguments.

Petty as they were, the three would be ready to give a good punch.

Meanwhile, Tsukiko Squad was busy fighting over what song was better with their Operator just watching in boredom. Normally she would try to so their fighting, but figured it was best for them to get it out of their systems now.

They did not bother to keep their voices down and ended up in a yelling match.

Letting out a sigh, Mei looked around at the others walking around them. She spoke to the three members of Tsukiko Squad absentmindedly while nodding to other agents.

"Hey, are you three going with us later?"

The three agents quickly turned their head like dogs hearing someone rustle a bag of treats. The simple mentioning of their captain made them more alert.

"What!? Where are you two going!?"

"Why didn't you tell us sooner that you and Senpai were going somewhere?"

"Idiots!"

Suzume made sure to look around quick while smacking both Toby and Takeshi on their heads. Her voice got lower while her mouth was covered by her hand.

The other two leaned forward to listen in.

"Obviously those two are going on a date."

Apparently she did not speak low enough as Mei started to get a bit red.

The three of them were quick to notice this when their Operator started speaking once again. This time with a stutter.

"Why w-would we b-b-bring you three o-on a d-d-date! With us!..." Mei looked away with a blush. "And you're n-not very secretive..."

The three started to freak out when they saw their Operator start to sway in her seat. They had seen this terror only once, but that was more than enough to make all three fear for their lives.

An embarrassed Takato Mei is the most dangerous after all.

"So where are you going then!?"

"Yeah, yeah! We honestly wanna know!"

"Please tell us."

It took a few seconds for Mei to stop swaying. Her slightly red cheeks went down to their usual smooth, pale coloring. That was the sign that the three had escaped from a dangerous situation.

Mei cleared her throat while pretending that nothing dangerous had just been averted.

She looked around the area as the rest of her team sat back, refraining from mentioning anything about where she and Yuki had planned to go later on.

From the corner of her eye she could see three people walk towards them with varying expressions. Two were walking with some restraint while the third was happily smiling at them as if there was nothing wrong.

"Well if it isn't Tsukiko Squad! You guys really don't know how to keep your voices down, do you? Can't say it's not fun to see you three going at it though! If anything, you three all remind me of your captain when I first met him!"

The whole team turned to see Ninomiya Squad walking up to them. The absence of their leader was no brought up out of fear of having him and Yuki appear at the same time.

"It's good to see you three. Judging from your current appearance I'm guessing you just got back from duty."

Inukai scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"You see-"

"Hey, Tsuji-kyun~ You know, you honestly look good in your uniform~~ It really brings out how serious you are~"

Inukai was quick to react to the voice that was no behind him.

Suzume had managed to get next to Tsuji while managing to grab his arm. She leaned forward as far as she could with only a few inches between their faces.

The reaction was just what she wanted with the Attacker's face being covered in red and looking at he teammate for some help. She had always done this with innocent agents, but her favorite was Tsuji.

The poor guy.

Seeing that there was no way to actually help his teammate, Inukai had moved over to start speaking with Toby about things only they would understand with their fast talking. He saw that Hiyami had quickly become more relaxed while going into a conversation with Mei.

None of them noticed two people walking up to them.

Once they did, it was far too late.

"Suzu-chan, stop harassing Tsuji-kun. Take-kun, stop looking so bored. Mei-chan, you're suppose to control them while I'm gone. Inu, please don't give Toby-kun any ideas that I'll have to deal with later."

"So this is where you all have been. Let's hurry and go before the faker gets here. I'd rather not deal with that kind of issue right now."

The temperature around the area was the same, but to the two team it felt as if it got a lot colder when their captains appeared. As the seven of them froze while looking at their captains the two leaders turned to each other with a sharp glare or a dark smile. Saying that fire and water got along better than these two was not only cliché but it was also a major understatement.

They all took a step back and swore that the air started to heat up again. Some wondered if they were going crazy.

"Looks like I was too late to get them away from you."

"Oh? Is there a problem for them to be around me? I know you're a massive _airhead_ , but you couldn't have forgotten that Inu is a friend of mine, right? That's not mentioning that he's also with someone I know rather well. I'm pretty sure that means I have the right to be around these guys."

"As long as you don't turn him into a _faker_ , I really don't care. Although that's probably too much to ask for from the likes of you. Your words are always like venom; infecting everyone who hears them. That's not mentioning how you sink your teeth into everyone you depend on."

"I wonder if being an airhead is contagious because then he would have bigger issues if he were to stay with you. And please do not bring up others into this. At least I know I can depend on those who may be weak and not just those who are strong. That kind of thinking may just get you a bullet to the head some day. Especially by those who you consider 'weak,' you idiot."

They had to be hallucinating at this point. The seven onlookers could see actual electricity between the two while a purple aura wrapped around them.

But that was just them seeing things, right?

"Um... Can you not bring me into this...? Thank you..."

Inukai cowered back when he ended up receiving the dark looks the two had on their faces. He knew that it was best not to interfere, but he was also someone who was good natured.

This was just a bad time for that.

Ninomiya and Yuki quickly turned back to each other, looking ready to hit each other at any moment.

"Why were you even out? Clearly you don't do much. You were probably just lazing around. I'm sure that would actually help more than anything. At least you wouldn't be in anyone's way at that point. Yeah. That sounds like a good idea. I'll even help by getting a coffin ready for you."

"Hm? Does that mean you already have one ready for yourself? Well, that saves me the trouble of getting one. And not that it's any of you business, I had to meet up with someone and told these guys that I would meet up with them afterwards... As a matter of fact..." Getting a smirk, Yuki looked at Ninomiya with a smug look that seemed to fit on his face. "I just got promoted to A-Rank. Looks like I'm at the same level as your boyfriend while you are left behind. Good luck catching back up."

"Tsk. Like I care if you did or not. That doesn't change the fact you're a faker who uses other people's talents for yourself. If anything, it's those who you have copied from that deserve that spot. The only spot you deserve is the one in the trash."

He tried to stay calm, but that single remark concerning his significant other was what really got to Ninomiya.

Yuki was in a similar internal situation. He knew he should not pay attention to what the other was saying, but that was much easier said than done.

These two were enemies and everyone knew it.

Under normal circumstances, Tsukiko Squad would quickly come to the aid of their captain. They would defend him against anything that was being said against him. The thing was, though, that there was never any room to interrupt these two when they started fighting.

Inukai had just proven that.

"Alright! Break it up you two!" Claping her hand, Mei got between the two. "Let's just go our own ways and get this over with. If you don't... I will just have to punch the both of you."

Clicking their tongues, the two followed what she said with Ninomiya taking his team and leaving.

Yuki let out a sigh and ran his hand through his hair. He was already tired from the coughing fit earlier, as well as the small meeting. This little confrontation made him really want to go to sleep.

"Urg... That guy really makes me mad..."

The three younger agents kept quiet and didn't look at their leader. They knew that talking to that team would end up like this if they spent too long talking, but still went and spoke to them. Their silence brought an awkward atmosphere around the group that would freak anyone out who knew the group.

Having had enough of the awkwardness, Mei went up to the three and hit each of them on the head before telling them, "You three should stop thinking about unnecessary things. When you do that, so does Yuki-kun." She then turned to said male and hit him on the head as well. "And _you_ should already know not to get them thinking like that and picking fights with him. It ends horribly fir everyone involved."

The four who got their heads hit looked at their Operator before looking at each other. They all got smiles before letting out laughs.

They were really glad to have an Operator who was useful both on and off duty.

_What a bunch of children._

Mei looked back over to Yuki with a calculating look.

Yuki, thinking he was going to get hit again, quickly covered his head with his arms.

"By the way, these guys want to know if they can come with us to Tamakoma."

"You were going to Tamakoma!?"

"About that... Can we go tomorrow? I need to discuss something with you guys. It's rather important, so I want to say it now."

The rest of the team looked confused at the serious expression on their leader's face.

It was rare to see him with such an expression on his face. Seeing it now meant that they should just listen to what their captain had to say and stay quiet while he spoke.

.

The while group started to walk away when something caught their eyes. It was less of a "something" and more of a "someone". That someone being Jin Yuuichi. That in itself was nothing odd, it was actually the person that was with him.

"Why is Jin-san here with Mikumo-kun?" Yuki asked with a confused expression. "I hope he's not in any trouble..."

_That lie he told me yesterday couldn't that've been found out, right?_

Once Yuki had been told who had found out about the Rad the day prior it was rather easy for him to tell that it was a lie. Well, less of a lie and more that it was a pointless extension of the truth.

"You know who that is, Senpai?"

"Well, might as well go and say hi."

Before anyone could stop her, Mei was headed for the two.

The others were quick to follow.

"Oh. Hey guys. Hello, Mei-chan," Jin said with his usual smug look on his face.

Yuki gave a small wave and smile to the glasses-boy next to Jin.

"Ah. Hello, Tsukiko-senpai."

"I would like to introduce you guys to Megane-kun here, but we need to get going. Maybe some other time. There are some things we need to get done."

"We were planning on going to Tamakoma tomorrow anyway, so it's fine. At that point you could introduce us to whoever you want."

"I'm sure the rest of them will be happy to see you guys again." The two started to walk away with Jin giving a wave. "See you guys tomorrow then."

Takeshi turned from the S-Rank agent to the new A -Rank one with a small tilt of his head. It was obvious that at least Yuki knew who the boy was since the boy seemed to know his name.

The other three had thought of that as well, but it was the Shooter who had decided to ask.

"Senpai, who was that with Jin?"

"That was Mikumo Osamu-kun. I met him yesterday, after we took care of those small Neighbors. He's polite and was the one who found out about those small Neighbors. There was someone else with him, but I don't think he's in Border."

"Well he doesn't seem like much. I'm sure I could beat him."

"You are honestly such a kid. You get jealous just because Yuki-san wasn't talking about you. I bet that Mikumo-kun has you beat in maturity."

"He's probably the same age as me! How can he beat me in maturity!?"

"She's talking about attitude. And I have to agree with her," Takeshi said nonchalantly. "Although... I'm sure Raijinmaru has you beat there as well, so it wouldn't be shocking if Mikumo also has you beat."

"(What was that, you bastard!?)"

"It's okay." Takeshi gave the brunet a light pat on the head. "You're still my favorite between you two."

"Now, now, both of you calm down."

Yuki tried his best to stop the two from fighting.

He really did not want to stop the oncoming pointless argument.

"Let's go get something to eat and I'll tell you guys what I need to, okay?"

The rest of them nodded their heads and all of them started to leave.

.

It did not take long for them all to start talking about random and unimportant things. From school work to what had happened with others, it was all just a relaxed feeling. It gave off the impression of regular high school and middle school students just walking around.

It was times like these that Yuki was the most happy since Toby and Takeshi were not fighting, he was feeling well enough to be out and the two girls were not worrying about him.

It was nice.

That was why he gave a happy greeting to the person walking in their direction without a second thought.

"Ah, hello, Miwa-kun."

The #7 A-a rank captain sent him a glare and continued on his way. No words came out, which was enough reason to just let it go and continue on their way.

Yuki was fine with the response, having just dealt with someone worse, but the same could not be said for the others. They had noticed the response and were not too pleased by it with Suzume and Takeshi each giving their own glares while their Attacker took a different route.

"Hey, Shuji, you ass! Yuki was talking to you, so you should give a proper response! That's why people don't like you!"

Toby started to make his way towards the older male, but was stopped when Yuki grabbed his shoulder.

"That guy needs to learn some damn manners!"

"It's fine, Toby-kun. I'm sure Miwa-kun has something important on his mind. Besides, he isn't really the type to have a conversation with people."

"He has a point. Miwa-kun always seems mad at something, so it isn't really surprising that he wouldn't answer and just glare," Mei said, not seeming to be mad like the others. "I guess we could ask Yoneya-kun or Kodera-kun later on."

"Hm. Fine, but I still don't like that guy. (Asshole.)"

"You should watch your language, Toby-kun."

Toby went bright red.

* * *

"You mean we all get the emblem on our outfits!? That's so awesome!"

The whole team was currently at a small shop, happily taking in their food. The shop didn't have many people in it at the time, so they enjoyed the space they got as well. Although, with the sudden outburst from the American of the group, the people that were there looked in their direction.

Toby had a tendency to just yell when he got excited. It never mattered how many times others had told him to be quite, he would yell to his heart's content. It really seemed like a dog barking while playing.

"Yes, yes, now please sit down, Toby-kun. People are looking," Yuki said as the brunet did as he was told. "Yeah. I wanted to ask for your opinions on what our emblem should be. I'm not sure myself, so I'll let you guys decide."

"Something representing Yuki!"

"A bit much there, don't you think, Toby-kun?"

"Yeah, idiot. Senpai is kind, not conceited. Obviously it should be a flower to show his delicacy."

"I'm pretty sure that's the same thing as what he said, Take-kun."

"I honestly say we go with a simple design."

"That sounds good, Suzu-chan."

"Hm. You say that, but I doubt those two would be fine with something simple," Mei said as she pointed at Toby and Takeshi. "We all know that they will get riled up if it's not something good."

"Do you have any suggestions, Mei-chan? I'm sure you of all people can come up with a good one."

"Well...I do have an idea..." Mei pulled out her phone and started scrolling through her pictures. "I've actually been thinking about it for a while now and think I found one that would be good. Those two can't argue about it and it's pretty simple. Plus, it has a good meaning, in my opinion."

When she found the picture, she put the phone down for the rest of them to see.

They all gathered around and saw that the picture was the usual shape as any other emblem, but the main image was a white snowflake in a black crescent moon on top of a gray background.

"Wow. That really is a great picture. Although that's to be expected when it comes to Mei-chan."

"I honestly like it."

"It works perfectly with our team!"

"It does represent a team led by Yuki-senpai."

Feeling the need to explain why it worked so well, Mei started to speak while putting her phone away. Her expression while speaking was a soft one that seemed rather fitting for her.

"The white snowflake represents your purity. The black moon represents your power. The gray background is to show the balance between them. Although, I'm just saying that part to appease those two. If you want to look at it in a different way... You could say that the snowflake represents Toby being an Attacker. The moon represents Takeshi being a Shooter. The gray represents Suzume being a Sniper."

"I see. It also works since Senpai's name means 'snow' and 'moon child'. Not to mention he can use any type of trigger."

"Takeshi-kun, anyone can use any trigger, you know. It's not like I'm anything special," Yuki said bashfully. "Not to mention you three are better than me."

"You're not giving yourself enough credit, Yuki-kun. They may be strong, but we both-... We _all_ know that you're stronger... That's the reason why you were moved up to A-Rank. Don't sell yourself short here or I'll do something about it."

Yuki couldn't come up with anything to say. He could easily deny anything the other three said, but when Mei was praising him and correcting him, he could never find the words to deny her statements.

The other three simply smiled at the fact that their Operator had finally set their captain straight.

They knew no matter much they praised or complemented Yuki, he would think they were wrong. They also knew that one of the only people who could get away with something like that was Mei.

She was the only one who could completely shut him up and keep him in line. Everyone knew this, but not the reason.

Suzume grinned as she turned to the two boys. She made sure Mei and Yuki weren't looking as she started whispering to them.

"Hey, I think we should honestly do something for those two. It's thanks to them that we're even a team in the first place. What do you guys honestly think?"

"Yeah! But what should we do?"

"How about getting them together!"

_There she goes again..._

The two boys let out sighs.

"How about we just reach A-Rank to catch up to them?"

"What are you three whispering about over there?"

The three straightened up and looked at their upperclassmen with "innocent" smiles on their faces.

"Nothing! We were just talking about how we were gonna prank Tamakoma tomorrow!" Suzume said, trying to make sure she didn't seem suspisous.

The two older ones just gave them odd looks, but otherwise said nothing. They were sure they knew what was going on.

Well, Mei already knew.

She knew everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yuki Tsukiko
> 
> All-Rounder, Captain
> 
> \- 18 Years Old
> 
> \- Born Sept. 27
> 
> \- Chronos, Blood Type AB
> 
> \- Height: 5'7"
> 
> \- Likes: Ice cream, Exercising, Puzzles
> 
> Takeshi Kotowari
> 
> Shooter
> 
> \- 15 Years Old
> 
> \- Born Apr. 21
> 
> \- Felis, Blood Type B
> 
> \- Height: 5'5"
> 
> \- Likes: Colors, Hamburger, Oversized clothes
> 
> Suzumebachi Misaki
> 
> Sniper
> 
> \- 16 Years Old
> 
> \- Born Apr. 17
> 
> \- Falco, Blood Type O
> 
> \- Height: 5'6"
> 
> \- Likes: Ramen, Pizza, Music
> 
> Toby Awdry
> 
> Attacker
> 
> \- 15 Years Old
> 
> \- Born July 17
> 
> \- Gladius, Blood Type A
> 
> \- Height: 5'5"
> 
> \- Likes: Dogs, Zinnia, Chocolate
> 
> Mei Takaoto
> 
> Operator
> 
> \- 19 Years Old
> 
> \- Born Oct. 27
> 
> \- Chronos, Blood Type O
> 
> \- Height: 5'4"
> 
> \- Likes: Monkey, Tangerines, Rain


	3. Suzumebachi Misaki

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shana is owned by Awesome Sauce

"Crap! Crap! Crap! I'm honestly running late! Why did she honestly want me to help out when I said I was going to Tamakoma today with Captain and the others!?"

Suzume was currently running as fast as her legs could run to the spot Tsukiko Squad was suppose to meet up at, but as you can tell from what she is saying, she is late. This lateness is due to the fact her mother wanted her to help out her sister with something.

Under normal circumstances this would be fine with her, seeing as how she was always happy to help out friends and family, but this was different than most times. Right now she had somewhere to be.

What made matters worse was that she knewthat she would get scolded by _Toby and Takeshi._ That was one of the last things she wanted. It was probably the most embarrassing thing that could happen to anyone.

The thought of using her Trigger to reach her destination fast came up but was quickly smashed down due to it being a misuse of the item.

Her pace started to pick up once she saw just how far away she was. Even going so far as to continue running as someone called out from ahead of her.

"Hey, Suzu! Where's the fire!?"

She thought of stopping to talk to the blond girl, but then remembered just how late she was. Even if she felt bad about it, there was no choice for her at the moment.

"Sorry, Shana, but I'm honestly late right now!" She slowed down and was jogging in place in front of the girl. "I need to meet up with the team and was stalled because of my sister."

"Oh. Alright. Minu just wanted to know if you wanna put on a little concert again some time."

"Okay! I'll message the both of you later!"

"That's fine. Now be off with you! Continue to run like you're life depends on it!"

Doing as told, Suzume started running back in the direction she was headed.

She was really debating on whether to just pull out her Trigger now. She could easily use Teleport to get there faster. Although she would get in trouble for using it for something like that.

At this point it seemed like it was the only way she would be able to get there without getting scolded too much.

.

As she continued to make her way to the spot she could see the other four. Yuki and Mei seemed to be talking while Toby was tapping his foot on the ground. Takeshi was just giving a dull look in her direction.

"I can see them! I can make it!"

Suzume ran faster and did a dive.

She went flying forward and, just as she was about to hit the ground, she tucked and tumbled until she was right in front of the rest of the squad.

She quickly shot up and lifted her arms in the air, exclaiming, "I made it!"

"Yeah, you made it ten minutes after the designated time. Good job, Suzume."

Mei didn't even look at the time to know that she was correct.

"What the hell, Suzume! Why are you so late!?"

"You know, for someone uses Lightning, you're pretty slow."

"Gah! To get scolded _and_ hear a terrible joke like that...! Someone honestly kill me at this point!"

"Now, now, I'm sure Suzu-chan has a good reason for being late," Yuki said, trying to calm the other two males down. "Besides, it's not like this is the only time we can go see Tamakoma."

"That's true, but you're not always going to be feeling this well either." Mei closed her phone and started walking. "So we better go see them while we can. I want to ask Shiorin-chan some stuff, so I'd like to get there quickly."

Suzume held her hand to chest as she took a deep breath. Once she was able to breath properly they all made their way over to the branch office.

.

As they walked over to the office, Suzume glanced over at her captain before speaking.

There had been something on her mind as she ran, besides being late that is.

"I honestly wonder if you can last longer against Reiji-san now, Captain. Last time you managed a good time."

"Of course he can! He's always been able to-"

"Okay, I'm not even going to help you out here." Takeshi put a hand up to stop Toby. "I know how strong both of them are and, no offense Senpai, I don't think Senpai can beat him, even with his Side Effect."

"That's right, Toby-kun. Before you joined us, I actually did fight against Reiji-san before and was utterly defeated. We may both be All-Rounders, but he can actually switch between Attacker, Gunner, and Sniper easily while I'm stuck either being a Sniper, Attacker or Shooter." Yuki let out a small sigh and shifted the backpack on his back. "In fact, he, Tetsu and Suzu-chan are the best people I know who can be a Sniper-Attacker. Not only that, Tetsu will most likely go for Gunner when he gets high enough points as a Sniper. Against people like that... It would take a good amount to take them down. And you already know my Side Effect doesn't work on people I can't see."

Toby turned his gaze to the ground and shoved his hands into his pockets. He knew that the others were skilled, but still thought his captain was still better than any of them.

His lowered energy made him look like a small puppy that had been scolded.

"Well, yeah, but..."

"Leave it alone, Toby."

"Honestly. Yuki-san may be strong, but he can't beat everyone. Even if you're new, you should know that." Suzume flipped her hair back and let out a huff. "This is honestly why I prefer Captain's Rhythm more than yours. He has the perfect balance while you guys don't."

"We know already. I have 'too much popping' for your liking."

"I'm glad I've got a harder beat than you guys! It's shows how much more power I have than you!"

"I do find it funny that you like Yuki-senpai's Rhythm when his isn't even a single Genre, Suzume-senpai," Takeshi said, making the girl start spluttering. "If I remember correctly, you said that he has a Rhythm that 'changes so constantly that you would never like a person like him'."

"Really? You said that? Ahahahahahahaha!"

"It was before you joined us."

"Th-that's honestly because I hardly knew him! Now his changing Rhythm is the best melody I can ever hear. It honestly makes stuff like Jin-san, Tachikawa-san, and Kirin sound dull and boring," Suzume said with a dreamy look. "Every time it changes it's honestly like I'm listening to a concert, and I have a front row seat."

_"Every time it changes it's honestly like I'm listening to a concert, and I have a front row seat."_

"Huh?"

Suzume turned to see Takeshi with his phone out and both he and Toby looking at the screen while her voice continued to replay on the device.

She went for the phone, but failed to grab it as Takeshi had tossed his phone to Toby. She didn't bother trying to get it from him when she knew that he would be able to dodge every single one of her advances.

"You bastards are honestly going to get a bullet to the head! Give me that phone!"

Deciding on a better method, Suzume lunged at Takeshi himself. She looked ready to grab his neck, making him take a few steps back and get away from her.

"I'm sure Konami-senpai would love to hear this. Not to mention the harassment Jin-san will give you for this." Takeshi stepped back as Suzume tried for another grab. "I might even show this to Tachikawa-san."

_I'm pretty sure Kei-san wouldn't really care. If anything, he'd be like Jin and harass her._

Looking forward again, Yuki saw how close they were to the branch office.

"Um...Guys..."

"Like hell I'll let you! I will _honestly_ put a bullet in your head if you do!"

"Hey."

"I don't think Yuki-senpai would like you to do that."

"Shut up and pay attention! We're already here, (you damn idiots)!"

Suzume and Takeshi stopped arguing to see that they really were in front of the Tamakoma Branch Office.

They both looked at each other before backing up.

"What are we honestly waiting for then?" Suzume walked forward with a huff. "What do I even care? Show that to all three of them for all I care. I'll just honestly punch Jin-san for harassment and Kirin can't do anything to me!"

Yuki just gave an amused smile while Mei let out a sigh. The two knew that what she was saying was a lie and that she would unleash her wrath on Takeshi later on. They decided to look the other way for this.

Toby on the other hand moved a bit closer to the Shooter just in case Suzume tried anything. He had good enough reflexes to stop her from doing anything.

Suzume took the initiative by knocking on the door, choosing to ignore what was going on behind her.

"Hello! Anyone here!?"

Pat. Pat. Pat.

The door opened and the group looked down to see a kid with a helmet on. He was riding a capybara and had a snack in his hands.

"Oh, it's you guys."

"Hello, Yōtarō-kun," Yuki said as he bent down to the kid's level. "Could you tell us where Usami-chan and the others are?"

"They're busy training some newbies."

Yōtarō continued to eat some of his snack while pointing to somewhere else in the building.

"Thank you." Yuki took his backpack off and pulled out three chocolate bars and a can. "Here you go. The chocolate is for you and the stuff in the can is for Raijinmaru."

"And this is why you're my favorite. You can pet Raijinmaru's belly whenever you want."

With that, the kid took his leave.

Yuki only responded with a good natured laugh and words of gratitude.

Without waiting for the others, Suzume walked forward with a flip of her hair. She crossed her arms under her breasts with a huff.

"Well, let's honestly go see who those newbies are and how badly they're getting their asses handed to them."

Having been to the branch office multiple times, none of them needed any kind of directions to get to where they wanted to be. As they walked through the halls they could hear voices, so that helped them know where the people were at.

"I wonder who those 'newbies' are though. Maybe Osamu?"

"He's probably one of them. If I had to guess, I'd say that the boy I saw with both Mikumo-kun and Jin-san is probably another one."

"Hm. Now I'm wondering how strong he is."

Once they got close enough, they heard a few words that shocked some of them.

These words made Suzume go wide-eyed and quicken her pace.

These words were...

"Konami-senpai, you lost!?"

"I-I did not!"

"We fought ten times, and I only one the last one. Final score: 9:1."

"That's right! I'm way better than you!"

"For now. But I'm getting the hang of how you fight. I'll do better next time, _Konami-senpai_."

"Don't let it go to your head, _Yūma._ That was the first and last win."

Hearing this, Suzume rushed inside the room and yelled out, "Kirin lost!?"

The attention of everyone in the room went to Suzume in an instant. Two were confused, two looked nonchalant and the last one looked to be such shock that she was frozen.

Suzume ran up to the girl standing in shock, grabbed her by the shoulder and violently shook her while yelling out, "You couldn't have lost! Was it Torimaru!? Honestly tell me it was Torimaru! I would understand if it was him!"

"Suzume-senpai, I think you should stop shaking her," Takeshi said as he walked up to one of the guys standing up. "Hello, Torimaru-senpai."

"Yo, Take."

Doing as suggested, Suzume let go of the girl and got a smack to the head afterwards. She rubbed her head as she let out a whimper, but said nothing.

"I only lost the last one. It won't happen again," Konami said with a huff.

"I'm the one who beat her."

Suzume looked over to see a short boy with white hair having a duck face on. She walked over to him and leered down at him. She flipped her hair and huffed.

"You're different." She looked back at Konami with a bored expression. "Kirin, if this kid is who you lost to then you wouldn't mind if I tested him myself, would you?"

"Oh? You want to fight me?" the kid said, smug look still on his face.

"Now, now, why don't we start with introductions and snacks?" Yuki pulled off his backpack. He then turned back around to face the others. "Mikumo-kun and Kuga-kun already met me, so hello again. This is my team. The one with the hat is Toby Awdry, the one with the scarf is Kotowari Takeshi, the one challenging Kuga-kun is Misaki Suzumebachi and last, but not least, Takato Mei."

The four gave their own greetings with Suzume still looking down at Kuga a bit.

Yuki then gestured to Mikumo and Kuga while saying, "Guys, the one with the glasses is Mikumo-kun and the short one is Kuga Yūma-kun."

The two gave their own greetings as a response.

Right after they did, Mikumo looked like he remember something, turning to Yuki so speak.

"We have another person. He name is Amatori Chika, but she's in training right now."

"I see. Well, maybe we could meet her later on."

"So, what brings your guys here?"

Yuki turned to Karasuma as he handed out different snacks to people. Even Konami seemed rather happy with the dorayaki in her hands. Even so, he got ready to answer with a smile on his face.

Everyone's collective, "Thank you" went throughout the entire room.

"We came here because Tobio wanted to propose to Konami-senpai," Takeshi said with his usual bored expression. "He even bought a ring."

"Wh-what!? R-really!?" Konami asked with a blush.

She almost dropped her snack while looking at Toby and started blabbering on about stuff none of them could understand.

"Sorry. That was a lie."

"Huh?"

"I lied."

Konami looked like her whole world had fallen apart.

She quickly turned to Mikumo and glared at him while yelling, "You tricked me!"

She then started beating on Mikumo.

"Honestly, anyone would believe that you and Torimaru were related or something."

"But, Misaki, he said that you looked really pretty," Karasuma said, pointing to Mikumo.

"W-well at least he's honestly got that right."

"Sorry. I was lying."

"Huh?"

"I lied."

"How could you trick an honest girl like me, you damn Megane!"

Suzume started beating Mikumo over the head while a large frown was on her face.

"But I didn't do anything!"

At the same time, Karasuma and Takeshi gave each other a high five.

The two were like brothers in crime when it came to lying to their upperclassmen. Whether it was a small thing to cure boredom or to get them to do something, the two got along quite well.

Usami started giggling at seeing this go on. She always found it more entertaining when the two worked together like this. Although that isn't to say she fell for their lies a few times.

Off to the side, Yuki tilted his head a bit.

"Huh? But didn't he really say that. I thought I heard him say that the last time we saw him."

Everyone turned to Yuki in an instant. Some looked at him in surpsie while others looked nonchalant.

What caught Yuki's attention was the small albino looking at him oddly.

Deciding to ignore that, he continued on.

"Yeah. Last time we saw him I swore I heard him say, 'she's still as beautiful as ever'. I am positive."

"I-I haven't even seen her before! Unless you count yesterday... Even so. I only caught a glimpse of her."

Yuki continued to notice the albino staring at him with narrowed eyes. There was something odd about the boy that Yuki could not put his figure on. He let it go once he heard his Operator speak up.

"No one listen to this guy. He's lying."

"He is?"

It was Kuga who had asked the question.

"Yes, and no. It's true that _he_ did say that. The only thing is the 'he' Yuki-kun is mentioning is Karasuma. The last time we came by, he had said she was beautiful."

"'He is someone who inverts truths and lies.' I'm pretty sure I've heard someone say that before."

_It might have been that Airhead. That jerk._

"Ah. My bad. I suppose I just got the two mixed up. Sorry about that, Mikumo-kun, Suzu-chan."

Mei shook her head with a sigh.

After that was settled on, Suzume turned back to Kuga. She looked down at him with her hand on her hip and a flip of her hair. She hadn't forgotten about her challenge, and so she wanted to get to that before anything else interrupted them.

Kuga just looked up at her with the same face he had on since the beginning.

"Anyways, what do you say to a five round match? Best three out of five."

"Hm... I was going to train more with Konami-senpai, but..."

"Do it, Yūma." The white haired boy's attention went to his teacher while she gave him a interested look. "It'll be good practice for you. Plus, I'm interested in knowing whether or not you can hold your own against her Stingers."

"Hm? Stingers?" Kuga looked at Suzume with a smirk on his face. "Alright then. Let's get started right now."

The two looked at each other and started heading towards the training room.

Suzume was rather interested in what the white haired kid could do. He had manged to beat Konami after all. Even if it was only once.

While she would not put herself on Konami's level, Suzume was not someone a person could take on easily. Her style of fighting was one a person had to fight multiple times to get use to. Having Kuga go against her helped everyone see just how the two faired against each other.

Karasuma and Mikumo stayed at the request of Konami to show Mikumo what the outcome would be.

Toby, Mei and Takeshi went and sat on the couch as if this was a regular part of their visits.

"Tsukiko-senpai, what position is Misaki-senpai anyways?" Mikumo asked, looking at the older male.

"No need to be so polite. She wouldn't mind if you called her Suzumebachi, Suzume, or even Suzu. To answer your question, Mikumo-kun, she's our Sniper."

"Then she's at a disadvantage if she's fighting Kuga, right? He's an Attacker, so he can fight up close."

"Yes, well..."

**Misaki Down.**

"She's proficient at being an Attacker as well..."

**Misaki Down.**

"Not to mention her Side Effect is really useful."

"That was number two..." Karasuma said as if he had expected that to happen.

"She's going to pull out her Stinger now. Osamu, pay attention to what happens here."

Doing as he was told, Mikumo looked at what was going on and was shocked when he saw Kuga get shot in the head only a few seconds after the two had started fighting.

**Kuga Down.**

"That was so fast! I could hardly see what happened!"

"Looks like she found Kuga's Rhythm. It'll be over in no time."

**Kuga Down.**

Mikumo looked at the ones on the couch and asked, "What do you mean 'found Kuga's Rhythm?'"

"No reason to actually tell you," Takeshi said as he finished the hamburger in his hand.

The look Takeshi gave to the glasses-boy was a dull look that actually made him shudder a bit. That was a look that made it feel like Takeshi couldn't even tell the difference between him and a rock he found by a river.

Mikumo took a small step back, but said nothing in response.

"Take-kun, don't be rude. I'll tell you, Mikumo-kun," Yuki said, looking at the younger male. "You see, Suzu-chan's Side Effect let's her find a person's 'Rhythm'. Whether it be for fighting, or just to know the person's personality better. The way she explains it is like she sees the person's movements, behavior, and habits down to the smallest detail. Kinda like if a person listened to a song and was able to tell every instrument apart. She categorizes each person within a song genre and figures out what tactics to use against that person. She said that Toby-kun's Rhythm is Rock, Take-kun's is Techno and Mei-chan's is more like the classics."

**Kuga Down.**

"Wow... If you don't mind my asking, what is your Rhythm, Tsukiko-senpai?"

"Heh heh heh... About that..."

Yuki scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"He doesn't have a set Rhythm, according to Misaki." Karasuma was now facing the two of them. "Because of his Side Effect, he can't correctly be placed in a Genre. If I remember correctly, that's one of the reasons why she joined your squad."

"So does that mean she's found your guys' Rhythms, Karasuma-senpai?"

"Yeah. Torimaru's Rhythm is Rap and Kirin's is Rock," Suzume said as she came in the room with Kuga behind her. "Kizaki-san's is Metal and Shiorin's is Pop."

Kuga looked up at Suzume with his duck face back up.

He had not been able to react in time against her attacks. His own attacks never felt like they connected when he tried to attack, but he had continued on. Now that he heard an explanation on why this was, he understood what had happened.

"That was a good fight. You are strong."

"You idiot. She wasn't even going all out on you," Konami said as she walked up to the two. "She didn't even put on a show. If that was the case, you wouldn't get a single hit in. She's annoying that way."

Ignoring the two, Suzume grinned at everyone.

"So, what did you guys think about my uniform? We honestly got an emblem! Don't I look even better than before!"

"What!? I didn't even notice!" Usami looked back at the screen while both Konami and Karasuma rushed to the computer. "There it is! You guys really did get an emblem! It looks so cool too!"

Karasuma looked over at Yuki with a raised eyebrow. He was going to mention that it was odd for them to have an emblem when they were still a B-Rank squad, but was stopped when he got a rather unnerving smile from Yuki.

"So, you finally accepted the promotion?"

"Yeah... I took it yesterday..."

"Mei-san's the one who designed it and even said what each thing represents! The black moon is for either our power or the mentally Rock kid over there! The white snowflake is either for our purity or the Techno freak! And the gray is either for our balance or the splendid me! Obviously the whole thing is to represent Yuki-san, but we're also a part of it!"

Suzume beamed as she explained everything to the others.

_"Th-that's honestly because I hardly knew him! Now his changing Rhythm is the best melody I can ever hear. It honestly makes stuff like Jin-san, Tachikawa-san and Kirin sound dull and boring. Every time it changes it's honestly like I'm listening to a concert, and I have a front row seat."_

Suzume froze when she heard the recording of her own voice.

She looked over to see Takeshi playing the video on his phone and started to sweat when she felt an ominous aura behind her. She turned around and saw Konami glaring at her. That glare made Suzume feel as if Konami had grown to be fifty feet tall while she shrunk to the size of a flee.

Konami looked as if she was possessed while looking at Suzume.

"Dull and boring, huuuuuuuh?"

"W-well... You see... It's my Captain, so..."

Suzume gave a sheepish laugh before rushing towards the exit.

She already knew how deadly Konami could be, she didn't want to be anywhere near the girl.

"Get back here!"

Konami quickly ran out of the room. The others weren't sure what they saw, but they swore they saw a sort of purple and ominous fog trail after Konami as she chased after Suzume.

But that was just crazy.

"She should really watch what she says."

Yuki gave a smile and agreed.

"So, if you don't mind me asking, what positions are you guys?" Mikumo asked, looking at the two males on the couch and saw that one of them was asleep.

"Again, don't need to tell you."

"Kotowari-kun is their Shooter and Toby is their Attacker," Usami said, getting a small glare from Takeshi. "Tsuki-san is an All-Rounder, and has even fought against Reiji-san."

"Really!? What happened!?"

"I didn't do too well. It was almost one-sided and I could only landed a few scratches here and there. I'm really no match for A-Ranks at all. I'm sure even Karasuma-kun could beat me."

"He's full of it. Don't believe him."

The door opened to show Konami waking in with Suzume behind her and rubbing her head.

Konami continued to glare at Suzume as she crossed her arms while speaking.

"He's been qualified to be an A-Rank for a year now and he has just barely accepted the promotion."

"I'm wondering why though," Usami said with a thoughtful expression. "He's always saying he wants to be promoted with his whole team, so it seems odd that he would just take the promotion like that."

"We've all vouched for him and his ability. Even without any agent saying anything, the higher-ups recognize his strength and have been giving him multiple offers. It took him long enough to accept."

Konami let out a huff.

All of Tamakoma had been some of the agents who would recommend Yuki. Seeing him take up the promotion was something they were all glad about. That was not to say that they did not have some questions for him.

"You're giving me too much credit, Konami-chan. I'm really nothing special."

"Our captain is honestly toonice most of the times, remember that. We constantly tell him that we want himto stand in the victory circle, but he just brushes us off. He only ever listens to Mei-san without an argument." Suzume crossed her arms and looked down with a sad expression. "I wish he would take the rest of us as seriously as he does with her."

"Sorry for asking so many questions, but can I ask one more?"

"You just did. But I honestly guess one more won't hurt. Last one, though, since I'm sure Torimaru wants you to get back to training."

"Okay. I just wanted to know how long you've all know Tsukiko-senpai."

"Oh, that's easy. Mei-san has known him the longest and became his Operator when he needed one. Next is actually Take. I don't actually know when they met, but I do know that Take joined Yuki-san's squad two weeks after they met and that was also the day after Take made it to B-Rank. Next is me. I met him last year and joined his squad a month after that. Toby is the last one. I'll give credit to the kid for making it to B-Rank as fast as he did."

"How fast did he make it?"

"That was the last question, Osamu. Let's get back to training."

"R-right! Sorry!"

"You too, Yūma. Let's go another around."

The four left the room while Yuki let out a small sigh. He had felt like they didn't even notice that he was there as they talked about him. He didn't really mind it though and let it slide.

He looked around and took note that certain agents were not there with them and turned to Usami for the answer.

"Usami-chan, where's Jin-san and Ketsu-san?"

There were multiple place those two agents could have been. While one liked working on things when others were not looking, the other had a tendency to just up and leave with little information given about his whereabouts.

"Ketsu-san actually isn't in Mikado City right now, but he should be back in a few days. As for the other one..."

"Probably messing around 'backstage'."

Mei lightly waved her hand as she spoke. She had already figured certain things out concerning what was going on. She had taken note of the black ring on Kuga's finger as well as how Mikumo and Kuga acted.

She did not say anything else and opted to just take a spot next to Usami.

"Shiorin-chan, we are going to use some space for training."

"Sure thing."

"Great. Thanks."

Yuki looked over to his team and motioned for them to head over to train. He also told them to wake up the brunet. He gave a quick look to Mei before following the three out.

_If I'm right, then..._


	4. Yuki Tsukiko: Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lukas is owned by Yujonokage  
> Daigo is owned by Lvl7Loser

It was the lunch break and a small group was speaking in the cafeteria filled with other students.

"Hey, what's with that plain-looking lunch?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

With miraculous synchronization, Tsukiko Yuki and Murakami Kō had both selected their school's cheapest meal which was known as the Poor Man's Meal. In other words, the katsuobushi rice.

It did not come with soy sauce, so it really was just chilled stock rice on the verge of going bad with nearly powdered katsuobushi sprinkled on top from a clear package.

"You can't do that. You can't be copying me with the Poor Man's Meal. Why did you have to copy me and take my food away? Are you that much invested into the rivalry that you would do such a thing to me?"

"This isn't easy for me either. I'd rather have something better than this, but I don't have much of a choice at the moment. Besides, you are the only one who thinks of these things as a rivalry. It's odd. Others just call this a friendship."

Murakami slowly sighed, but Yuki hung his head for some reason.

"I expected you to be better than this, Kō. Sigh. I suppose someone who watches everything go down the drain because of a teammate would need something like this to calm their nerves."

"Now you're just saying anything that comes to mind. I guess old habits die hard."

With a plain look, Murakami reached for the condiments supplied at the center of the table.

With soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, sugar, pepper, and mayonnaise, it was a fairly standard lineup.

"As it is, we'll be eating hopelessly dry and flavorless katsuobushi rice for a while. But this is where the fun begins. Now, what toppings will you use to dress up this cheap Poor Man's Meal? Think of it as another little rival battle."

"What? Can't you just put the soy sauce on it?"

"Can I really consider you a rival, or even a friend, at this point? You can't go wrong with soy sauce on katsuobushi rice, but it can never rise above average either. If I called it a seaweed-less seaweed meal, you'd feel pretty blue, wouldn't you?"

School lunches were focused on cost effectiveness, so hoping for a surprising flavor and texture was pretty much a lost cause. Regardless of if these two were Border agents, they were currently stuck with these plain lunches.

The first one to make a move was Murakami, the one who usually had more to eat.

"I'll start off with some pepper."

"Isn't that a little spicy? You haven't even decided if you're making this sweet or salty."

"Then I'll settle on an overall direction with mayonnaise."

"You're escaping toward bitter?"

When looking for a surprising flavor, mayonnaise was definitely the standard. As long as one liked mayonnaise, it could make most anything acceptable.

"And I'll finish it off with a quick sprinkle of Worcestershire sauce for the flavoring of takoyaki or okonomiyaki or something like that. Heh. Try beating that with your skills."

Yuki only smirked as he looked around. He was use to small and plain meals, so he was on another level entirely.

"You have to start off with some pickled vegetables, right?"

"You have to? But...where did you get those from?"

"I got them from some students I've never met before. They come with the meals, but no one ever eats them."

Yuki covered his katsuobushi rice with the contents of small plates he had gathered from three or four people at some point and he mixed it all together with his chopsticks.

"Eating the rice like this would be a little salty, so you have to get some shredded cabbage from the people eating chicken cutlets over there."

"Hey, you people aren't eating the cabbage before the cutlets? You all need to focus on your health."

"Then mix it all together for a weaker but crisper flavor and then finish it off by dripping on some mentsuyu borrowed from someone who ordered soba. It comes in a bottle, so there's usually some left in the bottom after they transfer it over to the bowl."

"Isn't that cheating? We were competing using the options here."

"No one ever said that. I don't care what it takes as long as I can make the Poor Man's Meal before my eyes look a little richer. Listen, Kō, your mistake was thinking you could find the best possible answer using the ingredients right in front of you. You need to take a wider view of the world. Don't forget who had survived both Kako-san's fifth worst fried rice as well as Mei-chan's seventh hottest curry."

Being the great friends they were, the two nodded at each other while devouring their Poor Man's Meals.

For some reason, multiple girls were sitting at the same table as the two. They were Operators for other B-Rank teams, but they were hardly ever seen with the two during lunch. They looked back and forth between Yuki and Murakami.

"Is this really how guys bond? Interesting..."

"What is it, Kagami-chan? It might look like these Poor Man's Meals are pretty tasty after desperately adding onto them like this, but they don't taste good in the slightest and it actually adds in a ton of salt. My advice is to stay out of this harsh battle if you can. If you can eat a high society grilled fish meal every day, there's no reason to start down this path of carnage."

"Is it just me or did you just turn into a scoundrel?"

Yuki shrugged his shoulder and seemed as if he had been called that before many, many times.

Murakami really looked like he was about to cry as he continued to eat.

The two of them disregarded the looks from not only the girls looking at them but their fellow men who were also eating.

"I don't want my grated radish, so you can have it."

"Oh, thanks, thanks."

"Do you just put anything someone will lend you on there?"

"You get the fish off the bone really neatly. How elegant."

"..."

Yuki ignored the speaking girls and spoke to Murakami.

"By the way, Kō, and I guess everyone else, where's Kage? Haven't seen him today, even in class."

"Not sure. Just message him and find out."

"We never exchanged numbers."

"..."

"Wait... Are those tears of agony from this disgusting trash food or because we haven't exchanged numbers yet? Hey, hey, hey! Please wipe your nose! That's disgusting!"

Everyone watched from the side the two friends with mild interest. They decided not so say anything and just enjoy the entertainment in front of them.

* * *

Yuki let out a small sigh as he walked through the halls of the Border base. He did not have much to do at the moment and was just moving around to keep his health up. It was always nice to just move around when able to do so.

After school had ended, he walked over to the Suzunari Branch with Murakami and Kon to gave his greeting to Suzunari. He found it fun there, but did get tired having to stop Taichi from falling and destroying things.

He was on great terms with that team, so it wasn't like he was annoying them. He always found it a bit entertaining - and tiresome - to deal with Taichi's clumsiness. He was fond of the boy though. It was also nice to just have Kuruma around to balance everything out.

When he was done with his visit he made his way over to the base in hopes of finding something to do.

He knew he should have been resting and that he would get an earful from Mei later on, but he didn't care much at the moment.

"Inu... Tatsuhito... Who can entertain me more?"

"I knew I felt something foul. I should have followed my instincts and went the other way. Being around this Faker might make me start lying too much."

"And of all people to meet with... Sigh. I guess my luck is just bad today. E-Rank for sure. Maybe I could just cut that bad luck off along with his annoyed, hot air-filled head."

Yuki glared ahead at the person in front of him.

Ninomiya Masataka.

The #1 B-Rank squad captain glared down at Yuki.

These two had a sort of history together that put them on such bad terms that stating the sun and moon got along better than these two wouldn't be too far from the truth. Neither one of them wanted to be anywhere near the other and so tried to stay as far away as possible from each other.

It came as a shock when one of them would willingly walk up to the other.

"What do you want, _Airhead_?"

"I'm only looking for Taka, _Faker_."

Everyone around them could swear they saw a tiger behind Ninomiya and a dragon behind Yuki.

But that'I was just crazy.

As the two glared at each other, they both tried their best not to start biting at each other. Yuki bit his tongue while Ninomiya bit the inside of his cheek. They at least wanted to keep some kind of respectable image to the public so they would not seem like animals.

That turned out to be much harder than expect with the whispering going on around them.

"Hey, aren't they captains from the higher ranking B-Rank teams?"

"I heard that Tsukiko got promoted, though. Doesn't that mean he's better than Ninomiya-san?"

"Nah, dude, Ninomiya-san was an A-Rank way before Tsukiko-san was."

"Is it just me or does it look like those two are rather tense?"

Hearing the whispering going around saying that one was stronger than the other, the two tried their hardest not to say something.

They both lost to their natural hatred for each other.

Yuki stomped his foot forward and brought up his arm. He had his fingers like a gun and held them right under Ninomiya's chin.

Ninomiya had shifted a bit on his spot and lifted his own fingers to point at Yuki's forehead.

They were in a position that allowed them to hide their fingers from the onlookers.

Their glares grew harsher as they spoke in synch.

"One round to break the tie."

Hearing fast footsteps, they moved away from each other and turned to see Inukai and Tsuji running up to them.

"Ninomiya-san! Yuki!"

The two looked at each other before grabbing Inukai by the collar of his shirt and speaking in synch again.

"You're going to be our witness."

"Wha-!? Wait! I don't consent! I don't consent! Hey! Don't just stand there, Tsuji-chan! Help me out!"

Inukai continued to wail as he was dragged away by the two enemies while Tsuji kept a calm expression and followed after the three.

"At least go find Shiro-chan or Mei!"

* * *

The countdown started.

The area was an industrial one.

Both Ninomiya and Yuki got ready for the fight.

They had made Inukai stay to watch and witness the fight so that neither one of them could lie about who had won.

They had done so by threatening him.

That did not matter much since they decided to do the fight over in Ninomiya Squad's training room, so as not to draw attention to themselves.

They had both been set in different places, but still rather close to each other. The only thing left was for them to start the fight.

As they waited for the countdown to finish they both go ready.

Ninomiya put on his Bagworm while Yuki lifted the hair from his left eye and put it behind his ear.

They were both ready for the fight.

This would decide it for them.

Or rather, it should have.

That went out the window when they heard a familiar voice.

_"Hey, Onii-san, Shinoda-san needs to see you. Ninomiya-san, I have Taka-kun here for you."_

At hearing those words, Ninomiya Masataka and Tsukiko Yuki looked as if they were about to rip something apart with their bare hands. What made it worse was the looks they were giving were subtle ones that only people who actually knew them would find.

* * *

Two days later...

"These are the results of the expedition."

"Good work. Especially for managing to come back safely."

A man with a serious expression, and rather intimidating aura, sat at the end of a long table that was open in the middle. A few others sat around the table, all looking in the same direction. The person at the end of the table was Commander-in-Chief - Kido Masamune. Those sitting around the table were the directors in charge of Border. Along with them were two members of Border's #7 A-Rank squad - Miwa Squad.

Commander Kido, as well as the directors and agents, looked forward to the four people standing at the other end of the table. They were part of Border's #1, #2 and #3 squads. The last one was the Operator belonging to an unranked squad.

The captain of the #1 A-Rank squad, as well as the #1 Attacker: Tachikawa Kei.

The captain of the #3 A-Rank squad, as well as the #2 Attacker: Kazama Soya.

Member of the #2 B-Rank squad, as well as the #1 Sniper: Tōma Isami.

Operator of the unranked A-Rank Hatohara Squad: Lukas Wagner

"Ooh! Wonderful! Triggers from the Neighbor world!" Director Kinuta Motokichi, a small and pudgy man, said happily. "With this, Border's Trigger Engineering will progress even further!"

"Kinuta-san~, can't you make the expedition ship a bit bigger? I've long feet that make it feel like I'm being crushed."

"Nonsense! If it were any bigger than it is now, the amount of Trion to make it fly wouldn't be enough!"

"Is that so?"

Commander Kido's expression didn't change in the slightest as he interrupted the meaningless argument. He allowed it since the squads had completed their mission, but he wanted to get straight to the issue on his mind.

"Now then, I'm sorry to drop this on you so quickly after your return but, I have a new mission for you all."

Lukas opened his mouth to say something, but he was unable to continue as Commander Kido continued to speak.

"We've confirmed that there is currently a Black Trigger in Tamakoma Branch."

"A Black Trigger...!"

"Tamakoma?"

Commander Kido motioned for Miwa Squad to take their turn.

"Miwa Squad, explain."

"Yes. December 14th, A.M, due to the follow up of a tailing, we discovered a Neighbor. As a result of hostilities taking place, we then confirmed he activated a Black Trigger. The ability of said Black Trigger is to 'copy the opponents attacks and make it its own'. After that, Jin, member of Tamakoma Branch, intervened in the battle, and then called for a ceasefire to show he was an acquaintance of that Neighbor. It seems that with Jin-san's help, the Neighbor enlisted in Tamakoma Branch. These are the current circumstances."

"A Neighbor enlisted in Border!?" Tōma asked. "What's with that!?"

"If we're talking about Tamakoma, then it's highly probable from the get go," Kazama added in. "Their Engineers have been Neighbors. Our current problem is that this isn't your everyday Neighbor, he posses a Black Trigger. With this there are now 2 Black Triggers in Tamakoma's faction, this'll make Border's internal power balance topple over."

"That's right. However, this cannot be allowed. That's why you'll have to secure the Black Trigger using any means necessary."

"Excuse me, sir."

Everyone's attention turned to Lukas. He had his hand raised a bit, but did not back down in the slightest.

"I am declining this mission for my team. With my captain being unavailable at the current moment, I will take responsibility and reject in his stead."

"What!?"

The one who shouted was Director Kinuta.

Lukas could see Miwa giving him a glare from his seat.

"This is an important mission! We must take that Black Trigger from Tama-"

"It's fine," said Kido. He looked at looked at Lukas as if he wasn't much more than any other agent. "You are dismissed."

"Yes, sir."

Lukas turned around and quickly left the room. He could feel the glare from Miwa at his back.

Not wasting any time, Tachikawa turned back to Kido.

"What is the action pattern for the Black Trigger?"

Tachikawa finally spoke up for the first time in the conversation. Even while he had a serious expression he put his arms behind his head in a casual manner.

"Is there a confirmed time slot when he's alone or something? You don't really want us to face all the members of Tamakoma Branch, do you?"

Narasaka Tōru pulled out his phone and read what he had been sent by his underclassmen and fellow Sniper. The two remaining members of Miwa squad had been watching the Tamakoma branch office for some time now.

"Every morning around 7, _it_ leaves Tamakoma, and gets back at 9 at night, making it 11 hours out. Yoneya and Kodera are currently surveilling him."

"That means we have a chance every day then. In that case, we should elaborate a reliable operation-..."

"No." Tachikawa got a more casual look as he continued. " _Let's act_ _tonight_."

The two from Miwa Squad, as well as Director Kinuta and Director Netsuki, all seemed rather surprised at this. While Kazama and Touma just looked a bit confused.

"Tachikawa, you'd better not make light of the opponent."

"Underestimating him? What do you mean, Miwa?" Tachikawa turned to face the #7 squad captain. "Our opponent's Trigger is a 'studying' Trigger, right? Right now he's 'studying' with Border Triggers at Tamakoma. The more time passes, the more it becomes disadvantageous for us. Moreover, if this drags on, things will turn sour for Yoneya and Kodera, who are on lookout. We have to end it tonight. That's not to mention that Ketsu is out of Mikado City right now, right? That would cause a larger amount of problems if he came back when we went out."

Both Tōma and Kazama resigned to the facts and were fine with leaving as well.

"Are you alright with this, Commander Kido?"

"It's alright. I'll leave the commanding of the units to you, Tachikawa. Also, Bakuto Squad will be accompanying you all. They may be troublesome but they deserve their rank. Besides, the complaints from them are piling up. This will shut them up for a while."

"Oh? Alright."

Tachikawa seemed rather excited about the latter part of what was said while some of the other people in the room seemed rather skeptical about it.

* * *

It was afterschool and, since it was December, the sun set early. Students were pouring out of the school building for club activities, committee activities, or to have fun outside of school. The entire scene was dyed in the orange of sunset.

Misaki Suzumebachi was not a part of a club or committee and had nowhere else to go, so she was walking through the school's campus.

She held a large bag of burnable trash and another of non-burnable trash.

"Well, it's not like any of those other girls would even touch the bag."

There was a trash dump near the back gate for faculty. She had decided that since everyone else was too obsessed with keeping away from the smelly bag that she would just get rid of it for them all. Fortunately this was not a special class or anything, so she had no time limit.

As she made her way to the dumping area she saw someone already there.

The space was rather small for a place where things needed to be thrown away, so there were some impressive piles of garbage bags. The space was the size of a classroom, but the bags were piled up higher than a human being in some places. Someone could easily get buried if there was an earthquake.

Due to the drink packages and sweet bread wrappers from the school store, the entire place was surrounded by a sweet aroma.

The person she had seen was in the valley created between two mountains of trash. He wore his uniform and had plastic gloves on his hands.

It was a familiar face from both a class near her own as well as around the Border base.

"Oh. You are the one who's bringing the trash? Don't usually the guys try to show off by showing their 'muscles' and carrying the bag over with one arm?"

"Yeah, well, I'm honestly not a weak girl, so all those guys can honestly take their macho bravado and shove it."

Girikage Daigo smiled a bit at hearing this.

"So does that mean Satori-san is one of those guys who can 'shove it'?"

"He team had to leave earlier to meet up with the rest of Arashiyama Squad for something. My squad has the day off, so I'm free all day."

"I see."

"By the way, were you honestly assigned to do this? Shouldn't the janitors be doing this?"

"Yes, well, they usually come later at night or around the morning before the students get here, so I figured I might as well help them out since I also have some time off right now."

Suzume gave a small hum as she placed the bag on the ground and checked around to make sure none of the other ones would end up falling on the poor boy.

"So what exactly are you doing? Is there honestly that much to do?"

"Kinda." He pointed here and there. "It is generally divided between a burnable pile and a non-burnable pile, but some people dump aluminum foil and other things in because separating it out is too much work."

"Oh..."

Suzume looked over at the trash bags, but she did not notice any real problems from what she could see through the translucent bags.

"Well, Mikado City's garbage processing facilities do a lot of recycling too. They of course compost the kitchen waste and recycle old paper, metal, and plastic, but they also do urban mining...that is, recycling the micro-sized rare earths inside electronic circuits. ...But I would still like to prevent anyone from throwing away a broken utility knife blade or a hairspray can."

"Ugh. People are honestly that careless?"

It was easy enough for the person throwing it away, but in some cases, it could blow off a finger of the garbage man who came to collect it. After all, to increase efficiency as much as possible, the trash bags were crushed with a powerful press inside the garbage truck.

"There are over five hundred people here. And it might help that it cannot be traced back to them like it can with household trash. It was suggested we write the class numbers on the bags, but for some reason there was a lot of opposition and it was denied..."

"But..."

Suzume followed Daigo's pointed instructions to casually toss her two bags into the appropriate piles.

"This space is one for the whole school, right? Shouldn't there be someone else honestly doing this then?"

"Well, like I said, the janitors usually do these things. But I'm just here helping them out."

The plastic gloved agent slowly exhaled.

"Even if I don't have to do it the danger will be overlooked if no one does it. And that means someone has to do it."

"..."

Suzume looked around the area now that she had finished her job.

It was the size of one classroom and the piles were taller than she was in places.

"Do you want some help?"

"It's fine. I am use to these kinds of things. Plus, I'll be done for the day once I check the ones you just brought."

He looked at the extraordinary piles of trash once more.

_He had already checked through all that on his own?_

"I did think about opening them all by hand at first, but I pretty quickly realized that would not work."

"Yeah, I would think so."

But he apparently did things differently now.

As for how...

"The really dangerous things like utility knife blades and spray cans are generally made of metal, right? So I ordered a cheap metal detector. That gives me a general idea of where they are just by bringing the device in close. I am just glad the faculty allows me to bring it."

"I see."

"Not that that actually separates it all perfectly. But as I said, Mikado City does some really good recycling, bordering on urban mining, so it's all about give and take. And if you give me an impressed look like that, I cannot help but agree with you."

"Oh, so you weren't using some kind of rare power that only psychic would honestly have or some specialized Trigger meant for detection..."

"Anyway, if you have no more business here, there's no reason for you to stick around. Do you have any club activities after this? Or are you working at your mother's flower shop?"

"I was just honestly heading on home."

"I see," was all the boy said.

For better or for worse, he did not seem interested. He was wasting his afterschool time on his most troublesome duty (that didn't even belong to him), but he apparently had no prejudice against people who simply went home.

"Then let's head on home."

"Huh? You don't have to meet you squad or something?"

"The only thing I will really see is either Captain-san sleeping while the other two are on electronics or Vice-Captain-san trying to mess with Captain-san by kissing him."

Suzume got sparkles in her eyes at hearing the latter part of what he had said.

Daigo just let out a small sigh as he removed his plastic gloves. That ceremony seemed to say his work for the day was complete.

With nothing to do, Suzume noticed something almost buried in the trash.

It was a rusted metal box about the size of two vaulting boxes side by side and it had a smokestack attached.

"There's still honestly an incinerator here in this day and age?"

"The bottom was apparently attached to the concrete ground, so removing it would have cost a lot of money."

There was a metal door on the top of the box, but it was locked shut with thick chains and a padlock. So was the small window on the bottom for letting ashes out.

"If no one's using it, why bother locking it up?"

"Who knows. Well, maybe... If the incinerator is left open, it seems students will sneak things into it at night and burn them. ...For example, an inappropriate magazine they worked up their courage to take to the register but were disappointed by and don't know what to do with. Or a life-size doll or body pillow cover they got carried away and ordered online late at night."

Suzume raised an eyebrow at this. She knew that there were boys in her class that would do something like that.

"You cannot do that! It ends up causing a bunch of smoke, so you can't do it secretly, and the sparks and smoke might even set off the school's fire alarm. You will end up in tears as you are charged with illegal entry and attempted arson. Even if you didn't mean it, if people catch sight of a realistic doll's burnt face or arm, it can cause a panic and get you charged forcible obstruction of business too. You will only be left with some baffling official records of the incident."

"I promise you I didn't think it was a good idea. I was honestly thinking about the idiots in my class doing something stupid like that."

It seemed to be more out of habit than to make sure it was locked, but the dull-faced agent shook the padlock connected to the chains.

"No problem today either. Okay, let us get home."

"Sure."

Zzt~!

The two heard a small buzzing noise and looked over at Suzume's skirt pocket.

She put her hand in her pocket and pulled out her phone to see she had gotten a message from her captain through Border's chat network.

Being a bit curiously Daigo leaned over to read what the message said.

 **White Fox:** "I know it's our day off, but I really need your help with some Border stuff. You're free to decline though."

"...!"

"I really don't think this is worth getting starry-eyed over, Suzume-san. It is probably just some paperwork or something."

"Regardless, the fact Yuki-san is asking for help is something in of itself. He's usually stubborn when it comes to things like asking for help and has even made Mei-san keep away when he really needed help."

Daigo could not say he knew the A-Rank too well, so he did not know how much help he had rejected.

"Oh. Sorry, Dai-chan, I'm going to head over to see Yuki-san."

"It's fine."

With that the two went their separate ways.


	5. Top Agents

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Minoru is owned by Yujonokage  
> Denji is owned by Zazaza Gogo Da

_"1000 meters left until target place."_

Tachikawa Kei, Kazama Sōya, Tōma Isami, and two members of Miwa Squad continued to run through the street to get to their destination. They were not alone though. There were six other people with them.

The first one was the Shooter of Tachikawa Squad - Izumi Kōhei.

After him were the two other members of Kazama Squad - Kikuchihara Shirō and Utagawa Ryō.

Lastly was the full Bakuto Squad which consisted of their All-Rounder captain - Bakuto Denji. The Shooter - Yamamoto Yorushi. The Sniper - Akakami Mori.

Each one gave off a certain vibe that ranged from Denji having an appearance of a casino dealer to Yorushi who looked like a master librarian.

All of these agents were some of Border's best. The only way to take them down would be to send out ones who were just as strong, if not stronger, than them. What was more was that they were on a mission where they did not have to hold back.

Some of them would not have held back no matter what they were told.

"Hey, hey, Miwa, you should take it easy. You'll just get worn out."

Miwa Shūji gave a small glare to the #1 who was behind him and speaking in an overly relaxed tone.

_"500 meters left until target place."_

"Wait!"

Doing as commanded, and for another reason, all of the moving agents stopped in their tracks and looked forward.

A lone figure stood a bit further up the street with their hand on what seemed to be a black handle that was at their side.

"Jin...!"

"I see, so you saw it coming, huh?"

"It's been a while, Tachikawa-san."

Jin Yūichi looked forward, not seeming to be affected by the large amount of A-Ranks before him.

"Where are you all headed together?"

An unwelcomed silence fell over them all.

They each knew how strong the opposing side was, so they did not want to make any mistakes. Even the ones that would normally rush in stayed in their place.

"Oh, it's been a while Jin-san. Why are you here?" Tōma said, breaking the uncomfortable silence.

"Yo, Tōma. How is your captain doing?"

"Our captain is a bit sick at the moment."

"Don't jabber on about unnecessary things, Tōma."

Tachikawa straightened up a bit as he gave his usual calm and smug expression.

He already knew how his rival was, so there was no reason to worry about being attacked before attacking.

He would use the time as he wished.

He would see how things turned out before they began.

"For you to have lied in wait for us here means you also know what our intentions are, right?"

"You've come here to stand in the way of my cute little kouhai's training, right? Recently, they've been progressing well so, I'd like you not to bother them."

"Impossible... You knew I'd say that, right?"

Jin answered back as he calmly put his hand closer to the black hilt at his side.

"I have no other choice then. As a Talented Elite, I have to protect my cute kouhai."

Seeing this, Tachikawa shifted a bit while the others got ready for a fight behind him.

"What's with you, Jin? You're unusually forceful."

"'Except for mock battles, fights between fellow Border agents are strictly forbidden'," Kazama said. "Are you prepared to receive a severe punishment for this violation on the Squads Duty Regulation, Jin?"

"If you want to use those argument, then I'll say that my kouhai is a legitiment Border agent. In that case what you're about to do can also be considered a violation, Kazama-san."

"...!"

Kazama was rendered speechless and had no comeback for that. In a sense, Jin was in the right, meaning that they really could not do much against him.

While on the other hand Miwa was ready to answer.

"A Border agent...!? Don't be ridiculous! You're giving refuge to a Neighbor!"

"There's no rule that Neighbors can't join Border. He applied though official channels, and now he's 100% an agent. _Nobody could argue with that_."

"That's where you're wrong, Jin. He's not an official member yet." Tachikawa never lost his smug look, even as he spoke to the Black Trigger user. "Even if Tamakoma filed the paperwork... Until Official Enlistment Day... HQ won't recognize him as an agent. For us, until January 8th... You're new charge is just a stray Neighbor. _I have no problem with bringing him down."_

"Don't get in our way, Jin. There's no point in fighting you. We're going to continue our mission. The power balance between HQ and its branches aside... As Border agents, we can't allow a Neighbor with a Black Trigger to be running around freely. Commander Kido will get Tamakoma's Black Trigger under HQ's control. Or will you use your Black Trigger to declare war on HQ?"

"Kido-san has his reason, but so do we. It might be just a Black Trigger to you guys, but it's more important than life itself for its owner. I don't intend to declare war, but I can't just hand it over."

"So you insist on resisting... I'm sure you know, but teams picked for away missions are selected for their ability to stand up to Black Triggers. Other people might be a different story. But do you really think you can win by yourself against _us_?"

"I'm not that arrogant. I know what the away teams can do. You've also got A-Rank Miwa and Bakuto Squads with you too. Even with my Black Trigger, I'd be outmatched. ... _That's if I were by myself of course_."

"Finally?"

Bakuto Denji walked forward with a grin in place. He had kept his mouth shut for the whole time, but was ready to take action as well.

"S' th'se pl'yin' Hide-'n-Seek are finally ready t' pl'y Tag?"

As he spoke, Denji took small glances to the right and left.

When he looked to the sides so did the others. They heard repeated "thud" sounds that came from the rooftops near them.

The ones who landed on the roofs spoke in unison.

"Arashiyama Squad-"

"Tsukiko Yuki-"

"Hatohara Squad-"

"""Reporting!"""

"Under order from Director Shinoda, we're here to assist the Tamakoma Branch!"

"Them!?"

The #5 A-Rank Squad, the recently promoted A-Rank, and the already A-Rank who could both keep up well with any high ranking A-Ranks. Seeing the group, most of the HQ A-Ranks were more alert. Expect for Denji, who was grinning like an idiot about the whole scene.

Looking from Arashiyama Squad to Yuki and Minoru, Tachikawa spoke with a bit more urgency.

"They formed an alliance with Director Shinoda... As well as getting Yuki to tag along."

The ones on the roof jumped down and landed by Jin. They apologized for the tardiness, but were told not to worry. Kitora said it was just an order, making Minoru tease her a bit. Even as they spoke casually, they were still alert and on guard.

Jin turned to the group of A-Ranks with his own smug look.

"With them, my side will win. That's what my Side Effect tells me. I don't want to pick a fight with HQ either. I hope you'll withdraw. Tachikawa-san."

"I see. So that's how thing will be going." Tachikawa pulled out one of his blades as he spoke. "I haven't seen you serious in a while. This is interesting. You know... _I've always wanted to prove that precognition of yours wrong._ "

" _I thought you would say that_."

Whether it was a small movement or a step forward, every agent there got ready for the inevitable battle. They were all strong in their own right, but as two groups they could make any opponent stake a few steps back in worry.

After a few seconds they all went into action.

Kazama Squad ran forward with blades in their hands while Arashiyama Squad brought up their guns.

They fired their shots, but were blocked by the Shields brought up.

Being the closest one forward, Utagawa brought out a small blade and lunged towards Jin.

A simple attack like that was nothing for the S-Rank agent to think about.

Jin dodged the strike and shifted his legs. He was able to get Utagawa off balance, making him start to fall. He brought up the green blade in his hands and brought it down.

Utagawa, seeing the attack coming, brought up his own short blade. The easily created blade shattered the moment the two connected. The agent himself also got a cut running down his body.

Jin did not waste any time in his next move.

He brought Fujin back up.

Tachikawa came down on Jin with one of his blades in hand. He was blocked and pushed back a bit. From his peripheral vision he saw Yuki come from the side with his hand on his blade.

Denji ran forward from behind Tachikawa and mimicked Yuki's attack, sending the whole group into the air.

Arashiayama finished this portion of the fight by firing off a Meteora shot at the opposing side.

Jin, Yuki, Minoru and Arashiyama Squad landed on one of the empty houses before moving back and making a large distance between them all.

"... Th's 's gettin' kin'a b'rin' n'w."

"Denji, please stop speaking and focus on the fight at hand."

Tachikawa ignored the other two as he started to speak.

"With them all together, it's hard to get them."

"Jin hasn't used Fujin once. He's conserving Trion."

Narasaka said nothing and looked around the area with a critical eye.

_They knew who they were going against. So where are the snipers? Without their positions..._

.

Denji lazily looked around the area before walking over to his Shooter. He grabbed Yorushi by the shoulder and whispered something into his ear.

Yorushi took a glance behind them and nodded his head. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose as cubes of Trion appeared around him like a double helix. The cubes of Trion flew through the air in one particular direction.

The other A-Ranks turned around to see someone jump into the air. The person in question was a B-Rank captain with black hair with the tips being white.

Miwa seemed to have some kind of soft spot for the boy since all he did was tell the boy to leave instead of attacking him in any shape or form. Narasaka was in the same boat since he lowered his gun a bit.

That simple command from Miwa seemed to make Hogo Oshiro freeze.

They could all see his hand start for the blade at his hip, but no one actually did anything to defend or dodge.

" _You have no business being here_ ," was all that Yorushi said as he pushed up his glasses.

Oshiro went wide eyed when he was quickly filled with multiple holes from behind.

Cracks started appearing on his body as he gritted his teeth. A cube of Trion appeared next to him and fired off multiple shots before he turned into light and flew off towards Border's base.

The A-Ranks didn't seem to see this as a threat since they all moved away to dodge the shots aimed at them.

As if what just happened was like a bug going near their faces, they got back on the topic of the fight.

"Kazama-san."

Everyone's attention turned to Kikuchihara, one of the members of Kazama Squad.

"Can't we ignore them and go after the Black Trigger? At least just our team?"

"Kizaki and the others will be at Tamakoma. It's dangerous to divide our forces."

"Hm. Coul' jus' leave i' up t' ma team. We c'n take 'n T'm'k'ma."

Tachikawa ignored the fellow A-Rank again as he started to speak. He never bothered much to listen to the other in the first place.

"Miwa. Are Yoneya and Kodera here yet?"

"They'll be here soon."

"Izumi. Me, Kazama Squad, Bakuto Squad and the three snipers will work together on an all-out attack to get Jin. You work with Miwa and Yoneya to stall Arashiyama Squad, Yuki and Minoru."

"Roger."

"Hm~"

Denji walked next to Tachikawa and gave a bored look in no particular direction.

"Ya c'n use Yoru 'n Mowai all ya wa't 'n h'w'v'r ya wa't, bu' 'm g'nna take 'n th' tw' sin'le 'nes."

"Denji. Now isn't the time for-"

"No. That's fine. He'll hold off Yuki and Minoru. Yamamoto, you stay with us."

"...Understood."

* * *

Meanwhile, Jin, Arashiyama Squad, Yuki and Minoru were on top of a roof to figure out what their next move would be.

Yuki looked over at the flash of green light that flew through the sky. A frown was etched onto his face.

_Shiro just Bailed Out..._

He worried about the younger one for that fact.

"They'll probably split us up next."

Yuki turned back to the others that were there.

"Then what?"

"No problem. Having you take care of a few of them will make it a lot easier for me. "Jin turned to Arashiyama and said, "I wish Kazama-san would go after you, but he'll probably come after me."

"If someone's going to try to stall us... It'll probably be Miwa Squad," Tokieda said. "Miwa-senpai has his Lead Bullets like Minoru-senpai. They plan to stall us if they can't beat us."

"If we can, we should pretend to get spilt up and lure them into our formation."

"Good idea. We'll coordinate with the snipers and engage them."

Yuki looked off to the side and gave a small nod.

He turned to the others and started to speak.

"Suzu-chan's keeping up in a bit. We can leave the snipers to her. That being said, I'll take on Denji and stall him out. That guy is troublesome at times like these since he's so indiscriminate on who he attacks. Knowing him... He'll probably leave behind Yamamoto and Akakami-chan to work together with either Miwa Squad or the ones going after Jin-san. I'll just lure him into the wire zone Shiro had set up before we got here."

"I'll help out Yuki and take Denji out. After that we'll go help you out, Mr. Elite." He then put his hand to his ear as he continued speaking. "Svantje, you also help out Arashiyama Squad."

_"Roger~"_

"Great. With Suzume-chan helping out as well, we won't have too much to worry about concerning sneak attacks."

"Here they come."

Arashiyama Squad jumped down to face their opponents while Jin went the other way and was facing Kazama Squad and Tachikawa.

Yuki and Minoru circled around and kept their eyes locked on Denji.

.

Just as he landed, Jin brought his Fujin up and blocked an attack from Tachikawa.

He brought his blade back up to block an incoming attack from Kazama.

He bent back and dodged the two Scorpions that came from Kazama's arm.

He twisted his body so that the three bullets aimed at him would miss.

* * *

_"We're not hitting him, Narasaka-senpai!"_

"Just keep shooting. Jin-san's Side Effect is Foresight. Nothing can be done," Narasaka said as he got ready for another shot. "Don't think of it as trying to hit him. We're limiting his mobility. We're overwhelming him with constant bombardment."

He heard a sigh on the other end and already knew who made it.

"Tōma-san, why don't youshoot for once?"

_"Me? How can I shoot when I know it won't hit? My pride as a Sniper won't allow it. 'Nothing can be done'? That's how you end up being second best forever. I'm going to join Miwa. You take care of Jin-san."_

"What!?"

_"It's fine, Narasaka. Tōma will be more useful that way. But I can't afford to lose you guys too."_

"What are you honestly whispering about? Well, I suppose it doesn't really matter. I'm gonna end this quickly."

Narasaka went wide eyed when he heard the voice. He then heard the sound of a shot being fired while moving out of the way from a strike to the head.

_"Narasaka, what happened?"_

"An extremely annoying opponent has just joined the fight."

He looked forward and saw Suzume standing where he was while holding a Lightning in one hand and something on her middle finger of the opposite hand. He gave a small glare at the girl and the Scorpion that was wrapped around her middle finger.

"Well that's not a very nice thing to say. Honestly," she said with a grin on her face, "I feel bad for shooting Shōhei-kun like that, but I have no problems stabbing you in the face."

_"I'm sorry, Narasaka-senpai, I didn't see her shot coming until the last second."_

"It's fine. If you saw it before it hit you then it wouldn't have been an attack I'm use to fending off. Although..." Narasaka kept his eye on the hand that had Scorpion on it. "The fact she brought out her blade... Being an Attacker-Sniper is fine and all, but the way you fight by swinging those around is what pisses me off the most."

"And your point?"

"I've always thought you were a disgrace to Snipers and hate your style."

Narasaka let out a sigh and stood up straight.

"Looks like I've got no choice. Akakami isn't close enough for me to make an escape so... Bail Out!"

He turned into light and shot towards the Border Headquaters.

* * *

Narasaka opened his eyes to see the light from the room in his eyes. He let out a sigh and got up from the mat he had landed on.

He walked over to where Kodera and Tsukimi were at by the monitor.

"Not only did Tsukiko join in but so did she... Well, I suppose we are technically lucky that Kotowari and Awdry aren't there. That would cause too much of a commotion."

"But can't Misaki take them down too?" Shōhei asked, confused as to how there would be much of a difference.

"Not particularly. Most know that a Shield is useless against her, but they also know that it's actually easy to dodge her shots. Her use of Lightning is why she's a good Sniper, but her blade is what makes her a great agent."

"Her blade?"

"Right, I forgot you haven't seen it yet," Narasaka turned looked at the screen with an irritated expression. "That blade is what pisses me off the most about her."

* * *

Denji stayed back a bit and watched as the fight against Jin went on.

He did not have an sense of urgency about him.

He was the type of person who would switch sides on a dime simply because they offered him his favorite snack. While being on the side of Border, he was also not ranked or in any factions, that gave him the chance to fight anyone and everyone.

This was why two specific people were going to fight him.

He could see his team's Shooter glance back at him as small cubes of Trion floated around him like a double helix.

"..."

Glancing to the side, Denji brought up his blade to block a strike from Yuki. Neither one really seemed to be putting much force behind their swords so it was hard to gauge exactly which one had the upper hand here.

Yuki did not relent and went for more strikes, but was blocked.

A cube of Trion appeared next to him and split up before heading towards Denji.

For his part, Denji jumped back and dodged the shots fired.

He knew that there was a certain opponent that would be as difficult to deal with in a situation like this. The combo his two opponents could make was one that would be difficult for even other A-Rank agents.

So he just waited.

He did not have to wait long though as something invisible smashed into his stomach and sent him flying.

Yuki jumped down from one of the roofs and faced Denji with his blade in hand.

"L'ks l'ke I g't ta pl'u w'th ya tw'."

Yuki and Minoru gave small glares to the older man and got ready for the fight. Regardless of if they hated his guts, the two were still on guard.

_Denji is still an A-Rank after all._

* * *

"Alright. Mei-san, should I help Jin-san or Arashiyama Squad?" Suzume asked as she looked at the fight between Jin and his opponents.

_"If you could try and take out Tōma-kun, that would be helpful. With him around, Miwa-kun and Izumi-kun don't have to worry about Arashiyama's teleportation as much as they should. Before that though, I would suggest finding a way to deal with Akakami-chan. If she finds you then Yamamoto could also be an issue for you."_

As she jumped from the roof, Suzume looked around to try and find her fellow Sniper.

She knew Radar was useless since Akakami had put on Bagworm.

"...Jin-san, you mind if I go help out Arashiyama Squad? I'm sorry to leave Akakami for you to deal with, but I honestly don't think there's much I can do about her."

_"Go ahead. I've got things here."_

_I might as well leave a little something for them._

Suzume brought up her Lightning and pointed it at one of Jin's opponents and fired.

_Sorry about this, Yamamoto-san._

She gave a satisfied grin as the target's head was shot and ended up in a Bail Out.

_"Thanks for that."_

"No problem. See ya later."

Suzume turned and started for where she was told Arashiyama Squad was.

Before she could make any distance she tumbled down the roof of the building and quickly made her way inside.

She clicked her tongue as a larger shot destroyed the wall closest to her.

Staying in the room would mean her loss, so getting out was the best course of action at the moment.

"Sorry, Suzume-chan, but I need to take you out."

"You are honestly not sorry..."

Before the fight could continue any longer, something sped through the air and pierced through Akakami's head. She quickly turned into light before flying off in the direction of the Border base.

"Thanks for that, Nikko-chan!"

_"No problem."_

Suzume put away her Scorpion and tried to stay out of clear view. As she got closer to the spot where Arashiyama Squad was having their battle, there was flash that sped by and two more Bail Outs.

She automatically pulled up her Lightning.

She looked through and saw Tōma on a building.

She stopped where she was, focused in on him and fired a shot right after the one that had taken a part of his arm before going on the move again.

"I was only able to get his leg. Damn. That was honestly a pretty bad shot."

_"Ken, Suzume, Nikko_ _. Still there?"_

_"Yup. Inconspicuous and everything."_

_"Yeah, I'm here. I got my arm shot off though."_

"Yeah. I'm headed your way right now."

_"Nice shot, by the way, Suzu-chan. You two, Nikko-chan."_

"Thanks, Ken-kun. But honestly, you haven't done much, have you?"

_"There's no line of fire! Tōma-san's edging this way too!"_

"We were able to get a shot on him."

_"We were able to get a shot on him."_

Suzume could hear her best friend groan as he was getting teased by bother her and her fellow female Sniper.

_"Ken, increase radar precision for ten seconds. I'd like to know exactly what they're doing."_

_"Roger!"_

_"They're heading for Jin."_

_"That's Miwa-senpai and Izumi-senpai. Tōma-san's wearing a Bagworm, so we can't tell."_

_"It's a trap."_

"In that case, I could just use a certain something to blast both of them away."

Suzume stopped running and waited. Her stance wasn't one that showed she was on guard, but rather that of someone just waiting for their order.

_"Are you crazy!? Do you want to blow us away too!?"_

_"No, it's better if you save that for another time, Suzume. Not to mention I doubt Yuki gave you permission to use it."_

Suzume flipped her hair and let out a huff.

She had wanted to use her best move, but Arashiyama was right about her not getting permission to use it. She listened to the plan they had come up with and let out another huff.

_Honestly..._


	6. Spade

Yuki and Denji stood there.

Both were making sure to keep an eye on each other. The only difference between them was that Denji had to look out for the third A-Rank agent that was lurking around, but could not be seen.

_"Denji, make sure not to bomb everywhere."_

_Hm? Bomb ev'ryth'ng? Okay!_

_"No! You idiot!"_

Denji grinned as a large cube of Trion appeared above his head.

Yuki went wide eyed and moved back just as the large cube split up into multiple smaller cubes.

The smaller cubes flew in multiple directions. Each time one of them hit one of the houses there was an explosion that followed.

Denji continued to grin as he fired off Meteora as much as he liked. He did not seem to care about if he even hit the main fight between Jin and the other A-Ranks, or even if he accidentally hit his own teammate.

As Yuki moved around to dodge the explosive shots he could see threads start to fall to the ground. A frown appeared on his face.

_This is why this guy is so difficult..._

Yuki tried his best to dodge the Meteora shots whiling watching as Minoru released Chameleon so he could properly defend against the shots.

Yuki moved on light feet as he dodged.

Deciding on a tactic, he ran forward in a side-to-side motion as he drew his blade.

Once he got in a certain range, he dropped Kōgetsu and disappeared in an instant.

He reappeared above Denji and brought out a Scorpion blade from his foot to try to stab Denji in the head. He was blocked by the other's Kōgetsu.

He disappeared again only to reappear where he left his Kōgetsu.

Just as the blade made of Trion hit the ground, Yuki grabbed it and used Senku.

Denji jumped back to dodge the extended slash. He noticed something to his left and twisted his body.

He landed on the ground and saw a small cut on his side.

_So th't w's 'em..._

Yuki teleported in front of Denji with his arm already in a slashing motion.

Each slash was easy enough to block, but Denji noticed something again, this time from his right. He reacted by creating small cubes of Trion around his back and sides. It seemed to work as the "something" that was there seemed to move away for a brief second.

Deciding to use the cubes of Trion in that brief second, Denji fired off Meteora at point blank range in front of Yuki.

Yuki had already determined what he would do thanks to his Operator and used Teleport to move forward to dodge the shots.

"!"

Denji held Kōgetsu right above Yuki with his arm making the same motion that Yuki's had.

Minoru, using Chameleon, came up from the side to slammed his foot into Denji's side.

Yuki fired off his own Meteora before jumping to the side and out of sight.

_"Thanks for that."_

_"It's fine. We need to get around his Meteora though. He fires it off so indiscriminately that it's hard to really get anywhere."_

_"..."_

_"What?"_

_"Nothing... I'll stall his Meteora while you try and take him out. See it you can land some Lead Bullets on him to slow his down."_

Yuki narrowed his eyes a bit as he looked around the corner to see Denji lazily looking in the direction of the other fights.

_If he keeps fighting like this then we'll be fine. But if he starts talking now..._

Yuki knew better than Minoru when it came to this opponent. Although the other two had entered Border around the same time, Yuki is the one who had fought Denji the most between the two.

There was one thing that Yuki always remembered concerning this man.

He was a gambler.

That fact would not mean anything to most, but Yuki knew that this meant Denji wouldn't do most things fair-and-square. Fights were one of those things. Each time the two had fought, Yuki was put under the same attack. So much so that he never let it affect him anymore.

_I need to take him out before he deals the final blow to Minoru or myself..._

Nodding to himself, Yuki got ready for the next round.

He was too late.

Denji opened his mouth to speak.

Unlike his usual choppy speech, that not many understood, this tone and speech was clear and easy to understand.

"Hey, Minoru. _How are your siblings doing?_ "

Yuki moved forward.

"Oh, wait."

* * *

Yorushi looked at the monitor with careful eyes.

He had purposefully let Suzume shoot him so that he would Bail Out.

He did not do it for the sake of Tamakoma. He did it so he could keep a better eye on his captain.

He knew how ruthless and difficult Denji could be. He knew how Denji would go about fighting Yuki and Minoru, so he wanted to be there to stop the captain if he went too far.

"Do you think he'll go too far? Should we get-"

"It's fine. We'll make him force Bail Out if he takes it too far. The main issue with that is... Hatohara has much more sensitive topics than Tsukiko. That's not mentioning the fact Tsukiko has fought him multiple times and won't listen to what Denji is saying anymore."

Yorushi pushed his glasses up as he continued to look at the monitor.

_Denji always knows where it hurt for the people he was fighting against. He would use that to weaken his opponent mentally and take them out when they were weak. It's not just during fights... Those few times with civilians... When he pushed people too far._

Yorushi clicked his tongue when eh thought about his captain did not show much in the way of regret when hearing things in the news.

While Yuki had his own skeletons, Minoru's were much more unforgiving. There was also his already mental illness to think about.

Denji would not think twice about mentally harming others, so this was a rather dangerous fight for Minoru. Even a Bail Out could not help when it came to the mind.

_Denji... Watch what you say._

* * *

The sound of explosions and harsh words could be heard.

The sounds had already surpassed that of the other fights going on. It was hardly a battle of regular agents at this point. Every strike was followed by a loud noise that rang out through the area, causing the concrete on the ground to tremor and destroy the empty houses around.

Bakuto Denji and Tsukiko Yuki.

On the streets filled with separate fights, the two A-Ranks clashed. This was what was happening in the Forbidden Zone at night.

"Hhhhhhhaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!"

Yuki let out a loud cry as he used the extended slash known as Senku. He wanted to make sure that Minoru, who had yet to launch another proper attack, couldn't hear the foul words seeping from Denji's mouth like venom.

As he fought he continued to switch us his style of fighting.

If Attacker strikes were ineffective, he would use a Shooter's shots.

If Shooter shots were ineffective, he would use Sniper-like tactics.

If the Sniper-like tactics were ineffective, he would use Attacker strikes.

Using such a method to mask the weaknesses of other styles, a one-of-a-kind style filled with destructive power.

The copycat style Yuki was use to.

No matter how great the numbers or how strong the person, no one should be able to survive it and not Bail Out.

Denji's Kōgetsu blocked the strike and, after trading a few hits, it was clear to Yuki that Denji likely knew as many tactics as he did, possibly even more.

To bypass this, Yuki switched from Attacker to Shooter, but Denji immediately changed his defensive stance. The huge amount of Trion attacks clashing between them continued to change, and in this battle another element was currently underway: A mental battle called "reading the moves".

"Weak~ You would think that someone taught by Akasora would do better~ Oh yeah, and where is Minoru exactly? Aren't you two fighting me together? Maybe he just wants to leave like his sister?"

Another explosion cut through the air.

Yuki clicked his tongue in a rare sight of annoyance. He knew that Minoru was being stopped due to his mental illness and the words coming from Denji. He wanted to make sure that Minoru was fine, but knew that he couldn't do much right now and left it to Minoru's Operator.

"Hey, _Kiyoshi,_ it's kinda insulting that you aren't showing that left eye of yours. It might help with your _copycat style of fighting_."

Denji created yet another cube of Trion and fired off Meteora towards Yuki.

In response, Yuki lifted his blade.

"Senku! Kōgetsu!"

Yuki moved his lips, and the extended slashes destroyed the shots and continued on to Denji. Denji quickly increased his attack rate in response. Using his Kōgetsu to block, turning his head to avoid, in front of Denji, who continued to create extended slashes with the blade of Trion - suddenly, a large amount of Trion cubes surrounded him.

"Eh?"

The cubes of Trion started to shoot forward. The moment Denji realized this, the sound of explosions swallowed his entire body. A second explosion followed, then a third, then finally a slash from a blade basked in moonlight. The sounds of continuous attacks could not be heard. It was happening too fast; the sounds had become indistinguishable.

But Denji was not there.

Moving away from the direction Yuki was looking, Denji flew to the concrete floor ten meters in front of him.

A cut was on his face. Maybe he had cut by the end of one of the extended slashes; it was a small cut, after all. Despite the cut's small size, however, it was a wound, one of the few inflicted upon him despite the huge number of people he had fought against in his time at Border. The green gas-like substance seeped out of Denji's face, and he said silently, "As expected of someone in _that family._ "

He used his index finger to cover the small cut before moving it.

"..."

Yuki could hear the small whispers being said by Denji, but ignored them. They meant nothing to him.

"I hope you can correct your words," Yuki sheathed the sword in his hand, lowering his center of gravity and preparing to draw his sword again. "It's true that I was born into _that family_ , but I don't just follow my instincts anymore. My style may seem cowardly, but I use it with respect to the people I've seen it from. So don't lump me in with _them_. I will never agree with those humiliating words of yours."

His hand on the sword grip tightened, "What about you? You understand what affect your words have on others, yet you attacked other Border agents without mercy. You have no right to look down on others like that."

But these words could easily be turned back on Yuki. For a certain reason, he had used harsh words to discourage others and take them down. The words he had just spoken may have been punishment to himself as well.

"... To become angry over something as small as that is immature."

Ten meters. To a well trained A-Rank, it could not even be called a distance.

The scene of confrontation between these two was like a traditional Japanese drama, and yet it felt more similar an American Western.

"This is a battlefield, there can't possibly be any sure-fire strategy or an escape route or safe zone, let alone any gentleman's rule. These things don't exist on any kind of battlefield. Purposefully making all the conditions exactly the same, making the chances of winning equal for everyone... such a thing can only be called a sport. You should know, _Kiyoshi_. Anyone can expect the outcome when an ill-armed infantryman meets a tank. The tank will attack without mercy, and the infantryman will inevitably be dust on the battlefield. Are you telling me your battlefield is different?"

"That is just your reasoning."

"But you and your people are the ones walking onto someone else's battlefield," Denji was not even mocking them, just calmly stating an observation.

"..."

No warning at all.

Yuki took action.

With an instant Teleport that would make any professional soldier feel the battle in front of them was a mirage, Yuki raced into Denji's arms, and maybe the sheath touched the concrete floor as sparks followed Yuki's cuts, the Kōgetsu had already started to hack into Denji.

The two agents called Tsukiko Yuki and Bakuto Denji clashed, both staring into each others' eyes.

"You're really irritating," Yuki said with a dull look that only a very few amount of people have seen. "You already know how dangerous words like those are to someone who is already having trouble, yet... You continue on as if you don't care about what happens to them!"

A voice that no one heard of before, one roar that revealed all his emotion. Because Yuki and Denji were both A-Ranks. Or rather, A-Ranks bearing the painful experience of hurting others.

Speaking during a fight was something that only appeared in fiction, but this was different. This talking was a way for Yuki to stall for time. He wanted Jin and Arashiyama Squad to finish up their fights so that this whole thing could end. He made sure to keep things busy enough to where the most likely mentally hurting Minoru wouldn't let out any reckless attacks.

Between these two colliding forces, the cubes of Trion around them continued to release minor explosions. Both their blades started to glow, and both A-Ranks used the opportunity to increase their distance. Yuki slightly backed away from Denji, who still held onto the sword and remained unmoving.

They both let out their extended slashes and watched them clash.

"Show me if you are stronger than Kushikage now."

* * *

_Poor Arashiyama-san. I guess that just means I'll have to do my best here then,_ Suzume thought as she had Lightning in one hand and a Scorpion blade around around her middle finger if the other hand.

"Arashiyama-san, where are the others?" Miwa asked as he stood in front of a kneeling Arashiyama. "Aren't you acting as bait for a surprise attack? Or is the girl going for the others?"

Once Miwa and Izumi had found the #5 A-Rank captain they went on the offensive with Izumi letting out an onslaught of Meteora. Arashiyama had blocked most of the shots with a Shield, but could see they were being wary of the agents they couldn't see.

"...Who knows?"

"Wow. You suck at lying, Arashiyama-san."

Miwa brought up his gun and shot two bullets at the fallen man. His Lead Bullets' effects kicked in and brought the #5 A-Rank captain's left arm down with its weights.

The whole scene didn't look good for Arashiyama since one of his legs had already been shot with Lead Bullets, making it weight down his body.

"Either way, we'll knock you all out, one at a time!"

Two cubes of Trion appeared as Izumi held out both of his arms.

_Now!_

The moment those cubes of Trion went towards him, Arashiyama used Telport and appeared high in the air.

.

From his spot on the balcony of an empty building, Tōma zoned in on Arashiyama as he hung in the air for a few seconds.

"His teleport destination is a few dozen meters beyond where he was looking."

He lined his shot perfectly with a guaranteed shot.

He fired and landed the hit.

"!"

Or rather, that was how it should have been.

The moment his finger touched the trigger, the top of his head was severed.

He looked back and saw Kitora there with a Bagworm on and a Scorpion making up her leg.

.

The ones on the ground saw the light in the area before it shot off and headed for the Border base.

"Tōma-san!?"

"Just like you said... It was a surprise attack, with me as bait."

Just as Miwa and Izumi were about to shoot at Arashiyama, three shots were fired from somewhere, taking off their hands.

Both Miwa and Izumi were shocked by not only the shots but by the fact that Miwa had a finely sharpened Scorpion in his face while Izumi had a Lightning pointed straight at his face.

The blade and gun were courtesy of Suzume.

"I owe you this for glaring at my captain the other day," Suzume said with a smirk.

"You shouldn't have come out in the open, Miwa."

That was when they saw two more people Bail Out.

The lights flew through the air and headed for the Border base, like all of the others.

"Argh! We lost! Jin won seven on one!?" Izumi said, astonished by the outcome. "A Black Trigger is crazy powerful!"

"Hahaha! Looks like we're done here." Suzume put away her Scorpion and lowered her Lightning. "It's always honestly fun when it comes to you guys."

"Mission complete."

"Arashiyama-san, did you see my twin sniping?"

"Yeah. Well done, Kitora, Ken. You too, Mitsuru, Ayatsuji." Arashiyama then turned to Suzume and said, "Of course you deserve a thanks too, Suzume and Nikko."

"No problem. You should honestly thank Yuki-san since he's the one who sent me," Suzume said with a hair flip. "I was just following the order given to me by my captain."

"Suzu-chan, Nikko-chan, did you see my twin sniping!?" Satori asked with a grin on his face.

"Of course! It was still honestly great!"

"Did you see my one-handed snipe!?"

Suzume and Satori high-fived before the male started bouncing around with Svantje.

* * *

"L'ks l'ke w're d'ne h're."

Denji lazily looked over at the ones who had Bailed Out.

He was covered in small cuts, had a few holes in his body and was missing an arm. None of this seemed to worry him as he put his blade away.

He turned his attention to the two in front of him as he continued speaking.

"W'll, th're's n'thin' m're f'r m' ta d' n'w. I s'pp'se w' coul' k'p figh'n', b't 'm k'n'a b'red n'w."

Yuki and Minoru did not try and stop Denji from leaving. They didn't even look like they _could_ stop him from leaving. They each had cuts of their own, holes here and there, but Yuki was missing an arm and leg while Minoru was one leg short.

_"Yuki, there's no need to continue. I want to hit him as well, but we've completed the mission for tonight."_

"Right..."

Still not sure if the fight with Denji was over, Yuki and Minoru kept a close eye on the man.

His personality was a foul one that hardly anyone liked. The words from his mouth was like venom from a snake; ready to take effect and take out the prey. He always seemed like an arrogant person who wanted to have the world in his hand.

"You two really are strong."

Both of the other A-Rank flinched a bit at the words. They thought that since he was speaking with complete sentences that he really was going to fight them.

"You both deserve those spots as A-Ranks. The fact you could get me to this kind of state proves it. All three of our reasons for joining Border are different. One is for the ones he cares about, another is to repay a debt and protect his way of life, and the last one is because he just wants to thrill of a fight. Even with people knowing that they lump us three together. Hm. As the mongrel who loves the thrill of a fight, I feel honored to be lumped together with you two."

"..."

Yuki and Minoru just stared.

Their expression didn't change in the slightest.

They didn't believe a single thing coming from the man.

They refused to believe anything coming from his mouth at this point.

"Aw~ Ya r'lly d'n't b'l've me? Oh w'll~ M'yb' n'x' t'me. 'm o't!"

Denji turned into green light before flying off towards the Border base.

The two A-Ranks started to go towards the others. Neither said a word as they walked.

_"Yuki, he-..."_

"I know."

* * *

The main fighting was over for the night. The ones involved went their ways. Most went home while others made their way to the Border base for one reason or another.

The nightime air had been keeping people inside their houses while the time had made others stay out to be with friends. Streetlights had been turned on to illuminate the streets so that people would be able to see where they were going.

A single man walked through the night in a tracksuit that had the sleeves rolled up. There was nothing particular that made it seem as if he was a suspicious person. Quite the opposite. The man in a tracksuit gave off the impression of a teacher who others could go to in confidence.

The man in a tracksuit continued to walk towards the Border base in a leisurely fashion that befitted someone who was going on a simple walk through the park. As he walked, he had his hands in his pocket, clenching a strange black object.

No one else was around to see the man, but it wasn't like they would find him odd or out of place. He looked like a person who could blend in with a crowd of foreigners from across the world, so being a part of the city he lived in was nothing special.

He had not wanted to go to the Border base, but a good friend had called him over in order to make a request. He had always been the type of person to gladly take on a task given to him by friends and family, no matter the irritation it brought on. This time had not been any different.

This also meant he had only one goal in mind when going to that base.

* * *

"What is the meaning of this!?"

Director Kinuta slammed his hand on the table before crossing his arms impatiently.

"Jin's interference! The debacle with the top squads! And the biggest problem is... Director Shinoda! Why are Arashiyama and Hatohara squads siding with Tamakoma!? Tsukiko is also in question, but they don't have a side! Why are you defending a Neighbor!? Are you trying to betray Border!?"

Director Shinoda Masafumi, who was sitting in his seat with his arms crossed, looked over and gave a small glare at the shorter man.

"Betray? Who's the one who decided to forego the debate in favor of theft?"

"!"

"I'll say this one more time. I'm against seizure of the Black Trigger. And this us Yūgo's son we're talking about. If you continue these attempts, those three teams won't be all. Commander Kido and those who side with him... _You will all have to contend with me."_

"..."

The usually calm and collected Director Shinoda had a look of a ferocious animal on his face as he looked at the other directors and the commander.

Director Karasawa Katsumi didn't seem much affected by the threat on the outside, but he was thinking about this whole situation.

_HQ Director Shinoda, the one who taught Tachikawa Kei how to fight with a sword. Among everyone here using a normal Trigger... He's tied for the strongest. The other being his long time friend. It was a bad idea to anger him. Our best bet now would be to try and sway him a bit._

"Fine, then... I have no choice."

Everyone turned their attention from Shinoda to Kido as he spoke with the same calm and hard tone as ever.

"Next time, I'll be sending Amo in."

"!?"

_Tsukihiko Amo, S-Rank agent! The other Black Trigger besides Jin Yuuchi. His behavior can be problematic, but his power exceeds Jin's. Commander Kido isn't going to be backing down any time soon._

"B-but, Commander Kido..."

The one who spoke in a nervous voice now was Director Netsuki, a rather scrawny looking man.

"He's not particularly good for Border's image... How should I put it? When he fights, _he doesn't look human_... It would be very bad if a citizen were to witness that..."

"If Jin's Fujin can defeat the top A-Rank agents, and Director Shinoda is going to side with him, we can't afford to be picky."

"Kido-san... Are you trying to destroy the city?"

"Very well. I will have to match that with Shiki-"

"Excuse me."

Without much warning, the door leading to the conference room opened up.

The one who walked in was none other than the brown-haired Elite Agent himself.

"Nice to see everyone. Sorry to interrupt your meeting."

"Jin **.** "

"Why you! How dare you show your face!?"

"Now, now, Kinuta-san. Watch your blood pressure."

"What do you want, Jin? Did you come to declare war?"

"No, Kido-san. I'm here to negotiate."

"Negotiation after your betrayal..."

"No," said Karasawa. "He's defeated HQ's best and joined forced with Director Shinoda. Now that he holds the dominate position, it's the perfect time for him to negotiate."

Jin gave a small nod to confirm that's what was going on.

"We only want one thing. _To admit Kuga Yūma as an official Border agent._ " Jin let out a breath, not seeming to be on guard at all. "Tachikawa-san said that he wouldn't couldn't as an agent unless HQ agrees."

"I see... 'Combat between Border agents outside of mock battles is forbidden.' Right?"

Kido narrowed his eyes as he looked at Jin with a harsh stare.

"Did you really think I would except such terms?"

"No. Not for nothing, of course."

As he spoke, Jin pulled something from his side. The item in question was the Black Trigger known as Fujin that had taken out some of Border's best agents.

"In exchange, we offer Fujin."

"!?"

"I'll turn it over to HQ, in exchange for his enlistment. I don't think it's a bad deal for you either."

Netsuki and Kinuta grinned when they saw the Black Trigger placed on the table. They thought this through and saw it as an opportunity.

Commander Kido saw things differently though.

"A deal? I don't need to _deal_. I could revoke your privilege to use that Trigger, because of your unauthorized battle with Tachikawa and his team."

"Them you would have confiscate _their_ Triggers too, right? That's fine with me too. Whatever it takes to get to the Enlistment Day peacefully."

"What if I said we'll only confiscate _your Trigger?_ "

"Just try it. _See how that turns out._ "

That seemed to be the final nail in the coffin.

Commander Kido knew what would happen if he went through with that threat. There were too many downsides to that happening than there were advantages.

The deal was made.

* * *

Director Shinoda Masafumi sat at his desk with his hands on his head.

He had decided to head to his office than to go home for the night. The reason was a simple one that sat in front of him.

"I had to leave when my cute little nephew was sleeping. What's more is that I don't even get a part in that meeting."

A man in a track suit that had the sleeves rolled up sat in a chair in front of Shinoda's desk. He looked to be around Shinoda's age.

As he spoke, he spun a black object in his hand. The black object looked odd and not like anything most would see around. If they were to lay it flat on a surface they would see it had the appearance of 1/3 of a circle.

"Well, I suppose it's a good think we don't have to deal with Amo right now. I only have this with me right now, so I wouldn't really be able to do damage to him. By the way, you were just about to blurt out something important in there. I'd rather keep it a secret, so it can't be helped if questions start coming up because if that."

"Yeah. Sorry about that. I ended up getting too excited almost gave you away with that. It would really have been bad if they found out that you don't have the other two pieces. Anyway, thanks for even making it here. And I guess it is better like this. A fight like that wouldn't end well."

"Hm. I'm sure that if it came down to it, Fuji and Kiyoshi would really show up and go to the frontline. And if need be, I could get the other two parts from my student and nephew. I'd rather it not come to that but..."

"Well, either way, we should still be a bit wary of anything that may happen."

"Right." The track suit man stood up before stretching a bit. "I'm going to get going now. I've gotta be up early to get it my class."

"Yeah. Tell Shokubutsu I said hi."

"Right."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Denji Bakuto
> 
> All-Rounder, Captain
> 
> -21 Years Old
> 
> \- Born Aug. 27
> 
> \- Lupus, Blood Type O
> 
> \- Height: 6'6"
> 
> \- Likes: Coming up with nicknames, Tricking people, Gambling


	7. Mei Takato

"(Hey! Idiot-Shooter! Get your ass out here now! We're gonna be late for school!)"

Toby tapped his foot on the ground impatiently as he waited for Takeshi to open the door for the two of them to go to school.

Under normal circumstances he would have left without even bother to knock on the door next to his own. The amount of times that his grades and attendance had been called into question had always been because of his teammate and this time would not be any different.

The amount of patience he had to show was only due to Yuki telling the two of them to get along. They had ended up as classmates, teammates and neighbors by happenstance while their continued life of this was due to their captain.

That had been fine enough to where Toby would have no real complaints on the matter. The final nail in the coffin had been the fact that he could not wear his hat during school, along with any other accessories. It had been a rule that their school had implemented long ago and help to this day. Even if it did make someone like him seem more like a delinquent.

"Hey! If you don't get out here in the next minute then I'm leaving your ass here! I'm not about to get yelled at by Mr. Akasora again because you want to take your time!"

Having had enough of the waiting, Toby fixed his hat and knocked on the door one more time.

This time his knocking had seemed to get through as the door opened to show Takeshi fixing his scarf.

"It's about damn time. Why the hell do you take so long anyways? I make breakfast for you so you weren't cooking. You really have no reason to take so long when you actually don't do anything for yourself."

"Not that it's any of your business... I set my alarm just a little before you start banging on my door." Takeshi stifled a yawn that made him seem more cat-like than anything else. "I like to have as much sleep as I can get. Ihave to deal with people like you and that mutt after all. Getting enough sleep is always good if that's what my day brings."

"Why are you always so pissy? You never seem to enjoy anything. Just lighten up a little bit. I, sure that if you did that then you wouldn't be such a downer and people would like you more."

"I could ask you the same thing. Not that I particularly care, but why were you more mad than usual? Usually you don't bang on my door that harshly."

"Oh! It's because I have to deal with that shit woman later! You don't know how bad that's gonna be! The only good side is that I don't gave to deal with the other asshole as well."

"Yeah, yeah."

Toby clicked his tongue.

Due to having lived America and being familiar with most parts of it, Toby had been given the task of going back to his home country with others. The issue with that lied more with the people he would have to handle once getting over there instead of the ones he currently had to deal with.

"I still don't see the problem here. You will be getting to take a trip to your country with Kitora-san and some others. It's more like you're going on a vacation while the rest of us are stuck doing nothing particular over here."

"Everyone already knows that I work better with the rest of you than I do with others. You guys know better than anyone how my Side Effect works. That alone is enough to be a bit pissed. With others I just end up getting in the way for them. I can't even control where k end up at times..."

"You complain about the most idiotic things, I swear. Just be happy that you can stay out of school for a while. Besides, even with how you get in other people's ways, I'm sure someone like Kitora-san will be able to deal with you. She has up to this point after all."

"Tch. Yeah, well... That's neither here nor there. If not for that first week here, I wouldn't even have spoken to her. That uptight attitude and know-it-all look gets me irritated as much as anyone else. The only thing is that I've seen a different side of here before."

"I hate you."

Toby let out a squawking noise at the sudden statement from Takeshi.

The truth was obvious to the two of them, but neither one of them had come out and said something like that so bluntly.

Everything was made even worse when it was always hard to figure out if Takeshi was joking when the boy never changed his expression unless with their captain around. Even then it was only a small amount and almost unnoticeable.

"Hey, Tobio, you remember we have defense duty today, right?"

"Don't just call me a strange nickname after saying you hate me, Idiot-Shooter!"

Takeshi chose to ignore what he had said and continued to speak.

"Well, disregarding the teams we will be with, there's something else. Yuki-senpai had sent us a message saying that he can't join us today because he was no feeling well enough to get up."

Toby thought for a few seconds on if they really had gotten such a message.

Once he remembered that, the atmosphere around them started to grow a bit more solemn.

They had all been told about Yuki's condition when they had met him. Something they found out was that instead of getting better over time it seemed to get even worse.

They hated seeing the person that had helped the whole team before seeming to slowly deteriorate. What made it worse for them was the fact he would always smile through that pain as if nothing was wrong.

"We should go see him after we're done."

Takeshi responded with a nod.

Noticing something from the corner of his eye, Takeshi flicked his head to the side.

To neither of their surprise they saw Takato Mei carrying some boxes in her arms as if they were simple handbags.

The amount if strength that seemed to be needed to carry such boxes was being exerted from that single girl with little to no effort. It made the two of them feel ashamed that even if they were to ask her if she needed help that they would be rejected simply because they could not carry as much as her.

"Is it just me or is Mei too perfect?"

"...I don't know."

* * *

Mei let out a small sigh as she walked around the Border headquarters.

Having seen Toby and Takeshi while walking to her destination her mood was rather fine. The looks they had been giving her were ones that showed just what they thought of her and what they thought of themselves.

She had not meant to giving them the feeling of uselessness but that had turned into a sort of determination for them. If that had not been the case then she would have wasted no time in dropping the boxes in her arms to comfort them.

_This simply means that they are growing up. Good. That's a load off of me. Especially when Yuki can't get up for the day. It will be a bit difficult to manage those two wihout him, but I'm sure I can handle them myself._

Nodding to herself, Mei started to think about Yuki.

She thought of the reason as to why he could not even get out of bed for the day.

That single reason was because of his illness.

_That incurable illness. A clock that only leads to the end of everything for him. Yes. The reason for that is obvious. I am not so idiotic as to dismiss everything I know. Even if I think about it enough, nothing will change. Yes. The reason he can no longer-_

"Would you like some help with that?"

Mei had not noticed that she was frozen in place until that single voice broke through the darkness that only she could see.

When the vision in her eyes started to clear up, she could feel her eyes start to hurt. It was the pain from having her eyes move at a rapid pace to the point of not being able to see anything other than what could be considered a chain of ones and zeros.

Shaking her head a bit, she turned her head to look directly at Director Shinoda Masafumi.

Knowing that she would not be judged by this man, she lowered herself while letting the boxes go for a moment.

"Whoa there! You really do need help with these, don't you? Next time, make sure that there is someone else to help you. We can't have you falling to the ground when someone isn't looking."

"Thank you, Sir. And I'm sorry. There's no need to worry about me. It's just that it has been so long since I've had a cluster headache that I was caught off guard."

"That's not something people usually say, you know."

Director Shinoda spoke kindly to the girl while taking a box from the girl.

He let out a breath once it was in his arms, amazed by the amount of weight in the single box.

Seeing Mei pick up the other two with relative ease made something drop in his stomach.

"What do you mean when you say that you don't get those headaches anymore? Did it happen a lot before?"

"Yes. You can ask Minoru, Jin or even my parents. Due to my calculating, cluster headaches were an everyday thing. It continued on for so long that i had forgotten what it really felt like to not have them."

"Let me guess... You had out on a brave front in front of others so that they wouldn't have to worry about you. When did it get to the point of you not being able to hide it?"

"That's around the time Mirai wasn't around. It was too much... That was the point where I could not think properly anymore and could not focus properly. In the end, I had gained the strange nickname 'Rampage Dress' by others. That may or may not have followed me once joining Border."

"I see... That explains why we had gotten complaints all around that someone named Rampage Dress had been destroying so much. Some of us had honestly thought that it was some Neighbor going around."

"Oh... I remember that... My apologies."

"It's fine, it's fine. I looks on everyone's faces will be great once they know that it was you."

"I would rather keep that part of my past a secret... It really is embarrassing to even think about."

Director Shinoda chuckled at the rather meek response from the girl.

There was no hesitation in his choice to respect her by keeping the truth of "Rampage Dress" a secret from others.

"So, if you don't mind me asking, what stopped the cluster headaches? You clearly haven't been having them."

"Hm. You will think of me as a silly girl if I told you. It is rather pathetic when I really think about it. After all... I need to continue being strong for others. I must be 'perfect' for them all."

Director Shinoda knew that something should have been said against her words. Multiple things were wrong with what she had said, yet he could not bring himself to say anything against her. It felt far too wrong to take that from her.

That was why he stuck to their conversation.

"I would never think that about you. I've seen first hand just how you are. You being a 'silly girl' is like saying no one grows up."

"... Thank you, Shinoda-san."

"So, what exactly was it?"

"I was knocked out."

Director Shinoda stopped and blinked a few times.

"What?"

"Yes. That idiot had hit me and knocked me out. When I woke up I no longer had any headaches. It's strange but... Ever since that time, I have not had any more cluster headaches. Well... Until now that is."

"That guy..."

Mei let out a small laugh at the reaction she was getting.

They both knew exactly who she was talking about. The fact that he would do that again to help her out was enough to humor her since only a few people would view that as assistance of any kind.

Shaking his head, Director Shinoda let out a sigh of resignation.

"I seriously need to tell Chishi to keep better track of his students. Something like that really shouldn't happen."

"Yes, well... That was back then. We both oniw that he is far different than before. Even if he doesn't see it like that."

"I suppose so. Speaking of which..."

Director Shinoda looked down at the box in his arms.

The contents of said box were no secret to him.

"If you don't mind me asking, were you planning on looking through these again for nostalgic reasons? It doesn't seem like something 'you' would do, but I could be wrong."

"I guess you could say that. I really just brought them over for reference, but I guess I still have a slight attachment to them." Mei looked at the box with a slightly sad expression. "I haven't used it in a while... I suppose as long as _that woman_ doesn't come back I won't have a reason to use it."

"Is that so?"

"Don't get me wrong, Sir. It's not like I'd don't enjoy those times. I am still very thankful for all the help you and Sensei gave. It's just that... It brings up memories of _that woman_ and some other things."

"You two really have grown. Both of you want to bury that time to hide it from the others, yet you keep it close enough to the surface for you to reach it." Shinoda got a wayward look as he continued on saying, "You two were such a handful back then. I was really sure that Chishi would bite one of your heads off before long."

"Yes, well, with what Sensei has told me about what you two have done in past... I'm shocked Kido-san didn't bite _your_ head off."

Director Shinoda let out a howl of laughter.

It was true that he did certain things that made what Mei had done before seem like nothing. He was rather glad that they had made it to their destination before anything else was brought up.

The two stopped in front of a room and Mei took her box back.

"Thank you for helping me, Sir. I'm sorry to have taken your time."

"You sound like Yuki. I'm the one who offer to help you, so it's no problem."

Director Shinoda gave a kind smile.

"Well, try not to over work yourself."

Just as he was about to turn and leave, Shinoda stopped and looked at Mei again.

"By any chance, did Yuki tell you the conditions he requested in our talk?"

"Conditions?"

Mei narrowed her eyes and let out a sigh.

She knew that nothing would end up being easy when her captain was involved.

"No, Sir. He didn't tell me anything concerning your talk."

* * *

"...- do you remember-..."

"...-did you see-..."

"Uwah~ It's The Blooming Princess~ Hello!"

As the talking continued on in the classroom, Toby and Takeshi waited for their class to start.

During this time, their class had gathered into groups to converse with each other and ignore others altogether. An example of this was the group that consisted of Taiyōko Hoshi, Kotowari Takeshi and Toby Awdry.

Taiyōko Hoshi was a girl that gave off the feeling of a princess with her straight black hair that covered her right eye, slender figure, and overall beauty as a female. She wore the school uniform like everyone else, but seemed to make it stand out more than other. This had earned her a few names like "Blooming Princess", "Beautiful Princess" and just "Princess" from most of the students.

The group of three had started conversation and ended up moving to some particular topics.

"Yeah, Border's Enlistment Day feels a bit bigger now than when we had to deal with it. Maybe that's just because two of Tamakoma's people are trying to get in."

"I remember when we tried. Kotowari-kun did splendidly. I was at least passable."

"Don't say that. I actually thought you were great when you went up."

Those two quickly got off the topic of the enlistment day while a male student who had brown hair and a short stature, pouted as he walked up to the trio.

"How come no one enjoys seeing me then? I did better than Kotowari-senpai, and I'm even missing my team. Why can't I get any love from a great audience? Hey, Toby, at least _try_ to pay attention to me!"

Toby jumped at being singled out.

"E-ehhh? Sorry, Shun. I'm busy thinking about something else." Seeing the questioning gaze Toby continued. "I have to go back to America for a bit. I need to check on some stuff over there that'll be really annoying. What sucks about the whole thing is that I'll have to meet up with my mom when I'm over there and... Well, (she's a bitch.)"

"Huh!? You're going to America!? Let's get to that first! Just you!? Will you be back soon!?"

"It shouldn't take too long. I'll actually be back before Enlistment Day. That's actually another thing that sucks. I'll have some major jet lag when I get back."

"Just you though?"

"No. There are actually a few people tagging along. All of Shay's team is going. Noah is as well. I think some others like Ninomiya Squad, for 100% security, and Ai, to 'give Arashiyama Squad more appeal around the world'... Or something like that."

"Hey... Do you think I could go...?"

The three older ones turned to Midorikawa.

"I mean, it's not like my team is ready to do much, so I'm sure I'll be able to go. Think about it like this; If Toby asks for me to tag along then it shouldn't be a problem! I'm an A-Rank, so that means he can say I'm there for 150% security!"

"Why do you even want to go? A mutt like you doesn't even know anything other than Japanese. Not to mention New York is much more different than the countryside. You would end up getting lost and needing the police's help to get anywhere."

"I know that! But if I'm just there as a bodyguard then I don't need to know any other language! And besides, I prefer the city more than the countryside!"

Toby let out a small sigh as he absentmindedly scribbled something on his paper.

"I suppose I could try to get you to tag along."

"Yes! That means all of the Dog Trio is going to America!"

"Dog Trio indeed..."

Hoshi gave a kind smile and ignored Takeshi's small comment. She was always happy to see others happy, so this all felt nice to her.

It was at that time that the bell rang for the start of class.

Midorikawa seemed to freak out a bit and quickly ran out of the room like he was being chased by the devil.

The other three just waited for their teacher to come into the room.

"Good morning, class. Hope you're all ready for yet another wonderfulday of class," the teacher said as he walked into the room.

Nothing particular stood out from the man who stood in front of his class. The only notable thing was his tracksuit that had the sleeves rolled up.

"Sensei, Toby and I have defense duty later on," Takeshi said with his arm raised.

"Alright. You two can leave during lunch time."

"Hm. I don't get why they get special treatment. Their team can't do anything without their leader and even he's such a loser that he can't even deal with a small sickness."

Before the teacher could even reprehend the person who spoken out, a loud slamming sound was heard throughout the classroom.

"(You damn ass! Don't talk about our captain like that unless you want me to hit you!)"

"(Awdry! Watch what you say!)" the teacher yelled, making Toby glare at him before sitting back down. "And Inushiba, you should have more respect. I've met their captain before and not only is he an A-Rank, he is actually able to keep those two pests in the back in line. Although your Operator should also be good at that."

The rest of the class were giggling while the two "pests" just muttered stuff under their breath.

"Hm. Meeting that loser once doesn't mean anything. I've met him before and he doesn't look like much. And their Operator isn't any better. She doesn't even seem like much at all."

"Oh? Alright class, let me give you all some important information. Do not follow Inushiba's lead here. That girl... Do not get on Awdry and Kotowari's Operator's bad side. I know first hand just how frightening she can be."

"Still nothing but a weak woman."

Seeing that both Toby and Takeshi were about to react to this comment, Hoshi raised her hand to asked, "Akasora-sensei, how did you meet him? Were you in Border before?"

"Hm? Oh. Yeah. I left about a year ago. I was - and still am - pretty close to Masafumi... Oh. I mean Director Shinoda."

_That explains how he met Yuki._

"Akasora-sensei, can you tell us more about when you were in Border?"

"Well...I guess I could tell you guys some stories."

* * *

"He really is an idiot. Why did he have to say something like that."

All around a single part of Border spot were open to sit down. Every agent who walked near the area had fled from the area, fearing the worst may happen if they got close to the animal who had taken refuge in one of the booths.

Takato Mei knew that others were stay away from her due to her current attitude.

It was an obvious fact that no one wanted to go near her after she had been told about what Director Shinoda and Tsukiko Yuki had conversed about.

Everything that had been explained to her had been pushed aside for the sake of getting her work done as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Now that she was on a break she could feel her irritation grow the more she thought about it all.

"Honestly..."

Letting loose a dragged out sigh, she pulled out three stacks of papers before starting to look through them. She pulled out some and put the rest away.

"Whoa. It's not every day you see the great Takato Mei-sama looking ready to kill someone. Something the matter?"

Mei did not move her head, or even look in the direction of the voice, but knew exactly who it belonged too.

"You mind if we sit here?"

"Go ahead. It's not like you would leave if I told you too."

"Pardon us," Kodera said as he sat down next to Yoneya.

Mei knew that they were looking at her while she looked over the papers in her hands.

Thinking that they would not ask about said papers, she spoke up without looking at either one.

"These are for something involving the biggest idiot I know." She looked up from the papers and looked at the glasses wearing boy with an indifferent expression. "By the way, Kodera-kun, Suzume said to tell you she's sorry for shooting you like that before."

"Heh heh heh... It's fine," Kodera said with a sheepish look. "I was just shocked since I didn't really see it coming."

"Yeah, well, if you saw it coming then it wouldn't be an effective Stinger for her."

"Now that I think about it, Narasaka-senpai said something kinda like that as well."

"Oh yeah, he seemed pretty pissed since he had to Bail Out because of her. He really does hate her a lot, doesn't he? I guess that's to be expected. He is one of the Snipers who hates her style."

"I've only really seen her in practice, but I've heard multiple Snipers say they hate her style while others seem to be fine with it. Why is that?"

"It's because she can handle herself in a one-on-one fight with no problem."

Mei did not need to look to know that the boy was even more confused than before.

"What she means is that Suzume-chan is a Sniper who doesn't actually need to hide after firing a shot. She fires using Lightning, and that usually does her opponents in quickly, but if it doesn't then she wraps a Scorpion around her finger and uses Teleport to deliver a fatal blow to them. That's not mentioning her Side Effect."

"I didn't know that. To tell you the truth, I have never actually seen her in a fight. Even with your team, Takato-san. But wait, couldn't people just use Shield to block the Lightning attack?"

"They could try, but it would fail. Unlike when most Snipers who fire a shot using Lightning, she has a special way of timing that others can't usually keep up with. It's pretty hard to get the timing right when it comes to her. On the other side, if you know she's going to shoot at you, you can dodge the shot. But that style, coupled with her Side Effect, is pretty tricky to get away from."

"That's not the real reason they hate her though. It's for a much simpler reason. Although, you should see it for yourself before making any decisions."

"Hm... Well, if that's the case then I won't push the matter." Kodera looked up to see a grateful look on Mei's face and could not help but blush a little bit. "But I am wondering where she got the idea to use Scorpion like that."

"Oh, I had asked her that before and she said she got it from some manga she read. She said the weapon the character used was called 'Suzumebachi, so she took an instant liking to it. Also, the character was some kind of ninja or something, so that is probably where her sniping comes from."

"I would expect as much from her..."

Yoneya nodded, understanding just how odd all of that was.

"Hey, she's not the only special one on that team. I don't know if you knew this but the whole Tsukiko Squad has some crazy talents with their respective positions. Even Mei-san here has some crazy ability," Yoneya said, pointing at Mei. "She may be an Operator but, apparently, she has a crazy Side Effect and that's why she always seems to be busy. Isn't that right, Mei-san?"

"I don't know what you're going on about. I keep myself busy because, while Yuki-kun is stuck in bed, I have to make sure certain things involving his team get done."

"Really? That's odd. I've been hearing a rumor going around that you use to be a Combatant. Was on a team and everything. They all say that you were with Kanzaki-san, Kimura-chan and someone else."

"Well, wherever you heard that must be filled with fools. I'm only associated with Border because Yuki-kun asked me to be his Operator. Before that I was simply a regular school girl."

"If you say so."

Mei turned her attention away from her papers to glare daggers at Yoneya.

Both Yoneya and Kodera froze when they saw the look being directed towards the Attacker.

It gave them a real reason as to why every other agent had decided that it was a better choice to walk away than to try and sit near this dangerous beast who sat alone.

The two of them could feel their hearts start to race as they were stared down by the eyes of someone ready to destroy them for simply existing. As if they were truly helpless in front if this single girl who continued to insist that she was nothing more than a regular girl.

"Now, now, you two. It's best to leave Rampage Dress alone. If you don't then you'll really be in trouble~"

Their saving grace came in the form of Jin Yūichi, Tamakoma's Elite Agent.

The two Miwa Squad members managed to turn their heads to see Jin looking down at them with a grin. As if he was unaware of the danger that was only a foot away from the three of them.

"Would you two mind? I need to talk to Mei about some stuff and I'd rather not have anyone else listening in on us."

Taking that as a perfect chance to escape danger, Yoneya and Kodera rushed to get up and leave. This happened after saying their farewells to Mei.

Letting out a sigh for what felt like the tenth time that day, Mei gathered her papers before moving them to the side.

Her attention was only on Jin.

* * *

Mei ate some lunch in a local burger shop with Jin, a combat member of Tamakoma.

"...What is this?"

"It's the new salsa burger meal. Ugh, they tried too hard to make it unique and ended up making the flavor way too strong. And it's spicy! I can see why the standard large burger never stops being the best seller."

"That's not what I meant, you fool. I. Am. Busy. There's something wrong with us eating together like this."

"What? Is it that odd for us to have a bit of a chat? You wanted to talk about this and that. I'm just using some free time to do so at the moment. Besides, isn't this a better break than what was going on for you?"

"You're making fun of me."

"That's why I tried to get you on one of your better days, you know."

"Sadly, I do know."

"Even so, there is still stuff I generally want to talk about. Think of it like trading notes. You know that we both work best when we work off of each other. It creates a nice oath for all of us to follow without having to worry about different oaths becoming options for a Dead End. Why do you think the directors are so wary of the two of us really talking through things when they don't know?"

"...I hate when you make as much sense as you do right now. By the way, you had mentioned 'Rampage Dress' after so long. Tell me why that is."

"Well, I had ended up speaking with Director Shinida earlier today. I just wanted to inform him of the fact that we would be speaking with each other today. He had been fine enough until I heard him mutter that nickname under his breath."

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh! Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinoooooooooooooodaaaaaaaaaaaa-saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!"

Jin gave a cheerful smile as Mei gave a dark glare into the air.

"Don't worry about it. With the life you live, you can't afford to get embarrassed over every little thing like that."

"You are just picking a fight at this point."

"In a way, I suppose I am," said Jin as he lightly shook his brown hair. "But this kind of fight is different that what you are thinking of. For now, I should tell you about what you always want to know since that one day. It's only fair that I do so."

"..."

"C'mon, eat. Don't just sit there. I'm paying, so you might as well eat as much as you can, right?"

Jim must have not liked spicy foods because he seemed to give his tongue a rest with a bite of salad or sip of soda between each bite of the salsa burger. Since he did not seem to like that kind of food, he may have been won over by the temptation of ordering a new item on the menu.

Mei grabbed the wrapper for her hamburger while making sure not to get any red sauce on her fingers.

"...So something major is coming up soon. A declaration of war may be the easiest answer."

"This would be a lot simpler if that was the case. Even without doing that, the situation here is tangled up in a complicated mess. Basically, I want to clean up that mess before getting to the real issue at hand."

"What you mean by that..."

"Yuki."

Jin spoke a single name.

With that name spoken, Mei sat up with more of a refined look.

"Anyway, I wanted to start off by telling you that tomorrow will be an interesting day. Yuki still wint be feeling too well, but he's still going to get out. He's going to head over to Tamakoma again, but I'd rather you let him do that. There's something that he needs to figure out, and I want to see where that leads."

"Sorry, but that won't be happening. I know it's selfish, but I can't just let him do things like that when he isn't feeling well."

"Even if you say that, it will happen. I'm going to be a bit selfish myself and make sure that it does happen. I have my own kouhai to look after as well."

"..."

"Don't glare at me like that. I know that I am the cause of this. But this is more for the future of us all than just for those few. Yuki is included in this as it will also help him out in the long run. If everything goes down the right path that is. There are so many that could be considered 'good' so either way, it works out. That's what my Side Effect tells me."

He was no longer referring only to Yuki. The last part meant that even with some mistakes the end result would be something desirable and would not require her.

And even Mei was not so sure he was wrong.

If everything could end up well enough without her then what reason would she have to mess it all up. It was a choice of simply doing nothing or doing something.

"Now, let's talk about Yuki some more. Let's talk about that man who can cause you to start acting like this," said Jin as he put ketchup on a nugget. "He isn't the only factor in this. Even if he goes, there are still other factors in this all."

"I figured."

"If I were to compare the future to a tree then I will say that each separate future is like a branch on the tree. If we follow one branch then we would come to a split at some point. That is where I help to guide everyone towards the better choice. But then there were certain futures that were simply dead ends. Certain futures are unavoidable no matter what I actually do. It's as if all the branches of the tree are cut off except for that single one. At that point I can't do anything about it and have to deal with it like everyone else."

A sort of time lock.

Mei felt an ominous feeling in her chest when she thought of it.

Those times were rare and few between. When they happened it was usually either a major event that effected multiple people or a small even that would not even be good enough to record. The fact of the matter was that it was going to happen regardless of anything else that goes on.

But this was no time to get caught up over that.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Whoa. You asked a question! Well, I guess I should answer. What if I told you one is coming up?" asked Jin in a calm tone. He threw a nugget in his mouth and continued, "I can't actually tell when it happens until it does, but I always get the weirdest feels whenever it does happen. Simply put, I get the feeling that one of these locks is coming really soon and I want everyone to be ready for it. Even if you want to be selfish, I will counter that by being selfish myself." Jin licked ketchup and grease from his fingertips before continuing in a lower tone. "So this is really just a matter of whether you want things to go smoothly or cause some low tier issues later on. I'm not trying to out any pressure on you, but something like this is better off happening. To others it isn't much of a problem, but we both know that something comes up when it comes to Yuki."

"..."

"Well I suppose I'll leave that as some food for thought. It's not really my place to make either one of you do anything you don't want to do. I'm just trying to-"

"Fine. I won't stop him from going. I'm not completely sure as to what you see but I trust you enough to go along with it. I'll leave it up to you and that's that."

Jin smiled at the girl who was trying to keep her emotions down.

This was exactly what his Side Effect had told him.


	8. Yuki Tsukiko: Part 3

For the past five minutes, he had been going over everything and found new mistakes he had made throughout the day so far. It was all he could really do at a time like this and he didn't even want to try to speak with the person near him.

"They are taking too long. Are you sure you messaged the right people?"

"It's not like I want to be here with you either, so please do be quiet and wait."

"Well, unlike you, I actually have stuff to do today, so I would like to get out as quickly as possible."

"This coming from an airhead. I do feel kinda insulted by it."

"Airhead..."

Although he could not see it properly, Tsukiko Yuki could easily tell that Ninomiya's eye was twitching violently a small ways away from him. He knew exactly what to say to mess with the older male and relished in the fact that he could easily seem calm under any insults thrown at him.

"Isn't it your fault we're stuck in here, Faker?" Ninomiya asked with an irritated tone.

He didn't much enjoy the other's company.

"If you didn't get in my way then we wouldn't be here. By the way, if you're complaining so much, where is yourphone?"

"That is none of your business."

"You forgot it, didn't you?"

"..."

"Thought so."

"At least I make sure mine is fully charged instead of having a few percent left."

"That doesn't matter when you don't even take it with you. How Minoru and Haru deal with you is something I'll never understand... Beyond them, I just feel back for Tsuji and Hiyami."

"You say that but we both know that you are lying. That's all you can ever do after all. I guess you really can never change after all."

The two fell back into awkward silence as they both thought of how long they had been in the small supply closet and when they would be getting out.

The two had disliked each other from the moment they met. After a certain incident the two came to completely hate each other with every fiber of their being. Others had tried multiple times to get the two to make up with each other, or at least tolerate each other, but they were always met with failure.

These two were far too stubborn to even consider getting along.

Neither cared for the other's company and neither wanted to be around the other.

"I think I heard voices over here!"

"This is around where he said they are, so it's probably them!"

The two perked up when they heard muffled voices from the other side of the door. They sprung up and started yelling. Well, only Yuki was yelling. Ninomiya just knocked on the door stating that, "I am not going to yell like this Faker."

Yuki really thought about using his enemy's head as a knocker, but let it slide since Ninomiya probably wanted to yell too.

After another minute or two the door was unlocked and the two that were previously stuck in the closet saw both Nasu Squad and Kuruma Squad standing before them.

"Thanks guys. I'm glad you were able to find us," Yuki said with a sigh of relief.

"We wouldn't have been in that situation if you were more careful. Try not to cause trouble for other like that again."

"Don't get in my way next time, Airhead."

The seven people watched as Ninomiya took his leave down the hall. They could see that his fists were clearly clenched as he walked away.

Yuki relished in the fact that he knew he was the one who had caused the former A-Rank to act like that.

"You two really don't like each other, huh?" Kuruma asked, turning to Yuki.

"I'll give him credit for leading and fighting, but his personality is the thing I don't like about him," Yuki answered as he crossed his arms. He left out a sigh and looked at all of them. "Anyways. Again, thanks. How about I pay for lunch?"

"Sure. But don't worry, we can pay for ourselves."

"So how did you two even end up in there?"

"Yeah! You were speaking pretty fast on the phone and it took a few seconds to understand what you said."

Hiura had been the one he called since she was the last person he messaged. It was true that he had been speaking way too fast for someone to actually understand, but the was for a good reason. He still felt a bit about it.

"Ah. Sorry about that. My phone was dying and Airhead forgot his. As for how it happened... I'd rather not say. To put it shortly; there was running on my part, being a roadblock on his part and misplacement on a bucket's part."

The two teams did not know what to say, so they said nothing. They could imagine the whole incident in their heads and were not too sure if they wanted to continue it.

Not caring about their odd expressions, Yuki looked at two teams and got a small smirk on his face.

"Not that I mind, but why did you bring Kuruma Squad along?"

"They were over in this area and we asked them for help," Nasu answered, not seeming to get why the other was smirking.

That was something she couldn't really get when it came to Yuki. They had met before in the hospital, but even to this day she could not understand why a smirk like that seemed to fit on his face so well.

This time was no different.

"Oh~? Why do I feel like there was a different reason?"

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing much." Yuki shrugged with a smug look on his face. "I'm just wondering what Suzu-chan would do if I told here you six were together the whole time."

"You wouldn't dare."

"Maybe I would~~ Maybe I wouldn't~~"

While three of the six seemed to go a bit red at this, Murakami turned to Yuki with a knowing look.

"Then I wonder what she would say if we were to tell her that you were in a supply closet with someone else."

"Touché."

* * *

The two teams couldn't help but feel like they were looking at a little kid that seem to have just been told that he could get anything in the world and it appeared in front of them.

The scene wasn't too far off.

"Mmm~~~ So good~~~"

They watched as Yuki took another spoonful of ice-cream in his mouth with a satisfied smile. They could have sworn they saw sparkles around his head.

He and Hiura had often been put together with Hanzaki and called the Ice Cream Trio. The oldest would usually offer to buy them all ice cream, but he would always be the one to last the longest and never manage to get a brain freeze.

"You really like ice cream, don't you, Tsukiko?"

"His whole team says he has an addiction. I can actually attest to that. He hadn't actually had any ice cream when I first met him, so I had taken him to get some and he got addicted immediately. He would always ask 'Hey, when are you going back?' He really looked like a kid."

"It's not an addiction! I just like ice-cream...a lot. And there's no need to tell that story, Kō!"

"So an addiction."

"Say what you want, but the truth is that it's not an addiction."

"Senpai has even agreed, meaning you lose right away with the verdict being unanimous."

"The verdict hasn't been made until I prove you both wrong. An addiction is not the way to describe my love for ice cream. I simply enjoy ice cream with its many flavors to their fullest extent and will not pass up the opportunity to have any."

"So you're an addict."

"I don't want to hear this from the guy who's been copying the copycat's Poor Man Lunch meal."

"I've been wondering something," Kumagai said, interrupting the two from continuing on. "Since when were you two so close?"

"Actually, I was wondering that as well. I hardly see you two around each other."

"That's because he's either at home or dealing with his team since Kotowari joined," Murakami answered back nonchalantly. "I'm sure you've hardly seen him without any of them. This is actually a rare treat. We are classmates though, so we do hang out."

"Yeah, well, someone needs to keep them in line."

What the two 18-year-olds were saying was correct. While the two weren't seen much together at the base, they would hang out quite frequently and had known each other for a while.

"Woof! Woof!"

Before the group could continue on with any discussions, they looked over to see a Samoyed puppy run by happily as other agents just gave questioning looks. None of them had expected to see that and simply looked at each other. They all knew who the dog belonged too which made it a bit odd to see him running around by himself.

None of them really said anything about the dog until Inukai ran by, asking if they had seen said pup go by. After pointing to the correct direction, Inukai ran off yelling the dog's name.

"Well, I better go help. Taka seems a bit too hyper at the moment for Inu to do this by himself. I'll see you guys around."

.

After getting up, Yuki walked over to buy a bag of plain cookies. He didn't open them and just started walking around.

He could see other agents making small remarks about "the dog that just passed by" and so followed the trail.

_Let's see. Even if he's a dog, he would still have it's own tastes. That being said..._

Yuki had a bag in his hand as he walked in the direction the dog and man ran. He could hear fast footsteps with Inukai's yelling. He shook the bag in his hand and smiled when he heard the small patting sounds of little feet making their way towards him.

The dog turned the corner and ran towards him as a fast pace before stopping in front of him in a sitting position.

Leaning down, Yuki picked up the dog and opened the bag before giving a piece to the dog.

"You got him... Thanks for that, Yuki. I was watching over this little guy before he ran off."

"Sure thing. The fact you let him 'escape' is something though." Yuki just pet the dog as he munched on his treat. "Let me guess, you were distracted by Shiro?"

"Hey! Shiro-chan was cheating! He was looking so cute in his glasses that I didn't know what to do besides take pictures! What's more is that he was munching on a macaroon with this adorable and innocent face that it was actually blinding me!"

"Alright, alright. I get it. It's just a good thing nothing happened to Taka. Although, he's a smart dog, so he'd be fine."

"You can say that again."

The two laughed while the dog munched on the plain cookie.

The sounds of footsteps got closer to the three as they laughed.

"What are you three doing in this area?"

Taka jumped from Yuki's arms and ran down the hall as the two humans turned to see Hatohara Minoru walking up to them. He had a questioning look, but didn't seem particularly mad.

"Oh, hey, Mino. Taka kinda ran away when I wasn't looking and Yuki here helped to get him."

"Really? Thanks for that, Loki."

"It was no problem. I just used a simple trick and gave a small cookie to snack on. Don't worry though, the cookie was a simple one that pretty much anything could eat," Yuki said with a smile. "Although I wouldn't say letting this guy watch over him with Shiro around would be a good thing."

"Yeah, I know. I think it would be better to train Haru-chan than it would Taka."

"I gave up on that already. He's pretty much a lost cause at this point."

"Hey!"

"Hahaha!"

The three friends started to walk off as they continued to talk and give some plain cookies to Taka. They talked about the event that had happened to Yuki and the closet earlier, resulting in Inukai getting a (hard) punch to the shoulder from Yuki. Apparently Minoru already knew from talking to Ninomiya earlier.

Yuki mentally kicked himself once he remembered how everything went down. He still didn't like the fact he fell for a simple trick.

"Hey! Since you seem to be having one of your better days today, why not have a match with Mino?"

Yuki and Minoru turned to their friend and gave questioning looks. The two had to wonder where he got that idea from. Neither of them were against the idea though.

"I don't see a problem with that," Minoru said with a shrug. "Now that I think about actually... We've never actually had an actual match before, have we?"

"You're right. That seems rather odd since we've both fought along side each other before. It's usually just us testing some things out. How does best two out of three sound?"

"Sounds fine to me."

"This'll be a good fight to watch," Inukai said excitedly. "Two strong A-Ranks with almost different fighting styles. Not to mention you're both All-Rounders."

"Alright, alright. Calm down now. It's just a simple match. Nothing to get super hyped about."

Yuki was glad to see his friend really happy, so he didn't mention that it actually wasn'tone of his better days.

"Anyways... Why don't we get started then?"

* * *

_"At least this'll be a 'fair' fight. It's not like we don't know each other's fighting styles."_

"True. Maybe we can start keeping score."

The two ended their little conversation as they both got ready for the fight.

When they had made their way to the booths they had seen a small crowd gathering, but trying not to be obvious. They could tell they were currently the main attraction at the moment and didn't feel like losing with a crowd like that.

Taka had to stay down with Inukai as the two got front row seats by the screen to watch the fight happen. The two seemed excited to see how the match would end up and were basically bouncing in their seat when the two were going into the booths.

_Well, I guess it's time to start then..._

* * *

The two stood in front of each other while buildings surrounded them. It looked like a mix between an urban area as well as a construction site with multiple unfinished buildings. There had been no set conditions, so it was pretty clear around them.

Neither paid much attention to the buildings though and simply got ready for the fight as the timer counted down.

Yuki pulled out his Kōgetsu and got ready to strike.

Minoru got in a fighting stance with no obvious Triggers out.

As the horn went off, Minoru disappeared, revealing one of his Triggers to be Chameleon.

Yuki looked around the area as he moved from offensive to defensive. He tried to figure out where Minoru would strike from and go from there.

'Chameleon is always always a hassle to get around, so the obvious answer would be...'

Nodding to himself, Yuki jumped into the air as a cube of Trion appeared in hand. The cube split up into smaller cubes and sped towards the ground before exploding and sending dust into the air.

He wasn't as trigger happy as Denji or Izumi, so he just used it to kick up the surrounding smoke and dust.

He saw some movement in the smoke and got his blade ready as he fell.

He tried to strike at the spot he figured Minoru was at and was met with two Scorpions being held by his opponent.

"Nice trick there. Although... You got that from Denji."

"This _is_ a fight, let's not talk much while we're here, okay?"

"You're right..."

Yuki jumped back just in time to dodge a kick from Minoru. He saw a Scorpion coming from the other's foot and looked as if he was examine the whole movement.

Minoru put a plate on the ground and used the Grasshopper Trigger to speed towards Yuki. Seeing that the other was ready for the attack, he put three more around Yuki and used them to get behind his opponent.

He was shocked and quickly blocked the multiple blades coming from Yuki's back. He hopped back when he noticed that he did get small injuries from the attack, but nothing too major.

Yuki turned around and ran towards Minoru, but stopped when his opponent disappeared again. He figured the same trick wouldn't work twice on Minoru, so he just jumped onto one of the buildings as he thought of his next plan of action.

That didn't last long though as Minoru was right behind him, aiming a kick to the head.

Yuki brought his arms up to block, but was shocked when there was no blade coming from his foot.

Using the chance to his benefit, Minoru brought out a Scorpion and easily cut off one of Yuki's arms.

* * *

"Go Mino! Go Yuki! Go Mino! Go Yuki!" Inukai did his little cheering while he lifted Taka's paw each time he said a name. "This is only round 1 and they seem to really be going at it, huh, Taka?"

"Woof woof!"

"I'm glad I suggested this then."

"Oh ho. Of course it was you who suggested this."

Inukai started swearing and slowly turned around to see Mei looking down at him with her arms crossed and death radiating off of her. He, like most, knew not to mess with her, so seeing her like this up close could only mean that he should be fearing for his life.

Which he was.

"O-oh... Rampa-"

"Inukai... Explain why Yuki and Minoru are fighting right now?"

The image of a terrifying girl from a year ago came to mind.

"W-well... Because I suggested they have a fight..."

"I see..."

"So-"

The sound of a heavy fist hitting a head was heard in the area.

"Ow, ow, ow..."

Inukai rubbed his head as he felt a good sized bump starting to form from the heavy punch that had just hit him. He looked down to see Taka looking at him as if worried about him.

Mei on the other hand turned her attention to the screen just in time to see Yuki Bail Out. She let out a sigh and took a seat next to Inukai. She herself had met Minoru before and knew his fighting style. So she already knew how this would all end.

"You were curious as to who was stronger between the two of them. Those two have never fought in a match before, so I suppose anyone would question which is stronger."

"Yeah. It's nice to know that neither will hold it against each other in the end though. Granted, not to many _do_ do that. But now that I think about it... I'm more curious as to who would win between Minoru and 'the walking corpse'."

"... Do you really want the answer or do you want to see it?"

"I'd rather see it for myself, thanks. Either way, this is the current fight that going-"

"Tie."

"Huh?"

"This whole thing will end up in a tie."

Inukai turned from the girl to the screen just in time to see bullets get shot at Yuki and weights appear on his jacket.

"You could have told me 'Spoilers'!"

* * *

Yuki was able to use his jacket as bait for the Lead Bullets that hit. He teleported above Minoru and used the weight from his weighed down jacket to try and hit his opponent.

Seeing the attack coming, Minoru dodged to the side. He glanced at the small cracked cement from the jacket before trying for a kick with a Scorpion sticking out.

Yuki saw the attack coming and balanced himself on the opposing leg before using his own to deliver a solid kick to Minoru's face, sending him back a little.

Not wasting a moment, Yuki ran forward with Kōgetsu at the ready. He was quicker than his opponent at this moment and was able to take a leg.

"One! Two!"

He switched the arm he used to cut the leg off and got the opposite arm before jumping back from a Scorpion aiming for his head.

"Viper!"

"Meteora."

Cubes of Trion appeared by both of them and clashed with each other as they flew around the area, leaving streaks of green in the air. Mixing in with the streaks of green in the air were explosions that make smoke and dust cover the area.

Minoru tried to see through the smoke and moved to the side as a few Meteora sped past him. He went wide eyed when he felt someone behind him and turned just in time to get his head cut off.

**Hatohara Bail Out.**

* * *

_That attack... I couldn't react quick enough... His movement also changed at the last moment..._

Minoru could start to see what others meant when they said that it was always odd when fighting Yuki.

_"Looks like it's a tie, huh?"_

Minoru got up and went to the monitor when he heard Yuki's voice.

"Yeah. Ready for round 3?"

_"Yup. I really wouldn't expect anything less from you."_

Minoru got a smile on his face as he stood up straight.

"Same. So, what do you say we start this fight already, Loki?"

_"Yeah. Let's give everyone a good show, 'kay?"_

* * *

The two beamed in front of each other. They both wore smiles on their faces. But these smiles were different from their regular ones. This one was a smile of a person ready to go wild.

Yuki pulled out his Kōgetsu, but held it in a reverse grip.

Minoru got in a fighting stance, ready to bring out a blade at any moment.

"..."

"..."

In an instant the two were right in front of each other with Kōgetsu at Minoru's neck and a Scorpion at Yuki's.

The two jumped back as cubes of Trion appeared by them.

"Viper!"

The two ran towards each other as the shots were fired. They met in the middle and weaved through each Viper shot and each other's attacks with such ease that someone would think they had fought dozens, if not hundreds of times before.

"Meteora!"

A cube of Trion appeared above their heads before firing off smaller cubes to the ground, causing explosions all around.

Not backing down, Minoru lifted his leg and was able to kick Kōgetsu out of Yuki's hand and send it flying up on the air. He took his opponent's moment of being unguarded to try and land a kick with a Scorpion sticking out, but quickly used Grasshopper to go into the air before getting skewered by the multiple blades coming from Yuki's chest.

Using the momentum of his fall, Minoru tried a drop kick, but instead of aiming for Yuki himself, he tricked the other by landing just behind the new A-Rank and landing a Scorpion-Kick to his side.

When all the smoke cleared, Yuki stood up and dusted himself off with no visible injuries. He saw Kōgetsu finally hit the ground and stab into the ground.

What had happened was that just before impact, Yuki had used Teleport to dodge the attack.

"Such little time and this fight is really great."

"Agreed. I'm having a good time with this."

"That being said..."

Yuki put a hand under the hair covering his left eye and put it behind his ear.

"No hard feelings if I spice things up."

"I just hope you add enough spice."

Minoru got back into a stance.

"Now let's continue. Stealth on."

Yuki got in his own stance as he looked around the area. He thought of using Meteora to bomb the area again, but figured that would just use up Trion.

"!"

Yuki lurched forward as something slammed into him from behind. He got another hit from his side. These attacks continued as he tried to predict where the hits would come from.

_That's right... He doesn't need any other Triggers since hand-to-hand combat is up his alley... Alright then..._

Closing his eyes for a moment, Yuki focused on the small amount of space around him before opening his eyes. Multiple blades come from his body. He felt a small amount of pressure on some of the blades and quickly turned with a single Scorpion in hand. He slashed at the air and jumped back in time for Minoru to appear again and try to attack.

_I guess using those instincts would be my best bet here..._

Minoru used Grasshopper and rushed at Yuki.

Just before reaching Yuki, he slammed his foot on the ground and spun on it to slam his heel on Yuki's side, but noticed that a Shield was up. Thinking quickly, he switched feet and was able to kick Yuki's feet out, sending him to the ground with a thud.

Minoru raised a Scorpion over his head.

"!?"

Monoru went wide and moved to the side as Yuki lay on the ground with a Lightning in hand.

_He doesn't usually have a sniping Trigger in his slots..._

"You already know, my squad it very... _unique_ when it comes to fighting," Yuki said as he stood up. "Of course I would know everything about their fighting styles, so..."

He brought a Scorpion out, but only around his middle finger.

"You're basically fighting my whole squad."

"Loki is such a befitting name for you..."

The two ran forward once again with Vipers flying around again. They traded blows from a Stinger in the arm to a Scorpion taking a leg. A punch to the stomach to a kick to the side. A shot to the face to a Lead Bullet to the foot.

For most watching it would be hard to know what you should be watching in the fight.

"!

The Lightning broke apart.

"..."

Weights fell to the ground.

"...!"

Trion leaked from multiple areas.

This wasn't a simple fight for training or even one of rivals going at it. It was a fight to determine would is stronger and who would be the victor. A fight between two A-Rank Border agents.

"This really was fun."

"For sure."

**Hatohara Bail Out.**

**Tsukiko Bail Out.**

* * *

"You idiot. You knew what would happen if you left and this is your punishment. It should be worse for actually fighting, so be grateful."

"Okay... Please calm down... I'm sorry..."

Inukai and Minoru watched as Mei continued to scold and shake Yuki.

Once the fight ended, the two shook hands and promised to have more matches later on. They were quickly met with an excited Inukai and lots of C-Rank agents swarming them and telling them how cool they looked.

Mei had stormed her way through them all and proceeded to shove a few pills down Yuki's throat and slamming her heavy fist on his head. That's when she proceeded to scold and shake him in front of multiple agents like a rag doll in a dog's mouth.

"The terror of Meimei is something that amazes me..." Minoru said, looking at Inukai while he petted Taka.

"Yeah, well... It is to be expected when it comes to her. Anyone would think she does it because she's a tsundere."

"Hm. Not to sound rude, but I'm not Kitora-chan. I'm not a tsundere," Mei said as she crossed her arms. She then turned her attention to Minoru. "I will say that it was enjoyable seeing him fight you though. It'll help me keep him in line for a while."

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"Nothing. Now if you don't mind," she grabbed Yuki's collar and started dragging him away, "I need to take this idiot home!"

"Bye!"

"Have fun! And good luck, Loki!"

Yuki stared at two of his best friends as he was dragged away by the violent beauty known as Takato Mei.

"Don't just stand there! Help meeeeeeeee!"

"Shut up."

The sound of a heavy fist hitting a head resounded throughout the area.

Only one thought ran through Minoru and Inukai's minds as they saw Yuki being carried off.

_Is this the return of that nightmare...?_

* * *

"I said I was sorry. Please stop dragging me, Mei."

"You're an idiot. Although I'm glad you had fun, you should watch your image here."

"Hm? Why's that?"

"Because _that woman_ will be back soon."

Mei could hear the click of Yuki's tongue once those words left her mouth.

She let out a sigh, knowing full well why that had been his reaction.

"Besides that..."

She started up again.

"You have somewhere else to be right now."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Minoru Hatohara
> 
> All-Rounder, Captain
> 
> \- 18 Years Old
> 
> \- Born Jan. 14
> 
> \- Clavis, Blood Type O
> 
> \- Height: 6'
> 
> \- Likes: Friends and Family, Yogurt, Listening to music, Training in martial arts


	9. Yuki Tsukiko: Part4

An artificial city spread out within the darkness of the night.

With only sparse electric lighting in that wide open space, the darkness seemed even more accentuated.

The area was a large bus terminal.

Usually cities had bus lines that ran directly from one place to another for others. In order to service over 100 buses that went back and forth during a day, a large space would be prepared a bit away from the center of the city. This space must have been a square about 500 meters across.

There were no signs of people in the area most likely because no other people had been sent there.

In the middle of that area was Kanzaki Shizuka.

She had black hair that reached her waist even when tired back in a ponytail. She was taller than the average Japanese person. She was wearing a short sleeve shirt that clung to her body with a jacket over it that had both sleeves cut off to show her arms and jeans that went down passed the top of her shoes. On her waist, she wore a belt that had a katana hanging from it. It was Kōgetsu. While it looked like a regular blade, it was over 2 meters long.

She ran across the vast bus terminal.

No, it may not have been right to say she was running.

Kanzaki Shizuka was a B-Rank agent for Border who had been given special privileges. Due to a team she had been part of before she had been given permission to use the oddly long Kōgetsu along with other permissions others did not have. This came with the stipulations that should she ever enter B-Rank War that she would not be allowed to use those privileges against other teams. It would seem unfair otherwise.

In other words, Kanzaki Shizuka was not a normal B-Rank agent.

She could exhibit her power as a special agent which allowed her to use different Triggers that would otherwise be unallowed.

_Kh...!_

But even though she was using a special prototype Trigger to speed up, Kanzaki Shizuka was unable to accomplish her goal.

Yes. If she was going out of her way to wield that strange Trigger, she had to have a reason making it necessary.

For Kanzaki Shizuka, that reason was the man before her.

"Tai-...! 'Tsukiko Yuki'!"

She called out his name.

The A-Rank Tsukiko Yuki. That was the name she had not gotten use to saying. He was a recently promoted A-Rank agent who had the a good amount of privileges himself. Especially when compared to her and some others.

He was a small guy. At first glance, he gave a meek impression, but an odd unease could be felt from him if given a better look. Without speaking, he reached inside his gray jacket and pulled out multiple plates. They resembled tiles on a roof, but they were different. They were not made of usual materials. They were instead made of Trion from his own supply as a sort of new part of his outfit. They looked more metallic than anything else. The images on them ranged from a snowflake to a moon that was in the shape of a crescent. Most likely, they had their own value and reason for being on the plates.

Basically, they were there for a reason that she did not know of at the current moment. Due to that, it would be difficult to understand what comes next without being explicitly told by someone else.

Tsukiko Yuki swung his right hand and the plates were tossed all around them.

She would not allow it.

Using her long blade and the Trigger known as Senkū, Kanzaki Shizuka cut the plates still in the air. She had made sure to cut the images on them as well.

The moment the tiles were cut was also the moment something came up from the side. It looked like a strange insect with multiple legs and a tail behind it. Two blades could be seen coming from its body and waiting above its two front legs. A large hole was in the front of the body to show the core in the middle.

It was a Trion Soldier - Marmod.

A Trion Soldier was a drone made of and running on Trion. They were sent out by Neighbors for multiple use against the world. Now there was one here, attacking from the side.

"This is one way of using an unknown factor," Yuki said quietly.

"...!"

Normally, the Marmods were Trion Soldiers meant for battles. The two blades protruding from the body were made from hard material. The blades were able to slice and pierce opponents as well as any sword.

With a sound, the oddly golden Marmod vigorously ran on its four legs made of Trion that cracked the ground with each step. It charged towards Kanzaki at high speed.

But before its blades could move, Kanzaki's hands moved to the hilt of her sword and mercilessly bisected the Marmod. The sound of the slicing came a second later similar to with thunder.

That had been a drawn sword technique.

The cutting edge had been frighteningly sharp, but Kanzaki, the one who had carried out the attack, frowned. By slicing the Marmod, Kanzaki had given Yuki an instant of extra time. He had used that time to move to the side ever so slightly.

Kanzaki Shizuka could travel faster than the normal speed of a person due to a Trigger.

If a normal person, or even agent, attempted to flee from her on foot, they would be absolutely unable to escape.

But Yuki charged toward the inside of the sideways curve Kanzaki moved in. Naturally, Kanzaki was forced to correct her trajectory which brought the force of inertia on her body more than would normally have been necessary. Because she was thoughtlessly moving at faster than the normal speed of a person, she herself suffered the side effects of the power she was producing.

_He's getting away..._

That same thing had happened repeatedly.

She had let her guard down and the next thing she knew, he was about to escape her cordon. She almost felt as if she were being pulled by the strings she gripped in her hand. Kanzaki gritted her teeth and thought.

_But why is he only using his speed right now?_

A high pitched noise rang out.

It was the sound of Kanzaki swinging her sword. However, the sound was not that of a body being sliced. When she looked, there was a dark colored plate with an image on it stuck to the side of the blade. That had forcibly altered the sword's trajectory leaving Yuki unscathed.

The sword had flown harmlessly above Yuki's head and Kanzaki remained motionless.

They were about a meter apart.

After a slight delay, the gray plate that was preventing her from using her blade was sliced in two and slammed down.

Now that she had her sword back, would she get her slash in first? Or would Yuki bring out some effect using the gray plate in his hand first? The thread of tension was spread out to its limit.

"Either way, you cannot escape from me," Kanzaki announced in a low voice while holding her blade fixed in a single place with frightening precision. "Due to my testing of Kiyome I am able to move even faster than a normal person. Even if you gain a bit of a distance, I can fill it in an instant. You are trapped within a surrounding barrier of speed."

"True enough." Yuki nodded. "That's why I had to set something up on my end. It may have just been a coincidence, but you got close enough that I couldn't just hide behind something and wait for you to leave. To be honest, I'm glad that you're helping me out here. Even so, the time is almost up. That means it's my win here. I feel sorry for having to do this to you."

Immediately afterwards, Kanzaki felt a strange feeling in her mind.

Yuki was smiling. At some point, the plate in his hand had disappeared. Kanzaki put together those various pieces of information and deduced what must have happened to her.

_He...put it on my back!?_

Yuki was an oddity among Border agents due to his use of Triggers and Side Effect that few knew about. He was a professional at using the prototype Trigger called Teleport that allowed for instantaneous transport from one place to another. If he had managed to find a way to teleport while using those plates, even as a Border agent with privileges there was a danger of her movements being sealed temporarily.

She immediately turned her focus to her own back.

But when she reached a hand there, she did not feel anything.

It had been a bluff.

Yuki had used a mental trick to make Kanzaki think there was something there. He had likely actually hidden the plate inside his pocket.

Kanzaki frantically turned her attention forward again, but there was no longer anyone there.

He may have been moving from blind spot to blind spot or he may have used some special means of movement in the instant Kanzaki had not been looking. He had disappeared so fully that she could not even determine that.

"Dammit..." Kanzaki muttered.

It was possible a specialist in stealing people's movements was also skilled in escaping from such situations.

* * *

Murakami Kō was unsure about what to do as he got stared down by a single girl.

Kimura Kawaguchi stood firm with her arms crossed over her chest while looking Murakami right in the eyes. Her stance and demeanor had been enough to keep him glued to the wall while Kuruma and Taichi could only watch from the side, unsure as to what to do.

"Murakami-san, tell me what you know right now. If you do, I won't make calls to Fuyushi-san."

"I don't...know what you're talking about. If you want to know something about Yuki then why not just ask Senpai? She would know more than me."

"Don't give me that crap, Murakami-san. I know that you have as much information as she does. Look, I have a rule that I keep track of all teams I am a part of. Even if they were only for a short amount of time. I am always kept up to date on Kanzaki-san and Shitokei-san, but Tai-"

"Kimura!"

"Tch. 'Tsukiko'-san. There, happy?"

"..."

"Anyway. I want to know what's going on right now. I have heard that he is finally an A-Rank. What happened for that to come about and what other things don't I know about? Besides Shitokei-san, you are the only other one I can ask. Even if he told others, Kageura-san would be irritating to ask and ones like Arafune-san and Inukai-san would just start messing with me before telling me anything. Basically, you are the only I can deal with on a regular basis. Maybe Hokari-san and Kitazoe-san, but you probably know more than them."

"It's not really my place to say anything. It was up to him to decide on what he wanted to do. I won't be saying anything about it unless he says it's fine to do so."

Kimura slammed her hand onto the wall behind Murakami.

"..."

"I still won't be saying anything."

"..."

Kimura let out a sigh.

She moved away from the wall and gave a sideways look towards Kuruma and Taichi, both of who were still unsure as to what to do.

"Fine. I'll ask that guy myself. Can you at least tell me where he is right now? If you know, that is."

"Yeah. Senpai had told me he went over to Tamakoma. I messaged him to confirm. I guess he's also with Kanzaki since he had said they met up at some point."

"I see. Fine then."

She turned towards the two who were on the side before giving a deep bow.

"I am sorry for taking Murakami-san like that. I just needed to ask him something."

Kuruma gave a smile in response, still unsure as to what had happened.

_Rather violent way of doing it..._

"I-it's fine. We weren't in any particular hurry."

"Well then... I will be taking my leave now." She gave one last look towards Murakami. "You better keep me up to date should something happen. I still have a responsibility to look out for them as someone who knows what happened."

"Fair enough."

* * *

Usami Shiori was amazed by what exactly she had seen between the two Border Combatants. She had seen the entire fight that had occurred between Tsukiko Yuki and Kanzaki Shizuka while also adding in her own fun.

Yuki and Kanzaki had gone to the Tamakoma Branch office saying that the former had wanted to speak with some people there. When they could not find said people the two had asked her if they could use Tamakoma's space while she watched them. There had not been a reason to disagree to that so they had done just that.

They had given her one thing to do while they had fought that was just to add some Trion Soldiers into their fight from time to time.

"That was amazing you two! You two were moving so fast that I didn't have much time to actually throw much in."

Yuki smiled at her while walking up to her.

"It's fine, Usami-chan. We took it a little too far, really. I had just wanted to test out a new Trigger but ended up getting too involved with it all."

"I could not tell. It felt more like how things use to be. I suppose things become different when given this much time. Still, it was nice to see that you did not lose your way of doing things. They may have changed, but you still have that enthusiasm."

"What do you mean, Kanzaki-san? Was Yuki-san that different before?"

Seeing where the direction was going was enough for Yuki to put a stop to it.

"Usami-chan, has Mikumo-kun and Kuga-kun arrived? I wouldn't want to take up more space."

"Oh! Yes, yes! They're waiting out there. Konami and Reiji-san should be with them. I would go out with you but I actually have to do something in here."

"That's fine. And what about you, Kanzaki? Are you going to leave or stay awhile?"

"I will be staying for a bit. I want to see what exactly you have planned here. Without Kimura-dono and Shitokei-dono being here I feel as if I need to be here to stop you from doing unnecessary things."

From the corner of his eye, Yuki could see Usami looking confused at the second name mentioned. It had been another thing Yuki wanted to avoid at all costs. Making a quick excuse was his best chance at getting out of any questions.

It worked well enough as the two noticed Usami lower herself into her chair.

Yuki felt his chest lighten up.

Deciding that there was no more reason to stand around there anymore both Yuki and Kanzaki started for the other room.

.

Once they entered the room where the other members of the Tamakoma Branch were they noticed that there was a lack of muscle in the room.

Sitting on the sofa was Mikumo Osamu, Kuga Yūma and a third person neither one had seen before. In the chair next to sofa sat Konami, looking rather bored with her current surroundings.

"Oh... Hello there. Are you the third member Mikumo-kun had mentioned before?"

The girl sitting in between Mikumo and Kuga was quick to get up for a proper bow.

"H-hello. I am Amatori Chika. It is nice to meet you."

"Likewise. It is nice to make your acquaintance, Amatori-chan."

"Hey, Yuki-san, why did you bring that Ero Fallen Angel Maid over? If you wanted to fight her then there really isn't a reason to bring her here."

"Gyoof!"

"What a reaction..."

"Do not call me that! And how did you even know about that!? I made sure to erase any records of that happening to beging with!"

"No, you didn't. All the branches got that recording. It's actually really funny. The sender had been anonymous, but it's pretty easy to figure out who sent it to us. Hey, Yūma, remind me to show you guys later on."

"Sure thing."

"Where is it!? Where is that recording!? I will destroy your television and buy you a new one! I will go so far if it means those recording are completely destroyed!"

"Ignoring her. Yuki-san, why did you bring her over?"

"It was actually just a coincidence. I had planned on coming here by myself this time. When I was on my way here I happened to bump into her. We were...catching up and had made it here without really noticing. Sorry about that."

Konami shrugged as she gave Kanzaki a dull look.

"It doesn't matter to me at all. I just never thought you would be around her to begin with. The way she does things is-"

"Now, now, Konami-chan."

"..."

"Oh yeah. Now that I think about it... Do you three happen to know Kanzaki here?"

The three on the sofa shook their heads from left to right.

"That's what I figured. Anyways. This is Kanzaki Shizuka. She's a..."

"I am a fellow member of Border. That is all. I do have some history with this person. That is all."

The three on the sofa gave their greetings to the girl in return.

Yuki could see that Konami was keeping a rather watchful eye on Kanzaki and decided to pretend he saw nothing at all. Keeping the fact that he was not feeling too well was bad enough, so he didn't want to make things worse for the moment.

"Anyways... While I would like to get right to the reason as to why I am here... I would like some information. Not only for myself but also for Kanzaki here and Mei-chan as well. I am sure she has spoken to Jin-san about it already, but I want to hear it from you guys. If anything, I want the information to line up."

"What information?"

Yuki gave a sigh when remembering a certain person.

"I'll start by saying that Kanzaki here is in a similar situation as I am. Neither of us will take any sides until we understand what is going on and will only ever assist if given the information we need."

Yuki faced forward to gauge the reactions of the three currently on the sofa. What had caught his attention was the way that Kuga was staring at him as if ready to make some sort of action against him.

_He might be able to tell that I'm kind of full of it._

Within the same week as his current visit he had helped Jin out without knowing the full circumstances of what had been going on. He knew that the reason had to do with the new members of the Tamakoma Branch but nothing more than that.

His words were truthful in the fact that Kanzaki would not make any move to help them unless given the knowledge as to what is going on, but he was not the same as her.

"There is a person in Border that is able to somehow gain any information through unknown means. Everyone hates him, but his information is always accurate. That means I could also ask him about what is going on. Even so, I would rather ask you members of Tamakoma so that I know the full truth without any holes in the story."

"You're talking about that jerk from Hogo Squad, aren't you? Hey, you three, Yuki-san isn't lying when he says that guy can get any information. It's disturbing what he knows." Konami turned to the three on the sofa with a hard expression. "You three should never speak to him. There are two people in Border who you should never speak to at all costs. That guy is one of them."

_There is actually three..._

"Konami-chan is right. If you ever come across Misó Epanástasi or Bakuto Denji... It's best you stay away from them. Ignore everything they have to say and simply walk away. The end result will be much better for you than if you were to stay and talk to them. They use their words in the worst way possible."

"Understood."

Nodding to himself, Yuki could not help the feeling of satisfaction he got from making sure others did not have to deal with two of the worst members of Border.

That left them all to get back to their main subject.

"Now then, that information."

"What's there to tell?"

"Don't even try it, Yūma. Yuki-san can tell when someone's lying. Think of it like your Side Effect."

"Oh? You can do something like that, Kuga-kun?"

It was Mikumo who spoke up in response.

"Kuga has a Side Effect that allows him to tell when a person is speaking the truth or not."

"I see. Well, that's different from me. I don't use a Side Effect to figure things like that out. It's a more basic thing than that. I simply know what to look for when a person is lying."

"What do you mean?"

"Yes! Tell me! Please! I need to tell when Torimaru is lying!"

Yuki chuckled while taking a few steps away from Konami.

It was clear that she was ready to get right into his face if he did not start an explaination. Even Kanzaki seemed interested in what he had to say.

"We're getting off topic again... But it's fine. If you guys have the time, I don't mind explaining it." Yuki cleared his throat while beginning anew. "It'll take awhile but... You can find out these things if you look at the way they are acting at the time. They might look away from a second, shift their feet without noticing, blink more times than necessary, or they might even just look awkward with the whole thing. Then there are those people who make it sort of obvious by making actions that seem out of place. If you are careful with it, you can even check their breathing. They may take a breath or two extra when lying as a sort of unconscious movement. Another thing is their pulse. That's how lie detectors work after all."

"Oh~!"

He smiled at the looks he was getting from his explanation. Even Kuga seemed to be focusing intently on what he was saying.

Happy to say even more, he clapped his hands once before looking back at them.

"Now then. Yuki-sensei will be giving a sudden test. I will say three things and you will all have to determine which two are true and what the single lie is. Got it?"

"Got it!"

"Good. Now then. First: Yuki-sensei does not have an addiction to ice cream. Second: Kanzaki-dono doesn't know that there is a Black Trigger in this very room. Third: Yuki-sensei is really here to talk to Mikumo-kun. Now, now! Yes, right now! Everyone gets one guess as to which is the lie! Yuki-sensei has given you ways to figure this problem out, so use those to figure it out. Oh. You don't need to show your work though."

"!"

"Kuga-kun, if you have a question then I would prefer you raise your hand. Standing up is not the best way to do this."

"[Calm down, Yūma.]"

"Oh. I didn't know you were in there, Replica-sensei. My bad."

"[It's fine, Yuki-sensei. Also, the first one was the lie.]"

"Geh!"

"I see, I see. You must have spoken to Murakami-dono earlier for this to come up. Although I myself knew that was the lie from having seen you eat ice cream before."

"It's not an addiction!"

Yuki clenched his fist while looking ready to burst into tears.

Kanzaki ignored the boy and instead focused her attention to the black Trion Soldier floating in front of them.

"May I ask who you are? I am holding back from going for my Trigger because Konami-dono and 'Tsukiko Yuki' are not making any move against you. That would mean you are of no threat."

"[That's right. I am Replica; Yūma's chaperone. It is nice to meet you, Kanzaki.]"

Kanzaki nodded her head.

"[Now then... I will explain to you two what has been going on.]"

.

Everything had started to make sense with each word that came from Replica.

The reason for him to fight against some of Border's best agents, the reason Jin had asked him for that assistance. It made sense to him now that he was hearing the whole story from a good source. It brought to light the reason why he felt the need to come to the Tamakoma Branch after they had gotten their new members and why he had decided to take a side for a single night.

It had not been everything - he knew that for a fact - but it was enough for him to figure out exactly what he wanted to do from now on. Making choices based on this information created a nice feeling instead of the empty one he had previously due to an inadequate amount of knowledge.

"Makes sense."

Yuki only nodded his head.

"That's all!?"

He tilted his head at the sudden outburst that Konami had made.

Both he and Kanzaki had been told, what seemed to be, the basics of what was currently going on with the Tamakoma Branch and their newest members. Even with the information given to them, the two of them gave no indication that it was surprising or that they would be fighting against them at any point.

Yuki spoke in a calm tone while facing forward.

"Yes, that's all. What else am I suppose to say? Konami-chan, you and the others know that I don't take sides. Even with everything that Replica-sensei has just told us, I won't be taking HQ's side or your side here in Tamakoma. If this turns out to be something and makes its way into my line of sight then I will take action. If this ends up being between you guys and HQ alone then I have reason to get involved."

"The same applies to me. I am a member of Border, but I will not compromise my own way of life simply to assist one side or the other."

"I gotcha..."

"So what can we see you as then? You aren't meaning everything you say. The way you talk is nothing but a mix of truths and lies."

"The only person I will ever hate is that airhead. Even if you glare at me like that, Kuga-kun, I won't feel much against it. If you want a definite answer then..." Yuki spoke while pulling out his phone. His eyebrows lowered while his smile seemed more relaxed. "I will always be in a gray area and will only guarantee assistance to those who are in my contact list. Does that help any? I doubt it does, but that's how it is."

Yuki looked towards Kuga with the expectation of getting told off.

His words, while not being has harsh as someone like Denji's, always affected others in a way that made them unsure as to if they could trust him. That was. At at he could always see in those he spoke to.

This time was no different.

"Well, either way, that is that. Everything said so far has just been a side quest for me. The real reason I came here is completely different from why I wanted to know all that. Apparently it works out since, in the end, I really came here to see Mikumo-kun and talk to him."

"Talk to me?"

"That's right. I've been meaning to do so since we first met while you guys were with Jin-san. The issue was that last time I had my team with me. That ended up just being introductions for you all since you were busy training with Karasuma-kun and a lot of noise was going around due to my team. This time is different. Meeting up with Kanzaki was an accident, but that won't change why I am here. If you have the time, I would like to get down to our conversation. If you have the time, that is."

"Oh. Uh... Sure. I'm assuming you don't mind if everyone here listens then."

"Not at all. It isn't anything major after all. I just simply want to get to know you. Even more now that I know what is going on. At this point, that also stems towards Amatori-chan and Kuga-kun. No offense, Replica-sensei, but I think I understand you well enough at this point. You aren't particularly a focus for me."

"[That's fine, Yuki-sensei.]"

Yuki nodded his head again.

"Right. Now then, let's start anew with the real reason as to why I am here."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shizuka Kanzaki
> 
> Attacker
> 
> \- 18 Years Old
> 
> \- Born May 16
> 
> \- Felis, Bloody Type AB
> 
> \- Height: 5'7"
> 
> \- Likes: Washing machines, Eggplants, Self-discipline


	10. Osamu Mikumo

Mikumo watched as Yuki slowly moved around the sofa he was sitting on. His attention was focused on the older boy while trying to to seem curious as to what was going on.

Konami seemed to be fine with everything and the newly introduced Kanzaki Shizuka made a move to sit down while everything was going on.

"I do apologize if this seems strange. I am just trying to make sure of something right now. Rather, I'm taking note of how you are right now so that I can be amazed with how you three will turn out later on."

"What do you mean?"

"Elementary, my dear. Oh... Will I get in trouble for saying that? Anyways. You three will, without a doubt, be facing hard times if you are going to be in Border. That's fine though since, for a fact, you will be surrounded by others who will help you out. Excluding me, there really are a bit of odd people in Border that would be happy to help you. One is sitting right over there and another is actually still standing over there not really knowing what to do. Isn't that great?"

"Hey!"

"Anyways. Yes. Anyways. I want to see just where you three are, if you don't mind. That will help me out with helping you guys out when I need to. I will also be relying on the rest of Tamakoma for this, so there's that. Although I know Konami-chan and the other two will be helpful in improving your skills and Jin-san will help with anything else, I would like to help as well. In a sort of different yet not so different way. If that is fine."

Mikumo was still confused as to what was being said.

The words were simple enough for any person to understand but the way they were being spoken made things seem as if there was much more than what it seemed liked.

"Uh... Okay? That is fine with me."

Kuga and Amatori nodded their responses after their captain.

.

Yuki smiled at the responses he got from the three of them.

"Good. So, before anything else, just give me a quick second to message someone about something."

Opening up his phone, Yuki started typing without looking at those around him.

A few seconds later there were two rings within the room. One came from Konami's pocket and the other from Kanzaki's pocket.

"Hm? Yuki-san, did you mean to put this question in the general chat? It's only directed at Suzume."

"Eh? Did I put it into the chat? I thought I only sent it to Suzu-chan! Oh no! No, no, no!"

Looking down at his phone again, Yuki saw what he feared.

 **White Fox:** "Hey Suzu-chan, what is Mikumo-kun's rhythm?"

 **Honest Sister:** "Hm? I'll tell you, but why do you want to know?"

 **Honest Sister:** "Wait... Oh? Oh ho ho? Why do you honestly want to know, Yuki-san!? Please tell me! Could it be that? Could I possibly be getting some nice material right now!?"

 **Red Picture:** "Calm down! Yuki-san is over here at the branch office and is helping out."

 **Honest Sister:** "Are you sure? Are you honestly sure that's all there is to it?"

 **Red Picture:** "Yeah. Probably."

 **Red Picture:** "Maybe it's a probably."

 **Red Picture:** "..."

 **Red Picture:** "Yuki-san, why do you want to know!?"

"Yuki-san, why do you want to know!?"

"Konami-chan... Why did you ask that in the chat if you were going to ask me in person?"

 **White Fox:** "Suzu-chan, I just need to know how to move is all. I am going to be helping Mikumo-kun and the other two for a bit."

 **Manager:** "So that's where you are. Good. Now I know where to go."

 **Black Wolf:** "Oh yeah. Yuki, Kimura is looking for you."

 **Kage:** "You mean she's hunting him."

 **Black Wolf:** "I'm trying to be kid friendly."

 **White Fox:** "Tell me about these things beforehand! Please and thank you."

 **Black Wolf:** "No problem."

 **Honest Sister:** "Thank you for this honestly wonderful material. I will make sure that some of the profited of the next issue go right to you guys. No need to honestly worry. I'm good on my word when it comes to these kinds of thing."

 **Manager:** "I'll take a copy of that. Are pre-orders fine right now?"

 **Mad Hatter:** "Oh! I also want to pre-order then! The last one with Murakami-senpai and Yuki-san got Kumagai-senpai hot and bothered when I showed it to her!"

 **Kuma:** "Akane!"

 **Honest Sister:** "Honestly, honestly. Sorry but pre-orders aren't until I start it up. But since I'm honestly in a good mood, I'll make an exception! I'll put you three down right now!"

 **Kuma:** "That better not include me!"

"What am I even reading at this point...?"

Yuki could only watch as odd conversations started appearing on his scream while a message was sent directly to his phone from his teammate.

He turned from the answer he wanted to the three younger people sitting on the sofa with no clue as to what was going on.

"Mikumo-kun."

"Yes?"

"Kuga-kun."

"Hm?"

"Amatori-chan."

"Y-yes?"

Yuki let out a long and tired sigh.

"Be very glad to you don't have to see these kinds of things until you're ready. By then I'm sure you'll all be prepared to handle the reality that there truly are strange people in this world that you will never come to understand but still call a friend."

The three on the sofa gave varying looks of confusion but said nothing on the odd comment.

Letting out another tired sigh, Yuki straightened his back and lifted his head into he air.

His attention turned back to Mikumo while also keeping an eye on both Kuga and Amatori.

"Mikumo-kun, do to a friend of mine not warning me ahead of time that I will be dragged down to the pits of hell, I only have time to help you out. It won't be much, but I will do as much as I can. Kuga-kun, Amatori-chan,mi will make sure to come back and help you out later on. Is that okay?"

Kuga and Amatori nodded once more.

"Great. Now then. Kanzaki, can I ask you to go stalk Kimura for a bit? I will pay you back later on."

"Very well. I will be holding you to that."

"Thank you."

They watched as Kanzaki left the building with a vague sense urgency.

There had not been an actual reason for her to stay and watch them, so it had been best for everyone if she left so that nothing particularly violent would come from the conversation.

Yuki cleared his throat as he motioned for Mikumo to stand up.

"Alright, I just need to stand there for a few seconds. Good, good. Yes. Now please show me how you stand when attacking. Hm... Karasuma-kun probably helped you out with that. Nice, nice. I can work with this."

Clapping his hands, Yuki smiled at Mikumo.

"This may be a bit odd... So sorry in advance."

Lowering himself to the floor and into a crouching position, Yuki used both of his arms to grab Mikumo by his leg.

"Oh! My bad. Does that tickle? Hm? Oh... Konami-chan, please don't send that to Suzu-chan. It will end terribly for everything involved if you do."

"What!? But I wasn't-"

"No use lying."

Konami let out a sigh while putting her phone away.

"Thank you. Now that that's all been done... I can show you what you look like and what some possibilities are for you, Mikumo-kun?"

"Possibilities for Osamu-kun?"

"Yes. I can help others with physical practice and whatnot using my Side Effect. It's rather useful for others but troublesome for me."

"Why is that?"

"Because I have to always focus on controlling my body. If I don't then I wouldn't really be able to do anything. It's rather irritating. I'm fine with it since that's just how things work out at times. No use in complaining about it. Besides, it helps during battles and it helps others outside of battles."

Yuki knew that there were more questions about his Side Effect, but time was running out for him.

He looked towards Konami for some help and saw her shrug her shoulders.

"I guess I should just explain my Side Effect. It makes things easier to understand." He nodded to himself while crossing his arms and closing his eyes. "My Side Effect is one that makes me physically copy any movement I see. The movement has to be humanly possible or else I end up in a mess with my limbs trying to do things that normal people can't do. That being said, this is involuntary, meaning..."

"Meaning you would have to copy everything you see from people to animals. You would not be able to get anything done since your body would automatically move to mimic what you are seeing."

"Correct. I always have to focus so that I can force my body to move the way I want it to."

"Wouldn't that force you to slow down then? Your body would be moving one way while you are forcing yourself to move a different way."

"You are very perceptive with these things. Yes. I am much slower than if I would let my body copy movements."

"Even with that stipulation you said that it is still useful in battles and for helping others. Does that mean you copy your opponent to match them? No... That would bring a stalemate... So you use that to predict what they will do and counter accordingly?"

_This boy is smart. That's not the extent of my Side Effect but he's already figured out the best part of the basics of it. I am glad I made this choice._

Yuki nodded to both himself and Mikumo.

"You seem to understand it well enough. A question for you now: What did I mean when I said, 'it helps others outside of battle'?"

Mikumo looked down as if expecting the answer to come from the floor.

If Kuga or Amatori knew the answer, they did not bring it up.

This had turned into a different conversation that seemed to be between Yuki and Mikumo, leaving the others as spectators.

Mikumo saw it as such and would continue moving the conversation by answering to the best of his abilities.

.

_This feels more like a test than anything else. Is that why he is asking me this instead of explaining it himself?_

Shaking his head, Mikumo started to think more about the question itself instead of the reason behind it.

_His Side Effect forces him to copy any movement he sees. In battle it is a good way to counter someone attacking him while also slowing him down due to it not being the way he wants to move. But how can I be used outside of battles? It seems like a major hindering Side Effect outside of battle. Unless..._

What had just happened to him?

Mikumo thought back to a few seconds ago when he had been asked to stand up and move as if he was attacking or defending from an unseen opponent. During that Yuki had grabbed different parts of his body while he moved, as if to check something.

What had been the reason for doing such a thing and for making him do such a thing?

_Tsukiko-senpai had said that he can show me what I look like after that had happened. Afterwards he had started talking about his Side Effect. Wait. Does that mean..._

.

Yuki smiled inwardly as he saw Mikumo come to a conclusion.

"Now then, what did I mean when I had said that, Mikumo-kun?"

"You can copy the movements of whoever you see, that much we established. If you can remember the movement you made or even the movement they made... You can improve on that and tell them about it. You can help them in figuring out what they need to do to improve themselves. When you were holding parts of my body as I moved you were feeling how much muscles moved. So you can get a better understanding of how to help others even better when you know exactly how they are moving."

Yuki started to clap once the explaination had come out.

"Yes. Very good. I have a sort of Save feature with my Side Effect. It happens with I see a movement and when I make a movement. It kind of like muscles memory when I am the one make the action, but I still retain the memories of every movement I see. Although I don't always remember the circumstances behind the movement."

"I see. So that is how you help others."

"Nice job figuring that out, Mikumo-kun. No offense, but I did not expect you to get it so quickly. If at all. I don't tell many people about my Side Effect and not that many are even able to tell what is going on at the time."

"Thank you. Although I have to point out that I would not have figured it out if you hadn't told us about the basics beforehand."

_Modest. That's nice. I can see why Jin found interest in him. I'm actually curious as to what will happen with him around. That being said, he isn't the only one here._

He turned to the other two of the sofa to see that they were speaking with their friend.

_I can't say much about Amatori since this is our first meeting. Kuga on the other hand... He also seems like someone to keep an eye on. I'm sure things will be more fun with these three around._

"Ah... I wonder if it just seems weird for me to want to help at this point. You guys already have others looking out for you. I will probably just seem like someone trying to get in between something here. Hm... Hm... I guess I just don't belong here."

"Tsukiko-senpai? What are you muttering about?"

"Nothing, nothing. It's really nothing of importance." He shook his head to free himself from pointless thoughts. "Oh yeah. Mikumo-kun, for getting the correct answer, I will take you guys out for ice cream some time. How does that sound? It's a reward for getting s top grade in Yuki-sensei's class."

"Watch yourselves. Yuki-san can devour ice cream like a monster. You guys might end up seeing something amazing and scary at the same time."

"Konami-chan..."

Konami shrugged her shoulders as if to say she had no regrets saying that.

Yuki let it slide knowing that there was nothing he could do at this point.

"Anyways. Yes. Anyways is a I can say right now. I still need more time to properly help you out, Mikumo-kun, but I can show you what you can do right now. After that I may have to leave since Kanzaki can buy me only a small amount of time. My apologizes for that."

"It's no problem at all. I appreciate the help."

"You're a good kid. Three scoops may not be enough for you..."

"Hm?"

"Anyways."

.

Mikumo was unsure of what the older boy had been muttering under his breath but decided that it was unimportant if he did not say it out loud.

"Right, for the time being I'll just show you what you look like."

He watched with a good amount of focus as Yuki moved his body in a way that was far different from before.

When Yuki had been talking to him it seemed like he was being careful while also keeping an air about him that gave the impression of someone who was alert. Now he seemed to be in a sloppy position with his feet apart and his shoulders lowered to an odd point.

"How do you use your Triggers? What are they?"

"I use Raygust. With Karasuma-senpai's help I am starting to use it with my left hand while using Gunner-type Triggers with my right."

"Raygust, huh? I'm sure SenSen would be happy to hear that. I should probably tell Kō about that as well. But that's neither here nor there."

Yuki moved his arms so that his left was out more while his right was pushed more towards the inside of his body.

"Like this?"

"Yes."

Nodding his head, Yuki continued to move.

Mikumo noticed that these movements were not ones he had done before. They were slow, but that may have just been to show them all how to move.

The movements seemed to prioritize defense over offense with his left hand moving closer to his center while also keeping a good distance from his body. His right hand moved more towards the back of his body but was outstretched enough to see it from most angles.

"Simple things like these can make a large difference when in battles. Since most of the time you will be going up against things like Marmods and Bambsters... You want to move this way and keep a good defense up. Usami-chan told me about your low Trion level last time. That means this would be the best option."

"I see. So keep Raygust more forward for a sturdy defense."

"Try not to take that many hits, if you can help it. Keep up the defense until you find a nice spot to attack. Make it so that you can have enough time to defense or evade should your attack miss. Even without being too athletic, this much should be manageable."

"Yes. I should be able to move like that. I'll practice that."

"Right. Just make sure to tell Karasuma-kun about it so that he can help you out more."

"Okay."

"Good, good. You are a good kid. Now that I've helped you with that, may I interest you in a Trigger. It is a very nice option that can help you out later on."

Mikumo could see Konami jolt from the corner of his eye.

The way Yuki had started talking was like a man trying to sell his wares at a low price so that it would not scare away any buyers.

"Don't agr-!"

"Sure."

"Damn it all!"

The three on the sofa looked over at Konami, who had suddenly fallen to the floor in defeat.

There was no time for her to get up and stop them as Mikumo had said that single word.

That was when it happened.

"Well then! There is a prototype Trigger called Teleport. It is a great Trigger that, as it implies, can teleport you from one place to another. Right now it is simple with the user only having to look at where they want to go. The distance is dependent on how much Trion you use, but that's fine! I can easily teach you how to bypass that kind of restriction! Something else. With help from other people, I am starting to figure out how to properly use it and take it out if its prototype stage. That means! Yes! That means that if you agree to add it in to one of your Trigger slots I can help you out and guarantee that you will be the first to hear when it enters the stage of a real Trigger!"

"U-uh..."

"This is why you don't get this guy started on this kind of thing! He will go on and on about Teleport until his tongue falls off along with our ears!"

"What are you talking about? I don't go on about it. I am just telling them about something every person has wanted to do once: teleport. I don't see what's wrong with that at all."

"The way you just explained all that was like a salesman! You were trying to get them to buy something without any of us noticing! That's exactly what it sounded like!"

Mikumo looked over at his two friends to see what their reactions would be and found that they were just as confused as he was.

Once again, the words that had came out were understandable ones that anyone could decode. The issue had been the way they were said and the speed they were said at. They had quickly gotten lost in between the sentences that seemed to go right into the next without any issues.

"Uh... Tsukiko-senpai..."

"Yes?"

"I think I am fine for now. I will stick to the basic things until I get better. That way I can at least fight well enough regularly."

"Hm... Alright. That makes sense."

Mikumo let out a sigh.

"Just let me know if you ever want to learn how to use Teleport. I'll be happy to help. That goes for you two as well. All you need to do is-"

"Alright! Someone open up! I know he's in here!"

.

The whole room froze as the repeated sounds of a door being hit were heard.

The voice yelling at them all was of a girl who was around their age, if not a bit older. It sounded like a manager who had just gotten word that their star had just left for an idiotic reason and left everyone else unaware as to what they were doing.

Yuki recognized the voice and started to make his way towards the nearby window.

In a hushed tone he said, "Don't tell her anything. Please! I'm going to be going now. In fact, I will be using Teleport to-"

"Kimura, he's trying to escape through the window! Make sure to catch him!"

"Konami-chan! Why!?"

"Because you're getting to be annoying with all that talk about Teleport."

He let out a small groan while opening the window even more.

"Don't think you can get away!"

Giving one final salute, Yuki jumped out if the window and into the air.

There was a strange sound that followed his leap and his figure could be seen falling a bit away from the building. The sight of a girl running after him could also be seen from where they all were.

"Um..."

"Just forget you saw anything. It's better that way."

"But..."

"Just forget it. It's better."

The three who had been sitting in the sofa only a few seconds ago decided that it truly was for the best that they forgot that they ever saw their upperclassman just escape like some sort of wanted criminal.

* * *

_Crap... I overdid it today..._

Yuki looked down at his hand to see the color red over his pale skin.

He had managed to get away from Kimura and make it safely back to his home. Upon opening the door he had quickly fallen to his knees and started coughing into his hand.

The coughing started to grow harsh after a few second. It was no longer just saliva that came out but blood as well. That was enough for him to close the door as fast as he could so that no one would be able to see or hear him on the floor.

Once it had subsided a bit, he leaned his back against the door and looked up towards the small table by his front door. A small time of pills lay there, just within arm's reach.

Even knowing that the taste was disgusting to him, Yuki opened the small tube and took out some pills. He threw them into his mouth before swallowing them.

"I impress myself at times. I didn't think I would...actually make through the visit without coughing. Kuga looked like he noticed what was wrong... Amatori and Konami didn't seem to notice. Mikumo may have been busy trying to listen to me...but he also looked like he knew something was wrong..."

Yuki let out a sigh while looking up at the ceiling.

A smile appeared on his face as he wiped the blood from his mouth.

"Those three really will be interesting to watch. With Enlistment Day coming up... I should tell those three to observe them. I'm sure it'll do them some good to have those kinds of people around them. It would give me some time think about their future..."

He started to gather strength in his legs while using his arms to lift him up. Once he was up and stable, he walked towards his room with the intent to sleep his pain away.

_Yeah. Things will definitely be interesting from now on._


	11. Takeshi Kotowari

_What day is it again...?_

Kotowari Takeshi let out a groan as he sluggishly sat up on his bed. He took a look around his room to see a plain room with the only thing really sticking out were the four bookshelves that surrounded and took up the space in the room. Each one was filled with different kinds of manga, light novels, CDs, and DVDs.

Letting out a sigh, he got out of his bed and made his way to the bathroom that was connected to his room. As he got ready for the day he remembered that it was Enlistment Day for the C-Ranks.

Normally he wouldn't care, but Yuki had asked him and the rest of the team to go and check things out. He would rather be practicing than looking at some C-Rank rookies, but he was personally told by Yuki to watch how Kuga did in his testing.

What he did not know was that Suzume was told to do the same thing with Amatori - Tamakoma's other newest member.

There was a knock on the door and Takeshi could hear someone speaking to him.

"Hey, Take, you ready yet!? We're gonna be late if you don't hurry up!"

Takeshi let out a sigh when he heard the voice of his teammate of same age just outside his room. He had never liked the fact his apartment room was right next to Toby's, but Yuki had said it would be better if the two lived close to each other.

The only other reason he was fine with this was because he would usually make the brunet cook for him or use his bath so he wouldn't use his own water.

Taking a look at the time, he found that what the brunet was says was true. Not wanting to be late for something his leader had asked him to do, Takeshi quickly got his clothes on and put his scarf around his neck before heading towards the door.

When he opened the door, he came face-to-face with an irritated Toby and simply turned around to lock his door. When that small task was done, he walked passed his teammate and headed towards the Border base.

"You know you could at least say 'good morning,' or something," Toby said as he put his hands in his pockets.

"Why would I do that? I don't particularly care about you or the morning."

"(You're a real jackass, you know.)"

"Don't know what you said and don't really care."

Toby clicked his tongue as he started to fall behind Takeshi.

Takeshi couldn't help but sigh and give a small prayer to let his day go smoothly. The other reason he had bothered to go was because Yuki had told the whole team that he had something important to tell them.

Slightly speeding up his pace, Takeshi ignored his teammate in favor of thinking about how well the C-Ranks would do.

"Hey, do you remember what your time was when they tested you?" Toby asked, easily keeping pace with his teammate.

The brunet didn't actually hate Takeshi, like most people believed. The Shooter's attitude irritated him, but Toby could always admit that he was impressed by the other's power and fighting skills. What he would _never_ admit was that he also admired Takeshi for always staying calm and never seemed intimidated by anyone. Even when facing an irritated Mei, the boy seemed to be calm and collected.

"I think it was... A minute."

"Damn. That's something alright, I've heard that Ai finished in nine seconds. Is that true?"

"Yeah. Kitora-san got nine seconds and Kuroe at eleven seconds." Takeshi took a sideways glance at the brunet and continued on saying, "If I remember correctly, you finished in fifteen seconds and Suzume-senpai made it in around two minutes."

"Yeah. Not my best time, but that was my first time... Wait, Suzume did that too!?"

"It was when she tried out as an Attacker. After a week or so she started up with sniping."

"Hey, hey, do you know what Yuki's time was?"

"...No... No, I don't know. I had asked him before, but he quickly changed the subject." Takeshi got a thoughtful expression on his face as he put a hand on his chin. "Now I'm wondering what his time was..."

"Well we can just ask Mei. I'm sure she of all people would know."

"Wow. You actually thought of something useful."

"(Hey!)"

* * *

"I'm gonna go do some training. Gonna see if I can find Shun."

"You do that. Don't forget, Senpai said to meet him after we're done here."

"Yeah, yeah. See ya later."

Once his teammate was out of his sight he let out a sigh before muttering to himself.

"Same age my ass. He's gotta be at least five years younger..."

Deciding that there was no reason to focus anymore on the dog-like boy, Takeshi started to make his way towards the area where he was suppose to go.

He noticed multiple people walk by, some even giving him some greetings, but he made sure to make it seem as if he did not notice them at all.

_No point in answering obligation greetings. Especially from people who have no color to them._

There never seemed to be a reason as to why he should give his greetings in return. There was never a point in speaking to people he did not find interesting in the slightest.

They were all just boring people with boring lives that he could care less about.

That was why he was pleased once he saw Mikumo, Kitora and Karasuma by the railing as he walked in.

"Kitora-san, Torimaru-senpai, hello."

He gave Mikumo a small nod, but nothing more.

"Oh, hey Take," Karasuma said with a small wave. "Tsukiko-senpai tell you to come here?"

"Yes."

"Hello, Kotowari."

"Hello, Kotowari...san?" Mikumo said, not sure how to address the other boy.

Takeshi simply gave the glasses wearing boy with an indifferent expression before saying, "The '-san' is unnecessary, Mikumo."

"Ah... Okay..."

"So what have I missed so far?"

From his spot he could see Kuga surrounded by other C-Rank agents.

"Kuga beat the test with his time being 0.4 seconds."

"Oh?"

He looked over at Kitora and Karasuma for the answer. He wasn't sure if it was even possible for someone to get it under a second.

"Is this true?"

"Yes. His first time was 0.6 seconds and redid it to get 0.4 seconds," Kitora answered, not seeming to be fazed by this.

"Hm. Senpai probably got something similar..."

"That can be a possibly, but I doubt it."

Karasuma continued to speak as he started walking down the stairs with Mikumo behind him.

Takeshi took another look around and raised an eyebrow when he didn't see anyone else with the same tablet-like devices around their necks. He looked around a third time just to be sure before turning to Kitora.

"I thought Hogo Squad was going to be helping you today."

"They were, but Hogo-senpai had told us that he started recently taking care of a dog for someone and couldn't. Kimura-san and Teikō-san are on 'Misó Duty' right now, so they couldn't help."

"..."

Takeshi said nothing. The reason being that he knew what dog Kitora and Oshiro were talking about. He was the one to ask the older boy for the favor after coming back from Germany.

"I see..."

Takeshi looked over to Kazama walking down the stairs as well. He couldn't help but look up where he came from and saw both Kikuchihara and Utagawa standing there.

Kikuchihara had seemed to notice him as the brunet had stuck his tongue out. This was met with a middle finger from Takeshi.

"The one I want to fight...is _you._ Mikumo Osamu."

Takeshi turned his attention back to the bottom to see Kazama looking to Mikumo.

"You want to fight Osamu?"

"He wants to fight _who._..?" Kitora exclaimed, leaning on the railing more.

Thinking things were going to get interesting, Takeshi walked down the steps to get a front row seat to the on-coming fight. He saw the C-Ranks murmuring to each other, but paid no mind to it.

"Head to the training room...Mikumo. I want to see what you can really do."

"You don't have to accept, Mikumo-kun."

"He can't force you into a mock battle. You can always refuse."

"I accept. Let's do this mock battle."

Takeshi couldn't help the small smirk that appeared on his lips when he heard that. He took a seat on the bleachers and watched as the C-Rank rookies were ushered out and Karasuma was talking to Mikumo.

 _Senpai said to watch how Kuga did, but I'm sure he also wants to know how Mikumo is,_ Takeshi thought with a small chuckle. _I guess it worked out in the end. Poor guy doesn't know what he's getting himself into._

Both Mikumo and Kazama entered the training room while Karasuma and Kuga sat with Takeshi to watch the fight.

.

 **"Mock Battle, Start.** "

Osamu brought out his Raygust with his left hand while a cube of Trion appeared under his right.

"I see. You use Raygust as a shield. You're a defensive Shooter."

Without any warning, Kazama appeared in front of Osamu and stabbed him using Scorpion.

**"Trion Supply System destroyed. Mikumo down."**

* * *

"What an idiot. There's an infinite amount of Trion in Training Mode. You can use Chameleon _all day,"_ Kikuchihara said from up above. "This isn't worth watching."

"So says you."

The brunet looked down to see Takeshi giving him a side glance. He knew that the Shooter was whispering since Utagawa didn't seem to hear his words and let out a small sigh.

"This might provide some insight into some...interesting stuff. You can leave whenever. Actually, please do. You're general presence is a large irritation that I might shoot down."

Kikuchihara furrowed his brows as the same phrase of 'Mikumo Down' continued to go off. He looked down to see Takeshi's smirk got a little wider. Deciding it was no use to try and answer, Kikuchihara simply flipped him off.

* * *

"Hm. I wonder how I would use it..." Kuga said after getting an explanation about Chameleon for Karasuma.

"Take, how would _you_ go about fighting someone using Chameleon? Both you and Osamu are Shooters, so I want to hear your opinion on this."

"You already know how I would fight in a real battle. You also know it's pointless to ask stupid questions when you know that my 'shots' are different from any other person's. My Laser-Shooter would be able to cover the whole area."

"...I guess you're right."

"Asteroid!"

Takeshi looked down to see Mikumo shoot out in one direction and end up getting hit by Kazama from behind.

He couldn't help but let out a sigh as he heard another comment for Kikuchihara above.

Although he didn't have much faith in Mikumo to actually _win_ , he still thought that it would be a little more interesting than what he was seeing.

"Karasuma-senpai, please make them stop," Kitora said, walking up to them. "I can't bear to watch this."

"Then _don't_ watch. No one is making you watch," was what Takeshi wanted to say, but held his tongue in order to make sure he didn't somehow end up on Kitora's bad side.

"It's too soon for Mikumo-kun to be fighting an A-Rank agent. He doesn't stand a chance."

"You're worried about him?"

"Wha-!? That's not what I mean!"

"Osamu doesn't think he can win either, " Kuga said nonchalantly. "He's gaining experience for the future."

"'It doesn't matter if I lose'? That's just loser talk. You can't learn how to win unless you fight to win."

Hearing this, Takeshi held his scarf tightly as a memory came back to his mind. He turned to Kitora with cold eyes and said in a colder tone, "It doesn't matter how profound that is, it isn't always true. If I hear you say that again, I will personally show you what I mean."

Noticing what he said, how he said it, and to _who_ he said it to, Takeshi turned back to the fight with a blush of embarrassment and an apology.

He started getting deep into thought and was only pulled out when he heard the sound of "Last Battle. Begin!" He looked down to see that the fight had started and something seemed off with Mikumo. He couldn't tell exactly what it was, but it made Takeshi get a small smile on his lips.

He went a little wide eyed when he saw small particle-like Trion floating through the training room. He mentally admitted that he was the slightly impressed with the glasses-wearing boy's strategy. He noticed he wasn't the only one shocked and impressed by this.

He saw Kazama reappear and start cutting the Slow Moving Buckshots (as they all had come to call them) using Scorpion with ease.

He was surprised again when he saw Mikumo use Raugust's Thruster to launch himself at Kazama. He was on the edge of his seat when Kazama was pushed against the wall and Mikumo's Raygust trapped him in to leave enough time for Mikumo to shoot an Asteroid in the hole he had made.

**"Relay System severed. Mikumo down."**

_I was right... This was interesting..._

**"Severe Trion loss! Kazama down!"**

**"Mock Battle over! Mikumo Osamu zero wins. 24 loses. One draw."**

"He managed a draw," Kitora said in astonishment.

"He didn't win, but he pulled off a good fight."

"It was interesting."

Takeshi followed his upperclassman down the stairs. He walked over to where Mikumo was being congratulated.

"He's weak. He's borderline in Trion and physical ability," Kazama said, loud enough for all to hear. "I don't feel the potential in Jin's support. But... He knows his weaknesses... I don't dislike his style...of fighting using wisdom and creativity. See you around, Mikumo."

With that, Kazama took his leave with his squad.

"You showed good insight in that last round."

"Thanks to your coaching."

"But... Losing twenty times to win once would usually get you nowhere."

"I-I know..."

"On another note, you seemed to be really into that last fight, Take," Karasuma said, looking at the younger male.

Not saying a word, Takeshi walked up Mikumo and looked in straight in the eyes before saying, "It was an interesting fight... Second, maybe third to when I see Yuki-senpai fight... If you need any help... You can just ask me... You know, if Torimaru-senpai is busy..."

"A-ah! Thank you, Kotowari!"

The two members of the Arashiyama Squad and Karasuma got smiles on their faces at hearing the conversation. It had taken them a while to be that close to Takeshi, so seeing that Mikumo was able to do it with a single fight made them think the more powerful Shooter was willing to let more people in.

"Of course Yuki-senpai would have had a better fight and actually _win_ , but I guess this is fine for someone like you."

Although, they could be wrong.

"Mikumo, we've got a problem. It's your teammate."

* * *

"Honestly, that Chika-chan... That was the craziest shot I've ever seen!"

"Hm. It looks like we've both seen some amazing stuff today."

"It still honestly amazes me that a tiny girl like her has that much Trion."

Suzume and Takeshi were having a normal conversation while sitting at a table.

After checking out what the "problem" was, Takeshi were surprised to see that Mikumo and Kuga's third teammate had blown a hole straight through the building and didn't seem to be low on Trion in the slightest.

He had asked Suzume what happened and was told that Amatori had used an Ibis and simply took a shot. The effect was the hole that made him gap for a few seconds. Something that almost never happened.

"So what happened with Yuma-kun?"

"He did well, but..."

Takeshi saw from the corner of his eye a lone pair of glasses sitting by himself with a drink and stood up. He made his way over and stood next to said pair of glasses.

"You look awkward. Mind if we sit here?"

"N-no... Go ahead..."

"Hello, Mikumo-kun."

"Ah. Hello, Misaki-senpai."

"Please, just call me Suzume."

"To answer your question," Takeshi said, looking at Suzume. "This guy here showed me an interesting fight today."

"Now that you mention it, all that whispering around seems to be about Mikumo-kun here," Suzume said, taking a glance around them. "So, is it true that you-"

"Hey, hey."

The three turned to see a boy looking younger than Mikumo and Takeshi standing next to the glasses wearing boy. He had brown hair and was wearing an open jacket with a smile in place.

"I want to ask you something."

"Why the heck are you here, Midorikawa? I thought you would be 'playing' with Toby by now," Takeshi said with narrow eyes.

"I just wanted to ask this guy something, is all," the boy said with an innocent expression. He then turned his attention back to Mikumo. "That emblem. Tamakoma, right? Are you from there?"

"Huh? Oh...Yeah. I enlisted at HQ first, but I transferred to Tamakoma."

"Transfer...? Why? How'd you transfer?"

"There were a lot of factors. But a guy at Tamakoma called-"

"Sigh..."

Takeshi looked over at Midorikawa with cold eyes.

"Mikumo, stop talking. Midorikawa, what is it that you _really_ want from him?"

Mikumo was shocked by Takeshi's cold attitude and how lifeless his eyes seemed to be.

On the other hand, Midorikawa smirked and continued, "I just wanted to know if this guy would want to have a Solo Rank Match."

_Where the hell is that idiot when you need him?_

"We can use the C-Rank booths. We just won't take any points from trainees," Midorikawa said, still looking at Mikumo.

"Mikumo, let me tell you now... Don't take up this fight. This little mutt is just playing you."

"No. I say we let these two have at it," Suzume said, looking at Midorikawa with a grin. "I honestly want to see what Mikumo-kun can do if he gave you an interesting fight to watch.."

_I really hate these people at times like this._


	12. Tsukiko Squad: Part 2

"Hey, Suzume-senpai... Why do you really want to see this fight?"

"I already said the reason. I want to see a fight involving one of the few people who you are interested in."

"...Do you just want to see Mikumo get beaten, or something?"

"Honestly, you don't seem to have much faith in Mikumo-kun. Are you sure you weren't mistaken and interested in his opponent?"

"It was Kazama-san. I've already seen enough of his fighting style to know that I'm not interested."

Takeshi continued to give a small glare at his teammate as they continued to walk with Mikumo and Midorikawa while a large group of C-Ranks were behind them.

"And why are you going along with that mutt's plan to try and humiliate Mikumo in front of these C-Rank rookies?"

"Just shut up and deal with it. You should honestly just trust in your great senpai," Suzume said with a hair flip.

"I do, but Yuki-senpai isn't here."

The two stopped talking once they heard loud footsteps rushing towards them. It sounded more like a wild animal coming to attack its prey with outstanding speed.

Suzume turned her head when she figured out the familiar step pattern hitting the ground.

"SHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNN!"

Takeshi and Suzume stood still while Mikumo and the C-Rank trainees went wide eyed at the fact that Midorikawa was tackled to the ground at Mach speed by a gray blur. Both the blur and Midorikawa went sliding across the ground and everyone turned to see Toby on top of the younger boy.

"That idiot."

"Honestly, that idiot."

Toby, who was still on top of Midorikawa, looked down at the boy with a smile.

"Shun! Solo match! Now!"

"But I'm already going to have a solo match with someone else."

"Alright, you idiot. Get off of the mutt before his flees bite you," Takeshi said, lifting Toby off of Midorikawa.

"Who are fighting?"

"He's fighting Mikumo-kun."

"Mikumo... Mikumo... Mikumo... Who is that again?"

"That would be me..." Mikumo said weakly while he raised his hand.

"Oh yeah, you... You do know you're gonna get you ass kick if you fight Shun, right?"

"Um..."

"Honestly. You two don't have any faith in Mikumo-kun, do you?" Suzume walked up to the glasses-wearing boy. She grabbed his arm and put it between her breasts while looking at her teammates. "I think he'll put up a good fight."

"Um..."

Mikumo wasn't sure what was going. He wasn't use to Tsukiko Squad's antics and wasn't sure if he should listen to the two males or the female clinging to him. That was another thing about this situation. He couldn't really think straight when his arm was being held captive by a pair of ample breasts.

Thinking it would be rude, and for the fact he hadn't been in a solo rank match, Mikumo decided to take the challenge.

This seemed to upset Takeshi as he had grabbed Toby's collar again and dragged him away saying, "I'm taking him to let off some steam. If you see Senpai, tell him I'm sorry for not being there."

Suzume gave a slightly worried look in the direction the two went. She knew what the Shooter could be like when he was really mad and that was never a good thing. It happened rarely, but when it did...

"Is he going to be okay?"

"Looks like we'll have to stay clear of that direction," Midorikawa said, looking in the direction the two older males went.

Both he and Suzume already knew how things would end up and knew that they would probably get an earful from Mei later on. Deciding it would be better to get things done with quickly, they led the group to the booths.

Midorikawa and Mikumo left to get in one of the booths while leaving the group and Suzume behind to watch.

Suzume took a seat right in front of the screen and thought, _Well, nothing I can do about it now. Might as well-_

Her train of thought was cut off when she saw that it was already one win for Midorikawa.

"No way..."

Another win for Midorikawa.

"Even with how weak he seems..."

Another win for Midorikawa.

"Mikumo-kun should be able to..."

Another win for Midorikawa.

"Put up more of a fight than this!"

Another win for Midorikawa.

"Why the heck was Take interested in this megane? Honestly? He was trained by Torimaru and he's _this weak!?_ "

Suzume watched with a bored expression as Mikumo's losses continued to go up.

She found nothing appealing about him. Even when she visited Tamakoma before, she didn't find anything unique about him. She could tell Kuga was strong since he had beaten Konami once when they first met and she saw how destructive Amatori was with the Ibis, but she thought that Mikumo couldn't be any better than any C-Rank rookies around her.

The losses finally came to an end with Kuga, Yōtarō (riding on Raijinmaru), and Yoneya coming up to her as Mikumo came out of the booth.

Suzume watched as Yōtarō berated Mikumo then challenged Midorikawa for basically insulting the boy.

"Did you attract all these spectators?"

Suzume's attention went to Kuga, who was currently walking to Midorikawa. She couldn't help the smirk that quickly appeared on her face as she watched with interested eyes.

"No...They must've heard the rumor that he tied with Kazama-san."

Midorikawa looked down at Kuga with a disinterested look.

" _I_ didn't do anything."

Suzume watched as Kuga stared Midorikawa down and gave a reply that seemed to send a shiver down the younger one's body.

Letting out a small laugh, she stood up and walked over to Kuga.

"Sorry, Yūma-kun. These C-Ranks are here because of me." She flipped her hair and smirked down at the albino. "I guess they were attracted to my sexiness. Can't blame them though."

She kept the smirk even as she herself was being stared down the same way Midorikawa was.

_This kid has nothing on Mei-san._

"Oh... Okay."

Kuga looked from Suzume back up to Midorikawa.

"Either way, fight me, Midorikawa. If you win... I'll give you all my points. All 1508 of them."

"Just 1508? You're C-Rank. You're going to use a training Trigger?"

"Yeah. I figure that's enough to handle you."

Midorikawa jumped down from the floor above and said, "Fine. Let's do it. What do you want if _you_ win? 3000 points? 5000 points?"

"I don't want any. But...If I win...I want to hear more respect out of you."

"Okay. _If_ I lose, I'll act with the utmost respect for you."

"No, not me." Kuga pointed at Mikumo as he finished with, "You'll treat _my captain_ with more respect."

_Mikumo-kun's kindness reminds me of Yuki-san, but...the way Yuma goes about things is also similar to Captain's way... Maybe that's why Take took an interest in him... Or did he see something I didn't? ...He was there when Mikumo-kun supposedly tied with Kazama-san._

Suzume took a seat with Mikumo and Yoneya so the three, plus Yōtarō, watched the ten-round match begin.

**Kuga, Bail Out. Midorikawa leads 1-0**

"So _that_ was your plan? Urg. Why the heck is the spear bastard here?" Takeshi asked as he and Toby walked up to Suzume and the others.

"Oh. You guys finally done?"

**Kuga, Bail Out.**

"Yeah." Takeshi looked up at the screen with a bored expression that his teammates could tell was him actually being bored. "You just wanted to see Kuga go at it, huh?"

"Yup. While Kirin was busy I had to train him a little, so I wanted to see if he could match up to someone like Midorikawa."

"Well, it looks like the mutt's winning streak comes to an end here."

"What are you ta-"

**Midorikawa, Bail Out.**

"He won't lose anymore," Yoneya said, getting the whole team's attention. "He held out against our team's attacks, four to one. There's no way he wouldn't be able to deal with Midorikawa _one-on-one_."

_That's news to me._

"I don't know what his deal is, but...looks like that albino chibi wants to pummel the hell outta Midorikawa."

"Mikumo, the reason why I didn't want you to fight him was because that mutt is like our own Attacker in that they are both too flashy. While you were able to counter Kazama-san, that was because he thought more strategically. Meanwhile the mutt thinks and fights just like I call him - a mutt."

"Hey, hey, I was suppose to explain these things to him, Take-chan," Yoneya said, not seeming to actually mind the interruption.

"Well too damn bad. This is from one Shooter to another. Deal with it."

"So does that mean Awdry uses the same style as Midorikawa?"

"Hm! Yeah right."

"While they are both animalistic idiots..."

"(Hey!)"

"I will admit that while Shun is a mutt, our own Attacker is a wolf."

**Round ten, over. Winner, Kuga Yuma.**

"I guess the training Kirin and I did with him honestly paid off in the end."

"But you hardly did anything," both Tsukiko male teammates said with half-lidded eyes.

"Honestly!"

Kuga and Midorikawa came out of the booths and walked over to the group.

What they didn't notice was Jin walking up to them as well with a grin in place.

"Yūma. Megane-kun. Come with me. Kido-san wants to see you."

"(Yūichi, you bastard! Why the hell did you send me a box of those damn rice crackers!?)"

Toby stormed over to Jin while Midorikawa did a little dance around the older male.

"Oh yeah. I was wondering that myself," Takeshi put in with a curious expression.

"I sent that to him since he seemed to want some enough to go to my room," Jin said, causing Toby to blush in embarrassment.

"You took some from his room?" his teammates asked with expression that basically screamed "You really are an idiot, aren't you?"

"I was a little hungry..."

**ZZZZZZT! ZZZZZZZT!**

Everyone's attention turned to Suzume's pocket as something vibrated in it.

"I'm gonna take this. You two try not to do anything stupid, got it?" Suzume said as she walked away with her phone in her hand. "Hello?"

_"Suzume, it's me."_

"Oh, Mei-san! Hello."

_"Yeah. Hi. Look, I was calling to tell you guys that Yuki-kun and I will be running a little late. We need to finish things up here then we'll be right there. Make sure Toby doesn't break anyone's bones by tackling them to the ground."_

"Well...about that..."

_"Of course."_

"Midorikawa. But on the bright side, no bones were broken!"

_"...We'll try and hurry up."_

"Alright. See you when you get here. Bye."

_"Bye."_

"Alright then. Take, Toby, it's turns out-"

Suzume turned around to see the ones from Tamakoma were gone and the four males were talking.

"Where the hell did Jin-san and the other two honestly go!?"

"They left for a meeting."

"So who was that?"

"It's was Mei-san. She and Captain are running a little late, but they will be here shortly."

"Alright. That give me a good amount of time for a fight with one of you," Yoneya said, looking at the three. "Midorikawa here doesn't want to fight, so I might as well fight one of you."

"Alright! Bring it on, Yōsuke! I'll take you on!" Toby said, looking like a kid in a candy store.

"Actually, I was thinking I could fight your Shooter."

"Why would I want to fight you?"

"I'm interested in seeing how that plays out," Midorikawa said, adding his own two cents in. "I've never fought Kotowari-senpai before and have never actually seen him fight."

"Really? Not even in the Rank Wars?"

"Let me rephrase that... I never _cared_ to see him fight before."

"Then why the hell would you care now? Besides, that just gives me more of a reason to deny."

Takeshi was ready to walk away, but was stopped when he was grabbed under the armpits and lifted in the air by his teammates.

Both of them looked back at Yoneya and said at the same time, "We'll get him in the booth, so be ready to fight."

"...Alright..."

* * *

"I can't believe you took as long as you did."

"I already said I was sorry."

"I guess you did need some more practice with that new Trigger."

Both Yuki and Mei were quickly walking through the Border HQ while still greeting other agents around them.

The two had been busy with some training and lost track of time. Mei had called Suzume to tell her the two would be running late, but it was still later than what she had thought.

What didn't help was the fact that Yuki had another coughing fit which stalled them by another few minutes. It wouldn't have been that long, but Mei wanted to make sure her friend was actually able to make it all the way to the base without anything else happening.

After that, they had both thought that there was some outside force that wanted to make sure they didn't reach their destination as they had ended up finding a family of abandoned puppies. Yuki, being the kind person he is, couldn't resist taking all of them home and making sure they had everything they needed before having to start for the building again.

After they had made it inside the building, the two were hounded by other agents who we're making sure that Yuki was okay and well enough to be there. It took a single glare from Mei to push them back, but some of the more stubborn ones stayed to make sure before being threatened by Mei to back off.

"You'll make A-Rank soon. I'll be looking forward to you making B-Rank."

"Thanks, Shinoda-san."

The two turned to see Mikumo and Kuga talking to Director Shinoda off to the side.

Deciding that a few more minutes couldn't hurt, they made their way to the trio.

"Hello, Shinoda-san, Mikumo-kun, Kuga-kun."

"Hello, you three."

Said three looked at the two and gave their greeting.

Mikumo and Kuga had told the other three that they (the pair) should be leaving and took their leave. This left the three to stand there and figure out if they wanted to leave or not.

"So what were you three talking about, Tora-san," Yuki asked, looking at the older man. "If you don't mind my curiosity."

"Not at all. I was simply wanting to know if Kuga wanted to be promoted. He denied and said he wanted to go about that as a regular C-Rank would." Shinoda gave a chuckle and said, "He's like you in that sense."

"W-well I can see where he's coming from..." Yuki answered back with a blush of embarrassment and a bashful expression.

"But I am glad I can speak with you two right now."

"Oh? Why is that sir?" Mei raised an eyebrow and tried to come up with the reason for him wanting to talk to them right now.

"You see, there will be an invasion soon," Shinoda's expression was a serious one that out the two on edge, "and I wanted to tell you two that... You two may have to end up fighting some tough opponents that may make us put up a 'playground' for you two."

Yuki raised an eyebrow while Mei narrowed her eyes.

"With all do respect, Sir, why are you telling me this? I am Yuki's Operator, so I'm not gonna be out fighting."

"That's true, but we don't exactly know _when_ this invasion will happen. You may not be in a position to be an Operator."

Shinoda noticed that Yuki looked perplexed and let out a sigh.

"I know things will get...difficult when the fighting it over, but-"

"That's not really it." Yuki looked at the ground and bit his lip. "It's just that... I was going to finally put that condition we spoke about into action...but if there's going to be an invasion..."

"...I see...Kuga said that the possible invading countries would leave in a few days. If you can hold off putting that into action it would be helpful."

Director Shinoda couldn't help the pity he felt when he looked at Yuki right now. He knew how important that condition was the the teenager, but all three of them knew how much more important this invasion was.

"We need them to have their focus in the enemies, so it would be helpful if you held for those few days."

"...I know... You're right. I will hold off in telling them."

Both Mei and Shinoda couldn't stand seeing the look on Yuki's face. They both knew the reason for his feeling that way and wanted to help him out, but also knew they couldn't do anything significant until either the possible invasion was over, or the possible invading worlds past by their own.

"Part one."

"Huh?"

Both males looked towards Mei with confused looks.

"You can do part one of you condition today. We're going to go see them right now, so it's the perfect time. When everything settles down, you can do a comparison and see the difference. That's when you can do part two. How does that sound to you two?"

"Mei... Yeah. It sounds good."

"Hm. Leave it to the one with a supercomputer mind as a Side Effect to come up with something that works out for everyone."

Shinoda smiled at the two and nodded his head.

"Alright. As promised, you may test them and we'll figure out if they're ready or not."

"Thank you, Mei! You too, Tora-san!"

"Hahaha! Sure thing."

Mei gave a smile at the sight she hadn't seen in a while and gave her own little laugh.

The other two stared at her in a small amount of shock before getting smiles on their own faces.

"I want you two to promise me something." Shinoda saw that both were looking at him with curious looks and couldn't help the small feeling of pride grow in him. "Whether there's an invasion or not, _never_ lose those smiles. You have both worked extra hard to have them. I don't want to see you both lose them. I'm sure Chishi feels the same way."

"Yes, Sir!"


	13. Tsukiko Squad: Part 3

It was a sight they didn't expect to see, yet weren't shocked in the slightest when they saw it. As a matter-of-fact, the two thought they might as well go get something to eat, come back and _consider_ helping the victims.

The wonderful scene Yuki and Mei had come to when they were going to meet up with their squad was as such; Yoneya having both Midorikawa and Takeshi in a head lock and Suzume on top of Toby's back while seeming to be trying to break his back.

The two felt sorry for the C-Ranks who were currently witnessing this, yet felt no pity for the victims as they could only guess what caused this scene to unfold. They wouldn't even put it past the group to cause the scene just for the heck of it.

Letting out a sigh, Yuki walked forward with Mei right behind him. He clapped his hands and spoke loud enough for them to hear to try and get their attention, but this seemed to have no effect on them.

"Alright now! Suzu-chan, please stop trying to break Toby-kun's back. Yoneya, please let go of Midorikawa and Take-kun!"

"Where is someone like Miwa-kun when you need him?"

"Shut up! We're busy you losers!" both Suzume and Yoneya said as they each threw some random that at Mei's head.

This was the wrong thing to do as a second later a dark aura could be felt around the whole area, causing the two to stop hurting their underclassmen and slowly turned their heads.

What they saw was something akin to a demon with glaring red eyes.

"Oh-ho? You two have guts."

Mei cracked her knuckles while Yuki simply backed away slowly and motioned for the C-Ranks to do the same.

.

"So why were guys causing such a scene?" Yuki asked as he looked down at the five people in front of him and Mei.

All five were sitting seiza-style and either looked down or rubbed their heads. Suzume and Yoneya were sporting _very fashionable_ marks all around their bodies. None of them looked at the two in front of them out of fear of a glare from the female Operator.

"Start talking, or I'll make sure what happened to Suzume and Yosuke looks like _a slap on the wrist_."

"Well... You see... What had happened was..."

* * *

"Hey, let me out, damnit! I'm not in the mood to fight that spear bastard!"

Suzume rubbed her forehead as she and Toby continued to hear Takeshi yelling from the booth he was in. They had just put him in there and she could clearly see that Midorikawa was getting bored on the lower ground.

She was trying to figure out how to get him to fight Yoneya but bribes were a no-go with him, so she had to think of a different approach. This was hard for her only for the fact that she knew her teammate well enough that she could tell how stubborn he would be about it all.

"If you don't fight Yosuke, I won't make you any more food, (you hear me)?" Toby said nonchalantly.

Suzume looked at the brunet with a raised eyebrow. She apparently didn't know of this fact and would later question the two about it. She wasn't complaining though as long as it got Takeshi to fight.

What's more was that it also gave her good material.

There was a small silence in the room and the next thing the two knew, they heard Midorikawa calling them from the lower ground. They quickly made their way down to where he was and looked at the screen to see Yoneya and Takeshi facing each other.

"So how does Kotowari fight?" Midorikawa asked, looking over at the other two. "Knowing your squad, I doubt it's like a normal Shooter."

"Meh. I guess you could say that. Unlike us two, he doesn't have much in style. He doesn't have a Side Effect and to most his fighting seems counterproductive," Suzume answered, turning to the A-Rank. "Although, I will admit that he has skills."

"Hm~~? At least I know I wasn't missing much with his fights... Why does he have his hands in his pockets?"

* * *

Takeshi let out a sigh as he stood in front of Yoneya with a bored look.

While he would rather have not been fighting, he didn't want to deal with the consequences he would have to suffer if Toby had stopped making him food since he himself couldn't cook to save his life.

There was also the fact he had already fought with Yoneya and that he was basically being used as a show for Midorikawa. It was bad enough he had a losing streak to the spear user with a 3:1 ratio, but he wasn't even in the mood for a fight.

"There's no point in just standing here. Let's get started."

Yoneya readied his spear, but was met with another sigh.

"Come on. This won't be any fun if you don't at least try a little."

"Why do you even want to fight me? Tobio would have been a better choice if you wanted to have 'fun,' ya know." Takeshi put his hands in his pockets and jumped back a little. "I guess _I_ don't have a choice though."

He took a glance up at the sky and disappeared from view just as Yoneya charged at him with a spear. He flew into the air and looked down at his opponent. Three green orbs floated around his head before letting out a laser-like beam each.

Yoneya jumped to the side, but instead of waiting for the other to fall down, he started running as a green beam if Trion followed him. He brought his spear up to attack, but quickly dodged to the right as another green laser-like beam came at him from the front.

The two laser-like beams were gone, but the third one was right above him. Unlike the other two, when he dodged, the beam's end changed its direction and headed for him again.

_Viper, huh?_

Yoneya ran through an alleyway as the laser-like beam followed him in it.

He used a trash can to block the attack and put up a Shield as an explosion went off. He jumped for the alleyway onto the roof of the building. He took a large leap to rushed at Takeshi.

Seeing the attack coming, Takeshi jumped back a little and looked passed his opponent.

He could see the spear coming closer to his face, but shocked Yoneya when he appeared behind the older male and shot out three laser-like beams. This worked wonders as it was able to take off one of the spear user's arms.

Not wasting any time, Yoneya turned around and took a slash at Takeshi, which managed to give him a cut by his ribs. The A-Rank tried for another slash, but was blocked by a green orb.

An explosion went off, catching both fighters in it and sending them back with some damage.

Takeshi saw that Yoneya was a little dazed and took the chance to fire three more laser-like beams at him. Two of the beams were dodged while the third one was blocked by a Shield.

The Shield turned out to be useless as multiple smaller beams came from the main third one and moved passed the Shield, piercing through Yoneya.

**Yoneya, Bail Out.**

* * *

"...I'm confused. What just happened?"

Midorikawa sat next to Toby while trying to figure out what he had just seen. He knew that certain ones like Meteora and Viper were being used when Takeshi was attacking, but that was even in question when he saw the three orbs.

"Well, _maybe_ _if you_ _watched Take fight_ you would understand it better," Suzume said as she watched the two go another round. "Honestly, he's your upperclassman and you don't even treat him with respect. But I guess that's asking too much when it comes to you."

"Yeah, yeah, now can you just tell we what was going on?"

"You said it yourself - he isn't like a normal Shooter if he's in our squad," Toby said with a slight pout. "I can't believe he didn't want to fight me..."

"Honestly, get over it. Anyways, Midorikawa, he uses the usual stuff like Asteroid, Viper, Hound, and Meteoria, just not like regular shots. Everyone has just taken to calling his Trigger the Laser-Shooter Trigger. These laser-like beams make it easier for him to make composite shots. He's slower than people like Izumi and Rei-chan, but he's able to _weave attacks together_. Those beams are weaker than a regular shot, but they are also relentless and will pressure the opponent."

"..."

"Yes?"

"...What is this, some sort of crappy fanfic about an underrated manga where the author is running out of ideas for his own character?"

Suzume and Toby looked at Midorikawa like he was crazy while the author continued to think how he could fill up the word count.

"Okaaaaaaaaay then... Back to Take... Those orbs are basically his gun and amo all together, hence why that Meteoria explosion went off when it was stabbed."

"Now I remember why I don't care to watch any of his fights!" Midorikawa said as if he had a revelation. "It's because they're pretty boring!"

Suzume simply let out a small sigh and shook her head. She knew that the two didn't get along, but still thought the younger one would be at least _a little bit_ interested in his upperclassman's skills. Even so, she found that she really enjoyed shipping the two just as much as she shipped her own teammates together (Mei included).

The three continued to watch the two fight until the score was as such: Yoneya with 5 wins and 2 loses, Takeshi with 2 wins and 5 loses. They were approached by the two fighters with the older one grinning like an idiot and the younger one muttering something under his breath.

"So, how'd you guys like the fights?" Yoneya asked, not even trying to hide the smug tone in his voice.

"Boring. Not to mention I'm kinda disappointed that you lost to Kotowari-senpai," Midorikawa answered with a nonchalant shrug.

"It's not my fault this spear-headed guy is too barbaric for me to get a good shot 24/7."

"You two turds! Now you just wanna bug me, dontcha!?"

Yoneya grabbed the two of them by their shirts, brought them closer, and got them each in a headlock.

"Say that again, I dare you."

"Heh heh heh~~~"

Toby gave his female teammate an odd look before saying, "Yosuke, can you let them go? I don't feel like being forced to read more doujinshi about you three by Suzume."

"What!? That was a secret, you idiot!"

"OW! OW! OW! (UNCLE! UNCLE! UNCLE!)"

Toby started slamming his hand on the ground as Suzume sat on top of him and while bending his back too far.

Onlookers simply turned their heads and walked away.

* * *

Sigh.

That was all Yuki did when he was done hearing the little story. He wasn't sure what to say, and it seemed like Mei just wanted to get this all over with.

"Okay... Midorikawa-kun... Why were you trying to break the fourth wall?"

"I was bored."

"Take-kun, why don't you make your own food?"

"Too lazy."

"Yoneya, were you trying to make it so that Suzu-chan would make a doujinshi of you three?"

"No."

"Suzu-chan, what did I say about those doujinshi?"

"Make sure that others honestly don't know I'm making them."

"Toby-kun, what did I tell you to do when Suzu-chan makes you read her doujinshis?"

"To tell you as fast as I can."

"Good. I'm glad you remember. Now, would any of you like to have a solo match with me?"

Right after he said that, the five went wide eyed before _pushing each other_ _out of the way_ and saying they had wanted to fight him.

You see my good readers, it had been a long time since Yuki had challenged someone to a fight. He would always accept a challenge, but never send them out. Even then, he didn't try too hard and that caused the number of challengers to decrease.

Apparently, the five weren't the only ones who had heard him say this as whispers started floating around and some B-Ranks that were around started to slowly inch their way towards the small group. They would have loved to be challenged by the newly A-Rank agent, but they would accept a general fight with him as well.

Mei just watched on with a slightly bored expression.

She could see that Yuki was actually enjoying the small amount of chaos the five were causing and this worried her a little bit. She was also wondering why he was asking the five of them when he had been planning on fighting his own squad.

"Alright! I beat all of you!"

Yoneya and the three B-Ranks muttered curses under their breaths as Midorikawa happily boasted about the fact he won at Janken. He even did a little happy dance that none of them _ever_ wanted to see again.

"Looks like I'm fighting you, Midorikawa-kun," Yuki said with a smile that unnerved the other a little bit. "I can't remember... I fought you before? I'm pretty sure I've gone against Yosuke before, and I've obviously trained with my own squad..."

_'Yosuke'?_

"I think this is our first fight. Every time I've wanted to fight you, you always seemed to not be feeling well."

"Well this time I'm feeling good, so this will be our first fight. Let's both do our best, okay?"

Yuki continued to smile, but not his usual kind one. This one seemed to have something under it that none of them could figure out.

Deciding it was best to just get the fight started, Midorikawa went to one of the booths while Yuki went to a different one.

"Suzume..."

"Hm? Yeah, Mei-san?"

"Do you think you could..."

Mei looked from the two that just left to the girl next to her with a serious expression.

"Could you make a fanfic or doujinshi with the main pairing be Yandere!YukiMidori? You could add whatever other ship you want, but it must be that one."

"Ooohhh~~~~ A challenge! I like it!" Suzume gave the Operator a salute and said, "You can count on me, Mei-san! I won't let you, or the fanbase, down!"

 _There's...a fanbase...for those two?_ The three other males thought with shivers running down their spines. _...Does that mean there are fanbases for us!?_

* * *

"Remember, Midorikawa-kun, don't go easy."

"I wasn't planning on it."

Midorikawa rushed forward with a Scorpion in each hand. He tried multiple slashes, but they were all easily dodged. He saw something from the corner of his eye and jumped back just in time to dodge some Meteora.

He looked up and saw that Yuki was simply standing there with the smile still on his face and a small cube of Trion next to him.

That was when he noticed something was off.

"Yuki-senpai... You don't have Kōgetsu out..."

"Hm? Oh. Yeah. I was busy using a customized Trigger and kinda forgot about Kōgetsu," Yuki said with a sheepish laugh. "Don't worry though, I'll be fine with Scorpion and the like."

_Is...he underestimating me?_

Midorikawa rushed forward again, but had to dodge the other Meteora that was heading for him.

When he was close enough, he brought out some Grasshoppers and was quickly behind Yuki. He took a slash at the neck, but it was blocked by a Scorpion coming out of Yuki's neck. He used his other blade for a stab through the chest, but that was also blocked. He brought his leg up and brought out another Scorpion after getting rid of the first one.

"Too obvious. Are you sure you aren't going easy, Midorikawa?"

Midorikawa went wide eyed and jumped away before he was pierced by multiple Scorpions that were coming out of Yuki's back.

"That was actually bad on your part, Midorikawa. I have Toby on my squad, so using something like Hedgehog isn't much of a problem for me."

Yuki got a doubtful look on his face before letting out a sigh.

The Trion cube next to him was gone and a single Scorpion appeared in his hand.

"There we go. I'll just use Scorpion, a single Optional Trigger, nothing from my squad, and my Side Effect to fight. 'kay?"

Midorikawa was now really confused.

He, like most people, knew that Yuki was kind and humble above all, but he seemed to have an aura of arrogance over him at the moment. The smile on his face also didn't help the situation.

Not thinking any more about it, Midorikawa jumped up and brought down his two Scorpions. While one was met with another Scorpion, the second one didn't hit it's mark since Yuki had grabbed his wrist.

Midorikawa brought his leg up again as a replacement for the one being held back, but Yuki let go and moved back a little bit before rushing forward with his own blade at the ready.

He was quick enough to land a cut on Midorikawa and sever his arm.

He went for another attack but was launched into the air. He looked down to see that he had stepped on a Grasshopper and that Midorikawa was coming towards him.

He caught himself and started to fall down to meet the attack head on.

When the two landed, they each had a new wound with Midorikawa's being on his cheek and Yuki's being on his side.

Yuki turned around and saw that Midorikawa had used another Grasshopper as a springboard and was speeding towards him. He brought up his blade and the two clashed. He had to step back before being cut by yet another leg Scorpion.

Midorikawa didn't relent and went for multiple different strikes using his remaining arm and two legs. He was determined to make sure that Yuki didn't have time to land a counter attack and made sure to leave no open spots for a surprise Scorpion.

It worked well for a while, but it didn't last long.

Midorikawa clicked his tongue as he noticed that Yuki had started using his Side Effect. Now instead of pushing the older one back with multiple strikes, the two were stationary and every attack Midorikawa made was mirrored back in the same fashion by Yuki. The only difference was that Yuki still had a remaining arm.

With two Scorpions in his hand, Yuki continued copy Midorikawa's every move as well as making more cuts appear on the younger boy's body.

Seeing that Midorikawa would run out of trion soon, Yuki jumped back, making the other lose balance for a moment. But instead of using that to his advantage, Yuki simply stood still as his opponent got his balance.

"We're about done here."

"I'm still here... Even if I'm gonna have to Bail Out soon, I still have some time," Midorikawa said as he readied his blade.

Yuki let out a sigh and shook his head before pointing at Midorikawa's arm and saying, "Look at your arm. You haven't even noticed that I've already used the Optional Trigger on you."

Doing as he was told, Midorikawa looked at his arm and went wide eyed when he saw the Tsukiko Squad emblem on his wrist. The same wrist that Yuki had grabbed to stop his attack. He hadn't seen a Trigger like this, so he was confused as to what it could do, but had no time to think about it.

Yuki had suddenly appeared in front of him slashed at him so fast he didn't have time to react. He was quickly split in half.

**Midorikawa, Bail Out.**


	14. Hoshi Taiyōko

"Alright, just shut the hell up."

"Look, it's not my fault Suzume threatened to tell everyone we know that I still like TTTE."

"That's true, but do you have to read that..thing out loud?"

Both Toby and Takeshi were walking to school while the brunet had his phone in his hand with a draft of Suzume's newest fanfiction on it. From the time the two had left their apartment building, Toby had been reading it with his teammate wanting to stab his own eardrums from having to heard something erotic about his upperclassmen/captain and someone whose fighting had interested him.

Toby didn't like it any more than his teammate, but he knew the terrors that Suzume could cause if he didn't read her fanfictions for errors. While Mei could easily beat him black and blue without a second though, Suzume would socially ruin him as easily as breathing.

He found that the two combined would possibly kill someone without anyone else noticing.

They were truly terrifying girls when they wanted to be.

"Look, if I have to suffer, then so do you," Toby said with a shrug. "If it makes you feel any better, you don't have to read, and I don't torture you with her 'long, super erotic, lemony, sexy time, make any fangirls get massive nosebleeds' fanfics."

Takeshi turned his head to face Toby and gave an _actual_ look of pity. He knew he would have gouged his eyes out after reading only _one_ of those fanfictions. On the flip side, he wondered if Toby was either corrupted enough to the point where he doesn't mind reading this, or might actually _enjoy_ reading them, he was just mentally strong enough to read them, or he was mentally unstable enough to read them.

He felt like he didn't want to find out the answer to that.

"She does make up for it from time to time by making some Yuri stuff. They aren't particularly long, but still good nevertheless. Her het ones are pretty good too."

Takeshi shook his head and continued to walk while trying to forget the two had even talked the whole day.

"Ah... Maybe I should ask later..."

The two froze and turned around to see Midorikawa looking uncomfortable. They started to sweat a little while the atmosphere continued to grow extremely awkward.

Without a second thought, the two older ones quickly went to their underclassmen with Toby grabbing him in a headlock and Takeshi holding two overly sharpened pencils at his eyes.

"What did you hear, (you damn little brat)!"

"N-nothing! I didn't hear anything!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, yes! I was on my way to school and just happened to see you two!"

Letting out a huff, Toby released Midorikawa while Takeshi put his pencils away.

Both look at Midorikawa and said, "And it'll stay that way. _Got it?_ "

"Yes, Sirs!"

With that all being said and done, the three started making their way to school. While this seemed like an odd thing to see, the three could usually be seen walking together every now and then. It would almost always end up with Midorikawa having to run away before Takeshi tried to strangle him.

The two older ones were a little unnerved when they were almost at the school and Midorikawa hadn't insulted Takeshi yet. It was almost unheard of for the younger one to _not_ insult Takeshi at any chance he could.

"Shun... You okay, buddy?" Toby asked as they all walked towards the school building.

Toby and Takeshi had left earlier than usual, so they had time to spare.

"I was wondering..." Midorikawa looked at the two with a confused expression they didn't expect to see. "Yesterday, when I was fighting Yuki-senpai, were you actually paying attention to the fight?"

"What a stupid question. Of course we were," Takeshi said with a small huff. He gave a glance down at the other one when he didn't get an insult. "Why? Is there something particular you wanted us to tell you?"

Although Takeshi would take any chance to seem superior to the younger one, he felt that the situation was off, so he decided to be a good upperclassman, for the time being.

"Did something seem off with Yuki-senpai? If anyone would know, it's you guys."

The two looked at each with their own confused expression. They hadn't seen anything wrong with their leader. They did find it odd that he stopped using most of his Triggers and stuck to Scorpion and Teleport in the latter half of the fight, but chalked it up to him being nice and wanting to be on equal footing with his opponent.

Takeshi tried to think extra hard about it since he knew Yuki the longest between their squad (besides Mei) and felt he would have found if something really did seem off with their captain.

Then he remembered the smile Yuki has before the fight began and how it seemed to make Midorikawa a little nervous. He hadn't seen a smile like that on Yuki's face before, so it took him by surprise, yet it felt like it belonged on his face somehow. It looked the same as his other smiles, yet had a completely different and subtle feeling to it.

"...Maybe..."

Takeshi let out a sigh and looked back at his underclassmen with his usual expression back.

"You're just overthinking things. Hm. That's must be hard for a mutt like you."

Feeling that the atmosphere was lightening up a little bit, Midorikawa smirked and turned his head up while saying, "Say what you will, but remember that _I_ was the one who fought against _your captain_. Maybe he just likes me more."

"That's just because he felt sorry for you. And if I remember correctly, you got your ass handed to you." Takeshi got a smug look on his face as he saw the other's ego deflate a little. "A mutt like you shouldn't be so arrogant as to think he could stand a chance against Senpai. I mean, I could probably beat you too."

"At least I'm not crushing hard on my captain." Midorikawa smirked when he saw the other flinch. "I should just call you Yaoi-senpai. I'm sure you give Misaki-senpai enough ideas to write about with just your mumbling."

That's when the chase was on.

Toby ignored the chase and headed for his class. He knew this would take a while, so he didn't bother trying to stop it. With this being a sort of norm for most, the other students didn't both with it either.

* * *

"That's all for now. If you haven't finished writing what's on the board down then you get to stay here."

Toby let out a yawn as he lifted his arms to stretch and heard the cracks that came with it.

He looked over and saw that Takeshi was just silently sitting at his desk. Deciding he didn't want to be in the class for lunch, Toby stood up and headed for the door. He could hear Takeshi's chair move and just continued for the door.

"Try not to get in trouble," Akasora said, not even looking at his students.

The two just nodded their heads and walked out. Not having anything particular to talk about the two walked in silence with Takeshi reading the latest volume of some kind of light novel and Toby just humming to himself.

They were greeted by a few students, but otherwise kept to themselves. It was one of those rare, yet nice moments when they weren't messing with each other, or just talking too loudly, so no one bothered them to keep the peace.

"Kotowari-kun, Awdry-kun, are you going to the roof?"

The two turned around to see a girl looking at them. She had mid-back length hair with some of it covering her right eye. She had black eyes and a kind smile on her face. Overall she gave off the feeling of a princess who should be protected at all costs.

The two recognized her as a girl from their class. They were always kind to her and vice versa. They also always found her appearance to resemble someone's, but could never think of who. She was also a member of Border, but was only a C-Rank trainee, so she would ask them for advice from time-to-time.

"Hey, Hoshi. Yeah, we were going to the roof. You wanna come with us?" Toby asked, looking at her with an oddly calm expression.

"That sounds nice. Okay."

"Oh no..."

Takeshi face-palmed when he saw a certain someone walking towards them and not even seeming to be looking at where he was going. He had a hotdog and a cup in his hand as he enjoyed his lunch.

"That mutt again."

"You really don't get along with Midorikawa-kun, do you?" Hoshi said with a small giggle.

"It's not my fault he's a mutt. Although that's why he works so well with Toby and Inukai-senpai."

"Ah, it's you guys again. Hello, Taiyōko-senpai," Midorikawa said as he walked up to the trio.

"Hello, Midorikawa-kun. How are you?"

"I'm fine. Why are you hanging out with Yaoi-senpai?"

"'Yaoi-senpai'? What do you mean?"

Takeshi quickly grabbed Midorikawa in a headlock and tightened his grip while Hoshi tilted her head in confusion.

Toby shook his head once he saw Hoshi's confusion.

* * *

The school day was done and almost everyone had left the school grounds.

Hoshi had said her farewells to her friends before walking to her home.

Along the way she was greeted by a few people she had seen before. She gladly returned the greeting and finished her walk to her home.

Once she reached the place, she got changed into something more comfortable and fixed her hair a bit by putting a hair clip to hold up the hair that was blocking her right eye. She left the home with a bag over her shoulder. She figured she would go out for a walk since the day seemed to nice to her.

She walked in the grace of royalty and held herself in such a dignified manner that passing people couldn't help but to stare at her for longer than they probably should have.

This was nothing new for her. But that wasn't to say she enjoyed it. She had gotten use to the staring, even when she was young people would stare. Nothing had had ever really happened to her so there was no need for her to be on guard.

Even so, she did keep some guard up, but that was more because of what family she came from.

She continued on with her walk she walked towards a bridge and that's when she noticed it happen.

* * *

Mikumo Osamu heard the sound of water.

What confused him was that the sound was coming from his own mouth.

He had lost his balance while standing on a bridge and he had ended up in the middle of a river. He couldn't feel the bottom below his feet. He wasn't great at swimming, but he wasn't particularly bad at it either. However, with his clothes soaked and lack of breath due to already jogging for a while, he wasn't floating very well.

There was no sign that anyone was nearby.

He had no idea how deep the water was.

It was possible it wasn't very deep at all, but it was definitely enough for Mikumo to drown in given how disoriented he was. The water wasn't doing anything except making him panic.

He began paddling the water with his arms at a rate 2 or 3 times slower than his racing thoughts.

His arms were shaking terribly.

The shaking was due to his muscles being tired, the water robbing his body of heat, and the fear that he would never get his head out of the water. All of this put together made him feel like something was restraining his movements.

_Oh, crap._

The air he had stored in his mouth came spilling out.

He could see the light of the sun shining on the surface above his head.

The dancing light threw his sense of distance out of whack.

_Is this really how I go out...?_

As Mikumo stared at the surface, he saw what looked like an odd revolving lantern coming down towards him.

The surface burst open with a large number of bubbles.

_...!_

Before Mikumo could be surprised, a slender hand reached out from the white curtain of air.

Just as he realized someone must have dived into the water, the white hand grabbed his wrist.

He was then pulled up by a strong force.

Mikumo's body was oddly limp as he was pulled towards the surface as if by a rope.

It didn't even take 10 seconds for his face to breach the surface and meet the air.

He heard a loud splash.

He had a hard time breathing in the oxygen he had been wishing for so badly.

The muscles moving his throat and lungs weren't working properly.

"A-are you okay!?"

He heard a girl's voice nearby.

His clothes continued to act as a weight pulling Mikumo's body down. The girl raised her voice as she supported both their weights.

"I'm going to head for the bank. Just stay limp like that!"

When they got near the riverside...or rather a shallower portion of the river, Mikumo managed to sit down. Due to his clothes absorbing so much water, he felt very heavy.

"I-I'm sorry about this!"

The girl stretched out her slender hand.

Mikumo heard something rip and felt cold hair hit his bare chest.

He then slowly stood up from the portion of the river he was in that was no deeper than a puddle.

He looked up and saw the sun in the sky. But there was no one else around except for Mikumo and the girl. This area was never that populated to begin with, so that was to be expected.

He looked around.

There was an arch-shaped stone bridge nearby.

The girl may have jumped into the water from there.

Mikumo then turned towards the girl who had saved him.

She looked about the same age as Mikumo.

She had straight black hair and a hair clip keeping a part of it from covering her right eye. She was wearing a pink tank top and white knee-length pants. She had an overall slender silhouette.

"Did you swallow any water...?"

The girl looking at him worriedly looked familiar.

He was pretty sure she was...

"Cough. Taiyōko?"

"Ah, yes. Nice to see you again."

Hoshi cutely bowed her head.

But she lived pretty far from the area. She shouldn't have been within a mile radius of this place.

_Why is Taiyōko here?_

Mikumo slightly tilted his head this time.

"Hey, Taiyōko. What were you doing all the way over here?"

"I was on a walk. I suppose I wasn't really paying much attention to my surroundings though. What about you?"

Betraying Mikumo's expectations, Hoshi cocked her head to the side in confusion.

"Cough. I was going on a jog with my squad. They went on ahead since I had to catch my breath. I guess I got a bit lightheaded and lost my balance."

Hoshi brought her hand to her mouth in surprise.

"You should be very careful, Mikumo-kun. You should always keep track of how you are doing and make sure that you are not over doing it. Where were you and your squad heading on this jog? Any place particular?"

Mikumo was faced with an even more basic question.

He scratched at his hair that was wet with dirty river water as he answered.

"Not really. We left from the Tamakoma branch office and were headed back there. I don't know if you know this already, but I'm now part of Tamakoma."

"I see. That is very good to hear. I myself have thought about joining the Suzunari branch, but decided against it. Ah! I am sorry! You did not ask about that!"

"..."

Osamu wasn't really paying attention. But then he blinked.

"Suzunari branch?"

"Hm? Did you not know? There are multiple branches in Mikado City, not just Tamakoma. In total there are 6 branches in Border. Personnel that are not aiming for A-Rank, most of the time, are associated with a branch. They are placed on the outside of the danger zone, and act as a contact point for locals. Tamakoma. Suzunari. Wataayu. Yumite District. Hayanuma. Hisama. They are the branches."

Mikumo slowly nodded his head in understandment.

"Not to sound rude, but why would _you_ want to join a branch?"

Hoshi pushed her hair back a bit.

And then she remembered something.

"A-ah... Can I go get my bag before I answer that?"

"Your bag?"

"I left it on top of the bridge. I-I'm a little worried it might get stolen."

She must be referring to the arch-shaped bridge that was nearby.

Apparently, she really had jumped from the bridge.

"I see. Oh, and thanks. I really would have been in trouble if you hadn't saved me."

"No, no! It was nothing, really!"

Hoshi shook her head back and forth at an amazing speed and waved her hands in front of her face as she said that. Small droplets of water flew from her fingertips.

Seeing that, Mikumo asked her a question.

"Oh, one more thing, Taiyōko. Do you have a change of clothes in your bag?"

"Eh? W-well, as a member of a military family I must always be prepared."

She was confused by Mikumo's sudden question, but a bit of pride could be seen in her expression as she gave that explanation.

"My home is a bit too far away, but I do have a change of clothes with me in case I got too sweaty and needed to enter a store or restaurant. I haven't had to use it so far, though."

"I see. Good."

"?"

Hoshi still didn't understand what he was talking about.

But Mikumo was reluctant to directly tell her.

So he moved his gaze from Hoshi to the blue sky and pointed at what he was talking about.

"..."

Hoshi followed Mikumo finger with her eyes and saw what he was pointing at.

Her chest.

More specifically, at her pink tank top that had gone see-through and was sticking to her from being wet and thus was causing her full silhouette to be visible.

Now, Hoshi was a girl with a peaceful and honest personality.

Even with Mikumo directly pointing out the issue, she made no eccentric actions such as slapping him, biting his head, or anything else. Her face merely turned bright red and she gave a strained laugh. She merely said, "Ah. Ah ha ha. Sorry about showing you that. Ah ha ha ha ha," and crossed her arms to hide her chest and jogged off towards the stone bridge the bag with her change of clothes was on.

She was smiling, but there was a hint of tears in her eyes. It felt like a quite sensible and adult reaction.

"Hmm..."

For some reason, Mikumo was left feeling really awkward about the whole thing.

He stared off into the distance wishing she had at least screamed or something.

Ten minutes later, Hoshi was back wearing different clothes leaving Mikumo wondering where exactly she had changed. She was dry now, but she must have still smelled of river water, because he could tell she had put on some perfume.

"S-sorry for keeping you."

Hoshi had a large bag over her shoulder.

She was wearing a pale ice cream-like green blouse and dark brown pants short enough to leave her calves visible. The blouse was made of material so thin it almost made you think you would be able to see through it if the sun was shining on it.

That shirt was all she was wearing on her upper body.

"...Taiyōko-san?"

"I-I had no choice! I only had it to put on over the tank top to make it look like a different outfit! So please don't say anything!"

It seemed she was telling the truth, because on closer inspection the blouse didn't even have buttons. Tying the front was the only way of keeping it closed.

She must have known that she was pushing it with that outfit, because she curled up a bit to avoid Mikumo's silent gaze.

But she was stuck in this situation because she had jumped into the river to save him.

Mikumo used all the limited resources of his brain to try and find something to say.

"Would you like to come with me back to the Tamakoma branch office?"

Why that had come out if his mouth was something the Megane didn't understand.

Regardless, looked at her, waiting for an answer.

"A-ah! If you d-do not mind... I would much like to dry my clothes before heading home..."

"It's fine. I'm sure no one would mind. Besides, you saving me back there is certain to have everyone on your side."

"Ah. That is nice to know. Shall we go then?"


	15. Invasion

January 20th.

That was when it happened.

One hasn't happened since around four year ago, but they expected it.

They prepared for it.

One of them had seen it.

Another one had calculated it.

A third one made sure it happened.

* * *

**Warning: A Gate is opening. Large-scale outbreak of Gates confirmed. Anyone in the vicinity of the Forbidden Zone, please evacuate at once.**

* * *

"There are... 38... 39... 40 Gates! And counting!"

"Squads on duty deploy according to their Operators' instructions! Destroy all Trion Soldiers! Don't let a single one outside the Forbidden Zone! Tell all off-duty agents! Every agent to the front to counter the threat! Battle commence!"

* * *

Kimura Kawaguchi was already in her seat when she heard the alarms going off. She had been let out of school to work on some things for Border, so it was easy for her to be ready for the attack on the city.

"Everyone is close by each other. You all make sure to get to each other quickly."

_"Why do I feel like you're directing that towards me, Kawa-tan~"_

"Because you of all people will probably ditch just to see how things turn out in the end."

_"Hey~ I dooooo care about this fight though~ I feel quite offended that you would say such a thing to keep of all people~"_

_"Both of you need to be quite! Misó, hurry up and don't lag! Captain, I'm meeting up with you in a minute or two!"_

_"Right. Kimura-chan, we're relying on you to tell us where to go."_

With that the line went quiet.

Kimura nodded to herself as she looked at the screen in front of her.

She wished she could be out there and help them out, but she knew this is what she could do to help them now. If it helped in any way then it was fine with her.

Seeing all the dots on her screen gave her a better understanding of how things would turn out for each one of her teammates. Both former and current.

"I should contact Kanzaki at the least. There's someone I would like to have her keep an eye on."

The girl would likely have to fight along side other B-Rank agents and A-Rank agents, yet Kimura knew that the single girl could rival some of the A-Rank agents and would be fine telling her to do a favor.

The thought of contacting her other two former teammates came to mind, but she knew just how they would handle this kind of question. It was even more of a negative when she thought about their current situation and how they would be handling the invasion as a whole.

She knew all her teammates too well.

* * *

Takato Mei let out a sigh when she stopped from her walk through the park as she saw the Gates open up and Neighbors coming through by the dozens. None of that seemed to affect her as she simply stood there with her phone to her ear.

The entire day she had been thinking of what could happen and what the odds of them happening were.

Now that everything came to the forefront, she had a great understanding as to what would occur during the invasion.

With prior knowledge given to her by Jin and his foresight, she readied herself to realign the situation to a point where everything would work out. She would force the turn of events to the path that Jin determined as the "best solution for all" and would take as much risks as needed.

Her status, the status of her team and the status of everything else would be something that she would throw away in order to cooperate and assist one of the two people who understood her best.

That was why she spoke to the second person who understood her with a calm and collected tone.

"Yeah, I know. It's pretty hard notto hear. Don't ask me such stupid questions next time. It will mess me up and, as a result, I will mess you up."

_"That's not very nice. Although that's understandable when the two of us work off of each other to the point of dependency. Well, either way, I guess Tora-san was right. You're gonna have to make your way to the base this time around. You staying out too long will just drag you back into the name of Ramage Dress."_

"I guess so... Oh well. I might as well get rid of the ones in front of me first. I'm just glad there's no one around right now. Even if it's a moment... I should be able to rid myself of that damned nickname before anything comes of it."

 _"I just got the orders from HQ, so I'll be fighting for a while. Try not to cause_ _too much_ _collateral, okay? If you do, just say that it was all an accident and that it was because the Neighbors wouldn't move out of your way. Simple."_

 _"_ Having me lie is really a stupid thing to try. I'm better off forcing my way through and taking the responsibility of my actions instead of getting in trouble for something so childish. Actually... When I think about it... You should be fighting right now."

_"What do you think I'm doing?"_

"Being an idiot. Now focus on what is in front of you and not what I wll do to you when this is all over and you haven't gotten anything done."

With that, the line went dead.

Mei let out another sigh as she put her phone away and pulled something out of her pocket.

She didn't really want to fight at the moment, but knew she would have to make it passed the horde of Trion Soldiers before she could make it to the base of operation for Border.

"Well...I might as well get started."

The soldiers started charging at her, but she did not seem to mind and simply lifted her arm.

"Trigger on."

* * *

"We shall now see what will happen. How will things turn out? Will Border be victorious or will the Neighbors? This will provide me with a good amount of information. I just need to wait everything out until it's all over."

Misó Epanástasi looked around at all the Gates opening up.

He had been waiting for this moment. The moment where he would see a large-scale invasion that could get things going for him.

He saw a large amount of Trion soldiers going straight towards him. He brought out two blades and got ready for the long fight ahead of them all.

* * *

"Sensei, we just got orders from HQ, so we need you and the C-Ranks to help evacuate everyone else out of here. There are some headed this way, so we'll take care of them while we go meet up with the rest of our team."

Kotowari Takeshi stood with the other agents at the school. The school had to evacuate due to the current invasion, so the agents that were there got to work.

Takeshi had taken (read: been forced) control of the situation by directing any C-Rank Border agents to help with evacuation while telling the B-Rank agents and single A-Rank agent to go out for the actual fights.

His teacher had been put (read: been forced) into the position of leader for the general civilians who were not affiliated with Border in any way. He was in charge of controlling anyone who thought it was best to run in a random direction.

"Sure thing. Just leave it to us. It's our job after all."

Takeshi nodded his head and turned around to leave when a surprise came in the form of multiple Neighbors fell from the sky. There were multiple Marmods and Bados.

"There... There are so many of them!"

Inushiba, a rather pudgy student, along with most of the students, started sweating when they saw the Neighbors slowly making their way towards the ground.

"There's no way you lot can take on that many!"

"Just shut up and go."

Under normal circumstances, the amount of Trion Soldiers would be an annoyance that Takeshi would not want to deal with. Given the current situation, though, he faced the lot of them as three Trion Orbs appeared by his head.

With no mercy given, he fired the laser-like beams that resembled something from a science fiction movie that forced electrons to become both a particle or wave, and as a result are unable to react as either one when hitting a solid object The attack, while looking like some such sort of attack, contained no heat or friction towards the air and simply pierced through the cores of the Neighbors as if they were paper.

"Ah. I suppose this would be a good time to give off the impression of a villain who ranks #4 among the best by saying something along the lines of, 'Inuuuuuuuushiiiiiiiibaaaaaaaaa!' But I will hold back from that due to the masses."

.

Toby Awdry, a B-Rank Attacker, shook his head as he turned to two other people. One was a boy with goggles while another was a girl with blond hair. Those two were Noah Shor - captain of Shor Squad - and Shana Lee of another Tsukiko Squad.

"Hey, you two better go and meet up with your teams. We B-Ranks aren't suppose to fight if we can't meet up with our teams, so you two need to go now. If Take and I are here then we should be fine to fight. Not to mention Shun is with us."

"Right. We'll leave these ones to you."

Noah and Shana started to make their way through the Trion Soldiers and towards the direction of their respective teams.

"Was that really the best choice? Like you had told them... You guys shouldn't be fighting without your teams, or at least a team in general. I know those two aren't half bad, but they don't really reach your level, Toby. They could end up leaving the battlefield before they even get to their teams."

"Now you're just being a little shit. Those two will manage just fine. Besides, if they happen to find another team then it will work out fine enough."

"If you say so," Midorikawa said with a shrug. "But we should start focusing on theses ones before Yaoi-senpai over there destroys the school."

"Fixing aim towards an idiotic mutt who doesn't know when to shut up."

"Hey! Change the aim back towards those things before firing at Shun! At least let me get out of the way first!"

Doing as he was told, begrudgingly, Takeshi corrected his aim. The laser-like beams started firing towards the Marmods on the ground.

Following his lead, Toby and Midorikawa rushed forward with Scorpion blades in hand.

They made quick work of a single Marmod while already preparing for the next target.

While Toby moved through each attack in a chain that corrected itself for every mistake made, Midorikawa made sure to stay out of range of each attack while finding the best spots to move forward. The two continued this while laser-like beams missed them and instead attacked the ones they could not reach.

Takeshi stood in place and put his hands in his pocket as five green orbs appeared by his head. He looked up and each orb shot out a green laser-like towards the flying ones. He managed to destroy some of them, but other dodged the attacks.

The ones who dodged the laser-like beams were being chased by the same beams and ended up colliding with each other, making them a big enough target for Takeshi to take down.

He took a sideways glance to see that a few Marmods were heading towards him.

Due to the limitations of his Laser Shooter Trigger, he was forced to move every single one of his Trion Orbs to attack the oncoming Neighbor. Making Moreland always been an option, but that would always run the risk of losing control of some of them. Each one was forced to fire in a straight line that tore through the enemies, yet left some weak spot for him.

.

Meanwhile, Toby stood on a fallen Marmod while he looked around to see more coming his way. He put away the Scorpion in his hand and let out a sigh.

Multiple Scorpions sprang from his body and covered him.

No. From the perspective of an outsider, it would indeed seem as if multiple blades came from his body. The reality of what was going on was just as simple, yet not something easily mimicked.

Singular blades repeatedly extended and retracted from Toby's body at such a rapid pace that it gave off the impression that multiple blades were coming out of his body instead.

Using specific spaces on his back, front and sides, Toby was quick to put himself in a spin that would move through the air and on the ground with little to no effort. Each blade that came from his body had been calculated to a point where it effected his fighting.

That had been enough for him to move through each Neighbor while taking them out in the minimal amount of time.

.

As the evacuation continued for the certain school, the three Border agents continued their battle against the Neighbors.

The matter of numbers never came up as the three alone were enough to decrease the large numbers easily.

* * *

"The Trion soldiers have split into groups. They're heading into the city from all directions. They appear to be headed...west, northwest, east, south, and southwest away from us!"

Sawamura Kyōko reported everything in a calm tone as everyone in the room saw the dots appearing on the screen.

They had prepared for this invasion and would retaliate in the appropriate manner. They wouldn't let themselves be trampled over by their opponents.

"Split the teams into three groups. Send them east, south and southwest!"

"W-wait a second, Director Shinoda! What about the west and northwest!?"

"Don't worry. We've got that covered. _Jin and Amo are headed there._ "

Director Shinoda Masafumi spoke with no worry or doubt. He focused on what needed to be done at the moment and nothing else.

PR Director Netsuki seemed to take this well as he calmed down a bit.

They all knew that those two would be enough to take out whatever got in their way.

"The other fronts are the problem. We can't let the rest of the Neighbors enter the city before our teams catch up. Kinuta-san?"

"I know. I worked with Fuyushima to make a plan."

* * *

In multiple areas, explosive shots were fired and large blades spung up from the ground.

The Trion Soldiers that walked on the ground were destroyed by these attacks. Some were able to move out of the way of the large blades while others seemed to keep moving regardless of the shots being fired.

That was fine.

The directors watching the areas knew that this was a fine situation.

After all...

_"Suwa Squad has arrived! We'll eliminate the Neighbors!"_

_"Hikigane Squad here. Sigh. We're takin' 'em out."_

_"Suzunari-1 here! Combat initiated!"_

_"Azuma Squad has arrived. Commencing attack."_

* * *

"Kazama, Arashiyama, Hatohara squads... Arafune, Kakizaki, Chano squads... All heading to their targets while eliminating Trion Soldiers!"

"Good. Have them join up! They'll work together to defend the city."

"Wait... Oh... Takato Mei is heading to the base while taking out large amounts of Trion soldiers! Tsukiko Yuki seems to have made his own area and is also taking out a good amount of Trion Soldiers himself!"

"Those two... Fine. We'll leave those two be, for now. Once Yuki meets up with his team they will also join up with the others."

* * *

"..."

Misó Epanástasi was crouched down in front of a fallen Bambster with a dull expression. He moved his hand across the shell of the Trion Soldier before pulling out a piece of paper and placing it in one of the small cracks he himself had made.

"Hey, Misó. What are you doing!?"

The one who yelled at him was his teammate - Teikō Hitsugi. She and their captain walked up to the male as he stood up.

Misó turned to his teammates with a grin in place.

"Ah~ Sorry~ I just wanted to see something. We usually just leave things to HQ when it comes to these things, so I wanted to really check some of these out before we moved on."

"We don't have time for-"

"Hitsu-chan, it's fine. Kirai-kun is just curious, so we can give him a minute or two."

Oshiro gave a kind smile to his team.

Hitsugi huffed and crossed her arms while Misó continued to grin.

He looked around a bit more at different ones while placing the same pieces of paper at the different hole that were made.

He stood straight up and looked over to his team, Oshiro was continuing to smile while Hitsugi just let out another huff. It seemed that the two did not notice what he was doing.

"This really isn't the time for this crap. We need to hurry up and get to the next area. We're in the middle of an invasion. If this takes any longer then I'm going to go by myself to deal with these things!"

_"She's right. And our captain doesn't seem like he can wait any longer. Misó, hurry up and get done with it before he does something dangerous again."_

Misó and Hitsugi looked over to see Oshiro looking around with a large of concern on his face. They both knew he could not stand not helping others out, so it really was best to leave right now.

Even if he would want to see something dangerous happen to his captain, even Misó understood that it was best to keep things in order or things would get to a point where it would be unkept chaos.

"Alright, alright. Let's get going then."

* * *

On the battlefield with Azuma Squad...

The final Trion Soldier in the area fell to the ground as Koarai jumped to the ground. They had all done what they needed to. Now they just had to go to the other teams and group up.

"Azuma-san, that was the last one," Koarai said as he turned to his captain.

"Okay. We'll go assist the other-"

**KRAKL**

Hearing the odd noise, Azuma turned around.

The shell of the Bambster near the team started to crack open. A large, white arm could be seen coming out as another followed and grabbed the bottom of the shell.

"...!?"

Once the something came out of the fallen Bambster, the team could see exactly what it was.

"What's that?"

There, standing in front of Azuma Squad, was a Trion Soldier that had a bulky build, with wide shoulders and long, large arms with three fingers and no thumbs, and also short but thick legs which ended on long two-toed feet. It had a long neck ending in a head roughly resembling a rabbit head. The interior of its mouth was black and it had a green core inside. It also had black stripes running through its shoulders until its hands, with black shield-like shapes in the sides of its shoulders, and the sides of its torso are also black. It also has a lizard-like tail.

The whole team was quick to put up their guard and prepare for an attack.

"Is it a Trion soldier!? I've never seen one like it before."

Loud sounds could be heard coming from the distance.

Azuma took notice of this.

"We can't just stare at each other like this. We're too close..."

"Azuma-san, go fight the other! We'll take this-"

"Okudera!"

"!"

Okudera was quick to turn around and jumped back just in time to dodge a punch from this new Trion Soldier. He could do nothing as the same arm came back and swatted him away like an insect.

Okudera flew threw multiple buildings, destroying each one, before finally stopping once he did not have enough force to his forced flight.

"Okudera! Respond!"

_"I... I'm fine... I think..."_

Koarai did not take kindly to seeing his teammate get send flying and jumped up with his sword ready to strike.

"Koarai, don't! It wants us to split up! Wait until Okudera comes back!"

It was too late.

This new Trion Soldier that had swatted Okudera away like a bug grabbed Koarai before his attack could connect. It smashed him into the nearby wall afterwards.

"Let go, you...!"

Koarai tried to free himself by stabbing into the new Trion Soldier.

It grabbed his arms.

As easily as taking apart a plastic doll, the new Trion Soldier pulled with little effort and ripped Koarai's arms off.

The new Trion Soldier's chest opened up with six insect leg-like tentacles folded out and circle around its newly captured prey.

"Koarai!"

Azuma brought up his gun and fired a shot from the most powerful Sniper rifle - Ibis.

It had no effect when the new Trion Soldier brought up its arm to block.

"AAAAAHHH! AZUMA-SAN!"

Thinking quickly, Azuma lifted his Ibis once again. This time, however, instead of aiming at the new Trion Soldier, he aimed at his own teammate and fired.

**Bail Out.**

Koarai turned into light before flying off towards the Border base and landing on the mat in Azuma Squad's room.

Azuma kept his rifle up in order to defend himself. He started to speak while keeping an eye on the new Trion Soldier.

"Shinoda-san, Azuma here! We've encountered a new type of Trion soldier! It's over three meters tall. A bipedal humanoid. Small, but powerful! It's trying to capture out agents. Everyone take caution. Over."

* * *

It did not take too long for the agents at a certain school to end it.

Kotowari Takeshi, Toby Awdry, and Midorikawa Shun had taken out the Trion Soldiers that had surrounded their school. It wasn't too hard for them, but they had to use Trion that could have been better spend.

They gathered together as orders came in.

"So there's a new model, huh? Sounds interesting," Midorikawa said as he looked around. "Looks like we need to regroup to take them all out."

"Go on ahead, Shun."

"We'll go see how the evacuation is going. After that we'll regroup as told. You need to go and get together with other A-Ranks."

Takeshi looked around with a careful eye, but found nothing particular around them. Three green orbs floated around his head like guards protecting an important person.

"Alright. You two try not to get beat by those new models."

With that, Midorikawa took his leave with a wave.

"That mutt. Who does he think we are?" Takeshi got a thoughtful expression on his face as he put a hand on his chin. "But they did manage to take out someone from Azuma Squad, and Azuma-san himself is saying to be cautious... They must be dangerous then..."

"Ah, don't worry about it, Take! We're different from other team."

Toby patted Takeshi on the back, yet he also felt a little worried about what could happen.

His own Side Effect would be more than enough to handle any attacks from any direction, but it was not well suited to assist others in the same manner.

If one of the new Trion Soldiers were to attack them, he would have to make a choice between saving himself with his Side Effect or helping Takeshi fight. The best option and the right option were not always the same. This was an example of that.

Even so, he forced those thoughts away while speaking up to clear his head.

"When we regroup with Yuki and Suzume, we'll help out around, so no need to worry."

"Don't forget, Yuki-senpai is an A-Rank now. He won't be helping us out as he wants."

"Oh, whatever. We can still handle-"

**KRAKL**

The two froze for a second before slowly turning around. That's when they saw a bipedal creature with features different from anything they had seen before. It was a Trion Soldier that had a bulky build, with wide shoulders and long, large arms with three fingers and no thumbs, and also short but thick legs which end on long two-toed feet. It had a long neck ending in a head roughly resembling a rabbit head. The interior of its mouth was black and it had a green core inside. It also had black stripes running through its shoulders until its hands, with black shield-like shapes in the sides of its shoulders, and the sides of its torso are also black. It also has a lizard-like tail.

Then could easily tell that it was the new model they were told about and got ready to fight.

Takeshi spent no time thinking and went on the offense. Disregarding his aim and mental state, he fired three laser-like beams in hopes of having a quick fight to calm his nerves.

Toby followed his lead and moved forward. Albeit at a slower pace than before.

The two were frightened by the sudden appearance of this New Model that it had tossed their minds into fight or flight mode without giving them time to properly think. Due to this, it was causing some delay in their quick offense that could be exploited.

Just like right now.

The New Model dodged the laser-like beams and rushed at Toby. It landed a punch on the attacker and didn't seem fazed by the blades. It turned its sights to Takeshi, ready for another strike.

Takeshi took one of his hands out of his pocket and put it in front of himself. Another orb appeared, but this one just stayed in one place. He jumped back just as the New Model came in contact with the orb. The orb exploded and caught the new model in it, yet even that didn't seem to effect it much as it continued towards Takeshi.

Seeing the attack coming, he made a fast teleportation behind the new model as it passed by where he was.

He let out more laser-like beams as Toby came up from the side with a single Scorpion in his hand.

The New Model blocked the attack from Toby and brought up both it's arms to block the laser-like beams.

It started moving forward while blocking the laser-like beams.

When it felt that the laser-like beams were starting to break it apart, it moved to the side, letting the laser-like beams hit the building.

Toby managed to teleport to its underside and land a slash on its stomach area before being slammed to the ground the one of its arms. He didn't have time to get up as it grabbed him by the head with a tight grip.

He could not see, so he could not teleport.

The new model's mid-section opened up and six insect leg-like tentacles came out and started to wrap around Toby.

"Crap!"

Takeshi shot out more laser-like beams, but they were just deflected by the New Model as it continued what it was doing.

"-!?"

Three shots were heard.

Takeshi went a wide eyed when he saw the Mew Model let go of Toby and jump away so it didn't get its core destroyed by some shots. He ran over to check on Toby before looking over to see a girl standing there with her legs shaking and a pistol in her hand.

The girl was their age with black hair. Her overal appearance was that of a princess from a fairy tale. Even as she wore the standard C-Rank uniform she looked rather beautiful. She was Taiyōko Hoshi.

The New Model changed his target from the two B-Ranks to the C-Rank who seemed too scared to move at the moment. It charged at her while dodging the laser-like beams Takeshi had shot out.

.

"Taiyōko, move!"

Taiyōko Hoshi tried to move her body, tried to let out a noise, tried to do anything that would make her body listen to her. Nothing happened as the primal fear of something unknown rushed at her with tremendous speed.

The thought of a single boy with black hair and eyes to match came to mind.

If he was with them then this would not be an issue in the slightest.

But he was nowhere around.

That left Hoshi to stay frozen in place, waiting for something to happen. She would not feel any pain if that Neighbor collided with her, but the fear itself would certainly follow her into her real body.

There was nothing else she could do.

_At least I helped Awdry-kun and Kotowari-kun..._

"Trigger on!"

.

The moment the New Model got within a few inches of Hoshi, something came from above with a familiar blade in hand.

The something, rather someone, tried to attack the Neighbor from above, yet it only recognized the danger and moved back accordingly.

The person jumped back and stood in front of Hoshi.

"...Sensei..."

A man stood there with a Kōgetsu in his hand. His attire was a gray track suit with white and black lining. This older-looking man was the teacher of Takeshi, Toby, and Hoshi - Akasora Chishi.

"I know I said I would help out with the evacuation but Taiyōko here decided to come and help you two out. Not to mention you two were seeming to have a hard time. While I am proud of you three right now, fighting this sort of thing was way too reckless. I'll make sure to give you guys stay after school to help around as punishment, but for now... Stay back a bit."

The look in his eyes turned hard and he looked at the New Model. This seemed to have a great effect as the New Model took a step back.

.

Trion Soldiers could not understand things like intimidation or fear, but they were programmed with knowledge of what could be dangerous. This was so that the makers would not lose their forces because of some sort of idiotic attack by the Trion Soldiers.

The New Model, like other Trion Soldiers, did not feel any fear from the hard glare sent its way. What it did know, however, was that this man was more dangerous than the three small prey it had been fighting.

There had been no actual reason to sense this danger when the man first arrived, but that single glare was enough to set off the alarms that were placed in it.

This sense of danger may have been the reason as to why it was no longer rushing in to attack. Instead, the programming in it started to create an attack pattern that it could follow while also taking the danger into consideration.

"It's a teacher's job to help and protect his students, so I hope you don't mind if I joined in the fight for a little bit, Masafumi."

The man spoke as if his entire existence was not a danger to the New Model.

.

"Then again, even if you do mind, I'll still be joining."

_"I just hope you didn't get rusty."_

"So insulting. Oh well."

Akasora started to walk forward while the New Model found its new target and started running towards Akasora.

"Senku Kōgetsu."

The two got closer to each other.

Akasora continued to walk forward.

In a single instant, that none of the students could actually see, the New Model was cut into five pieces. Its arms were at its side, its legs were under it and its head and mid-section lay on the ground.

Akasora stopped walking and looked down at the new model.

"Don't go after my students, you damn thing."

Takeshi and Toby just looked at their teacher with wide eyes.

They had never seen him do something like this. His movements were far beyond what they had seen Yuki do. So much so that they weren't able to follow his movements at all.

"Man... Maybe I am getting a little rusty," Akasora said as he moved his arms.

_"Nicely done, Chishi. You may not be in Border anymore, but I need you to-"_

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Just leave it to me. Besides, it gives me a good reason to go check up on my nephew."

Akasora let out a sigh as he turned to his students. He saw they had awestruck expression and let out a sheepish laugh.

"I said I was in Border... Never said I didn't keep a Trigger."

"That was amazing, Sensei. I figured you were strong, but this..."

Takeshi wasn't too sure on what to say, so he just trailed off.

"Like I said: Masafumi and I are good friends. Not to mention that I was the one to train both your captain and Oper... Ah... Opps. Guess I'm not suppose to tell you that... Sorry."

He got a serious look on his face that made the three of them also get serious.

"Taiyōko, you need to get back and help with the evacuation. Kotowari, Awdry, you two should go regroup. If you come across any more of the new model, just run until you meet up with someone else."

"Yes, Sir!"

"Um... Sensei... What are you going to do?" Hoshi asked, looking at her teacher nervously.

"I'm gonna go help out as well. Now let's get going."

* * *

"Looks like this area is clear now..."

Mei looked over the destroyed area with Neighbors here and there with.

"Maybe I did go a little overboard... Oh well."

She stood up from the new model she was crouching on and jumped down before walking away.

"I should go find Yuki before he causes even more damage than me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am planning to split this story up into smaller ones and put it as a series. There will be a bit more added to those than what this story has. Mostly for the parts up to Aftokrator and the invasion itself. So feel free to wait for those or just read this story to know what will happen.


	16. Invasion: Part 2

Never before seen Trion soldiers. That was what the Border agents were now facing. They didn't look like much, but they had already proven that appearances mean nothing.

_"Shinoda-san, Azuma here! We've encountered a new type of Trion Soldier! It's over three meters tall. A bipedal humanoid. Small, but powerful! It's trying to capture out agents. Everyone take caution. Over."_

"Capture out agents!? All right... Try to hold out until reinforcements arrive!"

_[Director Shinoda.]_

"!"

The voice of the autonomous Trion Soldier named Replica could be heard through the room. It was connected to Border so that it would be able to provide any information to them.

_[This new type...is probably the capture-type Trion Soldier Aftokrator was developing._ _The Rabbit_ _.]_

"Capture-type? Isn't that what the big one is for?"

 _[It has the same purpose, yes. But different targets. The Rabbit...is a Trion soldier used to_ capture Trigger users. _You should assume it acts differently from other Trion soldiers. Even A-Ranks will be eaten if they face it alone.]_

"East of base..." Sawamura started while looking at the screen. "Kazama Squad is engaging the new model! The captain of Suwa Squad has been captured! South of the base... A member of Azuma Squad has Bailed Out! They've met up with Kakizaki Squad to fight the new model! Kuruma and Chano squads have also encountered the new model in the southwest! It's effectively blocking them from stopping the swarm of Trion Soldiers! The swarm is breaking out of the emergence area!"

Director Netsuki started to freak out a bit at hearing this.

"That's not good! Any damage to the city will erode the people's trust in Border..."

"Do you have a reading on Suwa's condition!?"

"We're still picking up a reading on his Trion Body. He can't seem to Bail Out though..."

"Good. Kazama Squad will rescue him!"

"Director Shinoda, please-"

_"Would you like me to make a detour? I have set up a small area around me, so I can keep things contained."_

The new voice coming through was a familiar one. It belonged to a certain hime-cut Operator with a Side Effect.

Some of the people in the room turned to see a single dot making its way to the base. As it passed by, any enemy dots they seemed to disappear.

"..."

_"Well?"_

"Very well. It's more helpful if you are also out there to help in defeating these new models - Rabbits."

* * *

Hogo Squad dodged.

The three agents were now facing a Rabbit. Once they had been at a good distance, the new model came out of one of the fallen Trion Soldiers. It hadn't waited and immediately attacked the three.

"These things are so annoying!"

Hitsugi moved her hand horizontally through the air. The cubes of Trion that were around her body flew through the air in multiple directions.

It didn't look like it had much of an effect.

Small cubes of Trion appeared around to take the place of the ones just fired. They moved around her as if they were stars keeping close to a planet due to its gravity.

Misó ran ahead of Hitsugi with two Scorpion blades in hand.

Just as the Rabbit unfolded its arms, Misó was in front of it and ready to strike.

The Rabbit swung its right arm.

Misó reacted in time to duck and jump back to let his captain have a turn.

Oshiro came from above.

In his hand was a Kōgetsu that had a light blue blade, instead of the usual green one. He had gotten a report of what Suwa Squad had tried, and tried not to end up like Hisato. He slashed at a certain part of the Rabbit before moving back and firing off Viper, hitting the same spot he had just cut.

"I've set up the wires! Hitsugi-chan, Kirai-kun, you're good to go!"

"Right!"

The two teammates made their move.

The Rabbit tried to get closer to them, but had no luck. It was stopped the wires it could not see.

Those same wires were used by Hitsugi and Misó. The cubes around Hitsugi like stars weaved through the wires while Misó did the same. From all directions, the Rabbit was bombarded by Viper.

Misó grinned as he used one of the wires as a spring and went to deliver the finishing blow.

He missed.

It appeared that his calculations had been off, making it so that he landed right in front of the Rabbit instead of on it.

The Rabbit lifted its arm to attack him.

Oshiro was going to rush in and help his teammate, but...

"It is fortunate that I was in the area at the time."

The punch from the Rabbit was stopped. What had stopped it was the end of a trident. The trident was a Trigger. Who the Trigger belonged to was a 20-year-old man with red hair with the front being gray, light blue eyes and light skin with good muscle tone. His outfit consisted of a tight bodysuit with a thin vest over it and cargo shorts that's stopped a little under his knee.

"Ketsu-san!"

Ketsueki stood there with his Trigger - Trishula - blocking the attack from the Rabbit.

He gave a quickly look around before he made his move.

With one hand, he easily spun Trishula around, pushing the attacking arm back, and using the blades to cut the top of the Rabbit.

He swung his body completely around and used the momentum to slice through the Rabbit with relative ease.

"You three did well. We should go and regroup as instructed."

"Hey, shouldn't you be with the rest of Tamakoma?"

Misó tried to sound indifferent, but all of them could heard a bit of frustration in his tone.

Ketsueki took note of that fact.

"Rei-san and the others will be fine. He and Kyōsuke-kun are picking up Kirie-kun right now, so I will be helping out here."

Oshiro and Hitsugi seemed relieved to hear that.

Misó on the other hand...

_Shit... I didn't think this guy would show up..._

* * *

"Whoa now... They can cope with the Rabbits already."

"Well, well, well... It appears progress in Miden has been impressive."

"Feh. These Rabbits are basic models."

"I'm not so sure. They didn't fall for our plan to divide them. They're quite formidable."

This conversation was being held in a Neighbor ship. Seven Neighbors were in the ship and all were watching the invasion occur. Five males and two females in total.

"Should we go, Hairein-sama?" the youngest looking one asked, looking at their leader.

"Not yet. You will go after we ascertain Miden's limits." The leader's expression never changed and kept a calm tone as he continued to watch the footage. "No need to get ahead of ourselves. We still have plenty of eggs. Miden hasn't shown us everything they can do yet. When we sent the Rads, they mobilized several hundred combatants. Considering that scale, we can surmise that many other skilled individuals, besides those in these teams exist."

"Aren't you being a little too paranoid about these Miden Monkeys? Eh, Captain?" another one asked. This one had black horns on his head and one of his eyes was black as well.

"Watch your words, Enedora." The youngest looking one glared. "You're talking to our leader."

"Huh? And who do you think _you're_ talking to?"

"Will you two shut up? I'm trying to watch these adorable animals dance around." One of the two women there continued to look at the footage they were receiving. "It really is quite cute."

"You and your fetishes are disturbing, Pyr."

"Says the heterochromatic freak."

"Watch your tongue, bitch! I'll get rid of you along with that small fry over there!"

"Just because you have a Black Trigger doesn't mean you'll win! I can easily destroy you! That being said, you wouldn't stand a chance against both me and Hyu! And if we add M-"

"This ship won't last long if you three get into a fight," the oldest one in the room said, not actually seeming to mind the three.

"This is so annoying! I'm sick if this cramped space! Come on, Captain! Let me outside! I could kill all of the Miden soldiers by myself!"

"Annihilation aside..." the last male there said, turning from his comrade to his leader, "It _would_ be nice to stretch out legs for a bit. Right, brother? No, _Captain_."

"A little more patience. Everyone's turn will come soon."

"Proceeding to the next stage."

* * *

"Do they have to be so loud during this? I was trying to sleep..."

A boy, no older than 16, looked around the area he was in. His general appearance and feeling was something akin to a walking corpse.

His "sleeping place" seemed to be an empty building within the Forbidden Zone.

He got up and leisurely made his way out of the building.

Once outside, he looked up when he heard a loud sound.

What he saw was...

* * *

"Bombers are approaching! Fire all cannons!"

Doing as Director Kinuta commanded, cannons came from a part of the Border base before firing at the large Trion soldier that was headed for them.

An Illgar.

A large, flying Trion Soldier that could throw out bombs while also being a large bomb itself. One had been taken out by Kitora before, but that was because she had help. Not that she had known at the time.

Now, during this large-scale invasion, multiple Illgars were flying in the sky, ready to bomb the Border base.

"One down! Another one closing in!"

"Brace for impact!"

"-!'"

A large explosion was easily heard around the building.

The agents fighting against the Trion Soldiers on the ground could only watch as the large bomber crashed into the base.

But the building still stood.

"Good thing I fortified the wall armor with extra Trion after the training incident the other day," Director Kinuta said as he got up from under his desk.

"Second wave on its way! Three units!"

"How's the armor holding up!?"

"It'll last for one more impact!"

"Evacuate civilian staff to shelters! Divert Trion interceptor cannons! Focus cannon fire! Aim for a single unit! Make sure it goes down!"

"!? But...one won't be enough..."

The cannons were changed. They were now all facing a single Illgar. They fired without mercy.

The loud sounds of the attack could be heard, as well as the Illgar being destroyed and causing an explosion that didn't reach the base.

"Confirmed, one has been shot down! Two left!"

"Director Shinoda! I can't guarantee the wall will last two hits!"

_"It's fine. There won't be anymore, right Shinoda-san?"_

* * *

A boy, no older than 16, looked around the area he was in. His general appearance and feeling was something akin to a walking corpse.

He looked up in a Trion Body. Once he had seen the Illgars attacking the base, he had pulled out his Trigger and entered his Trion Body while complaining the whole time.

"Let's see...according to what I have on them..."

As he muttered to himself, the corpse-like boy looked up to see the cannons from the Border base take out one of the Illgars.

"It's fine. There won't be anymore, right Shinoda-san?"

He then witnessed another one quickly get taken out by the #1 Attacker of Border.

He let out a small sigh before raising his hand.

"Perform final check. Once it is done, begin output."

As soon as the corpse-like boy muttered those words, his eyes turned from a bored and tired look to a focused look that could put anyone on guard.

His fingertips began emitting a green light. This was his Trion coming out as a type of blade.

"This really is tiring."

As he spoke, the corpse-like boy lightly waved his right hand. Beams of light similar to a blowtorch were emitted from his fingertips. And they grew until they were above the Illgars that were multiple meters in the air above him.

The boy let out a small sigh as he raised his hand before bringing it down as if swatting away an insect.

The blades went down along with his hand and sliced through the remaining Illgar as easy as a hot knife cutting through butter.

The Illgar was now split into five separate parts.

Before he could do anything else, he heard Shinoda's voice coming through.

_"Both of you! Your target is the new model Trion Soldier. Eliminate as many as you can."_

"Sorry, Shinoda-san, but I'm waaaaaaa~~y too tired for this~ Trigger off."

The corpse-like boy let out a yawn before making his way back inside the empty bio,ding in the Forbidden Zone.

The thought of helping them crossed his mind, but he knew that there would be trouble later on if he did not wait patiently for someone else.

* * *

"Honestly. I need to watch how much Trion I use. I can't be in one fight after another using both Stingers now. I guess it's fine though."

_"You still going, Suzume?"_

"Yeah, yeah, yeah! Just hurry up! Switching back to a Lightning means I need your asses over here pronto!"

_"Calm down, Senpai."_

Suzume let out a small sigh as she started walking away. She decided it would be better if she met up with her teammates halfway.

She had been informed about the different things going on around Mikado City until a few seconds ago. Anything coming from their base of operation had suddenly stopped due to something she did not know of.

Before that had happened she had been told about the Rabbits and what to do should any come before her.

_Our team is best suited for stealth-type missions. It doesn't come up in most cases, but our use of Teleport and other supplementary Triggers makes us the best at getting away. Toby may honestly hate it, but that's because our Side Effects don't need anything else to help us get away._

Suzume nodded to herself as she thought more about it.

The two B-Rank members of Tsukiko Squad with Side Effects had ones that were similar by a general standpoint.

Toby's Side Effect was an enhancement towards his reflexes that could let him dodge any sort of attack, even when he wasn't looking at them. It provided odd positions and moving body parts that would otherwise be difficult for people to normally do. It was due to this Side Effect that he became a frequent target for Snipers during special practices. It also provided him with enough movement to move away from sight when needed due to it being his body moving on its own.

Suzume had a Side Effect that was similar in nature, yet something completely different. While Toby's forced his body to move without him knowing, yet giving his brain time to think, Suzume's let her move to the beat of her opponents. She could find the Rhythm of anyone and anything she sees or hears. That would translate into a sort of dance for her to follow during the battles she was involved in. This also allowed her the ability to know when to move or when to stay in place when hiding.

While it never comes up, she was also aware that she could always "dance" with her opponent to block their attacks. It had been a special way for her to defend against high level opponents, yet she would never out it to use as being a Sniper meant that she should not be in direct contact with the enemies.

Even so, it was an option she thought she would have to use should she come across a Rabbit without anyone else around.

.

As she was making her way towards the directions she knew her teammates were at, she heard a feint noise that created a screech in the natural Rhythm of everything around her.

**KRACKL**

She turned to the Trion Soldiers she had just defeated and saw something coming out of one of them.

She squinted her eyes to get a better look and went wide eyed when she saw a Rabbit standing before her.

Not wasting any time, she started to run away. She could hear the Rabbit start chasing after her. She looked forward and teleported just in time to dodge a punch.

"Hey, hurry up and meet up with me! I'm honestly headed your way and I've got a new model right behind me!"

_"What!?"_

_"Alright. If you can, try and slow it down with obstacles. Don't use any more Trion unless it's for Teleport. We'll speed up it get to you. Just hold on."_

_Easy for you to say!_

She turned around while still running away and fired a shot. The shot was blocked and it seemed as if it did nothing to the actual armor of it. Seeing that it was slowed down a little, she used Teleport to make more distance between the two.

_Honestly! Why me!?_

* * *

_"So when are you planning on being our Operator exactly? I'm pretty sure the other three need you in your seat."_

"You wanna get your ass kicked, don't you?"

_"Not really. No. I'm just wondering."_

"Well that won't be for a while. Shinoda-san has directed me towards a battlefield, so I have to go right now."

_"Really? Well, lucky you. Oh. And I've been doing as you asked. I've got a set of the cores with me right now."_

"Good. Thank you for that."

Mei let out a sigh as she continued the small conversation with Yuki while she took out more Trion Soldiers.

She saw more rushing at her, but she just used Teleport to appear above them all.

She let out a rain of Meteora, causing some to blow up and smoke to fly in the air. She brought her Kōgetsu up and fell into the smoke. She used the chance to slash at each core she saw.

One came up behind her and let out a roar, but was skewer by the Scorpions coming out of her back.

_"So why do you want me to keep them? You already know how hard it is to get them without destroying them_ _."_

"I have an idea. It's a bit loose but... I believe that the ones attacking us are watching this all happen through the cores. What I want to try is to fix it so that we can switch it around and take a look from our end. Even if that doesn't work, I would like to show them exactly what they are messing with here."

_"Oh. Scary~ Anyways. That's an interesting idea. But it feels off. Well, the way you want to do it at least. Think about it like this: if they are watching everything that is going on, they would be seeing it like a video camera. You can't just simply flip the screen around and expect yourself to be able to contact the other side if the recording is already over."_

"I know that. But live feed is different than a regular recording. What's more is that it can also be like chatting over a computer with one side being muted. If that's the case, I should be able to bypass any issues and redirect things so that we can switch the camera around and see for ourselves."

_"Hm~ I'll leave it to you then. If you've put this much thought into, I'm not going to be the one who is going against you. Just ask it of me and I shall get it done."_

Mei let out another sigh as she lifted her arm and easily stabbed a still moving soldier in the core.

"By the way, how are things on your end? I haven't received the order to stop you from Director Shinoda yet."

_"I'm doing fine. None of them are worth my memory yet and I've only had to deal with one Rabbit so far. Really, I think these new models are trying to stay out of my 'Playground.' Wonder why."_

"Now you're just being overly arrogant. Don't forget to watch how much Trion you use. I'm sure you at least have _some_ damage from fighting the new model."

_"Not much. If anything, I'm more worried about whether or not the destroyed buildings will come out of my pay."_

"Speaking of which, I just saw a building fall."

_"That was probably me."_

"..."

_"Hey, I'm trying my best to make sure at least some buildings are still standing. It's been a while since I've been out like this, so you can't blame me for any if this. Oh, I just thought of something. You want to have a contest?"_

"Let me guess... Whoever takes out the most wins and the loser has to buy the winner lunch?"

_"I was thinking that the losers pays for everything the winners wants for a day."_

"Alright. Sounds fair to me."

While she was talking, Mei had two cubes of Trion that were merging together in front of her. She also had her Radar in front of her.

_"So let's-... Hey! That wasn't fair!"_

"Tomahawks are fair game. That's five for me."

She noticed something from the corner of her eye. Once she got a better look she could see what it was, plain as day.

In the sky, where the large Trion Soldier known as an Illgar had been, multiple blades of Trion sprung up from the ground. They tore through the large Trion Soldier before retreating as if nothing had been there in the first place.

Only a single person could manage such a strange stight as if it was nothing. Mei could envision a woman with firey hair and a corpse-like boy as she thought about what she had just seen. Everything concerning what just happened made complete sense to her.

"If he is here then that must mean..."

* * *

_"Some more regular ones coming up."_

Minoru turned around and swiped his hand in time to slice through the core of a Marmod.

He did not rest. He turned his body a bit and brought another Scorpion from his arm to cut down another Marmod.

He jumped into the air to dodge the laser that came from a nearby Bander.

A shot came from nearby and shot through the Bander's core.

Once he landed, Minoru took out the crawling Marmods and the Bambster that was there.

Svantje jumped down from a building and landed next to Minoru.

"There are so many. We've gotten lucky that we haven't come across one of the new models yet, though," the sniper said as she rested her Egret on her shoulder.

_"Hey, don't go jinxing things."_

"I'm not. Besides, I'm sure we could handle it. Although I would rather have some backup in case we do happen to find one."

Minoru looked over at Svantje before getting a small smile.

"We've been told that even a single A-Rank won't be enough to take the new models out. It's best to go and regroup with others."

 _"I would like to point something out to you two. Apparently, there actually_ is _someone who is tearing through those new models."_

Both Svantje and Minoru went through the people they knew to try and figure out who that could possibly be. Minoru had a few more accurate guesses, but he thought that even they would have some trouble.

A girl with a hime-cut hairstyle was one of the few exceptions that could take them out.

Svantje just shook her head and turned back to Minoru.

"That doesn't matter right now! Like you said... It's better if we-"

It had sped by.

Minoru went wide eyed once he saw the Rabbit speed by and grab Svantje.

The Rabbit moved away from Minoru and started opening up its torso.

Not taking kindly to this, Minoru started to run forward.

"!"

He was not able to get far as another Rabbit came from behind and slammed him to the ground.

His face was smashed into the ground, but he could still see the Rabbit that was holding Svantje.

Svantje started to freak out as she struggled to get out. She froze once she saw the six insect-like tentacles come out and start to get near her.

"H-hel-"

"So irritating."

In one quick motion, the six insect-like tentacles were cut off.

A blade was stabbed through the middle of the Rabbit, then dragged up, splitting its upper-body.

Svantje started to fall from the Rabbit's grasp, but was caught by an arm.

Minoru felt a sudden surge of relief when he saw who had rescued Svantje from the Rabbit. It had been unexpected, but his appearance was completely welcomed by the two.

It was clear that he was not alone as Minoru felt the weight on top of him disappear. He looked up to see the Rabbit that was on top of him get up.

Two blades moved in unison and stabbed into each of the arms. With a double shout of "Senku!" the arms of the Rabbit were quickly cut off. The head came rolling down right after.

The two who had taken care of the second Rabbit walked up to Minoru. The older one bent down and extended his arm. Minoru grabbed it and stood up.

"Sigh. I know I don't need to tell you this, but be more careful. For now, we are going to be with you two. The more people here the less likely something like that will happen again. Besides, I don't think I could handle seeing nice people like you get taken by those things."

Hikigane Sekai lightly put Svantje down on the ground as he spoke.

Next to him, Jinsei and Daigo looked over the area. Jinsei nodded as if he had given his approval while Daigo had his usual dull expression.

Sekai let out a small sigh before patting both Svantje and Minoru's heads.

He then turned to his own team.

"Kid, you are in charge of protecting her. Jinsei, you and I will be fighting with Minoru. That being said, be prepared to help the kid out if something comes up. Like I said... I don't want anyone to get taken. It would be an irritation if someone did."

"Understood."

"Roger, roger!"

"Good. Sigh. Let's get going now."

Sekai started to make his way to another area.

The other four quickly followed him. They knew he was smart enough to lead them right now.

* * *

"Where the hell are they!? Honestly! How long do they think I can run?" Suzume yelled as she dodged another hit.

"Stop complaining!"

She jumped away as a green laser-like beam shot at the Rabbit. She saw that it didn't have much of an effect, but two more hit it, making it jump back.

The laser-like beams that attacked without mercy resembled something from a science fiction movie that forced electrons to become both a particle and a wave, and as a result are unable to react as either one when hitting a solid object. The attack, while looking like some such sort of attack, contained no heat or friction towards the air and simply attacked the Neighbor head on.

"It's about time."

Both Takeshi and Toby landed in front of her with a Scorpion in one's hand and Trion Orbs by the other's head.

"These things are irritating. We couldn't handle one before, but since you're here, I'm sure we can win," Takeshi said as he took one hand out of his pocket. "Let's get started, you two."

"Right!"

* * *

A large-scale invasion has broken out in Mikado City.

Border has responded accordingly by moving their agents to protect the city and the civilians. They did their job well and managed to take out a large number of Trion soldier.

But then the Rabbit came into the picture.

Once it entered the battlefield, multiple agents were stopped from protecting the city and the civilians. They had caused a few Bail Outs while also taking the captain of a B-Rank squad.

It had been decided that the agents would regroup to deal with this problem.

And now...

Multiple things were happening at once.

An Operator with a Side Effect was making her way to the Border base while taking out any and all Trion soldiers she saw.

The #1 Attacker in Border was making his way around to defeat the Rabbits.

The other agents were gathering together to strengthen their forces.

An A-Rank agent and a B-Rank agent were on their way to help a group of C-Ranks agents.

Someone was seeing the future and figuring out what to do.

And also...

* * *

_I've given them enough information. Now... It's time for the main show to begin..._

A person smiled as he ran with three others.

His appearance was one that male models envied, while female models would love.

He was suppose to be on the side protecting. He was on the side that was destroying.

He was someone who no one could trust.

People hated him for just being around them.

He gladly took all that hate and savored it.

_Let me see some truly horrific pain._


	17. Tsukiko Squad: Part 4

_"The three of you working together can easily take me on."_

_"Huh? Where did that come from, Senpai?"_

_Tsukiko Squad was in their operating room with their captain eating ice-cream and the other three just hanging around. They had duty later on, but just figured they would use their free time to idle about._

_"I'm just saying. You three are definitely strong in your own right, but can't do much against someone like me or stronger. You can get a few hits in here and there, but there are people who can easily out-class me even when using my Side Effect."_

_"What are you honestly getting at, Captain?" Suzume asked, taking her earbuds out. "I can understand this if you are honestly talking about me or Take, but Toby is honestly different. What's more is that we all honestly know that the difference in strength and skill becomes null and void when taking my dance into consideration. In all honesty, Take is the one lacking the most."_

_"Wow. Thank you for that, Suzume-senpai. I feel so great."_

_"Now, now... Anyways." Yuki took a step between the two who looked ready to fight. "I am simply saying that fighting together is best for you all. You are all selfish when fighting, I realize that, but that doesn't mean you can't fight as one. Due to Side Effects and special privileges you have all been relying on yourselves and me for fighting. I would like for you all to try and actually fight like a real team."_

_"We already know that. Getting stronger as a team is something obvious. Increased performance and general skills become evident when working with other people. We are selfish, but we know not to get in each other's way. That is our way of fighting as a team. Yuki, you know that just as well as we do since you've copied us before."_

_"That's true but...You three are different from everyone else. I don't know if you notice this but I'm sure Mei-chan has. You three always compliment each other in battle, whether you realize it or not. Your selfish fighting styles can actually mix really well. I would know after all. I have copied you all already."_

* * *

It had been a sudden memory that came from nowhere and gave no hint of coming at all. Had it been one of them remembering or were they all remembering that time.

Even though that conversation had only been a few days ago, the three of them felt as if it had been years since they spoke to their captain in such a way and gotten advice like that from him. Their sense of time had been warped a bit in the face of these monsters that had decimated them that same day.

Takeshi and Toby could still feel the fear they felt when having their attacks do so little against these Neighbors.

Even so, they continued to fight while letting their Sniper escape to a safe location. It was the best cours of action for them all to have their support in the back where she could not be hit.

This created a situation where even if the two were lagging, Suzume would be able to compensate for that lag by protecting them for firing attacks.

_"You two know that I can honestly deal with it as long as you don't tell Yuki-san and Mei-san about it. You can land the finishing blow or whatever you guys honestly care about."_

"Suzume-senpai, I don't want to get in trouble. Especially since we would be found out by Mei-san easily. Besides that... Your 'dances' aren't very quiet. Others may see it and tell those two. It would create an awkward position for Border while also getting us hits to the head by an iron fist."

_"But that's why I can just set my bounds so that we aren't found out. Look, I honestly couldn't do it when I was fighting Miwa or Izumi-kun with Arashiyama Squad and Nikko-chan. It's been so long since I've been able to do it that I am honestly about to explode."_

"Then go ahead and explode. I would rather that than having to deal with Mei-san."

 _"Fine, fine. Would you rather have me take up a sword instead? A sword is such a lovely weapon since it comes in multiple forms. Kōgetsu is so plain and I already use Scorpion. Maybe I should honestly create a new sword and call it '_ _Murasamemaru_ ' _or 'Righteousness'. Such names are honestly long enough for even you to find some entertainment in saying."_

"I see. Should I fix my aim towards-"

"Hey!"

.

Toby started to grind his teeth together as he was hit with a hard punch from the Rabbit.

Multiple blades had come from his body, creating an arc from multiple angles that managed to become a sort of defense for him.

"Can you two do this later!? Like, way later!? Like, when I'm not around!? I seriously want to beat the both of you, but I have to deal with this thing! Oh yeah! Hey! Help me out here! This thing has a hard punch, so if you could do something here!"

Multiple beams of light shot in front of Toby as the Rabbit was pushed back due to the force.

A single flash flew through the air as a following attack.

"Damn it. Without Mei-san around, I can't get a good grasp as to how much power to apply here."

_"Relying on Mei-san too much honestly makes you look desperate."_

"Correcting aim. Firing."

" _Hey! That one honestly almost hit me, you asshole! Do you honestly want me to shoot you!?"_

"You know what... You two continue fighting with each other. I'll take this out myself. That way Yuki and Mei can praise _me alone._ "

.

Toby's words seemed to have an immediate effect as two more laser-like beams of light shot forward while following the other three. The power seemed to be stronger than the ones from before, giving him the answer that it was now Meteora.

The shots that seemed to be coming from a distance were slower, yet they seemed to be hitting harder than the previous ones. They looked like heavier hits than most of them, giving him the answer that it was now Ibis.

He was glad that Suzume and Takeshi were now fighting for real instead of fighting with each other.

_The fact that I had to be the one to get them moving really says how bad of a team we really are._

Not letting his pessimistic thoughts get to him, Toby ran forward with the intent of not getting hit by his team more than not getting hit by their opponent.

Feeling his reflexes start to work, he moved to the side as a powerful shot went by him and hit the Rabbit. The damage it did was not enough to be classified as dangerous, but it left a nice hole in the chest.

Even something like that could be a deciding factor in a fight.

From the corner of his eye he could see three green orbs floating around.

He understood all too well what was about to happen and prepared to take advantage of that when the chance came.

Multiple laser-like beams shot from each one that felt as if they could tear through most anything they touched. This was the Laser Shooter Trigger that only Taleshi could use to due to the permission granted by the directors.

"Just get hit."

Toby ignored his teammate and got into position.

His location was now directly in front of the Rabbit as it tried to escape the laser-like beams and the power shots being fired from a distance.

The Rabbit seemed to have noticed him as it brought up its second arm to attack him while moving forward.

_I guess it figured out that I'm only good at close combat. Well, that's fine with me. Unlike last time..._

The Rabbit moved its arm forward to punch him.

Toby dodged the punch and laser-like beams behind it before using Teleport to appear above the Trion Soldier.

_I can teleport as I like._

Once landing on top of the Rabbit's head, he put his hand on top of it.

In only a second, a thin blade come from his hand and pierced through the armor. The core inside of the head was thoroughly stabbed.

.

The Rabbit fell to the ground with a thud while Toby let out a sigh and fixed his hat.

_"What the hell, Toby!? I was going to honestly get the final shot in!"_

"You mutt. Don't just go and do your own thing. This is why we are such a bad team."

_"You weren't that much better. I saw you trying to honestly take down my shots! The next time you do that, I'll honestly go for your head!"_

He gave a sigh while choosing to ignore his two bickering teammates.

As someone who enjoyed fights against others, he understood better than them how to properly take a fight seriously.

It was due to this knowledge that he knew it was best to ignore them for now.

_Whatever. As long as we can get rid of these Neighbors... Even if these two are hurting my head._

He looked around and saw that they were able to keep the damage to a minimum, but some houses were destroyed.

_Nothing we can do about it now._

He looked though his radar to see what else was around them while also checking on any data sent in by other agents.

"I guess we should move on."

* * *

At ten meters above the ground, Mei's hair whipped in the wind.

"If those two can use these wires in such a strange way... I should be able to as well."

Her shoulders started to shake a bit as if checking something.

Cubes of Trion appeared next to her shoulders and the color green spilled out.

That color was a blade made of Trion.

But that was not all. A slithering sound could be heard as the two Scorpion blades were pushed outwards, and something else followed them.

They were wires.

The wires were thicker than ones usually seen, yet nowhere near as thick as rope, and the blades hung from the ends. As they were released, they grew to the point where she grabbed both of them with her hands.

The wires were long and they were only growing longer.

"...!"

The two wires instantly grew to green tails measuring several meters and they swung wide around her.

She swung her arms backwards as if to strike something as she prepared for her landing.

She traveled toward the center of the army waiting for her.

They seemed to be ready to face her from the front, so they were left almost defenseless against this overhead strike.

But some of the army let out a noise.

"-!"

"Go ahead and underestimate me."

As she fell, Mei swung the wires. She swung them upwards as if to circle around behind her.

_If I get this right... If I can mimick their usage even a little, I should be fine here._

Something flew in behind her.

The giant objects were bodies of other Trion Soldiers. They weighed a good amount and they had been sent towards Mei's back. It was most likely Bados who thought they could attack while she was still on the air that had made direct attacks.

They all thought they would hit her.

_I understand it now._

The Scorpion blades made of Trion at the ends of the green wires grabbed the incoming bodies of the Trion Soldiers.

The wires casually swung the masses of weaponry upwards. The movement started gently but eventually became a smashing movement. It was clear that they were instead bodies of Banders she had taken out.

"..."

Mei bent the several meter bodies of the Trion Soldiers as if trying to throw her entire body forward.

"Out of my way!"

She used brute strength to attack the Neighbors.

.

The green wind continued across the battlefield without end.

With each step, she swung her entire body and swung the wires in a way that made them intersect. The light of the wires danced, and knocked even more people through the air with each consecutive sound of impact.

It was a storm of green light.

Mei bent back and swung her arms back as if they were wings.

The wires racing ahead of her flew behind her like waves.

"!"

And then she moved those green wings. She lowered her upper body almost to the ground before swinging both arms forward along either side. The masses of bodies flew horizontally. With repeated snaps of the wrist, the Neighbors along their paths were launched into the air.

"Strike!"

As they flew forward, the two bodies of Neighbors assaulted the group of active Trion Soldiers.

It hit them hard.

The strike from such a direction slowed the charge, but Mei's wire had grown lighter.

She only had the wires now and the enemy noticed.

"-!"

With a noise, they readied themselves to charge at her.

They had enough numbers to push her back, so they charged in as programmed without thinking about friendly fire.

But their movements were too slow and lacking in skill. Mei quickly drew back the green wires and swung them around.

"Tch," she clicked quietly.

She then created two more cubes of Trion on the sides of her hips.

Those charging toward her continued on.

"Two more."

Wires were instantly released from either side of her waist. They wrapped around her arms and gave her four in total.

"...!"

From there, she could do as she pleased.

Before the enemy made it even a few steps, her green wires grabbed the bodies of four of them.

With an instantaneous movement, the blades stabbed into them them and lifted them up.

"...!"

It slammed them to the ground, stabbed another and repeated the process.

Mei moved as if dancing. She moved her arms like wings, she tore at the air, she leaned forward, she leaned backwards, she rotated around, and she became the eye of the storm.

The green wires danced through the air around her. They formed a helix around her slender body, pushed out like waves, and shot out in straight lines. They swung enemies around, swept them away, tossed them, stabbed new ones, swung them upwards, slammed them down, and occasionally stabbed an abandoned body of a Trion Soldier to slam it into them.

"...!"

In the center of the storm of green wires, Mei's dance led the movements of the wires.

There were weapons everywhere in the storm. Even an active Neighbor would work.

The wires transmitted his strength. Rather than simply swinging around, their paths changed to match the movements of her arms and they rushed about devouring the enemy like a beast.

As the enemy drew back due to their programming, the wires stabbed four of them and lifted them up high.

"There is no need to fear me. After all, I'm just an Operator who can't be there for her team right now. It is ticking me off a bit, but I also made a deal with an idiot."

Her words led to her power beginning to move once more. The enemy let out noises and moved away, so she passed through the opening, ignored those with their backs turned, attacked those still resisting, and ran onward.

The green wind destroyed the enemy formation as she moved to the next location.

* * *

"Target confirmed. A flock of baby birds. They're evacuating the citizens," one of the Neighbor girls said as she looked at her screen.

"Of course. No wonder nobody came out when we disturbed their nest."

"Now then. Let's capture those baby birds," Hairein said with a smirk. "Miden's manpower is favorably dispersed. Everything is ready for the Rabbits to carry out their mission. The investigation by our Rads revealed that the baby birds' Triggers don't have an escape function. All of you, go play with the Miden soldiers, so the a Rabbits can do their jobs."

"Hm. Looks like even a small animal can have a nasty poison in them." Pyr looked at the screen.

They all look at the screens to see a large shot fired, destroying one of the Rabbits.

"That Trion reading sure is amazing. I would love to make that creature my personal pet."

"Was that a Black Trigger?" Hairein asked, looking back at the footage.

"No, not a Black Trigger," the second girl said. "The reading was of a normal Trigger... Or _should_ be."

"A new enemy!? They've destroyed two modded Rabbits already!"

"It's not a combatant, but one of the baby birds. But these numbers..."

"A golden goose **.** How unexpected..." Hairein looked up and started looking from one of them to another while saying, "Ranbanein. Enedora. Pyr. We'll send you through a Gate as planned. Scatter the Miden soldiers and support the Rabbits. But don't go all out. We're only looking to scatter them. Mira's Trigger will retrieve you if you get in danger. And _you_ , you will do the same."

"'Danger'? As if Miden's small fry could hurt me!" Enedora said, getting an agreement from Pyr.

"Visa. Hyuse. Go after the golden goose, we might be lucky enough...to acquire a new god **.** "

* * *

In four different places, Gates opened up.

One opened up to show a black haired man with black horns.

The #3 A-Rank team saw this Gate.

One opened up to show a man with red hair and regular horns.

Two Snipers saw this Gate.

One opened up to show an orange haired girl with regular horns.

A new A-Rank saw this one.

One opened up to show an old man and a young man with horns.

Agents from a certain branch saw this Gate.

" _Commence with combat."_

* * *

_So it has finally begun... Good~_

He wore a sinister grin that went unnoticed by everyone else.

The one with endless information was slow to step forward.

He lowered his shoulders as a laugh escaped his lips.

* * *

"I see. Alright. I'll head over there right away. Just wait for me."

Ketsueki turned to the B-Rank team he was with. He had been helping them while also regrouping with the other agents.

"I am sorry, but I must be going to assist in guiding the C-Ranks to the base. I have no doubt that Rei-san and the others are more than capable for something like that, but I have been having this bad feeling for a while now. If you do not mind..."

"No. By all means, head over to assist them."

"Right. Some other B-Rank teams should be around this area, so just meet up with them and you should be fine."

"Right!"

.

Oshiro and Hitsugi watched Ketsueki take his leave by jumping onto the buildings.

They had heard Kimura tell them that there really were some B-Ranks nearby and got ready to meet up with them.

They had been moving as a group since meeting each other. Their current objective had been to take out as many Neighbors as possible while regrouping with others.

Now that they knew other B-Rank agents and teams were nearby they had a new objective. Prioritizing regrouping seemed to be the best solution for everyone who was currently separated.

Knowing that, Hitsugi let out a frustrated sigh once she noticed that Misó wasn't moving faster.

"Hey, Misó, why don't you- ...!?"

**Bail Out.**

Oshiro turned around at hearing his teammate getting cut off.

He jumped up a split second after. He landed on one of the buildings and looked down to see Misó looking up at him with a large grin.

Misó Epanástasi was the type of person anyone could hate. He loved seeing others in pain, while also liking any pain brought upon himself. He was a selfish person who only cared about information, pain and himself, so it would not be too far off to say he was someone who should not have been allowed in Border to begin with.

Something like this shocked his team though. They knew he could be the worst person to know at times, but they did not think he would purposely cause someone to Bail Out while in the middle of an invasion.

_"What the fuck, Misó!? Why the hell did you-"_

"Trigger off."

Misó could not longer hear the Shooter anymore.

He was now in his real body.

"Kirai-kun, what are you..."

Misó continued to grin as he pulled something out of his pocket.

"Hey, captain... I hate you. I hate every single thing about you. I'm not saying this to 'encourage you to win' or anything. I seriously hate you with every ounce of my being. You are the one who hurts my pride the most. You hurt it beyond even the point of enjoyment. You have information that even I don't know and even when you get hurt you put that same fucking smile on. You have absolutely no idea how many times I wanted to just breaks every bone in your body, smash your face in and then dump you off somewhere for the crows to peck at your barely living form that wouldn't even be recognizable to someone with 100% perfect memory."

Oshiro started with wide eyes as Misó continued to say these things with a grin in place.

"Oh, and one more thing... My name is Misó. Just Misó. You can stop calling me 'Kirai' now. _I am Misó of Aftokrator."_

Oshiro froze.

He couldn't properly register what had just been said. Multiple things rushed through his head.

He's lying, right?

He couldn't possibly be one of them, right?

He just wants to see pain again, right?

If he really was from Aftokrator, then he would have...

"Págos."

He was back in a Trion Body. This one was different from the one before. Instead of being in the Hogo Squad uniform, he was now wearing a gray and black outfit that had a large coat covering it.

This was the proof. The proof that he was telling the truth.

"Now let's begin."

* * *

One battlefield that was located southwest of the Border base had an old man and a young man.

"Oh dear. I'm not sure I feel quite right about abducting children."

"It's our duty."

This was the battlefield that also contained Tamakoma Branch's strongest team.

* * *

One battlefield that was located east of the Border base had a black haired man with heterochromatic eyes.

"It's a humanoid Neighbor, Kazama-san."

"Yeah, and... _He has_ _black horns._ Seems like we drew the short straw."

This was the battlefield that also contained the #3 A-Rank team.

* * *

On a separate, and moving, battlefield stood a woman with orange hair.

"Only one person? I'm gonna have to complain to Mira after this." She turned to her opponent and let out a sigh. "At least it's a cutie. Hey, how would you like to come home with me and be my personal pet? I'll treat you kindly~~"

"Nope. I already have a crazy Operator to take care of, so I don't need you. Thanks for the offer and the opportunity to come and fight, but..."

Tsukiko Yuki held a pole in his hand. The pole was completely black and was the length of his arm. One end had a pointed end while the other had a blunt end.

He spun the pole in his grasp. When he stopped, the pointed tip was now covered with Trion and looked like a scythe belonging to the grim reaper.

"I'm going to take you down now."

"Fine. I guess I'll just blow off your legs so you can run. By the way, what is the name if my new pet?"

"I don't know."

"Quite the tongue you have. Guess I'll just cut it off."

* * *

"Humanoid Neighbors, huh? ... Sigh. So damn irritating. ... Alright. Give us the exact locations of each fight."

Sekai spoke to his team's Operator while the others listened in. They seemed to be farther than other teams, so they needed to be kept up on everything going around on the other battlefields.

The mention of these humanoid Neighbors had made Sekai visibly alert.

"Alright... So Azuma-san's group, Tamakoma, Tsukiko, Hogo, and Kazama Squad... Disregarding our current position, Tamakoma should be more than capable of taking care of their opponents. If Ketsu is also there, they shouldn't have any issue."

Putting his chin between his fingers, Sekai started to think. The group's current position gave them a chance to help one of two sides. Which one depended on who needed more help.

They had managed to take out a good amount of the opposing army as a group. This meant that they had a chance at taking on the Humanoid Neighbors if they teamed up with one of the groups on their side.

"Tsukiko is by himself... But Taichi, Chano Squad, and two of Arafune Squad have already been taken out... Alright. Minoru, you and I will head over to help out Tsukiko. Jinsei, you and the other two... No. I want you three to head over to the base actually. Take out any Neighbors you can, but try not to lose too much Trion."

The usually lazy-looking guy really gave off the impression of a leader now. This seemed to be odd for the two who had not seen him in such a state before. Both Jinsei and Daigo nodded as if they had expected these orders from the beginning and would not object to them.

Even so, what he had said confused the whole group.

"Wouldn't it be better for us to go over and help out against the Neighbors? They will have more manpower with us around. Besides, you are Jinsei were A-Rank, right? So it'll be even better. With him and Azuma then it won't really be much of an issue."

Sekai continued to think.

"I'm not saying you three won't be helpful in these battles, but something's been bugging me... Sigh. Just head over there. If anything, the Neighbors will be following the C-Rank agents to the base, assuming Tamakoma can't take them out before they reach the base. It would be best to keep them safe since they don't have Bail Out."

Jinsei and Daigo, who were in the same team as Sekai and knew more about him, understood that if something about a fight was bugging him he would be more cautious. If it came to that then something really was bound to happen.

"Besides that, there is also Shor Squad and Younger Tsukiko Squad to look after. I'm sure Kotowari, Awdry and Misaki will be heading over to help their captain, and I personally know how strong he can be, so I don't have much worry about that. Sigh. That still runs a risk though, seeing as how we don't know exactly what these Neighbors can do."

"So you want us to see if we can pick both those two B-Rank teams along the way? That's fine with me, but that's also an issue. Dai-chan here may end feeling the need to help out those C-Ranks. That could lead to something that Jin-san may not want."

"Then contact him. Ask him if he sees you guys there. If he doesn't, don't bother going at all. You need to remember that this really isn't the time to be playing around or fighting with each other. Sigh. That's also why getting to the base should be your main priority while picking up those guys should be second. Those guys are good enough to not get caught and Bail Out when need. Sigh. So only do something else when you can guarantee you will continue on afterwards towards the base."

"Sure thing~!"

Minoru watched as Sekai continued to give an explaination and orders in a way that showed just why he had been the captain of a former A-Rank team.

"I guess I got the wrong impression from him..."

Minoru nodded his head and told Svantje to follow Jinsei and Daigo back to the base.

Sekai scrunched up his eyebrows.

_That bastard Misó..._

* * *

On a different battlefield, Mei shot a basic model Rabbit with Lead Bullets as she blocked a hit from a regular Marmod with her Kōgetsu.

"Asteroid."

A cube of Trion appeared at her side before splitting up and destroying the Marmods that had surrounded her.

She pushed the one in front of her back and quickly went in to stab it in its core.

She walked up to the downed Rabbit and stabbed its core as well. She used Kōgetsu to split it open and take the cubes that were in it.

"Takato to HQ. I've gotten some more captured people."

_"Good job, Mei. We need you to go over and help Yuki out. He's facing a humanoid Neighbor. They have a regular Trigger, but we don't know what they are capable of. We are having other agents deal with more humanoid Neighbors, but your the closest to him. Hatohara and Hikigane are heading over to him as well."_

"Right. I'll go over right now."

Using her Side Effect, Mei started thinking of her strategy. She had not been told anything else, but that did not stop her. She would come up with hundreds upon hundreds of strategies before even making it half way to the battlefield.

Within these sets of calculation, some random thoughts had been put in. Along side them were calculations for other people who she was nowhere near at the moment.

These calculations had been put through multiple simulations in her kind as she continued her fights. Simulations for the C-Ranks, simulations for her team, simulations for the grouping B-Rank teams, simulations for the boy who had taken out the second Illgar, simulations for the Tamakoma members fighting, simulations for Yuki, simulations for those at the Border base, simulations for anything and everything except herself.

These calculations and simulations had all been because of the information she was given by the one who had seen the future of things - Jin Yūichi.

Due to the nature of their Side Effects, they could either match each other to create the most optimal future or run parallel to each other and create a distortion that ended terribly for everyone involved. One could predict the other, yet also get interrupted by it. Nothing could be set in stone when taking both into consideration.

_Jin, I'm trying here. I'm trying to force the world towards the future you want. But I can't go against myself. I want to force everything to go your way, but I have to be there for Yuki. Please accept my apology later. After that, I will help you once more. I will help by forcing everything towards the best future you see._

Something had been in her mind within every simulation she saw.

It was difficult for her to put in words what it had been, but there had been something in her kind that created abnormalities in her simulations and calculations.

_"Mei-chiaaaaaan!"_

Mei jumped up at the sudden voice that broke through her thoughts.

_"Don't worry yourself too much. Don't worry about what you don't know. Don't worry about us over here. Don't worry about anything but yourself and the fights you have to reach in this invasion."_

"Jin..."

Letting out a breath, she placed her hand to her ear.

"Okay. I'm sorry for this and that. I'll give you a proper apology later, so please accept this rushed one. For now, I need to go fight with Yuki. But when we are done here... When we have time for that apology, I want you to tell me something. I want you to tell me what parameters I am missing."

_"Not too sure I can help with that. I'll try, but no promises."_

Mei gave a nod, knowing that she was the only one who could understand that nod.

"That is good enough for me."

She gave a second nod. This understanding extended with it, letting her ease her mind a bit so that she was no longer calculating and no longer making pointless simulations in her mind.

.

Letting out a sigh, Mei began to move, this time unfazed by the voice that came to her ears.

_"Mei-san?"_

"Suzume. Sorry I haven't been helping you guys out. I was busy getting rid of some Neighbors. I will make up for this once everything is settled."

_"Wait, since when did you fight!?"_

_"Now isn't the time for that. Mei-san, do you know where Yuki-senpai is? We are going to go help him out."_

"I'm headed over there right now. I've been told he, along with others in different areas, are fighting humanoid Neighbors, so your help will be useful. I'll send you all the coordinates."

_"Alright. Thank you."_

"Right. Hurry up and don't be late."

Mei let out a sigh as she sped through the battlefield. She was not using the Trigger that was made just for her, so she felt like her pace was agonizingly slow. She did not let that get to her though.

There was no reason to worry about other things. There was no reason to worry too much. There was no reason to worry about anything but herself and the fight she had to reach.

Knowing this, he mind went back to a memory of only a few days ago.

* * *

_"Why did you tell them that? You already know that even if you tell them that, they only see it as backing you up, not really each other," Mei said as she typed away on her computer. "Like you all said; they are selfish not for us two... They would never get along and never try to understand each other."_

_"That's true, but the parts that are attached to me are the parts I need them to get rid of," Yuki answered with a tub of ice-cream in front of him. "They are each their own person and I need them to realize that."_

_"You make it sound like they are just AI who learn for others."_

_"In a sense...they are like that."_

_Mei turned from her computer and gave a questioning look to her friend._

_"Care to explain?"_

_"Think about Takeshi's personality, Toby when he got here, and Suzu's Side Effects." He took another spoonful of ice-cream into his mouth. "Takeshi sees almost everything as a blank canvas; so it's easy for someone like me, who can interest him, to 'paint something' on it. Suzu's Side Effect find a persons Rhythm and she accommodates to it. She's like an instrument a person can play. Toby sticks with me because, besides Arashiyama Squad, I was the only one to really see him past his appearance. It may have been accidental impression. They need to learn to move forward without me."_

_"Hm. This coming for you and your Side Effect... It sounds like a bad joke."_

_"That may be, but it's true. They can't change their Side Effects and I don't want them to change their personalities, but I_ do _want them to know that they should work at their own pace and not try to match someone else's. I know all too well what that can lead to..."_

_"..."_

_Mei gave no answer and simply turned back to her computer. She typed furiously as her friend continued to talk._

_"Huh? Why are you mad?"_

_"..."_

_"Okay, okay. I'm sorry for sounding like a hypocrite, but..."_

_"No... Recently, I haven't been able to say you're being a hypocrite."_

_"What do you mean?"_

_"..."_

_"Mei, don't ignore me~"_

* * *

_That idiot. He hasn't even noticed that he's going back to his old habits..._

Mei shook her head as she rushed to her best friend's side.

She would go meet up with him, think of thousands of strategies ready to use, and win.

They would beat their opponent like they had before.

They would not lose to a single person.

That was how they are.


	18. Invasion: Part 3

Oshiro wasn't sure what to think at the moment.

He moved his eyes from looking at Misó's face to the horns on his head.

He was stunned.

His former teammate's face didn't look like he was lying.

_So he would always cover his head to...hide his horns..._

But there was no time to think.

Oshiro's thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of footsteps moving back.

Oshiro lifted his head up.

"Kirai-kun...!"

Misó didn't respond to Oshiro's shout.

The boy just faced Oshiro silently.

They were about a hundred meters away from each now. Oshiro recalled all the times he had fought with Misó and gulped. One hundred meters wasn't a distance to Misó.

But Oshiro still believed that everyone could talk it out. He still believed so.

He casually walked forward and then said, "Hold on, Misó. Something's not right. I know you like playing jokes on others...and I don't know how you got such an... _interesting_ Trigger, but-"

Before he could finish, Oshiro froze up.

His body was trembling.

From the Trion Body of Misó Espanástasi...

No.

From the body of Misó of Aftokrator, there seemed to be something spraying out. Oshiro's feet were just nailed to the ground. His head could feel a tremendous pressure, and his breathing was erratic. There was a sense of pain deep within his brain that was like fireworks, and he stopped thinking.

Was this some sort of gaseous attack coming from Misó? Of course not. Misó didn't do anything, but that was enough to force Oshiro to be unable to move.

Killing intent.

The killing intent alone was enough to turn Oshiro to stone.

The tremendous pressure that was released made him feel like the surrounding gravity was increased by ten times.

Something like that shouldn't be an issue when in a Trion Body, but the feeling that Misó was giving off made Oshiro think he was in his real body, ready to die. The fear he felt had stopped him from even giving his body simple commands.

"Hold it- Misó...listen to me!"

Oshiro still tried to talk to Misó, but Misó didn't respond. Which was very odd on its own.

A gust of wind blew by, and Misó's bangs started to wave.

Behind the bangs, the eyes that looked like lightning were completely emotionless.

If a killer's eyes could be said to be wild and agitated, Misó's eyes were the complete opposite. They were no longer a human's eyes. A human couldn't possibly have those eyes that covered all emotional sense. It seemed like those eyeballs were two glass balls or crystals.

Misó of Aftokrator didn't say anything.

He just stretched his arm aside, glancing at Oshiro as if he were watching him.

He was numb.

Oshiro didn't say anything now.

Slowly, Misó raised his hand as if he was holding an axe.

An unknown attack? Could Oshiro dodge in time? Oshiro's body started to tremble.

But he wouldn't back away.

Oshiro's hand went to the blade at his hip.

Suddenly, a growl came from somewhere.

"Move aside! Hogo!"

The sound of wind being cut could be heard.

An extended slash passed between Oshiro and Misó, forming a wall of dust and debris. Misó, who had been intending to launch the attack, was instantly distracted. At that moment, a girl appeared between the two of them. The girl was in a short-sleeved t-shirt, a jacket and pants. The end of her pants were tucked into a pair of combat boots that went a quarter of the way up her leg.

Following Kanzaki, who was giving off killing intent, was Kimura, who's voice came through to his ear.

" _There is no reason to hesitate on a fight. Especially during an invasion. No matter the reason, Captain."_

Though it was known what Kanzaki did, she seemed to be remaining vigilant.

Though Oshiro was shocked, he was still staring at Misó, who was acting strangely.

"Hey, Kawa-chan! What's with him?"

_"Does that matter right now? He had always been a psycho who would disregard everything around him just because he was bored and attack everywhere at once. ...That's why I had sent Kanzaki to follow you guys from a distance."_

"?"

.

"This name: Misó Epanástasi."

Kanzaki carefully glared at Misó and said, "Whether that's his real full name, or just something he made up, there is no point to use it."

Misó himself didn't rebut this.

He just narrowed his eyes and pointed his hand from Oshiro to Kanzaki.

"What...?"

"We checked around multiple sources, including ones from Greece, where he supposedly came from, and they said that there's never been anyone with the name Misó Epanástasi. It seems he had even lied about his information. Hm. That's ironic. I've been keeping eye on him since then though. What's more, Kimura and I had asked Shitokei-dono about certain calculations concerning this guy. It seems that she was right on the mark."

Oshiro stared at Misó.

At that moment, Misó widened his eyes.

A loud boom could be heard.

"This guy really is the worst."

With a sharp and icy look, Kanzaki's voice sounded like a blade.

* * *

"Meteora."

Yuki watched as his attack was easily fended off by his opponent.

The pole in his hand had a ball attached to the blunt end of it.

The area all around them had turned from an urban area to flat land with some debris here and there.

"Well that was one way to start this off. But really, is that the best you've got?" Pyr started walking forward. "I want my pet to be strong, so you better go all out against me. I have a job to do here, but that's doesn't mean I can't have some fun."

Letting out a small sigh, Yuki ran forward with his weapon at the ready.

He spun the pole in his hand and the ball at the end of the blunt side was gone.

A crescent blade appeared on the pointed end of the pole.

Yuki made a slash with the new blade, but missed when his opponent jumped in the air.

He jumped into the air and spun the pole again.

This time the blunt end had the ball back on.

Yuki brought it down with enough power to send Pyr smashing to the ground. He didn't relent as he used the fall to try and land another powerful hit. The hit caused debris to fly into the air and obscure his vision.

"Nice try, but not good enough."

Yuki saw a hand going for his head and ducked under it.

He reacted by using his own hand to swat the arm away, going for a hit right after. He felt the impact, Pyr went flying across the battlefield.

He spun the pole again and it reverted to its base form. He put it in the holder at the back of his waist while rushing forward again with a Scorpion blade in hand and a Trion cube next to him.

"Next one."

Pyr saw the head-on attack and brought her arm up to block.

She came to understand that this attack was an explosive one with power behind it. That meant she had the advantage since the power and explosion was something she could understand.

It wasn't until she saw Yuki directly in front of her did she think something was off.

She was quick to get out of the way of the bladed attack and kick him away. The issue came as a secondary attack by the explosive shots he had been using.

She clicked her tongue while bringing up her hand.

A large explosion went off that sent the two of them back.

The two readied themselves once more.

"Hey, hey. How'd you get in front of me so quickly?" Pyr asked with a slightly irritated expression.

"I wonder about that as well."

Yuki smirked as he got rid of Scorpion.

"Maybe if you pay more attention you will figure out the answer."

"Hm. Nice to know that my future pet has spunk. Although, I really do need to cut off that silver tongue of yours. Maybe I'll feed it to another one of my pets. Yeah. That should be good. But what to do about your legs?"

She picked up a rock and examined it for a few seconds before tossing it at Yuki.

"A little present from me."

Yuki raised an eyebrow, but still got ready to defend. He went wide eyed when he saw the rock start to glow and quickly jumped back just as an explosion went off.

"Well that certainly was-"

When he looked back up, he saw multiple rocks being thrown at him. He brought up Shield, while also continuing to jump back to get out of range from the main blasts.

He wasn't paying attention to the woman now and focused on the rocks.

This allowed Pyr to make her way behind him and land a kick on him.

He was sent sailing through the air and came to a stop when he regained his balance.

He saw a small glow next to him and saw '15' on his uniform. He used Scorpion to cut that part off and tried to get away.

The explosion that followed was delayed from the previous glow and explosions. That had been noted as he brought up a defense for it again.

_Fifteen, huh..._

Nodding to himself, Yuki pulled out the pole again and spun it.

The crescent blade appeared again.

Yuki ran forward and tried multiple slashes.

Pyr easily moved around them.

She saw a small opening in the attacks and took the chance.

She tried to land a punch, but was only able to touch the tip of his uniform. This didn't seem to bother her as she smirked while Yuki cut the piece of clothing off and jumped back.

The explosion wasn't as big as the other ones, but it was still big enough to cause dust to fly into the air.

She got ready for another attack.

She saw something headed for her.

She brought her arm up and grabbed what it was.

She was shocked when she saw it was just the jacket from Yuki's uniform.

"Got you."

Yuki appeared in front of her and managed to get a good slash at her, making her jump back to avoid another hit.

He straightened up and smirked.

Yuki saw that he had cut through her cloak, and the skin-tight outfit under it, but both seemed to quickly be fixed. He didn't mind too much since he saw that she still suffered from the actual cut he made.

"Again... How did you just appear in front of me!?"

"I figured it out already."

"Hm? Figured what out?"

"That you suck at this. You're really bad when it comes to hiding anything from people. Could you be the worst one of your group? I mean..."

Yuki continued to smirk as he out the pole away.

"You don't even have a Black Trigger and are being held up by a single person who is constantly at death's door."

"You little shit!"

* * *

Other battles were going on at the same time.

One consisted of multiple B-Rank Border agents against a single, red-haired Neighbor.

Another had just finished up between the #3 A-Rank team and a black-haired Neighbor with an odd Trigger.

The last battle was the one that was meant to protect the C-Rank agents that were there.

The last battle was the one that was meant to capture the C-Rank agents that were there.

The ones who were on this battlefield were an old and young Neighbor and a team from the Tamakoma Branch.

"Resistance is futile."

As the brown haired Neighbor spoke, a shield of magnets floated in front of him, protecting him from the gunfire Karasuma Kyōsuke and Kizaki Reiji were letting out.

With a small "Klink", Karasuma changed the type of bullets he was using.

He started firing again. This time the shots moved around the shield of magnets and came from multiple directions.

Most of the shots were blocked by the magnets floating around Hyuse, but some managed to get through and strike the brown haired Neighbor.

Konami came from above and behind with her large battle axe - known as Sōgetsu - ready to strike. She grinned as she fell, Hyuse looking back to get ready for the strike.

The old man with a cane appeared in front of Konami, blocking her attack with relative ease.

"Ho ho. What an energetic young lady."

Feeling something ominous, Konami moved back.

"Hmph. And quick on the update as well."

Konami narrowed her eyes as Viza moved closer to his partner.

_What was that just now? This guy's Trigger gives me a really bad vibe..._

As he moved closer to Hyuse, Viza started to speak. His tone remaining as calm as when they first arrived.

"Hyuse. There's no need to waste your skill in this skirmish. Let's achieve our goal and withdraw."

"Understood."

Hyuse lifted his arm up. The magnets followed along before starting to clash and morph together. They started to take a new form in the shape of, what could be compared to, a shotgun-sized railgun.

Small electrical discharges came off of the new weapon as it seemed to be charging up for a new attack.

A railgun was a sort of battleship weapon that fired metal shells using superpowered electromagnets. The principle behind them was similar to a linear motor train.

Hyuse lifted his weapon up as if aiming for something.

Before anyone could really register what happened, something shot forward from the shotgun-sized railgun. That something slammed into Amatori, who had been retreating with Mikumo and the other C-Rank agents.

It was more like a laser than say something like a spear. They could only tell that it had originated from the boy's weapon because the aftermath of light stretched back to it.

"Target captured."

Mikumo and Kizaki were quick to turn their attention to see the few magnets embedded into Amatori's shoulder.

With a small zapping sound, Amatori was lifted into the air. Smaller magnets made a sort of link to Hyuse as electricity seemed to run through it.

Mikumo wasted no time in grabbing Amatori's hand, while also grabbing a nearby fence.

That didn't seem to do much though as the two were still being lifted into the air.

"Kyōsuke!"

"Roger!"

Seeing Karasuma firing the same trajectory-changing shots as before, Hyuse commanded the magnets around him to create a dome around him. This defense seemed to work as no shots had made it through.

Although...

"!"

Hyuse was sent flying out of his own protective dome by a hard punch from Kizaki.

It was obvious to everyone who saw that Kizaki had taken the chance to hit where the defense was the weakest, letting him land the hit.

Noticing something familiar, Kizaki looked down to see the same magnets now stuck in his arm.

 _"I see. I've figured out how his Trigger works. It's magnets. Those reflective shards operate like_ magnets _... All of them are pushing and pulling toward each other, they're manipulated by the power he gives off. That's what killed the force of my attack."_

Kizaki turned his attention from his arm to the two black haired agents behind him.

"Kyōsuke. Osamu, hurry to HQ with the C-Ranks. Keep Amatori out if this guy's magnets' range."

"Are you sure? You won't have numbers on your side anymore. Not to mention that Ketsu-san is still a good distance away."

"We're in no position to retreat a little at a time. Konami and I will keep them here."

"Roger."

Karasuma put his hand to his ear as he stared moving with the others.

"Director Shinoda, this is Karasuma. I'm heading from the southwest to HQ with the C-Rank trainees."

* * *

The former Border agent didn't do anything.

Kanzaki stood in front of Oshiro, and she reached for the blade at her waist.

"I don't know what is going on with him now, but his mentality seems to have changed since he went into that body. Maybe this is his real face, but we can't be too sure about that either."

Kanzaki said in a curse-like voice.

Misó didn't say anything.

There was no need to talk. He raised his arm high as if it was a lit fuse.

Oshiro felt a chill, as if his heart was speared by an ice pillar.

No anger, no frenzy, no mockery, no sneering, nor any guilt.

He wasn't moving at all.

Seeing that, a strange feeling came over Oshiro. He had seen at least two to three sides of Misó before, but this was something completely new to him.

The Neighbor had only one command to itself, and that was to do as he was commanded by his leader.

He didn't seem to care about the team he was now betraying, or even what he had really just done. He was now just a tool to be used.

Oshiro gritted his teeth and looked up.

It was a sight no one had seen. It wasn't something special like a meteor falling to the ground. In all honesty, only a handful of people would actually care.

Oshiro turned to glare at Misó of Aftokrator.

"Damn it..."

Misó was just staring at Oshiro expressionlessly.

His eyes were like someone standing high above, looking down at insects rolling around in the dirt.

The Neighbor who had just shown his true colors didn't say anything.

His eyes didn't have any look of danger, not even a look a pity.

Because there was no need to pity a bug that was going to be crushed to death.

"What kind of sick joke is this! At least say something! Listen up, I'm angry, I'm really angry! There's no room for negotiations, stop this stupid joke right now!"

Oshiro roared at the boy who was taller than him, but his voice was trembling.

At that moment, the three girls who hard heard him yell went wide eyed.

Oshiro recalled the speed, the power, the distance control and the battle skills that Misó had when in a simple Border Trion Body. He knew that he wouldn't win against Misó on an actual one-on-one match. His use of a Trigger that no one had any information on meant that Oshiro was in a terrible place in this fight.

Besides, right now, his victory was just right in front.

Because he didn't need to disguise himself anymore.

"..."

"Hogo."

At that moment, Kanzaki Shizuka silently turned her head back and looked at Oshiro.

"I'll take care of this guy, hurry up and take out the Neighbors heading this way. Afterwards, head for the other B-Ranks."

For a moment, Oshiro was unable to understand what Kanzaki meant.

Because she had said it so casually.

In this situation where it was not much different from using martial arts to take on a tank.

Kanzaki wasn't hesitating, bothered, tolerant, fearful, anxious.

She stood before Oshiro, facing the Neighbor.

"W-why...?"

Thus, Oshiro could only choose to ask that.

Facing this question Oshiro barely managed to make out, Kanzaki said without turning her head back, "No reason. There is something I should do here, which is why I am standing here. It is just that simple."

Kanzaki then said in an uninterested tone, "Betrayal? Is that what you had planned? How meaningless, really meaningless. If you do that, I really will not be holding back. This time I have a reason to slam your head into the ground with all my strength."

Kanzaki stepped forward.

Oshiro was unable to stop her, nor was he able to catch up to her. Though they were less than a meter away from each other, it made Oshiro feel like he wouldn't be able to catch up with her. It wasn't because the enemy was strong, not because of the pain within him, not because of the sharpness, weight, speed, cold or heat.

But because of the nature.

With her back facing Oshiro as she faced the Neighbor, Kanzaki gave off a presence of nature that indicated that she had the right to do this.

Kanzaki didn't turn back as she continued to say to Oshiro, "Backup will not be too long. Hikigane and Hato... Minoru-dono have to pass by this area to reach Taiyōko and his fight. They will be able to provide assistance, should I need it."

Now that Kanzaki said it, Oshiro finally realized it.

He couldn't participate in this fight because he still saw Misó as a friend. He could shout and scream all he wanted, but he didn't want to really believe that Misó was a Neighbor, one who was attacking the city no less.

"Just leave this to me. Do not forget, I am A-Rank material for a reason. And I do not ever plan on losing to this guy in a million- No. A trillion years."

Kanzaki said.

Oshiro was speechless.

"If that's the case, that's even more reason for me not to run away! I want to fight! Against this enemy that was my friend, my skills should more or less be of some help!"

"Do not be stupid, if we let any more damage come to the city, we do not even have the right to commit seppuku."

Kanzaki sounded rather casual.

"Why are you still so confident in yourself!? He don't show any mercy!"

Oshiro sounded like someone who was trying to prevent a lunatic from jumping off a building.

"How can I leave such an opponent to you! I want to fight' how can I run away even at this point!"

"Listen to me."

But Kanzaki seemed abnormally calm,

"This thing in front of us is already past help. It is stupid to fight against him, let alone beat him, for someone like you."

Oshiro held his breath as he stared at Kanzaki.

"But do not be mistaken. I do not want to lose like that. I may not be able to beat him when he uses this Trigger, but I do not think that I will lose. Maybe I can divert him away and hold him off."

Kanzaki said silently.

"Hogo, while I hold him off, please take care of the Neighbors and protect the city."

"Wait, what did you say?"

"Have you forgotten that these guys are going after the C-Rank agents? Those Neighbors are the ones who are really taking them away. If we cannot protect something... We are no better than people like him."

The last sentence didn't seem to be directed at Oshiro, but at the Neighbor.

The unmoving Neighbor didn't respond to her.

Misó let Oshiro run out off to the side.

His attitude was like saying, no point arguing with you since the outcome will be the same.

He was wielding a Trigger that no one had knowledge on. What's more was that he was allowing these two to talk. He didn't seem to care that they were in the middle of a fight. He just thought so lowly of them.

"But what about yourself? Is it really alright to go against Misó..."

"Who knows, but this is the best choice. With your ability, you cannot contain it. You have to seriously do your job well and try to destroy the Neighbors. Your hard work will increase my chances of continuing to be on the battlefield."

Kanzaki stared at Misó of Aftokrator and stepped forward.

"And I do not wish to cause ordinary civilians to be taken because of battle between us and these guys."

"...Can you really do that?"

"Yeah. Though it is a little disrespectful for me to say this, I decide to trust you for now."

Kanzaki didn't say any more.

Oshiro wanted to say something, but he didn't know what to say.

It would be a waste of time to stop Kanzaki. Every meaningless action would decrease Kanzaki's survival rate.

Oshiro gritted his teeth.

"Then I'll leave it to you, Kanzaki-san! I'll trust you this time!"

Oshiro shouted as he grabbed his blade and ran off.

Misó turned away from Kanzaki and stared at Oshiro.

Kanzaki moved her body and again blocked the Misó's line of sight.

"Your opponent is me. You have never beaten me, right?"

At this moment, Kanzaki actually smiled.

"Speaking of which, did he really just say that he decided to trust me? He is usually the one who goes wild in order to keep others out of situations. But this is the best way to say it. Because of that, my chances of survival have really increased."

After saying that, Kanzaki grabbed onto the hilt of her special Kōgetsu.

Misó that was staring at Kanzaki silently suddenly muttered under his breath.

"Stupid."

With a loud boom, a huge explosion occurred behind the Neighbor.

His back let out something that looked like wings.

They weren't wings that were as elegant as a swan's, but the screen of ice wings like a peacock.

Numerous sharp wings that looked that they were carved out from ice extended outwards like a hill of swords. At the same time, several tons of water in the air rush out and gathered behind the Neighbor.

The back fused with the water, forming a huge wing of water.

The huge ice wing of blades opened up behind the Neighbor, and each of them were about ten to twelve meters in length. They looked like a wall of sharp crystals that could cut anyone's fingers on the slightest touch.

The numerous ice wings stabbed up at the air.

Each wing was thoroughly infused with Trion, and each attack could flatten buildings and create craters. Even if it was on the battlefield as per normal, Kanzaki, who often caused enemies to back away in fear, was now stiff with tension. If it were anyone else, the killing intent released would have caused the person to faint.

"I really got quite a bad job now."

* * *

Yuki continued to smirk as he lazily twirled Idōgetsu in his hand.

"Whenever your hand, or arm, touches something, a number appears. Depending on the number, an explosion occurs at a certain time. The flash the numbers make is just for show. You use it to throw your opponent off and make them think the explosion is going to go off right away."

"Heh..."

"Hm? Did I get it wrong?"

"No, no, no. You are completly right." Pyr looked up with a psychotic look in her eyes. "But I can mark something from anything! Not just my arms and hands!"

Yuki went wide eyed when he saw a glow coming from his feet. He jumped up and saw a '2' on the ground.

"Damn it!"

The explosion was not a minor one.

"Hehehe. Guess he should have been more-"

"Observant... Right?"

Pyr was unprepared. She ducked in time to dodge a slash at the neck, but still got kicked and was sent flying.

"I'll be taking this part of my uniform back now," Yuki said as he picked up his jacket. He looked it over and couldn't find a number on it. "Good. I was hoping to keep it around to use that trick again."

"How the fuck did you dodge that?"

Pyr looked up and saw a snowflake on the jacket start to fade away.

"Looks like your trick is like mine. We both use marks to fool our opponents."

She stood back up it's her psychotic look reaching a new level.

"You really will make a great pet! I'll make sure to fu-"

"Sorry, but he's already _my idiot_."

Pyr was unsure how it happened. All she knew was that there was a massive amount of weight on her right side that forced her to the ground.

"Who the hell did that!?"

"It's about time."

Mei landed next to Yuki with an indifferent expression on her face.

She let out a sigh and shook her head.

"I guess we should just hurry this up. You two already destroyed more than enough, and I don't want Director Netsuki yelling in our ears more than he usually does."

She clicked her tongue and looked away.

"Amo has it lucky. He's an S-Rank, so he doesn't get yelled at for making a new parking lot."

"Ah~~ I guess you're right. I've already figured her Trigger's ability out, so it should be easier for us." Yuki grinned as he got the pole back out. "Right! Let's finish her up before the others get here!"

* * *

"Are you sure it's a good thing to only send those two to fight one of the humanoid Neighbors!?" Netsuki asked from the Border Headquarters. "They cause more than enough damage on their own. I doubt their opponent will care about the area!"

"Yes. The other teams are busy and those two are strong enough to get the job done. Hatohara and Hikigane are on their way, but for now these two will take care of it," Shinoda answered while looking at the big screen in front of them all. "You are right about the area they're in, but that area has been cleared out for a while. I doubt most people would care for it."

"Those two are animals when they fight opponents like these. It's a good thing they are in that area. Not only that... Tsukiko Trigger doesn't help any situation with multiple people around. It was a hassle to make it, along with that Special Teleport for him. You were just showing favoritism, Director Shinoda."

"Say what you will, but both of those Triggers are well suited for those two. They will win this fight before backup can reach them."

"What are you basing that on exactly?"

"My own experience. As well as who their teacher is. There is only one person who can perfectly match the two of us. Even if he isn't in Mikado City anymore, if he were to have a student of his own, I would believe that they are on the same level."

"The three of you are always too much to handle. Please don't give me any ideas that he would also take up a student."


	19. Invasion: Part 4

One battle had finished. The first battle. This battle was the one between the red haired Neighbor and multiple B-Rank agents, along with the support of three A-Rank agents.

It was a difficult battle that showed just how strong both sides were. The Neighbor - Ranbanein - had held his own against the large amount of Border agents. While on the flip side, Border had been able to deal with the powerful Trigger he had been using.

As the second battle came to an end, the third one between the the old-and-young Neighbor duo and two of Tamakoma Branch's members continued.

While Kizaki was handling Hyuse, Konami was going hit-for-hit with Viza.

"Oh my. Ranbanein, defeated... Miden warriors cannot be underestimated. This young lady is also quite skilled. Being stalled any longer would be problematic. What to do...?"

Konami gave a less than serious reply of, "What are you talking about? You've been evading this whole time, not even taking me seriously."

Viza simply continued to smile.

"Oh, no. I am always serious."

Just as he finished that sentence, a large Bambster tore through the buildings behind the old man.

Konami stared in shocked at not noticing the large Trion Soldier until now. Even with all the fighting going on, she should have still noticed it coming from the side.

It was a clear indicator as to the caution she was showing in the fight.

_"Kirie-chan, just focus on your fight!"_

Something shot from the sky just as the Bambster was passing by. That something raced to the ground, impaling the Trion Soldier in a single hit. It was followed by a falling person, who grabbed the something and cut the Bambster in half.

It was Viza's turn to be shocked.

There stood Ketsueki, Trishula in hand.

_It looks like another one has appeared..._

Konami moved over to stand next to Ketsueki.

"It's about time, Ketsu-san."

"Sorry about that. I was debating on whether I should go back to help Kanzaki with that traitor Misó."

As he spoke, Ketsueki took a glance at where he had just been, but saw nothing there. He had been informed about the twelve meter wings that Misó had sprouted at the beginning of his fight and worried that they would be able to grow even larger.

"So, what exactly do we have here? What can their Triggers do?"

"I'm not sure about this old man, but the guy over there controls magnets. It's a really irritating Trigger."

"Magnets? Hm... Alright."

Ketsueki lifted his trident up, ready to attack. His eyes looked as if they were reading over something at a quick pace.

"Kirie-chan, can you do me a favor?"

"Hm? What?"

"I...kind of did not notice that more Trion Soldiers were headed in the direction that big one was going. Would you mind taking them out?"

"..."

Konami shifted her gaze to give an almost expressionless look.

Ketsueki seemed a bit twitchy at this. He shifted a bit before gulping.

"S-so...is that a yes?"

"Tsk. You owe me for this."

With those final parting words, Konami leaped up onto one of the buildings. She moved away by jumping from one roof to another.

Ketsueki let out a small sigh before moving to stand back-to-back with Kizaki.

"Rei-san, we have to do our part over here."

"Of course."

* * *

Svantje scrunched up her eyebrows as she, along with two members of Hikigane Squad, made their way to the Border base. She was still confused as to why they were heading there when they would be more needed on the battlefield.

She had taken a look over at the two boys and saw that they didn't seem bothered by this. She went along with it because Minoru didn't seem to have any objections to the order, but she still had to wonder.

"Hey, do you know why we're headed back? I know he said he had a bad feeling, but just going off of that isn't really..."

"I haven't been on the team for too long," Daigo said, not looking back, "but I know that when Captain has a bad feeling it's usually because something wrong will happen. You may think that it is best to stay out here, but something will happen, if it isn't already at the base. Our captain isn't the type of person who would give out unnecessary orders that make no sense."

Jinsei took a glance at Daigo, a smile on his face.

He knew the reason as to why it was best to trust in Sekai, yet he said nothing to the two others behind.

If they had known that it was because of the man's former occupation that he knew best in situations like these then it could change their minds and the outcome of things. The risk was always there during times like these, so there was never a reason to say anything.

"Alright... I'll trust you."

"It's not like we're trying to go against anything. We're just following our captain's orders."

Jinsei smiled as he spoke. He could see that confusion was still on Svantje's face, but neither said any more on the subject. They just continued to make their way to the base.

* * *

Kanzaki Shizuka and Misó of Aftokrator were facing off ten meters away from each other.

But for someone who had already fought against Aftokrator Triggers, this could only be described as stupid. It was not that Kanzaki was too weak or the Neighbor was too strong; it was not that kind of simple dimensional question, but an even more basic and simpler paradox.

Basically, she knew nothing of this Trigger.

Figuring it out would take time.

In other words. Since Kanzaki had to use up her time figuring out Misó's Trigger, she wouldn't be able to end this fight quickly.

So Kanzaki's action was really comical.

But the Neighbor boy didn't say anything, or even show a smile of pity.

Misó raised one of his ice wings. Though they were about ten meters away from each other, it didn't matter to the twelve-meter-long water wing; instead, it may have been too close.

The ice wings that were infused with Trion from tip to tip could each send out an attack that could wreck a city. Once he sent that, this area would be destroyed completely.

Misó didn't hesitate.

Even though he knew the devastation this would cause on the area.

The Neighbor that controlled wings raised the twelve meter ice wing in the air without hesitation.

Such a scene gave a look that a tower was collapsing. The air that was ripped became a fist of air as it scattered about, until the wind itself collapsed due to the ice wing. The ice wing came swinging down at Kanzaki with shocking speed.

It was all over.

Everything should have been over.

"!"

With a clear sound, the ice wing was sliced in half by a horizontal flash.

Who could have predicted such a scene?

Misó was stunned, and Kanzaki merely took a deep breath in response.

The Trion-made blade that was hanging from Kanzaki's waist.

The moment she drew the sword, the twelve-meter-long ice wing was sliced easily like a bamboo tube. Also, the remains of the sliced ice wing immediately scattered into powder like an explosion and vanished.

Kanzaki didn't say anything.

The blade of the sword had already been sheathed silently into the black sheath.

The bangs of the Neighbor trembled slightly. The glass-ball-like eyes behind the bangs rolled about, seemingly looking for Kanzaki's weakness. Misó raised another ice wing from his back, as if it were an experiment.

This time, the ice wing swung over, and the storm it whipped up seemed like it would flatten everything.

But the same thing happened again.

"!"

Kanzaki's slash easily sliced that twelve-meter-long ice wing in half.

And Kanzaki's body hadn't wavered from the speed of the unsheathing sword or the weight. The moment the blade was drawn, it was sheathed back silently.

Ten meters away, Kanzaki calmly stroked her hilt.

The Neighbor stopped.

He seemed to be thinking of a new tactic to deal with this prey.

"I think that," Kanzaki taunted, "you don't have to be shocked about this level of counterattack. Seems like you underestimated this earthling called Kanzaki Shizuka."

Misó of Aftokrator didn't respond. What replaced it were two ice wings that crossed each other like pliers.

A loud sound.

The two ice wings struck at Kanzaki with a boom.

But Kanzaki flipped her body like a tornado, slashing the two water wings in half at the same time with one strike.

"..."

The bangs swayed about in the air, the eyes behind them rolled about, seemingly confirming something.

* * *

"You know, if you used your Side Effect, this might be easier for us."

"You know, it would be pointless to do that with an opponent like this."

Mei let out a sigh as she scratched her head. On one side was her and Yuki, ready for battle and right in front of their opponent. On the other side was their opponent, sporting multiple weights on her side, courtesy of Mei herself.

She had received the information about their opponent's Trigger and was already coming up with hundreds upon hundreds of strategies. It didn't help that she still needed to keep an eye on Yuki.

She knew they had to get the fight over with quickly for multiple reason. The main two were that they needed to go help other places. The other reason being that neither wanted the rest of their team seeing their fight.

"By the way, that Trigger of yours is very...stylish."

"Now, now. No need to be jealous. The one you have is just too destructive. You know full well that's why Shinoda-san and Akasora-sensei forbid you from using it. Besides, you would end up going full Rampage Dress on me, and that would never do."

"Tsk. You're getting me a little mad now." She got in a fighting stance. "Let's just end this quickly."

"Hm? You two dating or something?"

The two Border agents turned to their opponent to see small explosions go off and the weights destroyed.

"If so, that gives me more of a reason to beat you down, little bitch. First you say that cutie here is _yours_ , then you put those weights on me, and you finish it off by flirting right in front of me." The crazed look came back to Pyr's face, but with a scowl instead of a grin. "I'll make you escape, then hunt you down to kill you personally, you little bitch."

"Hm. I don't want to hear that coming from a tramp like you."

Yuki couldn't help but wonder where all of this was actually going. He could basically _see_ the sparks clashing between the two females. It was actually a scary sight since Mei was already scary enough, but with Pyr ready to blow them up...

He let out a sigh and spun the pole in his hand.

The pointed end had a single blade coming out of the side to make a scythe.

_Might as well..._

He rushed at Pyr with his weapon at the ready. When he got close enough, he made a quick jump to the side as Asteroid went passed him and hit Pyr dead on.

Knowing that the attack didn't do much to her, he used some rubble as a platform to jump off into the air and bring down the scythe.

Pyr brought her hands up and grabbed the blade before tossing both it and its owner to the side. Before she could think of another attack, she noticed Mei had come up to her side with Kōgetsu going for a slash, a gun also pointed at her head.

Yuki easily landed and looked at the blade to see a "1" on one side and a "2" on the other side. He quickly spun the pole. The blunt end now had the ball back on it. The numbers were nowhere to be seen.

_So it looks like there's a weakness to this._

He heard an explosion and turned to see Mei landing not too far from Pyr.

He pulled off his jacket and tied it around his waist.

He saw that Mei was going for another attack with her Kōgetsu while taking in her stance and way of running. Without much thought, he mimicked her attack and went for Pyr's back with his own weapon.

He felt his body lighten up and any tension escaped from his feet and arms.

Pyr had already noticed both attacks coming and kicked up a rock towards Mei while she turned around with her arm outstretched.

Not being able to react in time, both agents tried to get out of any fatal attacks.

Mei brought up a Shield while she jumped up.

Yuki on the other hand got his jacket from his waist and threw it in front of him. It had covered Pyr's hand and gave Yuki the chance to swat the hand away and land a hit with the weapon that had a large amount of power to it.

The tension came back to his arms and legs while his body felt much heavier than those few seconds.

Not waisting time, he used his Special Teleport to appear above her with the scythe back.

He slashed at her and felt the connection, but jumped away when he saw a "3" on his jacket.

"You are really fucking pissing me off now."

Pyr stood up to show her cloak and skin tight outfit recovering.

"For every hit you land, my soon-to-be pet, an hour of torture will be added."

Not bothering to listen, the two hid behind some rubble, but stared moved so as not to be caught.

.

"That cloak by itself seems sturdy. Plus it can regenerate. Not sure if my Kōgetsu can cut through it," Mei said as she took a peak to see Pyr facing the opposite direction. "If I use the Lead Bullets...she'll have to blow them up again, leaving spots to attack."

"Idōgetsu can cut through to her body, but only to make shallow cuts. Jikantsuki and Shingetsu are pretty strong, so that just goes to show how strong that cloak is."

"Yuki... What the name of that heavy hitter form you use?"

"...Mangetsu..."

"..."

"Don't give me that silence! You know it fits!"

"..."

"Mei-chan~~~"

"Sigh. Whatever. You've already set up a 'Playground', just go crazy with the attacks."

"But-"

"Shut up and do it."

"Yes! -!?"

.

Yuki and Mei were quick to move away when they noticed a body going in for an attack.

While they had been talking to each other, two Rabbits had made crash landings in front of them. They had gone in for attacks that forced the two Border agents to move away.

"Found you~~"

* * *

Three people sat in a ship, watching and monitoring everything. One was the red haired Neighbor that had lost, the other two had yet to leave the ship. They took note of the three other battles going on, as well as the unplanned attack on the Border base.

The leader, who had black horns, didn't have any particular expression on his face, but he was a bit annoyed. He focused on the unplanned attack and spoke.

"Enedora. I didn't order an attack on the base itself. Our goal is solely to capture the baby birds. This is unnecessary."

_"You're way is too slow! Crush the nest, and the small fry will be free for the taking. Makes sense, doesn't it?"_

"..."

The leader - Hairein - leaned his head a bit to the side, putting two fingers and his thumb to his face. He seemed a bit more annoyed now.

Ranbanein didn't seem fazed by this and spoke with a grin.

"Raiding the enemy fort alone? That's bold!"

"Abandoning the mission. Defying orders. Should I force him back?" the third one, also with black horns, said calmly.

"No... Now I have an excuse to recall him. Let Enedora do as he pleases. The others will manage the rest."

Ranbanein raised an eyebrow as he looked over at his captain.

"You still believe in Misó? That's a bit odd. He seems to be having trouble going against only one of Miden's warriors. I guess being there for as long as he has, even he would get rusty without using his Trigger. Actually, Pyr seems to be in the same predicament."

"You know how those two are already. Pyr seems to be getting more serious now. But you have a point on Misó. Not being able to defeat a single opponent is quite troubling."

"Maybe if you told him that he would get some 'painful reward' if he wins, he'll perform a sweep of the whole area."

"..."

Hairein was visibly displeased by that. He knew just how Misó was concerning his comrades, especially Hairein himself, and he never enjoyed being around the boy. He knew that what his brother was saying was actually true, he just didn't want to actually say that.

Misó was someone who even his own people didn't enjoy being around.

"It does seem like he's being less efficient by taking his emotions away from that body."

* * *

An explosion.

Mei reacted fast enough to put up a defense, but not fast enough to dodge all the damage. Part of her side was blown up and she saw that the explosion was big enough to take one of Yuki's arms.

She jumped away and got a clear view of the whole scene. She could see where Pyr currently was, along with Yuki and the Rabbits. She also saw that the explosion had created large portions of the ground to be scattered around.

_I'll do that then..._

She landed on the ground with a thud and took out one of her guns.

"Hey, Kiyoshi, get that hair out of your eyes!"

From his side of the area, Yuki went a little wide eyed before smirking. He did as he was told and put the hair covering his eyes behind his ear. Along with that, he put the pole away and brought out a Scorpion blade.

He ran at the Rabbits while dodging the punches meant to hit him. He tried to cut them, but the armor was too much and didn't break.

"Oh? Does his eye have some strange power?" Pyr grinned in anticipation. "My pet sure is something~~ Hey, bitch! Why don't you leave the fighting to the real fighters?"

Pyr turned around just in time to see the tip of Kōgetsu in front of her and a gun pointed at her mid-section. The blade had missed her by a hair while multiple black bullets were fired into her. Large weights started sprouting from her body, dragging her down once more.

She let out a yell as she tried to kick Mei, but the hit was dodged.

As she flew in the air from her jump, Mei shot multiple Viper shots at the exact spots she had gotten with her Lead Bullets.

Just before the Viper got to Pyr, she had used her Trigger to get rid of the weights, leaving a spot for the attack to hit. Not focusing on the damage at all, she grabbed multiple rocks to throw at the still airborn Mei.

The rocks were shot down with the explosions causing dust to rise again.

Mei used the cover to get closer again. She slashed at Pyr and managed to get a shallow cut in, as well as land a few Viper shots from behind before launching Pyr into the air using Grasshopper.

Pyr flew into the air and saw some more Viper shots coming from the side. She used some rocks she picked up to stop them, but didn't see someone above her.

.

During the fight between the two woman, Yuki had managed to defeat the two Rabbits and used them as a springboard to get higher ground on their opponent.

Now that he was higher up than Pyr, he used as much power and momentum to slam down on her with the large wrecking ball on the end of his Trigger.

The force and power of the attack had managed to send Pyr tearing through the air towards the ground with little time to react.

_Now!_

Instead of hitting the ground, Pyr found herself getting trapped between two large slabs of earth that seemed to be forced up by wires wrapped around them.

She brought her arms up to destroy them with a large explosion.

The explosion had managed to shatter the earth while also catching her in the destruction that one rarely sees.

_That won't-_

"!?"

The pieces of earth that had been shattered and scattered turned in the air to reveal the true threat of the attack.

Multiple wires floated in the air around her.

.

Mei looked up at the pieces of earth, wires and the Neighbor who were all in the air. With the ends of the wires in her hand, she pulled as hard as she could. Each wire stiffened and started recalling themelves back. They stopped from completely returning due to the body that had been trapped inside of them.

Due to the former explosion, Pyr's clothing had been partially destroyed, leaving multiple open areas for the wires to cut through. Those same areas had also become targets for the multiple black bullets that shot through the air to hit her.

Multiple weights sprouted on her body once more.

Mei used this extra weight as she brought her arms down with a large amount of force. This forced the wires to fall to the ground with the body that was held within them. The weights provided enough weight to increase the speed of the descent to the point where the fall into into an immediate crash.

"Looks like we win."

"Don't you..."

A giant "10" appeared on the ground.

"Don't you fucking underestimate me, fucking bitch!"

.

The largest explosion in the invasion occurred near the Border base, yet far enough to not touch it.

Everything near the explosion was blown away by the force as the ground shook violently.

Pyr stood without her cloak.

Yuki staggered as he put away his weapon to bring out a new one.

Mei stood there with calculating eyes.

_What happened to those damn Rabbits?_

"If you're wondering about those new models, take a look yourself."

Pyr did as instructed and saw that anything else remaining had been destroyed and obliterated by her expulsion.

"Hm. So that eyes does have some weird power then."

"Wrong. It doesn't have some strange power. It just helps me see more clearly without the hair in the way. I was just fighting you with a handicap."

"Hm. The torture will be fun..."

"By the way... Fuji is stronger than me, even with my new weapon."

"!?"

Pyr looked down at her own side to see that she was leaking a large amount of Trion.

The large hole in her side had not been there before. Even if her explosion had effected her as well, she should have been fine due to certain protections she put up beforehand.

Then it finally registered.

The explosion had forced everything around them to get blown away. Everything around them, under them and above them had been blown up and away. She had been attacked within the small time that they had to get their bearings.

_This bitch..._

Pyr forced her body back.

Mei moved forward.

Yuki shifted his feet.

Without another word, the fight continued.

.

Mei and Yuki ran towards Pyr.

Pyr got in a fighting stance.

Yuki lowered his stance and made his way passed a punch, only to put up a shield to block an explosion.

Mei has her gun next to her. As she started to slash at her opponent, the the shots were fired and moved around the two, trying to hit their mark.

She was pushed back and the Viper attacks had hit their mark, but did little damage.

Yuki came back with his body covered in Scorpions. He started moving around Pyr and was able to land shallow slashes on her. He continued to get rid of one Scorpion after another when he saw a number appear on them.

The fight had turned into a simple one of attack, defend, dodge and attack again.

Everything around them had been reduced to nothing due to the multiple explosions going off in the area. Nothing to hide behind and nothing to use as a shield.

If someone saw the scene, they would compare it to a fight between vicious animals.

* * *

"What the hell is with these explosions?"

"If I had to guess... It's the fight Yuki-senpai is in."

"Then we need to hurry the hell up!"

The rest of the Tsukiko Squad made their way to where their leader and Operator were. They couldn't help the feeling of worry that bubbled up within them as they continued on.

As they got closer, they saw the scenery change from destroyed buildings to rubble scattered around to an almost open area.

They had faced the Trion Soldiers multiple times and took out a few Rabbits, but they felt as if they were traveling from their own world to a post-apocalyptic one. It didn't help that large explosions constantly shook the ground every few seconds.

"We haven't seen a Bail Out yet, so it's safe to assume that neither Mei-san nor Yuki-senpai have lost. But for them to take this long with an opponent..."

"Hey, Take, have you ever seen Mei fight? I know Suzume hasn't, but you've been with them longer than either of us," Toby asked as he cut down some weaker Trion Soldiers.

"...No. I came in a little after Mei-san became Yuki-senpai's Operator. I heard them speak about trying before, but have never actual seen them go at it," Takeshi answered as he shot more down.

"I bet she look really cool when she fight." Suzume shot a few more enemies.

"If she trained with Yuki then of course she'd look cool!"

"But why would she switch from being a Combatant to an Operator? If she really is that good, then wouldn't it be better if she was fighting?"

"Good point. Maybe we can ask them about it when all of this is done."

"Yeah... Let's speed up. We also need to help around other places as well."

"Roger!"

* * *

It wasn't just one or two, four ice wings had been sliced. It was obvious that this wasn't a random coincidence. But if so, this formed a question. How could Kanzaki manage that against such a Trigger?

On the other hand, Kanzaki looked rather casual.

"You believe that I am just a simple agent, and that is the beginning of your mistakes."

Kanzaki confidently explained.

"I am a B-Rank agent who has the skills of an A-Rank. I have not moved up yet because I am not a part of a team, and _not_ because I do not have the skills."

It wasn't that she didn't want to be on a team, but rather it was all because she didn't want to disappoint a team she would be on. She would try her best, and even win with just her alone, but that was the issue. Since she was so strong, failure was not an option for her. She would be held in high regards and would easily be seen as the team's ace, which meant that there would be pressure put on her.

She was too kind and respective to allow others see her fail.

In other words, since she was such a person, she didn't want to join any team asking her to join. She wanted to make sure her team was one that could hold their own without her many styles of fighting. That also meant...

If aggressive attacks wouldn't work, she'd use speed attacks.

If speed attacks wouldn't work, she'd use defensive attacks.

If defensive attacks wouldn't work, she'd use aggressive attacks.

She was an agent who could take out a team by herself by switching from one form of attack to another in an instant. She made up for every weakness she could.

Misó of Aftokrator looked frozen. Three ice wings came swinging over the left and right.

But the ice wings were still easily sliced by Kanzaki's sword flash.

"Trying to beat me while not feeling the worry or wary of my attacks is pointless. I have trained with our top agents in both a Trion Body as well as my real body. Someone who has not even seen my best fights, regardless of what Triggers they have, cannot hope to understand what is going on. It took even people like Tatsuhito-san and Tachikawa-dono a while to get what was happening."

Kanzaki deliberately stroked Kōgetsu.

"Thus, it may be hard for a Neighbor with only general images. In my real body, I train using a nodachi. It weighs more than Kōgetsu, so quick and powerful moves are easy to deliver."

Kanzaki Shizuka said that casually.

She was declaring to the Neighbor that this wouldn't be a one-sided battle.

"..."

Misó stared at the enemy silently. Absorbing new water, the sliced ice wings were restored to their old shape and size.

But for Kanzaki, she didn't need any preparations. She just needed to use her fingers to lightly stroke the hilt of the Trion-made sword at her waist.

Silence.

After a few seconds.

The Neighbor from Aftokrator and the B-Rank agent of Border started their duel with a few things on the line.

A roar could be heard.

The Neighbor sent a twelve-meter-long ice wing sliding down from above, and it was sliced in half by Kanzaki, who was 10m in front of him.

But the Neighbor didn't mind. No matter how many ice wings were cut, he could repair them. This time, the ice wing swung over from the left, trying to use the time Kanzaki was undefended while she was sheathing her sword.

After Kanzaki sliced this attack, the next attack from the right was aimed at Kanzaki's back.

Misó and Kanzaki were about ten meters away from each other. The Neighbor seemed like he wanted to maintain that distance and continued to attack Kanzaki with the ice wings to prevent Kanzaki from getting close.

Kanzaki spun her body and turned her head around, slicing the ice wing behind her with one slash. Seeing this, three ice wings of the Neighbor from Aftokrator attacked from the air, each with a slight time interval between them.

Even though there was a time interval, the difference was measured by only a few seconds. An ordinary person couldn't really sense that kind of speed. A human needed 0.18 seconds to process the command from the brain to the fingers, so there was still some time between the commands and the attacks being delt.

"!"

The first ice wing of the trio was slashed by Kanzaki's Senkū.

Before the next second arrived, Kanzaki had already sheathed the Kōgetsu and prepared for the next attack.

Too easy, Kanzaki smiled in that time, but at that moment...

The second ice wing actually exploded by itself.

Numerous blades that looked small broken pieces of glass were fired at Kanzaki.

"What...?"

Just as Kanzaki was trying to deal with the torrent of blades, the third ice wing rushed over at a speed faster than the torrent of blades.

"...Ugh!"

Kanzaki was barely able to slash that unexpected third wing, but Kanzaki didn't have enough time to sheath the sword. If she sheathed it, she wouldn't be able to deal with the torrent of blades that were coming at her. Kanzaki gave up on that Trigger and used the drawn sword to deal with the torrent of blades.

But it was impossible to block all the thousands of the blades with a sword.

Seventeen of the blades landed around Kanzaki (Though being able to knock them all away was already an unbelievable skill on its own). The boom caused a shockwave like explosion, and the dust and debris surrounding her to whipped up.

Her vision was completely taken away by the wall of dust and debris, like a storm.

At that moment, the ice wings attacked from the left, right, and front right direction, ripping through the sand wall like paper doors.

At that moment, the trend for the battle was set.

Kanzaki and Misó were ten meters away from each other. In other words, Kanzaki couldn't attack Misó, but Misó could attack Kanzaki.

And under the quick attacks of the Neighbor, Kanzaki didn't even have time to put her drawn sword back into the sheath. She couldn't use Senkū, so Kanzaki could only swing her sword desperately. Anyone could tell that Kanzaki was at the disadvantage there.

Kanzaki gritted her teeth.

She was as skilled as an A-Rank agent.

In Kanzaki's time in Border, the number of times she had lost in a one on one matchup wasn't that high. And also, the 'one on one' didn't just mean B-Rank verses B-Rank. Most of the time, it had been top A-Rank vs. B-Rank.

But such a record seemed like it was going to be tested heavily today.

The record that could be easily counted seemed like it was not going to be enough.

However...

There was a huge question mark over whether the battle against that Neighbor, who had an unknown and powerful Trigger, should count.

"!"

Every second, there would be four or five ice wings sliced apart in sparks.

The Neighbor didn't want to give Kanzaki any time to rest. He continued to swing the ice wings at a terrifying speed, intending to let the battle become a battle of attrition and wear Kanzaki down to the point of having no more Trion. Kanzaki didn't even have a second to rest. The numerous ice wings seemed like creatures with a life of their own as they attacked Kanzaki with all sorts of angles, directions, speed and time intervals.

At that moment, there seemed to be something in Kanzaki's hand under the sunlight.

With the sound of the cement being pierced, multiple wires shot out.

Spider.

Of course, facing the ice wings that were thoroughly infused with Trion, mere wires wouldn't work. Even though they were wires that not many used, made of Trion of course, they would be easily cut like a real spiderweb.

But the moment the wires were cut, the speed of the ice wings would decrease.

Even though the feeble resistance would only cause the ice wings to slow down by a second.

However...

In this battle, that instant was enough to give another four or five blows.

"Tsk!"

Misó rolled his eyeballs. He got careless and cut the wires, causing the ice wings to slow down. Of course, Kanzaki wouldn't let that single second gap off. She raised her sword horizontally and quickly dashed forward-

-But at that moment, Kanzaki's legs lost their balance.

_...?_

The Neighbor used that time to readjust his attacks and swung out three consecutive ice wings attacks, but Kanzaki still managed to slice them with terrifying speed and accuracy. But at that moment, Misó realized something.

Kanzaki was wavering, if only just a bit.

Even if she was considered someone with A-Rank potential, having to face such an opponent on her own was putting a sort of mental burden on her. The best she could do was wait for backup to arrive, but that seemed hard on its own when there are other Neighbors running around.

Misó continued to attack mercilessly with the ice wings as he stared at Kanzaki's face. The hand that was holding onto the hilt of the sword was trembling a bit.

Misó continued to swing the ice wings as the effects of this battle were finally showing. If it kept the battle going, Kanzaki would mentally wear herself out. Under the fast and slow attacks of the Neighbor, Kanzaki's body finally started to waver.

Misó ordered the ice wings behind him, intending to deal Kanzaki the final blow.

But Kanzaki stared at the Neighbor with such sharpness in her eyes.

"...TOO SLOW!"

What was supposed to be the last ice wing released by the Neighbor was hacked in half by Kanzaki.

Kanzaki didn't stop.

With such savage and suicidal intent, she continued to hack at the ice wings one by one, not letting up.

Kanzaki Shizuka was holding off the Neighbor's attacks, getting closer to Bail Out.

If she continued to fight like this, she would get mentally tired and fall apart. Her Trion body wouldn't feel the fatigue but her real body would feel the brunt of that fatigue once she left that Trion-made body.

There was no way to know how long Kanzaki could last. If a singe attack landed, Kanzaki would Bail Out.

"But-"

Kanzaki gritted her teeth, ripping the two ice wings that attacked in a tornado like manner.

"-So what?"

Kanzaki continued to swing the sword like a storm, slashing numerous ice wings.

She definitely couldn't let the traitorous Neighbor get through.

She just had to wait for someone - anyone - to come and assist in any way possible. Whether it was an army of B-Ranks, or the best A-Ranks, as long as they got there soon.

She definitely couldn't let Misó get through!

She slashed the ice wings from outside. Even if she was scarred thoroughly, Kanzaki still gritted her teeth and held onto the sword, making numerous slashes every second when it was supposed to be impossible; she was slashing the ice wings multiple times within a few second and preparing for the next attack.

"-----!!!"

Kanzaki exhaled, and the sword swung out, slicing two ice wings. The retracted blade lashed out again and attacked a third ice wing. After defending against numerous attacks, Kanzaki was gradually beginning to feel that this battle would not last for long.

Kanzaki would most likely lose. Even though she had managed to keep up with these attacks, she couldn't possibly remain unharmed through the vicious attacks of the ice wings.

But Kanzaki wouldn't give up that easily. The moment she slowed down, the ice wings belonging to Misó would slow down. If she used that chance she could deliver a solid hit to the Neighbor.


	20. Invasion: Part5

"I'll give you two credit... Only Enedora has fucking pissed me off this much with a fight..."

Mei and Yuki simply stared at their opponent.

While they had their Border approved Triggers, she had a dangerous one that made anything and everything she touched explode.

Both sides seemed to be getting tired from the fighting going on that had not clear winner to it.

They were at an impasse since Yuki and Mei were being careful to stay away from the explosions while Pyr was being careful while making everything explode.

It took Yuki, who had clicked his tongue, going into action for things to change up a bit.

He held his hand up as a green blade formed. He grabbed it and rushed forward.

He was gone in an instant, reappearing behind Pyr with his blade only a few inches away from her head.

The attacked was easily dodged, forcing Yuki to teleport away before he could get touched by the hand that was aiming for his face.

Having reappeared in front of his opponent, he lifted his leg with a green blade made of Trion coming from the end of his foot.

Pyr grabbed the blade and a "1" appeared on it.

It took only a few seconds for Yuki to jump back while getting rid of the green blade at the end of his foot.

It was now Mei's turn to appear in the fight.

_...When looking at them head on, all attacks fall into three basic categories: piercing attacks or cannons are points, slashes are lines, and area attacks are planes._

Mei and Yuki's mentor had taught her that. Even throws and grappling were points or lines before one was grabbed. According to their mentor, once one understood that everything fell under those three categories plus the planes created by different attacks, the rest was easy.

Points were fast, but one only had to shift the area that would be hit and move forward.

Lines were long, but one only had to duck under that path and move forward.

Planes were wide, but one only had to circle around outside their range and move forward.

The rest was an issue of size and speed, but there were only ever three things to do.

Thinking of it that way, the explosions were planes. If one did not fear the sound of firing and took the shockwave into account, any of those attacks coming could be avoided. And...

"...!"

Mei arrived in a lowered posture by accelerating as if stretching forward.

She made sure to give Pyr no time to actually defend herself and brought her blade up, landing a real hit against the Neighbor.

She jumped back and saw that Yuki had come up from the other side while managing to do the same thing Mei did.

The plan was now set.

For an opponent who didn't know how Yuki or Mei fought, this would he difficult to handle. The two were able to easily mix together different Triggers for fast and precise strikes that only the best could dodge or block.

But even if they were the best, they would still have trouble going up against both the #1 and #2 agents likely to destroy the surrounding area with their Triggers.

That was proven when Mei had been able to land another hit on Pyr.

She moved forward on light feet but with heavy hits.

Yuki's body lightened up and all the tension seemed to escape through his arms and legs.

Mei had cut Pyr's right side.

Yuki copied it and cut her left.

Mei tried to cut her mid-section but was blocked.

Yuki copied it and cut her back.

Mei jumped back and used Viper.

Yuki copied it and used Asteroid.

The mirror attacks continued on as Pyr's anger increased. For every hit Mei got on her, Yuki was able to get the opposite side.

Each step they took seemed to increase their speed as any tension in their false bodies were released towards the ground with their steps or on their opponent through their strikes.

The teamwork between the two of them seemed to rival that of Kazama Squad and Azuma Squad; two teams well known for their power and skill as units. Even as they moved around while increasing their speed and through the explosions, they understood exactly what the other would do and followed up with an attack that would complement the other.

.

Pyr's anger started to reach it's the limit.

She slammed her foot on the ground like a child and a giant "1" appeared on the ground.

The ground gestated to g,ow a bright color before a flash overtook their vision. Following the flash was a another vibration that shoot the ground violently enough that rocks seemed to be bouncing off the ground.

Not only did dust and debris go flying but so did large parts of the ground.

"Ka... Hahaha... Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!"

Thinking she had won, Pyr let out a laugh.

"-!?"

She was silenced when she was launched back into the air. That's where she saw that Yuki was also in the air.

"This probably won't take you down, but it should do some good damage to you."

Mei was behind Pyr and got her in a headlock while trapping the Neighbor's arms with her feet.

"Meteora."

Once again, the area was filled with explosions. This time it was not from the angered Neighbor.

This time it was to take her out for good.

.

**Bail Out.**

Yuki watched as a flash sped through the air.

He got ready to attack again for another one-on-one battle.

Both he and Mei had known that a simple attack like that wouldn't be able to take out their opponent, but that wasn't why it had been done.

Once the smoke started to clear that fact was obvious.

Pyr standing there with only minor injuries to her Trion body.

_"Sorry, 'Yuki'. I couldn't take her out."_

"It's fine. I know you had other things on your mind, 'Mei'."

_"Just to let you know... They finally arrived."_

"About time."

.

"You...fucking...shits..."

It was easy to see just how mad that single attack had gotten Pyr.

The Neighbor started to stalk forward while multiple rocks could be seen being tossed into the air.

With a good amount of power, she threw the rocks straight at Yuki.

"I'll make sure you both fucking die now!"

A large grin could be seen on Pyr's face.

She would win.

That was her mission and she would complete it.

She would...

"Asteroid."

A large laser-like beam that resembled something from a science fiction movie that forced electrons to neither become a particle or wave tore through the air with a fizzling sound. The attack, while looking sci-fi in nature, contained no heat or friction towards the air and simply destroyed the explosive rocks in the air,

"Hedgehog!"

Getting over her momentary shock, Pyr jumped up just in time to dodge multiple Green blades made of Trion that tried to slice her body.

No. From an outside view it looked multiple blades were attacking her at the same time. In reality, it was just two blades attacking while being extended and retracted at such a fast pace that it seemed like a single attack.

"Honestly."

A small flash sped through the air.

Without any sort of balance in the air, Pyr got shot in her mid-section.

The shot had been aimed at her head for a quick win, but she had used a small explosion to twist herself before it hit.

As she landed on the ground, she picked up rocks and threw them in Yuki's direction.

They were quickly shot.

She glared forward while picking up more rocks.

"Nice to finally have you guys here."

"I'm sorry we're late, Senpai."

"We tried to get here quickly, but had to deal with the other Neighbors!"

"We'll honestly try our best to make it up to you."

"It's fine. You're here now and that's what matters. Now let's finish this before any more damage is done."

"Roger, Captain!"

There, in front of Pyr, was the full Tsukiko Squad.

She was having trouble with only Yuki and Mei.

Having the whole team there would mean...

It would mean...

"Suicide bombing it is then."

* * *

_This really is not good..._

That was all Kanzaki could do as she continued to block and dodge the large wings of ice that were aimed right at her.

She had been hearing explosions going off not too far away and wanted to see what was going on. That was clearly hard to do though as her current opponent was still standing in front of her.

She had yet to take a single hit, but at the same time, she had yet to make a single hit.

"What am I to do. I cannot beat him at this rate. I will have to take a hit of a risk here if I want to do anything at all."

It was all she could think of to do.

Under normal circumstances, Misó would not stand a chance against Kanzaki, but now that he was using a Trigger that created large wings of ice things were made much harder.

Kanzaki was able to defend herself and destroy the wings in a matter of seconds, but the wings would just form again in the same amount of seconds.

"Right."

Kanzaki took a single step forward.

She would draw her sword faster than before and strike down her opponent.

It was her job as a Border agent to defend Mikado City from anything that came through a Gate. She didn't know when Misó had come through a Gate but she did know that he was her enemy. That meant she would give this her all.

.

Just as Kanzaki took a step forward, a figure appeared behind Misó with a green blade in their grasp.

The figure moved their arms with the blade creating an arced slash, destroying one of the wings as it connected.

Kanzaki was a bit shocked at who had suddenly attacked.

She saw one of the other wings move to attack the figure and prepared herself to cut the wing before it could reach the figure.

Before she could move, an invisible force seemed to push on the wing. The same force also seemed to grab the figure since the figure just flew through the air before landing next to Kanzaki.

"What an irritation."

Kanzaki turned her head to see the captain of Hikigane Squad walking up to her while scratching his head.

"I would think you would know better than to try something stupid like that."

The former A-Rank captain didn't speak to Kanzaki. He was speaking to the figure that was now next to Kanzaki.

"You're lucky that Minoru was able to catch you when he did."

As he spoke, the figure looked down a bit as a man suddenly appeared next to the figure.

"Don't do such irritating things, Hogo."

.

Hogo Oshiro didn't say anything and continued to look down.

Next to him stood Hatohara Minoru. He had been the invisible force that pushed the wing away and saved Oshiro.

That was when Kanzaki noticed something.

She quickly turned back to Misó and noticed that he was trying to move the wings but was unable to do so for some reason.

That was when she started to see them.

Wires.

"I see. You had been spreading out a lot of thick wires so that it would be harder for him to attack with those large wings. You took that as a chance to take out of the wings but had to get away from another free one."

"..."

Oshiro continued to say nothing and just turned to Misó.

Sekai let out a long sigh as he also turned his attention to the Neighbor.

"First we come to help, then we learn that the base is being attacked. Now we have to deal with this kind of irritation. ...Whatever. At least I sent those three straight to the base just in case."

"For now let's focus on this. I have to say though, I'm not really shocked that Misó turned out to be a traitor."

"Please watch what you say."

Kanzaki took a slight glance at Oshiro to see that he was still standing there.

"It's fine."

He finally spoke up.

"Minoru-senpai is right. This should have been seen right from the start. Also... I apologize, Kanzaki-san. I left you alone to deal with him."

"That is fine. I am the one who-"

"I'm his captain. That means I need to take responsibility for this and take him out. Which means... I would really appreciate it if you three would support me as I do my duty."

It was the others' turn to stay silent.

They didn't need to say anything else, though.

In an instant, Minoru was no longer visible with their eyes.

Kanzaki and Sekai grabbed the hilts of their blades.

As they got ready for the fight, Misó finished destroying the last of the wires and surrounding buildings. He was now free and ready to attack.

_Here I go._

Oshiro run forward.

He ran straight and fast.

As he did so, three ice wings moved in towards him, as if targeting him and him alone.

"Senkū."

Two arced slashes appeared next to Oshiro and destroyed the ice wing on the right and the ice wing on the left. That just left the middle one.

"Grasshopper."

A blue plate appeared in the air in front of Oshiro.

Oshiro stepped over the plate before placing his foot on it.

He accelerated forward at high speed while getting his sword ready to cut through his former comrade and current opponent.

The middle ice wing stabbed the ground as an invisible force pushed it down from above.

Oshiro twisted his leg as he took a step and brought his sword up.

"Senkū!"

An arced slash came from his blade and cut right through the ice wing.

Knowing that he would lose his balance if he continued forward, Oshiro let himself start to fall to the ground. As he put another blue plate was placed under him.

He extended his arm out to touched the blue plate on the ground, sending him high into the air.

He got his blade ready again and brought it down.

His attacked was blocked by two ice wings.

"...!"

Seeing two more ice wings coming from the right and left, Oshiro used the two wings that had stopped him as a springboard and moved back, making the two attacking ice wings hit the two defending ice wings.

The four destroyed ice wings started to reform in a matter of seconds.

As they did so, four green blades flew through the air and struck the ends of the forming ice.

.

Kanzaki ran on the left side while Sekai ran on the right side.

The two were quick to destroy the wings that were coming after them.

Now that there were other skilled agents, Kanzaki did not have to worry about moving forward. She didn't have to worry as much about her attacks not making it through. She could focus completely on winning and supporting her current teammates.

She easily noticed that each time she or Sekai destroyed an ice wing, a green blade would come from almost nowhere and get stuck in the wings as they reformed.

_So that is what we are going to do._

Nothing needed to be said.

Plans were always made before a fight, or when there was a chance to catch one's breath. That didn't seem to be the case here. These four agents were skilled enough to create a plan as they moved and didn't need to speak to each other to notice things that another person was doing.

A plan was already being put into motion and all four of them knew what it was.

Hatohara Minoru was an A-Rank agent with only an Operator.

Hikigane Sekai was a former A-Rank captain that would almost always improvise with his team.

Kanzaki Shizuka was a B-Rank agent with skills of an A-Rank who had held her own against this opponent.

Hogo Oshiro was a B-Rank captain who would gladly use himself as a shield for others.

They were all different with different skills and different ways of fighting, but that didn't mean they couldn't work as well as any team that had been together for a year or two.

It was their way of thinking that helped them figure out what was going on.

.

_"It's all set. Oshiro, we're leaving the finishing blow to you."_

Oshiro nodded his head, knowing that Minoru could see him from his spot.

Even while he was in the air, Oshiro managed to move around and deflect attack after attack from the wings made of ice that continued to surround him.

He was able to see Kanzaki and Sekai on the ground and saw them take a glance up at him.

Oshiro saw two more ice wings cross each other before attacking him like a pair of large scissors.

A thick Shield appeared under Oshiro and let him use it as a springboard, sending him higher into the air.

"Alright. I would appreciate it if you could do it now."

A cube of Trion appeared next to Oshiro before splitting up into smaller cubes.

_Viper!_

The cubes of Trion flew off and headed for Misó while he was trying to attack all four of them.

From his spot in the air, Oshiro could see more green lights flying through the air.

Each green light looked like it was aiming for Misó, but that wasn't true.

Each green light was actually flying around until it found the green blades made of Trion that had been placed in the reforming ice.

Once the blades were hit by the flying lights, the rest followed after and proceeded to destroy the wings by having each shot fired hit the exact same spot.

At the same time, Kanzaki and Sekai used their blades to unleash arced slashes one after another so they could cut the remaining wings made of ice.

"Go."

A blue plate appeared above Oshiro.

He placed his foot on it before spreading towards the ground.

He only had a few seconds before the wings if ice would reform. In that time he would deal the final blow and defeat this opponent that Kanzaki had been dealing with.

.

It took only a few seconds for Oshiro to reach Misó.

The moment his blade came out of the sheath, a large arced slash cut through the Neighbor.

The moment he landed, he twisted his body around while pulled out his blade once more. Another large arced slash came from his attack with two more followed from the right and left.

Each attack had managed to cut through the ice wings, through the cloak he had been wearing and through his own body.

It had been enough.

Misó was forced out of his Trion-made body and his glass-like eyes started to show his true feelings go to the world.

.

"Aw~ Was that punishment~? I took the emotions away from that body but I could still feel, the pain~ Aw~ It's leaving a tingling feeling~ Ah! I think this kind of feeling is enough for me to ejac-"

"Shut up already. I am holding back as it is. I don't want to be pushed to the point of doing something I'll regret later on."

Misó looked up at the figure that was now standing before him.

He saw his former captain standing there, Kōgetsu in hand and scowl on his face.

"This pain... Aaaaaahhhhhhh! Truly great! Please, captain, give me more! That glare is truly wonderful from someone like you~! It means I've done everything right~!"

Oshiro lifted his blade above his head.

His eyes looked as dull as Misó had been when he was fighting against the Border agents.

"Hogo, stop!"

Kanzaki was the one who shouted.

She ran forward to stop the B-Rank agent from taking any regrettable actions.

"...!?"

Before he could attack, Oshiro felt something.

He looked down to see a Kōgetsu blade piercing the area where his heart would be. In this case, it was piercing his Trion supply.

That only meant...

**Bail Out**

Misó watched with wide eyes as his former captain turned into light before flying off in the direction of the Border base.

"Hey! Sekai! Why did you send him off!? I would have gotten so much more-"

"That's about enough."

Misó turned his head to see a hole open up in the air behind him.

Another two blade holes appeared in front of him and made Sekai jump back so he wouldn't get hit.

Standing in the large hole in the air was a woman with red hair that had a black sphere hovering above the palm of her hand.

"You're lucky. We need you for information, so we'll just be taking you back with us."

"Huh~? But Mira-"

"Oh. And make sure you have that on you for the rest of time. I'm saying this so we make sure you don't get yourself killed when we get back."

As she spoke, the Neighbor with red hair pointed to the arm that had his Trigger on it.

Misó let out a sigh as he stood up.

He looked at his arm and took a step into the hole.

As it started to close he turned back to the three Border agents.

"Tell my former captain that I had fun with him~ I'm sure he'll be thrilled~"

That was all the three Border agents heard before the hole closed completely.

There was a moment of silence.

The one to break it was Sekai, who had let out a sigh.

"Alright. That's about as much as we can do. As things stand now, there isn't much we can really do at the moment. The final opponents aren't ones close-range fighters can really deal with. And before you say anything, I have a feeling that even with your Viper you wouldn't do much, Minoru."

"Thanks for the support."

"I'm just saying it how it is. Your real skill is Chameleon and close-ranged combat. That means it's best for you not to go either."

Letting out another sigh, Sekai looked over at Kanzaki.

"Kanzaki, once this invasion is over, I have something to talk to you about."

* * *

"Mei-chan, give these three the info we've got."

_"Already on it."_

Yuki pulled out his Idōgetsu again as the three received the information concerning their current opponent.

Now that the rest of his team was there, he didn't have to worry too much. He would have backup ready at any moment.

He looked over the three and saw that they all looked as ready as him.

"Leave it to Yuki to be able to still be fighting after something like that!"

"Mei-san did well too."

"It's honestly a basic Trigger, don't you think? Ranged fighters like me or Take are honestly enough. If Toby would honestly stop being an idiot then even he could do something."

Yuki smiled a bit when he heard Toby and Suzume start to have a small argument.

It put his mind at ease a bit.

"Whether it has a basic function or not doesn't matter. What matters now is that you three are here and she is already weakened quite a bit. It shouldn't take too long to take her out."

Yuki looked around and saw that the area was completly leveled with no place to hide like before.

Due to the large explosion that Pyr had caused, there was no way for Suzume to hide and take her shots without being spotted beforehand. That was never much of an issue before though.

"Suzu, you need to keep on your toes when you shoot. Take, get something strong ready for the finale. Toby, you're gonna be with me in distracting her."

"Got it!"

"Now, let's go."

.

Yuki took the first step forward.

He ran forward with Idōgetsu spinning at his side.

The three behind him also went into action. Toby followed Yuki on the opposite side while Suzume jumped back and three Trion Orbs appeared around Takeshi, each glowing and ready to attack.

"I'll take the two new fuckers as my pets as well! I'll just blow that bitch's boobs off though!"

Pyr threw a large amounts of rocks at the two running forward before throwing a large piece of the ground at them.

Yuki and Toby were gone in the blink of an eye and reappeared closer to Pyr and farther from the rocks.

_Yes. We'll set the stage and you can let the rage consume you._

Three laser-like beams come from the orbs floating around Takeshi's head and destroyed all the smaller rocks in the air. The three laser-like beams started to all aim right at the piece of the ground and destroyed that as well, scattering the earth around.

Toby used his chance to move around Pyr and deliver multiple shallow cuts on her body.

Yuki noticed the spots Toby had cut and brought up Idōgetsu in its Gengetsu form, ready to strike.

Before he could land a hit, Pyr jumped into the air.

That was where she saw her mistake.

Three laser-like beams were fired while a single shot was aimed at her as well. She had used her explosions to twist herself in the air again but still managed to lose an arm and get a hole shot through one of her legs.

From her spot in the air, she stuck her arm out and easily grabbed a blade that was aimed at her head created by Toby. A mark was placed on the blade before glowing brightly.

Yuki noticed the glow and used Idōgetsu to cut Toby's blade. He put a hand on Toby's shoulder to keep his balance and brought his leg up to kick Pyr back.

Once he landed on the ground, Yuki threw his shoe to the side as it started to grow brightly and exploded.

He started spinning Idōgetsu until it was back in its base form.

Tsukiko Squad watched as Pyr grinned, full of holes and missing body parts, but not effected by them in the least.

"Blow up, you damn pieces of shit!"

The ground started to glow.

Toby looked down to see a large "1" on the ground.

Yuki only spoke while looking forward.

"Takeshi, use it now."

"Roger."

Takeshi quickly got into the air and was followed by the orbs.

The three orbs smashed into each other and semes to fuse together to create a single orb. From that single orb came a single laser-like beam. Once that laser-like beam was fired it split and multipled by two.

Then the two multipled by four.

Then the four multipled by sixteen.

Then the sixteen multiplied by thirty-two.

In only a few seconds a rain of these laser-like beams came down and slammed into the ground.

The glowing stopped.

"Suzu."

"Yes, sir!"

From her spot a few feet away, Suzume shot a small, quick, and deadly shot.

Pyr hadn't noticed the attack and would have got the hit to the head if it wasn't for some kind of hole opening up and taking the shot in before closing up.

"Hm. Looks like Mira's being a little generous towards me."

Yuki narrowed his eyes when he saw the wormhole.

_"You guys, that's a wormhole making Trigger that has appeared at the end of the fight Izumi was in. A woman with black horns had appeared to take back the Neighbor."_

"So we can assume that the woman you're talking about would rather take Pyr away instead of kill her... Alright then."

Yuki held out his arm and spun Idōgetsu in the air before stopping.

A large blade stuck out from the side of the pointed end. This was the scythe form that Idōgetsu was capable of using - Jikangetsu.

"Takeshi, your job is to wait until they come to get this woman and use Viper to get the Black Trigger user."

"Alright."

Yuki lowered his body and began running, Toby following once again. The two moved around easily even while the ground under them continued to explode.

They both used Teleport to appear by Pyr. While Toby stared attacking with his two Scorpion blades, Yuki used his arm-length scythe to destroy any defenses that got in his way.

The two were quick and light on their feet. Pyr couldn't keep up with then and ended up with multiple cuts on different parts of her Trion-made body.

It didn't take long for large amounts of Trion to start leaking from Pyr's body once more.

Yuki noticed that there was some glowing from under Pyr and told Toby so.

The two jumped off to the side as an explosion went off and caused dust and dirt to fly into the air.

.

Suzume used the dust as a smokescreen and got close enough to take Pyr's second arm off with her own Scorpion blade.

She jumped back a moment later to dodge a kick. When she did this she brought up her arm as her Lightning appeared in her hand. She pulled the trigger and fired a shot right at Pyr.

"You bitch!"

Pyr kicked her falling arm towards Suzume, intending for it to explode right in front of her so that she would have one less opponent to deal with.

Before the explosion could go off, Yuki appeared in front of his teammate and sliced the arm in two.

_He put markers on the rest of them!_

Pyr let out a breath before slamming her foot on the ground.

"Fine then!"

Pyr started moving as well, so as to dodge the shots fired by Suzume as well as any attack that Toby tried to get off.

With every step she took, a number appeared on the ground.

She quickly twisted her leg and started again, this time forward - towards Yuki.

Before she reached him, she used her momentum to jump into the air. Once her feet touched the ground behind Yuki a large number appeared under her.

That was when every place she had stepped on, every number she had placed, started to glow. One after another, each spot started to explode.

This chain explosion went all around the area and came back a few feet away from Pyr.

That was when the final, extra large, explosion went off.

For one of the last times that day, the ground shook violently in small intervals as the ground continued to get destroyed and distorted by the explosions that bombarded it.

_That should do it._

Pyr, wanting to make sure that she had own, waited until the smoke started to clear up a bit.

When it did...

"Man, that was a close one."

Instead of being caught in any sort of explosion, Yuki, along with Toby, was standing safely behind a dome of Trion.

The dome was put down as quickly as it came and a cube of Trion appeared next to Yuki before breaking up.

Pyr reacted to the shots fired at her by moving to the side.

_How the hell are these pieces of shit still alive!? Screw it! I'll just take them all out and have Mira take this guy from their HQ!_

Pyr got a psychotic grin on her face as a "1" appeared on her stomach.

"No way you bastards will escape this! No shield can withstand this! I'll make sure-"

Pyr went wide eyed when Yuki was instantly in front of her.

She had made a mistake when fighting against this squad.

She had lost focus when fighting them.

.

Yuki appeared in front of Pyr, already going in to stab her with Idōgetsu while it was in its base form.

A second later, two sides of a guillotine-like blade could be seen coming out of Pyr while Trion started leaking for the two new wounds she sustained.

"Why you..."

Yuki jumped back as an explosion went off.

Once he landed on the ground, cracks starts running along his face.

"Oh. I guess I used too much Trion. Sigh. You three have to stay until the very end. Even if I'm not around, you have things to do around here."

**Trion limit exceeded. Bail Out.**

In a flash, Yuki turned into light that quickly sped towards the Border base.

* * *

Yuki landed on one of the four mats in his team's operating room.

It had taken a lot, but the fight between the single Neighbor had finally finished.

"Just take it easy now. Leave the rest to those three."

Just as Yuki was about to answer back, he turned on his side and stared coughing.

The coughing continued on until blood started coming out. By this point Mei was ready with water bottle and pills in hand.

Yuki looked down at the blood on his hand and let out a small sigh.

"This isn't good..."

Mei couldn't do much more for her friend and captain as he walked over to sit against the wall, next to Mei computer.

"Take a nap. Even if you don't want to, it'll help you out."

"Yes, yes. Just let me stay awake for the end of this fight at least. I still need to find out."

"...If you say so..."

Mei sat back down in her seat and tuned back in to the fight concerning her squad.

She pressed a few keys so that Yuki could now hear his team members talking. Even if he was out of the fight, he could still assist in guiding them to victory. That was just how the team worked.

She watched as Takeshi fired three laser-like beams and finished off their opponent.

_"I'm sorry, Senpai."_

"It's fine, Take, it's still one enemy down."

Yuki put his head on his knees and held it.

"Mei, what do the other battlefields look like?"

"A Black Trigger Neighbor is rampaging throughout the base. Suwa Squad, along with Shinoda-san, seem to be taking him on at the moment. Jin and Kuga are facing off with two more humanoid Neighbors. On another part, Karasuma and Mikumo are taking the C-Ranks to HQ. Izumi, Yoneya, and Midorikawa are headed in that direction."

"Hm... Jin and Kuga should be fine on their own and Shinoda-san will most likely take care of the one in the base... I want you guys to go help Karasuma and Mikumo. Make sure that the C-Ranks are safe and are able to make it here. Even if you have to use yourselves to take attacks, make sure they are fine. It's better if you Bail Out than to have them get captured."

_"Yes, sir!"_

"Take, if anything sudden comes up, I want you to take charge of the other two."

_"Roger."_

"Give it your best, guys," Mei said before the line was cut. She looked over at Yuki and saw that he was covering his face. "Are you alright?"

"...Yeah... Just thinking..."

"That's odd. That solemn aura you've got doesn't suit you."

"It's fine. I'm just tired, is all. Not too sure, but I think it's time I go back to being a bit sunny." Yuki lifted his head enough to where his eyes were shown looking at the ground. "Besides... After such a small amount of time...we said those names. We promised to never say them again, yet we said them without any reserve."

"That was because of the situation. I hate to admit it, but it was fun to fight again. Fighting together made things even worse for the two of us. It brought out those names from us. We can't just pretend that it didn't happen, and we can't just ignore the fact that those names will come up again with your family back."

"..."

"Yeah. I know that I shouldn't call them that, but it is the sad truth. We have to deal with it and make sure that no one else has to. It has become our job to keep them from everyone else out of fear that Jin and I will never be able to lead everyone towards the best future. Your-"

"It's fine. I already know all the hard times that are coming due to everything going on and everything that will be going on. I just want you to confirm for me that you won't calculate anything involving those two. I don't want to drag you back from the harsh parts of your own mind."

Mei looked down at her captain with soft eyes.

She had forced herself to keep her thoughts simple. To the point where they would be considered "normal thoughts."

"I will try."

Yuki let out a sigh, already knowing that was the best he was going to get from her.

Mei followed up with more, her voice becoming something that was only heard by a handful of people.

"Just to remind you... I'm here to help. You need to remember that we are both under the same light here; on the same course. As much as I want to say we are parallel...we both know that's not true. We are similar forces, so being parallel is an impossibility. So whatever choices you make... I'll follow along with them. I will scold you for them later on, but I will continue to help you with whatever it is."

"As one of the five people you would ever say that to with confidence... Thank you."

Mei said nothing more and chose to continue monitoring her team and the battlefields still around the city.

Yuki lowered his head once more.

"For now, I guess I'll take a small nap. It's never fun to get a scolding from you, no matter what."

"I'll wake you up later."

"Thanks."


	21. Invasion: Part 6

The three remaining Tsukiko Squad members continued with their high speed on the rooftops.

They were rushing into the final battłe of the invasion.

They had their orders from their captain; they would carry out their orders to the best of their abilities and assist where they were needed.

Leading the trio was Kotowari Takeshi.

"Since HQ is currently unsafe, Senpai, you should find a good spot to snipe. Toby, when we get to the spot, go all out from the beginning and get rid of the new models. Even if we need to defeat the enemies, remember that the C-Ranks' safety is also important. We have to make sure that no more get captured."

"Right!"

"And Senpai, if another humanoid appears, we'll need you to find their Rhythm as fast as you can. Even if there will be A-Ranks there, that doesn't mean we'll have the advantage."

"That's fine and all, but... What's with that honestly weird flying fish?"

"Flying fish?..." Looking over, Takeshi saw a large amount of fish speeding down at one direction and found the source to be a single man. "Another one..."

Trion orbs quickly appeared by Takeshi's head, letting out beams that branched out and went to split up before going for the man.

The man spared a short glance at the beams before a wall of fish surrounded him.

The three watched in shock as cubes of Trion fell to the ground at the man's feet while a clunk.

Suzume, who already had Bagworm on, quickly jumped behind a building so that she would not be seen by the new opponent.

Takeshi and Toby made their way over to the crowd of people and landed just in time to see Midorikawa Bail Out and Yoneya get punched away.

Izumi was still standing there, looking back at the two new arrivals.

"Kotowari, Awdry! I thought I recognized that move."

"Izumi-san, what's going on right now?"

"Right now, we need to deal with this Exciting Animal Bastard. You're perfect for the job."

"Right. Toby, go help Torimaru-senpai out." Takeshi saw someone from the corner of his eye and looked over. "Mikumo?"

"Hey, Megane-kun, take the girl and run!"

A cube of Trion appeared in front of Izumi and spilt up into smaller cubes.

"Hound!"

"Asteroid."

While Izumi shot out his Trion at the oncoming birds, Takeshi shot out his laser-like beams.

The attacks from the Shooters quickly turned into cubes of Trion and landed in the ground with a soft thud. The only difference was that the beams from Takeshi were relentless and continued to take down one bird after another.

_"Take, look at your feet!"_

Hearing the Sniper's voice yell at him, Takeshi did as he was told and quickly jumped up as lizards walked onto the ground he was standing on.

Izumi wasn't so lucky and lost the use of his legs, making him fall to the ground.

"High firepower. Nuanced Trion control. Befitting of one who exchanged fire with Ranbanein," the man said as he walked closer to Izumi.

Just as Takeshi was about to let out more beams, he saw Mikumo off to the side with a large cube of Trion in front of him.

The glasses-wearing boy shot out a large number of Asteroid towards the humanoid Neighbor. The attack didn't do much, though, since they were quickly turned into cubes that fell to the ground.

_What the hell was he thinking?_

The orbs let out more beams as Takeshi saw birds start going for Mikumo and Amatori.

"Viper."

The beams clashed with the birds again along with the small dust-like shots Mikumo had let out. This caused a chain explosion that made it hard for Takeshi to see what was going on.

When he could see through the smoke again...

"Damn..."

Amatori was turned into a cube.

While he was a little shocked by that, Takeshi regained his composure and let out more laser-like beams that stopped the next round of birds.

They were not the only things to hit the birds as Izumi's shorts also hit.

"Don't just sulk there, idiot."

"Megane-kun, you can save her if you get her to the base!"

The two could see that Mikumo was thinking and regaining his own composure. He seemed to gain his resolve and stand up with the cubed Amatori under his arm.

"I'm going to the base! I need cover fire, please!"

The orbs were back by Takeshi and a cube of Trion was by Izumi's side. The two got ready to let out a barrage of bullets and beams to cover for their fellow Shooter.

"I gotta score a return hit on this guy or it won't sit right with me."

Takeshi ignored the comment from Izumi and focused more on attacking and keeping track of Mikumo.

From atop a building, Takeshi could see some of the Rabbits going towards Mikumo at a high speed.

_"Leave the flying one to me."_

"I'll distract the one Shun freed up!"

From some direction, a shot was fired that easily destroyed one of the Rabbit's core, making it fall to the ground.

Another Rabbit was stopped when it had to block an attack from two hard blades created by an agent.

That left the last one.

One that was able to fire a laser beam.

 _"_ Crap. I have to keep this guy at bay..."

_"Takeshi-kun, see if you can spare one 'laser' to help Mikumo-kun."_

_"_ Easier said than done, Mei-san. This guy is a hassle by himself."

Takeshi let out a sigh as changed the direction of one of the beams to where Mikumo was.

"Gimlet."

As he let out the laser-like beam, a powerful shield came between Mikumo and the Rabbit in front of him, letting the beam piece through the Rabbit and not hit the other B-Rank.

After that, one of the orbs disappeared.

_Damn. I'm really using up my Trion here..._

* * *

Toby got between Mikumo and Replica in time to stop them from getting hit by a punch from the Rabbit and was able to stall it long enough for Suzume to get a shot in and destroy its core.

"You okay, Osamu?" Toby asked with his back to Osamu. "And what's that black robot thing?"

"I'm fine, thanks to you and Kotowari. And this is Replica. He's on our side."

"I figured that when he defended you. Nice to meet you, Replica. Too bad our meeting couldn't be on better grounds."

[Agreed. And thank you for helping out Osamu.]

"You guys are headed for HQ, right? Mind some company? I'll be your personal bodyguard."

"Ah! That would be really appreciated!"

"That cool with the rest of you? I know I was suppose to stay and help, but... This guy really needs me."

_"Yeah. Just make sure to actually protect him."_

_"Just go. Suzume-senpai, I need you to focus on the guy now."_

_"Sure thing. And make sure Chika-chan gets well too."_

Toby turned around and gave Osamu a thumbs up.

"I was given the ok. Now, let's go."

With that, the three started to leave while the battle continued.

They made sure to stay out of direct sight of the humanoid Neighbor with the strange Trigger. Running the risk of being taken out by those birds was something none of them wanted.

As they ran, Mikumo looked over at Replica.

"Replica, if you're here... Is Kuga going to be all right!?"

[He will be just fine. I will prioritize your and Chika's rescue. It is what Yuma decided for himself.]

"Kuga...!"

[Hurry. According to Jin... The future crossroads hinge on whether you and Chika get to the base.]

"Good news is that Mei told me that Suwa Squad was able to lock the HQ Raging Neighbor in a training room. That place is currently safe, and as long as I'm here, you'll make it to your destination."

"All right! Let's go!"

* * *

"Why is this guy so annoying?"

"Just focus on stopping those attacks."

Both Izumi and Takeshi continued to counter each attack made on them.

Seeing that birds were getting nowhere, the man changed the animal forms into bees. They sped towards the two in different directions and were almost completly stopped by the shots fired at them.

The few that managed to slip past Izumi's shots were quickly gone by Takeshi's beams.

"What's wrong? Weren't you going to pay me back?"

"Don't play it cool, Exciting Animal Bastard. I'm starting to figure it out," Izumi retorted. "I'm guessing your Trigger... _Only works against Trion._ Meteora!"

Explosive shots were fired at the buildings around, making Takeshi jump down next to Izumi to avoid being collateral.

The buildings and surround poles started to fall on the man, making dust fly into the air.

_This battlefield is left to Suzume-senpai, while Mikumo is left to Toby... Damn it all._

Takeshi could see the man walking up to them through the dust and let out a sigh.

"Attacks without Trion." He looked at the two. "Good idea, but... It would take more rubble than that to bury me."

"Sheesh... I wish there were more buildings on this block... Just kidding."

From three different directions, shots were fired, going right through the man's defense and taking part of his side and part of his leg.

"What!?"

_Looks like it worked._

Takeshi and Izumi stared down their opponent as they saw the hole that were made in him by the Snipers.

The shot continued from not only Tsukiko's Sniper, but from the roof of the Border a Headquarters as well. The shots were blocked, but did a good job at taking out some of the defenses.

This opened up more areas for Izumi and Takeshi to land their own attacks.

"All right. Let's see who has more stamina."

Two cubes of Trion formed in Izumi's hands.

"Asteroid!"

"Viper."

The shots and laser-like beams were let out and hit the fish moving around. Like before, this left cubes of Trion falling to the ground, but also let some spots open for the snipers.

The snipers gladly took the opening and were able to get Hairein's arm twice and part of his leg.

If the Snipers got the fish then the Shooters would be allowed to hit.

If the Shooters got the fish then the Snipers would be allowed to hit.

Facing this kind of attack proved to the the main issue for Hairein at the moment with many long-ranged attacks coming from multiple angles.

He had been able to easily handle any close range fighters and managed to take out Izumi's legs, but having both Izumi and Takeshi firing relentless shots and laser-like beams while also having to block any sniper shots from snipers seemed to be a bit difficult.

"They can hit him!? Our snipers are unbelievable!" Izumi grinned from his spot on the ground.

"That goes without saying."

No matter how small the opening, Suzume's shots will also make its way to the target.

Takeshi saw that his opponent seemed to be talking to someone and let out more beams.

_Can't let him contact his comrades..._

It took a few seconds for the two Shooters to notice that now only one shot was being fired by the Snipers.

That meant...

"They took out the Snipers."

"Not all of them. One is still on the move and she can take care of herself."

Another shot was fired, taking a part of Hairein's other leg.

"Oh yeah. I forgot about her."

"A single sniper is left... You two think you've won, right?"

The two Shooters watched in mild shock and irritation as strings started coming out of the cubes of Trion on the ground. The strings started to gather in the egg-shaped Trigger Hairein had been holding and using.

All of the injuries his Trion body had healed up.

"You fought well. Though it was a wasted effort."

Hairein looked down at Izumi then up at Takeshi.

"Hey now, isn't that a bit too much? Using that kind of cheat is against the rules isn't?"

_One more..._

"Begone."

"Tomahawk."

Multiple fish started coming out of the egg-like Trigger once more.

The remaining Trion orbs that Takeshi frequently used surrounded the Neighbor leader and fired a single laser-like beam each. Each laser-like beam started to have another laser-like beam branch out until it seemed like a barrage.

**Limit Exceeded. Bail Out.**

The barrage of laser-like beams turned into cubes of Trion that fell to the floor without doing anything to the Neighbor leader.

Hairein watched as the two Shooters speed off to the Border Headquarters in flashes of light.

"Too bad. They would have been useful if captured."

* * *

"Sorry, Yuki-senpai. I wasn't able to help out as much as planned."

Takeshi gave a bow before heading over to stand behind Mei's chair.

"It's fine, Take-kun. And he's asleep right now, so try and keep quiet," Mei answered as she kept her eyes on the screens and hands on the two keyboards. "Suzume is still out there, and now we know that he can absorb any of the Trion cubes left around."

"Toby, make sure Mikumo makes it there. There won't be anyone to help you out. If you need to, just Bail Out and stay out of the way."

_"I know. I wasn't planning on anyone helping. Besides, unlike you, I have a good amount of Trion left. You see, I'm actually skilled when it comes to these kinds of things."_

"After this, I'm gonna kick your ass and blast you full off holes."

_"You can try~~ It'll at least entertaining."_

"Both of you, stop. Takeshi, you just go relax and watch Torimaru at work."

"Huh? He's using that?"

Takeshi fixed his scarf as he leaned on the chair.

_I guess I don't have anything else to do._

* * *

**[200 seconds until Bail Out. Begin countdown.** ]

It was not too hard for Karasuma Kyōsuke of the Tamakoma Branch to dodge the punch from the large Rabbit near him and slice the head, bringing it down.

"Yoneya-senpai, the escaping trainees are heading to the base via a detour. Several agents that got cubified are on the street. Can yon retrieve and protect them? I won't be able to go help them anymore."

"Okay. _After_ you Bail Out. Let me have some fun too. I'd hate to pass up a Black Trigger."

"Roger. Stick with me for three minutes."

Karasuma had speed on his side, so he used it.

He ran forward with the intent to land a strike on Hairein. He was not arrogant enough to go for a single finishing blow, so a few strong hits was his best option.

Hairein saw the attacking coming and released more fish from the egg-shaped Trigger floating in the palm of his hand.

"-!?"

The fish seemed to have hit something as they fell to the ground as cubes of Trion instead of chasing Karasuma as intended.

Karasuma looked forward to see threads fall to the ground after having lost parts of them from the fish.

_That was Kanzaki-san, wasn't it?_

As he looked off to see the girl moving passed them, he notice that more flying fish had come out towards him.

The released fish were fast, making Karasuma react while using his momentum to his advantage.

Karasuma jumped from a building, to a pole, to the ground, and continued to dodge and cut buildings down to try and bury his opponent. None this seemed to work as Hairein just moved out of the way from all the falling buildings.

But that's not all he had to dodge.

Seeing that the Neighbor was distracted by Karasuma, Yoneya used this chance to launch some broken concrete at the opponents head. This helped to scatter the fish that was around him.

Likewise, from her hidden spot, Suzume took another shot and got a hit on his leg again.

Seeing his chance, Karasuma got behind Hairein with his blade ready to strike. He made the attack, but noticed something when he made contact.

His sword was missing the end of it.

Looking ahead, he saw small bees under Hairein's cloak.

He jumped back to dodge the swarm of bees headed for him.

_Less than a minute left. A little longer and Osamu will..._

Karasuma tried to come up with something to do about the current situation. He knew that sooner or later they would get to Suzume as well, making it that much harder with no long range support.

"Captain Hairein."

Both Border agents went wide eyed when they saw a portal open up next to the Neighbor and a woman was shown to be the one who opened said portal.

_The wormhole woman! Isn't she fighting Narasaka right now?_

The man stepped into the portal with a final glance at Karasuma.

Apparently the two had been talking about something and came to a conclusion.

"I will stall them no longer."

The portal started to close up as Karasuma rushed forward once more.

Karasuma felt something hit his back and turned to see another portal behind him with fish coming out of it.

He started to turn into a cube of Trion like everything else had once they touched the animals that came out of the egg-shaped Trigger.

"Skilled. A well thought out plan. You have the power to fight. But the outcome...was decided beforehand."

_"One shot."_

The portal started to close.

Before it could...

"I refuse that outcome!"

Multiple wires came from a direction and shot towards the closing portal.

Before it could close, the wires wrapped around Hairein to pull him out by force.

The portal was forced wide open as Hairen was tossed to the side by the one pulling the wires.

"If our fate is to lose to you... I will save those who have resigned themselves to that fate!"

.

Kanzaki knew that what she was doing was even more reckless than her previous fight.

Misó had been someone she could fight due to his attacks be completely physical ones that she could cut.

This was different. The attacks could not be cut and the opponent was much more skilled in using his Trigger than the other one was.

Even so, there was a small chance that she could stall out for everyone else to move where they need to be. After all...

_Spider works wonders when used correctly. Only a few other people can use it like this, and I believe they aren't on the battlefield._

Each wire could easily be turned into a cube of Trion from this man's attack. At the same time, those animals made of Trion could not touch her directly due to the use of wires.

"You seem like someone who could hold their own if we actually fought. Another pity. I have no time for you right now. You will have to excuse me."

Kanzaki reacted quickly to those words by using more wires to wrap around the man before anything else could happen.

They did not reach.

Pieces of the wires turned into cubes of Trion that fell to the ground with thuds.

The man in front of her started to sink into the ground.

No...

He was was falling into one of the portals.

She did not even have a chance to stall the man.

* * *

Toby, Replica, Mikumo, and the cubed Amatori continued to make their way to the Border base while staying alert in case an enemy came from somewhere.

[Torimaru Bailed Out.]

Mikumo and Toby looked at Replica as they continued to run to the Border Headquarter.

Mikumo looked a bit surpsied at the news while Toby only clicked his tongue and muttered a few things under his breath in English.

[About 100 meters until our goal, the base.]

It was only a second after Replica had said that that the three slid to the stop.

Something was on a nearby roof.

More accurately, it was _someone_.

[This is the final obstacle. Let's push our was through, Osamu, Toby.]

The three hid behind a building and went over what their plan was going to be.

Deciding it was best to let Toby hold off the opponent, they got ready to run with Replica sending a small clone of himself ahead of them.

That was when they saw some birds flying towards them.

Thinking quickly, Replica put up a shield - that quickly got turned into cube - as Mikumo and Toby jumped back.

"A cubing Trigger!"

[Torimaru said that those bullets only work on Trion.]

_Damn! I'm only good at dodging long range attacks like these when the pressure is really put on! That's not mentioning this guy is putting so much pressure on my by beating Take, Kōhei, and Kyōsuke!_

Toby clicked his tongue as he thought about how his Side Effect seemed rather useless in situations like these.

"If we use the buildings as cover..."

[That would take too long.]

Replica turned to one of the buildings and made an entry way for them all to go through.

[This way.]

"You guys can go. My job is to keep any enemies at bay for you," Toby said as he brought out a blade.

_"No. Go with them, Toby-kun."_

Thinking it was better to talk while running, he followed the two into the building.

"But Mei-"

 _"It's fine. A_ specialsomeone _is headed your way to help. Not only that, but a_ certain someone _is close by as well."_

"Who!?"

[We should proceed through the buildings. They will not see us from above either. Be careful not to get locked in.]

* * *

Hairein was as calm as ever. He did not worry about his opponents or that he still had to get through the glasses-wearing agent and the hat-wearing agent.

They would both fall and be defeated in no time at all.

"Mira. Leave it to the Rabbits there and come down. It shouldn't take much longer."

"Oh-ho~! What shouldn't take much longer, exactly? Keepin' secrets from a teacher isn't welcomed, ya know? By the way, you're targetin' one of my students and his friends, right? No can do."

Something flew passed Hairein's head, scattering the fish around him.

He turned around just in time to get a hard punch to the face that sent him smashing to the ground and creating a crater.

On the building Hairein once was stood Akasora Chishi. He was no longer in his Trion Body outfit; instead he wore his regular clothing. What was more, he now wore a black bracelet that seemed to just float around his wrist like the rings of Saturn.

"I'm sure you can guess that I'm here more to stall you than actually beat you." He lifted his arm and looked at the bracelet at his wrist. "I haven't used this thing in a while, so I doubt I _could_ actually beat you before you got any back-up. Lucky you, right? If it was my nephew though... Let's just not go there, okay?"

_Another Black Trigger? How did we not know about this?_

"That's because only a handful of people actually knew this one existed. It's not been in use for a long while, and I made sure Masafumi kept it off any records. That means that even that traitor Misó couldn't know 'bout it."

Akasora saw Hairein narrow his eyes a little and smirked.

"It's ability isn't telepathy or anything. It's just written all over your face. You're actually a pretty easy guy to read, ya know?

"If you had a Black Trigger then why wait this long to use it? You could have saved-"

"True, true. But, you see, the thing is that this little Trigger is a bit... _difficult,_ in that it's actually made up of three parts. Each part was given to different people, so I needed to drag myself all around to find the last two people. It didn't help that one of them was my C-Rank nephew who had been trying to get away from one of your soldiers with the others."

"..."

"Speaking of which..."

Akasora glared down at his opponent with a look that made Hairein unconsciously move back a little.

"I need to pay you back for all of this."

Not wasting any more time talking, Akasora jumped from the buildings and, with a powerful kick, rushed at Hairein as a high speed.

_He's faster than the last one!_

It did not take a speedometer to know that the speed Karasuma had been going when facing this opponent was nothing compared to what Akasora was doing.

It was a bit difficult to tell if the fish could keep up with him or not.

.

Already having information on his current opponent, Akasora kicked up some rocks and made sure to use them to mess up the fish floating around.

That was when the bracelet started to glow a feint color as a sort of beam of Trion appeared in the air. The beam started to form what looked like a blade.

Once it was done glowing, Akasora held a Trion sword in his hand that looked like it was around two meters long with no hilt.

Akasora ran forward with his body low to the ground.

Before he got within striking range for his blade, he noticed movement from underneath Hairein's cloak and reacted accordingly.

He twisted his foot and spun around as if twirling.

He used his momentum from his speed and spin to move in before any sort of animals could be made to sever one of Hairein's arm. With that same motion he pushed off the ground and jumped back in order to dodge the flock of Trion-made birds heading for him.

The bracelet now started to glow a feint shade of pink.

Akasora tightened his fist and ran up to a nearby pole.

He punched the pole, making it fall to the ground. He grabbed the pole and threw it at Hairein.

The attack missed its target, but it was enough to distract Hairein for a few seconds.

Akasora jumped up into the air. He went for a heel drop and saw some fish headed towards him.

The bracelet glowed yellow before a yellow wall appeared under his feet and turned into cubes as the fish came in contact with it.

The glowing completely stopped, giving Akasora the chance to go right through them all and straight for his actual target.

Or that was the plan at least...

The teacher went wide eyed when a hole opened in front of Hairein and took Akasora in it.

_Damn! Too late!_

"Let's go, Mira," Hairein said as he looked over to his comrade.

"Yes."

* * *

_"Be careful you three. Akasora-sensei got warped somewhere. The enemy will now be targeting you again."_

"What!? It hasn't even been that long!"

Toby let out a sigh as he and Mikumo ran through another house while Replica floated by them.

_"Just make yourself useful and be a distraction for Mikumo, would you?"_

"What!? (Screw you!)"

[We'll reach the base in four or five more houses.]

The three stopped when they saw a hole open up and multiple fish come through it. Not thinking too long on the matter, they went to a different room, but did not notice the trap laid out for them.

The two human ended up stepping on jellyfish that turned their legs into jelly. They quickly destroyed a wall and landed on the street.

[Get up. Just a little further. I'm done analyzing the door.]

"Well then let's go for one last rush."

[Not good. The other humanoid showed up. She has a Black Trigger that makes wormholes...and is staking out the entrance.]

The three heard a thud and turned to see Hairein standing there with birds flying around him with no injuries to be seen.

Toby quickly cut his jelly-leg off and replaced it with a Scorpion before standing in front of Mikumo and Replica with another Scorpion in hand.

[Either we shove her out of the way and force our way into the base...head to another entrance... or run away and wait for Yuma or Jin to arrive. We cannot fight them.]

While Relica continued to speak, Toby had something else on his mind.

_If Mr. Akasora was the 'special someone,' then who is the 'certain someone'?_

Footsteps could be heard coming up from behind them.

Acting quickly, Toby turned his body half-way around to see that the one coming up with the 'certain someone' that Mei had mentioned.

"I've confirmed the target... I'll handle it."

"Shuji!"

"Feh... You insist on using me! Jin!"

"Miwa-senpai... Please... Take Chika! She's a trainee on my squad who's been cubified! We'll stop the Neighbor here! Please... Take Chika and save her!"

Toby turned back around while taking a side glance and shook his head. He heard the sound of a kick connecting and let out a small sigh.

"I don't care. Don't depend on others."

"What's this? Aren't you his ally?"

"Shut up, Neighbor. All you need to know is that I'm going to kill you."

Toby jumped back while Miwa moved forward. The former stood in front of Mikumo while keeping his guard up.

"Let's just keep going. We're almost there and I know for a fact that Shuji is probably more than enough to deal with this guy," Toby said a little forcefully. "We don't have time to watch this fight."

"R-right!"

Mikumo turned around and started to make his way to the base once again.

"But he's going one-on-one with a Black Trigger!"

"Osamu, remember that he has his Lead Bullets. Even if he didn't, he'd still be fine. Don't forget; he's A-Rank for a reason."

[That's right. The enemy's shots...are shaped like animals, but are not solid.]

"Exactly. Since they aren't solid...they can't block the Lead Bullets."

* * *

Toby, Mikumo and Replica hid behind a building as they saw a hole in front of the entrance. They noticed that it was linked to the Neighbor ship.

Toby held a Scorpion blade, ready for an attack to come from just about anywhere.

He was right to do so too.

Three small holes opened up behind them. It took only a second for needles to come out of each one.

Mira appeared through a fourth hole in the air.

"Target acquired."

Toby was quick enough to block two of the needles but found that he could not defend the Shooter from the third. Instead, he took the hit.

The three moved away from the spot so that they were not just sitting targets.

Replica used Bolt to distract Mira while Toby and Mikumo moved to the side.

[Don't go out in the open. She will strike you with those spikes.]

"Damn it! All this pressure is just stacking onto one another! Why couldn't you stay, Take!?"

"Resign yourselves to your fate," the Neighbor said as she appeared in front of them. "Futile resistance annoys me."

"And people who hurt and go after my friends _annoys me_."

Toby stood in front of Mikumo as he got ready to attack.

Toby lowered his stance and held the Scorpion blade in a reverse grip with his left hand while letting his right arm dangle down.

That was just for show, though, since a black Rabbit had appeared behind Mira to try and land a punch. When it missed its initial strike, it went for another.

Small holes opened up in the air around it, each shooting out a spike. The spikes didn't seem to have much effect on it, other than making a few small cracks in its armor.

Toby used the chance to teleported behind the Neighbor with his Scorpion-leg ready to strike.

He saw a hole open up and turned his gaze to teleport again. He jumped up to try and land a hit, but it failed again.

Each time he tried to land a hit on the woman, another hole would open up.

Thanks to his Side Effect he had been able to dodge each one, although that did not mean he managed to land a hit.

After many attempts, he was back to being in front of Osamu.

"Damn it. This woman's really irritating. I can't get anywhere, even with Teleport."

[Calm down. If you rush in without much of a plan, she'll send you far away. Osamu, stay close to the Rabbit or she'll-]

Time seemed to slow down for a few seconds as Toby and Mikumo turned their heads to see Replica get sliced in half by a needle coming from a new hole.

"Like I said... Futile resistance annoys me."

**SSSSHHHHH**

The Neighbor moved slightly to the side as a shot went right past her and hit the ground in front of Toby.

The black Rabit went for another punch as Mikumo picked up one half of Replica.

The two ran and hid.

They heard a crash and looked over to see Hairein come crashing through a building. Some birds could be seen flying towards the black Rabbit and turning its arm into cubes of Trion.

"They're just taking it apart piece by piece!"

[Hold on.]

A small cord came from Replica and went to the three magnets stuck in Mikumo's arm.

[I removed the tracking beacon.]

"Replica! Are you all right!?"

[I switched to auxiliary systems. Most functions have terminated. But I can still open the entrance to the base.]

"Okay... One real final rush, right? I'll be the shield while Osamu gets you to the door."

[Yes, but... I'm not done analyzing the entrance yet. It will take about 20 seconds to open the door. Osamu will have to evade attacks in the meantime while you defend us, Toby.]

"20 seconds, huh? I can do that."

[I have an idea.]

"We're ready to listen. Just tell us what to do and we'll do it."

[It will take 20 seconds to open the door even if we make it to the base. It will be difficult for me to defend you and Chika for 20 seconds the way I am. Even if we have Toby protect you two for that time, he is at a big disadvantage and mostly likely will last for 10 seconds. But a Neighbor system I will be able to analyze and override instantly.]

"Hey now... You don't really plan to..."

[Yuma is on his way. But it will take him some time. We will not be able to escape if Miwa is defeated. The choice is up to you. But if you want to enact _that plan_...do it while Miwa is fighting.]

Toby glanced over to see Mikumo let out a sigh and steal his resolve.

He let out his own sigh.

He was fine with going along with any plan they came up with. Whether he was a decoy, a main fighter or even a wall; he would do everything he could to make sure that Mikumo and Amatori made it to the base.

That being said...

"Suzume, thanks for the shot earlier, but why aren't you out helping right now?"

_"I was busy with something."_

"And that would be?"

Suzume was unable to give her answer.

"Now...!"

The two ran behind the black Rabbit.

Toby and Mikumo saw more birds headed towards them before the black Rabbit blocked the birds for them.

Part of the core had been cubified from the attack, making it fall to the ground.

Small holes appeared just above the two with spikes come out of them.

Not all of them hit though as Toby was able to push Osamu forward enough to where they just got his leg.

Seeing more birds go for them, Toby put up a Shield to protect Osamu before getting hit by some birds himself.

_Not done!_

Before he was forced to Bail Out, Toby turned his head to where Mira was. He appeared to her right and managed to bring out a Scorpion blade to land a cut on her side.

"Bail out!"

Some of the birds had made it past some opening in the shield and made their way to the imobalized Mikumo.

"Trigger off!"

With that shout, Mikumo exited his Trion body to run through the spikes as well as the birds that could no longer touch him.

He ran straight for the entrance with a cube if Trion under one arm and one half of Replica in the other.

He could see Hairein now running at him, forcing him to add an extra step to his run.

Just before he could the entrance, multiple holes opened up in the air above him.

"Move it!"

Multiple spikes came the holes, yet most could not reach the body under them due to the two bodies that had suddenly come from the sides. The two bodies twisted their arms to cut through the remaining spikes with their blades as they were bombarded by multiple birds.

"Ah~ This was the real reason our captain sent us here~ Bail out!"

"This is fine with me."

[Osamu. Throw me!]

Just as Replica spoke, three holes opened up for only a few seconds, piercing through Mikumo's side and legs.

Multiple shots could be heard coming from the top of the Border base, as well as from some distant area that they could not see.

The shots continued to rain down on Hairein, getting rid of the fish around him. The fish could on,y protect him for so long as countless wires came from nowhere, wrapping around the rest of the fish and turning into cubes of Trion.

Hairein thought he would be able to get to Osamu before the shots to get him and did not notice the streaks of green on the ground.

"!?"

Slashes form the ground came up and sliced him up.

"!?"

More powerful shots hit their target, completely destroying the Neighbor leader.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

Osamu used all his might to throw Replica into the hole and into the Neighbor ships.

[Infiltration complete.]


	22. Aftermath

The invasion was over, for the most part.

It had lasted only a few hours, but it felt like the whole day was spent on it for the agents of Border.

Many things had happened during the invasion.

These are the end results.

First: multiple Trion soldiers had come through multiple Gates.

This had let Border see the new type of Trion Soldiers Aftokrator had.

Second: multiple humanoid Neighbors had come through more Gates in order to aide in attacking and capturing C-Rank agents.

This had caused the Border agents engage in battles all around the city.

Third: the former Border agent Misó Epanástasi had been shown to be a traitor and fled with the rest if the Aftokrator Neighbors.

This had caused a B-Rank squad from being able to do anything and had their captain banned from using his Trigger until further notice on grounds of suspicion.

Fourth: a Neighbor had rampaged through the Border HQ and taken out many that were not field agents or Operators.

This had been a cause for his death in the training rooms.

Fifth: the leader of the team of Neighbors had appeared and started taking out one agent after another.

This had started a chase for Amatori Chika; who had a large amount of Trion and who had been turned into a cube of Trion by the leader.

Sixth: the Autonimous Trion Soldier known as Replica had been sliced in half and the B-Rank agent Mikumo Osamu had been stabbed in two places.

_This had caused the end of the invasion._

Overall, multiple C-Rank agents had been captured and Mikumo had been rushed to the hospital. Other than that, the city had some damage and some lower ranked Trion Soldiers remained.

Those were being taken care of by Kako and Arashiyama squads, as well as Konami Kirie from the Tamakoma Branch, though.

This was the third best future an elite agent had seen.

This was one of the best outcomes a Combatant-Operator had calculated.

* * *

A boy, no older than 16, looked around the area he was in. His general appearance and feeling was something akin to a walking corpse. His outfit consisted of regular clothes that you would be able to find anywhere.

He had been woken up by the loud sounds of the invasion going on and now he was walking towards the Border base.

As he walked, he had noticed a small white-haired child looking through some rubble, as well as multiple destroyed buildings.

He continued his leisure walk for a few minutes and came across a disaster zone with cubes laying on the floor. This was odd since he did not remember ever seeing such a thing in Mikado City before.

"Hm? Did I miss out on something important? Maybe I could ask Kiyo-nii about it when I see him. Speaking of which... Where did Kushi-nee go anyway?"

The boy let out a loud yawn as he placed his hands in his pockets.

With a reaction like this, it may have appeared to others that something of this caliber did not leave this boy's every day life style in the slightest.

He seemed like someone who would constantly say indoors and never take a step outside. It felt as if he could not do anything but sleep in until he felt like getting up before going back to sleep.

Even so, every few times he would see a random Trion Soldiers roaming around the odd place, he had taken less than a few seconds to destroy them without any hesitation or notice. The path he was walking had multiple destroyed Neighbors along it with each sporting multiple slash marks through it as if five blades had cut through them simultaneously.

.

"Hey, brat! Why didn't you do as you were told and help out! You saw what was going on and you didn't do crap!"

The corpse-like boy felt someone slam their fist onto the top of his head.

He started rubbing his head while turning around to speak to the person who had just hit him.

"But I did help... I took out one of those big bombers. I had just gone to sleep too. Do you know how hard that is for me, Akasora-san? Besides, it looks like everything's fine. Although... What are you doing way over here?"

Akasora let out a sigh as he ran a hand through his hair.

The corpse-like boy could see a black bracelet around Akasora's arm and could tell it was not active since it was not floating around the older one's wrist like the rings of Saturn.

"One of the Neighbors had a Trigger that opens up wormholes. I ended up passing through one and getting sent across the city. Apparently I'm not the only one, though. Miwa had that happen to him too."

"Wooooooooooooow~~... So they got the upper hand on both of you. What about my brother? Did they get him with that as well?"

"As far as I know, he had to Bail Out after defeating one of the other humanoid Neighbors. Sounds like he and Mei had a rough time with that one too. Granted, she was using a general Trigger."

"Hm? Fuji-nee-san too? I don't think Kushi-nee will be happy to hear that. We may have come back here because of orders but that doesn't mean we didn't have our own reasons to return."

"I'm guessing the woman's reason to see how those two are doing."

"Yeah."

The corpse-like boy let out a loud yawn as he slowed his pace.

Around them were destroyed buildings from a battle that had just ended but neither one of them seemed too interested in it.

This truly did not leave their realm of what was considered "normal". Everything around them was nothing but a byproduct of things they had seen before. The corpse-like boy seemed more bored with the whole thing than the man, as if there really was nothing wrong.

_Hm. Even if I get in trouble... That's fine. These things were just Neighbors. People don't care about them. If I can't bring myself to care about the bodies of actual people around a battlefield, why should I care about the forgotten and tossed aside bodies of these Neighbors?_

Even if he were to be told that he could prevent multiple people from being captured, he would not think anything of it. It would have just been pointless blame that was the fault of himself from minutes to hours ago. He could not change what he did or did not do.

The path had been set for everyone, he knew that, so his intervention would have made things both better and worse.

He knew that everything he did was good, yet bad. The help he provided by destroying the bomber Neighbor had been good for Border, but bad for him since they had asked for more from him afterwards. The help he didn't provide afterwards did not benefit Border, but it kept things to how two people saw it. Everything had a good and bad that he would ignore in favor of what he wanted.

.

"Well, I guess I'll go see what's going on around here while I have the chance. Although that might be too much work for me. I may end up on the ground before I even reach the door."

Akasora shook his head as he pulled off the black bracelet from his wrist and look down at it.

He made no move to stop the corpse-like boy from moving forward down the streets. He just continued to look down at the object in his hand and let out a small sigh.

He had not expected to use it at all. The circumstances had forced him to go around Mikado City in order to complete the odd Black Trigger before he could use it in his short battle against the Neighbor leader.

Due to his use of it there would be consequences that he would have to deal with. That included the want for it from Border and the directors. Shinoda Masafumi would be on his side, but that was the only guarantee. It would still be hard for him to fight for the rights to the Black Trigger.

Knowing what was to come, Akasora bit back a curse as he looked forward.

He started making his way to the base as well.

* * *

While a teacher and a corpse-like boy spoke in the middle of a destroyed street, an argument was in process between two agents who had just taken part in the battle involving the destroyed street.

"If you were there instead of me then Osamu would probably be fine!"

"You just added a defining word to your sentence. Clearly you aren't too sure that I would be helpful. That's not mentioning how much Trion I had left. You were the best option to help."

"Helping out Osamu while dealing with two Black Triggers puts a lot of pressure on me! Of course I'm going to do worse in a situation like that!"

"Doesn't that mean you need to work harder?"

"(You piece of-)"

Knowing that things were about to turn into a physical fight (that Mei would have to break up), one of the other two in the room spoke up to interrupt the two B-Rank agents.

"Calm down. You both did well and I'm sure Mikumo-kun will be fine."

Yuki slowly opened his eyes to see the ground. He looked up to see Toby, Takeshi, and Mei by the computer and blinked a few times to get the tiredness out of his eyes.

He held in a small yawn that made him look like a cat after waking up from a nap.

"Oh. You're awake," Mei said, looking from the monitor to Yuki. "You should really thank these guys for their hard work."

"I'll take you all out for some yakiniku later."

Yuki didn't move from his spot on the floor as he spoke.

"What's the current situation?"

"The invasion is over with multiple C-Ranks missing and Mikumo injured. Suzume is helping around to take care of any remaining soldiers at the moment. That means Arashiyama Squad, Kako Squad, Kirin, Kanzaki, Minoru and Hikigane are moving to deal with the leftovers. There is a confirmed death in the training rooms. It's one of Neighbors with a Black Trigger. These two here tried their best to stop the leader and protect Mikumo so he could get Amatori to HQ."

"So I'm assuming that Mikumo was taken to the hospital then." Yuki stood up and headed for the three. "And Suzu should be back soon."

"Both answers are a yes. She said that once she is done helping the others, she will be back here to check on you all."

"We're sorry, Yuki. Take was running out of Trion and I couldn't do much to help Osamu out... Even Jinsei and Daigo did more than me to protect him..."

Toby looked down while tightening his fist.

Takeshi looking away and fixing his scarf from next to him.

They felt that they did not just let their leader down, but also Mikumo - and in Toby's case, Tamakoma as a whole. They heard a sigh and felt something land on their heads before ruffling their hair.

"You two did great. As did Suzu and Mei. You were all terrific out there, and I highly doubt anyone is going to blame you," Yuki said with a smile. "Since Mikumo was sent to the hospital, why don't you two go and see what you can do for Tamakoma? If you're really sorry then you can also apologize to Tamakoma while you're there. I'm sure a simple dogeza will be enough for them."

It was not hard to tell that Tamakoma would hold no grudge against the two for something like this.

Jin had probably seen something like this happening, so to say that at least one of them was not prepared would be a lie.

Yuki knew this, so he tried his best to cheer up his two younger team members.

Like a cat and dog respectively, Takeshi walked out in silence while Toby looked like his tail would be wagging, if he had one.

Yuki let out a sigh as he sat against the wall behind Mei's chair as she continued to work.

"So? Have you figured out your answer for the stupid thing you've been wondering about?"

"Yeah. If I couldn't do that much after all this then I'd just end up being sentimental. And while being sentimental isn't particularly a bad thing, I think it's best not to deal with it when it comes to them. They're the type who needs both tough and soft love. This might be just that. Will you help and support me on this?"

"More stupid things are spewing out of your mouth. You should watch that."

Mei's tone was soft and low, as if she did not want to run the risk of anyone passing by the room to hear.

"Of course I'll support you. If I didn't then you would most likely do something even more idiotic and mess things up for others. That will never do."

Yuki let out a small laugh.

Mei was right, once again.

He would do something that would put more of a burden on the other agents and the higher-up.

It was not like that was some kind of goal for him, but he cared much more about certain people than the organization as a whole.

There was no way he could say that Mei was wrong when she is almost always right.

"Now then... Would you like to tell me what you skipped out on? From your tone, I can guess, but I want to hear it from you."

Mei let out a sigh through her nose.

"I should have known..."

She started typing on her keyboard once more.

Yuki tilted his head.

"It took so many people to deal with the leader. He had help, but that is besides the point. Takeshi, Izumi, Toby, Miwa, Kanzaki, Sensei. Even Sensei using Shikifuku could not do much. It took a collective effort at the very end to even stall him. That woman who was creating portals was also something that was hard to deal with."

"Where are you going with this?"

"During that time, I had confirmation of two people close by that could have also helped."

"..."

"Yes. Taiyōko Mukuro and Taiyōko Kushikage were within the area during all those fights. They had moved back at some point, but they did nothing to help. While I do not like the idea of them fighting near anyone, this was not a time where they should have been sitting back."

"I refuse to ask about that woman, but what about Mukuro? What did he say afterwards?"

"He had been one of the two people to take out the bombers when they were attacking the base. As for not joining in on the attack... He said that he did not want to do it because of the possibilities that were involved."

Yuki let out something that sounded like a growl.

Hearing the excuse alone was enough to make his blood boil. It was no real reason to not help against the Neighbors who had attacked them.

That was why Yuki was mad. It was because he knew that it was not the real reason as to why the boy did not help. They both knew the exact reason as to why the boy ,emotion end made no move to assist any of the agents who had fought against the leader.

"This sucks... To have my younger brother and older sister back..."

.

Mei turned her chair to look directly at the sulking Yuki.

She shook her head while reaching out for a piece of paper. What was on it did not matter as she crushed it under her grip before throwing it at Yuki with deadly accuracy.

"Hey, don't go thinking about pointless things. Even if they are back, I am here for you. I will be there to deal with them alongside you. And even if you don't them to help, you know that we can ask Murakami, Sensei and some others to help us out. We aren't alone this time."

"I already owe those two basically the world at this point. I can't ask anymore of them. That would be too much."

"Oh? Then what do you owe me?"

Yuki was quick to look up.

"Everything. I owe you everything from the universe to my life."

Mei went red in an instant.

Realizing what he had said, Yuki corrected himself while sprouting inaudible words.

The rest of the day for those two was spend with their back-and-forth that only they would understand. Words that meant so much to only the two of them.

They did not move from their spots the whole time, no one ever tried to enter the room. No one tried to contact them.

They both knew it was not the time for something like this, but neither one really cared.

It was just them two.

* * *

A woman in her twenties happily skipped through all the destruction of Mikado City. The area she was in could not be considered a part of any sort of city. It looked much more like a nuclear sight.

Craters were everywhere and permanent scars could be seen left around the area. A clear sign that a major battle had occurred there within the day.

"My, my~ Some son of a bitch was having fun here~ Wish I was here so I could fuck them up instead~ I could always ask Akasora about what happened~!"

The woman had fiery red hair that went down to her hips with multiple pieces sticking up and out. Her outerwear was a very revealing one consisting of a long coat over a bra and tore jeans.

Her appearance was what most would call "extreme", and only the kind you would see in works of fiction. Yet it worked well enough for her that it really did not seem too out of place. Her appearance only made the entire area seem that much more dangerous.

"I wonder what my piece of crap brother and lovely little sister are doing right now~ I wonder if they've gotten better to the point of actually doing something in a fight~ Oh my~ Just thinking about it makes me want to punch the crap outta something~"

The woman continued to skip through the wreckage of the area with a smile on her face. It felt like everything she was seeing was a part of her everyday life. Like anything and everyone invoking destruction just came naturally to her.

She lifted her nose into the air and took a large breath.

"Ah~ This wonderful smell~ It's easy to tell that something beautiful bloomed proudly here~ Lust, anger, and...contradiction? Uwah~ Some of my favorite smells~!"

Then again...

"Maybe I could even find some new toys to play with while I'm here~"

She was also the eldest among four special siblings.

* * *

A certain C-Rank agent put all the strength she had into helping lift a large piece of concrete in order to assist. She looked like a delicate princess, which was why some people looked uncertain about her helping.

Once she told them that she was with Border they thanked her for the help.

She could not do much to help her classmates when they needed it so this was what she could do to assist in an area involving the invasion. She had been told, like the other C-Ranks, that she was to make her way back to the base, but she knew that others needed help.

She could not bring herself to think of her own safety when she knew that others should always come first at times like these. Others were busy with the remaining Neighbors, which left her to do the assisting towards the civilians who had not been so lucky as to evacuate in time.

"Thank you, miss."

The girl turned around to see a mother(?) with her child next to her. They both seemed rather familiar, but she would not be assuming family ties when she did not know who they were.

Either way, the girl bowed with a smile.

"It is no problem. I am simply trying to assist in any way I can. I should be the one who is thanking you all for being so cooperative. I realize that it is a bit frightening right now, so I deeply apologize that this is all I can do."

The woman and her child could not but help feel a bit of pity for the princess-like girl. They knew that what the girl was going through was something neither one of them could deal with. They looked at the girl with a good amount of respect.

The woman smiled at the girl before speaking.

"I will gladly put in a good word for you at Border. My daughter is actually an agent as well, so I can get her to do it."

"A-ah! Please! That may too much! I am just a foot soldier. If anything, I'm sure your daughter needs that more than I do. Those in B-Rank and A-Rank need that kind of praise much more than me. It is only natural that I would be out here helping everyone I can."

"No need to be so humble. You are helping us right now of your own volition. That is truly something admire."

The woman looked down at her child.

"Go on, Mitsu-chan. Thank this nice girl for helping us all."

The little girl smiled up at the older one.

"Thank you, Miss!"

The princess-like girl smiled back down at the little girl. Being the youngest of four siblings, the girl upon seeing this little girl look at her with such eyes made her heart flutter a bit.

With one more bow, the girl left the mother and her child to go assist in other areas that needed it. She never thought of herself as much of a soldier, but seeing the smiles of those she had helped made everything involving the invasion seem less frightening to her.

After all, one of her three older siblings had most likely been fighting in the invasion as well.

* * *

The invasion on Mikado City had been over for a while now, but there were still some remaining Trion Soldiers.

Six important things had happened thought the entire thing with other things happening as background issues. The specifics were things others might not believe, so they would not be mentioned to civilians who would not believe.

First: multiple Trion soldiers had come through multiple Gates.

This had let Border see the new type of Trion Soldiers Aftokrator had.

Second: multiple humanoid Neighbors had come through more Gates in order to aide in attacking and capturing C-Rank agents.

This had caused the Border agents engage in battles all around the city.

Third: the former Border agent Misó Epanástasi had been shown to be a traitor and fled with the rest if the Aftokrator Neighbors.

This had caused a B-Rank squad from being able to do anything and had their captain banned from using his Trigger until further notice on grounds of suspicion.

Fourth: a Neighbor had rampaged through the Border HQ and taken out many that were not field agents or Operators.

This had been a cause for his death in the training rooms.

Fifth: the leader of the team of Neighbors had appeared and started taking out one agent after another.

This had started a chase for Amatori Chika; who had a large amount of Trion and who had been turned into a cube of Trion by the leader.

Sixth: the Autonimous Trion Soldier known as Replica had been sliced in half and the B-Rank agent Mikumo Osamu had been stabbed in two places.

This had caused the end of the invasion.

After all of the invasion was over, something happened throughout the city. Things would move at a rapid pace with only two people in the entire city being able to see such things. With the inclusion of a danger set of siblings all in the city, even those two would have trouble figuring things out.

At the moment, everyone was just relieved to the invasion be done with.

Now the next part of the story begins.


	23. Tsukiko Squad: Part5

"Um... Mei, you do know that I can walk on my own...right?"

"Yes. And your point is invalid."

"But I would like to do so."

"No."

Yuki let out a sigh as he was carried bridal style through the streets of Mikado City.

It had been three days since the invasion against Mikado City and Yuki had been stuck in his room for the three days. He still was not feeling well, but the feeling of uselessness started to settle in in those three days he could not do anything. It had taken an hour of arguing and negotiations for Mei to allow him to move around once more.

After struggling to put of the strong grip that Mei had, Yuki was finally able to walk without his friend worrying about him.

The two continued to the walk while looking around at the damage that area had received during the invasion. Multiple buildings had been destroyed and the ground had been destroyed in multiple places.

The day prior, Mei had gone to all the major battlefield from the invasion to see all the damage that had been done to them. From the large skyscrapers that been cut down from Kizaki's fight to the large hole in the ground from Jin's fight; there was destruction everywhere. The battlefield they had been on had seemed to left a scar on the ground, not unlike the one Amo had been on. Even the Border base had been effected by the invasion with one of the Black Triggers destroying the training rooms.

Knowing of all this damage, most people would have felt some kind of emotion towards those effected by the damage. They would feel sympathy or pity for the people who had lost their homes due to the attack or felt ire due to having multiple buildings from their city destroyed.

Takato Mei and Tsukiko Yuki felt no such things from this information.

They could not bring themselves to artificially create these feelings or feel them naturally. It was a flaw they had, but one that kept them in a special area that others could not reach unless given certain circumstances.

It was both a blessing as well as a curse.

"You two headed to HQ too?"

.

Hearing the footsteps behind them, as well as the voice, they both turned around to see who it was that had asked them the question.

Akasora continued to approach the two of them with his hands in his pocket and a casual expression on his face.

This man had been their teacher at one point and continued to be one of the few people who stood in the same area as them. Even with the area being destroyed, he did not feel any kind of remorse or sorrow towards those who had been effected by the invasion.

That maybe have been why he could talk to them so casually.

"I had wanted to get out of my room after everything that happened. Mei here was being difficult, but I manged to convince her. Besides that, Shinoda-san wanted to speak with me about something. I am assuming the same can be said for you, Sensei."

"Yeah. I'm guessing it has something to do with this thing," the older one said, lifting his arm to show his Black Trigger. "It didn't even get much spotlight when the final act was going on. Granted, that wormhole lady is to blame for that. Either way, since it was shown, I'm sure they want it for themselves. I'm not going to be giving it up any time soon, so they'll have to fight me for it."

"Well, we will be on your side should that ever happen."

Akasora smiled at the reply he received from Mei.

"And if it makes you feel any better, Miwa and Suzume were able to get some shots on that woman. Kanzaki even disregarded her by using her wires to force someone out of the wormhole."

"Sounds like a fun time. I'll make sure to thank them for that later on."

Akasora took a small glance at the two at his side.

They knew that his words, while not hollow, did not contain any malice towards the woman or gratitude towards the three people mentioned.

"So... I heard you two went at it with one of the humanoid Neighbors and took out some of the new models."

"...Yes. That is correct. What about it?" Mei asked, looking up.

"I was just curious. I'm guessing you didn't show anyone the full extent of you two."

"...No... We didn't."

"'The fox with the silver tongue that inverts truth and lies.' I'm guessing you made your lies into truths to win that battle. 'Rampage Dress.' You two are very strange, but that's a good thing. I would have been able to fully tell if you two went all out. It's a good thing you two did not succumb to those names again. We wouldn't want people to be afraid of you."

"Those phrases are old and tiring. You should think about other things; like your retirement. Old men speaking gibberish isn't what the kids want to hear during this era. If anything, some might think you are just going crazy and should be in a padded room."

"Hahaha! Guess you're right! The fox and lion must still be sleeping like little creatures."

"We are humans. I don't know what you are talking about."

"I suppose that's true."

* * *

Suzume let out a sigh as she walked through the halls of Border.

It was how the third day since the Aftokrator invasion had ended and she was feeling rather down since she knew that Mikumo was still in the hospital.

Being one of the remaining agents still able to help, she felt like she had also let him down.

She had been told by both her team and her other friends that there was nothing to feel bad about, but she did not like knowing she could have helped more. Even if she was doing all she could.

_Yuki-san being out sick honestly doesn't help anything. The other two need him around keep them in line. Mei-san and I can only do so much with them before we need outside help._

She let out a tired sigh, giving emphasize to her breasts and getting attention from the males around her. She never seemed to notice the stares she got, so she always continued doing that without any problem.

Figuring that there was nothing she could do about everything she was thinking, she decided to just make her way over to the team's operating room.

"Ah! Misaki-senpai!"

Hearing her name being called, Suzume looked over to see three people walking up to her and a fourth one running up to her.

Seeing the fourth one running, she easily sidestepped him so that he would fall to the ground. She walked passed him and towards the other three.

"Akane-chan, I told you that you can just call me Nee-chan. Same goes with you two."

Both Kodera and Svantje gave laughs at this. The former's was more sheepish while the latter's was more fun.

"Suzu~! Why did you dodge me~? I just wanted to give you a hug~!"

Suzume rolled her eyes as someone hugged her from behind. It would have been easy enough to dodge him a second time, but she thought he deserved this much for his assistance in the invasion.

She allowed the hug while speaking to the others.

"You guys honestly did well during the invasion. I heard how you helped out over here at the base. And it's better that you didn't partake in it, Akane-chan."

After peeling Satori off of her, Suzume walked over to Svantje and Kodera. She grabbed both with her arms and pushed their heads into her breasts. She couldn't see their reaction but it was easy to tell that Kodera was blushing while Svantje was smiling like a child.

Kodera tried to get away from the hug but could not escape Suzume's, surprisingly strong, grip.

"M-Misaki, can you please let go...?"

"Not until you two call me Nee-chan~"

"Misaki~!"

Off to the side, Satori and Hiura could be seen pouting.

Not wanting to be left out of the fun, they walked forward to get involved. Satori started hugging Suzume once more while Hiura squeezed her way into the older one's arms.

"Aw~ Are you two jealous~"

"M-Misa-... S-S-Suzum-me...nee-san... Can you please let go of us?"

"I didn't honestly hear Akane-chan or Nikko-chan say it~"

"Suzume-nee-chan!"

Keeping to her word, Suzume let go of the three, laughing while she did so.

She smiled at the three like an older sister would her siblings.

"And don't forget to always call me that. If you don't then I'll honestly hug you, no matter where we are~ And if you ever need anything, you can just honestly ask your amazing Nee-san for help."

"Right~!"

Svantje and Hiura gave happily salutes to their fellow female sniper.

"Hey, hey! Does that mean you'll call me Nii-san!?"

In unison, Kodera, Hiura, and Svantje gave a chorus of,

"No way!"

"Geh!? Why does Suzu-chan get such things and I don't!? That's just unfair!"

The girls giggled at Satori's sadness while Kodera simply shook his head.

It was rather entertaining to tease Arashiyama's sniper.

Feeling a bit bad for her best friend, Suzume walked over and grabbed his arm. She put it between her breasts and spoke in a sweet voice.

"Excuse me, Satori-kun~ Could you please do me the favor of honestly escorting me to my team's operating room~? I'm soooooo scared that someone might attack me while I'm honestly on my way~!"

"But of course, Misaki-chan! I must protect such a delicate woman from any danger lurking around the corner! Just leave it to me!"

The two started walking away, laughing the whole time.

Behind the two, the other three snipers could be seen enjoying the two. There was never much bad blood between snipers, so they all enjoyed the fun. The only exception to this was between Suzume and Narasaka, but everyone else was just fine with both.

Once the two were out of sight, Svantje turned to the other two with a grin.

"So, who here is actually planning on calling her that?"

Hiura excitedly raised her hand while Kodera fixed his glasses. The two really did feel like they were close to Suzume, although maybe not as much as they thought. They always figured she was just teasing them like usual.

"I really wouldn't put it passed her to hug us like that regardless of where we are... I don't really have a choice in the matter."

The two girls simply patted the glasses-sniper on the back. They knew that was completely true.

* * *

Yuki and Akasora could not help themselves when they saw the looks they were getting.

Due to different reasons, Mei had split up from her friend and teacher, deciding to go a different way. This had made the teacher and student start for Director Shinoda without her.

During this time multiple people greeted Yuki with friendly voices while also making sure that he was fine to be walking around.

At the same time, people were giving Akasora strange looks. They ranged from confusion to worry.

It was understandable to both seeing as how the man had a simple yet effective Side Effect that appeared around him easily enough that it was hard to figure out. A sense of intimidation always followed him around, making others a bit fearful of walking up to him. This was only counted by a person knowing him well enough.

No matter if he was trying or not, Akasora Chishi would end up with an aura of intimidation around him.

Even so, Yuki walked next to him easily enough.

"So, when are you two planning on getting together exactly?"

Yuki glanced up with an unimpressed look.

This was not the first time he had been teased about this kind of thing.

"If you don't sweep her off her feet, someone else will. I can guarantee it."

"Mei and I aren't like that. Sensei, you know that it's pointless to talk about these kinds of things when they don't matter to us. Besides... This is coming from the guy who can't even get a date. I can at least be a 'prince' and get one while you're stuck at home watching some drama."

"Damn brat. Other teachers and some nice woman from the market have been flirting with me for a while now. Even some students have been talking about me when they think I'm not paying attention. While I don't really like that latter one, it shows that the age doesn't matter when the ladies are talking about me."

"Mei and I also spoke about you when we knew you were paying attention. They were probably talking about how you tend to wear the tracksuit no matter where you are. It's rather weird and not very stylish. As for the teachers and the market. If I remember correctly, most of the teachers at that school are males. Besides that, I remember the last time I went with you, you were hit on by some 'ladies' who were missing the most important parts."

Akasora visibly shuttered at the reminders he was getting from his student.

At some point he had decided to cut off dating out of fear of what truths would be displayed in front of his eyes.

It had been nice that others spoke about him favorably, but sometimes it did feel odd.

Another thing was...

"You still love your wife."

Akasora let out a sigh as he thought of his deceased lover.

The love he felt for her never left him. The other women he saw on a daily basis could not compare to her in any shape or form. They may have had some beauty to them, but none compared.

"You're not wr-"

As he started to speak up again, he noticed something.

.

Yuki tried to steady himself as he swayed a bit to the side.

He had made sure that his teacher would be too busy talking to notice how pale he really was at the moment. That came to a halt when he could not longer hold himself up and had to cling to the wall for a moment.

"I guess I'm not completely up for this right now..."

"You've got you pills, right?"

Yuki nodded his head before pulling out his small pill bottle. He took some out and put it on his hand.

Just as he was going to put them in his mouth, someone ran by and made him drop them.

"Oh! I'm sorry!"

"It's fine." Yuki picked up the pills. "You seem to be in a hurry though, Shor."

The two males looked at the person who had just rushed by and saw that it was a boy with black hair, hazel eyes and a pair of ski goggles on his head.

Yuki knew the boy well enough, having seen him around Toby enough times.

"Ah! Yeah. I need to go meet up with my team and am running a little late," the boy said as she jogged in place. "Sorry, but I really need to get going."

"Ah! Wait!"

Yuki reached out to spot the boy but felt himself too weak.

He started to fall when a pair of arms caught him.

Noah had been quick to catch the olde Brody before he could gain any injuries.

"Whoa there. Are you sure you should be out and about?"

"I'm fine... But I need to ask a favor of you. It's rather important."

"Hm? What is it?"

"It involves Toby."

* * *

If there was one thing that Toby Awdry excelled at it always being energetic.

So , why did he look like he was just told that he was alone in the world?

That was the question Kōchō Kashi thought of as she walked next to the Attacker.

_Ever since the invasion ended, he's been so down. This really isn't like him at all._

The girl had yet to see him in such a state. There had always been a nice feeling of security and energy around the boy before that made most people around him bubble up from it. Even those who did not like to do much could not help but follow along at times.

It was even more prevalent with those he had fought against in solo battles.

Having had enough of this sad version of her friend, Kōchō spoke up with her tone trying to sound cheerful.

"So, Awdry, I've been meaning to ask you something. How does your Hedgehog and Porcupine work exactly? I may be a Shooter, but I would still like to try it out. It seems to refreshing that I'm sure even Kazama-san would want to learn it."

Toby said nothing as he continued to look at the ground.

The day prior, he had gone to see Mikumo in the hospital and had ended up meeting the boy's mother. Without any hesitation, he got down on his knees and apologized endlessly to her for letting her son get injured. Apparently he had not been the first person to do so. Yet unlike that other person, he did not wait to hear what she had to say and instead left some zinnia flowers before leaving the room in a hurry.

He did the same thing at Tamakoma. The only difference was that he did not leave any flowers for them. He had quickly left before any of them could say anything.

Seeing him down like this, Kōchō felt as if she was also getting a bit sad.

"Uh... Aw-"

"Hey, Toby! I heard how great you were in the invasion! You mind telling me how awesome you were~?"

Feeling someone latch on to his back, Toby turned his eyes to look at the Gunner that was hanging off of him.

Kōchō was surprised once she noticed that Inukai had come out of nowhere and grabbed Toby.

"Not now, Sumiharu. I'm not really in the mood."

"Huh? Is something wrong? Does Yuki know about this? Do you need my help with something?"

Something that both Toby and Inukai shared in common was that they could change the mood of whatever area they were in. They could easily change a tense atmosphere into a happy one, if they tried. Seeing one of his friends in such a state made Inukai worry about him. More so than usual due to other issues at hand.

He noticed Kōchō was there and was about to ask her when he suddenly fell to the ground. He looked up from the ground to see Toby walking away.

He was about to go after the boy when they heard rapid footsteps heading towards them.

"Toby! Get over here!"

"Ai-!?"

Everyone was surprised when Kitora charged towards Toby with anger clearly on her face.

This was not the kind of look she wore when it came to others.

This was not the look she had on when speaking to others, when acting higher than other or when greeting others. This kind of expression was full of emotions and did not try to hide it at all.

"Ai, what's wrong?"

"You idiot! Why are you so down? Stop being so selfish and get over yourself!"

Inukai and Kōchō could only stare as Kitora tore into the Attacker without any hesitation. They noticed that he did not take too kindly to it, but was not given a chance to retaliate.

"I went over to see how Mikumo-kun was doing and ended up meeting his mother. She had asked me if I knew about a delinquent-looking boy with a gray hat. That was obviously you. She had told me that you just walked in, apologized without stopping, then left some flowers."

"Yeah, because-"

" _That was stupid!"_

Everyone looked at the A-Rank with shocked looks.

"What I mean is that you went overboard and did not listen to Mikumo-san. She had asked me if I could tell you that there was no reason to apologize. I'm sure that even you understand that you tried your best. Even then, you had helped him out. Both you and Misaki-senpai helped him in finishing the invasion. It was not even just you two. Multiple things had occurred at the time to stop the invasion from continuing."

Toby fixed his hat so that he did not have to look at Kitora in the eyes. To him that was not the case. The others there had been doing what they could to stop the invading leader while others had stopped the needles from piercing into Mikumo.

He did not such things.

He had become a shield for only a short moment. That same moment had been used to open even more holes in the air for different needles to come out from. He could do nothing else at the time and had seen the attack connect with the glasses-boy.

"Okay, listen. Look at me in the face and tell me that it was completely your fault. Literally everyone else doesn't think that. No one is blaming anyone else. Least of all you. But if you, the person that was there, looks me in the eye and tells me that it was all your fault, I will believe you."

Toby said nothing.

He did not look up and no words left his mouth. He only stared at the ground with an expression that no one could see.

It took a few seconds before anything came out his mouth. He did not look up, but he started to speak.

"Ai..."

"Yes?"

"Why is it that you can get me out of this kind of funk?"

Kitora crossed her arms while looking at Toby with a superior look.

"Because you're really simple to deal with." She looked down at him with a hint of sympathy. "You're an older brother, so of course you would go and treat others younger than you, or the same age as you like they were your siblings. You care for others probably more than you should. Besides that... You helped to take care of me..."

"Heh... Guess you're right."

Off to the side, Inukai and Kōchō smiled while looking at the two. They were both older than Toby, so they did not get the same feeling as Kitora when it came to the boy. At the same time, they also saw things very differently than her. They were a bit sad that they could not be of any help for the boy.

Even so, they were both happy to see their friend out of such a dark feeling. So much so that the whole area really seemed to lighten up in an instant.

None of them could put their fingers on it, but there really was something about Toby that made things a lot lighter when he was around.

* * *

The two continued to talk casually as they walked. The topics changed from one thing to another. So much so that they did not notice they were already at the door to Director Shinoda's office.

After knocking, and checking to make no one else was in the room, Akasora opened the door to see Director Shinoda sitting behind his desk with papers all around.

"Hey, Masafumi~ We're here~"

"Chishi, Yuki. Come in and have a seat," Shinoda said, looking up from his work.

"So what's this all about? I figured we would be called with everyone around."

"You will be called later, Chishi. I'm just telling you beforehand what will be happening."

"And what _will_ be happening?"

"A new branch."

The two sitting on the same side of the desk gave questioning looks. They could easily guess why a new branch was being made, but did not understand why they were being told about it. Especially Yuki.

"As I'm sure you can figure out... This new branch is being made to take one of the spots that wasn't able to evacuate everyone during the invasion. The least fortified area." Director Shinoda turned his attention to his long time friend with a serious look still on his face. "You will be called in because-"

"Because you guys want me to be the branch's director, right?"

"Exactly."

"Sorry to disappoint, but I'm refusing. I mean, if you had asked me before, I'd say yes, but I have my job as a teacher. I don't care if the pay is different, you already know I like teaching."

"As you just said; I know about how much you care about teaching and your students. But I couldn't think of anyone better."

"So you're the one who nominated me. Not shocking in the slightest. I'm guessing you also took Shikifuku into consideration. Yes. I can see all the reason that this would benefit me as well. Even if that's the case... I don't care."

.

From his spot next to his teacher, Yuki looked between the two adults.

He understood what they were saying, he was keeping up with the conversation well enough that he could think of arguments for both parties.

Yet there was something he wanted an answer to.

"Sorry to just butt in, but what does this have to do with me?" Yuki asked with his hand slightly raised.

_Please don't tell me they're thinking of..._

"I wanted you to join the new branch with Chishi," Shinoda said as he crossed his fingers. "Director Netsuki is getting quite a bit of flak from the area, so we figured that they would calm down a bit knowing that someone strong and experienced will be in their area. When I nominated Chishi, you and Mei came into mind. Kei is in Kido-san's faction while you two don't belong to any faction, so it would work just fine. You both are strong with or without any personalized Triggers, so that might ease their worries as well."

"While I do feel honored about being one of the people you thought of for this, I highly doubt Mei will agree to it," Yuki said with a more serious expression. "I have already made up my mind, so this would actually be a good thing for me, but knowing her like I do, she will not want to follow."

"Even so, you alone is enough. There's also... _those two_."

Akasora was quick to let out a laugh.

"Hahaha! You really plan on putting those two and Kiyoshi here together!? Hahaha! That's a good one! You even thought of putting Fuji in as well!"

"This is no laughing matter," Director Shinoda said, slightly glaring at the other grown man. "While I would prefer them to be here at HQ, they also abide by their own rules at times and the other directors won't be able to keep them on a leash."

"So that's where I come in, right?" Akasora got a thoughtful expression. "Even if I do agree, and all three end up in the new branch, what makes you think I could control the three of them? Kiyoshi here won't be much of an issue, and even Mukuro isn't a problem, most of the time, but that girl is something else all together. Even Fuji has no patience for her."

"And as you said, they go by their own rules at times. Her especially."

"Kiyoshi, you know her best and know how to stop her from going overboard. That's also why I want you in the new branch. If it comes down to it though... I may need to use Tai-"

"Fine **.** "

"Oh-ho! Looks like you're in deep now. Nice going there, Masafumi," Akasora grinned. "You know that's taboo with him."

"Yes, but as I said before, he's the only one who can properly deal with her. Taiyōko is the second best option is he didn't agree."

"Hm. As long as Mukuro actually figures it out, I guess I'm fine with it."

"Then that just leaves your answer, Chishi."

Akasora looked from Yuki to Director Shinoda before letting out a sigh. While he didn't really want to switch from teaching to being a branch director, he knew that this was an important matter and his friend had gone straight to him for this matter.

That didn't mean he would enjoy it.

"What's the new branch going to be called?"

"Yagura Branch."

* * *

If there was one thing that Takeshi did not understand, no matter how hard he tried, it would be art in any form. Unlike Suzume, he did not listen to music and enjoy the instruments or the singing. Unlike Toby, he could never see fighting as a way of entertainment. And like the girl in front of him, he did not understand how accidentally painting your teammate was art.

Standing in front of him were two girls. One had hair that was more than one color while the other's was cut short. The latter had paint on her while the former looked around sheepishly.

"Asano, why did you even let this happen?"

"I didn't. I didn't think she was so into her painting that I would scare her by simply calling out her name."

Takeshi let out a sigh as he looked at the two.

He could not understand how someone could be so invested in something like painting. It was just splashing random colors on a canvas. Nothing special. Nothing to get interested in.

"Ah. Ah. I can hear it. I can hear the sounds of someone who is uncultured."

"Don't say that."

Takeshi could only click his tongue as he saw two members of Kazama Squad start to make their way towards the trio.

"Ayugai, Asano, I am going to be taking my leave now. I don't want to be around some nosy guy who wants to listen in on everything like a bug."

"I hear jealousy in your voice."

Utagawa, a very friendly person, quickly got between the two before they started going for each other's throats. After all, when it came down to it, everyone in Tsukiko Squad had someone they hated with a passion.

Yuki and Ninomiya were like two sides of a coin. They would never see eye-to-eye.

Suzume could not stand being around Narasaka. They were far too different.

Toby, while not having anyone particular to hate, did not like others who messed with his friends.

Mei was an enigma to begin with, so her relationships with others was the same.

Takeshi on the other hand had three main people he could not stand. The first was Yoneya. Second was Midorikawa. Third was Kikuchihara.

No one knew where all of this stemmed from, but what they did know was that he never wanted to be around those three people.

Both Eri and Kuni seemed to notice this as well, so they tried to divert Takeshi's attention away from the A-Rank.

It was easier said than done since both sides seemed ready to attack each other.

Utagawa could only sigh.

What was to come was obvious.

* * *

"So this is it."

"Yeah. Are you sure about your choice?"

"I'm sure. I also think they'll be fine, but I want to keep an eye on them."

"It's not like I'd be dying or something. That kind of thing won't happen until far into the future."

"Still, my choice has been made." Mei gave a small glance to Yuki. "And I'm sure they won't see you much since you have to deal with the other two soon."

"Guess you're right."

"Will you still see them in the upcoming B-Rank Wars?"

"Of course. I want to see if my choice was correct."

The two sat in the team's operating room with an almost suffocating atmosphere around them while they waited for the remaining three members. They could hear the footsteps and voices coming closer, but they simply sat there.

"We're here!"

"They can see that, Senpai. No need to exclaim it."

"But making an entrance is important. You honestly don't know much, do you?"

"Hey, you three," Yuki said with a tired smile.

"Are you okay, Yuki? Are you getting enough sleep?"

The three quickly went over.

"Yeah. I'm fine. I want to get down to why I called you three here though." Yuki finished his ice-cream as the three took their seats. "This is very important, so I want you three to listen carefully."

"It honestly sounds like you're about to tell use that you and Mei-san are married and that you're getting a divorce now."

Seeing the serious expression on the older two's faces, Suzume held her tongue from any more comments.

"What did you want to tell us, Senpai?"

Yuki took in a breath before letting it out.

He faced the three with a hard gaze.

"Tsukiko Squad is disbanding."


	24. Mei Takato: Part 2

The sound of rapid typing could be heard in the area.

Takato Mei continued to type on her laptop at such a fast pace that most would think she was just pressing random keys. In reality, she wasn't even sure what she was typing. Every key that was pressed truly was out of a random need to busy herself.

He thoughts were busy being filled with all the recent things that have been happening in her life from Yuki disbanding their team to the press conference that was recently held. The things that had been planned out ahead of time seemed to be having side effects that she did not account for while the things unplanned for were simply causing her to gain a headache.

That included the two unexpected people.

_That whole family is going to be in this new branch. Yuki will have no issue with at least two of them, but that last one... Well, I suppose he should be fine enough when he is with Akasora-san. Besides them, Shokubutsu should be joining them, along with Kazekiri and Kirisame. That truly is not a bad lineup for a newly formed branch._

Her typing got even more violent as she continued with these thoughts.

"And those three idiots don't help..."

Tap tap tap...

"He's completely shut himself in..."

Tap tap tap...

"The other one has been moping around the whole place..."

Tap tap tap...

"And she's even stopped taking incriminating photos..."

As she spoke to herself, Mei could hear voices behind her. Each voice was distinct and she recognized them all with a few being smart enough to muffle what exactly what they were saying.

This was to be expected with everything that was going on with Border right now.

Even so...

Having heard enough of the talking around her, Mei slammed her laptop shut with a bit too much force.

"You can all stop now."

Mei looked up and forward while the crowd of people sitting just behind her jumped and turned back around. She let out a sigh and stood up before making her way to the table behind her.

He slammed her hand on the table to gave each person a look.

"You people want answer, yet you did nothing to ask me for them. Instead, you have been talking behind me this whole time while I am trying to get thing done. Please speak up when there is something you want to ask instead of annoying me with small sounds here and there."

"S-sorry, Mei-san... We just wanted to know about the rumors."

Mei turned her sights to the one who was speaking, which was Midorikawa, making him close his mouth out of fear.

She knew that most of the people there had not seen her with such an expression before, but she could not bring herself to change her glare to something smoother.

After all...

"You want to know if Tsukiko Squad really did disband."

"Yes!"

Mei let out a sigh when she heard the unison answer. She knew that it would have easily gotten spread around the whole area by now since the former team knew a good percentage of people.

Her mind started to wander back to what had happened earlier.

* * *

_"You're kidding, right?"_

_Toby looked panicked._

_"Hehehe... That's honestly not a good joke, Captain."_

_Suzume looked desperate._

_"..."_

_"Do you have anything to say on the matter, Takeshi?"_

_All attention when to the last person. They all waited for the usually bored boy to say something, seeing as he had known both Yuki and Mei longer than the other two._

_"What..."_

_"Hm?"_

_"What the hell?"_

_Suzume and Toby froze the moment they heard such a dark and cold voice come from their teammate. His tone had usually been a neutral one that always sounded like everything around him was boring. Hearing this kind of voice could only have this kind of effect on them._

_Yuki and Mei did not seem to mind the tone._

_"Where the hell is this coming from? Did you just get tired of us?"_

_Even with the words coming out in such a harsh tone, Yuki made no move to stop the boy. His expression was passive while his body language was still that of someone who could be nothing but calm and collected._

_"That's not it," Yuki said with a sigh. "There are a few reasons. The first is that I'm going to be at a new branch being made, along with Akasora-sensei and others. Mostly likely... A few more will follow since the two of us will be there. Anyways. The other two that will be there will be difficult to handle, and I don't want any of you actually meet them."_

_"Don't you honestly think that's a little impossible? We'll most likely meet them around at some point," Suzume said, trying to find something wrong to get Yuki to stay. "And what if others introduce us to them?"_

_"The former is more true. Either way, that's not the only reason." He pointed to the emblem on his chest and said, "This is also the reason."_

_He could see the confusion written on their faces, so he continued._

_Mei closed her eyes, knowing full well where this conversation was going._

_"I made two conditions when I accepted the spot of A-Rank. The first was that my personalized Trigger had certain aspects of Akasora-san's Black Trigger in it."_

_"And the second...?"_

_"The second was that if I didn't deem you three to be strong enough for my expectations, I would be demoted back to B-Rank to help you out better. In a sense, the invasion was helpful to test how much you three have grown since you first joined my team. Now I know how strong you really are, and can stay as an A-Rank." Yuki stood up and gave them a smile before heading towards the door. "Isn't that great? I'm an A-Rank like you three wanted."_

_Mei just watched as Yuki left the room, leaving the three in front of her seemed to be frozen in place. She knew they must have felt just as bad as when she and Yuki had first met them._

Well he did help them out to this point. That selfish idiot. He knew how this would end. I wouldn't doubt that he went to Jin just to clarify whether or not they would act like this.

_She let out a sigh and gently shook her head._

_"Look, you three-"_

_"You knew, didn't you?" Takeshi looked up and glared at Mei, as if it would change something. "You knew about those conditions, didn't you?"_

_"Yes. Now stop acting like brats and pay attention." Without even noticing it, Mei's tone and expression turned into a cold one that would freeze anyone. "Besides being a jerk, he actually had another reason for this. He wants to fight you three. If things stood as they were, you three would never have thought of fighting him seriously."_

_"Then why-"_

_"I am not done. Don't interrupt me." Her eyes seemed to be frozen, as if she wasn't actually there, and spoke with a chilling calmness in every word. "He wants you three to rise up to A-Rank so that he can fight with the three of you evenly. So you can come up with new tricks and strategies he couldn't even_ try _to think of, so that you three on are equal footing with him."_

_"..."_

_"Well, this means I don't have a team either, and I'm not going with him..."_

_She stood up and headed for the door without giving any of them a second glance._

_How they felt and how they reacted were well within her calculations._

_"If any of you need me, I'll be around."_

* * *

"Um... Mei...san?"

Snapping out of her thoughts, Mei saw that the group was looking at her with expecting eyes.

She forgot that she was speaking to a group of people and not reliving what had happened only a few days ago.

"Yes. Tsukiko Squad is officially disbanded."

"But what about the B-Rank Wars!? How are they going to do that!?" Hisato asked from his spot next to Midorikawa.

"I'm not sure. They may not even be in it this time. None of them have a team anymore. If they got smart enough to just make one with the three of them, I'm not sure if they would hold the same rank as before."

"Those three are strong in their own right, but Tsukiko was both their captain and ace. I'm wondering how they would fare now."

"And, like Mei-san said, their ranking in general probably won't be the same with a new team consisting of those three."

"Regardless, they still have stuff like defense duty, so they need to get their act together," Kitora said from across Yoneya. While she may have seemed like she was berating them a bit, she was also concered about the whole ordeal. "They need to get their act together if they want to keep going."

Hearing this, Mei nodded her head before opening her mouth.

"'Go ahead and take those brats away, if you want. I'm sure that you all can put them to good use so that they can get out of their childish attitudes,' is what some of you thought I would say. Or something like it."

She looked around the table and the one behind them to see the reactions she was getting. Some of the, were making sure to keep their eyes away from her own. Others seemed to be confused as to what she meant by saying that.

Kodera had been the one to save those who did not want to keep eye contact with her.

"Moving away from that topic... There's something I've been wondering about," Kodera said, turning from Kitora to Mei. "Takato-san, who are the other people that are going to be in the new branch?"

"That's right! I forgot about that!"

"Those two..."

Mei got a glossed over look in her eyes before seeming to talk without actually knowing she was doing so. Her tone was the coldest anyone had ever heard before.

It was clear that he had struck a nerve.

"The last two from that family."

"What family?"

"Taiyōko."

"Taiyōko... Taiyōko... Where have I heard that name before?"

"Most likely the news a few years back," Arashiyama said, walking up to the group and next to Mei. "Taiyōko Kesshō and Taiyōko Kaseki were well known on television and different types of media for being great soldiers. They died a few years back, most likely due to the Neighbors from first invasion."

"He's right. I guess their solider genes got passed down because right now all four of their children are in Border."

"I got it! Is Taiyōko Hoshi one of their children?"

Everyone turned back to Midorikawa.

"Yes. I'm sure you know her because she goes to your school," Mei said calmly.

"Yeah. She's in the same class as Toby and Kotowari-senpai. She's one of the C-Ranks, isn't she?"

"Also correct. That being said, she is the youngest of the four, and the only one to be a C-Rank. The other three are currently A-Rank. Each one has something particularly special about them. The oldest - Taiyōko Kushikage - has the raw talent of a strong soldier. It didn't take long for her to become A-Rank. I myself have never won a single fight against her."

"What!? Even _you_ can't beat her!?"

Suwa hadn't actually seen Mei fight before, but he knew she had a great amount of skill from what others have said.

"Yes. I will leave it at that and move on. That would be the second oldest child and the oldest brother - Taiyōko Kiyoshi... I don't know much about him..." As she said that, she averted her eyes from everyone and simply stared in a random direction. "The youngest brother, and third youngest child, is Taiyōko Mukuro. He is considered a genius amongst genius' for how far he has gotten in life due to his brains instead of brawns. His fighting style is... _odd_ , but once you see him fight, you would understand why he is an A-Rank. Lastly is Taiyōko Hoshi. She doesn't have much of an image for a soldier, but that's what makes her unique. In a family of soldiers, she is the normal one who is moving her way up through sheer effort and not on talent."

"You sure know a lot about them, Mei-san."

"Yes, well, I know someone... _close_ to them, so of course I would know about them."

Most of the people wanted to know more about these odd siblings, but none had the chance. They all took a look at Mei's face and kept their mouths shut. None of them wanted to say anything out of fear of angering her.

Thankfully, for everyone, someone had decided to call out to the girl.

"Meimei!"

The whole group turned to see Minoru jogging up to them all with a confused expression. He was holding a bouquet of wisteria in one hand and waving with the other.

"Minoru. I am assuming those flowers are for me."

"Some lady asked if I could give these to you," he said as he handed the bouquet to her. "She was actually pretty tall. Oddly red hair. Overly sexy body."

"Alright, alright. I know who it is. Please stop before one of these guys goes to see who it is."

Letting out a sigh, Mei took the card from the bouquet to read it.

_"Fuji, Fuji, tell me how your garden grows."_

"That bitch..."

Crumpling up the paper in her hand, Mei quickly turned and stormed away from the group. She could heard the others asking her things, but she ignored it all and continued to scare all the other people who saw her.

She was completely sure who this person was now.

She was the one person Mei could say she hates.

"Hey, what do I do with these?" Minoru asked as he quickly caught up to her.

"Burn them until there's nothing left." Not even looking at any particular, she threw the paper away while Minoru simply followed her. "Make sure to throw the remains into the river and never mention them again."

"But you always love wisteria. Why would I throw them away?"

"Minoru, there are some things I haven't told you about due to everything always going on. This is one of those things. This involves someone who you really shouldn't meet. Ever."

Minoru was surpsied by the tone his cousin was taking.

He was never blind to the things that she had kept from him, but this was something new. Under normal circumstances he would have left things alone so as to not seem to be nosy. This was a different matter though, seeing as how even the calm and collected Takato Mei looked ready to hurt someone.

_Just who is this person...?_

* * *

"Where was I told to meet them?"

Taiyōko Hoshi scratched her head as she looked around the area. She had been at the Border Headquarters multiple times, yet she had somehow ended up getting lost quite easily.

She had to meet up with the new branch director, along with the branch members, She had messed up in her directions and was currently walking around, wondering where she was. It didn't help that there was no one around.

"I was just promoted to B-Rank and I'm going to be late to meet up with my new fellow branch members. Oh no. I hope my fellow members will not be too angry with me."

She sighed as she remembered what had happened three days after the invasion as she played with the small moon barrette in her hair.

_I wonder if that senpai would be able to tell me where to go._

* * *

_"H-huh? A promotion? Sir, are you sure?"_

_Hoshi stood in Director Shinoda's office with a shocked look on her face. She had just been told that she would be gaining enough points to be promoted to B-Rank and moved to a new branch that was being opened up._

_She was happy at hearing this, but was also confused as to why she would just be receiving points as if she did something major. She had skill, that was obvious to the ones who had seen her, but she didn't think she was good enough for something like that._

_"Yes. I am completely sure," Shinoda said calmly with his hands folded on his desk. "Not only did you help with the evacuation during the invasion, I have been told that you even helped Kotowari Takeshi and Awdry Toby to defeat one of the new models."_

_"N-n-no, sir! That wasn't me! I-I mean I did_ try _to help, but it was Akasora-sensei who actually took it down! I wasn't even able to do much..." She looked down with her expression getting more sad. "I couldn't help Kotowari-kun or Awdry-kun... I'm sure I was just in the way..."_

_"Really? From what I was told, you actually saved those two when they were going to be cubified by the new model."_

_The two turned to the door as Mei walked in with a calm expression on her face, and seeming to be holding something in her hand._

_"Taiyōko, this is Takaoto Mei, the person who is giving her point to you so that you can be promoted," Shinoda said, gesturing to Mei._

She seems so familiar...

_Hoshi could only stare as Mei gave her greeting._

_"So pretty..."_

_"Hm?"_

_"Ah! I'm sorry, Takaoto-san! I guess I was thinking out loud...!"_

_"No. It's fine." Mei have a small smile while a tiny blush crept up on her cheeks._

_"Um... If I may ask, Takaoto-san... Why are you giving me your points? Wouldn't you need them more than me?"_

_"No. I'm an Operator, so I won't be needing them." Seeing the confused look on the younger one's face, Mei gave a small laugh. "I_ use to be _an Combatant, but gave that up when a special someone made a promise with me."_

_"How lovely. They must be very special."_

_"Yeah... He's something else most of the time." Mei got a fond smile on her face as the blush grew a little more. "Anyways... I don't need the points, so I decided to give them to you. And before you ask, I'm doing it for two reasons. The first is a favor to someone. The second is that I know how hard you work, and know that you really do deserve it."_

_"Ah... Th-thank you, Takaoto-san!" Hoshi exclaimed with a bow._

_"No need to be so formal. Just call me...Mei." Walking up to Hoshi, Mei opened her hand to show a crescent moon shaped barrette. "You're also very pretty. Hiding your face like that won't be getting you any guys, you know." Taking a step back, Mei gave a thumbs up. "There. Now you leveled up from pretty to beautiful."_

_"Ahem. If I can have your attention again."_

_"Ah! Yes! I'm sorry, sir!"_

_"Hahaha. It's fine." Shinoda gave his own smile. "To finish this up, I want you to meet your fellow branch members in a few days. I have told them to meet up by the C-Rank booths. You should do the same."_

_"Y-yes, sir! Thank you, sir!" She quickly turned around and bowed to Mei again. "And thank you, Mei-san!"_

_"Mei is just fine."_

_"M-Mei..."_

* * *

_She is so nice..._

Hoshi couldn't help but smile.

"I wonder what squad she's with. Maybe I could visit them. She said she use to be a Combatant... Maybe I can ask her to be my mentor..."

"Ah... Where am I? Oh man, she's probably gonna threaten people again if I don't meet up with any of them soon... GAH! This place is way too big to understand!"

Looking ahead, Hoshi saw a boy looking around frantically. He looked to be at least three years younger than her, and most definitely lost. They definetly shared that in common.

"Excuse me, little boy, are you lost?" Hoshi asked as she walked up to him.

_Wow... Is that not what old perverts say...?_

Thankfully the boy did not pay much attention to what she had said.

"Huh? Oh! An agent! Great!" The boy quickly met her half way. "Could you please show me to where the C-Rank fighting booths are? I need to meet my sister and her squad there, but I'm lost."

"That makes two of us then. I'm sorry, but I'm also lost and going to the C-Rank booths."

"Huh? But aren't you an agent? How could you get lost?"

"I wasn't really paying much attention to my surroundings," Hoshi said with a sheepish smile. "But why don't we try and find out way out of here together?"

"Alright! That sounds great!" The kid paused for a moment before giving Hoshi a sheepish grin of his own. "Um... I'm sorry, but can I use your phone to call my sis? I don't have mine on me, and I want to make sure she doesn't do anything... _rash_."

"Oh. Okay."

Pulling out her phone, Hoshi handed it to the kid.

After a minute or so of talking, the kid gave the phone back with a sigh.

"Thanks."

"Sure thing."

The two started walking while Hoshi started a conversation.

"So is your sister the overprotective type?"

"You have no idea," the kid said a he face palmed. "She can go pretty crazy when it comes to me."

Hoshi let out a small giggle since she knew that feeling.

Her eldest brother had always been so protective of her. It was hard to talk to any boys when he was around since he always had that delinquent kind of feeling around him.

Her other two siblings had been more lenient, but still a bit over the top. Then again, that was also something she loved about them all.

"Don't worry, my siblings were the same."

"'Were the same'?"

"Yeah..." She looked down with a sad smile. "My oldest brother got disowned a few years ago and I haven't spoken to him since then. We were very close, so that affected me the most. A year after that, my sister and second oldest brother ended up getting moved to a different country some time ago, so I was left alone..."

"What about you parents? Where were they?"

"They died when a Neighbor attacked... Supposedly... I had been a Border agent at the time, but... I couldn't do anything at the time..."

Tears started to well up in her eyes as the memory came back.

The kid started looking around in panic. The tears had more-or-less started coming from nowhere. They had just been talking, but now he realized how much pain comes with talking about her family.

"H-hey, no need to cry."

Not knowing what to actually do, the kid wrapped his arms around Hoshi.

"Our dad... He die of an illness before first invasion while our mom got captured during the first one... I sorta know how it feels to lose people important to you..."

"Hehehe... Thank you for that... And I'm sorry for just crying..." Hoshi gave a watery smile while the kid looked up with how own smile. "Really, I'm sorry. My issues are still nothing to that."

"Mm~ Mmmm~~"

Looking down, the two saw a Samoyed puppy at their feet, nuzzling their legs with its head. It seemed to be whining while its tail wagged.

"Hehehe. I guess this little pup is trying to comfort us." Hoshi picked the puppy up. She then turned back to the kid. "Thank you, little guy. I forgot to tell you my name. I'm sorry. Hello. I am Taiyōko Hoshi. It is nice to meet you."

"Yeah. Nice to meet you too. My name's Tsukiko Kaede."

"And what about you, pup? What's you're name?"

"His name is Taka, and he's just a ball of energy most of the time," a person said he walked up to them. "Hello there. I'm Inukai Sumiharu. That pup belong to a friend of mine. I saw him run by earlier, so I decided to try and catch him."

"Well I can see why he would be hard to catch." Hoshi laughed when Taka started licking her face. "Excuse us, Inukai-san, but do you know how to get to the solo booths from here?"

"Hm? Sure. I'll show you two the way," Inukai said with a smile. "That's probably where this little guy's owner is. Just follow me."

* * *

"What did you say!? Do you honestly want to repeat that!?"

"I said that clearly you three weren't good enough for Kiyo-nii."

Mei and Minoru arrived at the sight of Suzume holding some guy by the from of his shirt with a pissed off look and a red face.

A woman stood a few feet away while other agents watched with worry.

No one around had seen Suzume so mad before, so this was something new to them. What was more was that this new person did not even seem to care that Suzume was about to pull out Lightning.

"Suzume, put him down. Mukuro, shut your mouth." Mei proceeded to stomp her way between the two and glare at the boy. "If you're going to pick fights with people, go find someone else and bug them."

"Hm? Oh. Hey there, Fuji-nee."

"Don't call me that."

The guy let out a tired sigh as he scratched the back of his head. He had expected as much from Mei, but still did not like how things were turning out.

"Mei-san...you know this guy?"

Mei looked over at Suzume and noticed that she was not bouncy as before. Now, she looked more tired and was hunching a bit. The mischievous glint in her eyes was also gone.

Mei was worried about the girl, but she knew she had to focus on the problem in front of her.

"Yeah. This guy is Taiyōko Mukuro. He's an A-Rank that has been in a different country to help the Border over there, along with her..."

Her gaze went from the guy in front of her to the woman a few feet away.

"Taiyōko Kushikage."

"Oh my, oh my! You actually remember me, Fuji-chan! That makes me so fuckin' happy!"

The woman walked up to them and went to give Mei a hug, but missed her target.

Mei glared at the woman with enough hatred that it rivaled Yuki when speaking with his own enemy.

"Boo~ You're no fun."

"You were trying to annoy me by sending that bouquet of wisteria."

"As perceptive as ever." Kushikage turned to Minoru with a sky grin. "And who is this? Did you get tired of my piece of crap little brother and decide to go with this guy? Oh wait. This is the fucker I sent to give you those flowers!"

Mei said nothing, opting to to just glare at the woman. She already knew that anything she said could be turned against her without any problem.

While Yuki was the type of person who could invert his truths and lies, this woman was able to completely twist words to her liking. Sometimes what was originally said was completely lost and replaced with anything the woman wanted.

"Hey! I have an idea!" She grabbed Mukuro in a one armed hug and got a big grin on her face. "Why don't we see who's stronger!? We'll use Mukuro here to determine that! You're new fuckboy verses Mukuro. Then we'll find Kiyoshi and have him fight to see who is stronger! Won't it be fun to see these shitfaced boys fighting like retarded apes!?"

_The natural soldier... Depraved even after some years. She truly is someone that should be in a padded room. ...Even then... I doubt that would keep her in place._

Mei continued to keep her mouth shut and glare.

.

Minoru furrowed his brows as he continued to hear the conversation going on.

_This must be the person she was talking about. The one who I shouldn't have met._

Just from looking at her attire and seeing her attitude, it was clear as to why he should not ever have met her. It was clear proof that Mei had been write about not liking this woman.

And yet...

"I'm not too sure who you are, but I am fine with this," Minoru said as he handed Suzume the bouquet. "So how are we going to do this?"

_I might get a better understanding of things by doing this._

The corpse-like boy who seemed to be younger than Minoru himself let out a long yawn before lazily looking over at him.

Minoru felt a shiver run down his spine as the boy stared at him with little to no emotions. His eyes had become unnerving the moment they landed on him, stopping him from properly thinking for the moment.

"I guess I don't have a choice," Mukuro sighed out. "Three matches sound fine to you?"

Finally finding his voice once more, Minoru let out a quick response.

"S-sure... I'm up for it."

"Minoru...you don't actually have to fight..." Mei glanced at Minoru then went back to glaring at Kushikage. "Besides... He's not someone you can beat. Your style of fighting is bad against his."

"It's fine. I want to make sure of something and this is the best way to do that."

"Then let's get started."

.

Mei watched as the two went off to get their fight started. She had forgotten that Suzume was there, until she started talking. After a small discussion, the three girls went over to see the fights go down.

_As long as Yuki doesn't come by when they're fighting... I guess I could see how much stronger he's gotten..._

"Don't worry, Fuji-chan. Your new fuckboy will only get a mild beating."

Mei could only pray that this fight would end quickly so she did not have to handle these two any longer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am planning to split this story up into smaller ones and put it as a series. There will be a bit more added to those than what this story has. Mostly for the parts up to Aftokrator and the invasion itself. So feel free to wait for those or just read this story to know what will happen.


	25. Minoru Hatohara

With everything currently going on, Minoru had not noticed something. It was the fact that his dog was not there anymore.

Taka was a rather smart dog, so he most likely went to see if he could find his fellow dog. Said dog was in the care of B-Rank Hogo Oshiro. There wasn't much to worry about there, but it was still something he had overlooked.

To be fair, getting stared at by the corpse-like boy that was Taiyōko Mukuro would make anyone forget their surroundings and put up their guard. That was exactly what was happening right now.

_Did I do something to this guy?_

That was all Minoru could think of as he tried to keep out of Mukuro's sight. That was more difficult than he thought since those dead-looking eyes seemed to have a lock on him and would not budge from him.

As he continued to get stared at, Minoru noticed something odd about the boy's eyes. They were the same onyx eyes he had seen on someone else. Who that person was could not be thought of right now with those eyes seeming to look right into his very being.

"Hey! I have an idea! Why don't we see who's stronger!? We'll use Mukuro here to determine that! You're new fuckboy verses Mukuro. Then we'll find Kiyoshi and have him fight to see who is stronger! Won't it be fun to see these shitfaced boys fighting like retarded apes!?"

Minoru focused back in in the conversation to see the woman holding her brother while grinning at him.

Mei seemed to hate this woman, and Minoru could start to see why. She was someone that seemed to get on everyone's bad side. In a way, she reminded him of Denji, and that was never a good thing.

"I'm not too sure who you are, but I am fine with this," Minoru said as he handed Suzume the bouquet. "So how are we going to do this?"

_I might get a better understanding of things by doing this._

The corpse-like boy who seemed to be younger than Minoru himself let out a long yawn before lazily looking over at him.

Minoru felt a shiver run down his spine as the boy stared at him with little to no emotions. His eyes had become unnerving the moment they landed on him, stopping him from properly thinking for the moment.

"I guess I don't have a choice," the corpse-like boy sighed out. "Three matches sound fine to you?"

Finally finding his voice once more, Minoru let out a quick response.

"S-sure... I'm up for it."

"Minoru...you don't actually have to fight... Besides... He's not someone you can beat. Your style of fighting is bad against his."

There was no way Minoru could feel insulted by the look he was getting from Mei. If it was from anyone else then he would think they had no faith in him, but from Mei it really looked like a mother worrying over her child.

 _Ah. I guess you_ would _get that kind of personality when dealing with those pups as long as she has._

Still, that did not discourage him from the fight. It really boosted his fighting spirit more.

"Then let's get started."

With that being said, the two made their way to the booths to start their match.

* * *

Inukai hummed happily as he showed the two younger ones the way around the large building. It had been pounded into him by his sisters to be friendly, so there really was not reason for him not to be happy about what he was doing.

He took a glance over his shoulder to see the two talking while Hoshi held Taka in her arms. Apparently the pup had taken a liking to the girl. That was to be expected.

_Hm~ Hm~ Should I take a picture for Yuki~? I'm sure he would enjoy seeing that._

Laughing to himself, Inukai didn't notice the two walk closer to him.

"Inukai-san, can I ask something?"

"Hm? Sure. And there's no need to be so formal. Go ahead and just call me Inu. A certain someone use to do it all the time before switching over to what Mino and Shiro-chan call me."

"R-right... Ahem. Well, I was wondering what the owner of Taka-kun is like."

Before answer, Inukai had to take a moment to inwardly squeal like a child. This girl was so much like his "Shiro-chan" that there was no way he could not instantly widen his smile at seeing her.

If Kaede had noticed the behavior he said nothing about it. The odd tendencies coming from Inukai could be considered normal to others, meaning he had not right to judge.

"Mino's really cool. It's rather hard to get on his bad side, so you don't need to worry about that. Also, he's around the same level of fighting as your bro- Geh!"

"Hm? As who?"

"A-as... As your Border's top ranked agents! He's really strong! Yup! Yup!"

That was another Kaede noticed. He noticed Inukai's slip up and was about to point that out. What stopped him was when the older male got a thoughtful look on his face.

 _Even so... I hope he doesn't meet those two. That might not end up so well with how..._ forward _they are..._

Inukai let out a small hum as he continued with his thoughts.

* * *

Minoru had to admit to himself that he was curious as to what his opponent would be like when fighting. Most people didn't seem too different when entering a battle, but there were always those exceptions. Some may be more ferocious while others could be more smooth in their movements.

Overall, a new opponent was always something to look forward to since they could be completely different from others or be similar to others. It was up to the fighters to determine what kind of fight it would be.

This boy didn't seem to give any sign that he changed what he was like when in a fight. He continued to slouch and seem bored with everything around him as the two waited for the countdown to end.

Once it did...

_Need to make the first move!_

.

Seeing Minoru disappear was an obvious sign of Chameleon being used. Once that was figured out, all that would need to be done was wait for the opponent to try and attack him so that he could find him.

Mukuro turned his head a bit as if trying to crack his neck. The action was not meant to actually hear his neck pop, but rather just a small show of boredom at what seemed to be a less than exciting battle.

After a few seconds of twisting his neck, Mukuro looked over his shoulder before jumping to the side.

He stuck his foot out a bit, but made sure to catch himself with his other one. He felt something connect with his foot and saw a bit of the dirt on the ground fly up.

He spun on his heel and used the back of he leg to hit the unseen force that had tripped.

He felt his leg get caught on something, but didn't dwell on it for more than a few seconds.

He bent down to steady himself on his hands while he used his free leg to aim a kick higher than where his other one was.

It connected.

With his leg free, Mukuro jumped back and onto one of the buildings.

Letting out a small sigh, he turned his body again.

He balanced himself on the building and used his elbow to hit the air behind him.

It connected.

He turned around in time to see Minoru appear.

Minoru rushed at him with his fist reeled back.

.

Since using Chameleon didn't seem to be working, frontal attacks were the next best thing. He was rather agile so quick attacks, one after another, could work out. So long as his opponent didn't dodge every single attack heading for him.

Which he did.

It was really amazing to see how Mukuro continually dodged the strikes from the punches. He moved as if he was going to fall over at any moment. Each movement was like the non-existent wind was blowing him in one direction before making him go in the other.

_Alright then... Next up._

Since Minoru was someone who could use his body as a weapon, he had more range of options when it came to attacking. Since using his body meant that he didn't have to use a Trigger he could go about attacking in a multitude of ways.

One such way was to make a Scorpion blade shoot froward with one of his punches while shooting off Viper from the side.

_Even if he dodges this, I can get a few steps closer to him._

"!?"

What happened next was something that he could not have planned for without being told in advance.

Minoru watched as his opponent did not move right, left, back, up, or down. The direction he chose to move was forward - towards Minoru.

Since he was moving forward, Minoru didn't have time to change his direction or slow down his speed. That meant he would crash right into the smaller male full force.

_Even so, that means I can attack him!_

* * *

Mei had to let out a frustrated sigh as she watched the fight continue.

She knew multiple things about multiple people. She knew about how some fought. She knew how some acted when alone. She knew how some solved problems. She knew so much about so many people.

She also knew how this fight would play out.

_I know that Minoru won't be mad about losing, but..._

Just watching as the younger male won meant that the large woman near her would gloat about her brother winning against someone like Minoru. Someone who was well off when it came to skill and rank.

Having to hear such things from such a woman was something she never wanted to hear.

"Hey~ Fuji-chan~ Would you mind telling me why exactly this is a bad matchup for your fuckboy~? I'll give him credit for at least appearing to be as good as a B-Rank, but I really can't see anything other than that~ Could it be his dick~?"

"I will punch you!"

Taking a quick breath, Mei calmed herself before speaking once more.

"Minoru is an _A-Rank_. And he deserves that spot, so stop saying things like that. Although... Having to wait for you to stop being such a bit-... _Witch_ is something akin to waiting for that boy to stop following you around like a lost puppy."

Kushikage gave a grin while she watched the fight.

Mei truly hated this woman with every fiber of her being.

"Besides, he is my cousin. So your words are even more disgusting."

The next words that came out were disturbing in their own right.

"Hey, incest in wincest."

"Just go die!"

* * *

Mukuro looked as bored and tired as the begining of the fight.

He could tell by what his opponent saw that he thought this was a good chance to attack.

_He is another person who is easy to understand. I suppose that's fine. That just means he can have people like him until he is content with life. Then again, it's a bit disappointing. I figured that he would be different since he was with Fuji-nee._

Letting out a small sigh, Mukuro continued forward without a care.

_And so he takes himself out. He really must be a low ranked person._

As soon as he was only two steps way from Minoru, he lowered his body until he was going under the other's arm. He took a large step forward and managed to get behind Minoru.

He used one leg to balanced himself on the building. With the other leg he pushed Minoru forward.

With no way of slowing down or changing the course of the Viper shots, Minoru was stuck taking the hits he had fired.

Mukuro watched with a bored expression as his opponent got shot multiple times by the shots he had just fired.

_A simple fight is always short._

With that thought in mind he knew that it would be easy to take the older male out a second time in a row.

Everyone learns from losing or winning, that was a simple fact. Since that fact was so simple, Mukuro knew it so well that there was no way that he was not going to chance the way he fought in the next battle.

Minoru had seen him counter his attacks without launching one of his own. That meant he would be more ready for the counters and focus on those while being careful.

All Mukuro had to do was not use counters for the next fight.

There are always different ways for things to get done.

This was no exception.

* * *

The four had finally made it to where they needed to be. It didn't seem like a long walk, since they were all talking to each other, but they had still wanted to get there as quickly as possible.

Hoshi and Kaede gave the oldest one bows as appreciation for guiding them in the right direction. It was the least they could do since he had done something so nice.

"Thanks again for showing us the way, Inukai-senpai."

"Yeah. Thanks."

"No problem. Hope you two find the people you were looking for."

Inukai gave the two a big smile.

"Kaede! Over here!"

The three turned to see a girl waving at them while three others tried to hide their faces.

Hoshi gave a small smile towards the girls and the young boy next to her. She understood the feeling of a younger siblings since she was the youngest of four.

She gave a small laugh while lightly patting him on the back.

"Urg... Well, that's my sister and her friends... It was nice meeting guys. Hope we can meet again on better terms. See ya."

"Right. We will see you around, Kaede-kun."

Hoshi waved as the boy left.

_So that's his sister... I wonder what she's like..._

Inukai nodded his head a few times.

He looked around the area while Taka was being held in his arms. He felt the dog wiggle a bit in his arms and turned towards where the dog was looking. From there he noticed the person he had been looking for.

"Well, I'll see ya around, Hoshi-chan."

Hoshi turned towards him and gave him another quick bow.

"A-ah! Right! I will see you later, Senpai!"

"Just call me Haru, 'kay?"

With that the other B-Rank and puppy left.

As he was walking away, he couldn't help the smile on his face.

That girl reminded him of one of his friends when it came to looks, but it definitely wasn't the same when it came to personality. Although that was a good thing, in his opinion.

_I guess she didn't recognize me since we've only met twice. Excluding a few minutes ago. I guess I'll just have to tell Kiyo about this later._

.

Hoshi was left to wander around the area aimlessly.

She recognized some faces here and there, but none of them were the people she was looking for. That meant all she could do was continue walking until she spotted someone.

As if by a miracle, she heard a familiar voice that guided her to where she wanted to be.

"What was the point of fighting him if you weren't going to take things seriously? As someone who had done that before, I know how insulting that is to the opponent.

"Oh."

"'Oh.' That's all you have to say? Tsk. I guess I really shouldn't expect more from you. And as for you. ... _You_ wanted him to fight just because Mei was here... Right?"

"I really thought that Minoru guy would win at least _once_. Guess I was wrong. But man was it surprising to find out he's gay! I'll also give it to 'em for not crying like a bitch after our lovely brother here beat the crap outta him."

"He's not the type to get mad or sad after a loss."

"Oh? And you know this how?"

"Because unlike you, I make friends instead of enemies."

"Really now~~?"

Hearing the voices and name, Hoshi went wide eyed before rushing to them. She saw three people standing there. One was a pretty tall woman while the other two were older looking boys. She did recognize two of them.

Running up to them, Hoshi spread her arms out while latching onto the tall woman. It may have made her look like a child right now, but she didn't care. She was just happy to see two of her siblings again.

"Kushi-nee! Muku-nii!"

"Hey, Ho-chan! You've grown! Even your boobs have grown! And you're a B-Rank now? That's awesome!"

After being petted by her older sister, Hoshi noticed the other person standing there. He looked familiar with his black hair and onyx eyes. Someone from long ago who she no longer saw anywhere.

Tilting her head, she looked at the third person.

"Hm? Who is this? He seems...familiar..."

"That's because he's Ki- Gah!..."

The person smiled at Hoshi like an older brother would to their younger siblings. It made her heart hurt a bit since it reminded her of that person from long ago. They both had the same smile that made her feel safe.

But this was a completely different person from that guy.

"Hello. I don't think we've formally met yet. I am Tsukiko Yuki. Nice to make your acquaintance."

Hoshi looked from her downed brother to the boy giving her a bright smile. Her mind went right to Kaede when she heard the name, but remembered that the boy said he only had a sister.

"Um... Yeah... Nice to meet you as well..."

"I may seem to be a new person to you, but I actually know quite a bit about you," Yuki said, forcing his smile even more. "My former Operator had told me she gave you her points from the invasion, making you a B-Rank. You are also a classmate of two of my former teammates. Toby Awdry and Kotowari Takeshi."

"Ah! So you're _that_ Tsukiko-san!? Those two always talk about you like crazy! It is very nice to meet you!"

Hoshi gave a deep bow while something came into her head.

He spoke as if he had not been with them through multiple things. From them joining Border to the invasion - it all sounded like he knew nothing of those times.

"Wait... You said former... Does that mean..."

"Tsukiko Squad is disbanded. I no longer have a team, and thereby default, neither do they. You are free to ask them if they wish to make a team with you," Yuki said, smile becoming less forced. "Before you ask why I did that... Well, let's just say that I thought it was time that they learn to fly by themselves."

"Fly by...-"

She was quickly interrupted by the sound of footsteps drawing closer to them all.

"Looks like I'm the last one here. Man, so much for a nice welcoming."

The four turned their heads to see Akasora Chishi walking up to them with three boys behind him.

Hoshi didn't recognize either of the boys.

"Sensei, have you been out because you were here the whole time?"

Akasora let out a small sigh while he rubbed the back of his head.

"Yeah. Actually... I'm no longer teaching there. I've gotta look over the new branch now, so I won't be having the time to teach any more. It really sucks, you know. I really loved that job, but I actually owe Masafumi quite a bit, so this is the least I can do for him."

"Masafumi?"

"...Director Shinoda..."

All attention went to the boy right behind Akasora. He was a shy looking boy with his hair passing his eyes and his head facing the ground. He tried his best to hide behind Akasora as much as he could.

"Yeah. Shinoda..."

Clapping his hands, Akasora got all of their attention as he continued.

"Anyways! Why don't we get introductions out of the way then all head over to the new- Ah. I mean to the Yagura Branch office? You all know me and Yuki, so the rest of you, introduce yourselves."

Seeing that no one else was speaking, Hoshi gave a beaming smile while also giving a quick bow to the ones behind Akasora.

"H-hello! I am Taiyōko Hoshi. It is nice to meet you three."

"Name's Taiyōko Kushikage. Let's get along, 'kay?"

"Taiyōko Mukuro."

One of the three boys grinned at them from his spot while bouncing with excitement.

"So you three are siblings? Cool! We're pretty much like brothers, so that's really awesome! Name's Kirigiri Kazekiri!"

"Hello. I am Mōri Kirisame. Nice to meet you."

"...Tenryū Shokubutsu..."

The shy boy standing behind Akasora was the last to speak. His voice was so low that they all have to strain their ears to hear him.

"Shokubutsu here is actually my nephew. So be nice," Akasora said as he patted the boy's head. "Now why don't we get going?"

Hoshi watched as they all started to leave.

One thought stayed with her.

_So these are the Yagura Branch members... At least I know some of them..._


	26. Yuki Tsukiko: Part 5

Yuki looked up from the papers he had been reading to look around the room.

He had felt a shiver run down his spine and worried that he was starting to get sick once again. He had felt fine the whole day, so it really brought worry that he felt that shiver. The possibility of it involving his former team was high since he only ever got that kind of chill when it came to them.

He had been made fun of for it from time-to-time.

_I really hope it's nothing. I just want it to be my imagination..._

He took another look around the room just to be sure.

The room seemed fine. It should have since it was fixed up just so that it could become the newly made Yagura Branch.

After being told where to go, everyone had made their way to the building. Being the only one who traveled to that side of Mikado City, Yuki was familiar with the area and even went to greet some people he knew.

The others had helped to put anything else inside, but otherwise kept to themselves.

So here he was - alone.

"Are you okay, Tsukiko-san?"

Snapping out of his thoughts, Yuki looked forward to see Hoshi looked down while fidgeting nervously.

He didn't like seeing that.

"Yes. I am fine. Why do you ask, Hoshi?"

"Oh... You just seemed to be a little down..." She continued to look down. "Um... Tsukiko-san... If you don't mind me asking... Why did you disband your team?"

"Because."

Hoshi's head shot up and the calmly quick answer she received. She had heard about it and even asked Toby and Takeshi, but she wasn't one to believe rumors and the two boys simply ignored her.

"Because?"

"Because I couldn't baby them anymore."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean that if I _didn't_ disband the team, they wouldn't be able to actually grow much stronger." He let out a sigh and put the papers down. "You see, those three were too focused on me and not themselves, so they probably wouldn't be able to reach A-Rank like they want if I continued to be on their team."

"But... Awdry-kun and Kotowari-kun-"

"Hoshi, please don't feel sorry for them." He saw her look of shock and simply continued on. "If they're so distraught about me leaving the team, then that clearly means they were overly attached to me. It may even mean they should strop being agents if this continues on. I mean, it's not like I've moved to a different country...or died. We can still hang out and all, but they are seeing the situation way worse than what it actually is."

"O-oh... I guess you're right..."

"Just give them some time. I'm sure they'll be fine."

"You're probably right..."

Yuki let out a sigh.

Seeing Hoshi like this was not something he ever wanted to see. He didn't know what to say to cheer her up, but he knew that he shouldn't lie to her. That meant he had to be blunt and tell her outright that his former teammates were just being stupid at this point.

Before he could say such things, Akasora had entered the room wearing a suit and tie. It looked really odd on his when compared to his casual track suit that he always wore.

Both Yuki and Hoshi looked at him oddly.

"Get into your uniform, Yuki. We've gotta go."

Yuki raised an eyebrow at this. He was never told about going anywhere and so was no prepared for such a thing. His mind was still on his former teammates.

"Where are we going?"

"We have a press conference to go too. We have to show up and represent our new branch. That's what the whole thing is about."

Yuki scrunched his face when he heard that it was a conference. He remembered the last one and was severely ticked off by Director Netsuki and the press for using Mikumo like that. Although this was for a different reason, he still disliked the idea of going up in front of them all.

He was about to voice his objection when Akasora started to speak again.

"You don't have a choice. You are the only sensible one here that I can rely on. No offense, Taiyōko."

"None taken..."

"We need to go and tell everyone that they can rely on the Yagura Branch from now on and ease any worries of no being protected in this area." He fixed his tie and clicked his tongue. "If it makes you feel any better... I really hate these kinds of things too. The only time I willingly wore a suit and tie was for my wedding and for her funeral. What's more is that Arashiyama and a rep from Suzunari and Tamakoma will be there as well."

At this point, all Yuki could do was sigh and resign himself to his fate.

"Fine. At least I only have to wear my uniform."

* * *

"Wow! That's his tenth win in a row!"

"I've never seen Awdry so brutal, though. Kinda scary."

"Seriously. Going right for the head or heart and using brutal tactics like that."

"That really doesn't seem like his style."

Toby clicked his tongue as he glared at the three C-Ranks whispering to themselves. It had been a while since the team's disbandment and everyone around could tell that the three B-Ranks were taking it pretty hard.

In Toby case; he had become more violent and started picking random fights. He didn't have a smile on his face anymore and had been glaring at almost anyone who passed by him. His fighting style had become more dirty and most started to stay away from fighting him. Even Midorikawa was keeping his distance. The thing that really made people worry was that he wasn't wearing his hat anymore.

His friends had tried to joke around with him to try and get the smile back on his face, or bough him loads of chocolate, but none of that had much of an effect on him. He simply glared at all of them - Kitora included.

"Hey now, no need to be so grouchy."

"Maybe he can be a better fighter when he's a grouch."

"Don't say that, Haru-chan."

Toby stopped walking when he saw Minoru and Inukai walking up to him - Taka in Minoru's arms. He just turned his head and tried to ignore them as he continued his walk. While he was friends with the two - and loved playing with the pup - he wasn't anywhere near in the mood to talk to them.

"Are you still mad about the disbandment?"

Toby quickly turned around and glared at the older one with all his might since he felt extremely hurt by the whole thing. Yuki had been the one to help out when Toby first came to Mikado City as a runaway and the older one had just crushed the whole team's worlds by saying they were disbanding.

"And so what if I am? It's none of your business!"

"If you don't get over it and form a team again then you can't fight us in the Rank Wars."

Inukai's words would have sounded like he only cared about the fight to anyone else, but the other two knew that he was basically saying "nothing's going to change, so just move on." Either that or "You're gonna get you ass kicked if you don't straighten out now."

They all knew that he said it with good intent, but it still seemed to piss Toby off. He knew that the B-Rank Wars was something to look forward to, but his mind continued to mess him up on those thoughts. He could only cross his arms and click his tongue.

"Even so, we wouldn't know who to put as leader. We'd probably be fighting over the spot. Takeshi would usually be put in charge, but that guy has been acting like an asshole ever since that guy told us he is leaving us."

"Couldn't you just have Meimei captain?"

"Operator as Captain? Doesn't that seem odd?"

"But Kusakabe Squad is like that."

It seemed right that the oldest and most experienced should be the team's captain. Even so, it still felt a bit wrong to having Mei as the captain since she was already trying to take care of them. Even if the three of them were mad at Yuki, that didn't mean they should cause problems for Mei.

"I've already thought of something for that."

The three turned to see Takeshi walking up to them, hands in pockets and scarf nowhere to be seen. It was odd to see his neck out instead of covered by the gray cloth usually around his neck.

"And what's that suppose to mean?"

"It means exactly as it sounds. I've already come up with something for this current issue," Takeshi said with a completely monotone voice. "I've already discussed it with Mei-san and she has agreed to it."

"And what's this oh so great plan exactly?"

"Simple. Officially, I will be leading the squad, but Mei-san will be the actual leader." He didn't seem the least bit unnerved from the harsh glaring he was receiving. "She had told me that Tsukiko and Akasora had already made an agreement so that our positions will stay the same when the Rank Wars begin. We will just be entering under a different name."

"Whoa. Guess he's taking it pretty hard too," Inukai whispered to his friend. "Sounding so formal and no honorific."

Takeshi quickly turned his head towards the Gunner to give him the same dull look he had been giving his teammate.

"Why would I need to add an honorific to a person who abandons his team without any warning."

The three were now unnerved by how calm Takeshi appeared to be and how ruthless he sounded. He wasn't much for emotions as it was, but this was on a different level altogether. It was like he really didn't have any emotions now.

"Well... Then I guess we might have to wait for that fight then..."

"Yeah..."

They all heard footsteps walking closer to them and turned to see Mei walking up to them with Suzume right behind her. She had a serious look on her face that screamed the fact she had to deal with Kushikage only a few minutes ago.

"What are you doing just standing there? We have work to do. If you want to catch up to him then now's your chance."

"Hm. I don't care whether or not we catch up."

"Regardless. Whether it's to catch up to him, to show him he was wrong, just so you could kick his ass, or just because you want to, we still need to get going so you have enough time to train. Any amount of experience will help you all grow."

From the side, Inukai and Minoru looked worriedly at all four of them. The usual festive feelings of joy and excitement around the squad was completely gone. The only thing that covered the four if them was a heavy atmosphere that so suffocating that the two thought that they would be swallowed whole by it,

Only one thing came to mind when they saw this.

_This won't end well..._

* * *

It was really troublesome to wear a suit and tie.

Both Akasora and Yuki could agree on that all the way. The way it restricted movement as well that clamp around the neck made it feel unbearable.

That was exactly why Yuki was happy that he could wear his uniform instead of a suit and tie. His wonderful uniform consisting of a gray jacket opened at the top to show the white shirt underneath and lose-fitting pants. Black stripes could be seen running along the sleeves and down the edges of the high collar. It was a bit different from before as a way to show that he was no longer a part of the former Tsukiko Squad.

Sometimes there was nothing better than wearing something very comfortable.

On the other side of that, Akasora was stuck in a clean and pressed suit. He continued to play around with his collar while looking ready to rip the whole thing off and go get his tracksuit. There was little chance he was going to sit calmly throughout this whole conference.

Both of them were standing offstage with varying looks of pity and amusement sent their way from other Border members. Kuruma and Arashiyama were looking at the older man with different degrees of pity. Meanwhile, directors Shinoda and Rindo were watching their friend with smirks.

Seeing the smirks, Yuki rolled his eyes. He knew the two thought that this was a nice form of payback on their longtime friend for things he had done to them before.

"These old guys really need to stop this. It's a bit unbefitting for people who are in charge of HQ and a well off branch."

"You say that but I'm sure you have the same relationship with Murakami and Kageura."

He didn't bother giving the face of Border an actual reply and decided to just look away.

He looked passed the stage to see the amount of reporters who were there, ready to find things to pick at.

Being someone who can easily spot things in people, and being someone who is close to a silver tongued fox, he could easily tell which reporters seemed to just be there to find a fault and which ones were there for an honest report.

He was glad that there were more of the latter than the former. He would be fine speaking with honest people like that in the crowd. Although, he would also make sure to watch what he says because of the former group.

_This will probably be irritating. Irritating, but manageable._

* * *

Mei let out a sigh as she sat on her sofa.

She had turned on the television to watch her teacher and best friend go on for their new branch. She felt a bit irritated by all of this.

It was already annoying to remember what had happened to Mikumo the other day. Just thinking about something happening to her teacher and best friend made her ready to punch something.

But she held it in.

She also knew that those two would be okay no matter what. They would refuse to take anything from the idiotic reporters.

"Well, I suppose I need to do what I was asked to do. This will give me a better understanding of what goes on instead of just watching it."

As she spoke to herself, she typed away on her computer. What was on her screen seemed to be a chat with only a few names.

Once the names appeared she made the first comment on the chat.

* * *

 **Takaoto:** "Is this getting through to everyone?"

Yuki looked at the chat that appeared before his eyes.

He was standing with his back against the wall while his former teacher sat in front of him. To his right was Kuruma while to his left was Arashiyama. The directors of Border were also sitting down at the table with his former teacher.

The meeting had yet to begin, but the reporters were already inside the hall. They were just waiting for things to begin.

He saw everyone nod their heads, so he answered for everyone.

 **Tsukiko:** "Yeah, Mei, you're getting through."

 **Shinoda:** "I want to thank you for doing this. If we had used our own thoughts then things may get a but chaotic. This is easier."

 **Takaoto:** "No problem."

Everyone on the stage were in Trion Bodies to make this chat possible.

Since having their phones or computers out would make things seem a bit suspicious they had come up with this solution. Although it was a bit slower than just speaking through their minds, it made things more manageable.

Now they didn't have to worry about talking over each other.

 **Netsuki:** "Alright, we're starting now. Takaoto, get ready for this."

 **Takaoto:** "Yes, sir."

Mei had been given a special job concerning this meeting. Not only would she managing the chat they had up but she was also in charge of going over everything the resorters asked as well as discerning any motives behind them.

This was a meeting to introduce the new branch. That did not mean that there would not be people who would want to get other information to use against them.

With everything set, the meeting began.

.

Introductions went quickly with Yuki and Akasora giving greetings while the reason behind Kuruma being there was explained. As the captain of a squad within Suzunari Branch he was there instead of the branch director. This was to vouch for Yuki's fighting abilities.

The explaination of the new branch, it's location and the one in charge were all done as well. It all went so smoothly with only a few faces looking a bit confused.

As this all went on, Yuki looked out into the crowd to see the faces of the reporters. He could see most of them looking on with interested looks while others seemed impatient and simply wanted to get to the questioning.

Once it did get to the questioning...

The first to be called on was a female reporter who held herself up with dignity, yet had an honest feeling to her.

Yuki gave a small nod to himself.

"Exactly how many agents are going to be at this new branch, and what are their ranks?"

It was honest question with no hidden motives. It was a plain and simple question that asked something concerning the safety of the area the new branch was going to be in.

Akasora, being the new branch director, was the one to speak up.

"Including Tsukiko, who is right here, there will be seven Combatants. Three of them are C-Ranks, one is B-Rank and the other three, Tsukiko included, are A-Rank."

Satisfied with the answer, the woman wrote something on her notepad.

This moved on to the next question.

The one asking was a man with slick backed hair and a handsome face. His whole demeanor was that of someone who just wanted to get higher in the business chain.

"Are these other two A-Rank agents ones we know of already? Are you moving them into the branch since it is new?"

That had surprised Yuki a bit.

He had expected some underhanded question that would lead to something else. It was another straightforward question that seemed honest enough. The man did not give off any signs that there were hidden motives.

 **Takaoto:** "I don't see anything wrong with this question."

 **Kuruma:** "You really can't judge a book by it's cover."

 **Tsukiko:** "Why do I feel like those words are directed at me?"

Kuruma gave a weak smile towards Yuki.

Ignoring the small talk from the three of them, Director Shinoda answered the question.

"No, these two agents are not known. They have been oversees for a while now and are just returning. Since they are returning we thought it would be best to have them in the Yagura Branch. They are well-trained professionals."

The reporters took note of this while raising their hands for the next question.

Yuki felt that he should at least give a small apology to the man for judging him so quickly.

"From what we know, Akasora-san was a school teacher. Is that the reason he was chosen to be the new director to the Yagura Branch? Or does it have to do with what we heard about him fighting in the recent invasion?"

"Akasora was chosen due to his former affiliation with Border. He is at the same level as me when it comes to fighting prowess. No other person would be as well suited as he is for the job. There should be no worry that he will be more than capable to take care of the Yagura Branch."

 **Tsukiko:** "Well then. I guess we learned something new about Shinoda-san today. He has a massive hard on for Sensei. Guess bromances don't stop even as old men."

 **Takato:** "I can't argue against this. It's probably because of the suit. Actually, it is a good opportunity to use it as material. I will make sure to inform Kako about this later on."

 **Arashiyama:** "Don't you think that's going a bit too far?"

 **Kuruma:** "It could be worse. She could have said that she would be going to Misaki for this instead of Kako. I'm sure we would all be dragged into it if otherwise."

Even if they could not feel any sort of chill in the room, Yuki and Arashiyama shuddered at the thought of being in that kind of doujinshi.

 **Akasora:** "We can all see this conversation, you idiots."

 **Shinoda:** "I'll deal with you guys later. For now, pay attention."

The three standing against the wall nodded their heads, forgetting that neither Akasora nor Shinoda could see them do so.

 **Tsukiko:** "Disregarding Shinoda-san's apparent bromance with Sensei... I figured that I would only have to deal with a lot of questions in school. Now I have to possibly answer some in front of these people. Can't say I'm too happy."

 **Kuruma:** "I thought you would be excited to be talking in front of so many people. From what Murakami and Kon have told me, you really go out of your way at school."

 **Tsukiko:** "What have they been telling you!? They're full of it. I take it upon myself to stay away from eyesight so that our class rep doesn't spot me."

 **Kuruma:** "I've been told that she's quite something. I still don't know if that was meant as a good thing or not."

 **Tsukiko:** "Depends on who you heard it from. Kō knows better than Kon what she's like."

 **Kuruma:** "I see."

 **Arashiyama:** "Getting back to Yuki's want to not speak in front of these people. It's not so bad. Just focus on what you want to say while also being tactful about it. It may be a bit for you, but I'm sure you'll manage."

 **Tsukiko:** "Why are you two against me right now!?"

 **Rindo:** "Don't you think you guys should be paying attention to these questions? A fastball might be thrown your way when you aren't looking."

 **Tsukiko:** "Right~"

 **Arashiyama:** "Sorry."

The two focused back on the meeting just in time to hear Director Shinoda give another answer.

They didn't know what exactly the question was, but they figured out what it could have been by what was said.

"Correct. The reason we chose that location was because it was less fortified during the time of the recent invasion. The damage done there was harsh, but not as bad as it could have been. A humanoid Neighbor had appeared there with a destructive Trigger. If not for Tsukiko and another agent then the damage could have been far worse. That being said, it showed us just how unguarded the area was."

Yuki could easily remember what was going on during that time. He had just been going for a walk on one of his better days when the Gates started appearing.

He had gone into action right way to start taking out the Trion Soldier that were coming through. More seemed to be coming from different directions, so he took them out. That was when he had been told that he was the only one on the area with someone else making their way towards him.

That someone had turned out to be Mei, who had used her Trigger after a long while.

They had planned to meet up as soon as they could, but that was stopped when another Gate had opened right in front of him. Out of the Gate came to woman named Pyr. The real destruction of the area had started at that time.

Her Trigger had been able to cause explosions to anything she touched, leading to a drawn out and dangerous battle. The end result was a win for them, but it also left a lot of scars on the earth. The most prominent one being a mini-crater.

To say that things could have ended worse was an understatement.

Even so, Yuki never tried to shine because of that fight. He was not the only one in that that, so there was no reason to say that that was the result. It was his former team that had ended the fight with him only getting them to that point.

It was understandable that they wanted to shine some of the spotlight on him since he would be the most prominent one of the branch now.

Even so...

"Don't you think you are putting too much on that agent's shoulders now? I mean no harm when I say this, but he looks rather frail. Are sure that he is the one to have fought that Neighbor?"

Both Arashiyama and Kuruma cautiously looked toward Yuki. What they saw was something they expected. A fake smile that shone brightly and without reserve.

From where he was, Yuki could easily tell that this man, the one who had asked those questions, was one of the fake ones who just wanted to try something out. There was no need to Mei to get involved when he could already see the hidden motives behind this.

 **Takato:** "Calm down. Provocation is usually their main tactics. Let him think that he's still got control of this, then, when he doesn't suspect it, show him how wrong he is."

 **Kuruma:** "Aren't you suppose to be stopping him completely!?"

 **Netsuki:** "Please don't destroy anything! And don't make things hard on us here!"

 **Akasora:** "Give the guy some credit here. He is constantly fighting with Ninomiya. Something like this is nothing."

 **Tsukiko:** "Sensei gets it. I'm just doing like Mei said. This smile is so obvious that even those guys see through it. No way he doesn't."

 **Shinoda:** "Can you at least wait a while before trying anything?"

 **Tsukiko:** "Sure."

There was a good amount of small sighs coming from the others as they read the chat.

Allowing this to continue, Yuki said nothing as he stood there with his fake smile.

Director Shinoda, knowing what may happen if his friend were to answer, decided to take the lead here again.

"He may seem...fragile to others, but there is no doubt that he is one of our best."

"I suppose he must be. He defeated one of those Neighbors all by himself, after all. To manage something like that...he must be the best agent you have."

The ones on stage could feel a bit of irritation coming from the youngest one there.

No one turned to look at him out of fear of what they would see, as well as not wanting to look away from the crowd.

They did not have to focus on him as he took a step forward.

 **Shinoda:** "Yuki. Don't do anything stupid. This is a warning."

 **Akasora:** "Let him have some fun. He seems pretty pissed since this is being directed more at you than anyone else."

.

Yuki grabbed a microphone while moving forward. He was still behind the table, still behind his teacher, but he spoke directly to the man asking the questions. The one who was taunting one of the directors of Border.

His smile was shining brightly while he spoke.

"If I may... Kind sir, when was it stated that I defeated that Neighbor by myself? I believe what was said was that if not for me 'and another agent then the damage could have been far worse,' right? That meant that I had assistance from someone else. What's more is that it was never stated that we two even defeated that Neighbor."

"So you are saying that you, in fact, did not defeat that Neighbor? Them how can we trust that you will be able to defend against Neighbors in case of another invasion? You are saying that you are not to be trusted."

"I see... Right, right. I completely understand what you are saying. That was my bad. I apologize."

Yuki's smile fell more into a grin of someone looking down at others. It was slight enough for the crowd not to notice but obvious enough for the members of Border to tell what it meant.

Kuruma and Arashiyama were about to pull him back when they were stopped by Branch Director Rindo.

"While I did not defeat that Neighbor with that other agent... My former team had managed to come in and take her out in our stead. We tried to keep the damage to a minimum while also forcing her to use up as much power as possible. That lead to victory for the ones coming in later. After all..."

After all...

"That is how Border works. We do not go around trying to take on every battle by ourselves to build ourselves up like some kind of heroes. And so, with that being said, I ask you all to trust, not in me, but the Yagura Branch, and Border as a whole."

Director Netsuki and Kuruma let out relieved sighs while the other three directors smiled with sounds of approval and acknowledgment.

"However..."

This got everyone's attention once more.

"If you are still uncertain about my worth... I'll happily demonstrate for everyone. That is, if the directors will allow it."

That had been enough to cause an uproar in the building.

Demands of this to come about and for it to be recorded by them all.

 **Shinoda:** "God damn it, Yuki! I'm going to kick your ass later for this!"

Director Shinoda coughed into his hand while giving a small glare towards Yuki, who was now backing up to his original spot.

He expected something stupid to come from the A-Rank, as well as it bring something upon them like a tick. Basically, he knew not to trust Yuki with talking to everyone.

"Ahem. It seems that our agent just said something unnecessary now. We intend to have him present his skill in fighting against Neighbors. Tsukiko Yuki will fight against a large amount of Neighbors before Arashi-"

 **Tsukiko:** "I can do it by myself. Probably one-hundred or so."

Shinoda sent a glare back.

"Yes... He will take on _a large number_ of Neighbors. It will be done after this conference. You will all be directed to a seating area to see it happen. No cameras will be needed since there will be recorded footage that we will provide."

It was a smart tactic that was just thought of.

A few messages from Mei were being sent through the chat about what they should do since Yuki had been an idiot moments ago. The directors were happy to get this assistance while Kuruma and Arashiyama were ready to tackle their friend to the ground should he start something up again.

With Border providing a recording, as well as the reporters watching the fight, there would be nothing they could say that would falsify what would happen. If even one of them changed something with the recordings while most of them left it alone then the ones who made the changes would certainly be called out.

This kept Border safe from being called liars.

It would also provide reassurance that this new branch - Yagura Branch - would be well off in protecting Mikado City. They would witness a single member of the branch fighting and defeating multiple Neighbors and sow the seeds of trust within everyone watching.

Some may think that Yuki would not be able to defeat a large amount of Neighbors alone, but most of the people at the table and standing at the wall knew that he would be able to take on that many. While the numbers would be high, Yuki had the experience of multiple people. In a way, it would be a large amount of agents against the Border-made Neighbors, instead of a single agent going against Border-made Neighbors.

"Moving on to the next question."

Yuki felt satisfied with what he had just caused.

 **Takato:** "Don't think I won't punish you for your idiotic behavior."

* * *

Noah Shor was not the type of person to really keep up with the news. If there was something particularly interesting then he would zone in on it and pay attention to it, but he would otherwise change the channel to anime or something.

This was only a handful of times where we would watch the news. One of his best friends' captain was there, talking and answering questions from the reporters there. He was curious as to see what Yuki would be like now that he had disbanded his team.

_He seems more...lively than before. I can't really say I know him well enough to judge his character but he really does seem like he's enjoying himself more than before. I mostly just went off what Tobio had to say about him._

He knew about what Toby and his team were going through. As a captain of his own team he could guess why Yuki had decided to disband his squad. Even so, there were too many factors that could have lead to that choice.

Yuki had been an agent longer than he had, and was captain for probably just as long. Noah had no way of being sure what was going on through the A-Rank's mind.

"Well... I guess it really isn't any of my business. But I really hate seeing that guy the way he is right now. Even Prince and Minu are saying things about Suzume and Takeshi. Hm..."

As he continued to walk, he could feel that someone was walking in the opposite direction of him. He was going to look up and greet them when he noticed that the person was the boy he was talking to himself about.

Toby was standing in front of him with a deep frown on his face. It looked unnatural coming from him, as much as him not wearing his signature hat.

Noah could admit that one of the reason the two of them were friends was because they both had a signature item with his being his goggles while Toby had his hat. Seeing either one of them without those items always felt odd.

Deciding not to be awkward about things, Noah gave a smile and raised his hand.

"Hey there, Tobio. Where you headed? Oh! To get some solo matches in? Want me to be your opponent? I need to find a good way around your Side Effect."

He wasn't too sure but he thought he heard an actual growl come out before the brunet answered.

_That was actually pretty scary._

"(No. I was just going to go punch the shit out of something. I don't really have time to deal with other things right now. So... I guess I'll see you around.)"

Noah noted the use of curse words, as well as the fact that he was speaking in English.

Toby, while being wild, refrained from cursing as much as he could. He did not want to be seen as a delinquent, contrary to his appearance. Going back to using his native language was also an indicator to his anger.

Not sure about what to do, Noah decided to try a new conversation topic. It was a risk, but he needed to make sure of something.

"(Hey, I'm watching the conference right now. Apparently Yuki-)"

"(I don't give a fuck.)"

That was all he needed to know. Just the mention of his former captain was enough to send him over the deep end.

Noah turned around while giving a weak goodbye.

It was really troubling to see one of his best friends act in such a way.

The disbandment was certainly taking it's toll on everyone involved. The destruction it was causing was just as devastating as the fight that particular squad had been through during the invasion. That same team was no longer there.

"Maybe I should talk to Yuki about this..."

That was all he could think of doing at this point.

After all...

_Those guys are ready to self-destruct at any moment._


	27. Yuki Tsukiko: Part 6

The first thing Takato Mei did when she saw Yuki again was continually flick him on the forehead. Each one getting more rough.

Yuki could only try and shield himself from the onslaught of painful flicks.

The others were simply watching with satisfied looks or just ignoring them completely.

"Ow, ow, ow! Mei! Please, stop! It really hurts!"

"That's what you get for being a complete idiot and making trouble for Shinoda-san and the other directors. Now they are put in an odd position. I'm sure you just did it because you wanted to fight and not because you wanted to improve the image of Yagura Branch."

Yuki backed away to look at Mei face-to-face.

He knew that what she was saying was correct. Showing off in front of that crowd was a major factor into his plan. Troubling Director Shinoda was not something he wanted, but he felt like he had to show his former team something that was important.

Mei clearly understood that but she said nothing since she also knew that it would just make the directors even more mad at him.

"Look... All I need to do is win against those Trion Soldiers. You and Sawamura-san are going to be monitoring everything and creating the Trion Soldiers, right? That means things will go smoothly. You knows my limits as well as I do so you can tell Sawamura-san."

"No. I don't think you even know your limits. You tend to go overboard most of the time. Sorry. That's wrong. You go overboard all of the time."

"I haven't lately."

"That is because of your team. You were afraid of really going all out in front of them since you wanted to keep up the image."

The ones speaking made sure that Arashiyama and Kuruma were not listening and instead were doing something else.

Their voices were low while they words continued to hit the parts they knew would hurt in their own way.

The only other ones to pay attention were Akasora and Shinoda.

"You wanted them to see you as 'Tsukiko Yuki' so badly that you held yourself back from really fighting. That was why I was worried when you faced off against that humanoid Neighbor."

"Hey, think about it some more. This means I won't need a limited area since no one else will be around."

"You aren't even listening to me. Hm... Either way, this does not mean you should go around destroying everything in sight. Those reporters will use whatever they can to get a scoop. If you start destroying buildings without any remorse then they will consider that when they turn in their reports."

"We will be live. They can't complain. They will also be there so there is no way they can lie about anything. But that also means more than just the reporters will see you. Other agents will also see you fighting. If you want to keep up this 'Tsukiko Yuki' thing then you need to be careful."

Yuki nodded his head. He looked at his teacher and pseudo-teacher with a serious expression. The truth they were saying got through to him clearly. Staying focused while also being careful was how he would have to do things for this fight.

A few things were riding on this presentation. All of those reporters would be there to watch, it would be live for anyone else to watch, this would show the strength of Yagura Branch and it's members, and it would also put Yuki in a sort of spotlight that would allow his former team to see him.

That just meant there was more than there should have been to this.

"Alright then... Shall we get started?"

* * *

There was a certain house with multiple flowers blooming proudly and hornets flying around without a care in the world. It was small but the garden filled with flowers brought out every aspect of the small house. This was the house that belonged to a certain sniper-girl.

Within the house was a woman with long haired that was tied in a braid. It fell over her shoulder and onto her lovely green dress. Her facial features were soft with not a single hint of her actual age being shown.

Sitting next to her was a small girl with short hair that looked no older than seven years of age. She seemed energetic with each movement containing a bounce in it that only children could provide.

"Hey, hey, hey, isn't Nee-chan going to watch? That's Yuki-chan, isn't it? Shouldn't she be seriously watching?"

"Mitsubachi-chan, you should show more respect for Kiyoshi-kun. He is a well respected person in Border. Not to mention that he is a frequent visitor to the flower shop."

"Right, right, right. Sorry. But still, isn't Nee-chan going to watch Yuki-san have fun?"

"I do not believe that he sees fighting Neighbors as a form of entertainment. He has to show that he is a strong boy in front of everyone."

"But... Yuki-san looked so happy when he said that he would seriously be fighting Neighbors again. It was seriously there! I really, really, really saw a smile on his face! He was seriously happy!"

The older Misaki was always amazed when her youngest daughter managed to find such small details with anyone she was fond of. From where she was, Misaki could not see Yuki's expression too well on the screen, yet her daughter could tell that he had a smile on his face.

Both of her daughters were amazing with her youngest having a pretty discerning eye while her older daughter was a member of Border, as well a well-known doujinshi maker. She herself was a simple flower lady.

Getting passed her amazing children, Misaki called out while facing behind herself.

"Suzumebachi-chan! Do you not want to see Kiyoshi-kun!? He appears to be starting!"

It was a bit rough to make out but she could hear her daughter yell back,

"I'm fine! I am working on some new lyrics to go with this volume! You can just tell me what happens!"

Misaki got a light frown as she put her hand in her cheek.

"Oh dear... It seems that she is still distraught over this whole ordeal."

Her older daughter has clearly not been the same since after the recent invasion. She knew the reason for it but said nothing about it.

All she could do right now was continue to be a patient mother.

.

Even though she had told her mother that she would be busy with something else, Suzume sat in bed with a laptop in front of her. On the screen was the beginning of the one vs one hundred match between her former captain and the Neighbors that Border artificially created within that specific space.

She had heard Director Netsuki and Director Kinuta explain to the press that they were completely safe and that the Neighbors could not get out of that space. It was the truth and she knew it, that was why she tuned them out almost once they started.

Now she just had to focus on this fight.

"Yuki-san... I want to see if we were really holding you back. Please honestly show me what you can do when we aren't in your way. After that, I can honestly tell how much work we need to do."

She spoke to herself since she knew that the older male could not actually hear her.

She was not mad like Toby or even more anti-social like Takeshi. All she felt from this whole thing was sadness that would not go away. She wanted to see if this would do anything for her as a person.

She knew that among the three of them that she was the only one watching this fight right now. That meant it was her responsibility to learn from this and go from there.

* * *

Yuki let out a small sigh as he looked over the artificial city under him.

He stood on top of a radio tower with an open area in front of him. Two buildings looking like apartment complexes were to his right while a few store buildings were to his left. Behind him was a city with high buildings. Behind that was a clear area with a bridge in the middle of it.

He knew that there were still five or so minutes until everything would begin. In that time he would plan out what his first few actions would be. He had been told that the materialization of the Trion Soldiers would be random and not directly to him.

When two minutes went by he heard a voice from one of the two people controlling the area.

_"Tsukiko, are you ready? To go over everything once more while the reports are getting settled in; Shitokei and I will be materializing fifty different Trion Soldier with varying level of power. They will be set in random places. This will be to show the reports the amount of time it would take you to get to a location from your current point. A timer will be show on the screen for them to see, but not for you."_

"That's fine. From what you guys mentioned before, as well as taking into consideration the amount of time the invasion took, I can guess I have around an hour in total."

_"I cannot confirm nor deny that statement due to the directors wanting to keep that from you."_

"That's fine. I've already locked in that time in my mind. We'll just go from there and see what happens. Anyways. Please continue, Sawamura-san."

_"Right. Once those first fifty Trion Soldiers are taken out, we will send in Arashiya- Ah! Hey!"_

_"Forget what she was saying. We're going in after you!"_

"Kei-san, while I would love to pick a fight with you on this... I've already caused enough trouble for everyone. The agreement was that Arashiyama Squad comes in after those fifty. I need to show that Yagura will be able to work easily with other teams to get the job done. If you come in then it will just turn into a pissing contest."

_"What's wrong with that? We still have a score to settle."_

"I'm not Jin, Kei-san. Save that energy for when you want to fight with him. I'm sure the two of you will have much more fun like that then with something like me."

Yuki tilted his head as something came to mind.

"There is also the fact that Kunichika may end up giving you a big advantage as payback for last time. Don't know if you remember but, she - along with Kon, Kagami and Mako-chan - is still pretty mad at me for that time at the restaurant."

_"So what? You two can- Ow! Ow, ow, ow! Mei-chan, please stop!"_

Yuki nodded his head, understanding the kind of pain Tachikawa was currently receiving from his former Operator. It was the kind of pain that stuck with you.

With little delay, he heard a sigh from the other end. A sign that Sawamura was also going to do something to Tachikawa.

_"Back on topic."_

"She gets right to the point..."

_"You have a minute. Let me finish."_

"Yes, ma'am."

_"Now then. Once you are done with the first fifty Trion Solders, we will be sending in Arashiyama Squad to help you with the second set of fifty. They will be a bit harder to deal with since there will be five of you there. You are free to come up with any sort of strategy to deal with them all. Shitokei and I will be maintaining everything over here. That means we will be forcing you out if you cannot handle it."_

"And if I can't handle them by myself?"

_"All of the director, as well as Shitokei, will have a nice round of smacking you upside the head before making you apologize to all the reporters."_

"Is that all?"

_"Between the two of us, there is also a side bet that Akasora-san made with the others. If we have to force you out, you will be demoted and forced into a B-Rank squad. That being Ninomiya Squad. What's more, you will have to completely follow orders and will not be allowed to leave the team at all."_

"And what if I completely reject this!? There's also the fact that the damn airhead would rather spend a day with Suzume than have me on his team!"

_"The alternative is dealing with me. What's more, he agreed to this on the basis that you would have to do everything he says as captain without complaint."_

Yuki stood up on the radio tower as quickly as he could without falling.

Dealing with Mei was usually not something too bad. At least when compared to listening to Ninomiya. This was far different though, seeing as how they made sure to make things equal out.

If Yuki did not finish within the set time, or was forced out by the others, he would be doomed in some shape or form.

That meant there was only one thing to do.

"Alright! Let's get this started! I'm gonna show those reporters what the Yagura Branch will be made of!"

.

From behind him Yuki could hear the sirens signaling the Trion Soldiers appearing.

He turned around to see them all the way across the map. From his spot on the radio tower, it would take three minutes to reach them by jumping from the rooftops while it would take just a bit more time by running on the ground below.

_That's if I decide not to use any Triggers._

This was always a quick decision that he had to make when in combat with a wide area between him and the target.

For moments like these the choice was clear as day to him.

_Teleport._

No time was wasted in using the Trigger he was most known for. The distance would be covered quickly and give him enough time to properly think of what to do next.

Since the teleportation distance was longer than his usual short distance teleportation the time it would take to teleport again was longer. This was the drawback to using long-distance teleportation.

_The first ones are five Marmods, two Bambsters and seven Badō. Got it. That means the ones I should be using is Yamamoto or Izumi. From there an Attacker or All-Rounder should be good._

Nodding to himself, Yuki moved from one rooftop to another.

Among every Border agent, Yuki was considered one of the quickest. His power was always waning depending on what he was doing, but his speed and use of Teleport was undoubtable. The odds of catching him completely were always skewed depending on his opponent.

Crossing the distance from the radio tower to the Trion Soldiers was enough for him.

.

Without any hesitation and a glint in his eye, Yuki lifted one arm behind his head. A cube of Trion appeared under his hand.

"'The first one is surging.'"

It was a phrase that Yamamoto Yorushi would usually say when going for a specific attack of his.

Due to Yuki's Side Effect, he was copying that same attack, as well as the phrase said during the attack.

He paid his respects to the original user of this kind of attack.

The Shooter of an A-Rank team that had no actual ranking would be given something in return for having his movement used right now.

He brought his arm forward, the small cubes of Trion following the movement of his arm. They moved down in an arch that respembled a harsh torrent.

The Trigger used was Viper. The power was weak when compared to Asteroid or Meteora. That was fine enough since he knew the attack that always came after the first.

"'The second is chaotic.'"

Bringing his second arm forward, Yuki formed even more cubes of Trion. These ones moved up with his arms. The power was greater since the Trigger used was Asteroid. They would always attack straight, meaning they were headed straight up.

The Marmods he had attacked were hit by the Asteroid. The Badō in the air were also hit by some remaining Asteroid shots.

This meant that the final attack would come.

"'The finale is always earth shaking.'"

Bringing his arms down once again, this time as fists, Meteora shots were dropped from the air. Each one landed on a Marmod.

In total, the Marmods were all destroyed while five Badō remained with the Bambsters.

Focusing his eyes on the ones in the air, he used Teleport once more to appear above them all.

As he started to descend upon them he brought his arm to his hip, grabbing the new Trigger he had gotten with multiple forms.

Idōgetsu - the ever changing Trigger.

It was Trigger designed just for him and his odd way of fighting. The intricacies of it were known to the people who made it as well as Yuki. It was still a prototype with a few things needing fixing. Even so, it worked well enough for Yuki to handle a Neighbor during the invasion.

The base form of this Trigger was a simple arm-length black rod with one end being larger than the other in descending fashion. The way of using was easy enough for someone who was use to quick wrist movements. That may have been a reason for why Yuki was able to move around the battlefield with ease while switching from one form of Idōgetsu to another.

Using Gunner Triggers were always the best when it came to mid-air fights since they were able to be fired from any sort of angle while Attackers would usually have a terrible time if not prepared for the fight.

That sort of restrictions did not apply to Yuki.

With only a glance, he was in the air once more.

When he landed on one of the Badō he would take it out and use it as a springboard before rocketing towards the next one. This left not problems for him while in the air. It gave him the best position to attack them without the usual issues that came with close-range attacks.

The fourteen Trion Soldiers that had materialized were gone in only a few seconds of contact with Yuki.

"Next?"

_"Focus. Remember that they will only be getting harder. I'm going to make sure you don't slack off."_

"Well that isn't too fair, Mei. Either way, I'm leaving it up to you two to send them in. Are there any intervals I should be focusing on? Any pattern you two find rather fun?"

_"Who is stupid enough to ask that? And who would be stupid enough to answer?"_

Yuki gave a chuckle as he prepared for the next set of Trion Soldiers.

What came as a shock was the black orb right above him.

"Hey, hey, hey...! That's unfair!"

He used Teleport to move away as two large Banders came out from the black orb.

More black orbs started appearing at each teleportation spot he landed at. The second had blue colored Marmords, the third had a pink Bambster and the fourth black orb contained green Badō.

While Trion Soldiers had usually been seen as white to show that they were basic, there had been a few occasions when the Trion Soldiers had been different colors. Those times had meant that they were built different from others of their kind. In this case the Trion Soldiers had been programmed with other abilities by Mei.

Yuki could remember seeing the different colored Rabbits from the recent invasion.

Putting those thoughts to the side, he prepared for the next fight.

The color of each Trion Soldier gave away what exactly they were capable of. It was a fact that the different colors for the Bados and Marmods were always to determine just how strong their bodies were. The pink tint of the Bambster was to show that it would always explode after being defeated. The times between the defeat and the explosion always varied. The Banders were plain white, meaning they were simple versions.

After registering all the information it was a simple matter of acting and pushing forward.

That was exactly what he did.

Yuki ran forward with Idōgetsu in one hand.

A cube of Trion appeared above him. It split into smaller cubes before being fired off in multiple directions. It had been a simple Asteroid but he had to focus on each one he was firing so that they would not all go in the same direction.

Some flew into the air, attempting to hit the ones flying. Others went towards the Bambster and Marmods while Yuki himself went for the Banders.

Using the force from his running, he spun on the ground while fixing the position of Idōgetsu in his hand.

With one hard throw, Idōgetsu was launched towards the core of one of the Banders. Even as it fired off a laser beam towards him Idōgetsu pierced through it while continuing on towards the core.

Yuki used that as a chance to go after the one Idōgetsu was not attacking.

He brought out a single Scorpion blade before disappearing from where he was.

He reappeared right above the Bander. The Scorpion blade in his hand was held with both hands so that the force would be able to break through the top of the head and into the core.

_The two easiest ones are out now. So the question now is... Are Mei and Sawamura-san going to send in even more while I'm fighting the other ones? If so...that puts me in an odd position. I would be able to manage but..._

Yuki let out a sigh while grabbing Idōgetsu from the second Bander.

"Right. I'll just need to see, now won't I."

He knew what his next actions would be.

He had been in enough fights to determine what would help him and what exactly would hold him back.

So he made no hesitant move and ran forward once more.

* * *

"Tch. That damn faker. He says that he'll show what that new branch can do and then goes off to use someone else's style. That's just showing how much better others are than him. I suppose it makes sense when he is terrible in almost every aspect besides Attacker."

"Was that a compliment just now...?"

"Tsuji-chan, sshh, sshh! If you say that then he'll take it back. Even if I've already recorded him saying that, I don't want him to take it back!"

Inukai let out a noise when he noticed Ninomiya glaring daggers at him while holding out his hand.

Following the unspoken order, Inukai handed over his phone and watched as Ninomiya deleted the recording he had taken. Once he got his phone back he let out a sigh before getting ready to record again, just in case something like that happened again.

All of Ninomiya Squad were together in one room, watching the live feed from Border HQ.

Under normal circumstances only Inukai would have any reason to watch it, but this was a special occasion seeing as how they had been invited to watch it by Kuruma.

After having been told that he no longer needed to be there, Kuruma had been ready to go back to the Suzunari Branch office. On his way there he had met up with Ninomiya Squad by accident. This had caused him to ask them if they would like to watch the live feed with his team.

Surprisingly there had not been an accident concerning Taichi yet.

"Anyways... Ninomiya-san, you know that's an unfair thing to say. Copying other people's styles is Yuki's own style. His Side Effect is mostly to blame for that, but even so, that's just how he fights. Besides, you of all people know that it's difficult to fight him when he's not copying others."

Ninomiya clicked his tongue for a second time. He could vividly remember all the times he had fought against Yuki when the latter was not copying anyone's way of fighting.

From the side they could hear Murakami give a hum of agreement.

"Wait... I have questions about that!"

"Hm?"

Everyone turned to look away from the television screen to Taichi. The boy seemed extremely confused, as if there was something obviously missing from the conversation.

A similar yet more subtle look could be seen on Tsuji's face as well.

"You guys have fought against Yuki-san in solo matches before? He hardly, if ever, has been in solo matches! I've heard that a lot of Attackers and Gunners always try to get him to fight them!"

Ninomiya, Inukai, Kuruma and Murakami all had a collective thought of, "Oh. Right. Others don't know."

Figuring that Ninomiya would not want to saying anything about his enemy, Kuruma decided to speak up for everyone who already knew what needed to be known.

"There are a few people he has actually had solo matches with. He just tends to keep them private and makes sure that others don't find out about those matches. Mostly because he doesn't want others to think he's playing favorites."

"But doesn't that mean he _is_ playing favorites?"

"Not necessarily. He's had multiple solo matches with two people in this room. But that's because of how they can help him. He's not playing favorites. Rather, he's finding a way to fight others while not actually confronting them. It's his sort of way of making sure others don't really know what he can do."

"Okay... I think I get it... So have you had a solo match with him, Kuruma-san?"

"Yeah. Only three times though. Two of the times he was using other people's fighting styles. The third one was when he used his own way of fighting. That was...an experience. To say the least..."

"It was completely one-sided. Yuki had so much advantage that there was little to no room to attack."

"If we count him as just an Attacker, he's the same level as Kō. Using Kōgetsu at least. It's hard to really understand where he stands as a regular agent. He can work well with any sort of Trigger, but not to the extent of any of us. If Kizaki-san is a perfect All-Rounder, Yuki is the basis for what a general All-Rounder could be. Arafune is getting there, as you probably know, but he's taking it step-by-step instead of all at once."

"Tch. Even that is giving him too much credit. It's hard to give him any spot because he never fights like himself. He's always using someone else to fight, there's no way for us to really throw him in any one area."

"That is not completely true. The two of us know well enough where he could be placed. Who to compare him to and how well he stacks up with other agents. We can't say anything particular about some like Jin-san, but other strong people are a different story."

"That's fair enough... I suppose."

Taichi and Tsuji moved a bit at hearing the scorn in Ninomiya's voice. They could tell that the other three did not care too much about the way he spoke, having probably dealt with it on multiple occasions, but they were not too use to it. Even so, they continued to focus on both the conversation as well as the television screen.

Kuruma and Inukai gave their own sort of smiles at the conversation between Murakami and Ninomiya. They knew better than the other two about what exactly the two had meant by their words. Murakami was simply defending his friend while also admitting to what Ninomiya was saying. His responses were respectable while also showing that the kind of tone Ninomiya was taking was not too welcomed.

Inukai gave a laugh to ease up the air around them all.

"Well, either way, it's probably best to see what else comes from this. The Yagura Branch has already been made, so this is just a show for everything else. Even if it's not the way he himself fights, Yuki is showing off for the entire branch. That's the point of this. The reporters... Hell, even most of Border won't know that this is not how Yuki actually fights."

"That's true. I still don't know how Tsukiko-senpai fights. He has asked me for solo fights at least five times, but each time they all felt like I was fighting someone else. I recognized one as the way Ikoma-san fights while another time it seemed more like Izumi."

"Heh~ To get even that much from him is something. To be honest, I didn't even know you fought him before. I guess that's to be expected. Besides a few people, he's fought with the tops of B-Rank and A-Ranks at least once."

Kuruma was next to voice his curiosity.

"So that brings up a question for me."

"Oh? What do you want to know?"

"How much do you all think he can get through before having to fight his own way? Going off of everything that has been said; if he uses another person's fighting style then he will hit a wall with the Trion Soldiers. Whoever is in charge of making them will likely create some to counter the fighting style of whoever he is using."

"That's a good point."

Kuruma let out a hum while looking at the television screen.

On the screen was Yuki fighting against some more Trion Soldiers. The colors of them varied depending on what type they were and their power level. At the current moment it seemed like he was fighting more like Yukimura Ichijō of Katagiri Squad. It seemed to work well enough against these current opponents.

"If I had to guess, Takato is probably in charge of the creation of the Trion Soldiers. If not, it's probably Sawamura-san then. For all we know, one of them could be acting as an Operator while the other is creating them."

"Ah~ Kuruma-san, you're forgetting the other option. That being that they could both be creating them. Mei-san knows exactly what Yuki's limits are while Sawamura would probably be in charge of this. They could both be creating them by using whatever data Mei-san has. That would be a good way to keep things in check."

"Right. My bad. I hadn't thought of that."

"That wasn't a problem at all. I could be completely wrong with that!"

Inukai waved his hand with a laugh.

There were always different possibilities that could only be seen by two people who had the ability to take a look into a future they could not see.

"So, to answer the original question..." They focused back to the screen while Inukai continued. "It's hard to really say how far he'll go. He's more stubborn than most people think. Isn't that right, Kō?"

"Hm. That's an understatement. Even Senpai has trouble dealing with his stubbornness."

"See? This is coming from his best friend."

"You never know. They might just go ahead and push him beyond what his copying can do. It hasn't happened with Trion Soldiers, but they probably have Mei-san with them, so there is a chance that we'll be able to see something amazing today."

"I see. Thank you for answering me."

Kuruma gave a nod before turning back to the television.

Something about what he saw made him get a sheepish look on his face. It may have been because of the fighting style that Yuki was using now, which was actually embarrassing from an outside view, but it may have come down to how accurate Yuki was with each hit.

It was actually amazing how much better Yuki seemed to be compared to the ordinal users of each style.

* * *

There was something about moving fast that made Yuki feel like everything else was harder to understand. As if everything around him was far too slow for him to properly understand.

A person's body could not keep up with the mind under normal circumstances and so could not move the moment a thought was made. This was no exception.

Yet at the same time the mind could not always keep up with what the body could do at a moment's notice. If the body moved on instinct and muscle memory then the mind would consider it something not necessarily important and so it would leave the person wondering what exactly was going on or what had happened.

This was a time like that.

Yuki moved across the battlefield using his natural speed and Teleport to the point that everything he was doing was simply because his body was use to fighting these kinds of opponents. It left his mind no time to catch up and tell him what to do specifically.

By the time he could focus in on an opponent they were already within cutting distance.

Having been an Attacker once, Yuki had a range of attacks where he knew just how far his opponent needed to be before he could get a hit in. The range his blade could reach had a certain range around him. It was small when compared to someone like Ikoma yet it was larger than most. That meant his blade had a definite area of effectiveness.

That did not mean his other attacks could not hit.

A close-range blade was deadly, but so was a long-range one.

Yuki used what he could to attack. Shooter Triggers had better effect when it came to ranged attacks, he knew that, yet throwing Idōgetsu seemed to work just as well. It was a tactic that let him close the distance between him and the target with little effort.

It was his own way of fighting.

_There was a time when Suzume had told me that fighting to her was like dancing. Each step made followed a sort of pattern that made it all seem like a dance for her. I guess that's more true with preprogrammed things like these. Maybe I've gotten too use to their patterns that it's easy enough for me to not even think._

There was little chance that he could start seeing things the way Suzume could. His way of fighting was always far off from any sort of dance that it seemed rather impossible for it to follow any sort of fancy footwork that she could do.

That also meant that he could not tell if this really did seem like a dance. It just seemed like a fight that was easy enough for him to focus on other things. The abilities of each Trion Soldier continued to go up as new ones appeared, yet they seemed like they were easy to figure out when compared to an actual person.

_I've even lost count by now. Wasn't there a limit I had to get to before giving a moment for Arashiyama Squad to come in? I've taken some hits but not enough to go passed what was needed, right?_

Yuki furrowed his brows as he continued to move from one side to the other.

His steps were light and his speed was not decreasing one bit. There was a steady pace that had been set by him that seemed to be followed by the Trion Soldiers that were coming in far quicker than before. Even the numbers coming at once were greater than when he had started.

_Whatever. Kei-san, Sensei, Tatsuhito, Izumi, Kuruma-san, Tsuji, Miwa, Kō, Minoru, Kanzaki, Konami, Nasu, Kako, Karasuma, Hikigane, Yamamoto, Jin. That's all? Wow... I've really been focusing on the Attackers, haven't I? Maybe I just miss smacking things hard with Kōgetsu and that's why I'm leaning towards that side. Should I switch up to a Shooter again? Snipers are out of the questions since I've taken them out of my lineup. No point in them while I'm using Idōgetsu._

Yuki let out a small sigh as he looked around for his next target.

There were ten Marmods, fifteen Badō and three Bambsters standing in front of him. Behind him the sound of large Trion Soldiers could be heard. The sound was different from Bambsters in the way they stepped was not to crush things but simply get through with large bodies. That meant there were also some Banders behind him.

The amount was the largest sent at once. Both the air and the land were covered in a multitude of colors. Green flew in the skies, pink towered over the area, and an odd mix of gold, blue and white crawled on the ground.

Yuki ran forward without any thoughts concerning the fight.

His hand went for the rod that had been swinging wildly behind his hip. Idōgetsu was now his main Trigger, meaning it was what would be used to defeat all of these Trion Soldiers. The different forms it could take meant that there was a variety of different ways to take them all on.

"!"

That was how it should have been.

Yuki was unprepared for something to rush him from behind a building. The shape was more humanoid than the others and he saw a bipedal creature with features different from anything they had sent before. It was a Trion Soldier that had a bulky build, with wide shoulders and long, large arms with three fingers and no thumbs, and also short but thick legs which ended on long two-toed feet. It had a long neck ending in a head roughly resembling a rabbit head. The interior of its mouth was black and it had a green core inside. It also had black stripes running through its shoulders until its hands, with black shield-like shapes in the sides of its shoulders, and the sides of its torso are also black. It also has a lizard-like tail.

_So they're stepping up their game. Good. Now I can properly focus on the fight._

Yuki thought this as he flew through the air.

Due to the Rabbit coming from the left it had taken his left arm off with its rush. The power was that of the originals he had fought during their latest invasion. The model seemed plain enough that Yuki figured it could do nothing special like some of the others.

That was good in its own right seeing as how there were now so many that Yuki knew his natural instincts and Side Effect would not be enough. Even the people he was copying did not seem like they would be enough unless used by the originals.

He was just a copy of anyone he saw. The amount of power and skill he put behind each attack from someone else failed to compare to the originals. It was a simple fact that could never be gotten over by someone like him. Everyone continued to advance in their fighting while he would be stuck with how they use to be. In a sense, he was always behind when it came to another person's fighting style.

That did not mean he was out of options.

Tsukiko Yuki had once started out as a simple Attacker. That had advanced once he started using Gunner-type Triggers. Sniper-type Triggers had been added at some point, but he was less adapt at using them than any others. All the Triggers he would use were meant to help him copy others who could use those same Trigger better than he ever could.

Because of his Side Effect, Yuki could copy movements of others and register them for his body to use later on. Even if those fighting styles were used to a weaker extent than the originals, he continued to use them. That had quickly evolved into him using each fighting style as a basis for a mixed fighting style that relied on everything he had copied up until that point. It would grow as he copied more from others.

Then there was Yuki's own way of fighting that was completely unique to him.

A fighting style that relied completely on underhanded tactics that would guarantee his victory. They were hardly used due to the fact that he had so many options to pick from that there was no need to use his own style of fighting. It would be pointless to fight his own way if he had copied someone who he knew could already win.

This was different.

There was no point in fighting the way he wanted when it came to such opponents. Numbers of them all, the power level of the opponent - they were all things that he had kept in mind in each fight. Strategy and planning is what it took to win fights. Even the weak would be able to win using such things.

Deciding things with a nod to himself, Yuki readied himself once more.

He moved forward while leaning to the right. The ground felt easy enough to slide around on without losing control. Any movement he made could lead into the next, then the next, then the next, right to the spots he wanted.

_Taking that new one out should be the priority here due to its strength and speed. But that would also give the others ones a chance to attack. Vice versa if I'm being honest here. I guess I just need to see what I can do and take advantage of what I know._

Yuki was use to using what he could to win. That meant he also knew how to use his opponents to win.

As he moved in for his attack, the Rabbit brought up its arms as a defense. Whether they were as strong as the originals he had fought before was a mystery. After all, he was not aiming to attack it.

Yuki jumped up so that his feet hit the arms.

Pushing himself even further up, he used the the Rabbit's arms as a springboard to gain height. That put him at the same height as the Banders' heads.

While in mid-air the Badō and Banders started attacking him. Each one started firing, programmed to take whatever chance they could get by one of the two maintaining the area.

The ground was always the best to fight, that was a secret to no one. Compared to any surface, it was the easiest to move around on as well as providing enough space to make large moves that would otherwise be impossible in other settings. It was far better than fighting on a platform or in the air.

Something like that did not bother Yuki. He moved through the air and twisted his body as if being in the air meant nothing. There was not foothold for him to grab onto, and yet he managed to dodge the attacks or block whatever he could not dodge. It was a sight to behold for those who did not fight on a regular basis.

_Targets set._

"Senkū..."

Yuki moved back the moment his feet touched the ground. Distance was important after taking out the pink colored Bambsters.

The distance between the two Bambsters was enough for a chain reaction. The distance between him and the two Bambsters was enough for him to be out of range. The distance between the two Bambsters and the remaining Trion Soldiers meant he had to be quick with his work.

One step went into another before becoming three, then moving on to six. Distances continued to close between the ones on the ground and the ones in the air. Each attack transitioned from a single hit to multiple Trion Soldiers being taken out by another.

Yuki used a minimal amount of Trion, instead allowing the Trion Soldiers to attack each other.

There was just one problem.

_Damn Mei. You really want me to put work into this, don't you?_

Yuki lifted his leg while twisting his body. His managed to push himself back at the same moment the Rabbit went for an attack.

_Well, it's not like I don't find this fun in its own way. But Sawamura-san is probably having trouble keeping up with Mei._

He used the momentum from the attack to rush at the nearby Marmod. He did not need to use up Trion and instead continued with his rush by only staying in the ground for a second before pushing off the ground.

There was no rest time as Yuki moved to the side so that he would not lose his second arm to the Rabbit.

At this point it was a matter of time and endurance.

Yuki had been fighting with minimal breaks while losing Trion at a consistent rate while each Trion Soldier that came in came with a fully stocked supply of it. Yuki had to either wait things out for Arashiyama Squad or simply admit defeat.

This was a choice he would rather not make.

* * *

The sight itself was amazing to watch.

The reasoning behind it was a bit terrifying for those who knew.

The Border directors, Sawamura Kyōko, Tachikawa Kei and all of Arashiyama Squad continued to watch as Takato Mei typed quickly on two keyboard. Words could be heard under her breath and the sound of multiple keys being pressed at the same time. The sounds coming the screens in front of them did nothing to drown out those noises that was coming from a single girl.

Sawamura did not know what to do as she sat next to Mei with wide eyes. She was suppose to assist in the current fight by regulating how many Trion Soldiers appeared at once and the power level of each one. Yet she could not do that when Mei had taken those jobs on herself.

They all knew that Arashiyama Squad was suppose to be teleported onto the mock battlefield around seventy Trion Soldiers ago but there was no time to do so when so many Trion Soldiers were being made in such a rapid succession that it left no room to actually have them enter into the fray.

They were suppose to be given an opening to enter through so that they did not interrupt the flow that Yuki had created with his fighting. There was no such opening when everything that was suppose to be done by the two Operators was being done by a single person.

"Takato! Hey, Takato, are you listening!? Arashiyama Squad was suppose to enter in already! Why are you sending in more-"

"You already know that it's stupid to talk to her while she's in the zone. Seriously, Masafumi, this is why I can't just leave things alone for five minutes to take a crap."

The doors opened up, catching everyone's attention, to show Akasora Chishi walking down with a sigh. His expression was relaxed and he was no longer wearing a suit and tie; instead taking comfort in his tracksuit that seemed to stand out in the room.

"Sorry about this, Sawamura. I guess even you haven't seen her when she gets like this. It mostly happens when it comes to my idiot student. The two have a nasty habit of pushing each other as far as they can go. It's been a while since its been this bad though, seeing as how that guy on the screen has become sick."

"Chishi, what are you doing?"

"Hm? What's it look like? I'm gonna fix things up for you all. Arashiyama, get ready for combat. You guys with the suits, looking all snazzy, you should probably come up with some sort of explanation as to why things aren't going according to plan." Akasora let out a hum while continuing on. "I'm sure that I don't need to mention that you will need something good to please the masses while not losing face."

Shaking his head at the girl typing wildly, Akasora lifted his arm. He lifted it a bit while making sure to hear some popping sounds from his shoulder. When he felt like his arm was fine enough, he lifted it into the air again.

With no mercy, it happened.

"QUIT THE CRAP!"

There was a sound that filled the room as Mei's head hit the keyboard in front of her.

No one said anything as the girl had her head on the keyboard while the man behind her moved his fist.

"Chishi! What the hell was that!?"

Director Shinoda was the first to respond.

He rushed over to Akasora before pushing him towards the door with as much force as he could.

"What? I was just helping. That girl has a strong head on her shoulders. My hand actually hurts from hitting her. If anything, you should be checking on me here."

"Don't give me that! You can't just go hitting someone on the head like that! Especially not when we're in the middle of something! Even if her head is strong, she hit the desk hard! She's going to get injured no matter what the end result was!"

"Is that so?"

"Yes!"

Akasora gave a grin while getting scolded by Shinoda. His expression did not change, neither did his stance. There was no guilt from having just struck Mei as hard as he could.

It was made evident as to why that was only a few seconds later.

.

Sawamura was quick to check on Mei after having just witnessed something crazy.

"Ah~ Sawamura-san, it would be better for you to focus on the screens right now. Arashiyama has just entered and there is nothing for them to fight. At least send something in."

She knew that Tachikawa was right. Checking on Mei was something she wanted to do, but they were currently on the clock. She had to take charge of sending in Trion Soldiers while Mei was recovering.

She had decided to take over what Mei had been doing and sent in some more Marmods and Banders.

When she heard a groan coming from next to her it was a good sign that let her give a sigh of relief. From the corner of her eye she could see Mei slowly lift her head while making sure not to play a finger in the keyboards.

She checked her surroundings and saw exactly where she was.

Sawamura heard Mei say something under her breath but made no comment on that.

"I was face planted into the desk... The reason for that..."

Even when she was curious about something, Takato Mei refused to ask any questions.

"You seemed to be in a daze while working. Akasora-san had come in and punched you hard enough to send your face into the desk. You have a large red spot on your forehead now, by the way."

Another groan. This time one of recognition.

"I am very sorry, Sawamura-san, everyone. I can get like that due to my Side Effect."

"You can say your apologies all you want late. For now, help out Sawamura. Arashiyama Squad has just been sent in. We will continue on by sending in another fifty opponents for them to fight. After that... Well, we will come up with something to tell the reporters."

Mei gave a nod before turning around one her chair. She pushed one of the keyboards to the side while trying to keep her focus on multiple things at once instead of just the screens.

The noise of the keys being hit, the sight of Sawamura next to her working to diligently, the smell of some kind of cologne. Anything and everything around her was what she was trying to focus on. While around 10% of her focus was on the screen, 90% of her focus was on everything else.

_Well, this is bad. I really should do something to show how sorry I truly am._

Let out a silent sigh, Mei continued on with her work.

Everything else would have to come later.


	28. Kotowari Squad

All members of Kuruma Squad and Ninomiya looked at the television as if there was something completely abnormal about it. As if the people displayed on it would come out at any time to attack them.

There was nothing particularly wrong with what was being displayed. It was Arashiyama Squad meeting up with Tsukiko Yuki. It seemed normal enough for any Border agent when they were fighting and needed to come up with a plan.

But that was why it seemed so odd.

There seemed to be a large amount of time between Yuki fighting solo to all of them fighting as a team. The opponents had seemed to stop attacking altogether and left them all alone to talk to each other about one thing or another.

"I had thought that it was odd for so many of them to be created in rapid succession like that. This at least explains what's going on."

Murakami was not surprised when everyone's attention turned to him as soon as he spoke. Everyone was looking at him with expressions he expected to get with Taichi and Kuruma looking extremely confused, Tsuji only furrowing his brows and both Ninomiya and Inukai seeming to have some kind of idea.

Knowing that they were all waiting for an answer, he obliged with no hesitation.

"It's because of Sen... Sorry. Takato-senpai's Side Effect," he said, not liking the way that name came off of his tongue. "Before anything... Do you guys know what her Side Effect is?"

His question was directed at the two from his team and Tsuji. There was no need to ask Ninomiya and Inukai when he already knew the answer to that.

"Takato-san has a Side Effect? That's news to me..."

"Ah, ah~ I really can't remember that Tsuji-chan doesn't know these things! We've really been lacking in telling him things!"

"More like we really don't have a reason to tell him. Everyone who needs to know these things already knows. Even so..."

"Yeah. I'm sure Mei-san wouldn't mind if we told these guys. C'mon, Ninomiya-san, it's fine if they know. From how things have been playing out lately, I'm sure she's ready to let everything out anyways. Besides, Mei-san has already calculated that this would happen. Probably."

"That 'probably' could probably turn into something later on. But you're right. Fine. Murakami, continue explaining. You're better at that when it comes to those two than either of us."

Murakami gave a hum.

He turned to his teammates and Tsuji once more.

"In basic terms; Senpai's Side Effect is calculations. I don't actually know exactly how much she can calculate, or how fast, but I do know that she can calculate multiple things in a matter of seconds. She narrows things down to the point that it's borderline precognition. Although, unlike Jin-san, she doesn't actually see the future. Her calculations are simply that accurate."

"That actually explains a lot. It's no wonder Tsuki-... The former Tsukiko Squad could get things done with pinpoint accuracy. If Takato was able to tell them everything they needed to know then the room for errors would be much smaller."

"That's not to say her Side Effect doesn't have any flaws. Like I said, her calculations aren't precognition, just near that level. What's more, if she's lacking in information then she can't register it into her mind. The same goes for wrong information. It's like putting a false number into a calculator; you can do the math perfectly but still get the wrong answer."

"So how does her Side Effect come into play for what's happening right now? If anything, it seems like things should be going perfectly for them if she has the information she needs."

Murakami let out a sigh.

He quickly regretted doing that since it was directed towards his former upperclassman instead of his classmate. While he could say what he wanted about Yuki, he had too much respect for Mei to say something terrible about her.

The sigh was an equivalent to that in his mind.

"If she starts calculating a large amount of information for long periods of time... She goes into a sort of daze and gets carried away with what she's doing. It's pretty hard to get her out of that daze once she's in it."

"I see. So she must have been in a daze while working to create those opponents and ended up getting taken in by it. That's why there was that moment of nothing happening then? Because someone got her out of that daze?"

"Yeah. If I had to guess... Akasora-sensei was the one to help out there. Besides me, there are only a very few amount of people who know about this. It's not really a secret, but there's never a reason to bring it up."

That seemed to be true enough as Ninomiya and Inukai seemed like this was news to them as well.

"You're kinda like an encyclopedia for those two, Kō! Nice job!"

"..."

Murakami was quick to place his head into his hands once he finally registered those words. They repeated a few times in his mind while he stared at the ground as if it held all the secrets to the world.

He had always had the feeling of knowing probably too much when it came to Yuki and Mei but thought nothing of it until now. There was never a reason to think that he knew too much, seeing as how he had always ended up being a sort of anchor for them when it came to their issues. He had tried to always help Mei out when he could, like a good underclassman, while also be there whenever Yuki was having body issues and couldn't continue on with the day.

That was when it fully sunk in.

He truly did know too much about those two and how to deal with them. He could tell when Yuki was ready to collapse due to his illness or when Mei needed something that wasn't so eccentric around so her calculations wouldn't get the better of her. He knew of their past, who exactly they were related to and much more that no one else knew about or even had guesses for.

He slowly lifted his head to see Kuruma and Tsuji giving his a pitying look while Inukai grinned over to him, as if he knew exactly what he was thinking.

_I even know about Tenryū. Yeah. I probably know too much about those two._

Murakami let out a final sigh, this time towards himself.

The best he could do at this point was resign himself to the fact that he may end up being an encyclopedia on Yuki and Mei for quite some time. Much to his annoyance.

He looked over at the television screen as a sort of escape from those thoughts and was not surprised in the slightest that the display of the Yagura Branch's might was now over.

He knew that the rest would be easy for his friend.

* * *

The sounds of her sister could be heard through the door to her room. While she was upstairs, locked up in a box of her own creation, her sister was happily yelling about what they had seen on the television downstairs. It was the same thing she had seen on her laptop screen.

Misaki Suzumebachi now understood exactly what she had originally thought.

The amount of force and strategy she saw from Yuki far exceeded that of anything he had shown when they were a team. There were things he had done that she knew not even Toby could do, not something she could do and not something Takeshi would even think to do.

It had taken her, Toby and Takeshi to take on those new Trion Soldiers from the last invasion and it only took Yuki to defeat one of them while also dealing with other Trion Soldiers who seemed stronger than your average one. The difference between the three of them and him showed amazingly during that portion of the fight.

Suzume noticed and counted how many different styles he had used as opposed to his own style. During that time she also noticed exactly how little they knew of their former captain to begin with when she could not recognize the movements that were Yuki's and not someone else's. The attacks and defense he had implemented were much more smooth than most people she had seen before.

Once Arashiyama Squad had entered the fray there was even more for her to see. The teamwork between them and Yuki was something that gave her a feeling of pointlessness. Like everything they had done as Tsukiko Squad could not compare to the teamwork he showed with a team that was not his own. Some of the more simple things Yuki was able to do with Arashiyama Squad seemed to work far better than anything he had done with Tsukiko Squad as a whole.

_We were honestly just playing around compared to this. What took us so long to come up with could honestly be done in second with a better team._

Suzume gave a bitter laugh.

"I guess it honestly makes sense that he would leave us behind then. He can honestly do more without us around as his team. There's no restrictions for him and nothing holding him back at this point. It's honestly amazing to see how much he can do by himself."

There were two framed documents lined up on the bedroom wall where Suzume directed her eyes.

The one on the right side was a verification of Suzume's participation in the latest invasion, a parchment with Border's logo stamped on it. The words which were lined up on the page were about what she had accomplished during the time as both a member of Border as well as her role in pushing back one of the Neighbors.

Lined up in the same manner, on the left side was the certification verifying her affiliation with Tsukiko Squad. On this was also the proclamation that Suzume was welcomed into the team with no restrictions besides the usual ones applied to all Border agents.

"However... that was not a result of my actual ability. Heh. I still honestly wonder why Yuki-san would be so cruel as to give us those."

That was something from awhile ago, when she had been asked to join and obtained this certification.

"...It was probably because I ended up honestly switching positions from Attacker to Sniper and he knew things he shouldn't have because of Ken-kun. I should honestly hit Ken-kun again when I see him."

In the past she had not realized this fact and had often pushed her selfishness onto the older agent. She was indignant when they did not listen, however they had soothed her as they were adults.

With the passing of time she had become one of the members of a high ranking B-Squad which would stay near the top, and actually she should have been an equal to the rest of them...

...However on that day she had done it.

She had allowed for the disbandment with little argument and instead took to ignoring others unless necessary or to keep up an act of hollow enjoyment. At some point even that crumbled away to bitterness directed towards an unknown source.

Since that time, there had been no notifications about general meetings or anything else. When she was sitting alone in public areas for hours on end, or during practice with other Snipers, she had no response at all.

She understood that she was being as childish as her teammates.

However, because of outside sources, she had managed to get over some of her issues, if only for a bit.

She also wanted to ask some of the other agents about the current status of Toby and Takeshi. However...

"-This almost as if I am honestly afraid of the reaction those two will give, even through I am still the upperclassman here."

While lowering her hips onto the bed even further she let out a sigh.

...She understood however, she knew she should not finish her thoughts that way.

She was distancing herself from them by arbitrarily deciding that the other two were avoiding her or not taking her seriously.

During inconvenient times like this she wanted to be alone, or if not that, then she wanted to be together with someone.

She was selfish, that was a bad habit.

However she understood quite well when it was when she had become like that.

"It was a long time ago...about the third year of middle school."

She looked outside the window. Far away, Border's headquarters could be seen in the area, however...

"It was different when I first entered... It's honestly really different."

Suddenly she dropped her shoulders and collapsed onto the bed.

She thought that her hair would become horribly disheveled, however it would be fine if she set it later. Anyhow, it was because she had abruptly touched a part of herself that she didn't like. Even though the incident concerning the disbandment should not matter to her after she had decided to follow her teammates, once again it had come up.

She thought about sleeping for thirty minutes to refresh herself, so while looking out the window she collapsed backwards.

Her clothing was partially removed and was in a horrid state, however she thought that since she was alone it was fine.

She collapsed.

And immediately following that...

Outside the window, in the yard with the high wall, an idiot carrying a mountain of eroge was sneakily passing through.

"-!?"

.

Suzume lifted up the vertically-closing window at full speed and jumped out into the garden.

Looking to the right, there was an idiot who with his body drawn back in surprise, had turned one leg in her direction. Suzume faced her entire body towards there and pointed at the total idiot...

"H-Hey! What are you honestly doing in the yard of another person's house!?"

"Eh? What, Eh? Isn't that question kinda philosophical? People are already constantly-"

She slammed the opened window down using one finger, and with that loud noise the idiot stopped his philosophizing.

 _Ah,_ the sighing Suzume bent her body and looked down on the idiot.

"...Jinsei-san, I will ask once more, okay? -What are you honestly doing in the yard of another person's house?"

"Ah? Ahh!? —I'm not doing anything in the yard, you know!? I just have business within the storehouse around the back, I do!?"

"T-There is no storehouse at the back of my place!? Look!"

Pointing her finger and looking, there the ground of the yard held a lid which was open.

"Eh? Eeeeeh!? W-What is that!? Why is it that the ground at the back of my yard honestly has a hidden door that has been opened? Is it an illusion!?"

"Are you stupid, obviously I created it of my own accord, okay?"

"It is true that is the only way that it could have happened, however when did you honestly create it!?"

 _Oi oi oi,_ the idiot sighed and readjusted his grip on the pile of boxes at his waist.

"When some of us were invited, I struck a deal with someone to make it in exchange for fifteen married wife genre eroge. So, this is one of my safe houses. I'm very blessed, don't you think? Right? Right?"

Suzume opened her phone with a smile.

"Who are you calling?"

"The police. I don't honestly know how that person you mentioned made the storage house, but I can at least honestly get you in trouble here."

"Can't you call someone else?"

"Okay."

Jinsei was actually a bit surprised at her answer.

"Ah, Kon-san? I think that you are honestly searching for a person at the moment. Rather, a reason to beat this person. I get the feeling that that person is here. Will you come?"

"Yes, I am coming! I am super coming! Hey Inukai, please get the others to go ahead!"

"Eh? I don't understand what is going on, but everyone please go on ahead-! Hey Taka, this is an eroge box with that guy's scent so please remember it, okay?"

"Oh, we will have the remainder after you come back, right?"

Over there the situation appeared terribly chaotic; however Inukai seemed to be having fun. That was nice. For a moment Suzume hated herself for thinking that; however, right now the situation in front of her eyes took priority.

Suzume dropped her shoulders and looked at the man in front of her eyes.

"So, Jinsei-san, isn't there honestly something that you want to say?"

"Eh? Will you grant me forgiveness?"

Suzume thought about that question. She had already made the arrangements for someone to come. However this was a problem concerning her and him. That is why as for the meantime...

"Do you honestly have the intention to apologize?"

"That's..."

The idiot shrunk his body, and after taking a position of servitude offered a pile of about ten eroge in her direction. Then he placed his hand on his cheek and in a flirtatious manner said:

"Could you forgive me with this?"

* * *

The first thing Tsukiko Yuki did when he saw Mei again was continually flick her on the forehead. Each one getting more rough.

Mei could only try and shield herself from the onslaught of annoying flicks.

The others were simply watching with satisfied looks or just ignoring them completely.

"Okay... That's really annoying. Yuki, stop this already."

"That's what you get for not being careful and making trouble for Tora-san and the rest of us. Now the directors are put in an odd position again. I'm sure you just did it because you wanted to test me and not because you wanted to improve the image of Yagura Branch."

Mei backed away to look at Yuki face-to-face.

She knew that what he was saying was correct. Seeing how far he could go by himself was a major factor in her thinking. Troubling Director Shinoda was no something she wanted, but she felt like she had to show her current team something that was important.

Yuki clearly understood that but he said nothing since he also knew that it would just make the directors even more mad at her.

"Look... All I need to do is explain what happened to those reporters. It will be annoying, but I caused this incident and plan on taking responsibility for it. Compared to you only hours ago, it shouldn't be too much trouble. I knew your limits as well as you do and wanted to see how far I could push you."

"No. I'm starting to think you don't know my limits either. You went overboard this time, like other times. You took things too far this time by making it hard for others to keep up. Even if it wasn't your fault completely, it does help your image a bit."

"I haven't been going overboard lately."

"That is because of our former team. You were afraid of really going all out in front of them since you wanted to keep up the image as much as I did."

The ones speaking made sure that Arashiyama Squad was not listening and instead were doing something else.

Their voices were low enough so that only they heard the words.

"You didn't want to freak them out with your Side Effect. Or even that you had one to begin with. That's why I was worried when you helped me out against that Neighbor during the invasion."

"This conversation seems so familiar that it's a bit disturbing..."

"You aren't even listening to me! Hm... Whatever. What's done is done and there's else to be done about it. Those reporters would use whatever they could to get a scoop. Even if you didn't do that, they would have found some fault in something I did."

"We were live so others saw you as well. Even if they tried to do something, others would know exactly what happened. They have to resort things accurately or they will be accused of false information. Basically, we had already gotten them in checkmate before we even started the fight."

Yuki nodded his head. He looked at his teacher and pseudo-teacher with a relaxed expression. The truth Mei was saying got through to him clearly. They had managed to plan far ahead thanks to her.

A few things were riding on this presentation. All of those reporters were there to watch, it was live for everyone else to watch, it showed the strength of the Yagura Branch and it's members, and it also put Yuki in a sort of spotlight that allowed his former team to see him.

"Alright then, glad that is over with."

* * *

Mei knew it all along. She had already calculated how things would end up after having the team disbanded and at least one of them seeing what their former captain was capable of without them around.

She had originally thought that Takeshi would have been the one to see the footage of Yuki fighting against the Trion Soldiers she and Sawamura had been in charge of making. It was still within her calculations that Suzume was the one who had watched what happened with Yuki instead.

It had already been a day since the conference and the fight involving Yuki. Within that time she had been able to judged just how Toby, Takeshi and Suzume were handling everything while also keeping herself in check so she did not end up in another daze like before. That happening had been embarrassing enough for her to rage about after they had all left.

While she had been helping out the newly made Yagura Branch it appeared that Suzume had calmed down and come to terms with not having Yuki around them as captain.

Mei found that as a good advance forward for her. Even if she also thought all of this drama between the three younger agents was unnecessary and pointless. Those thoughts ran right next to her thoughts of hitting Yuki for putting them in this position to begin with.

So here they were, standing in their operating room while looking over their first opponents for the B-Rank Wars.

"So we're gonna finally start, huh? Who are our first opponents?"

"Ninomiya Squad and Hikigane Squad."

"Seriously!? Right from the start!? Hm... Whatever. I guess that's to be expected when we were lucky enough to keep a top position."

The newly formed Kotowari Squad was sitting in their operating room while they discussed what their plans would be for the Rank Wars starting the next day. They had been training, but got nowhere.

Their petty arguments over simple things were starting to get on Mei's nerves to the point of her forcing them out so they could just go over everything.

"We're the lowest ranked team between the three teams. Since we to pick which area we're in, I say we choose one that has a good forest area," Toby said as he finished up his chocolate bar.

"With Ninomiya-san's Hound? No way. I honestly think we should go with one that had large hills. That way I can get them from the top with Takeshi just bombarding them next to me. I would make sense. Plus, it honestly gives you enough breathing room, Toby."

"You're both wrong. We are going with this one. It has lots of obstacles that can be used to block Ninomiya's attacks," Takeshi said in a dull tone. "If we do things correctly, I can deal with Hikigane while the two of you can take out Ninomiya. That being said, we will deal with those two last. Suzume-senpai, you will need to take out Inukai and Girikage. Toby, you'll be in charge of holding back Tsuji while I deal with Kirikari."

Mei sat by her computer with a plain expression that gave nothing away. She had been listening to them discuss their strategy while also focusing on things going on outside of the room. The agreement was that they would recreate a team with the four of them with Takeshi being the official captain. That seemed fine enough for all of them, but right now it seemed like that did not matter at all when they could not agree on anything.

She had thought of speaking out to them, but figured this was the best course of action when it came to these three. Letting them get everything out may help them out later on. What was more was the fact that if they could not get things done without the help of either their former captain or Mei on such matters it would have proven Yuki right.

Mei was well aware of what Yuki had wanted to do when he chose to disband their team. He had told her about it and she would support it, like she had many other times.

"Screw it!"

Getting out of her thoughts, Mei saw that Toby was now missing from the group and Suzume seemed pretty pissed off and ready to leave. She could only guess what went down while in her thoughts and simply let out a sigh.

It was times like these that she wanted to go find Yuki to smack him upside the head for his stupidity.

* * *

"(Screw him! He's not even listening to us! Wasn't Mei suppose to be making these kinds of choices! That ass just thinks that since Yuki would give him some authority that...)"

Toby trailed off as his mind went back to when the squad disbanded.

He violently scratched his own head, messing up his hair without a care. Without his hat to cover his head his brown hair stuck out in odd angles. The choice to bury his hat under layers of other things was made the day before. It had been a gift from Yuki that he would always wear as a sign go of his gratitude - that wasn't the case anymore. He did not want to see the hat, so he tossed it aside to let his hair show.

He knew he may be acting childish about this all, but he didn't seem to care. He felt completely betrayed by someone he considered as an older brother.

"Are you still moping around? Shouldn't you be over this by now?"

Toby turned his head only slightly to see Kitora walking up to him with her arms crossed. Her expression was clearly showing her disappointment in him and his actions.

She had been one of the few people to approach him without any hint of fear of getting attacked.

"Tsukiko-senpai isn't dead. ...Or even in a different city for that matter. He is still in Mikado City, is still an A-Rank, and is still your friend. Stop acting like a child already. It's really unbecoming of you, you know."

"I know that already. I don't need you repeating that to me, thank you very much," Toby answered back with a glare. "But you don't seem to understand how it feels to be betrayed like-"

"I _don't_ understand, but that's because I can easily get over stuff like this. As long as a person like that isn't dead then I don't understand." Kitora huffed as her stare became more harsh. Even with the harsh stare, it held a small amount of worry for him. "As long as I know they're alive, I won't think I've been betrayed. Unless they actually betray me."

"Well he _did_ betray me! He betrayed the whole team! He-"

"How did he betray you?"

"He just left us! He didn't give any sign or warning! (He just left us!)"

"Stop sounding like a spoiled brat! He has his reason for leaving, I'm sure! You, Kotowari and Misaki-senpai are just being brats! He's not going to always be there for you, so grow up and deal with it!"

"(Who the fuck are you calling a spoiled brat!)"

"She is correct. You seem to be as much of a brat as before. This sight actually makes me rather pleased to know that you left."

The sudden arrival of someone new was unexpected, yet neither one lowered their gaze at each other. They turned to see who the voice belonged to and saw a tall man wearing a suit walking up to them. His skin tone, hair and expression greatly resembled the mad dog standing in front of Kitora.

When he was looking at Kitora his face held a neutral expression that did not give anything away. It was not uncommon for adults like him to have these kinds of expressions when it came to people they did not know. The same could not be said when it came to people he knew.

Kitora could hear an audible growl come from Toby as his glare turned from her to the man. The glare was met with a look of disgust from the man who seemed ready to do something about Toby and his growling.

"So this is where you have been. We knew you came to Japan, but didn't image you would be working here," the man said as he turned his gaze to Kitora with no issue. "That emblem... I see. You are a part of Arashiyama Squad, correct?"

"That is correct. I am Kitora Ai. May I help you?"

Kitora was unsure of why this man reminded her of Toby or why the two looked ready to go for the other's throat, but that did not mean she would not show the respect this man deserved. He seemed to be important enough to hold himself in such high regards while also knowing what team she was a part of by simply looking at her emblem.

"I am glad to have found someone from the team that represents Border. It makes things easier for me." The man continued to speak in a professional tone while staring directly into Kitora's eyes, unnerving her a bit. "I am to speak with your higher-ups. Would you mind helping me find them?"

"No sir, I would not mind. But, if I may ask, who are you? I would like clarification as to who I am bringing to the directors."

"I am-"

"He is a shitty old man that should try and find his own damn way around."

Kitora was shocked at hearing Toby say this. She knew he could be rash and impulsive, but she also knew he could be well behaved when speaking to important people - like this guy seemed to be.

She was about to berate him for this but was surprised yet again when the man simply slapped Toby across the face, leaving a red mark on the boy's face.

It was clear that Toby was not in his Trion Body from the hard sound that came from his face being hit.

"It seems you still don't know how to speak to those above you. I suppose letting you run away wasn't any help with your attitude."

"You _let met_ run-!?"

Although she wanted to check and see if her friend was alright, Kitora could see they were gaining unwanted attention and tried to figure out how to defuse the situation quickly.

"I'm sorry, but what is going on here?"

The group turned to the new voice to see the leader of Kitora's team, the face of Border and one of the A-Rank squad leaders, Arashiyama Jun. He looked at the scene before him with a calm expression and had a few guesses as to what was going on.

He moved forward with large but steady steps. He stood next to Kitora while sizing up the situation in full. The redness on Toby's face was not missed by him yet he said nothing about it, instead just speaking to Kitora while looking at the man in front of them.

"Kitora, go take Awdry away while I show this man to the meeting room."

"Right. Come on-"

"Don't touch me. I can walk on my own." Toby gave a final glare at the man with all his might. "A slap like this is nothing compared to before."

"Toby-"

"I believe you asked who I was, Miss Kitora." Straightening his tie, the man looked down at the two with cold eyes. "I am the owner of a wealthy company-"

"And my shitty father..."

"Henry Awdry. A pleasure to meet you."

* * *

Suzume let out a sigh while looking through her phone.

There was no particular reason she was looking through her phone, there was simply a want for a distraction from what had happened earlier.

She had witnessed what Yuki had been capable of without them and resigned herself to the fact that they were nowhere near his level, even with all three of them. That was fine with her, it was nothing she didn't already know, but that meant that she was the only one between her team that seemed to just be focused on working through the B-Rank Wars.

"Honestly... We're never going to be able to take on the #1 and #3 B-Rank squads like this... Even with Minu-chan and Narasaka's help, I can't keep my mind focused enough for a perfect snipe. Speaking of which... Why _did_ Narasaka help me out...?"

"Hey, hey, hey, this doesn't look like the Suzu-chan who seemed to cheer up after rocking out! Where's the smiling girl?" Satori said as her quickly made his way to the girl. "Do I need to do something amazing to see you smiling again?"

"I'm fine, Ken-kun. Well, maybe not at 100% yet, but I think I'm honestly doing better than Take or Toby. Those two have been at each other's throats for a while now," Suzume said with a downcasted look. "I was just thinking that we really aren't a team anymore. Yuki-san was what held us together before, and even Mei-san can't seem to get those two to stop arguing once they start."

"That sucks. Maybe you should just dis-"

"Don't say that! We've already had to deal with that once! Honestly! You're no help!"

"Hey now, let me finish." Satori put up his arms up for defense. "I was going to say that if you three continue to act like this then there's no point in trying to force yourselves to stay as a team. It won't work out if the three of you can't completely see eye-to-eye. Maybe it would just be better for you guys to be solo agents for a while then stay a team that can't stand each other."

"Hm. You honestly sound like Narasaka when you say that. He told me that I might as well quite being a member of Border if I'm going to continue to be down about the whole thing."

"See? He knows. And all apparently you're the only one who's actually trying to get over it. You seem to be doing well with this. I'm glad. I wouldn't be getting a payment from you if you didn't go back to normal~"

"Hm... Thank you, Ken. Honestly."

Satori gave a grin as his friend smiled back.

He was glad to see her getting better. Kitora had told them all of how Toby was currently acting with it being easy to guess what Takeshi was like during all of this, so he didn't want Suzume to be like either one of them.

What he did not expect was for her to walk up to him and give him a small kiss on the cheek. His cheeks went a little red as he turned to see her giving him a more joyful smile and a peace sign.

"That was a thank you for helping me out. The second thanks are some lessons to help you honestly get a date whenever you want~~ I will honestly turn you into the ultimate lady's man."

"Oh my. Are we interrupting something?"

The two of them jumped at the voice that came up from behind them.

The two turned to see a grown woman looking at them with a hand covering her mouth and a girl who seemed to be three years younger than them in a dress. They both had brown hair and some shade of green for their eyes. While the woman's hair was long, the girl's hair was cut short.

"Mom? Mitsu? What are you two doing here? Actually... Yeah. What about the shop?"

"H-huh? That's your _mom?_ Not your _sister_?"

Satori looked from Suzume to the two ladies in front of them.

" _Honestly?_ "

"Oh stop. You're making me blush," the older woman said as she put a hand on her cheek.

"Hey, hey, Nee-chan, is this guy seriously your boyfriend?"

"B-boyfriend!? No! He's just a friend and fellow Sniper! Honestly! Why'd you have to bring her?" Suzume asked, looking at her mother with crossed arms. "And you still haven't honestly answered my question!"

"I'm actually a little curious about this boy as well."

"Hello, Misaki-san. I am Satori Ken, Sniper of the Arashiyama Squad. It's a pleasure to finally meet Suzu-chan's family."

"Oh my. So polite as well. So this is one of the boys you talk about, Suzumebachi-chan. He seems like a great catch."

"Mother!"

"I'm kidding." The older woman turned back to Satori and gave her own small bow. "Hello. I am Misaki Seihana. I was just playing around. I easily recognized you from the television. I want to thank you for all your hard work. And also, for taking care of my daughter."

"Ha ha ha... It's nothing. We're classmates and fellow Snipers, so of course I would take care of her."

Satori scratched the back of his head sheepishly as Seihana let out a giggle.

As they spoke, Satori started to wonder why exactly he had yet to meet either of these two people who seemed to be family for Suzume. There had been a few times when he went over to the Misaki residence for whatever reason, but neither one had been seen during those times.

This was not the time to ask any questions about that, he knew, so he just continued on with their current discussion as if there was not something wrong being felt in his chest.

"Then I will be counting on you, Satori-kun."

"Hey, hey, what about me? I'm Misaki Mitsubachi! I'm Nee-chan's little sister!"

"Nice to meet you too, Mitsubachi-chan."

"Oh yeah. Suzumebachi-chan, I met the other boy you always talk about. Narasaka-kun, I believe his name was. He seemed quite nice as well," Seihana said with a smile. "He did not seem as energetic as Satori-kun here, but he seemed rather pleasant to speak with. I really don't see why you complain about him so much."

None of the girls noticed that Statori has tensed up when he heard the older woman say the fellow Sniper's name. He had been getting a little irritated whenever Suzume had started ranting about Sniper from Miwa Squad or when he would see them "arguing". He didn't really know why since this had always been a thing between the two, but he did know that he always wanted to change the subject or separate the two.

The feelings in his chest grew a bit more. Now it felt like a bit of irritation was rising up instead of an odd feeling.

"One more time... What are you two honestly doing here!? Please tell me that you aren't here just to play around. Even if you're honestly my mom, I can't really say it's fine to be here just to play."

"Oh my. My apologizes then. I didn't mean for it to seek that way. We wanted to take a look around so we won't get lost the next time we come here."

"Why would you come back?"

"To watch you and your team in that tournament you have mentioned, of course."

"I've also honestly told you that you don't need to actually be here to watch it."

"Hey, hey, you didn't seriously expect us to _not_ watch it, did you!? I wanna see your seriously awesome sniping skills!"

"She really is awesome while sniping, but you should see her when she has her blade out. That's when she's super duper ultra mega awesome cool," Satori said with a grin. The expression in Mitsubachi's face made his grin turn into a smile. "Yeah! It's just that cool."

Seihana gave another giggle as she leaned towards her oldest daughter.

The mischievous look in her eyes did not go unnoticed.

"Oh my... So is this the boy you pick?"

"Wh-wh-what are you saying!? Honestly! I've told you already that he's honestly just a friend! You're so embarrassing! I didn't think I could actually get embarrassed in front of Ken-kun, but you honestly a managed it! Mom... You're honestly a scary woman..."

Suzume covered her face to hide the blush that quickly spread to her cheeks.

Seihana gave a smile at her daughter's embarrassment. It was clear that she was enjoying every moment of tormenting her daughter in front of Satori.

"Satori-kun, may I give you some advice?"

"Advice? For what?"

"To win my daughter's heart of course." The oldest woman couldn't help the next giggle come out as the two Snipers went completely red. "You see she just _loves_ clichés. From a boy singing to her, all the way down to an accident that puts her face a few inches away from the boy's."

"Mother! Honestly! Shut up now!"

Hearing this, Satori remembered an incident that had happened concerning Suzume and Narasaka where in the two had ended up in an interesting position. That same day she had even kissed both him and Narasaka yet did not seem effected by it at all.

Yet here she was, waving her hands in front of her mother before doing so in front of him. The amount of red on her face was an amazing sight that he wanted to take a picture of at the moment. The only thing that prevented him from doing that was the fact that Suzume would quickly get a hold of him before he could run away.

"Don't lie to him like that!"

"But I'm not lying. You went on and on when that day was over about how that Narasaka-kun was able to pull off a great cliché."

"Hey, hey, she's right! You even said that you had to seriously try super hard not to blush right in front of him!"

"Not to mention when you said you were ready to just kiss him on the ground."

By this point, Satori was starting to lose his grin. The more he heard about how Suzume felt at that moment, the more he felt like marching up to Narasaka and demanding he apologize to Suzume for doing that. Even if it was not his intention in the first place.

.

After yelling at them some more, Suzume had been able to send her family off to go find the area they were looking for. She crossed her arms and puffed out her red cheeks. She always forgot that her sister and mother were as much into shipping others as her.

"Honestly... Don't listen to them, Ken-kun. They just like embarrassing me."

"Hahaha. It's fine. Besides, now I've met your family."

"Yeah... _Great_."

Even with how red she was, and how her tone seemed, Satori could easily tell that Suzume was genuinely glad that he had met her family. It was hidden under layers of other feelings but he had always been able to figure her out easily enough.

That was enough of a reason to feel a bit superior to Narasaka.

* * *

Mei watched the official captain of their team go over multiple strategies with little interest. It was less because the strategies were bad and more that Takeshi seemed to be overthinking things to extreme levels that it made it seem like he was actually going to war instead a tournament-style one.

She would have helped him if he had asked at any point in time, yet that didn't seem to be a possibility at the moment. So she just sat with something to eat in her hands.

"If we take out Tsuji first... But if they get in Ninomiya's line of fire... There is is the fact that both Hikigane and Kirikari are better than Toby is... I also need to think about the possibility of everyone attacking us at once so they don't have to deal with us..."

"Takeshi, are you going to take a break any time soon?" Mei asked as she finished her snack. "Thinking this much isn't good for you. Breaks are important too. Besides, there are obvious holes in everything you have said so far. Take a break and think things over afterwards."

"I know that, but in order to make sure we can make it to the top I need to come up with the perfect strategy. As I'm sure you know; that is quite hard when we are going against someone like Ninomiya and Hikigane."

"That's true. Even so, tiring yourself out like this is useless if you can't think properly later. And _you know_ that thinking in the middle of battle is important when fighting against any opponent." She didn't get an answer, so she continued. "You should also know that every plan has some hole in it, meaning that you will have to improvise on the battlefield, which brings us back to the main reason."

"Very well. I will take a break...in a few minutes."

"..."

"..."

"Takeshi... You are going so far to make him 'see his error' because he reminds you of them. You're parents and your siblings. That is an idiotic reason. Yuki isn't like them. He isn't like your family was."

Mei knew that bringing up anything to do with Takeshi deceased family was like walking on a landmine; she had to be careful or else something would explode. That was why she spoke in a clam tone that would not set him off immediately.

"You are right again... He is worse than them." Takeshi stopped moving his hand and simply stared at the table with clenched fists. "They simply didn't connect with me, so I didn't care about them...even when they died in such a way...even when they were screaming... I didn't care. Him on the other hand... He forced a connection onto me and then he just shreds it to pieces...as if he didn't care..."

"He did...does care. He wants you all to get stro-"

"Then why did he leave us?"

This was a question she had answered multiple times, yet it seemed as though it would never get through to Takeshi no matter how times she repeated herself. The whole thing just made her sigh in resignation. Even if she changed the way she phrased it, even if she made him remember everything up until now, he still didn't listen. That left her with one option left.

It was something she did not want to bring up without the consent of Yuki, as per their agreement, but the fact that he had not been listening to her pushed things to this point.

Yet another reason for her to hit Yuki.

"Takeshi..."

"What now?"

"I want to tell you a story." Mei put her empty cup down and went to sit across from the Shooter. "It's a pretty long story, so no interruptions."

"Mei-san, I have to-"

"No interruptions."

"...Got it."

"Good. Now listen well. I'm gonna tell you about what exactly things were like before either I or Yuki met you guys. I expect you to listen well to it."

There was no way out of this.

Mei knew that Takeshi did not want to hear anything about their former captain which was why she was doing it in the first place. Even if he didn't want to hear it, she would make sure he understood what everything meant to both her and Yuki.

If that did not work then she would take drastic measures that she hoped it would never get to.


	29. Toby Awdry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hikigane Squad is owned by Lvl7Loser

The sounds of shots being fired in the sniping range were heard in rapid succession. Each one was quick enough for context clues to give away that Lighting was being used to fire off each shot fired.

It took another minute before the shots stopped completely.

The one firing the shots had been Misaki Suzumebachi. She looked forward to see that there had been only a single time she hit the center of the target while most of the other times circled around it, as if they had no chance at hitting the middle.

She clicked her tongue while turning around.

Satori Ken was standing behind her, silently watching the whole thing. He knew that he would have to help her later on with what he just saw. For now he would just smile at her while they spoke, only having a few minutes before having to leave for the first round of the B-Rank Wars.

"So are you going to watch us go at it? I honestly know this wasn't the best display of sniping, but I'll be able to do better with the real deal."

"I'm so, so, so sorry, Suzu-chan! I really want to but I'm actually commenting on Tamakoma's battle. The other person is Mikumo and I had already agreed to do it."

"I see... Alright. I suppose you can't really turn them down. Yeah. I would honestly do the same thing if I were in your shoes." Suzume looked up with a smile that seemed a little strained. "Have fun then. No need to worry about us. We'll honestly finish things up right quick."

"I promise that when the fight is done, I'll go straight to yours!"

"No, no. It's fine. Besides, do you honestly think the other teams will last that long against us? We'll be done before you even leave the room."

"I will hold you to that. I will be watching your match."

The two turned to see Narasaka walking up to them. His expression told everything - it told them exactly how much he hated saying those words. It was really a mirrored expression of Suzume's, who looked about ready to walk away.

"You will be watching? Why? So you could honestly find something to make fun of me with?"

"You're mother and sister asked that Shōhei and I watch it with them. They said that since we are your friends that it would be great for the four of us to watch." Narasaka crossed his arms as he continued. "I don't know where they got the idea that we were friends, but I agreed anyways. I am not so rude as deny."

"I would rather you not be around my sister. Shōhei-kun is honestly fine, but you're just going to be a bad influence on her."

The atmosphere around the trio started to grow dark with both Narasaka and Suzume glaring daggers at each other. It was that fact that made Satori take a step forward to defuse the situation before it went anywhere else.

"We have thirty minutes before the first round starts. Suzu-chan, you should probably go meet up with your team before it starts. I'm sure you guys will need the time to come up with something to deal with Ninomiya Squad and Hikigane Squad."

"Yeah. Fine."

Satori let out a sigh, glad that nothing violent had happened.

While he wished to see Kotowari Squad's first match, he had a different match to watch. That meant how much he could see in real time was limited by the three teams he had to commentate on.

Even so, he would try to focus on the match with Tamakoma then make his way to see how Kotowari Squad did.

That was the best he could do given the situation.

* * *

Toby Awdry bared his teeth while letting out an audible growl as he stared up at the man before him. His unkept hair gave him a beastly look as opposed to the clean cut look of the man.

One would find it hard to tell that the two of them were parent and child.

"What the hell do you want?"

"Your brother said he wants to see you fight. While I don't care much for such things, I do wish to see how you are doing here. Call it a gut feeling, but I think I will see something rather interesting today because of you."

"Tch. Yeah right. What are planning? It isn't hard to tell that your words are nothing but shit just coming out with the flow of this conversation. I already know well enough that you don't give a damn about either of us. So you want to show my fight to someone so that you can be proven right."

"I am telling you now that you better lose. I want to show your brother that being an agent at Border isn't all that great. He seems to think that it is 'cool and heroic' to be a member of Border. I want to destroy that illusion for him. It is better that he continue to focus on his studies and learn how to take care of both our companies. Unlike his failure brother of course."

"What the hell is wrong with you!? Why are you trying to mess him up too!?"

"Do not speak to me like that. I have decided to sponsor Border since I do appreciate what they do, but I do not want the heir to both companies to go off and runaway like his failure older brother. He has some actual common sense. He is still a child. That means he can get crazy thoughts in his head that have no right to be there."

Toby could feel his anger get to the boiling point with every word that came out from his father's mouth.

Everything was starting to accumulate in his mind by this point. The disbanding of Tsukiko Squad and the appearance of his father were both festering in him while the pressure of the B-Rank Wars bore down on him. It was dangerous to hear anymore from this man and he knew it.

A single thread of salvation came to him in the form two small people. While their conversation was going on they seemed to have been blocking the path for these two to walk through.

"Oh! Hey Toby. Are you on your way to your first match too?"

"Hello, Awdry-senpai."

Toby could feel himself start to calm down just a little bit when hearing the voices of the two Tamakoma members behind him.

He looked over while lowering his brows. There had never been a reason for him to glare at either Kuga or Amatori, so he did his best to keep his face neutral enough for them.

"Yeah. I was just going to meet up with my team when... This man just needed to tell me something."

"Humu~ Humu~ Is he your family? You two look alike."

"Please don't say that..."

It was just a whisper but both Kuga and Amatori heard it. That was enough for them to stop asking those kinds of questions.

"So, isn't your round one match also going to start? We should all go so we can make it on time."

Kuga gave a quick bow to Henry before turning back to Toby and Amatori. His eyes gave a foreboding look as they moved from father to son, as if to say that should Henry stop them for any reason he would have something to say about it.

Toby felt glad to have Kuga and Amatori there to stop him from doing something he would regret later on.

He gladly took this chance to leave with them.

Away from that man.

* * *

It was finally time for Kotowari Squad's first match and the whole team was waiting to start. They were in their uniform, the same ones as before, but without an emblem.

Their first round opponents were the #1 B-Rank Ninomiya Squad and the ever topping Hikigane Squad. Unlike the times before this, Hikigane Squad had a new member on their team, making it three Combatants and one Operator.

Mei could see that both Suzume and Toby were deep in thought while Takeshi was simply going over everything planned once more.

Takeshi spoke to them with an indifferent tone while not noticing that his two teammates were paying little attention to him.

Deciding to help them out before they went into a fight, she gathered their attentions, making sure Toby and Suzume were actually listening to her. Once that was done she clapped her hands while words started coming out.

"Alright you three. There's something I want to tell you. You may not want to hear this since it was something Yuki told me... But I want you three to remember these words throughout all your fights from now on."

She went back to when she first heard these words and could see the exact face looking away from her and the exact hand outstretched to her at that moment. She couldn't help but inwardly smile at the fond memory.

"Always repeat the words in your head... 'If you can't do something by yourself, then I'll help you. If I can't do something by myself, then you'll help me. That's what working together means. Helping each other out is the advantage of working together.' You three got that? Always remember those words."

"Right."

* * *

[B-Rank Battles Round 1! I have the role of commentator today - Arashiyama Squad's Ayatsuji! The color commentators are Katagiri Squad leader Katagiri and Kazama Squad's Utagawa!]

[Glad to be here.]

[It's a pleasure to be here.]

[Since it's the first day, would one of you mind explaining how these battles work?]

[Sure thing. B-Rank is separated into three groups, the Top, the Middle, and the Bottom. With more teams this time around the three groups are split depending on rankings. Then commences the 2 vs 1 and 2 vs 2 battles, in which participants fight to win points. The ways to win points are to simply take out someone from the opposing squad for one point. Being the last survivor in the end gives a two point bonus.]

[Earning points will increase your team's ranking. The goal is to reach the first position. Those in the first and second positions will have the privileges to battle against those in A-Rank.]

[Thank you for the explanation. Also, the teams who are placed in positions from last season will already be awarded bonus points according to their positions. Meaning they will have an advantage over other teams.]

.

"Hey, hey, look where Nee-chan's team seriously is! That's a great spot! Isn't that right?"

"Yes. It most certainly is. It looks like they are in the Top group."

Seihana turned to the two boys who were sitting next to her with a smile.

"You two know my daughter more when it comes to fighting. Would you mind telling me about how well she does in this battle?"

"We wouldn't mind at all," Kodera said, a bit nervous while sitting next to the woman. "She is usually near the middle section during practice... When she tries that is."

"Her way of fighting depends on what situations she's put in," added Narasaka with a stoic expression. "She's officially a Sniper, but she can double as an Attacker. There is another person in Border who can do that, but they are very different from each other."

"I see."

.

"Wow! Big brother is pretty high on the list!"

"Hm. I suppose that means he has some talent. He always has been a rowdy child. No wonder he would enjoy such things." Henry stared at the screen with an almost bored look while his youngest child excitedly watched on. "I assume he used his comrades to get that rank though."

"If you're talking about Fuzzy Head, then you're wrong."

Henry turned his head to the side, his child doing the same. A man with black hair and freckles was walking up to them casually while looking at the large screen. He did not seem to surprised by what he was seeing.

"And who might you be?"

"I am Hatohara Minoru. A-Rank and friend to your son." The All-Rounder continued to look at the screen as he leaned on the railing. "I guess you're here to see how well your son does."

"Hm. I suppose you could say that."

.

[Before the fighters are teleported in, I would like to ask for you opinions on how you think this will go down. With this being a fight between top teams there seems to be a good amount of people sitting in the stands, so I'm sure they would like to hear what you have to say.]

[Well, that's difficult to say. While both Ninomiya Squad and Hikigane Squad are always at the top, and have the strength to show why, Kotowari Squad is no pushover. They have a Sniper who can easily adapt to her situation, a Shooter who can continuously fire, and an Attacker who is hard to catch on a bad day.]

[That may be true but, since their initial disbandment as Tsukiko Squad, they have lost their ace and captain. As any agent could tell you, the past few days they have seen better days as a team.]

[Do you think they'll be able to get passed that to get some points?]

[I'm not too sure...]

[And your thoughts on the matter, Utagawa-kun?]

[While I do agree with all of that, I believe they'll be able to pull this off well enough. That being said, they will have to make up for the lack of a member while also taking into consideration the fact Hikigane Swuad has a new member themselves.]

[That's right. Hikigane Sauad has Girikage on their side now. While he is someone we have information on, we can't say too much on how their tacts have changed from before.]

[We'll just have to wait and see, I suppose.]

[That's right. But we won't have to wait too long! It seems they have been teleported in already! The area choice went to Kotowari Squad for having the lowest rank and it seems they have gone with an interesting area and high winds for the weather!]

[That area is a construction area with dangers from supports giving out and incomplete buildings having the possibility of falling.]

[They were most likely trying to find ways to block Ninomiya's shots while keeping Hikigane at bay and far enough to where he can't do too much.]

* * *

_How the hell did I get unlucky enough to land on a damn beam with this wind!?_

Toby let out an irritated sigh as he jumped and weaved through the support beams of the unfinished building to reach the ground safely. The the wind helped to stop Hikigane Squad from being in the air, but it also stopped Suzume from getting a good shot right away, along with making Toby have to fight against it if he was on the wrong end.

The buildings and dangerous areas all around made it hard to him to focus too much on other things. His defense was not too high since attacking was all he ever needed to do, meaning he was in a bad spot if the support from a building was destroyed while the harsh winds blew.

_No one besides Suzume is using Bagworm right now. They're probably as cautious because of the wind and would rather have their defenses ready._

The words he had heard from his father rang out in his head, making him stall a bit.

_"Toby, keep your focus on this. Someone is coming up fast... Wait, make that two people... No... Three. Get ready for a melee."_

"Gotcha! Suzume, you find where I'm at yet?"

_"Yeah. I'm honestly keeping a good eye out. Just make sure to dodge my shots if they end up missing."_

"No need to tell me what I already kn-!"

Toby made an immediate stop before curling his upper body. Multiple Scirpion blades came from his back as something came down from above him. This defense had been reflexive, but it was enough for him.

The sound of a shot passing by could be heard.

The pressure from the blade on his back was gone.

_"Watch out behind you. It's Inukai-senpai."_

Toby teleported into the air, putting his back into the higher support beams but away from Girikage and Inukai.

He had only a few seconds to register that there were only two other people. With reflexes alone, he moved to turn around while a new blade went for his head.

Once his mind caught up to his body he saw that he was now facing Tsuji.

He could feel their balance waver as another strong gust of wind blew through the support beams. The entire structure groaned from the movement as it shook violently.

* * *

[And there's the first confrontation! It seems that agent Inukai, agent Tsuji and agent Girikage are all going after agent Awdry instead of facing each other!]

[That's understandable. While Awdry isskilled at close combat, and can dodge shots from ranged shooters because of his Side Effect, against three highly skilled agents, it will be difficult for him to land a good hit and defend at the same time.]

[And because of the high winds, Misaki won't be able to help out as much as usual. That leaves an opening for others to come in and hit for Awdry's weak spot.]

[If the wind was not a factor then they would be in a better position. Misaki would have a higher chance of attacking and Awdry could move through those kinds of structures with little issue.]

[That brings the question of why they chose this specific setting. It seems to be working against Kotowari Squad, doesn't it?]

[Not all of them...]

.

"How do you suppose that boy will get out of this?"

"I know just how strong he is from solo matches before. He also has Suzu-chan with him in this case. It'll be a bit tough but he can get out of this."

"I see. So he bothers other agents to fight with him..."

"He doesn't bother anyone. We all enjoying having matches with him."

Minoru wore a sour expression as he spoke to Henry. The words coming from the man's mouth felt more like poison than that of a parent watching their child. He wanted to just leave the man but he felt like he should stay to explain things to the man.

Then there was the child by their feet.

"Come on... I know he can win..."

Minoru glanced down at the youngest boy and got a small smile on his face when he saw how he watched his brother fight with an expecting look.

"Calm down. No need to be excited over that...failure."

Minoru truly felt like leaving this man before he punched him.

* * *

Toby was well aware of the bad position he was put in.

Against only Tsuji it would have been manageable, that was what he knew. With Girikage and Inukai lingering around closer to the floor it was made more difficult. He was stuck in the higher area while the winds blew the unstable structure.

He was well aware of what Inukai was capable of from fighting him multiple times. There were no secrets to either one on that matter. The same went for Tsuji. Girikage was the unknown factor to him. They had fought enough times to count on one hand, meaning he was no well suited to fight him right now.

It was at times like these that he was glad to have teammates.

_Suzume is in a good position right now. She's not too far from us but she's not close enough to be spotted. I'm better at combos with Takeshi, but Suzume has better synergy with me since our Side Effects match up well._

Nodding to himself, Toby continued his fight by moving forward.

The wind was an issue for both of them, meaning they were out on an equal footing when it came to the field. That seemed to be the best he could ask for at the moment.

Aerial tactics were put to a halt as footwork was forced to become a focus for the two of them.

_"Toby, Takeshi is fighting off against Ninomiya right now. See if you can lead these three over to that area so you three can pick them off."_

"Roger."

Toby jumped down from the support beam he was on and went for Inukai. He brought out two blades to block the bullets headed for him and could see Tsuji headed for him from the corner of his eye.

The distance between the two was only a few feet away from each other.

Toby had the ability to move through the air with relative ease due to natural way of fighting while Tsuji held the advantage in covering the distance due to his longer blade.

Knowing how the both of them could fair in their current position, Toby twisted his body so that it clashed with Tsuji's oncoming attack.

The two of them felt the winds pick up again and tossed them aside after their blades connected.

Tsuji was able to land of a horizontal beam, maintaining his natural composure.

Toby felt his feet touch one of the vertical beams.

_Now!_

.

Tsuji saw the attack coming from where he stood.

The wind tried to force him to the side. It did the same for Toby yet it looked like it didn't bother him in the slightest. The odds of it being because of the force he used to push off the beam was high.

There was enough room for him to steady himself enough to brace for the incoming attack.

He found that if Toby were to make another immediate attack after this block then it would end terribly for him.

That was why he was ready to also make a grab for the smaller Attacker the moment their blades clashed.

It did not matter how well Toby could normally move while in mid-air if he also had to be careful of being blown away by the wind.

_Now._

.

Toby and Tsuji moved their arms at the same time.

While one had easily broken blades that could be reconstructed just as easily, the other had a sturdy blade that was not so easily broken.

The difference between the two could be seen with how Toby tried to push through the other with little effect.

Tsuji used this chance to raise his other hand up, intending to grab hold of the brown hair in front of him.

Without needing to register the grab, Toby forced his body to the left.

The wind blew once more.

His body was carried by the wind and the force his body created by moving in the direction.

His fall was slowed down to the point where he could resister what he needed by his brain.

A blade came from his foot, stabbing into the horizontal beam under the two of them.

From his odd angle, he swung his body completely around the horizontal beam until he was not on the opposite side of where he fell.

Tsuji prepared for the attack as best he could with his blade barely making it in time to protect him from having his head cut from his body.

The action caused the two of them to get blown off of the horizontal beam due to the harsh winds that ran through the unfinished building.

.

Toby was unsure as to how he had ended up on the position he was in without noticing.

Even so, he knew just how to handle it while doing as he had been told by Mei.

_"Suzume! Do you think you can take those ones at the time down?"_

_"Yeah. Give me a few more seconds to get the timing right, but I can honestly manage it."_

Toby was grateful for at least one of his teammates working with him.

_Now it's my turn again._

Using his knowledge of Scorpion and the harsh winds, he twisted his body in the air. He started to rotate faster than Tsuji could fix himself, meaning this was his best chance.

His foot same down on the older Attacker with more than enough force to send him crashing into the ground. Right into the fight between Inukai and Girikage.

" _Suzume!"_

_"Honestly on it!"_

The sound of the shot had been canceled out by the winds, but it was still made.

The few shots that had been fired were not directed towards the fighters on the ground and instead at some wires that had been holding up beams around them.

The beams started their fall towards the ground.

Their speed was faster than Toby's to the point that he knew when to get his timing right for his plan.

With little hesitation, he teleported above of the beams, making sure to be balanced enough to step on it.

The moment he stepped on it, applying more force to it, the beam fell even faster than before.

He related this process with the other falling beams. Each one increased in speed as they were pushed down by the Attacker who had little regard to the things around him.

.

Inukai, Tsuji and Giri looked up as the multiple beams came raining down in them in different angles.

They all prepared by moving as best they could. Each one tried to find ways of attacking while they moved but found that difficult when they had to be mindful of what was above them.

"Wow~ Toby is really trying to destroy us here, isn't he?"

"Aren't you the one who had told us about how he has been acting recently? This shouldn't come as too much of a surprise."

"I didn't say it was surprising. All I am saying it that we should probably talk to Yuki after this concerning Toby."

Looking over the best he could, Inukai could see that Girikage was moving relatively well on the winds and the rain of beams.

This too did not surprise him in the slightest.

"Hey, Tsuji-chan, can you take care of Dai-chan for a bit? I think I can handle Toby for now."

As if to put emphasis on his words, the last beam came smashing into the ground behind Inukai. It imbedded itself in a slanted position that seemed to give Toby a ramp to slide down on.

Inukai reacted by turning around and start firing up.

He watched as Toby jumped from the beam towards Girikage.

_I guess he wants to take out the unknown factor first. He already knows how to deal with us two. Girikage is something who can actually be a real threat to his Side Effect._

Inukai grinned at these thoughts.

_He's really acting like an animal who is relying on his instincts._

.

Tsuji moved to keep up with both Toby and Girikage. That was hard on its own when the former could use Teleport and the latter had an odd way of fighting in his own right.

Before he could reach his target, Tsuji brought up his blade to block the shots fired at him from Girikage. It appeared that he would be kept at bay while Girikage would handle Toby at close range.

With his body being pushed from side to side, he had more trouble dealing with the shits than he normally would have. This also created a small opening for something to come from somewhere and strike him in the arm.

_Misaki._

He saw the hole that had been created due to a shot fired at him.

_She has better patience than I figured to take that shot and land a hit._

.

Seeing the shot land, Toby knew what to do.

He turned his eyes to the side for a single moment to appear in front of Inukai - blade ready to cut his head off.

The two had little time to do much after the teleportation as a sudden flash raced towards them from where Toby had once been.

Both Toby and Inukai were surprised when they noticed Inukai start to fall. Hie leg had been cut clean off by the flash and now forced him to fall.

That seems to be both a good thing as well as a bad thing.

Toby now how to defend from Tsuji's next attack while Inukai prepared to catch himself while keeping an eye on Girikage.

Multiple blades came from Toby's body as he caught himself on one foot.

Using what little momentum he had, and wind that ran through the area, he started to spin rapidly while still in close proximity of both Inukai and Tsuji.

_This should be enough to-_

"You should be careful when you do that. It could also end up hurting you."

"-!?"

Toby went wide-eyed as he forced his spin to move enough to send him filing towards the unfinished building again. This time it was far too uncontrollable and forced him to crash into the building instead of simply stopping him.

He looked down to see that his arm was now cut off and smaller cuts were on his body.

_So he didn't go after Takeshi... Crap._

Toby looked forward at the one who had used his attack against him.

"How nice of you to give advice to our opponent, Captain."

"Tch. Damn. I guess I'm still in the mindset of a teacher when around people like him."

The new arrival took in some air, making them all try and find some way of escape. He let out that breath in a sigh as he quickly turned around and took off Tsuji's head.

**Bail Out.**

* * *

[Captain Hikigane takes no time to take out his opponent!]

[With him around, Awdry is going to have trouble with his Side Effect. This kind of pressure will be bad for him. He was having enough trouble with the other three, but now that Hikigane-san has arrived... His Side Effect is basically useless."

[But why did he give advice to Awdry?]

.

"Side Effect? What is that?" Henry asked, looking from the screen to Minoru.

"Basically speaking, it's a special trait a person has depending on how much Trion they have."

"I see. And that boy has a Side Effect. What exactly-"

.

[For those of you who do not know, Awdry's Side Effect is an enhancement on his natural reflexes. We don't know much more than that due to him not saying anything particular about that. But he seems to be able to dodge any sort of attack without even realizing that he is doing so.]

[But he has to take time to register what's going on when that happens. What's more is that, when out under pressure, his reflexes slow down.]

* * *

The likelihood of escaping the current situation was low.

Mei's Side Effect was not needed to know that the amount of people around the area meant that Toby would not be able to move how he wanted.

He used his arms and legs, his momentum and the wind, yet he felt like he was only putting himself into a corner at this point as Hikigane moved just as well as him while Inukai and Girikage were following behind. The distance between them all continue to close as the time went on.

Each attack made on him by one of the three opponents was blocked to the best of his abilities.

The strike from the blades were blocked by weaker blades.

The shots that came from a distance were dodged by using the beams.

Each person had their own defenses and offensives on this front as sudden shots appeared from seemingly nowhere and laser-like beams tore through the air.

.

 _"Jinsei, where are you? You should have caught up by now,_ " Hikigane mentally said as he broke one of Toby's blades.

He knew that under normal circumstances he would not be having such an easy time in this fight.

It was sad to see the dog-like boy so unrefined in his fight, but everyone on the battlefield understood that it meant they would have a better chance at getting points. None of them would go easy simply because of personal issues.

_"Sorry, sorry~~ I decided to go after Suzu-kun! Hope you don't mind~"_

_"Just make sure you get her in one go. If you let her escape, even for a few seconds-"_

_"I know, I know. Just leave it to me and have your fun over there."_

Hikigane let out a sigh as he jumped down from one beam to a lower one in order to dodge some shots Inukai fired off.

.

_Damn! Suzume can't get good shots in while we're here!_

Toby jumped back far enough to where he was now falling from the unfinished building.

His position had become worse as all three fights turned to him while firing their shots at him without any hesitation.

This forced him into action at a pace where he could not move how he wanted. The best tactic he could think of was to look in the direction of Inukai.

He was gone from his spot in the air.

His destination was clear enough for Inukai to turn around and block the attack by using his gun.

Even with the attack properly block, he was forced back by the attack itself.

"I already know that trick because of Yuki. You need to either be faster or more tactful~"

"Shut up!"

.

Inukai was surprised by the sudden laser-like beam that tore through the air.

Using some knowledge he had from how Yuki would move at times, Inukai created a shield to use as a platform to move out of the way of the laser-like beam.

From his new position in the air, he could see Takeshi moving about with Ninomiya a good distance away.

His shots had a new target.

The FN P90 gun was forced to move while firing shots towards the Laser-Shooter. The wind and distance did not matter with attacks coming from both the front, back, top, and sides. That kind of attack could only be dealt with by a handful of people.

That would only apply if the target was alone.

Inukai was fully aware of the next actions that would be taken by Toby and prepared correctly.

"You're open."

He was prepared for the surprise attack from Girikage.

But...

"So are you."

Inukai continued to grin as he saw the Attacker get shot through by the multiple Hound shots that were fired from a distance.

* * *

"Sorry~ Next time check your surroundings~"

"I'll make sure to reprehend him for that."

Inukai used what he could to twist his body in the air so that his attackers could pass by him.

His efforts were not wasted as both Toby and Hikigane went under him while also attacking each other.

An arm flew through the air.

A leg started for the ground.

* * *

[It looks like things have been turned around! Now Agent Awdry has more support while both Hikigane Squad and Ninomiya Squad are down a member!]

[At this point, it might not mean much.]

[Huh? Would you mind explaining?]

[It's simple. While it is true that Kotowari Squad has all three members currently out, none of them have managed to score a point yet. Not to mention Kirikari hasn't gotten involved yet.]

[But isn't that usually his style? "Wait for the right moment and take them all out," as he says.]

[Thats true, but he had multiple opportunities to come out and take one or two points.]

[I see.]

.

"This Kirikari person seems like a coward if that is how he does things," Henry said with a prejudice expression. "A clear offensive strategy would be best when facing others of the like. Keep that strategy behind a powerful defense and winning is as easy as snapping."

"Each person has their own style. Working on that style, refining it, and making it suit you best is what it takes to really get stronger," Minoru said with a small tired sigh.

This had not been the first comment from the man made that forced Minoru to give a similar reaction to Hikigane.

_I guess harsh tactics and single-mindedness is how he works._

"So does Big Bro's style work against these people? He lost an arm, but he doesn't seem fazed by it at all," the kid said, looking up at Minoru.

_Wow... This kid looks like a kid version of Fuzzy Head..._

Getting a small smile on his face, Minoru answered.

"He isn't fazed since we can tone down the pain in our Trion Bodies. As for his style... He's actually the worst one off here. He relies heavily on those makeshift blades, but they don't stand a chance against the more sturdy blade that are being used, or against people who can attack from all around."

"So he will lose because he is weak against his opponents and can't find a way around their attacks. Hm. Sounds about right. In situations like that it is best to either give up right away or have a backup plan for dealing with such people. A true failure it seems."

"Take-kun is with him there," Minoru said with a small sneer. "And he's been able to last this long with little backup."

"Even so, if he was good enough, he would have taken at least one person down by now."

_This man..._

* * *

"So what's the plan now?"

"..."

"Hm?"

"You try and get close to Ninomiya and Inukai. I'll do something for that while also holding back Hikigane."

"Right."

Putting the plan into action, Toby ran towards the two remaining Ninomiya Squad members withhold kind ready to take out a blade from anywhere on his body. The two of them knew how his attacks worked, but he could manage with that handicap.

The two started to fire at him.

"- - -"

Each shot was taken down by the Science Fiction laser-like beam. This created an opening for him to cut through so that he could reach the targets.

His main target had become Inukai the moment the two older fighters moved back.

The wind forced their bodies to move in awkward ways as they pushed against it. It left a small window for Toby to attack with his Scorpion blades.

_Just need to-_

"!?"

His easily broken blades were destroyed by the solid blade of Kōgetsu.

Hikigane moved forward towards him while firing shots at Inukai.

The two noticed each attack and moved accordingly.

The distance between Toby and Inukai was even greater now.

The three fighters planted their feet into the ground for a few seconds. It was the on,h break they could take before it started again.

The moment they moved forward, multiple shadows could be seen on the ground.

Laser-like beams went for Inukai once more at the same time as Hound shots were going towards both Toby and Hikigane.

The effect each attack had on the area could be seen as the unfinished building creaked noisily before breaking apart above them.

Each fighters used what they would to dodge the onslaught of the building.

Toby and Hikigane weaved easily through the entire things, Inukai, being the furthest from the building, moved back to a safe position while the two Shooters destroyed what they could before it hit them. The area was littered with destruction all around, no one seeming to mind in the slightest.

"There has been less Sniper shots heading for us..." Hikigane noted to himself. "Guess Jinsei got to her."

_"We have a problem, you two. Suzume is trying to get away from Kirikari, but he keeps catching up."_

"Urg... I suppose if we make a big enough distraction, the two of us could go help and get a point, but..."

"Very well. We will do that," Takeshi said as one of the orbs by his head went off elsewhere. "I'll keep one of them ready from behind you. Try and get Hikigane and Inukai close again so I can destroy one of the buildings..."

"Fine."

.

Toby faced the direction of Inukai before mentally activating his Trigger.

He went for another attack towards the Gunner's head, this time seeming to have the advantage by not being noticed.

A shield was quickly made to block the attack.

He could see Inukai's gun pointed at him the moment he touched the shield and prepared to teleport away.

This action did not go unnoticed by Hikigane, who was in front of him a moment later.

Toby was prepared for the laser-like beam from behind him.

But...

_"Takeshi, don't-!"_

"Asteroid."

"!?"

"...!"

**Bail Out.**


	30. Suzumebachi Misaki: Part 2

"Sensei, I know you need help over here, but can I leave now?"

Akasora Chishi lifted his head from what he was looking at to see Yuki facing him with an expecting look.

Ever since the Yagura Branch had been officially created, Yuki had been as siding him in any way possible as his right hand man and direct messenger to the other branch and Border HQ. To say that a good amount of work went to the sick boy would have been an understatement.

Akasora knew that he should not put any more on the boy's shoulders when the condition of his health was known. The issue came when Yuki insisted that he wanted to help out his former teacher however he could. He was his direct boss and former instructor for both Border and school, giving him high importance to the boy.

When a simple request like this was asked of him there was no chance he would reject it.

"That's fine. You're free to go. Take some days off as well. At least from helping me out over here. Anything else will have to be dealt with later on."

"Thanks. I've been meaning to get some other things done and this will help out a bit with that."

"Oh? Is it something you can speak to me about? Or are you planning on keeping this a secret from others as well?"

Yuki gave a hollow laugh.

"No, no. Right now, I just want to see how my former teaming is doing in their match. They started some time ago and wanted to see them in person instead of recordings of them."

"You idiot. You should have told me that. I didn't know they were having their first match today. I would have thrown you out long ago to watch them."

Yuki gave another laugh. This time it was filled with something else.

Akasora knew exactly what it was.

"As for the other things... Well, it's not like it's particularly a secret. I just don't think that there's much of a reason to mention it. Some of it involves the first team I was on while others concerns some Tamakoma members."

"Don't tell me that you're planning on fighting Reiji again."

"Please don't remind me of that..."

Yuki fixed some loose papers on the desk while pretending nothing had happened in his past with the Full-Arms user of Tamakoma.

Akasora could see what he was doing and only grinned at the response.

"Disregarding those things... Do you want me to tell you how things go with Kotowari Squad later on? As Toby and Takeshi's former school teacher I figure that you might want to know how they currently are."

"It's up to you. I never taught them anything when it came to Border. There's no reason for me to know how they do things outside of school."

"Fair enough." Yuki sighed, knowing full well how his teacher was at times. "Then I'll be leaving now. If anything comes up, let me know. I'll be back as soon as possible."

"Just go already."

Seeing his student roll his eyes was enough to lighten Akasora's shoulders.

The assistance he was getting from Yuki was appreciated, that was clean, but he did feel bad for not telling his student that he did not need to help out so much with his condition. It always annoyed him that he never said anything concerning the topic.

He let out a sigh of his own as he watched his student leave the room through the door.

That should have been how he left. But...

"Did he..."

Akasora looked towards the door and registered the fact that it had been closed the entire time. It have never been opened to leave the room within the last few seconds.

"That brat. He's getting too use to that body."

Akasora folded his arms with a grin.

"Using Teleport to get out of here. Cheeky brat."

* * *

_"Takeshi, don't-"_

_"-!?"_

Suzume was unsure as to what was going on while she continue to run from the relentless attacks of Kirikari Jinsei.

Ever since he had found out where she was located he had been attacking her from both close range and from a distance. Each attack was made to force her into action instead of taking her out. Whether it was to mess around with her or for a plan was unknown.

Even so, she had not taken a single hit from him yet. That alone was rather troubling. The things she was hearing from her teammates only caused her to become more worried as the time went on.

"Hey! What's going on?"

_"(That damn bastard used me as a decoy! He shot right through me!)"_

_"What he is saying is that Takeshi shot through him without his consent to try and get a hit on Hikigane."_

"What!?"

"Hey, hey, hey~~ Do you really think you should be distracted, Suzu-kun~?"

Feeling Kirikari even closer, Suzume turned around and fired a shot from her Lightning. Using the shot as a distraction, she glanced to the side before disappearing.

She appeared just behind a building and landed before taking off again. Using her Radar, she found where Kirikari was, along with the other four fighters.

_I need to really be careful here. If I don't move carefully, Kirikari will find me out. Having never fought him before also puts me at a disadvantage. Even Toby hasn't had too many matches with him. Damn that Takeshi... Why is he-_

_"Suzume, don't bother thinking about Takeshi. Just stay out of his way and go after Inukai. If you want to score points then go after him then hide for the rest of the time. We will get some points due to time running out at the very least."_

_So he's already injured, huh? I guess that'll help. We can deal with Takeshi later._

Nodding to herself, Suzume headed towards the four fighting while still being on lookout for Kirikari.

_We really aren't in synch this time..._

* * *

[I-! I can't believe it! Agent Awdry was taken out by what seemed to be an attack from Captain Hikigane and a shot through the body from his own comrade, Captain Kotowari!]

[I guess we use this to see how much the team has been effected with their original captain off the team.]

[Even so, this development is concerning. To shoot through an ally with no consent or concern is bad. Especially when facing true enemies.]

.

"Why would he do something like that to his own teammate!?" Mitsubachi yelled as she turned to the two Snipers.

"That doesn't look good."

"With the way Kotowari is acting, I doubt he'll be actually scoring any points. He just gave one to the opposing team. Misaki should be aware of this, so she'll most likely stick to sniping the current weakest fighter and stay out of any fights to at least earn some points."

Narasaka turned his attention from the screen to take a side glance above them.

_I wonder how Tsukiko is reacting to this..._

"She should be able to stay clear of any fighting. Her Side Effect is good for dodging close range opponents, right?"

Narasaka looked over at Kodera's question.

He faced the screen once more. His answer gained the attention of the two females next to him.

"Yes, but there's an issue now thanks to Kotowari. Misaki is able to dodge close range fighters because of her Side Effect while Awdry is able to dodge long range attacks because of his Side Effect, but with Awdry out and all current fights being able to fire at long range... She'll have to be careful."

"My daughter is smart. I'm sure she'll find away around all of this, regardless if she doesn't have backup from her supposed teammate," Seihana commented calmly. "That is my feelings towards the matter. I can only speak as an outside for this kind of issue."

"I suppose we'll see how she does then."

* * *

Suzume could see her target from the top of a building roof. Her lighting was ready to fire at an unsuspecting Inukai with the only stopping her being the raging winds around them.

The moment she was ready to fire...

"Found you~~"

"!"

Suzume reacted purely on instincts by ducking under the Kōgetsu strike that was aimed at her head.

She used teleport to move away as multiple shots were fired where she had once been. Even that seemed to be planned out as more shots were already going right for her without a second to rest.

_Even if it wasn't that far, they're coming at me before I can honestly teleport again!_

Mentally cursing at the time delay she had to deal with, Suzume prepared a shield while moving back to evade any more attacks.

Looking around, she found no places where she could teleport to without giving Kirikari time to reach her once more. Seeing nowhere to go now, she stood straight while lifting her hand and deactivating her Bagworm.

_Looks like I honestly don't have a choice._

* * *

[And there is Agent Misaki's Twin Stingers!]

[I haven't seen that look on her face before. She must be really mad.]

[I wouldn't say she is all out mad, but she is getting pretty irritated right now. I don't blame her though. Finding to she can't trust her own teammate and having been stopped by the same person would easily tick her off. She's the type to take comradery seriously, so the fact she hasn't taken out Kotowari out yet shows her ability to stay calm.]

[She must have realized something about the disbandment then. She is the first one of the three to seem to have gotten over it. At least enough to continue fighting here.]

[We'll see about that...]

* * *

Kirikari continued to grin while moving forward with the clear intent to win this fight.

Their back-and-forth continued on with each attack being blocked or simply missing. Each time Kirikari would go for an attack, Suzume would seem to be prepared with a counter measure to the attack. This continued on even as they jumped from one building to another.

Even surprise attacks via Teleport were useless when everything was laid bare for him to see. Each attack from behind was predicted and blocked while also attacking at the same time.

He moved his arm forward to grab onto her head. This was also defined by kicking his hand away. The moment he went for a kick it was pushed down using her knee.

From his spot in the fight he could see flashes from the side and laser-like beams tearing the air apart. His grin never fell as he gaudier the girl towards those raging attack in the distance. It was clear that Suzume was only focusing on him and his movements, deciding to disregard their surroundings.

He had never bothered to make any sort of plans, leaving everything up to the moment and chance, but this seemed to be the perfect time to make one. He could tell that there was no reason not to when his current opponent was not completely in the right mind.

_"Hey, Kai-chan, we're headed your way. Did you take anyone else out yet?"_

_"No. Each time I go after Haru, damn Masa gets in the way. And each time I go after Masa either Koto or Haru get in the way."_

_"Well get ready to take one of them out in a bit."_

_"Sigh."_

Putting his little plan into motion, Kirikari rushed forward with a cube of Trion appearing next to him and his Kōgetsu ready to strike.

.

Suzume prepared for the incoming attack the best she could. Already having figured out the other's "Rhythm," Suzume got ready to either block or defend. That was all she could do again this kind of opponent, but that meant she would have a good chance at defending against it no matter what attack was coming.

What came was...

"! ! !"

Instead of head-on attack, like she thought would come, multiple shots were fired from multiple directions. Kirikari himself was using Grasshopper to move around the area the best he could.

_A changing Rhythm!?_

Suzume used her Lightning to try and shoot down some of the shots while blocking multiple attacks from Kirikari himself with her Scorpion.

"!?"

_Crap! The wind!_

Some of the shits had made it through, tearing holes into her body. This was followed up by the loss of her right arm by Kirikari.

She moved back once more, this time turning around completely. He sights quickly went to the battlefield she could see in the distance.

Knowing that there was a zero percent chance of getting in a good snipe, she came to a different conclusion.

She nodded to herself as she replaced the Triggers she had with two different ones. No longer was she using Lightning; instead taking to Ibis.

Using the rushing footsteps that were coming towards her from behind, she tilted her body in the direction of the wind.

This gave her enough room to twist her body on her heel so that the Kōgetsu blade going for her sailed passed her while also putting the attacker in her line of fire.

She used her leg that was in the air to push Kirikari forward while also becoming airborn in the process. From her position in the air she could see both the battle going on and Kirikari himself,

She fired a shot from the air, aiming for Kirikari's head.

Preparing for the inevitable evade, she fired a second shot in the same line as the previous one.

She saw Kirikari continue to fall forward so that the first attack would not hit him. Instead the shot destroyed the side of the roof, leaving an open space for the second shot to be fired.

The second shot, having nothing to stop it, continued on into the battlefield going on. The target was no longer Kirikari, who continued to defend, but Inukai who was busy with a different fight.

The moment it reached the target...

"Nope!"

A shield came up to stop the attack from the Ibis.

From her position in the air she could see Inukai turn towards her, fully intending on attacking her while he had the chance.

The only issue that came up was...

**Trion limit exceeded. Bail Out.**

She watched as Hikigane made a clean cut through Inukai's neck.

_"Use this chance, Suzume."_

Doing as she was told, Suzume turned her head to make an escape and force Bail Out on herself.

Once more, Kirikari had caught up to her while she focused on her attacks. This time he used his position in the air and a Grasshopper plate to push her directly towards the fight going on.

Clicking her tongue again, Suzume went back to a defensive strategy as she was thrown into the middle of the battle.

* * *

[And that's another point for Hikigane Squad. That was rather amazing. It seemed that Agent Kirikari used Agent Misaki's shot to distract Ageng Inukai so that Captain Hikigane could get the hit!]

[That's unusual. Most of the time those two don't come up with plans and just go for it.]

[I'm guessing it was a last minute thing by Kirikari. It worked out well and he manipulated Misaki so well that she didn't even notice it was a set up. Not only that, but look at where she is now.]

[Now all the remaining agents are gathers in one area! This is now become a 2 vs 1 vs 2 fight!]

[That's wrong. It's more accurate to say this is a 1 vs 1 vs 1 vs 2 fight. Let's not forget that Misaki is also alone on this battlefield.]

.

_There is no possible way she can get out of this one. With Kotowari going at his own pace and the other three ready to surround her... Looks like they won't be scoring any points this time._

Narasaka shook his head and let out a small sigh.

"That idiot. Not even going to help his own teammate."

"Narasaka-senpai, do you think she'll be able to-"

"Of course, of course she can! She'll be able to get out of this no problem!" Mitsubachi looked at the screen with determination.

"..."

"Do you believe that, Misaki-san?"

"As I said before: you know my daughter better than me when it comes to fighting. It's up to you to decide that." Seihana kept her eyes on the screen, but still had her attention on Narasaka. "So what do you think?"

"... I think she will Bail Out soon."

* * *

_"Suzume... This depends on you. You have no way of leaving this fight now. Your two main options are to either let Takeshi shoot you so others can't gain any points or have someone else take you out so you can leave it as is."_

_"I know. I'll just give it my all, I suppose. Honestly. This isn't what I thought would happen in our first match. Damn."_

Letting out a sigh, Suzume lowered her Ibis.

To everyone it seemed like she had given up, but they all knew she was not the type to just throw in the towel, so no one made a move yet, not even Takeshi.

.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Having had enough of it after a minute, Kirikari was gone in a second. He was behind Suzume in an instant and was in mid-swing when...

"!?"

Kirikari was pushed back when his swing was stopped and swatted away by Suzume.

The fighters were surprised to see how it had happened. Instead of using a Scorpion to block, or just take the hit, she had pulled up her Ibis and swung it around to land a heavy hit on the boy.

"Screw all of this! Honestly, I'll beat you all down with brute force if I have to!"

That's when the battle started up again.

The orbs around Takeshi's head started firing off laser-like beams at Ninomiya, Kirikari and Hikigane.

Two cubes of Trion appeared by Ninomiya before splitting up and firing off multiple shots.

A cube of Trion appeared next to Hikigane and Kirikari respectively as they ran towards their opponents.

Suzume brought out a blade from her stump of an arm.

Kirikari rushed at Suzume intent on finally finishing her off while firing shots to block Ninomiya's attacks and dodged the beams that were able to branch out.

Suzume blocked each strike from the Kōgetsu while she weaved through each beam and swatted each shot away. Each step she took seemed more and more like dance steps instead of someone trying to survive a thought battle.

Ninomiya continued to move around so as not to get hit by the laser-like beams, the Kōgetsu strikes from Hikigane or the shots from Suzume. He unleashed Hound after Hound as he moved around.

Takeshi did the same by using his laser-like beams as a defense against shots and a wall from Hikigane. He separated them according to who he was going after. The intent was not to actually hit Suzume, yet he did nothing to prevent anything form hitting her.

Hikigane internally sighed as he had to dodge everything from laser-like beams, to shots and even some stabs. He knew it would be tough, having fought Ninomiya multiple times, but having Takeshi going crazy with his beams and an Ibis being swung around helped nothing.

.

Suzume had been able to get some good shots on Kirikari, and even some on Ninomiya, but was quickly running out of Trion. She knew she could not last much longer, so she got ready to end her fight in a flash way.

She managed to push Kirikari back while switching out her Ibis with Egret. She lifted her arm to fire a shot at him to finish him off when...

"...!"

A noise filled the air as a laser-like beam tore through the space, taking Suzume's remaining arm as well as Kirikari's right arm.

She clicked her tongue as another laser-like beam went forward. She moved to the side so that it would go passed her and towards Kirikari.

.

Seeing the attack coming, Hikigane was able to move his teammate out of the way, albeit at the cost of his own arm. He threw a Scorpion at Takeshi and watched as it was destroyed from another laser-like beam.

**Trion limit exceeded. Bail Out.**

He turned his head to see Kirikari Bail Out and Ninomiya turning his eyes from the area back to Takeshi. Hikigane let out an irritated sigh as he rushed at Suzume.

He noticed that something was off with her compared to a moment ago.

"Guess that's all for me."

A large cube of Trion appeared in her hands. It was split into four pieces. It was only a few seconds after that they were sent flying towards the remaining fighters.

Reacting as soon as they were sent for the attack, Hikigane appeared in front of Suzume. His blade was already in mid-swing, cleaving her body in two.

He watched as cracks started appearing on her face.

He knew that it was too late.

**Trion limit exceeded. Bail Out.**

Four large explosions filled the area as a beam of light flew through the sky, indicating Suzume's loss.

That was not all.

"..."

Hikigane let out a sigh.

Multiple shadows could be seen over the area of the three remaining fighters. Each one brought up defenses to handle the onslaught that came upon them in an instant.

A rain of Meteora fell from the sky and created nothing but destruction in its wake.

* * *

"Whoa... That was amazing!"

"Narasaka-kun, what was that just now?" Seihana asked, turning to the Sniper. "Besides that initial one, I did not see any other attacks. They were also the last fighters from what I could see."

"I'm sure they'll explain in a second."

.

[It looks like Agent Misaki used those four large explosions as a way to distract the three remaining captains from her real attack - a rain of Meteora.]

[Not only was she able to move around like that while swinging an Ibis around, but she had enough Trion to do that. It really is quite amazing.]

[That's not surprising. She clearly has the talent to be an All-Rounder. The issues come in multiple forms. In this case it was the lack of support and relentless attacks from others.]

.

"That is seriously my sister for you!"

"That woman... She says that she is a Sniper but does everything in such a flashy manner. Fighting close-range is fine and all, but..." Narasaka glared at the screen while tensing up. "It's things like that, and the fact that she doesn't even seem to care, I absolutely hate her style of fighting. Not only that, but using an Ibis as if it was just a blunt weapon..."

"I have to admit that using a Trigger for sniping like that..." Shouhei got a worried look on his face. It's not that he was against her way of fighting, but he just did not like certain aspects of it.

"If it gets the job done, then what's the matter?"

* * *

"I'm honestly sorry guys. I couldn't even get an injured person," Suzume said in a low voice.

"It's fine. You didn't know that Kirikari's Rhythm would change," Mei answered as she continued to look at the screen. "That is my fault for not saying anything to you."

"I thought that only Yuki-san could change his Rhythm, so I wasn't prepared."

"I'll make you a list of people who's Rhythm can change later on."

"Thanks, Mei-san."

"You did great out there, Suzume. It's that damn bas-"

"Toby."

"Tsk. I'm just saying..."

"The fight is almost done. Complain to him when he gets back. It shouldn't take too long."

* * *

_It's just us three. I should have used Senpai to get a hit on Hikigane._

Building his defenses back up, Takeshi looked for an opening to try and get one of his two opponents to Bail Out, but found none.

_I am low on Trion. But I refuse to run from these two. Especially since, if I beat Ninomiya, I could beat Yuki. That's all I have to do._

Getting back to the fight, he saw some Hound shots going for him. He got rid of them and fired at Ninomiya. Seeing that there was no way to win for him, Takeshi put all his remaining Trion in trying to get Ninomiya.

Even so, he could not do much as Hikigane was quick to get behind him with his blade ready.

"Hm. That's checkmate."

Both the Shooter and All-Rounder were not surprised in the least when they were both full of holes in an instant. They both flipped Ninomiya off before...

**Trion limit exceeded. Bail Out.**

**Trion limit exceeded. Bail Out.**

* * *

[Both Captain Kotowari and Captain Hikigane have Bailed Out! That's the match! With Captain Ninomiya being the only one left, Ninomiya Squad gets the survival points. The final score is 5-4-0! The victors are Ninomiya Squad!]

[This fight really showed how much Tsukiko's absence made a difference it the squad, along with what the other teams seemed to think of them.]

[This match wasn't so much one of strategy as it was a free-for-all to see who could take out Kotowari Squad first and end the remaining team.]

* * *

"..."

"You're not gonna stay? They're about to do the review~"

"Kushikage, do me a favor."

"What ever do you require from me, o shitty brother of mine?"

"Shut up and never speak again."

"Love you too."

* * *

"What the hell is your problem! Using us like that wasn't a part of the plan!"

Takeshi looked forward while being pulled forward by Toby. His expression was cold and he made no move to get away. The only thing that could be said was that he looked ready to bring out multiple orbs of Trion for his Laser-Shooter.

If not for Mei and the fact they had just finished fighting, that may just have happened.

"That was a part of the plan."

Throughout the entire fight, he had planned out each action. Anything and everything he could use in the fight had been incorporated to ensure his victory. From the wind to the buildings, from Toby to Suzume, he saw them all as a nothing more than things to use to win. To achieve a win that was not for his team but himself.

That was all that had mattered in the fight.

After all...

"Winning is the only thing that matters. Moving up and advancing is how this world functions. Using what you can to win is the only essential thing here."

He moved his eyes to the side, now looking at Mei.

What he saw were a pair of eyes that told nothing about what she was thinking.

"That's why Yuki keeps using others. So he can keep winning in this world."

.

Mei knew exactly what the look was for.

She had told him something she should not have and this was the end result of it. While she did not have foresight like Jin, she had her calculations that bordered his precognition. She could not tell for certain how her choices would effect things later on, but she could calculation the odds of the future events because of it.

This is one result she had calculated.

Due to those calculations, she knew that Suzume would be well enough after the disbandment while Toby would at least cooperate with the rest of them. She had not planned for outside interference from his family, but the end result seemed to be the same. Those two were well within her range of calculations. They were not part of her current concerns.

Takeshi was different.

There had been a handful of results that could come from Takeshi. Each one was vastly different from each one with only two or three going down a similar route. This had brought her to see Jin in order to determine what would have been best for the Laser-Shooter.

He had told her of the different paths that could be taken with Takeshi, but they seemed to only narrow down the results by two or three routes. The remaining ones seemed to be solidified depending on what actions she herself would take.

This was the end result that she had created with her own hands.

Instead of trying to move on from the disbandment, Takeshi seemed to still be focusing on the whole things while taking what Mei had told him as more of a reason to stay with it. It seemed as if his view on his former captain just went down even more with the new knowledge he had gained from their previous talk.

This whole ordeal had caused something to stir within Mei. It was a want that had not come out for quite some time with the only other times involving the strangest of people.

It was a sense of curiosity.

She was curious as to how Takeshi could get so attached to Yuki in a short amount of time. She was curious as to how he could easily revert back to when she had first met him. She was curious as to how close the two actually were. She was curious as to who Takeshi actually thought he was.

It was due to this curiously that she was not particularly mad at him for what he had done or what he had said.

She knew this kind of thinking was dangerous.

Her thoughts on the boy were cut short as Suzume's tired voice rang throughout the room.

"For now... Let's honestly hear the review."

* * *

[This match was set in a windy, industrial area, chosen by Kotowari Squad. Their opponents had been the #1 Ninomiya Squad and the ever-topping Hikigane Squad. They were the ones who chose the location, yet they were the ones who had lost without gaining a single point.]

[I'm sure Kotowari had already planned something out, but as things went on, he changed his course to simply using sneak attacks, that ultimately failed. Instead of synching with his teammates, he used them as if they were dispensable tools. A style like that is terrible in general, but against a squad like Hikigane, where they don't even need too much practice to be in synch, that was just stupid. Not only that, but there's a reason Ninomiya Squad is at the top. Teamwork is always key when entering these matches.]

[Moving to the match itself, both agents Misaki and Awdry weren't able to score any points, but under the circumstances they were in, they seemed capable enough.]

[Even with the thought that his teammate would be backing him up, Awdry didn't pull any punches and showed his skills in close combat and weaving through each attack aimed for him. Misaki also showed great skill in adapting to what was going on and using her chances to try and score a point, even if it failed.]

[That being said, while using an Ibis as a blunt weapon isn't against any rules, and can actually come in handy in situations like this, it can give Snipers a bad image. She has already started a controversy with the way she uses her Lightning, and this may have just switched some of the people not minding her to the other side.]

[Going to Ninomiya Squad, their reputation is well founded by the fact that not only did Agent Inukai hold out until he accidentally fell into a trap, but Captain Ninomiya seemed to have been the only one to score any points. As a matter of fact, only Captain Ninomiya and Captain Hikigane were able to score points.]

[That was mainly due to the fact they were in the center of the fighting. Those two were the main targets of Kotowari, so they simply had to dodge his shots and go for anyone else they wanted. Hikigane-san is one of a few who is always on top form when given any sort of circumstances, meaning that if you aren't well prepared in advance, you're done. He knew that Tsuji was a great support so he must have already been aiming to get rid of him.]

[The two captains also had unintended backup for their mutual opponent - Kotowari Squad. While Kotowari Squad was being targeted by the squad members, the captains were able to not only pick off the weakest team there, but each other's teams as well.]

[That can clearly be shown when Kirikari had used Misaki to distract Inukai long enough for his captain to deliver the final blow.]

[If we were being completely honest, the fight might not even be over between Ninomiya-san and Hikigane-san. The only reason it is over is because Hikigane-san was probably getting tired of the fight.]

[I'm sure most are thinking that Ninomiya Squad may be keeping their position throughout this whole time while Hikigane Squad is trying, but not hard enough. They may even be thinking about Kotowari Squad and the actions they have taken throughout this battle. All of these are things to think about as this first round comes to a close. I, Ayatsuji, have been your commentator for this time. I would like to thank both of our guests for joining us as well.]

[No problem.]

[My pleasure.]

* * *

"Yes! Leave it to Taka to win!"

Minoru stopped his small cheering when he noticed Henry and his son start to leave.

"So, after that, and what they had to say about Fuzzy Head, what do you think?"

"He really is...a disappointment." Henry did not turn around and kept a cool tone that had an underlining smugness to it. "Regardless if he was facing multiple people, he should have seen, or at the very least expected, the betrayal of his teammate. The fact he could not shows he clearly cannot go any higher."

"Hey, no one expected Take-kun to do that! You can't blame him for not thinking he would be betrayed! Those two are-"

"You are about to say, 'Those two are friends,' correct?" Henry gave a single glance back with a bored expression. "I can tell that the gray haired boy doesn't see anything but himself. He only sees the dullness of the world and is unimpressed by life itself. Someone like my failure son, who is full of life, is basically invisible in his eyes. The only thing those two share is a pitiful life where they cannot ever find a place. That girl seems to be the only one who can sneak her way through life. And even that can be put into question."

"You son of a..."

Minoru simply watched with clenched fists as the older man continued to walk away. He was not one to easily anger, but the man he had just spoken to was able to make him want to hit something, even if just one time. He had not even noticed a group of four people walking passed him.

.

"I didn't expect that..." Kodera muttered as he walked with the Misaki girls and his fellow Sniper.

"That's so, so, so messed up! If she wants to-"

"No, it's not 'if she wants to fight like that,' at all as a matter of fact," Narasaka said, looking down at the girl. "She took up the position of Sniper, so fighting like that and using sniping Triggers like that is insulting. If she wants to be the center of attention then she should be a Gunner, or an actual Attacker. I am sorry, Misaki-san, but that's how I feel."

"That's quite alright, Narasaka-kun. I understand how you feel," Seihana said with a calm expression. "That being said, you should tell her how you feel."

"I have, but she's too stubborn to actually listen."

"That sure sounds like her. Narasaka-kun, may I ask you a question?"

"By all means."

"Do you happen to know the reason why she became a Sniper?"

"No. Whenever we talk to each other we have usually be pulled away since we usually argue."

"I see. She doesn't tell us much about when she's here, so we actually don't know the answer either. You might want to ask her about it at some point. She does not speak so openly about things she dislikes, so it may not be something she ever tells. Even so, that answer may end up helping others."

With her final words being said, Misaki Seihana and her youngest daughter started to make their way down the hallway they had first walked in.

"I would rather not even be around her..."


	31. Yuki Tsukiko: Part 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Suzaku is owned by TiTrainiumAnime

Akasora Chishi let out sigh while rubbing his shoulder.

Shinoda Masafumi and Rindo Takumi looked at their friend with knowing looks. They understood why he seemed to be completely tired.

"Takumi, remind me to never agree to this kind of thing again. It only brings headaches and body aches. If I wanted that then I would be better off staying a teacher. I can at least discipline unruly children there. I can't even handle that crazy woman by myself anymore."

"Stop complaining. Even with Taiyōko... Kushikage that is. Even with her there, it shouldn't be too much of an issue. Mukuro should be well behaved enough, and your nephew is always well behaved. His friends tend to follow his lead so there is that."

"You also have Yuki there for you. You should be grateful for his help. You have Yuki and this guy here had Sawamura. Where is my direct helper in all of this? Actually, yeah. Where is my helper!? Everyone is doing their own things in my branch!"

"Shut up. I wish I had your group of weirdos. They at least respect you. Besides, you have at least some sane people there. Two of them are even gone for a bit."

"But we also got a few new kids over in Tamakoma. As a matter of fact, it makes things seem even more odd with two albinos and a grown man who can't seem to stay in Mikado City long enough to hold a proper conversation."

"Can you two have your pissing contest somewhere else? I don't want to hear this argument when both of your branches seem to give us in HQ headaches most of the time."

Akasora and Rindo were quick in their response of,

"Shut up, you damn fool! You don't understand our hardships!"

Shinoda put his arms up in defeat.

Akasora let out another sigh before sitting back and speaking once more. His words were no longer towards Rindo and instead towards Shinoda.

His body language gave away that he was speaking to get everything off his chest now before he exploded towards someone who would take the words harder than them. His Side Effect always being effected contributed towards this knowledge of him wanted to relax.

"That woman refuses to stay still for even a second. She enjoys making other miserable by annoying them or destroying their pride. Her main target seems to be Fuji, but others have also become her pray. I've gotten some complaints from the general public as the branch who holds her reins."

He gave a hollow laugh at his own words.

"Yeah right. Like anyone can hold that woman down."

Shinoda and Rinodo knew very well how true that statement was. While Yuki could be out of control at times, he still listened when it came to certain people. Akasora had no problem with his own student doing things. Mukuro, while seeming to also be an issue, had not actually done anything to warrant any animosity from others. He had only been guilty of association because of his sister.

The woman in question was someone who was nothing but chaos in the shape of a busty woman. A walking calamity that never ceases in its destruction. It always amazed the older ones how she had yet to turn on them.

"How she was able to get into Border... We needed as much help as possible at the time. We never thought she would end up like this. Worse than her parents..."

Shinoda and Rindo held their tongues, knowing full well the circumstances behind her entrance into Border. It had not been in Mikado City, but they knew it all too well.

They remembered the King of All Calamities they had seen on that day.

.

The three men all let out a breath they did not know they were holding in.

"Moving away from that subject..."

Akasora lit a cigarette and took a moment to take in the contents of it.

"I've spoken to Netsuki about the upcoming meeting with that representative of the masses. We came to the conclusion that Yuki will be taking my place in that."

"I had forgotten about that."

Shinoda nodded his head while continuing for his friend.

"You were suppose to go and meet with the representative of the masses as the new branch director for the Yagura Branch. In all actuality, it is a meeting with some sponsors to let them know that their money will be going towards the Ygaura Branch for the time being."

"It is also so make sure that they will continue to fund Border, even after the last invasion. There have been some issues with some of the sponsors and I was to make sure that we would at least keep the better ones on our side."

"Kuruma, Yuiga, Kurosaki and Kobayashi all seem to be fine with supporting us. Even Awdry has come all the way to Mikado to support us directly. We are fine with that much, since they are rather well off with what they do. But the one that Netsuki is mostly worried about is Shiraishi. As a top business group, they are rather important to keep on our side."

Rindo let out some smoke from his mouth while looking at the sky.

It was rather clear with only a few clouds around.

He spoke up to say he understood what was going on.

"So Chi-chan is meeting with someone who represents Shiraishi and who can keep peace with the other sponsors. While I am against it being him, what with how he always acts and his Side Effect, I think that with some help from others, he'll be fine."

"That was our thought process as well. But it looks like things have changed."

Akasora nodded as if to confirm his friend's words.

"Yuki will be going in my stead. I was against it completely since Netsuki wants to use Yuki's real name as the groundwork for this. When I tried to argue against it, the fool only nodded his head and said, 'Fine. I'll do it. But I am going to do it my way, with the people I want to tell. Is that fine?' So here we are."

Rindo let out a gut-filled laugh.

"Yeah, yeah. Get it out now before I punch those glasses into your face."

"Calm down, Chishi." Shinoda used his elbow to jab Rindo in the side. "We know we can trust Yuki with this. He is one of the best at using words to his advantage. Even if something were to happen, I'm sure he will be fine dealing with it."

"I know that. But since we're going out on a limb and letting him use his inherited name for this instead of his known name, we can get some backlash from other groups. Even if we are in the good graces of those mentioned groups, they will still be watching the meeting go down."

"That's right. With Kurosaki and Awdry watching..."

Akasora audibly clicked his tongue while turning the other way.

Shinoda and Rindo turned to him with questioning looks.

"Sorry. Mentioning Awdry reminded me of my idiotic students."

The two men needed no more context as to what Akasora was talking about.

They had all known about what happened in the first round of the B-Rank Wars. Tamakoma had blown through the first round with little time and all the points they could get. Meanwhile, Kotowari Squad and been blown away in the first round without gaining a single point.

What was more was that the way they had gone about the entire match was also something for them to consider.

Being their former teacher, Akasora could not help but worry for Takeshi and Toby. The two had always been doing something or other in his class to gain some attention, but not in any wrong way. Toby had always been playful while Takeshi was the one to truly handle him when Hoshi could not. There had never been any sort of malice while in his class.

"This is different than I've seen them. According to Yuki, Kotowari shot through Awdry with no problem or hesitation. The kid has always been quiet, but he's never given the impression of someone who would do that."

"It is most likely due to the disbanding of Tsukiko Squad."

"It might be a bit more than that. Remember that Yuki has been busy helping out Chishi. I doubt he's had much time to talk to his former team besides Mei. He probably hasn't properly explained his actions just yet."

"Ah. So he feels like Yuki really has just abandoned them for seemingly no reason. When in reality he just hasn't gotten around to say the reason."

"Exactly."

"Even so..."

Akasora looked down with furrowed brows. His expression was that of someone who knew what was going on but could do nothing to help. The more seconds that went by the more his face morphed into something almost unrecognizable.

"They should know that there is a reason for it. Yuki isn't the type to do things without one. Those two... They might be too blinded by their admiration for him to see what is going on around them. I would figure that Mei or their other teammate would have told them something by now but..."

"It's possible that they are also deaf to everything else."

Rindo let out some more spoke.

"With his family appearing in Mikado City, Awdry might be overwhelmed by the whole thing. Thinking that everything is against him at the moment. Meanwhile, Kotowari was never one to care too much about the world or anything on it unless it was truly something special."

"That would be Yuki."

"Correct. With the only attachment to everything seemingly gone, things might get out of hand with that boy. Something will probably need to be done for him soon. Miwa was one thing, but this is something completely different."

Rindo's expression changed to a more serious one as he turned to Akasora.

"Chishi, this is most likely something our of your control. Even if you were their teacher, I don't think you can convince them to handle the situation like an adult. If you were to do something, make that something be telling Yuki to fix what he started. He and Mei are the only two who can fix those children."

Akasora knew it was the truth.

No matter how much he wanted to directly help, he had no true authority or place in the minds of Kotowari Squad. He was just a former teacher who would hand them their grades and teach them lessons, not fight side-by-side against Neighbors or hang out during down time.

That was reserved for other people.

He was simply not someone who could do much.

That was why he had made his decision.

* * *

"I have completely messed up. I am sorry for that."

Yuki was unsure what he heard.

Takato Mei had just admitted to messing up while also apologizing to him. That would not have been anything strange if it was not for the fact that the two of them would usually refuse to admit they messed up in front of each other.

They had agreed to just take a moment's rest after having to deal with their own problems. While Yuki had a branch to help with, Mei had a team to take care of. It was more apparent that she had the worst problems after having seen the first round of the B-Rank Wars. It was something to see, but for all the wrong reasons.

The two of them were the ones who knew Kotowari Squad the best and yet could not find a proper way to help them.

Knowing that there was no way to currently help them, Yuki gave the best answer that came to mind.

"Can we just not start with this kind of harsh reality? Hearing you say that you messed up is like saying there is no more ice cream in the world. It seems rather impossible until you see it for yourself."

"I get it now. You want me to punch you through the tree. Yes. That seems like the most logical conclusion anyone would come to after hearing that stupidity."

"Oh no... Is Rampage Dress coming out again!? I'm sorry, we don't have the militaristic might to stop it like last time. Please hold it in, Mei-san!"

There was an audible noise of wood being broken under the hit of a single fist.

"Please keep talking. I want to see how much you have grown. Apparently it's quite a bit since you think you can dodge my punch."

Yuki was quick to go into a dogeza position while repeating the same phrase of apology.

This seemed to be enough as Mei lowered her fist and sat back down next to him.

Yuki could only sigh in relief.

"Now then," Mei started, "I will be nice and not continue from where I left off. Instead, I will give you a chance to tell me what exactly you have been hiding from me."

Mei looked over to see Yuki give a sad smile.

It was clear to her that he had forgotten how easily she could read him. Even with being a walking lie, she was able to figure out everything concerning him with little to no effort at all.

"Of course. Who else can do it but you? It only makes sense that you can figure it out."

"If we are not talking about cheats, Murakami has you pretty figured out as well. Other than him... It's rather hard to say. I think Inukai always has some idea while Minoru tries. You just seem to try and not notice."

"What point is there in noticing when it doesn't matter by the end of everything? It's like paying attention to the frame of a picture over the picture itself. There is never anything too particular to look at from start to finish."

Mei let out a breath through her nose.

"Very well," Mei continued, "I will be nice and not continue this terrible conversation. Instead, I will give you a chance to tell me what exactly you have been hiding from me."

Yuki shook his head while correcting his expression.

It truly was a terrible conversation.

"Right. It wasn't like I was hiding it from you. There was no reason to really tell you since I don't want you to help in this matter. At least not when you have to deal with those three."

That would have been another terrible conversation.

"Continuing this better conversation... I have been asked by Sensei and Director Netsuki to be Border's voice in an upcoming unofficial meeting with a representative of the masses. I was given freedom to handle it however I wanted. So I am planning a meeting with a few other people."

"I see..."

.

Without any thought of proper action, Mei started calculating how these two meetings would go and who would be involved in them. That would then determine how much she would really need to get involved.

Supplementary information would be needed to fill in the blanks that she was coming across. Asking for them from Yuki would be the best option, but Jin was also an option in this case. It would stand to reason that he would be involved with something like this as well. There was no point in not involving him.

The reason for this meeting was almost completely obvious when given ever a second to think about it. There was no reason to think about that at all.

The next thing would have been to determine the time and date of this meeting. That would lead into figuring out when she could join in to assist however she could. With either her or Jin helping it would go so smoothly that there should not even be a meeting. Yuki's usage of words would be overkill at that point.

_There is no point in having anyone else handle this. I will ask Jin to accompany me to this meeting so that we can end things quickly._

No one else would have to use up their time for such a trivial thing when it could easily be handled by only two people. This was even more true when it came to Yuki who, as she knew all too well, had a limited amount of time.

Afterwards the best option would be to let Jin know that there was no longer a reason for him to be so much for others. She would be well off taking care of everything herself at all times. She would only ever need the supplementary information at times to fill in those blank spaces.

After all...

_What good am I if I cannot take everything on myself. Everything that makes up this world and everything that lives on this world. I am the best choice to take care of everything._

It was only logical that she would be the one to take everything possible on her own shoulders.

And yet...

"Mei, you need to stop now."

.

"Huh?"

Mei blinked multiple times.

She looked around to see Yuki giving her a sad smile.

It was different from his previous one. This smile had always been reserved for when she delve too far into her mind. It was the smile that was meant to show how hurt he was when he could do nothing to help her.

It was a smile of weakness.

"This is why I didn't want to say anything. I didn't want to see you thinking about it. I was never planning on brining you into this because I knew that you would try and take care of it yourself."

He gave a pitiful laugh.

"I know that you can handle it without any issue, but that's why I don't want you to be involved. Us lesser people need to handle our issues ourself. That being said... I am far below everyone, so that's why I am working with some others."

"I'm sorry... I didn't mean for you to think..."

Yuki shook his head with another laugh.

The two of them knew full well that this was not the first time they spoke like this.

"We both know that I already think like this. Anything you say only helps me. I'm just far below everyone to take that help."

"..."

"Sorry. I guess I shouldn't talk like that to you. Those words just came out too naturally for me. But I can't be blamed for that. You and Kō know so much that whatever I think ends up becoming too much for me not to say."

Mei wanted to argue.

She wanted to hit him and yell at him. It was a natural reaction when it came to Yuki. Akasora and Murakami had said multiple times that they also wanted to do something like that at times. Kageura had even admitted to doing it at one point.

But she always held it in.

She opened her mouth to speak once more. To tell him something, anything, to move away from the terrible conversations they were having.

She said nothing.

She did not have to say anything.

The two of them were well prepared for the moment someone else came into the conversation.

"Yo~ Are you two busy with a date or something?"

Yuki reacted quickly by covering Mei's ears the moment any words came from the mouth of one Jin Yūichi.

"Opps! Sorry, sorry~"

"Jin, if she ever hears things like that coming from you, I will be the one to deal with you. Got it?"

"Will some bonchi make it up to you?"

"No."

"How about ice cream?"

"..."

Jin laughed at the reaction he was getting from the A-Rank branch member.

He casually leaned against the tree the two were sitting near.

"I am glad I found you two though. It makes things easier for me."

"Oh? And what would you need from us anyways? I just had to stop Mei from calculating any further, so I won't let you use her like that."

"Don't worry. It isn't anything like that." Jin ate some of the rice crackers in his hand. "It's just for something simple. I need some help and you two are great options. The best ones? No. The most optimal? No. The most fun? Yes."

"I will punch you."

"Hey now! I was kidding! A joke! A joke!"

"I bet..."

"Anyway..."

Jin moved forward so that he stood in front of the two. His grin was in place and it caused the two of them want to just grab his lips and turn them towards the ground.

Knowing what the future entailed, Jin continued to grin with seemingly no remorse.

"Our boss is going to be checking on the Yagura Branch's training rooms with Akasora-san. Mei, can you help them out with that? Yuki is busy enough with the upcoming meeting, so you would be a great option for this."

"Jin, I don't want you telling us to do stuff for my branch."

"You're mistaking something here. I am just telling you guys what you can do for your futures. That's all. She can refuse if she wants."

"It's fine. As much as I hate it... We owe Jin for keeping us updated. If we...have to go with his instructions for a bit then I suppose that is fine."

"Yes, yes. I understand. I understand that you really want to punch Jin as hard as you can, Mei. Lower your arm and stop with the glare, then I'll listen to him."

Yuki looked over to see Jin still grinning as if there wasn't a beast in front of him.

Standing up, he looked up at Jin with a tired look.

"Alright then. What do you need me to do, Jin?"

"Oh. That is easy."

There was something about his tone that made Yuki raise an eyebrow.

"You should go stop Kotowari from blowing up people."

* * *

Kotowari Takeshi looked forward with a kind of expression that gave nothing away.

That was more because there was nothing to give away than anything else.

He looked up at the man with brown hair and a pressed suit. His appearance was similar to that of one of his teammates. The main difference was the age and the fact this man seemed to be finding some kind of weakness to him as opposed to just enjoying himself.

Takeshi understood that this man was Toby's father from having hear about the news. Their appearances were similar, yet Takeshi still felt nothing towards this man.

"You are that pitiful boy from the first round."

"Kotowari Takeshi."

"I do not care. Your actions are a major factor in deciding if we truly want to sponsor Border. If they cannot even control an empty and pitiful life like you then what reason do I have to agree to giving my money to them."

"Likewise, I do no care. Your money is pointless when it can't buy anything really important. As for me being a factor in your decision... That is idiotic at the most basic level. Why you would determine something like that on a single 'pitiful life' is something unknown. That is more because only idiots and degenerates were think like that."

"I do not want to hear that coming from a child who would gladly turn his back on others just to satisfy his own wants and needs. While I too would turn my back on people, that is for the betterment of my company than myself."

Takeshi continued to look up at the man with no particular expression.

He could not say he hated this man, but he just as much could not say he enjoy his company. The words that came from his mouth were simply robotic ones that speak the truth as to what he was thinking. There was little time for his kind to process what he was saying before they came out.

The same was said for Henry who, at the current time, was finding himself getting annoyed by the the B-Rank captain.

After having seen Kotowari Squad's first round match he had started to truly consider his choice in supporting Border. While he was grateful for them and their help, seeing Takeshi made him think that they had no real control over the people they employed.

The two continued to stare each other down as the sound of footsteps rang throughout the hall they were in.

They slowly turned their heads to see a glasses-boy walking in their direction. He did not seem like he would be joining their conversation and instead was just walking in that direction naturally.

.

Lukas Wagner raised an eyebrow when he saw the two serious males standing in the middle of the hallway.

His first thought was to slide by them but noticed that they left little space for others to get through. That left him with no other choice but to directly talk to them so that they could move to the side.

"Pardon me."

Seeing both males looking directly at him, Lukas left like he should keep speaking to a minimum.

The older one of the two gave a huff before turning his body to the side. His steps were fast, yet dignified. Each one was heavy and felt like they had purpose behind each one.

There was no reason to find out what was going on and no reason to stay in the hall for longer than needed, so he started for his walk through the hallway once more.

That had been the idea at least.

"Wagner. I want to ask you a question."

"I would rather not talk to you right now."

The words were harsh, but they were the truth.

"Why is that?"

Lukas knew that it would be best not to answer and continue walking. What had stopped him from doing so was the bit of knowledge he had on Takeshi and his current mindset.

That left him with the only option being to answer back.

"Because you are childish in the worst way."

"Elaborate."

Lukas could feel a headache coming on.

"Because of you tantrum towards Tsukiko Squad's disbandment. It's childish and idiotic. There is no reason for you or your team to be so hung up over it. Things like that happen all the time. If you stay on something so trivial then I have no business with you."

He was well aware of how Suzume was slowly getting over it and how Toby currently had better things to worry about. His use of words had come out due to a moment of forgetfulness.

"Is that so...?"

There was a sudden ominous feeling in the air as Takeshi tilted his head to the side. His expression had not changed and neither had his body language. The only thing that seemed to have changed was the general feeling around the boy.

Lukas stood firm with his words, not wanting to back down on what he knew was the truth.

It appeared that there was no winning in the given situation. If he had walked away like planned, something may have happened behind his back. Since he stayed and answered the questions, something was happening in front of him.

"What exactly would you know?"

An orb of Trion appeared near Takeshi's head.

"No. I don't actually care for that answer."

Two more orbs of Trion appeared near Takeshi's head.

"I really don't care anymore."

Something was happening.

Lukas noted how the orbs of Trion were no longer perfect spheres that moved around. Now each one seemed to he fluctuating, seeming to bubble at random parts. This was different from someone like Kako who created her attacks as blobs.

These looked ready to explode.

"What's going on over here?"

.

Lukas turned his head to see Kakizaki rushing towards them. Once he reached them he got between Takeshi and Lukas, looking ready to defend the latter.

"Kotowari, you were planning on attacking him, weren't you?"

"Yes."

The simple answer unnerved both Lukas and Kakizaki.

"You know full well that fighting outside of matches is prohibited. You can get punished for doing this. And from the looks of things... It might be from more than just Border."

"I am fine with that. Besides... You are both in Trion Bodies."

"That's..."

There was a moment of silence between the three Border members.

Kakizaki was ready to make a move against Takeshi should he continue his attack.

Everything going on was not something he thought would happen. Kageura had gone and attacked others before, earning punishment from the Border higher ups, but this was completely different.

This went beyond just points getting taken away.

There was something clearly wrong with Takeshi and the way he was acting. It went well beyond someone who was just angry at a single person. His display of an uncaring person was boarding something dangerous that needed to be taken care of as soon as possible.

Kakizaki was ready to make a move against Takeshi while thinking of his current actions.

"Look... You need to really calm down. Even if you are still mad because of the disbanding of Tsukiko Squad-"

Things would get extremely dangerous.

Or they would have.

But...

"-!"

The sound of something cutting through an object was heard for only a fraction of a second.

Lukas and Kakizaki looked with wide eyes as Takeshi's head fell from his body for a second before he was forced into his real body.

The attention moved to the person standing behind him.

"I'm sorry, Wagner, Kakizaki. This is my fault."

"Yu-"

Yuki was quick to knock out Takeshi and catch his body before it hit the ground.

Kakizaki and Lukas could see the regret in Yuki's eyes as he held the younger boy in his arms. He was aware that this current problem was his fault and needed to be fixed.

"I won't be asking you two to forget this. It happened and I can't change that. Do what you will with what happened."

Those were the final words Yuki said before disappearing with the body.

Kakizaki and Lukas only watched as he was gone from their sight in an instant.

Their immediate thought was how the use of Teleport was implemented right before their eyes.

Once the initial shock of everything settled down, Kakizaki let out a breath.

He was expecting a fighting against the Laser-Shooter. The outcome was easy enough to figure out given their current environment and the general standing of the both of them. Takeshi would easily tear holes through his false body without even having to blink.

.

"The next round is going to be a challenge..."

"Are you fighting them?"

Kakizaki looked over at Lukas who, for everything that just happened, seemed rather calm.

_I suppose each person does take everything in differently._

That thought applied to more than just Lukas.

He shook his head for a second before giving a tired smile.

"Yeah. I found out today that our next opponents are Nasu Squad and Kotowari Squad. And I think I just made an enemy out of Kotowari..."

"That match is not going to go over well with either your team or Kotowari Squad."

They were simple but true words.

Kakizaki looked toward once more, thinking about what he had seen. The cold and dead eye of Takeshi were unnerving as it was, his answer and actions made things far worse for him.

The next match would need to be more planned out than any before for them. Not because of who the opposing teams were, rather, because of that single boy who had an overwhelming Trigger that he could use against them all.

_I hope we can get through it..._

* * *

[Welcome to the second round of the B-Rank Wars. I will be your commentator for this match. I am Hiyami from Ninomiya Squad. With me today is Suzaku Kasumi from Suzaku Squad and Ema Yuzuru from Kageura Squad.]

[Hello.]

[Hey.]

[This match will be featuring Kotowari Squad, Nasu Squad and Kakizaki Squad. After having lost and scoring no points in their last match, Kotowari Squad has been pushed down to the mid-tier group.]

[That was a rather harsh reminder that Yucchi was what held their team together. Without him around, I doubt they will be able to do much.]

[They have a slim chance. If Misaki-senpai and Awdry can work together, they should be able to score some points. They managed it in their last match. Well... As much as they could that is.]

[Kakizaki Squad's usual style of fighting is to group up and attack together. If they do that here then it would give them a bit of an advantage against Awdry, who can't work too well under extreme pressure.]

[Word around the base is that his father has come here to sponsor Border. That might also be putting pressure on him. What's more is that Na-chan is not a pushover as a Shooter. She can also put a good amount of pressure on both him and Kakizaki Squad. If she works with her own team then they will probably be the team best off here.]

[I have a feeling that Kotowari will be targeting Nasu-senpai. It seems like something he would do.]

[Under the right mindset, that's true. But now... Kotowari is a wild card that no one can trust after their last match.]

[It looks like they are being transported in now. With every fighter being spread out at an even distance, this fight can do either way.]


	32. Nasu Squad

"Is something wrong, Rei?"

Nasu looked up to see her teaming looking directly at her.

Nasu Squad was about to enter their second round match of the B-Rank Wars against Kakizaki Squad and Kotowari Squad. They understood what they had to do against Kakizaki Squad but were still unsure as how to handle the unstable Kotowari Squad.

_I can't tell them that it's nothing. Telling them what Yuki-san had asked of me will also be important here._

Looking at each member of her team, Nasu started to speak.

"I was just thinking. Yuki-san had asked me to see how Kotowari-kun is really doing in this fight. He had apparently spoken to him after an incident yesterday and wants to see if it had help any."

"So are you going to..."

"Even if he had asked me to do this, I won't be making it my top priority here. I think he understands that. That is why I would like to either take out Kotowari-kun first or last. The former would be best, seen as how his own teammates don't seem to be working with him. The latter would give us a nice chance if Kakizaki Squad goes after him as well."

"So assuming we go with the former, we would need to still be mindful of the others. Even if they aren't backing him up, Toby-kun and Misaki will be trying to get points. That means we are still targets for them. If we go for the latter, we would still have to fight those two, as well as rely on Kakizaki Squad to weaken him."

"That is right."

From her position at her computer, Shiki spoke up.

"I think going for him first would be the best option. Regardless of what Tsukiko-senpai asked you to do, Kotowari-kun is currently a major problem. His long-range attacks can be an issue for you all. He can just tear down any obstacles in his way and continue on attacking."

"Even putting him out of the situation, I would be the best option to take on Awdry-kun. His Side Effect is troublesome for Kuma-chan alone. Even if Akane-chan helps, we would need Kakizaki Squad again. Suzu-chan would be the best target for you two without much help."

"How do you want to deal with Kakizaki Squad?"

Nasu looked over each member of each team, examining everything they knew.

It was no secret that, even if they were currently in the mid-tier rankings, Kotowari Squad had top-tier members. They had been the focus of the conversation, but were not their only opponents.

"Kakizaki Squad likes to keep together and attack as a team. It is most likely that they will be doing that here as well. If that is the case, I will handle them myself. Akane-chan, you can provide extra offense against them. They will be trying to defend against me, so that should give you some places to shoot."

"Got it!"

Nasu nodded her head at the enthusiasm coming from her young teammate.

That left them to decide on their plan of attack and any back-up plans.

* * *

Kakizaki furrowed his brows as he looked over everything concerning Kotowari Squad and Nasu Squad.

His team, being the lowest ranked, was the one allowed to pick the location and any extra conditions. Having seen the previous match for both teams he found it rather difficult to pick any one location. It had taken his team's Operator kicking his butt into gear for him to come up with something with his team.

He had yet to tell any of his team about the incident concerning Takeshi. Yuki had told both him and Lukas that they could do as they like with what had happened, but he could not bring himself to say anything about it. There was just a feeling that had stopped him from doing so.

_Wagner seems to have not said anything either. If he did, it didn't reach the directors. That is both a relief and a worry. Because of what happened I probably have a major target on my back that Kotowari will be seeking out._

The Laser-Shooter Trigger had been specially made for Takeshi due to reasons unknown. Those reason did not need to be known when the only thing that mattered was knowing what the capabilities of it were. Something that was learned because of that incident was that it would only be getting more dangerous the longer Takeshi was in his current mindset.

Kakizaki looked over the information on Takeshi once more, directing his words towards his teammates.

"This match... We will be continuing with our usual way. Group up as soon as possible. After that, we can take in the others. Nasu's Viper will be trouble to get around, but we should be able to handle it until she is taken out. Disregarding Kotowari... I'm sure Misaki and Awdry will want to get rid of her as soon as possible so that the latter can fight however he wants."

"What are we going to do about Kotowari-kun, Awdry-kun and Nasu-senpai? Kumagai-senpai and Hiura-chan should be easy enough if we attack them together and Misaki can only handle close-range fights well."

"The remaining three are major opposites. Awdry-kun is best at close-range combat, but is difficult to hit from a distance. His speed is also something to keep in mind. What's more is that Kotowari Squad all have Teleport."

It was the truth.

If they went with Gunner-type Triggers, Toby would be almost untouchable. If they went with Attacker-type Triggers, they would get cut in a small amount of time. Due to the boy's Side Effect it provided a problem for them to deal with.

"Then there are the Shooters."

The opposite side of that spectrum.

"Nasu with Viper is terrifying in its own right. Then we have Kotowari with his Laser-Shooter. But concerning him..."

Kakizaki took in a breath before continuing to speak.

He knew that he had to say something about Takeshi. It would only help them.

"Kotowari will either be going after me or Nasu."

Teruya, Tomoe and Ui were quick to turn to their leader.

He could see the clear confusion on their faces and responded accordingly.

"Nasu because she is probably the best against him in this match. And he will probably go after me...because of something that happened the other day with Wagner from Hatohara Squad."

"So..."

"So, I will split off from you guys if we cross Kotowari. I will test out what his target is. If he goes after me then you two will continue on together. If he continues to attack you two, we will take him on as a team."

It was unlike him, he knew that.

Kakizaki knew that it was going against what he always wanted. Instead of staying with his team he would be going off alone and leaving to fight.

This opponent was that intimidating for him.

Unlike others, Takeshi would have a focused mind depending on the situation. This meant that he would be able to use that single mindedness to give his team time to get some points for their team.

"Right. Let's get started."

* * *

There was a terrible silence in the room.

Mei looked over the three Combatants before her. Toby and Suzume seemed ready enough to fight, having already agreed to help each other, while Takeshi stood a good distance away from them.

As soon as they had met up he had said who he would be going after so that his two teammates would not interfere with him.

Yuki had supposedly spoken to Takeshi at some point, that she knew, but she could tell that it had little to no effect on the boy in front of her. This meant that both she and Yuki had tried getting through to the boy.

_There has to be some other way to get to him. Even with all the calculations I can't find a good solution to this. I didn't want to bother Jin with somethings concerning my team but..._

There was no longer a choice.

Jin was the solution to this problem. His foresight and her calculations would lead to a future where this would be resolved. A future where her team would be happy once more. A future where she did not have to worry about them as much.

Until that time came, she would have to continue to watch the three of them hurt.

She checked the time and saw that it was a minute before they would be transported in for their match.

All she could do was let out a small breath and hope for the best.

* * *

[All the participants have been sent in now. Kakizaki Squad was the team that chose the area.]

[It looks like they chose an industrial area with no particular conditions. This is both a good and bad choice. They tried to keep everyone in mind, but had to choose between Shooter and Attacker for this.]

[They picked the wrong option. They chose this to combat Awdry, giving Nasu-senpai and Kotowari the perfect chance to score points. Even Misaki-senpai is highly likely to score points.]

[If we are talking about a regular match, that would be true. But given everything we know, I like Zaki-san picked the correct location.]

[Could you please elaborate?]

Suzaku nodded his head with a tired expression.

[With how many obstacles are here, it's perfect. Sniping become difficult when the target can hide just as easily as them and Awdry also has to move around the area just as much as them. If Na-chan fires her Vioer at him, even better. If Kotowari tries to destroy those obstacles he will be an easy target since he would be the starting point of the destruction.]

[So Kakizaki Squad really thought things through for this.]

[They had to if they want to win.]

.

"Ma~ The fact they got Yuzuru and Kasumi for this is actually pretty amazing."

"You would think they wouldn't do something like this."

Two girls sat while facing the large screen in front of them.

One was a blonde girl with a more foreign appearance while the other was a black haired girl with a calm expression. The two sat directly under the commentators' seats to watch the fight and hear the comments.

"By the way, why didn't Maya and Kuni want to come watch this?"

"They said they had some other things to do. I didn't ask any further since I feel like it would only lead to trouble."

"Fair point."

Asano Eri looked over a bit to see her teammate wiggling around in her seat.

It was understandable from what she had been told by the American girl.

.

Due to being friends with two members of Kotowari Squad, Shana had watched their first match and had been rather angry at the outcome. The two friends had been unjustly taken out with their third member seeming to go against them.

She had spoken to another one of her American friends at Border - Noah Shor - to get his thoughts on the situation. They had gotten to an agreement that the third American they knew would not lose like that under normal circumstances. That left them with the decision to see if they could help in any way.

That was a rather difficult task when Toby had seemed to be avoiding everything he possibly could.

They had gone to Kitora and found out the reason for that. It had not been because of the fight or the disbandment, instead it was due to his father appearing in Mikado City.

Not knowing what else to do at the time, the two decided to just watch the second round match and see what could happen.

The problem was...

.

"I can't believe Noah forgot he had defense duty today! We were suppose to keep track of things here!"

"Calm down. I'll be watching carefully here, so you don't have to worry."

"Oh yeah. Why are you here anyway? Do you want to see how Rei does things to get a better understanding?"

"That is one reason. Another reason is because I also want to the current Kotowari Squad. Even if they lose this match, they will still be in mid-tier. That means there is still a chance we would have to fight them. I want to be prepared for that."

Shana nodded, understanding the reasoning.

She was going to make another comment when she noticed something on the screen.

The fighters were moving.

* * *

The moment she appeared on the map, Kumagai started to run in the direction her teammates were located. She noted how the two Snipers in this match were quick to put on their Bagworms while the others were fine without them.

_It makes sense. We all want to be prepared for an attack while also being ready for a counter. Using Bagworm would just take up unnecessary Trion usage._

As she ran in the direction of her captain, she noticed something interesting on her a Radar.

The spot where she could meet up with Nasu seemed to also be the direction three others were going. They would intersect almost the same moment they all reached their respective teammates.

Seeing where that intersection was, she turned on her own Bagworm while continuing to move forward.

_"Nasu-senpai, I can see Tomoe-kun near you."_

"So that means either Kakizaki-san or Teruya are over here."

_"Akane-chan, can you find anyone from Kotowari Squad from your position? Kakizaki Squad will be grouping up right now, so we can wait for a bit to fight them. Finding Kotowari Squad is a top priority here."_

_"I can see Awdry moving around. He's moving in a crazy way though."_

"That is probably to deal with Rei's shots. He's using his ability and mobility to counter her. That means we need to-"

Kumagai noticed something from the corner of her eye and created a concentrated shield on the side of her head.

Something smashed into the defense, but was unable to break through.

"Misaki is somewhere in the southern area!"

With the general location of the opposing Sniper being found out it was likely that she would be moving to get away from where she had fired the shot.

Since the shot had come from a good amount of distance it was a clear conclusion that Kumagai would be unable to catch her and initiate a fight. It left her to continue following the line until the intersection.

_"Kuma-chan, see who is closest to you. Form what I can see, you would be able to catch up to the person nearest to you before we all intersect. We already know where Tomoe-kun and Awdry-kun are, that isn't an issue at the moment. We need to establish where the rest of Kakizaki Squad is."_

She gave a positive response while changing her direction in the slightest of ways.

Whether it was Teruya or Kakizaki, the chances of an even match was assured. So long as it was just the two of them fighting, Kumagai knew that she would be able to handle herself well enough for either Nasu or Hiura to assist.

Kumagai, knowing this all, was still clear in her objective. It was not to fight this opponents, rather, it was to determine who exactly it was. If given the order, or if she asked herself, she would fight them, but that had not been what was told to her.

She had one objective.

.

Kumagai continue to move towards her target in order to determine who exactly it was.

Toby and Tomoe had been found by Hiura while Suzume had already fired a shot at her. That meant the general locations of three opponents were found out. The ones they could not tell for sure were Kakizaki, Teruya and Takeshi.

_"Kumagai-senpai. Awdry-kun and Tomoe-kun are gett no closer to Nasu-senpai over on the other side of the area. It's a bit hard to see from here, but I think I can see Kotowari in the distance. He's more towards you than Nasu-senpai._

After that, Kumagai heard a sound. It was a low but long sound. It resembled like creaking metal and it was accompanied by movement in the western area and the arrival of a terrible smell.

Two sets of smoke began moving upwards as if to block any vision towards the sky. It had been a byproduct of the industrial area that was chosen by their opponents.

_...So they will probably be fighting soon._

"Then it's about time we got ready for these fights properly."

Kumagai faced forward while getting into a relatively covered spot. She could see exactly who it was that had been her target.

Teruya was seen running along the road.

Kumagai Stoodmup straight.

"Now, then."

She faced the direction Teruya had ran and started running parallel while staying out of sight.

At that exact moment, that main road cutting east to west through the area was annihilated by a beam of light also running east to west.

It was a direct hit.

* * *

[What an amazing display of power! That beam of light was provided by Kotowari Squad's captain - Kotowari Takeshi. It seems like he is fighting with more of an intent to win this time.]

[It revealed his position... I don't think he minds that too much.]

[His plan was probably to get a fight started with Kuma and Teruya. It was clear that Kuma was going to just keep distance while following her target. That could lead to a pincer attack by Na-chan and Kuma on both Tomo and Teruya.]

[So he was preserving points by showing Teruya that she was being followed?]

[I wonder... Yuzuru, what do you make of this?]

[It looks more like Kotowari-senpai just wanted them to be distracted. He could have easily taken either one of them out with his shot. A regular defense won't work against him. That is our usual reaction to getting attacked that it would be as simple as waving his hand.]

[You're right. We have seen Kotowari fire off at least five of those lasers before. Attacking two people and taking them out would not be an issue for him.]

[Why would he want them to be distracted instead of going for points?]

[That is probably because he has a single target right now. I don't know who it is, but he is most likely going for a single person and doesn't want the other fighters to get involved. The best way to get that done is to have them all fight each other while he does his business.]

.

"That guy... It really is dangerous to just let him do as he wants."

Lukas Wagner looked at the large screen in front of him with narrowed and calculating eyes.

He had not told anyone other than his team about what had happened in the hallway. They had agreed to not say anything due to Lukas wanting to watch this match.

His goal was to see if anything had been done with Takeshi when Yuki had come by and taken the boy away.

It was clear to him what was going on. His target was not anyone on Nasu Squad or his own team. The only other person who had witnessed anything in the hallway had been Kakizaki. Who was currently in a match against Takeshi.

"I will need to speak about what happened before he can really harm someone."

Lukas was about to leave when he heard something.

It was the clear sound of footsteps rushing in his direction.

"We are late! Oh! But it looks like they barely started! Is that not great, Tenryū-kun?"

Lukas looked forward to see a girl with a princess-like appearance and a small boy who covered his eyes standing before him.

The princess-like girl looked directly at him before letting out a quick, "Ah!" It was followed by an apology.

He shook his head as if to say there was nothing to apologize for.

"I did not know you would be here, Wagner-kun. Are you also here to watch Kotowari Squad fight? Or is it for Nasu Squad and Kakizaki Squad? All three teams are truly amazing, so I can understand wanting to see any of them."

What was amazing was how innocent the girl before him seemed to be.

"You could say that I was here to just see how things went. Minoru-nii-san sees Toby as a sort of younger brother, so I wanted to give him some information on this match."

It was not the full truth, but it was not a complete lie. His captain truly did see Toby as a sort of younger brother figure, but it was not because of that reason that he was watching the match.

Taiyōko Hoshi lowered her brows, seeming to see through the half-lie. Her lips went form an upward turn to a small and stretched out "U" shape.

Lukas took a small glance down to see the boy with his eyes covered looking up at him. At some point one of his eyes had come out to look directly at Lukas. His body language showed how small he thought he was while his expressed something else.

_This boy really doesn't believe me. He sees right through what I said._

It was an unknown fact to Lukas, but the boy trying to hide behind Hoshi was the new student of one Tsukiko Yuki.

"I see... Well... Would you like to stay with us and watch the rest of the match? I am sure that we can see some fascinating things in this match."

This girl truly was innocent. That was the conclusion Lukas had come to when she was nice enough to not question him about his reasoning for being there.

"I'm sorry. I have to get going now. My team has defense duty in an hour, so I need to be going."

It was the whole truth.

"Ah. I see. My apologizes for keeping you then."

"Not at all."

With the final words being exchanged, Lukas started for the door once more.

.

He was unsure as to what exactly he had just seen. The two he was just in front of had seen through him without any moment of hesitation.

The boy in particular seemed to have been judging him for even telling the half-lie in the first place. It felt much more like he was being examined than having a conversation.

* * *

Nasu watched as the two dots rushing towards her location seem to pick up their pace.

She had been told by Hiura that it was Toby and Tomoe, two well off agent when it came to skill. One was an All-Rounder while still being rather young and the other had a Side Effect that could handle a fight against the best of agents.

Hiura had already fired some shots before hand to see if she could score some points. Once she had told Nasu that Toby seemed to be defending the both of them from the shots, Nasu had chosen to fire her own. The distance had been enough to give both time to react in time so they could doge of block the attacks.

That had been when the beam of light tore through the air with little care of the surroundings.

The direction it was sent had been where Kumagai and the other target had been.

"Kuma-chan, are you okay?"

_"Yeah. The attack missed both of us. The issues that is that Teruya now sees me since they is nothing obscuring us now. I'm not sure I can just bring her over to you, Rei."_

"That's fine. We'll be changing plans now. Awdry-kun and Tomoe-kun are headed this way. Akane-chan had said that Awdry-kun is protecting the both of them from attacks. That is probably due to wanting the point for himself."

_"What!? But Toby should be able to take him out easily by now! How are they still fighting?"_

"That is the byproduct of everything that has been going on. Even if Tomoe-kun is just running away, Awdry-kun would normally have no issue catching up with him. That just means we can use all of this to our advantage."

Nasu continued to move through her own area, deciding that they would not be intersecting at any point now.

She would use her chance.

_I am sorry, Yuki-san, but I won't have time to check on Kotowari-kun._

"Akane-chan, back up Kuma-chan for the time being. If Suzu-chan tries anything, it's up to you to take her out or defend Kuma-chan against the attack."

_"Roger!"_

"Kuma-chan..."

"Yes. I know. Leave it to me."

* * *

Kumagai removed her Bagworm while facing forward.

Teruya was now standing in front of her, blade ready for the upcoming battle.

"Yes. I know. Leave it to me."

The unspoken order was clear to her.

She needed to win this fight and make sure that Teruya would not be able to group up with her teammates. Kakizaki Squad was known for their usual tactic of fighting as a whole team, meaning that was their weakness. They would need to group up to enact that plan.

With their Sniper backing her up, Kumagai knew full well that she would not be lost the fight.

After all...

_I told Rei to leave it to me._

.

Kumagai ran forward with the clear intent to strike first.

She went for Teruya's left, knowing that is where she would be the most vulnerable.

She herself was righ handed. Being the one who indicated the attack she would be able to react against any counter or block.

That was exactly what happened as Teruya moved back while snapping her wrist so that he blade moved in a more circular motion. This had a sort of pendulum effect where, due to the initial downward swing, the blade moved faster. Also like a pendulum, the blade started to slow down as it was brought up on the other side. This was countered by using actual force to push the blade up even further.

Kumagai felt her Kōgetsu get pushed up by the opposing one from the side.

Since she had been using both of her arms for the swing of the sword, all the force and power held in the attack was forced up and to the side. It had been a full attack that could not have been changed mid-swing.

Kumagai could see the opposing Kōgetsu already moving towards her face.

There was no time to defend as she had to re-balance herself because of her first attack.

"-!"

She pushed off the ground, moving backwards as opposed to forward, as a single shot went through the two of them. It had been quick enough to where they both knew it came from a Lightning being fired.

_"Kumagai-senpai, that was from me."_

It was good clarification.

The attack had been the only way to protect her from the incoming attack. The direction had been a bit of a random one and the line it followed was between the two girls. Without Hiura telling her it had been to defend, Kumagai would have suspected Suzume of firing the shot.

Knowing that it was her teammate who had fired, Kumagai loosened the grip on her Kōgetsu while moving forward once more.

She took a solid step before pushing off the ground once more. This time she pushed to move forward instead of backwards.

Teruya had still been in the process of balancing herself after having to dodge the sudden attack. When she noticed Kumagai going towards her it forced her to react.

The two Kōgetsu clashed.

Kumagai, using both hands and arms, as well as being the one to attack, pushed against Teruya with enough force to cause her to lean forward. Letting up on the power would give Teruya a chance to slip though while also making Kumagai lose her balance again.

This was similar to continuously pushing down on the end of a tack with a finger instead of using the palm of a hand. It created a pinpoint pressure that left the tack to only travel forward instead of moving to the right or left.

Getting another conformation from her teammate, Kumagai made a sudden change in power.

Kumagai twisted her foot on the ground while pushing herself backwards again.

The sudden change in pressure had caused Teruya to lose her balance once more. Her upper body jumped up and her legs lowered the moment she was freed from the attack.

A quick light soured through the air.

Still trying to gather herself, she spun her moving upper body to the side, forcing her left side to go into the air. The shot fired had hit her left arm while her left leg tried to steady the rest of her.

Kumagai noticed the spin as soon as it happened and created cubes of Trion by her side. She fired them off towards the spinning Teruya.

.

Teruya could see the extra shots being fired at her and made a quick decision.

She pushed herself using her right foot while still in a spin.

This made her spin even more while also being launched away from Kumagai, who had to stand behind the shots she had fired or risk getting hit by them herself.

Teruya crashed with the ground which had forced her to stop her spin.

She gave little thought to the crash and started to roll on the ground as a Sniper shots was fired and followed by extra shots from a closer distance.

Sticking out her foot, she pushed herself up and properly moved back and into a sport where the Sniper would not be able to attack her.

_I can also fight from a distance. I'm sure they know that already, so why are they pushing me away instead of getting closer to me?_

Teruya thought this while preparing for a shoot out instead of a sword fight.

That was when she saw it.

.

Kumagai watched as multiple shots followed a line in the direction if where Teruya was standing.

Each shot seemed to be following a sort of special trajectory that was vastly different from a pre-programmed one that most Viper users followed.

These were Viper shots created by Nasu.

_Leave it to Rei to manage this with how little information and time she was given._

Kumagai watched as Teruya desperately tried to handle the Viper shots fired from a great distance.

Once she saw the last of the shots coming in, Kumagai moved forward with her Kōgetsu ready to strike.

This was the chance she needed to score a point.

* * *

Kakizaki left the building while checking his surroundings in case of of an attack. He wasn't following his usual plan of grouping up with his team. He was doing the opposite. He was trying to get as far away as he could in order to keep his team away from Takeshi.

He was on top of a short bridge. There was a train track below it, not a river. It was one of the places where an underground line briefly came above ground.

He watched as the building he left started to fall to the ground after having its supporting pillars destroyed by him. This had been so that he could crush Takeshi under all of the rubble and meet back up with his team.

There had been no sign of the Laser-Shooter Trigger being used to block the attack.

Kakizaki heard a whistle.

He turned to look and saw Laser-Shooter Kotowari Takeshi approaching as he crossed the small bridge.

A bad feeling started to envelope Kakizaki's body. He hurriedly ran in the opposite direction of the Shooter.

He turned around.

Takeshi was crossing the bridge a bit away. He was 20 or 30 meters away and staring at him through the different buildings. He had already singled out Kakizaki Kuniharu as his prey.

_Shit! I can't get away by hiding in the buildings!_

He cut through a large number of buildings and continued to run. But he soon reached the area's limit. He looked around and headed for one of the nearby buildings. He slammed open the door with a tackle, not even bothering to check if it was locked or not, and tumbled inside.

"...Damn it. What is this place?"

It wasn't a normal business building. There were plants slightly taller than Kakizaki growing all over the floor. Above his head, wires were laid out entwined with the branches. They were grape vines. Looking to the ground, he could see hydroponic containers lined up. The bluish purple illumination must have been from UV lights to promote photosynthesis.

_So this is an automatic refining plant for biological ethanol fuel... They really put detail to these kinds of things._

"What a nice place."

Kakizaki's entire body stiffened when he heard that voice come from behind him.

"You've got taste to choose a deserted facility, Kakizaki. It's best to lose alone."

Kakizaki could not help but substitute the word "lose" with "die" because of the way it had been said.

Before he could turn around, an impact hit his back.

With a loud disconcerting noise, Kakizaki's body flew a few meters before it landed. A large number of the hydroponic containers were knocked over, many grape plants were broken, and Kakizaki's body rolled even farther.

"Damn...!"

Kakizaki left the large area as if he was being chased by a demon. There was a staircase, so he headed up it. He found a large group of silver machinery that was twice his height lined up and they were connected vertically and horizontally by metal pipes. It was like the beer breweries you sometimes saw in commercials.

Compared to before, there were a lot of blind spots.

_Even with that strong Trigger, he isn't invincible._

Kakizaki passed through a gap in the complicated arrangements of pipes and leaned his back up against a piece of machinery about the size of a small room. As he did, he hurriedly tried to come up with anything that gave him an advantage.

_When he was attacked using that part of the building, he didn't try to destroy the building with his Trigger. And with the chase just now he went with Teleport to do anything specific instead of firing right away._

Kakizaki gritted his teeth at the different possibilities and noticed a means of getting out of this situation.

_Most likely, Kotowari's power takes a certain amount of time to aim in exchange for how powerful it is. In other words, he's weak to surprise attacks. He can't deal with a sudden attack from someone._

That wasn't because Takeshi hadn't trained with the Trigger enough, but rather it was a flaw created from it being _too_ powerful. If he wasn't extremely careful in using his power in only a specified area, he could end up getting caught up in the blast.

But he didn't really care about the reason behind it as long as it was a demerit for Takeshi.

In an area with lots of cover, Kakizaki had a slight chance of victory.

But...

"Kaaaaakiiiizaaaakiiiii."

With that one word, Kakizaki body was covered in a sense of danger.

He ignored his theory and got down on the ground and at the same time "that" came.

A rain of beams flew by.

With the boy known as Kotowari Takeshi at the center, lines of bright, unhealthy-looking light shot out in all directions. They weren't shots being fired that left trails behind when attacking. Just like other Triggers, Trion powered the attack by firing it out, but Takeshi had the power to forcibly fire continuously using his Laser-Shooter Trigger.

When Trion is used to make a Trigger function, they either become solid mass or create the appearance of a true object. Triggers like Escudo became solid mass in order to defend while others like Kōgetsu and Scorpion took the appearance of a true object, but they were not in the sense that they could be molded after being created. Normally, Shooter-type Triggers were just shots that took the appearance of a true object flying in the air and could not change directions after being fired, but that continuous firing that caused a dreadful amount of destructive force was being used to direct the attack to other places after being fired.

That was the Laser-Shooter Trigger.

Each one of the beams tore through the false metal like it was paper, destroyed the thick walls, and tinted everything in a shade of green for a few seconds. The attacks must have reached the containers, because small explosions occurred all over the place. Kakizaki had somehow managed to avoid being directly hit, but a metal fragment the size of a guitar pick was stuck in his left shoulder. And it wasn't just that one. There were 4 or 5 of them stuck there.

"Tch."

There was no real pain from this when he was using his Trion Body.

Since the areas for cover were in his way, Takeshi was just going to destroy them all. Once he had leveled everything to rubble, Kakizaki would have to face Takeshi in a hopeless situation.

"The machinery here is like that thing in the goldfish scooping games at festivals. Umm...I forget what it's called. Anyway, it won't cut it as cover against my Trigger."

A special type of Shooter.

The group of machinery that had been covering the floor just a bit before had been reduced to rubble in just one attack. Every kind of cover had been crushed and even the outer wall had been greatly damaged. Takeshi stood in the center of the destruction that could easily bring the entire building down as a dark look slowly, slowly spread across his face.

"Apparently, even in a Trion Body, my survival instincts keep me from putting out any more force than that, but it might also be because of how much Trion I have. Well, I can't complain too much, since the recoil would probably blow my body to pieces if I actually did something like that."

Dread spread through Kakizaki's body.

The Laser-Shooter monster quietly approached him.


	33. Kakizaki Squad

An overwhelming amount of destruction had been fired by Kotowari Takeshi's Laser-Shooter.

Kakizaki turned his back to the wreckage and ran frantically trying to get as much distance between himself and Takeshi as he could.

He ran to a different floor of the botanical ethanol fuel plant and Takeshi called out to him.

"Kakizakiiii. You were the other one in that hallway the other day. I heard what you said and I won't be satisfied until I've beaten you."

Once again, Kakizaki unconsciously changed the word "beaten" to "kill" for one reason or another.

While still fleeing, Kakizaki rejected Takeshi's words.

"You... What about your teammates? There has to be a limit to this. They won't end up being your teammates as long as you keep up this attitude."

"So what? If they leave me, I can just replace them with some other people. They are the only ones with those kinds of Side Effects, but another kind would be fine, too. As long as I make it up to where I can shoot through Yuki, there's no problem."

Kakizaki made it to the floor where the remnants of the grapes that would have had all the alcohol squeezed out of them were collected, but Takeshi's Laser-Shooter turned it all to rubble in seconds.

Kakizaki spoke while hiding behind a mountain of false metal that was tinged with all the destruction.

"Sorry, but we can't all go along with what you want."

"Ah?"

"You can't beat Yuki. What's more, getting so worked up over something so unimportant is pointless and a waste for everyone involved with you."

After saying that, he almost thought he heard the sound of Takeshi gritting his teeth.

Even so, he continued.

"After knowing the two of you, I can tell. This isn't an issue of A-Rank vs B-Rank. Most likely, Yuki disbanded his team for a completely different reason. What good will getting mad do?"

It was true that Yuki was a difficult person in many aspects, but he was still smart enough to do important things for a good reason. Even when he seemed to be acting out of a selfish desire, it was also to benefit others in the end.

He didn't think that someone like Kotowari Takeshi, who bared his fangs towards his own comrades just because he didn't like something, would be able to properly understand what exactly was going on. No matter how overwhelming his power seemed, it would not lead him to what he wanted.

"This isn't an issue of getting back at Tsukiko or thinking you're right. If you continue fighting against everyone and won, all you would get would be a personal satisfaction. I can't let you get others dragged along with that. You will end up with no one even wanting to look at you!"

"Ha. Ha ha!"

Hearing the answer Kakizaki Kuniharu had come to, Takeshi laughed scornfully.

Kakizaki ran from cover to cover putting some distance between them as Takeshi slowly pursued him.

"Why are you so hung up on it anyway, Kotowari? Was it the demeanor of Tsukiko and Takato? Or was it because he spoke kindly to you?"

Takeshi did not respond and Kakizaki continued speaking.

"Do you really think everyone who speaks kindly to you is a good person and everyone who speaks harshly to you is a bad person!? You make it sound like you stand at the very center of the world!"

"...I know that," said Takeshi.

He didn't deny it.

If Tsukiko Yuki hadn't spoken kindly to him, he doubted his heart would have led him to do what he did.

No response came.

A green beam so bright it made him think it was a nuclear explosion blew straight through the mountain of false metal Kakizaki was hiding behind. He was knocked back by the gust of wind created and he sensed a presence standing right behind him.

Before he could turn around, he sensed something odd about his right ear.

Kotowari Takeshi had stuck a Scorpion blade in his ear.

"It seems you've got a screw that's just a liiiitle loose in your head."

The tip of the blade slowly moved further into his ear.

"Want me to tighten it for you?"

He couldn't move. If he moved his head even slightly, it would be cut from the blade pressed up against his head.

Kakizaki put his hand on his Kōgetsu.

There was one chance.

_Damn it..._

Gritting his teeth, Kakizaki Kuniharu prepared himself.

He ignored the Scorpion blade and forcefully spun around.

* * *

[It appears that Captain Kotowari has the advantage against Captain Kakizaki.]

There was a small moment of silence from Ema and Suzaku.

it was the latter who decided to break it.

[Yes. That is...to be expected. Kotowari's Laser-Shooter is not something you can normally deal with if you aren't prepared. But it looks like there are some major flaws with it. Zaki-san seems to have found out what they are.]

[This is a dangerous situation. It's also going beyond this one match.]

Hiyami and Suzaku could only nod their heads in response.

.

"Oh, dear... Is Kotowari-kun okay? He has not been coming to school, so I did not know what was happening. Awdry-kun has not mentioned anything either."

The boy sitting next to her said nothing, not knowing the mentioned people well enough to say anything.

Hoshi watched the large screen with a worried expression and a hand on her cheek.

The boy who had his eyes covered by his hair sat silently while also watching the screen. Like his namesake, he made as much movement and sounds as a plant would.

Tenryū Shokubutsu had only gone to watch the match as a request from his current mentor. He did not know anyone who was currently fighting and did not know anything regarding them besides their names.

This was all so that he could tell his mentor about what happened while he was busy with an unofficial meeting preparation. It had been a request that he could have denied, seeing as how his mentor was never rude or harsh to him, but he wanted to be of some kind of use towards the one who was helping him out.

Something that had caught his attention while watching the screen was not the battle between the two girls or the amazing light display shown by both the regular Shooter and the Laser-Shooter. Those were all things he would expect to see from teams like those.

What he was paying attention to was the boy wearing orange who was around his age.

"Is is quite amazing that someone as young as Tomoe-kun is keeping up with Awdry-kun. I have not seen Awdry-kun fight too much, but even I know how well off he is as a fighter."

Shokubutsu watched as Tomoe did indeed continue to move around Toby's attacks while also being protected from Nasu's shots.

He could see that it was different from what Hoshi was making it out to be. Tomoe was not moving because he could keep up with everything. He was moving because Toby was letting him move away at times. There had been a defined distance that Toby seemed to keep between the two of them as they ran through the area.

The reason for Toby doing such a thing was unknown to Shokubutsu, but it was clear that the Attacker was not truly putting his all in this fight.

Even so...

"...Tomoe-sama...is amazing... ...He is...actually fighting...here... ...He is not...backing down..."

Shokubutsu continued to watch with a bit of amazement as someone as young as him continued to fight without any sort of issue. No holding back, no worries about being seen by others, nothing that prevented him from fighting how he wanted.

His mind then went to what he had heard from others before. About how there were two A-Rank agents who were his age as well. That brought a new sense of amazement to him. Knowing that there were such people in Border made him start to think while brining up one of the devices around his neck.

[Misaki-senpai is likely to make her move now.]

Shokubutsu looked towards the commentator's booth and saw Ema looking directly at the large screen.

Then it hit him.

Ema was also someone who was in a high ranked team and the same age as him.

Remembering that, Shokubutsu started to lower himself into his seat. This time a sense of disappointment washed over him.

He looked back towards the screen.

What he saw was...

* * *

Tomoe continued to move through the industrial scenery as a wild animal chased him from behind. It was a sort of surreal feeling when he knew that, under normal circumstances, he should have had to Bail Out long ago.

His initial idea had been to stick with their usual plan of grouping up. Teruya had already been marked while two other opponents seemed to be a good distance from the both of them. The decision had been made to meet up while intersecting with the two opponents they saw.

At some point Toby had started chasing him.

It was best to assume that he would be losing the chase since it was well known that Toby was on a different level then him when it came to close ranged combat and chases.

That was not what happened.

The two were now reaching the intersection where he was suppose to meet up with Teruya. The fact he was able to make it to the intersection at all was not something he thought would happen. The attacks coming from Toby had been shallow and not with full force while the attacks from Nasu had been defended by Toby.

_"I'm almost to the intersection. Awdry-senpai is still chasing me."_

_"Try and leave him where Nasu is. I'm fighting against Kuma and Hiura, so I need you to help over here."_

_"Alright. I'll try and get there as soon as I can."_

The two understood that there was no way for them to help their captain at the moment, meaning they had to handle things themselves.

Grouping up was still was they were still going for, not wanting to go against the usual plan their team had.

.

Tomoe could see Toby moving ahead of him, not bothering to attack him.

This put him in an odd position with the intersection being only a few feet away but Toby only being a few steps in front of him.

_He didn't want to completely reach Nasu-san. But why did he let me get this far then?_

Tomoe brought up his Kōgetsu to defend against the two Scorpion blades.

_"Watch out for snipers!"_

Tomoe looked around and noticed the reason he had been allowed to get as far as he did.

They were now in a relatively open area.

There was no real place to hide and there was not that much of a distance between them and the good sniping spots around them.

Toby had his Side Effect to make sure he did not get hit by Hiura or Nasu, but Tomoe had no way to protect himself in this situation. He had someone clashing blades with him, an accurate Shooter in the distance, and two Snipers who were no pushovers.

"Now then..."

He heard the older boy speak with a dull tone.

"Let's get this started."

.

Toby moved forward with the clear intent of cutting down Tomoe.

It was a surprise when, for the better part of the match, he had just been giving half-hearted attacks towards the boy.

This attack was different in nature to the others before it. The attack was a head-on one with two Scorpion blades in his hand. Tje amount of power in it was no longer something others could just overlook and dodge. The distance between the two of them and speed Toby was going at gave Tomoe only a few seconds to register if any other Trigger would be used.

The teleportation Trigger Border had was used by all members of Kotowari Squad. It was a fact most people knew and prepared for when fighting them.

Expecting the attack, Tomoe readied himself by lifting his Kōgetsu while preaching to shoot once gaining some distance.

Due to being in the moment he could not figure out when was the best time to counter and so relied on their Operator to find that out for him.

_"Wait for a few-"_

The moment she had started to speak, something flashed from the side.

Tomoe did his best to move to the side.

The flash was followed by another one that he could not dodge. It managed to take the top of his arm.

He was given no time to balance himself as Toby was in front of him with his Scorpion blades already in a motion to go for his neck.

Multiple lines started appearing in the sky, as if to create cage for the two boys.

Toby started to twist his body into a rotation, sticking out his leg while doing so.

Tomoe felt something connect with his stomach before being pushed back and creating some distance between him and Toby.

The moment his feet touched the ground he went into a fast sprint while putting a shield over his head.

The cage disappeared as quickly as it came, leaving the destruction behind.

"That was-"

It began.

With the cage no more, a rain of shots appeared in the sky. Each one was followed by a line that decorated the sky in an interesting way.

Tomoe looked over to see that Toby was indeed dodging each and every shot fired at the two of them with relative ease.

Something else he could see was...

**Trion limit exceeded. Bail Out.**

A single flash going in his direction.

* * *

[Agent Tomoe had been taken out! From the points we can see, it seems that Agent Hiura was the one to score that point by sniping him.]

[Poor kid. He was outmatched the moment he was prevented from grouping up with Teruya and got in close proximity to Nasu Squad. Na-chan probably found out what Awdry's plan had been and took advantage of that by trapping the both of them with her shots.]

[What exactly was his strategy here?]

[Awdry was probably trying to get Tomoe close enough to Nasu-senpai so he could fight the both of them with Misaki-senpai acting as his support. He ran the risk of getting in range of Nasu-senpai's Viper and Hiura-senpai's shots, but it also forced the two of them to move.]

[I see. But Agent Hiura is still a good distance away, and Captain Kotowari seems to be too focused on Captain Kakizaki to make any long-range attacks against a Sniper.]

[That would be where Misaki comes in. Don't forget that everyone who was in Yucchi's team had Teleport in their slots. If Awdry were to use Teleport to get to Akane-chan, Na-chan would be able to shoot him down at some point. But what about Misaki? She hasn't shown where she is yet.]

.

"Hyuuuuuu~~! They're really thinking about this, aren't they? We would probably have ran the risk, but wouldn't have actually thought of that kind of thing."

Eri furrowed her brows while watching the screen and hearing her teammate speak next to her.

She took in everything that was being said and everything being displayed.

"Hey Eri, do you think this will work out for them? I mean, if Suzume's going after Akane, she'll be open for Rei to shoot down. Even with Teleport, I'm pretty sure Rei can hit her."

"Exactly. From what how things seem... It looks like they are going to give up two points to score two points. If things go well."

"So you're saying they want to take out Akane and Rei. But they had had to give up a point from Kotarō, and from what we're saying, from Suzume too."

"That's why I'm not too sure what is going on..."

Eri placed her hand to her lips.

_They are probably working with Takato-san since they know they can't work with Kotowari-kun right now. Even so, this is giving up too much. They are also leaving Teruya and Kumagai alone, giving up another point. Assuming Awdry is still around, he would have to fight against whoever wins in that fight._

"But they would still get survival points because of Kotowari-kun..."

"If he's still around for that."

Eri looked up to ask what the Attacker meant when something on the screen caught her eye.

She saw someone lose.

* * *

Kakizaki ignored the Scorpion blade in his ear and forcefully spun around.

"Wha-...?"

Unsurprisingly, Takeshi seemed a bit shocked.

The Scorpion blade carved into the inside of his ear, cutting through his head a bit. There was no pain from the blade since it was only a false body being cut. Some of his vision became slightly blocked to the green smoke coming from his head.

Ignoring it all, Kakizaki pulled the blade known as Kōgetsu from its scabbard.

It was a green blade made of Trion that greatly resembled a katana.

Gripping it tightly, he used the corner of the hilt to hit Takeshi's nearby face.

Takeshi's right eye was crushed at once much like a pirate captain's.

"Gh..."

He held his face with one hand and tottered backwards.

Seeing that, Kakizaki gave a silent smile.

"A low ranked ear for a high ranked eye, huh? ...That's a pretty good deal, don't you think?"

With those words, Takeshi's face was dyed with rage.

"Kaaaaakizaaaaakiiiii!"

A bright flash swelled up.

Kotowari Takeshi's left arm was blown away from the wrist to the elbow as if it had been cut off. The bright light it caused was aimed for Kakizaki Kuniharu's face. He shot his Laser-Shooter Trigger ignoring any kind of detailed aiming.

"...!"

Kakizaki swung his head to the side right before it hit.

It was only pure chance that he had managed to avoid that overwhelming attack.

Takeshi stretched out his right arm, shoved down Kakizaki who had already lost his balance, and climbed on top of him. The Kōgetsu blade slipped from Kakizaki's hand and clattered as it slid across the ground, but Takeshi wasn't paying any attention to it anymore.

He stared at Kakizaki's face with his remaining left eye and yelled in a voice filled with rage.

"That has nothing to do with this! That has nothing to fucking do with thiiiiiisssss! An ear!? An eye!? You can destroy my arms and legs and crush anything else, but you can't change the difference between our strengths! I'm in a top ranked team! One of the tops! I'm the Laser-Shooter! Don't get so pleased with yourself, you motherfucker! I can take out someone like you 100 times without moving a fingeeeerrrrr!"

Takeshi grabbed Kakizaki by the neck with his right hand. If he activated his power now, Kakizaki's head would certainly be annihilated.

Kakizaki Kuniharu smiled as his neck was being held like a drink can.

He relaxed as if he had given up on something.

"...I get it now. I didn't think you would be this open in a fight." Kakizaki said while looking directly at Takeshi. "You're the type of person that can't see values the same as other people. Trivial things to us are important to you and important things to us are trivial to you. You can't align yourself with anyone else's thinking."

"Ah?"

"No. That's not completely right. You did align yourself with everyone else's thinking at some point. That was when you met Tsukiko. The thing that aligned with the rest of us was 'trust', wasn't it? You took it to extremes we usually don't. Probably because it was trivial for us that it was a disbandment. ...There is no reason to get so obsessed with outdoing him because of that broke and misguided trust. You could have used the Laser-Shooter power you're so proud of to pick me off at a distance."

He needed to say these things.

"In other words," Kakizaki smiled as he spoke, "that ridiculous obsession with 'trust' and Tsukiko left a decisive opening for me."

A noise rang out.

It was the sound of the assault rifle manifesting for Kakizaki as he stretched out his arm.

"Wha-...?"

Before Takeshi could say anything, Kakizaki pulled the trigger.

Bang bang bang! With that dry sound, multiple holes opened up in his upper body. Kakizaki continued pulling the trigger until he was sure that it was enough.

"..."

Takeshi looked down at his hole-filled body in shock.

Before long, cracks started appearing on his face.

And then...

**Trion limit exceeded. Bail Out.**

"I should help him out later," said Kakizaki as he stood up, noticing some extra damage he took. "After he properly apologizes of course."

He picked up the Kōgetsu blade that had fallen to the floor and placed it back at his side.

If Kakizaki had initially pulled out the assault rifle, he wouldn't have won. Takeshi would have used his power to easily defend against it. That was why it had been necessary for him to wait until the very last second to do so. He hadn't even taken out the riffle when Takeshi stuck the Scorpion blade in his ear because he was getting the boy to lower his guard by making him think he didn't have any proper weapons.

He stuck his pinky finger into his right ear.

"...Damn, that really was a good deal," he said in shock and started to leave.

He moved his hand so his palm was not touching his ear.

"It's Kakizaki. I'm on my way to help out."

He walked through the destroyed floor and towards the exit as he spoke.

"That's right. It's over."

* * *

There was a deafening silence in the large room.

The commentators and spectators alike said nothing.

Even as the match continued on, as they saw Kakizaki leave the building, they said nothing about what they saw.

After a minute, the silence was finally broken.

But not by the commentators.

"That guy is a psycho!"

Whispers and murmurs filled the large room.

Everyone there had see the same thing concerning the two squad captains. That had been more than enough to get them all talking about it and what exactly it was that they saw.

[...Captain Kakizaki scored a point...by taking out...Captain Kotowari...]

[This is troubling.]

[We couldn't hear what they were saying but... From what we could see...]

[Ahem. It looks like everyone who had actually seen that scene has their things to say about it. Even so, Hiyami-san, we still need to commentate on this. This goes to you too, Yuzuru.]

[R-right. Thank you.]

[Mm.]

[The tense battle between the two captains has ended with Captain Kakizaki being the winner. Captain Kotowari had seemed to be ballistic and lost focus.]

[That is a strong reason for why he had lost. He had even blown away his own arm in his state. Although, Kakizaki-san also seemed to have waited for the right moments to strike each time.]

[That puts the score to Nasu Squad and Kakizaki Squad with one point each.]

[And now we will see if Awdry and Misaki's risk paid off for them.]

* * *

_So Kotowari-kun got taken out..._

Nasu let out a breath through her nose as she ran through the industrial scene.

She made a reminder to apologize to Yuki once the match was over. What she had been asked could not have been accomplished due to her focus on the match itself. The result, from what she heard, were not good ones.

Shaking her head, she took a leap into the air, gaining enough distance from the ground to see above a better part of the area.

"Akane-chan, are you almost to a good spot?"

_"Yeah. Suzu-nee didn't get me and I can see both you and Kumagai-senpai."_

"Good."

Nasu let out another breath.

"Akane-chan, I want you to focus on assisting Kuma-chan."

_"But what about Awdry? He's close to you! Can you really take him on by yourself?"_

_"Akane, remember who you're talking to. Rei can do it."_

Nasu gave a smile despite knowing that her teammates could not see it.

Those words were reassuring.

_I know I can't beat him. He use to actively search for Shooters to fight against. I was one of them. He also has an agreement with Arafune Squad to be their moving target for practice at times. That news went to other Snipers and now he is their benchmark._

She knew that she would not be able to easily catch the wild boy. If she were to try and cage him in, he would find a way to break out. If she went head-on, he would gladly clash with her and shatter any attack she made.

He was a wild animal that created hardships for opponents.

_But..._

But...

"Akane-chan, I will be fine. You need to help out Kuma-chan and watch out for Suzu-chan. I will also be helping out. I'm not sure that I can take him out, but I can at least weaken him enough for you two to take him out."

_"Rei..."_

"We have four more points to get. So let's get to it and win this."

_"Right!"_

With a new vigor to win, Nasu turned around to meet the eyes of a wild animal.

She looked at the radar she had to determine where everyone was place. She and Toby we're currently together, Kumagai seemed to still be with Teruya, Kakizaki was a good distance away, and Hiura was at a good sniping range.

"Alright Awdry-kun, you want to get this point in front of you, right?"

Nasu moved her arm to the right.

Multiple small cubes of Trion appeared before starting to circle around her like a ring.

"Come try and take it from me."

.

Nasu jumped back and off of the roof of the building they had been on.

She had fired some shots, fully aware that they did nothing to slow down the wild animal.

Nasu pushed herself against the side of the building while moving her legs to run across the wall. More shots were fired with each step she took.

The wild animal took a leap from the roof, falling straight down and ignoring the shots fired at him.

Using both her legs, Nasu jumped off the wall. A trail of shots followed a line starting from where she had been.

While in the air, she looked to see where the wild animal was, determining when the best time to fire her shots again was.

_Do it. Use the Trigger you all are known for._

Teleport, while still in the prototype stage, was a powerful Trigger that gave instant distance between the user and whatever the target was. The same Trigger could also close distance instantly between the user and whatever the target was. It displaced them from where they were, transporting them to wherever they were looking.

Nasu did not know what exactly made it a prototype, thinking it seemed complete enough as it was. Even so, she knew that there were obvious weaknesses with it that could be used to counter it.

_The first weakness is that the person as to look at the spot they want to teleport._

A person need only to follow the user's line of sight to determine where they would land.

_Trion consumption is dependent on the distance traveled. What's more, the greater the distance traveled, the longer it takes to teleport again._

The greater the distance, the more Trion used. If the user could not naturally cover that distance themselves, they would out themselves at a disadvantage if they were to teleport. To accompany this, repeated teleportation could only be done if the initial teleport was a short distance. That meant there were two weaknesses in one.

_Then there is the sound. It is feint, almost unnoticeable if you are not paying attention, but it is there. There is a clear sound to indicate when someone is teleporting._

It truly was a dangerous Trigger for opposing forces, but not an unbeatable one.

Nasu knew this and could only think of how to exploit those weaknesses.

After all...

_Awdry-kun, like Yuki-san, is someone who is perfect for this Trigger._

In Border, there were natural geniuses who could come up with amazing things like Composite Bullets and others who could just fight well because of talent. Then there were those who had natural synergy with certain Triggers.

Tsukiko Yuki and Toby Awdry were two such people.

The two of them always seemed to know exactly when they should look at their destination for teleportation. Those moment we're always when their targets were not paying attention or had their eyes closed for even a moment.

The two of them had the natural speed to cover great distances between them and opponents. Their use of Teleport was always a way to confuse their targets or get an extra step in. They did not necessarily need to teleport to get close.

They could not mute the sound of the teleportation, but they would always find ways to cover that noise with something else. That made it difficult for someone who was not Kikuchihara to tell when they would teleport with sound alone.

_The usual weaknesses with Teleport cannot be applied with those two. It is rather amazing, and a bit disturbing, to know that they could use such a Trigger so easily and perfectly._

Getting passed her sudden feeling of amazement, Nasu continued to try and find a way through the teleportation Trigger.

She could only think of continuing to fire from a distance while being prepared to shoot come close range. It was the best way to handle the given situation with no other backup to support her.

This was not a fight she could win by herself.

_"Nasu-senpai! Watch out!"_

"Akane-chan? What is-...!? Huh...?"

Nasu stopped her run and slid across the ground the moment she noticed it.

It was not one thing that she noticed. Four things had caught her attention.

_No. At this point, I have noticed five things._

Nasu could only come to that realization as multiple lines started to run along her face.

"Rei!?"

She noticed that Kumagai and Teruya was now close to her.

"That makes a second point for us."

She noticed that Kakizaki was now in front of her.

"I didn't pay attention..."

She noticed that Trion was leaving her false body.

"..."

She noticed that Kakizaki, who was in front of her, was not a whole body. His top half was falling to the ground while his bottom half had already fallen.

"This is interesting."

She noticed that Toby, who had evaded all her attacks, was now filled with multiple hole and his body was starting to have cracks running along it.

**Trion limit exceeded. Bail Out.**

**Trion limit exceeded. Bail Out**

**Trion limit exceeded. Bail Out**

* * *

[Amazing! Captains Nasu and Kakizaki, and Agent Awdry, have all Bailed Out! From what I could see, and what the scoreboard says, Captain Nasu had taken out Agent Awdry.]

[Na-chan got taken out by Zaki-san.]

[Kakizaki-san got taken out by Awdry.]

[That means every team earns one point from that.]

[This means Kotowari Squad and Kakizaki Squad have one member each while Nasu Squad is sitting at two members.]

[What happened with Agent Awdry's plan? From how you described it, Agent Hiura should have been taken out by now.]

[What I said was not the future. What I said was what I thought would happen. For all we know, he could have just been lagging behind when fighting Tomo.]

[I see. But that just means that Agent Misaki still has a chance to score some points away from the others.]

.

"Gah! Toby got taken out! That's some BS! A shooter shouldn't be able to take him out! Only us Attackers and All-Rounders can usually take him out!"

Eri shook her head at her teammate.

The two of them knew that there was a weakness to Toby's Side Effect. If out under enough pressure, even he would have trouble dodging.

Yet they did not see it like that.

"Nasu-senpai was indeed putting pressure, but not enough for him to be effected by it. At least not to the point where he would lose to her. That just means he really was not paying too much attention."

"Tch. Yeah. This kind of crap can't keep going on. I know that Suzume and Toby have their things to deal with, but they normally wouldn't be this effected by it. They usually let out their stress through fights, so they should be fine enough to win this."

"Shana... We don't know the full extent of what they are dealing with. It's best not to just go and say things like that. Besides..."

Eri furrowed her brows once more.

"Those two aren't the ones we have to be worrying about right now."

.

Tenryū Shokubutsu looked over to the girl sitting next to him. She had been watching the exact same thing as him, but the reactions from the two had been completely different.

He had thought that Takeshi was a bit scary, but nothing more. His mentor had told him everything about his former team from their Trigger set to their personalities. That meant Shokubutsu had been well prepared to see something like that happen.

Hoshi had covered her mouth in horror as she watched her friend destroy his own arm and jump on Kakizaki. It was a sight that was unexpected and one that gave her a new thought process when it came to the boy.

Shokubutsu had watched Toby's fights with some interesting. The way the older boy moved was not that different from how he and his mentor moved at times. Each step was taken to move forward and towards the target. The usage of his Triggers was to minimize the sugar of other ones. His loss to Nasu was clearly the result of his own mindset.

Hoshi had only watched the wild animal's fights with worry. It seemed that she had expected him to come out victorious from the two fights he had been in. Her surprise at seeing him loss two points and get taken out was something that he felt bad for seeing.

It was obvious to him that Hoshi saw the two boys as friends that should only ever be good as what they do and would not lose to anyone who did not seem better than them.

It was a terrible fantasy.

Shokubutsu was not the type to speak to others, so he could not be the one to destroy the illusion the birl had out herself under. That left him with the only choice of getting his mentor to say something.

Woth no directly way to help her after seeing what she did, he could only mutter a few words.

"...This fight...is going to...be over...soon..."


	34. Mei Takato: Part 3

Kumagai watched as three people simultaneously Bailed Out in front of her. It was shocking to see one of them being her captain.

Not thinking too much about it, she ran forward, fully inventing to finish the fight herself.

Teruya met her half way, bringing her blade to meet with Kumagai's. The difference in strength was clear, but both knew what they had to do to gain an advantage on the fight.

"!?"

Both Kumagai and Teruya moved back as shots were fired at both of them.

A single shot was fired from their left.

A single shot was fired from their right.

Multiple shots were fired from Teruya towards Kumagai.

With the shots being fired, the fight began once more.

.

Teruya and Kumagai continued their back-and-forth by moving forward, backwards, right, and left. They continued to block each other's Kōgetsu while being mindful of the shots being fired from a distance. At the same time, they continued their own fight against each other.

When one would move their left foot forward, the other would move their right foot backwards.

If one of them went to the right, the other went to the left.

They continued to love as if in a dance, lights flying all around them with seemingly no end.

"Kh!"

"...!"

As they did their dance, they started to notice that their attacks would not being blocked or dodge like they had thought.

Teruya's body could be seen with multiple cuts on it while a few holes littered the rest of her body.

Kumagai chose to ignore the gashes in her arm and the holes in her right leg. She continued to move, using the swinging of her body to keep her balance with each hit.

_"Akane, wait until you can get a definite hit in! This is the point where every attack matters and can end it!"_

_"Right!"_

Getting the confirmation from her teammate, Kumagai increased the speed at which she swung her Kōgetsu. Fighting against Shooter-type Triggers had left her a bit more vulnerable in close ranged fighting.

The number of swings continued with each defense she made to block the close-range shots. Their range was slowly getting greater as her arms extended out even more.

_It's here!_

.

Teruya was quick to notice the sudden change in her opponent's eyes.

She had been getting the feeling that the fight was truly about to end any moment. The two of them were ready to Bail Out, leaving only the Snipers. That would bring the fight to a standstill.

Her teammates had Bailed Out long ago, so that had left her alone on the battlefield.

_Suzume is also alone here. Nasu Squad is the only one with more than one person still active._

Understanding her situation, Teruya made a moment's decision.

She took a step back when Kumagai made another wide swing from her left.

A single shot was fired from her left, hitting her right in the foot.

_Hound!_

Teruya fired shots in the direction the first shot had come from.

From her position she could see Kumagai take another step forward.

Still trying to balance herself from moving back and getting shot at, Teruya was stuck with her upper body towards the back with her lower body in range of Kumagai's attack.

_So close..._

**Trion limit exceeded. Bail Out**

.

Kumagai watched as the shots fired went in the direction she knew Hiura was before seeing her own blade cut through Teruya's waist with no issue.

"Aka-"

She knew she had messed up by taking even a second to talk to her teammate.

"Damn! Akane, you need to stay here."

Cracks and line started to run along her face and body as the damage done to her reached its max with the final shot fired at her.

**Trion limit exceeded. Bail Out**

* * *

[After having taken out Agent Teruya, Agent Kumagai had been taken out by Agent Mi-]

[Look again.]

[Huh?]

Suzaku nodded his head when he heard the small sound come from Hiyami.

[Misaki-senpai's shot had missed its target.]

[It was Agent Teruya's shot that had taken out Agent Kumagai! It was a mutual defeat by both agents Kumagai and Teruya.]

[The two of them did well. That final attack by Teruya seems to have missed Akane-chan, but she was still able to go toe-to-toe with Kuma-chanand take her down as a mutual kill.]

[The two Snipers will likely not leave their positions after find new ones. That means they will both be getting a single surviver point.]

[But can't Agent Misaki take out Agent Hiura by getting in close with Teleport? She should have relatively no trouble taking out the last person there.]

[She might not want to do much right now in general. With everything that has happened in this match... I'm sure everyone has something to think about.]

[I see. So that means we just wait until the time runs out.]

[Correct.]

* * *

"Are you okay!?"

"What exactly happened between you and Kotowari-kun!?"

Kakizaki could feel the intense pressure he was getting from his two young teammates and the look he was getting from their Operator.

Their questions were valid when they knew nothing of what happened and only that he managed to beat Kotowari Takeshi.

His mind brought him back to that fight and what happened after.

_I thought I was done for against Kotowari. If he was in the right mindset... I would have been finished the moment he saw me. What he said, what I found out... I need to tell Tsukiko and Takato about it as soon as I can. They need to set things straight before things get any worse._

A thought like that sent shivers down his spine.

_Something worse than it already is. That would terrify anyone._

Seeing that the eyes of his team were still on him, Kakizaki gave the best smile he could to reassure them that it was nothing for them to worry about.

He would do what he needed to in order to help the younger boy however he could. He was that kind of guy. Yet he resolved himself to make sure that the one he would be helping would have to give proper apologizes to everyone who had seen him.

The ugliness he had seen in his fight was not something he could forgive right away, no matter what the boy thought or went through.

"But after everything is done, I'll make sure to forgive him..."

"What? Hey, tell us what happened!"

Kakizaki continued to grin.

* * *

Kumagai watched as her leader looked at the computer monitor with lowered brows and s frown on her face.

She knew that Nasu was no upset with the results or how they fought. What she was upset about was the fact that she could not do as Yuki had asked.

"Rei, you had no obligation to look after Kotowari."

"I know. Even if Yuki-san was the one asking, I still had my priorities. Believe me when I say that I did fight with everything I had."

"I would never..."

"But the thing is... I wanted to see for myself how Kotowari-kun was doing. He was always rather quiet, but never a bad person. You can call me sentimental, but I wanted to check on him because I wanted to do it. Someone like him seems like they need someone there for him. But that doesn't seem to be the current case since he appears to be pushing others away from him."

"Rei..."

"I'm sorry about that."

Nasu lightly patted her cheeks before putting on a smile towards the Attacker.

"You were great out there, Kuma-chan. You too, Akane-chan. You are getting us a survival point!"

Kumagai watched as Nasu continued on with a smile on her face and kind words towards the rest of them. Some compliments for the other teams were also thrown in.

Even with a smile on ear face and compliments being said, Kumagai could see through it all.

There was a real want to watch over Takeshi in the way she spoke about him. It was unknown where it was coming from, but it resembled how she would watch over Hiura at times.

Knowing that there was no helping it at this point, Kumagai let out a sigh.

_If those guys don't do something about him, I will personality kick his butt into shape._

* * *

[And there it is. The final score is 2-4-2 with Nasu Squad being the winner.]

[This was an interesting match. To say the least.]

[Now is time for the review and final comments. Starting from the start, we had Nasu Squad and Kakizaki Squad trying to group up with Kotowari Squad seeming to do as they pleased. Agent Kumagai had been keeping track of the person closest to her, who happened to be Agent Teruya. She seemed to have no want to start a fight right away.]

[That fight was forced on the both of them by Kotowari, who had started it to keep them out of his business.]

[We now know that he had left to find Captain Kakizaki so he could fight captain-to-captain.]

[It wasn't as nice sounding as that. Kotowari probably planned to destroy Kakizaki-san as soon as he could. Something probably happened before the match started.]

[Something probably snapped in Kotowari since he ended up going on that rampage in the building. He managed to get away from the trap Zaki-san set on him, but he went to track down Zaki-san like a hound.]

[I think most of us want to forget seeing anything about that part. Kotowari's reputation was already getting bad as it was... Now it might get to a point of no one wanting to even see him. This match had messed things up for him even more.]

[Moving away from that... We had Agent Awdry chasing after Agent Tomoe in order to initiate a plan I still cannot understand.]

[From what I could gather, what was said before seemed to be where they were going, but ended up getting changed. Most likely because they did not think that Kotowari would lose to Zaki-san.]

[Misaki-senpai and Awdry probably had to change their plan because of that loss of a point. Attacking Hiura-senpai at that point would have given away where Misaki-senpai was if Awdry could not take out Nasu-senpai on time.]

[Speaking of which... Na-chan had ended up with a lucky score. Awdry led a point right to her while also not being able to get one on her. Overall, it looked like Awdry only chased people around during this match.]

[I believe that is because of his Side Effect. He might have thought that he would be safe against Captain Nasu because of it.]

[He was. But that's all. He could not make the final hit on her while being safe.]

[That is where the final two captains were taken out. Due to having won his battle, and wanting to group up with his remaining teammate, Captain Kakizaki had gotten a point by taking out Captain Nasu. It did end up costing him a point by being taken out by Agent Awdry.]

[That puts things into the final part of the match.]

[We conclude this match with the fight that started it. Agents Teruya and Kumagai were still fighting when both of their captains were taken out. That fight finally came to an end when agents Hiura and Misaki started firing at them.]

[Poor Misaki.]

[If she had fixed her aim slightly she would have gotten another point. Instead, Teruya got a point while also losing one to Kumagai.]

[So, with the review done, is there any last comments you two would like to say?]

[At the rate things are going, we might not see Kotowari Squad back in the top tier of B-Ranks again. Maybe not even a team.]

[Harsh, Yuzuru. But not untrue. This seems more like it's due to Kotowari though. His attachment to Yucchi is unhealthy to the point that something really needs to be done about him. ...As for the others. Kakizaki Squad's odd loss in points is likely due to them not being able to group up, like they tend to do. They may have been too busy to be as cautious as usual.]

[The fact they did as well as they did is something to be amazed with. They were all one-on-one this time around. Kakizaki-san even managed to get some points against strong opponents.]

[I am not sure if she noticed it herself, but Na-chan also seemed a bit distracted at times. That may have something to do with her losing a point or two.]

[Well, thank you, to the both of you, for being here today.]

[No problem.]

[Mm.]

[That was the second round of the B-Rank Wars.]

* * *

Takato Mei watched as he team was quick to leave the room.

Both Toby and Suzume had said nothing to their official leader the whole time. The two had communicated during the match to figure out what they would be doing, but that was all. There had been no banter or snarky remarks.

She had decided to also stay quiet unless she needed to inform them of the positions of others. There had been no advice or calculations given, not even any encouragement from her. It had been because of the knowledge that they would not listen to her, along with her not finding a reason to say anything.

Letting out a sigh, she looked at the time on her phone, seeing a few messages also on it.

"Tonight is the meeting... Yuki, I want to tell you. I want to say something that will make you do something about this, but... I don't know what I would say. I am the worst at these kinds of things."

She closed her phone while standing up.

Words continued to leave through her mouth while they came from deep in her heart.

"My calculations are useless when emotions are put into play. I can calculate those in as well, but that's all. A person's actions, thoughts and feelings are not based on something as idiotic as calculations. So I don't know what I would say to you."

She knew there was more to it than that.

She was well aware of Yuki's issue concerning things.

"You wouldn't know what to say either. You think of yourself as nothing more than a copy of what a human should be like. If you haven't gone through this before, you don't know what to do when something like this happens."

She gave a choked laugh.

A smile of complete sorrow spread across her face as she went for the door as well.

"We are both terrible people who have terrible conversations. That may just be why we need other people to guide us in the right directions all the time."

* * *

"So something like that happened... What do you plan to do about that? I would rather you not put yourself into your own mind for too long, but you can probably figure something out."

"Thank you for the concern, but I only plan to speak with Yuki about this. I don't think I can solve this on my own."

Minoru gave a sheepish smile as he spoke with the petite girl.

With the second round match being finish, Mei had sought out her cousin to talk to him.

He had gotten off defense duty and was already told a bit by Lukas, but this was an extension if the story he heard. It went beyond what he heard from Lukas and seemed to be enough to cause a large amount of worry in multiple people.

This worry would undoubtedly eat away at her.

She would continue to think about this, regardless of what she had said, and he did not want something like that to happen to her.

That was why a change of topics was the best solution.

"Well I hope Loki can do something about this. But for now... Why are we over here?"

.

"Because I was required to do this for the city. I brought you along because I thought I could scold you some more for fighting Mukuro before."

"Fair enough..."

Minoru checked the books and newspapers piled up to his shoulders.

_...This just shows how much everyone was living their lives._

During the fixing of the city, they had looked back over almost the entirety of each area and cleaned it all up to lighten everything.

The most work during that lightening cleaning came from the weight of paper items and everyday items like clothing.

A single book weighed three hundred grams and Mikado City's population was rather high, so if each person had a single book, that was nearly thirty tons.

Books needed for school or work had been spared, as had ones with sentimental value, but...

"The unnecessary ones will be recycled as materials for internal bulkheads and building materials. And the storage area furthest from the Forbbiden Zone is also used to host events, so we could even open a used book market."

But there was so much of it. It was too much to carry it all out at once, so this was their eighth time.

... _Kimura-chan_ _and the others are getting strict with their weight sensors, so we keep finding so many books._

The Far East had historically had an active woodblock printing culture. They had also had paper-making technology, so plenty of printed materials filled the cities as entertainment items.

The people who transferred in from the West or Middle East were always surprised by how many books the Far East had and how casually the books were treated.

_...Having books nearby was part of the reason some people moved to the Far East in the first place._

As he realized a culture had a way of drawing people in, Minoru had his dog -Taka - inspect the scale of the piles of paper. He also grabbed a few of them.

"Oh, the story of Genji. Didn't Murasaki Shikibu write this with a few other works? Meimei had said that it was worth the read. I have just never gotten around to reading it myself."

Resisting the urge to flip through it took some doing. Not all of the things there were old. Some had been bought at the city even as the recovery work was underway, some were newly issued newspapers, and some were documents used for meetings about the remodeling or at the work sites themselves.

Deciding whether to use them as materials or to resell them was someone else's job, but others also had to inspect them. That was where Mei came in.

"Please stand back, everyone. I will now inspect and sort them."

She looked at all the spines of the books.

Once they were sorted and written down, a city's provided helper would give her approval and the rest of the work would begin. Finally, the fate of the paper media would be determined.

It was a small job when compared to the enormous task of fixing Mikado City, but that fixing work was made up of these smaller jobs. The quicker they could finish these small jobs, the faster the pace of the whole.

_...And that means the Border, citizens and others need to keep active._

Minoru looked to Mei and the city's helper as they picked up one of the items sorted by the smaller girl.

"Why do girls like this kind of thing, Takato-kun?"

"Right. That is just part of being female."

_...Sorry, but that one was drawn by our Operator. Yeah. Look, it has a lot of material targeted toward males, doesn't it? It was a strange one._

Once the inspection was complete, he would move to where he needed to be next. And based on the Border chat log from earlier...

 **Life:** "Hey, everyone, we'll be meeting up at the Red Lightning. It's been a while, so let's use the one I live at. Be there at eight."

 _Right, right,_ silently agreed Minoru.

_...It really has been a while since we've met there._

He then nodded to Mei, the helper, and the others.

"I'll be heading to where I'm needed next, so you take care of the rest. There's a lot I want to ask you next time I see you, so keep that in mind."

"Right. You are going somewhere important."

"Well." He nodded. "For some food plus a meeting."

* * *

"A new job?"

A female voice spoke in the dim light.

A black, dual ring-haired girl in a Mikado City high school uniform walked down a pathway with materials and cranes on either side. She held a bucket with a change of clothes and other bath supplies below her chest and her hair swayed as she looked to the person walking to her left.

Her eyes found a boy whose Mikado City boy's high school uniform was made to look more comfortable. He looked to the girl walking to his right and spoke.

"Well, I suppose you could call it a job."

"Heh heh. Is that so? He keeps finding new things to occupy himself, Arafune."

"Yeah. This work is important for us at the moment. We need to work hard around Mikado City when we can as soon as possible so we can get the cooperation of the general population. And so they can support the new branch that was made."

"Oh, my. You know a lot about these things, Arafune."

"Yeah. Yuki's been helping out with the information. But..."

Arafune faced the girl.

"Could you please stop pretending to be Kagami, Kirikari?"

.

Arafune saw the idiot give him a look of surprise, but he knew reacting would be playing right into the other boy's hands. Instead, he chose a comment to restrain the idiot.

"Besides, your face is nothing at all like Kagami's."

The ring-haired crossdresser froze in the middle of lifting his giant fake breasts with the bucket. The idiot then dropped the bucket in the passageway and took what he probably thought was a tragic pose.

"What's wrong with my costume!?"

"For one, you aren't anything like Kagami. The size and jiggle are completely wrong, you're completely insane, and I would go on but I don't want to hurt your feelings. Really, you should just stop this."

"Y-you don't hold back, do you!? And you hurt my feelings by trying not to hurt my feelings!"

The idiot gave an exaggerated sigh in a troubled pose.

"And now that you've 'sniped' my heart, I really am your wife."

 _He's as creepy as ever, so I need to ignore him,_ calmly decided Arafune. _I need to change the subject. But where did that wife comment come from...?_

"Why are you here? Given where we're meeting, shouldn't you be there ahead of everyone else?"

"Well, I peeped on the girl's bath near Teikō's place and now she's trying to kill me."

He looked up to see several targeting dots rising from the area near Hitsugi's house while displaying parabolic arcs of the predicted ballistic course. Those dots searched for their target from the sky above Mikado City. Arafune noticed people screaming and running away whenever the sights landed on them.

"W-wait, Kirikari! Those are shots for taking out Bambsters! I really don't want to be caught in that blast, so please get away from me!"

"Ehh, but Blondie doesn't want to die aloooone."

"Kirikari, when shaking your breasts, you need to do it more like this and this."

"Oh, I've been doing some training with imaginary breasts while watching Teikō, but I guess it wasn't enough!"

"Right. You're focusing too much on it. Yes, be more restrained. ...Yeah. Very good. You've got the hang of it now, so go die on your own."

"Y-you aren't listening at all, are you!?"

 _Please shut up,_ thought Arafune as he ignored the idiot who was jumping up and down and waving his arms in protest. _And you aren't controlling the bouncing properly when jumping around like that._

 _But,_ thought Arafune as he looked back to the crossdresser.

"You really don't change do you, Kirikari?"

_Or is he only pretending to be the same? Even this crossdresser has to have felt something from everything. He has to have. Right? S-surely even he would...w-wouldn't he? I can count on that, can't I? B-but he is an idiot. Wh-which is it?_

"Nnnn, Arafune-kuuun? What's the matterrrrr?"

"Kh. D-damn this boy!"

At any rate, reacting to the idiot would help nothing.

"By the way, Kirikari, wasn't Kimura supposed to be with you for the time being?"

"Yeah, but she peeped on the bath with me and now I think she's soaking in the bath thinking about the unfairness of our hierarchical society."

 _Kimura has a lot to worry about too,_ thought Arafune. _Now that I think about it... Why was he peeping on the girls when he's confirmed that he swings the other way...?_

Her current team was damaged in the previous invasion. Takato Mei knew a lot about helping her for some reason, so she was trying to mend the issues. But...

_...She has to deal with problems like the former Tsukiko Squad, doesn't she?_

They were in their own minds for the better part of the days, so that had apparently caused difficulties for her. At the same time, she was continuing to assist them however she could based on her experience in this mental battle because of the people she knew and the ones she had once dealt with.

Others were also working to strengthen their equipment, their skills, or themselves, but...

_...That could easily be a sign of how worried we all are._

.

 _How much will the improvements here really matter?_ wondered Arafune.

Their enemies were Aftokrator, their invaders, and their "god" who they had no about due to living in completely different worlds. Not only did Aftokrator have the backing of their own might, something they saw firsthand, but they controlled other Neighbor nations and had conquered others they did not know about.

They essentially controlled an unknown amount of enemies at this point.

_...Our enemy is powerful._

Meanwhile, what were they doing?

Mikado City's weapons and other modifications were meant to fight that enemy, but no one knew if they could actually win again.

Most likely, Mikado City and everyone else were strengthening themselves as a way of sweeping aside their unease. To put it another way...

_...We only just barely trust ourselves._

The organization named Border led by the directors had been the ones to decide on some modifications and to continue with their current policies. No clear opposition had turned up, but that was only because the residential districts of the city had been split up on the surface and because Director Netsuki was using his knowledge of the public opinion to manage information on the network. So...

"We need to move on to the next step as soon as possible."

"Tetsu-chan."

The crossdresser smiled his way while squeezing and lifting his giant fake breasts between his elbows.

"Don't rush things, okay?"

"What are you talking about?"

He decided to answer the idiot this time and someone standing at a corner up ahead turned his way.

"Arafune."

He looked over and found the real one.

"Kagami."

The idiot clung to his right arm and wiggled his body.

"Master Arafuneeee, who is that girrrrl!?"

"Oh, my. Dried Plum-san, are you visiting the human world dressed like a girl today?"

"I kind of expected this, but she isn't listening at all..."

The idiot hung his head, so Arafune started dragging him toward their meetup point. Meanwhile, Kagami laughed quietly in her throat.

"Heh heh. Dried Plum-san, you're a little tired, aren't you?"

"...Is he really?"

"Hey, Tetsu-chan. Why do you look so surprised? I get tired too, you know? I can't give you any details, but, um, well, I've been up late at night a lot, you know? You know what I'm talking about, don't you?"

"Do you have any idea what it feels like to be told something you really don't want to know?"

"Now, now." Kagami cut in with a bitter smile and looked toward the crossdresser. "Yes. The aura surrounding your body has had that color for a while now."

"Ehhh?"

The crossdresser frowned, but Arafune could not tell if it was for show or unintentional. But Kagami was a good judge of character, so he could trust what she said.

"Kagami, how about we take this…thing…by early and get something to eat?"

"Okay. We're meeting up at the Red Lightning, aren't we? In that case…"

Kagami lined up alongside them and faced the right, toward the outer city.

"...?"

Suddenly, Arafune's attention turned in a different direction.

A few loud noises were heard to sound the alarm and to tell everyone to stay away from the materials yard near the Forbidden Zone.

"What…?"

… _Did some of the materials collapse?_

Arafune opened his own phone, he saw that Yuki had instructed people he knew to check out what happened. Kagami asked a question while looking in the same direction.

"Should we examine that materials yard on the way to the Red Lightning by the Hisama Branch?"

"Oh, um, Yuki just arranged to have that done, so no. And we aren't going by Hisama."

"…? But that's where the Red Lightning is."

"Yeah. It certainly is."

As they walked down the residential road, a home/restaurant came into view on the right. The restaurant portion was small, but Kagami read what the metal sign on the edge of the eaves said.

"Red Lightning?"

"Yeah. There's a Red Lightning here too. …This one is Kirikari and his family's home."

And...

"This one is also known as the Main Red Lightning. It's where we're going to prepare for the meeting with the citizens tonight and confirm future plans."


	35. Kawaguchi Kimura

The aroma of butter and cooked wheat permeated that space.

It was a café filled with tables for two or four, and between those tables...

"Hey, Kirikari, about that outfit..."

Kimura called out to the crossdresser who was waiting the tables in nothing but an apron. She glared and pointed at him from one of the tables for four, but she hesitated over what to say.

"Are you insane?"

_...Please tell me yes. That would make this so much easier._

Over by the room's entrance, Suzaku glared at him and sent some kind of document to the nearby guard station, but it was likely arrangements for the meeting later that night. Maybe.

Meanwhile, the apron idiot placed a long pizza on the table.

"Eat up. I guess I'll be paying for you all."

"Isn't this your restaurant?"

"Technically, it's the place my mom originally used. I'm the part-time manager."

"I see," said Kagami sitting across from Hokari at the city-most table. She looked back and forth between Kimura and Jinsei before continuing. "They explained this to me on the way here. Kirikari reopened this place on a whim when he was no longer visiting the inner city Red Lightning."

"Right, right. Mom was originally here and someone else ran the other one, but when it ended up vacant for certain reasons, Mom closed this place and started using the other one. For a while, I ate breakfast at the other one, but I stopped when this and that happened. ...And around middle school, I didn't feel like just wandering around after school."

"That's right," chimed in the Hatohara brother who was passing out glasses of ginger ale.

He glanced to the spices on the kitchen counter, to the window, and to Jinsei.

"A lot happened here too. And when Jinsei-kun was wondering what to do, the government office showed up insisting all buildings in this area carry out some kind of duty. At first we sold his mom's inventory, but then he started cooking here too since we had the equipment."

"I see," said Kimura just as Kagami had.

She had heard about those guys' past when on an outing, but this was her first time hearing about this in particular. If she had not run across Jinsei earlier…

… _It probably would have been a while before I had a chance to come here._

 _People are full of surprises,_ she thought. _You try to understand them, but it's never enough._

And so she kept her eyes on Jinsei.

"You give things a lot of thought, don't you?"

"Yep, especially my gags."

The apron crossdresser lined up some tarts on the table.

Kimura heard some laughter from the side. It came from Arafune who turned to face Kagami.

"When Senzai told you about his past before, you didn't realize he was talking about this place, did you?"

"Right. I'm shocked... So is this something of a hideout for all of you?"

"That's right," said Jinsei. "Tetsu-chan, Pokari, you need to tell Kagami this stuff. You don't need to worry about my feelings. I know Kagami won't get any weird suspicions or anything."

"Well…"

Arafune scratched at his head and Kagami smiled his way.

"But I appreciate how they worry about people's feelings."

"I am glad to hear it..."

"Ha ha," laughed the crossdresser as he brought out another pizza.

 _What a harmonious atmosphere,_ thought Kimura. And...

_...Is this their normal atmosphere? I haven't been around lately, so I can't figure them out just yet._

They tended to gather at school, the battlefield, or somewhere a lot like a battlefield. She could only think of one other time they had gathered somewhere private like this.

_...Yes, it was when we gathered in front of the Red Lightning after winning._

It was a different location today, but it was still the Red Lightning.

 _But this still isn't their normal selves,_ she decided. _The word "normal" hardly applies given the Mikado City's condition and the surrounding situation._

At the very least...

"We need to work toward a calm resolution."

 _And it's our job to make sure that happens,_ she added just before someone tapped her head just once.

She wondered what Jinsei was doing, but...

_...Oh._

She remembered that she was not alone on this matter.

"—"

She decided to relax her shoulders and told herself she never again wanted to do something that would cause the others to lose their trust in her.

She gave a mental nod and the crossdresser handed a pizza cutter to Kon who sat across from him. Then he grabbed her hand.

"Cut it with this, Yuka. Got that? Don't do anything weird that'll scare me, okay?"

"Oh? But this would ruin the flavor, so could you let go of my hand first, Jinsei?"

"Tch. ...Oh, but we can't let it get cold. So Yuka, Mino-chan, Kagami, Kuni-chan, and the other one over there, feel free to get started. That leaves..."

"Right." Arafune raised his hand and pointed outside while operating his phone by the wall. "We have plans after this. ...Oh, and it involves a meal, so you don't have to worry about us."

Ōji smiled next to Kurauchi.

"We already ate."

"Then I'll wrap up a tart just like these and you can eat it after you get home."

"Thanks," said Ōji.

Kimura took that to mean he did not plan to eat much wherever he was going.

To the right of Kon, Minoru smiled a little as he took the plate of pizza Kon passed him.

"It's been so long since I've had one of Jinsei-kun's tarts. Can I have one too?"

"Sure, sure. I'll make room for five and cook them up, so any other takers?"

Everyone seemed to raise their hand, so Kimura did too.

A message appeared on every person's phone as if responding to his action.

 **White Fox:** "Make one for us too! We'll be there right after we leave!"

 **Life:** "If you insist. Maybe I'll throw in the pot stickers I've been working on lately."

 **White Fox:** "No, thank you!"

The apron-wearing crossdresser nodded as Senshi sent word that they did want the pot stickers after all.

"Hmm, then I guess I'll have to cut them up. Is that okay, Sumi-chan? I'll make sure to also have some for your sisters ready for takeout."

"Eh!? Oh, y-yes…th-that's fine."

Kimura tried to figure out what Inukai's frantically waving hands were supposed to mean.

At any rate, Ōji lowered his arms and shoulders and tilted his head where he stood next to Arafune and Hokari.

"You asked us to join you, but is there any reason for us to be here? I can't stand being around the animal that's on his way, so hurry it up please."

Next to him, Kurauchi seemed to have the same question, albeit in a nicer manner. They were trying not to say anything unnecessary, but Kimura responded to their true question.

"Right. There is." Kimura faced Ōji. "The first order of business in this emergency meeting concerns your team, Ōji. You guys are currently high up in the B-Ranks, but some agents and citizens wish to nominate you guys as a temporary aide to the newly formed Yagura Branch. As a nomination, it isn't settled yet, but at least understand that we are making the necessary preparations. In other words..."

In other words...

"They want you to become a part of the Yagura Branch."

.

The first to react was Kurauchi rather than Ōji. He shook his clothes as if to get something off.

"Are you attempting to take multiple teams to give this branch a better image?"

_...I had a feeling they'd be cautious._

So Kimura spoke the rebuttal she had already prepared.

"How will adding a B-Rank team other than Kageura and Ninomiya improved their image?"

That must have been what Kurauchi expected because he only said "I see" and corrected his posture. It was as if he had only wanted to know that Kimura understood that.

A sighing voice broke the silence that followed.

"Differences in rank mean different things to different people, don't they?"

It was Murakami who sat across from Kimura on Kon's left. He grabbed a slice of pizza and his nose twitched as the apron crossdresser carried over a pot of egg and spinach.

"This is purely meant to strengthen certain areas, isn't it? After all..."

He was briefly distracted when Kon fanned the over the aroma of the pot and plate the idiot handed her, but he finally recovered.

"Excuse me. ...Um, to be blunt, it isn't just the new Yagura Branch. I have been asked to see if any other teams would like to join some branches. Tamakoma being the exception to that seeing as how they are crazy in their own right."

"Yes. I see." Kurauchi erased his expression. "When will this new branch be made again?"

The answer came from Mizukami who was leaning against the wall opposite Kurauchi and to Kimura's left.

"Supposedly, it's already finished, having been bought out to use as the branch office. Yuki's said today that any extra details to it will be brought up later on. Said its best to know who's gonna be in it before movin' things around without a care."

"Have you two just ignored an important person in that branch or what? The branch is up and active for a while now. 'Yuki' has already gone on television with others to promote it. It is also the reason for this meeting."

A bitter smile rang out as Mizukami shrugged and looked Kimura's way.

"Kimura, where's Kanzaki? I've been going back'n forth on whether I should be the one to tell 'er that she's also under consideration for that new branch."

"Oh, Kanzaki went to the Hisama Red Lightning by mistake. ...Why are all of you hanging your heads?"

_I did explain it to her, but since she can be a little hardheaded, maybe she thought I was mistaken. But anyway..._

"It would be a pain to have her head over here now, so I told her to eat there. ...Suzaku."

"Yes, I'm keeping a log of the meeting, so I'll send it to everyone involved with a security program. When people are taking part via message, there's a possibility of someone spying on it."

"Hm? Umi, someone could be spying over the network?"

"Good question," replied Kimura while shaking her head.

 _Is this what Inukai's gesture before meant?_ she wondered with a bitter smile in her heart.

"Normally, most meetings in Border and it's members are sent to the directors, branch managers, any other related departments, and the teams who have their captains involved. It's to make sure that things are properly sent out to those who matter."

"I would rather not think about it," said Arafune, "but does that mean everyone's been seeing the awful things we say and do?"

"Arafune, the meetings are generally focused on those who are important, you know?"

"Right." Kon nodded expressionlessly. "You have nothing to worry about, Kimura. Just because your jokes bomb does not mean you actually lose any...thing..."

She trailed off and an odd sweat began pouring down her face. After a moment, she looked to Fuyushi Koari by the wall.

"Please help me out. Make it something funny. Yes, Kimura's life depends on it."

"Ehh!? Why me!? I'm not a funny girl!"

"You must have very high standards for 'funny', Fuyushi. ...Now, go."

"Eh? Go? Um, wait..."

Sensing everyone's focus on her, Fuyushi blushed and pressed her back against the wall. Finally, she squeezed her arms around her breasts to accentuate the two mounds and the parting line down the center.

"Look, I have a butt on my chest."

.

 **Black Wolf: "** She's our class representative, so why does she always come up with that kind of joke? Does she want people like Kunichika to take notes for the SS?"

 **Zoe:** "Um, I'm on guard duty out front, but can I click my tongue?"

 **Kuma:** "I'm on guard duty too, but can you all please get back on topic?"

 **Guest:** "Ahhhh, I'm sorry everyone..."

.

"That's right," said Kimura.

She put a slice of pizza in her mouth and wished she had waited until after this to take a bath.

_...For now, us lot and some extras can share what's going on._

"Unofficial Secretary Akashi isn't here...but let's get started anyway."

"Right," agreed Suzaku. "Akashi was scheduled to check the resources on the inner part of Mikado, so he should be here after that. He's probably digging through pointless things."

"C'mon, Umi-chin, he's a member of your team. We know he isn't that kind of guy. ...If he was digging through them, he'd definitely be giving us an overly-excited running commentary. Something else must be keeping him."

"Hm, what could he be doing?"

Kunichika and Tōma, the one currently next to her, both tilted their heads and Kageura spoke up next to them.

"We should inform the directors that there's an idiot in Border. And probably get them to renew any contracts with sponsors."

"Right. Umi-chin, can you wait five seconds to start the meeting? ...There, all done!"

As soon as Kunichika smiled and tapped the "approved" mark on her phone, Suzaku nodded.

"Then I'll place the jamming using the network Kiricchi has at his home. I'll make sure Yucchi and SenSen are automatically added in once they arrive."

 **SenSen:** "Roger that."

A few windows blossomed on their screens and Kimura saw her surroundings grow a little bright. Then she heard a distant sound like rustling bamboo grass.

_...An information-blocking jamming, huh?_

Suddenly, she heard Suzaku's voice.

"Ah! Excuse me! That's it! Wait! Please leave everything as is!"

Kimura turned around to find Suzaku pointing their way. His finger and Minoru and Mizukami's gazes were all directed toward something.

"Fuyushi's phone!"

.

Suzaku saw it clearly. The bright screen of Fuyushi's phone was staticky, but it did not go away.

One tab would occasionally appear independent of Fuyushi's will.

_...It really did come out!?_

Fuyushi's account came from a guest approval situation on their current chat, so it did not belong to a Border member which would normally have no issues.

That was why Fuyushi's phone had reacted to Suzaku's information-blocking jamming.

A normal independent account would be caught by the defense program and automatically rejected.

This one, however, was forcibly negating that, even if it had grown somewhat staticky.

_...But this information-blocking jamming uses the same format as most other ones we use._

"What is this, Suzaku?"

Fuyushi herself focused on Suzaku without seeming particularly worried. If it was a simple program, Suzaku had the specialist knowledge to understand what it meant. But more importantly...

"Hey, do you mind if I mess around a bit with your stuff?"

Fuyushi shook her head while handing her phone to Suzaku. He pulled up some things in his laptop and held it up for Fuyushi to see.

"I can only guess at this point, but that is most likely a program meant to link Fuyushi's account to our own Border ones without making a proper one for her. If her phone isn't too cluttered with things, I should be able to sync with it using my own program. Fuyushi, can you just press 'Yes' and install it?"

"Right. You need permission from the actual owner, don't you?"

"Yes, exactly. You should be able to install it like that."

Suzaku inhaled once and continued.

"But this is your decision, Fuyushi. This program is meant to sync your guest account with our Border network, which will make it much more convenient for you to take part in our meetings. But the control information could have other applications depending on how it is used, so it could lead to something neither of us wants. So..."

"Suzaku."

Fuyushi used her finger to slide the torii icon on the screen Suzaku held up for her and she placed her own phone on top of it.

"I want to join Border the next time I can. For now I just have to stick with being a guest in these kinds of things that you all kindly invite me to at times. So I'm fine with this or that happening to my stuff if I can continue to be of use without currently being a part of anything."

**"Beginning Confirmation."**

Everyone looked to the displayed words. Suzaku knew them quite well.

"It's performing a quarantine inspection. It has to be sure the program I created is safe."

**"Authenticated: Border Engineering Department."**

**"Inspection: Sexual Inspection — Incomplete, Perversion Inspection — Incomplete, R-Rating Inspection — Incomplete."**

"Wow..."

The others backed away and a dull sweat appeared on Suzaku's face.

… _This is standard! I swear this is a standard check! Actually... I'm pretty sure someone in the department put it in as a prank and never took it out..._

Fuyushi gave a mysterious thumb's up, but Suzaku had no idea how to respond.

At any rate, the inspection soon finished and the program was incorporated. All of the windows closed.

"Did it fail, Suzaku?"

"No, it just needs to restart. Fuyushi, if you want to message or talk to anyone then just press this and this."

Fuyushi did as she was told and a window appeared at her fingertips. But...

"Border?"

"No, it just uses one of our networks to call up whatever. See?"

As he spoke, the standard Border logo vanished and was replaced with something new.

Satisfied with the impressed voices coming from the others, Suzaku explained to Fuyushi.

"It wasn't installed directly to your phone. Instead, I had it installed to your phone's spare space. So when it starts up, it activates one of our programs which calls in and stabilizes your account. The internal processing simply recorded your authorization procedure and won't interfere with the main process, so it should be safer."

"Oh?" Mizukami raised his eyebrows as he looked to Fuyushi's phone screen and commented with the others. "Umi, you've got some surprising talents."

"Yes, I'm surprised you can do this, Umi-kun."

"I know, right? It's really surprising that Suzaku can do this."

"Um, I get the feeling you're rejecting a big part of me. Besides, technology is advancing so much that I have to keep up with it."

Fuyushi gave another thumb's up, so Suzaku did the same.

Fuyushi then made her tab appear and disappear a few times, but...

"Right. Understood. ...Thank you very much, Suzaku."

"No, no. With a unique account like yours, it's safer for both of us if we have a way of speaking to each other. I will do whatever I can if you have any problems, so I look forward to working with you. ...Okay, um, Kimura, sorry for the interruption."

Kimura smiled bitterly and nodded his way, but...

"Sorry we're late!"

The café door opened and two colors entered along with the outside air. The black and red wore uniforms and both had older brother-like appearances.

"Oh, Yucchi and SenSen are here. ...Sorry about all the time spent on setup, Kimura. You can start the meeting now."

.

"Okay."

Kimura inhaled.

She opened her mouth after noting that everyone's focus had shifted back to her after turning toward Yuki and Senshi as they sat by the wall.

"For the upcoming secret meeting with a representative for the masses, I wanted to gather you fools who are still awake to check over our current and future policies. Rather, some of you are best for opinions, others for information, and the last bit simply because extra brains will help."

She was confident they all pretty much knew who those were.

"Currently, we are dealing with the effects that our battles during the invasion will have on Mikado and other areas. While it is not as bad as the immediate days after the invasion, it is still lingering today. 'Yuki' is the one who is suppose to be the center of what will be happening, but he has asked us for help."

"Kawa, have you made a decision about what comes next?"

"Yes," said Kimura. "As someone who works with the PR Department at times, I know the situation concerning other things. That includes the current issues with some of our sponsors. Some of them have been considering stopping their sponsorship towards Border due to the damage done to the city. Besides that, others need to be informed that their money will be directed towards the new Yagura Branch for a while."

But...

"Netsuki-san has currently put me in charge of taking care of some of these sponsors since he is focusing on the new Yagura Branch along with the other directors. So my tentative plan is to keep cooperation with the sponsors as our bare minimum standard here. Only after getting a major sponsor on our side will we move on to smaller ones."

In other words...

"At tonight's secret meeting with a representative for the masses, we need to establish a pipeline with the sponsors via recording. In my mind, that is our best possible move here."

.

The smell of butter filled the café and so did a voice. The voice belonged to Kimura who was rubbing her shoulder.

"We are about to hold a secret meeting with a representative of the masses who will ultimately becomes our way towards trust. This will be broadcasted to others who will be considered 'fellow representatives' since we don't want a flock of people in one place without a proper meeting spot. This is so that people won't leave everything in the hands of a single person and won't complain about the outcome. They will all be people who have authorities in Mikado City of course."

"Kawa, could you dumb that down a little for me?"

At the idiot's request, Kimura tried to figure out how to get even him to understand.

 _...Although he's probably giving this a lot of thought. I can't be too mean to him,_ she decided before putting on a smile and answering.

"Okay, today Kimura-sensei will be telling you about the important sponsors and others that live in Mikado City and other places yet are coming over here to see if they want to help. Oh? Kirikari-kun, why are you dressed like that? Did you hit your head?"

"D-damn you. Did you have to bring it down to an elementary school level!?"

 _An elementary school level is really pretty high lately,_ she thought while ignoring him.

"Anyways, um, let's keep this simple. My suggestion is to support the businesses of the sponsors, since they will be the ones to help Border, and to gather support from the general public. ...But first, we need to understand the situation around Mikado City."

Kimura had Suzaku display an image with a map of Mikado City. Everyone easily recognized it.

She spread her fingers apart on the image to enlarge it and then tapped it to brighten it.

"These places are where the major businesses are and are currently fighting for power in the industry. One of these businesses belongs to a Shiraishi family. A rather popular surname. They currently have the most important business at the moment."

She lightly tapped Mikado City's eastern side and then tapped towards the right.

"The second one will be Kobayashi. They are the most humble. What's more, we have some leverage there."

She then traced her finger down from one place to another as if placing a lid on the side of the other two. She knew that she was getting a look from Minoru but chose to ignore it for the time being.

"The last one is Kurosaki. These three sponsors originally used discussion to make a show of conflict while secretly seeking a peaceful completion of their company's outward arguments. They probably wanted to avoid the danger of fighting in a place that has Gates opening every day."

Yuki nodded and spoke in his usual calm voice.

"What were their official conflicts like before they were forced to be checked on by others of the same mind."

"Originally, Kurosaki opposed both Shiraishi and Kobayashi, Kobayashi had Kurosaki to their east and Abe on their west, and Shiraishi clashed with Kurosaki from the east. Of course, both Shiraishi and Kurosaki have fallen silent since the invasion came and destroyed multiple things. And while Kobayashi is continuing their fight against Abe, they've stopped any anti-Kurosaki actions. Altogether, the current balance of power looks like this.

**— Border Sponsor Business Powers**

**Shiraishi: Has most of Japan's business - Use to oppose Kurosaki, currently not fighting.**

**Kurosaki: Has the second leading business in Japan - Used to oppose Shiraishi and Kobayashi, currently not fighting.**

**Kobayashi: Is placed within the top twenty of Japan's business industry - Currently fighting Abe.**

"In other words," said Suzaku as he checked some thing in his computer screen. "In Border's current state, negotiating with Shiraishi would be the safest and closest option. But these three sponsors have strong connections thanks to those peaceful discussions, right?"

Kon took over from there. She licked some cheese from her index finger and turned her somewhat wrinkled brow toward the others.

"Those sponsors will be updated twice: once when other sponsoring businesses and families make their decision and once when Border makes its decision. With that in mind, the different sponsors should be letting the future heads of the businesses interact to prepare for the peaceful progression and resolution of their official fights by helping Border."

"'n' so other sponsors have prevented the three business from that peaceful resolution?" ask Mizukami. "Now, I understand why they'd hold Kurosaki, Shiraishi, and Kobayashi in check. The odds're good we'd end up work'n with 'em. I dunno know if this was the other sponsors' doin' or an independent decision of those three businesses, but why have Kurosaki and Shiraishi end their conflict? Is there a good reason for that?"

Kimura and everyone else looked around when they heard Mizukami's question. They all looked to each other in search of someone.

 **Zoe:** "It feels weird when the unofficial secretary isn't here to say 'That's an excellent question!'"

 **Kuma:** "You people have the weirdest sense of unity."

_...It's not so much unity as it is something we feel obliged to do._

_This must be tough for an 18-year-old beginner. I've been stuck at the speed limit myself._

However, one person in the group did move: Kon. She turned around to look at everyone there, locked onto her target, and expressionlessly opened her mouth.

"Do you know the answer, Arafune-kun!? Do you know why those three businesses have ended their conflict!?"

"Ehh!? Me!?"

Kimura felt sorry for him but also felt no desire to take over for him. Meanwhile, Hokari smiled toward Arafune and placed his hands on his cheeks in a patronizing manner.

"Oh, my. You know the answer, Arafune-sama? You know why those three businesses have ended their conflict?"

"Yeah! I do!"

Arafune immediately answered with a clenched fist.

.

_...The most important thing in life is to remain positive on the inside!_

As Arafune did his best to convince himself of that, Yuki wrote "That's loser talk" on his own phone and showed it to him, but he decided to ignore it. He knew what he had to say first.

"Most likely, the three businesses ended their conflict because the other businesses asked them to. ...After all, their conflict is rather dangerous with the appearance of two people."

Because...

"It is related to Yuki and his family."

.

Arafune heard everyone quiet down. As they stopped moving and speaking, he alone nodded.

"This is all about the family who had a lot of enemies. From what I remember, there have been multiple times in which Shiraishi or Kurosaki go against Kobayashi, so it shouldn't be too much of an issue to start another one back up for appearances. However, doing so would cause a bit of trouble related to the Taiyōko name."

After all...

"While there are many ways to make it seem like they dislike each other - and later might add someone else - there is one family that seems to always get between anything done by businesses and those leading them."

.

"Listen." Arafune raised two fingers. "There are two records of openly fighting between Kurosaki or Shiraishi and Yuki's parents aka the Taiyōko family. The first was because of the children. When the oldest child had been outplayed the best of the business at a young age, the ones running it were not pleased. They wanted payment for what that child had done when she was in their building."

Arafune took a breath.

"The other open fight was because of their views on Neighbors and what they had seen from the small group of Border members. When they had seen what could be done by a Trigger, they wanted to make sure that everyone had one to defend from the Neighbors. This was far different than a simple skirmish with a business since Border we know today was not around."

"Um, can I ask something?" The idiot raised his hand. "What does it matter if Yuki's siblings are here? I mean, everything you said had to do with their parents and isn't that the only reason for the fights?"

"Taiyōko Kushikage was involved in the first open battle and created the first opposing force of her family because of what she did."

Meaning...

"This is not a single person-focused issue like it might sound like in which we can just blame one person for everything. When you think about it as a whole, the fact that all four children of the Taiyōko family are in Border, and all in the new branch that their money will be going to, it causes problems for those who actively opposed them in what they did. They can be viewed as heroes in the eyes of Japan's people, but that's all there is to it."

"True," muttered Tōma while crossing his arms with his empty glass between his fingers. "Everyone who opposed them really have been 'taking their time' when it comes to expressing their opposition on the matter. If that's so they can delay their decision because 'they haven't done anything yet', then I can see why they would want to finally send someone to talk to us. After the incident on the television with Yuki, they could have found a reason. What's more is that with Awdry's parents around now, a major opposition for anyone who has the inherited name of 'Taiyōko' had appeared to back them up."

"Most likely," agreed Arafune.

"Yuki-kun?" asked Kon as she looked to Yuki.

Arafune could still see a smile on the guy's face, but he had stopped moving for a while now.

Kon looked at him with lowered eyebrows, as did Minoru and Suzaku. Kageura held out a pizza cut into small slices.

"How about you eat some more? Saying anything concerning your parents is always a touchy subject and we know that better than others do. You're putting up with it because you're being selfishly selfless and...yes, that guy out there needs to be re-tested."

 **Zoe:** "Yeah, maybe it's because of how much I like spring rolls from other places. Sorry, but this is going to delay any special trips."

 **Manager:** "Well, we are kind of busy at right now, so it doesn't matter if they are delayed."

 _I wonder where we'll end up going,_ thought Arafune. And...

"Yuki? Why are you being so still?"

Yuki pointed to the oddly spacing out idiot in only an apron.

"Eh? Oh, yeah. It isn't a big deal...well, maybe it is."

"What is it?"

"Right." The idiot nodded and looked to Kimura. "Kawa, you aren't used to wearing odd clothes, are you? The underarm is cut wider than normal ones and your sleeves aren't attached very tightly, so when you lean forward to eat the pizza, I can see right inside."

Kimura quickly wrapped her arms around her body and the other girls checked their own underarms.

Then the idiot turned to Arafune.

"Speaking for 'Yuki', confrontation have been stopped because of the new branch, right?"

"Correct. Any opposition from either side has been stopped by placing Taiyōko Kushikage and Taiyōko Mukuro in the same branch under the care of Akasora-san... But even if they want to avoid these confrontations, they can't stop advancing their lives entirely. And it is likely Border is preparing for this."

"Can they please both sides?"

"Let me say it again: we can't just put the blame on one person. Anyone opposing the Taiyōko family will generally have a hard time since that family is made up of crazy people. But there is still a way to salvage anything from these sponsors. And that would be..."

That would be...

"If someone from the Taiyōko family shows humility. A person who replaced their name for the sake of others. When Yuki changed his name, he did it so that he would not be recognized as a member of that family. It was a selfish decision that was made for other people. With his name being 'Tsukiko' instead of 'Taiyōko', his friends would not have to be associated with someone from that family."

 _Akashi would be having a field day with this if he were here,_ thought Arafune as he showed a screen tab to everyone. It contained a timeline of the conflicts and other information he had mentioned.

.

**Arafune's Summarized Notes**

— **Taiyōko conflicts with Japanese business.**

— **Problem child ruins it all**

Taiyōko Kushikage thought herself superior to the tops of different businesses and ruined property by trying to show herself off.

Businesses make a counterattack afterwards, but are forced back due to Taiyōko's influence and ability to win battles of words.

— **Going against Border before it was really Border.**

Taiyōko had thought it best for everyone to have some sort of defense against Neighbors.

This went into an unofficial fight between the family over safety of Japan.

.

"Why do you write your notes just like you talk?"

"I thought they might be a little too formal otherwise..."

But that summed up the events well enough.

"At some point from now on, they might try to do something about Yuki's siblings but will ultimately be unable to do so and just join together. However, some of them might be worn down by this last invasion that destroyed a good amount of buildings belonging to those businesses. That should make them reluctant to go against Border and choose to support it again."

"Then...why do we need to try and regain their support?" Kurauchi tilted his head. "If them teaming up to deal with Tsukiko's siblings will end in failure regardless of what happen then why even bother with all that trouble? I don't see the point in wasting time like that when other things could be done. Even if one of them wants to wait before starting anything, one of them would notice and put them all at a standstill."

"I can explain that one."

Kimura was the one to speak up.

.

Kimura retightened the underarms of her clothes and opened a few tabs. She had met her father during the day and the Directors had sent her some information afterwards, so she based this on that information.

"These businesses use money and influence as a show of force. ...But Kurauchi-san, your question is related to what could be done towards the city and the general public, isn't it?"

"Correct," said Kurauchi. "Thanks to everything that has happened, some businesses should have a difficult time bringing themselves back up for trusting Border. That makes me think they should be helping to better Border's image in the eyes of the people."

"I agree with you there."

Unfortunately, she was forced to add a "but".

"But while Shiraishi's reason is unknown, we do know why others are giving in to this kind of issue."

That being...

"They can't make it seem like it's some small detail they can just overlook in the long run. Some things the Taiyōko family did were recently made public by the first child herself. Taiyōko Kushikage is not someone a normal person can overlook."

.

Murakami felt a faint tremor run down his back. After all...

_...Kushikage-san is the only one who knows how their parents died._

Murakami was still getting on good terms with the second child of the family when it had been determined that Taiyōko Kaseki and Taiyōko Kesshō had died of unknown causes, but he had still asked the second child about it. He had come to know how the oldest child treated others and had feared her.

After all, when he had been told of the things she did as a child, he had felt as if he could see it all happen before his own eyes. Of course, it had only been after he official met her that he realized what kind of person she actually was. It made his view on her that much more terrible.

"You put here that Kushikage-san visited some businesses to 'check in how they were doing' a bit ago, didn't you?"

Mizukami quietly clicked his tongue and spoke with disinterest in his voice.

"So it's due to how those visits ended, right? And Taiyōko was...?"

"Right." Kimura nodded. "For now, we don't know what happened with her, but we have received word that Taiyōko Kushikage had arrived to a conclusion about something concerning these businesses and Border, even without the directors knowing about it."

She had heard that from some random workers during the day.

"So that's it," said Mizukami. "Awdry took control of some companies as a part of some expansion, according to some people. That put 'em in range of Kurosaki, so they used the businesses to see Taiyōko. Is that what happened? But Kimura, what happened to Taiyōko after she left those businesses?"

"That is not exactly good news." Murakami explained what he knew about the businesses after asking his former teacher. "Kushikage-san... When she had left the buildings of those businesses, those businesses stated they would be slowing production within Mikado City. In other words...Kushikage-san can now say whether those businesses continue to function or not."

.

 _You're right about that not being good news,_ silently commented Arafune.

"Shiraishi also seems to be contemplating what to do about Taiyōko on suspicion of her working for Border's directors' wants. I believe that was put to a stop, but it could be a problem if that were used as a bargaining chip."

"True." Murakami turned his way. "Of course, that isn't all. Even with her family name, Kushikage-san can't just shut down businesses. The same goes for the brother that supports her. ...But she can interfere with them. We touched on this earlier, but..."

But...

"There are multiple businesses owned by families who opposed anyone who had the last name 'Taiyōko' and was related to that family. They had a great amount of influence, so their oldest child gained the influence the parents built up and can determine certain things."

Murakami's sharp gaze swept across the others.

"Do you understand? Kushikage-san has the right to fight those businesses and to determine the end results for some of them. Plus, she had a great military might and control to back it up."

.

 _This really is troublesome,_ thought Kimura.

Kushikage had temporarily been somewhere else and she had taken a few different measures to increase her value wherever she went. That took effect at times like these and held a lot of meaning towards non-Border related topics.

There was one way to overturn the situation.

"As Border and the ones who can fight against Neighbors, we have to confirm that Taiyōko will not be an issue and that they can trust us with defenses against anything coming through a Gate. But after the last invasion, some groups can't exactly trust us."

So...

"Border doesn't have much control here."

Kimura knew they were unreliable. Border's re-establishment of trust and the prevention of Kushikage's rampages was nothing more than words in the minds of the public who could not understand the situation. To her, relying on rules that said say they have to look perfect in the eyes of the people felt too dependent. But...

_That reminds me of that girl. The one who is considered "perfect" by others._

She nodded her head and spoke up again.

"We need to make sure the safe world for others becomes a reality."

Those words brought everyone to a stop. After a while, they all turned toward her.

She took a deep breath amid those gazes that seemed expectant, interested, and like they were testing her.

_...Looks like they aren't all trapped in a sense of helplessness._

_Then we need to do something,_ she thought while clenching and raising her right fist.

"It's time we think about what to do. Yes, the time to think about what to 'do' has long since been 'due'."

They all gasped.

.

 **Ōji: "** Now, what are we to do about this criminal?"

 **Pokari:** "Why does Kimura always get ahead of herself like that?"

 **Artist:** "Um, I'm sorry, but what did that mean?"

 **Manager:** "Fine, I'm sorry! Yes, I'm sorry! I'm sorry, okay!?"

 **Life:** "Well, I guess I'll go whip something up to cleanse our palates."

.

Kimura took a breath to pull herself together. The idiot went to the kitchen and Kon expressionlessly raised both her palms and told her "You're still fine, for now", but she wanted to ask what the "for now" meant.

"Um, listen. If Shiraishi and Kobayashi can't do anything because of others, we need to push them to take action. And we need to work with Shiraishi and - if possible - Kobayashi and Kurosaki as well. So first...

She decided to say something grandiose.

"We will bring things to a position where it seems like Border has complete control over Taiyōko."

She inhaled and looked across the others.

"Recreating a bit of history is the starting point. If we can get Kurosaki and Shiraishi to take action and set things up for the directors, Kobayashi can complete any preparations for attempts against them from Taiyōko. There are of course plenty of other conditions needed to handle that kind of problem, but we would be knocking off one of the big ones. Even more so if she doesn't have her youngest brother with her."

And to do that...

"In the coming meeting with Shiraishi, I want to set up a pipeline between us. Shiraishi owns a major company and is ultimately Border's biggest sponsor, so they take priority. We should both want to have a good relationship. ...But it's going to take a lot to get there."

But...

"Doing something about all that is my current job."

"Oh, hey, hey. Wait, Kawa."

The idiot's voice suddenly cut in.

"What?"

She turned around and found him carrying over some fried potatoes. She was not exactly thrilled since some bad memories came back, but...

"What is it, idiot?"

"Well, you've got a tendency to get all excited while thinking about all this complicated stuff, so let me give you a warning. Basically...well, I'm sure you know this, but when it comes to these things...no putting yourself in the place of others, okay?"

.

"—"

 _You have to hit me where it hurts, don't you?_ thought Kimura, but the idiot only nodded and set down the plate.

"That was our starting point and Yuki confirmed that before. It's important to us, right? You often determine the ending with the very first branch point, so you really need to pay careful attention to what happens in the begin-…What's that look for, Yuka!? It's so fresh!"

Kimura decided to ignore the idiot's nonsense, but it was true he had something of a point.

_...Our starting point, huh?_

_That's true,_ she thought while relaxing her shoulders and looking to Kon, Inukai, and Murakami.

_...None of us has forgotten our starting point._

But the well mannered Attacker quickly pulled back the chopsticks he was about use to grab one of the small pizza slices.

"Is something the matter? Why are you looking at me?"

"Right," replied Kimura as she adjusted her position in her chair.

_...I can't believe this._

It was not that she had forgotten about her bad habit of taking over jobs for others. It had simply grown so natural for her that she had stopped focusing on it. In other words, she had grown careless.

 _You can't let yourself worry that idiot,_ she scolded herself.

"Kirikari is exactly right. If you cut out the more complicated parts, we have a single consensus: We want to create a world in which no one has to worry about attacks from Neighbors."

 **Kuma:** "Then what are you going to do about this meeting with Shiraishi?"

There was only one answer to that question.

"We're going to use the future as a bargaining chip. There's a lot we have to do to reach that future, but Border will guide things to peace. It won't be easy, but using that as our foundation should be best."

Kimura took a breath at that point.

"Taiyōko used multiple things to gain influence over some businesses. Their defeats acted as a demonstration of what happens to anyone who opposes that family. She scared some into obedience by showing how thoroughly she would crush them. So we will get rid of that fear and we will get rid of any possibility that assume a loss."

So...

"If Taiyōko is going to ensure the future through fear, we will ensure the future by wiping away that fear."

Kimura looked to the side where the nudist crossdresser stood in his apron.

She briefly mistook him for a girl, so she gave him an expressionless command.

"Take off those clothes, you idiot."

"B-but you're always telling me to put clothes on! What kind of double standard is that!? But anyway..."

He smiled bitterly and tapped her head once.

_...Are you telling me to do this right?_

But then she heard him mutter something under his breath.

"I need to pull myself together too."

Only the few closest people would have heard him, but someone began moving before she could determine what he meant. It was Minoru by the wall.

The A-Rank All-Rounder saw his phone screen dancing after receiving a report from outside.

"Right, they're coming! I have a report from Nikko who saw a car with their logo on it and was confirmed by some others. Soka is also keeping track as a child in Kobayashi family."

A sound from outside played from Minoru's opened phone. It was the hard, solid, and piercing tremor of something sliding on the ground at high speed.

"I have a report from the east side of Mikado City!"

Suzaku's announcement a few seconds later provided the identity of the person.

"We have determined them to be Shiraishi's third child - Shiraishi Chisato!"

* * *

A few Border agents watched as a car rushed by them within the Forbidden Zone.

When it stopped with a screeching sound, a girl emerged from the vehicle.

"I am the third child of the Shiraishi family and the representative for them - Shiraishi Chisato. I am here for an unofficial meeting with Border."

The small girl had short black hair and the car gave off an almost angelic light behind her. It was just too bright. The light dimmed with a refreshing noise as Shiraishi Chisato raised her right hand.

Her eyebrows and drooping eyes bent.

"You can call me Chisato. Let's try to get along, okay?"

The hand raised next to what could technically be called a smile was visible from the hood she wore.

All four of her limbs were visible.


	36. Yagura Branch

A white surface existed below the night.

It was a snowy plain. The snow reflected the moonlight and most of it was melting and refreezing.

"I know we can't really feel the cold, but we have to fight in a frigid place? The beach would be better. This doesn't even come up in a natural setting and we're stuck here in the artificial snow. ...Isn't being a branch director tough, Taku?"

"Why would you want to go to the beach when you hate the sand, Chi-chan? Besides, last year you insisted you preferred the mountains to the beach. That's why we are forcing you to do this for your own branch."

"You admitted to forcing me here! Some paperwork is already piling up and that guy had to stop by my house with that fake smile saying, 'Chishi, you got time? You can take a bit of time away, right? So get going, idiot.'"

The tanned older man wearing a tracksuit turned to the man in a coat standing next to him. They both looked like they had a good amount of experience under their belts and the glasses one was the boss of the Tamakoma Branch.

"That Shinoda impression really isn't that good, Chi-chan."

A small boy with covered eyes nodded in agreement next to him.

"...It was not...the best..."

"Shut up. I'm no good at reporting on the battlefield progress either."

"I know. When you reported on how we handled some of the Neighbors years ago, all you said was, 'I charged in like this, used Senkū, and - fwoofwoosh - the end.' How are we suppose to draw up a diagram based on that? You're lucky I was there to help explain, so you can treat me to something later on, since you never did. Anything but curry."

"No curry? Not even tandoori?"

"I can't let my guard down, so I'm banning all curry at least until Takato is banned from kitchens."

"Then we'll have to make sure she doesn't make any sooner or later. Preferably sooner."

"No, later works for me. We'll be busy with other things for awhile."

The man with glasses smiled bitterly, the boy at his side gave a deep nod, and someone stepped up behind them.

"Oh, there you are, Boss, Akasora-san, Tenryū-kun."

.

Akasora Chishi turned around to see someone in a girl's clothing and glasses.

She wore a large coat over a girl's clothing and she held up a tablet, but Rindō looked to the few trails of white smoke coming from the black buildings behind her that had been recreated for their task.

"Shiori-chan, you don't seem too worried, but should you really not question that?"

"...Not worried..."

The girl nodded at Shokubutsu's comment from next to Akasora and sighed while pushing up her glasses with a glint in her eyes.

"Mei-san said doing this from time to time would help me out a bit."

"I see," said Rindō.

_...She hasn't changed._

The "perfect girl", Border's Combatant-Operator Mei, had great skill and people she could rely on, but she still did not get careless. Even now, she seemed to be helping others by preparing what had already been seen.

"Heh. Is she showing off?"

"How about you focus on whether she can go beyond out vague memories instead of whether she's showing off?"

Usami took a breath while ignoring Akasora's groan at her words. She then looked to the distant smoke and the strange scenery that looked more inline with a true battlefield.

"This method does seem a lot like something she would do."

"Yes, she does like festivals."

"Does the memory of former battles count as festivals now, Taku?"

"Right. You can view them as a festival used to decide political matters. ...Or would that make them wars? Either way, that's what makes them so troublesome."

Rindō followed up on those words in his heart.

_...But I wonder._

He gave an inward sigh.

_...How long will this festival last?_

Just as he wondered that, Usami stepped forward. She first looked to the black buildings lined up like a mountain range far behind her and then she turned around to look at the white mountains far to the north.

"You guys sure went to some cold places."

"You make it sound like you haven't been outside until now. Have you been holed up working on some additional things?"

"No, this is just not something I thought I would see in person. I am still the one behind the monitor who works to support teams from the distance. But watching Mei-san made me want to come and see what it's like in the very front lines."

"Sometimes you work harder than I remember."

"No, you do, Akasora-san. Besides, that was a rude comment! I have been through a Gate once!"

"That's more than I remember."

Usami let out a long, white breath.

"It really is cold."

.

"Hey."

Rindō saw Usami point to the white mountain range to the north.

"Akasora-san, something's moving over there."

"What? Oh, that's not something for the office-working, indoorsy, treasurer-type who nearly failed PE to worry about."

"Did the Tamakoma Operator really just get lectured by someone who nearly failed math, modern Far Eastern, and music, according to Mei-san? ...Oh, but you aced art, didn't you? Wait... What was your educational circular like exactly?"

"Yeah... Chi-chan has some surprising redeeming features, so it's hard to know what to do about him."

Rindō turned toward Usami while ignoring the tracksuit glaring at him to ask what he meant by that. He then glanced northward just like her.

"Now that I'm here, I need to be a little useful."

His head was filled with the battlefield knowledge he had gathered before coming here, so he matched the topographical map, territorial map, and road map to the surrounding terrain.

"At the time, they did not take any meaningful actions where we could see them. But then there was that."

A giant cloud floated high in the sky to the north-northwest. The cloud seemed to be wrapped thickly around something there, but at the top...

"You can see that destroyed city, can't you? It's still a dozen kilometers away, but it has quite the presence. Sometimes you see amazing things like that when going through the Gate."

"Oh, great. This idiot's started talking again."

"...Hooray..."

_...Nice one, Shobu-chan!_

Rindō and Shokubutsu clenched their right fists and Rindō looked up toward the city in the distance.

"In accordance with what we all remember, that city over there was purged some time ago. Do you know how great a purge it was? ...Out of a population of eighty thousand, sixty thousand were killed."

"What's the point if you're going to answer it yourself? ...But that's more than died during the combined invasions over here, right?"

"Right. That massacre was ordered by the ruling nation at the time. We had heard this and that while wandering around, but nothing too particular that we need to mention to you. Just know that there was a conflict over inheritance that went way too far and ended up with this being the result. The fact Takato was able to recreate this using our current technology and vague memories means that she truly is something that we might not be able to define with words. Besides that, the rulers purged the city's female mayor and the city's residents for things we don't bother remembering at this point."

"What an awful thing to do... But it could have been because they were looking toward a different future."

Usami had a good point.

The city was slowly approaching them in the night sky. The dark wrapped clouds carried a slow but deep rumble.

"Either way, the reason for it didn't matter at the time. Not for us at least. Something we did find out was that it had been arranged that the city would be used for testing of some kind. The city may look like ruins now, but the areas on the outer edges and most inner part were still functioning and the city still acted as an entrance towards the main nation. In a way, it might have been purged to make it seem less suspicious."

"I wonder what they were testing."

"Who knows. But after a long time since being there, I'm sure they have figured out what they want to do about their formally incoming issue."

"What kind issues were they? Did you all get involved in them at any point? I feel like that is what happened when taking your characters into consideration."

Rindō answered Usami's question with a bitter smile and a "Right".

"From what we had heard, the floating city over there had its foundation built in a strange way that had made it float away like that. In other words, it was unexpected. The center had been the sight of another strange occurrence that had not been opened up to anyone. We did have someone go up to check things out, but they said there was nothing not worthy about it."

"Are we still sure that wasn't all made up to make themselves sound more impressive? And even if they did open it, I doubt there really was much. Besides, there are probably plenty of floating lands in the Neighborhood at this point.

"True. But that had been their oldest city and it apparently was the birth place of some kind of 'cancer' for the place. We also had a good guess what that meant, but that answer might have been a bad one."

"What answer is that?"

"Let's just say we decided that was not the best place to be for too long. And it didn't matter much to us at the time. It's only worth had been because it had sided with an interesting group after being purged by their own nation. I can't remember the name of that group, but we did know they had a Black Trigger that was irritating for most people."

Rindō then heard a sound behind him.

A few of the buildings were seeming to turn towards the southeast.

"Is she recreating the past using our memories and recordings?"

.

As Rindō watched the moving buildings, he realized Usami was looking in the same direction.

Next to him, she pushed up her glasses and spoke.

"Was there something going on at the time? I mean for the Neighbor nation you were at. It looks like it was a troublesome time for them."

"Keh. They had to overcome something particular with someone who had a bad personality. ...But they managed. Somehow. Mei can recreate what had happened at the time all she wants, but that doesn't change history in the slightest. They still had their issues, we still tried to stay out of it, and we still failed in a major objective that pisses me off."

"Maybe she is just trying to make us feel better by giving us this chance, Chi-chan. And you know how she views things at times, right?"

Akasora glared at him for just a moment, but...

"Sorry."

"Say that to Takato, not me. She was bothered by what you said."

"She takes on too much responsibility."

Akasora spat out another "keh", but Usami and Shokubutsu both smiled.

"She's such a cute person at times like these."

"I sometimes don't get her," said Akasora. "It's the same for the rest of you, right? At the very least, she corners herself to some ridiculous level like she's trying to crush herself. She says it's for us, so I want to tell her to stop because that's just creepy."

"Someone who would stop because they were told to would never be left with as much authority as she has. Personally, if I have no real regrets when..."

When he noticed Usami and Akasora's gazes, Rindō trailed off and Shokubutsu patted his side.

"...It's okay..."

He was not sure which way he meant that, but he decided it did not matter as long as it was okay.

So he said "that's right" to Shokubutsu and saw Usami smile.

Then Usami seemed to remember something.

"Oh, come to think of it..."

She held up the tablet she had brought with her.

"I've received word from Umi-kun. Shiraishi has started taking action concerning Border. Apparently, one of their higher level people went alone for a meeting with Yuki-san."

"Keh. That means we have to pick up the pace too."

Rindō thought a bit about what Akasora said.

_...I see._

"That would explain why we were told to take on an important guest on our way here from HQ."

"A guest? Who?"

"Nakagami Suzuka. She brought a refrigerated container filled with a year's worth of boxed meals for us. Akasora-san, she came to greet us earlier. Were you asleep?"

"Shut up. That's exactly what I was doing, you fool. Anyway, are you serious? Who is this girl again?"

The look on Akasora's face changed when Usami nodded.

"She is the one who will be Yagura Branch's Operator since Mei-san rejected you to be with her team. She was recruited recently and managed to get good enough scores to be here."

"I see. Well, that makes things interesting for us since we won't be having Rampage Dress with us. I doubt that side of her will make an appearance ever again. That should be fine."

Something moved ahead of them.

"This is probably going to be a fierce battle regardless," began Rindō. "After all, this is just a test run for your equipment, but Takato set things up so that whatever attacks will have no trouble with this frigid land. Normal Triggers weren't enough the first time to get through their armor right away, and yet..."

He faced the northern snowy plain as he spoke.

"This is what we find as soon as we arrive."

A gentle breeze flew across the snowy plain, but it was more than a mere wind.

"Personal stealth Triggers using something similar to Chameleon."

A group of moonlit shadows spilled from the gently wrapping movement of the air.

This was the enemy. The recreated Trion Soldiers suddenly dropped from the air and onto the snowy plain.

.

The false enemy group continued to grow. Usami watched as their numbers exceeded one hundred, two hundred, and finally a thousand.

"Eh? W-wait? Three thousand...four thousand...ehhh? There's still more!?"

It was an unexpected development, but Usami gasped when she realized it was very real.

_...An attack by thousands of enemies!?_

She decided to raise her voice to contact any reinforcements they had, but the scene before her eyes was too intimidating. It had completely slipped her mind that they were just in Yagura Branch's new training rooms.

They were coming.

The appearing shadows slowly moved forward as if peeling back or casting off the wind. They were all over two meters tall and many of them had more than four limbs.

They were Trion Soldiers resembling demons.

Normally, an office worker-type like her would never have directly faced anything like this, but now thousands of them had appeared only about one hundred meters away and their numbers were continuing to grow.

Each and every one of them wore some kind of uniform.

Rindō and Akasora stood in front of her and they were the ones to explain exactly who this enemy was. Rindō was counting their numbers on his fingers as he did so.

"This is a specially made set, a group given territory in a southern buffer region that was created as guards. They were originally made for something else, but now they are just recreated to give us some familiarity."

"Why couldn't it have been the usual Marmod or Bambster? This is a pain-in-the-ass enemy for me.

"...Pain in...the ass..." agreed Shokubutsu.

Usami could not even nod in agreement. Even her legs refused to move now that she had suddenly found herself on the false front line.

_...Wow._

"Now, then."

_...In how many seconds will Shiori turn around, in how many seconds will she start running, in how many second will they catch up to her, in how many second will they trample her, in how many second will they do all sorts of awful things to her, in how many second will she make a double nirvana sign, and in how many seconds will the footage be spread all over the network? (Point Allocation: Making things more exciting)_

"Hey, Usami, why are you wiggling around with your hands on your cheeks? Is your brain working fruitlessly again, you fool?"

"I-if you call someone a fool, it means you're a fool! More importantly, what are we going to do about this!?"

"Oh, right." Rindō sounded entirely calm. "Shiori-chan, could you stay right where you are?"

.

"Eh?"

Usami tilted her head at Rindō's request.

_...How am I supposed to stay right where I am with this going on?_

But Rindō was not paying attention to her. He was looking down at the fingers he was using to count the enemy.

"Yeah, I don't want anything messing up my calculations. ...Oh, you can charge right on in, Chi-chan. You're not in my calculations, but you can dodge anything that almost hits you, right?"

"You're coming up with some random strategy again, aren't you?"

Akasora glared at Rindō and Usami asked a question.

"Strategy?"

"Right. We knew something had been detected on this snow field...back then of course. And since I needed to help Chi-chan as another branch director, Shinoda told us to 'use those small fries to show off to our members how great we're working'. In other words, he left us in charge of recreating a bit of history. Although I have to admit I didn't expect Takato to recreate things to this point off of vague information and scratchy recordings."

"Um, then, I..."

"Yeah." Akasora shifted his glare from Rindō to Usami. "That's why Taku commented on how you didn't seem too worried when you showed up. Did no one tell you anything?"

"Think about it, Chi-chan. Normally, the Operators would never be on the front lines."

"B-but I thought you were just checking if everything works fine..."

"...Checking in..." added Shokubutsu.

"That's right." Usami nodded with the small boy and felt some tension leave her. "But Boss...you promise I'll be okay here, right?"

"Ha ha ha. Have you forgotten who was well off going against this man here?"

"No, I haven't."

"God, you two are annoying."

With a bitter smile on his face, Akasora took a step forward and rolled up his tracksuit's sleeves.

"Let's do this."

At that moment, the snowy field exploded in front of them.

The Trion Soldiers had suddenly started dashing toward them.

.

 _An excellent decision,_ thought Rindō.

As the entire front row of Trion Soldiers began a dash, their feet kicked up the snow and created a reverse cascade of snow in front of the row behind them.

"They'll probably be attacking and taking detours behind that wall. But..."

Rindō turned his smile toward the approaching front line as well as the gunfire and charging Trion Soldiers following from behind.

"This is the mirror, Shikifuku. I guess it has been a while since I've used it."

Something burst up from below and destroyed the wall of snow the enemy was kicking up.

It was a yellow pillar with a reflective look.

This yellow pillar was followed by a few more coming from the ground in massive numbers.

"It's a good thing I had Seidō-kun teach me how to properly use this."

When he dropped his hand, a yellow glow appeared. A yellow ring appeared around his wrist that was as thick as a rope while a black object orbited around his wrist and along the yellow ring.

"—!"

The charging enemy was powerful enough to push against the pillars, but the yellow pillars still came up in great numbers.

They collided and were swallowed up. Rindō opened his smiling mouth as he watched the destruction and approaching wave.

"Okay, Chi-chan, head on out. I'll be back here."

"You don't mind if I break those, right?"

"If you break them in groups of ten, then I can try something completely new, so I would actually appreciate it."

"Now I'm stuck doing odd jobs?" complained Akasora as he began running.

By the time a pillar of snow had been kicked up next to Rindō, Akasora had already torn through three Trion Soldiers with his leaping attack.

"Akasora-san is as crazy as ever."

"Yes, but I've recently learned that we're actually relatively calm as things go. So I need to push myself to the forefront some more."

Shokubutsu nodded from next to him and dropped something on the ground from his sleeves.

"So..." Rindō took a step forward while giving the charging enemy a fearless smile. "For now, I think I'll add some more. I need to do my best here."

After all...

"The younger people are starting to act. And this time, it's for us older people."

* * *

"Sensei and Rindō-san have already started their practice at Yagura?"

Yuki spoke to Murakami inside a large car provided for the Yagura Branch. The car's insides had Mizukami, who was driving it, and the rest of the Border members that had been at the meeting, so he did not need to worry about what he said.

"We're just about to meet with Shiraishi's representative who was chosen for the other business, so this is sudden. ...Where did this information come from?"

"Jin-san."

 _That must mean it traveled through Tamakoma and the other branches,_ decided Yuki. Information from the Yagura Branch would first reach Murakami, the Attacker and ace of the Suzunari Branch. Murakami would tell Kimura and then it would reach the directors, but...

"Given the situation, Kimura will wait until you give the go-ahead to tell everyone."

"Right. I need to thank Tamakoma's Elite Agent for the information."

"All he did was relay it to someone who already got the information."

 **2.7 Maime:** "Oh, dear. Kō, are you at the age where someone's kindest embarrasses you? Heh. No. That's probably just Kimura. I'll have to contact a nice restaurant over there and have them send you guys some red meat as a stand-in for red rice."

Murakami looked down with a bit of sadness at not getting rice.

It was Kimura who responded though.

"Why can you send us messages right now!? And you were spying on us, weren't you!?"

 **2.7 Maime:** "Oh, my. Spying? Who would ever do that? I can only see what you all are doing."

"I-I can't believe this! These chat settings are just plain awful!"

 _Well, he is someone who is rather important in Border and is usually a helpful person when not being a troll,_ rationalized Yuki.

Yuki moved next to Kimura who opened a tab and accessed the settings page.

 **White Fox:** "Anyway, I appreciate the relayed information, Jin. Pass my thanks on to the others while you aren't particularly busy."

 **2.7 Maime:** "Oh, dear. I only passed on some local rumors to a fellow member of Border, so I don't recall doing anything worth your thanks."

 **White Fox:** "Then I would like to have our local walking shark send you something as thanks for the red meat you are sending us. How about a refrigerated container you can use as a way to cool down when things get heated over at Tamakoma? Cooling techniques have come a long way recently, so you should be able to store some excellent stuff."

 **2.7 Maime:** "Right. But with a large container, I'll need to think of a place to put it."

 **Black Wolf:** "Um, Jin-san? You're planning to use it where exactly?"

 **2.7 Maime:** "At home. Yeah, it's being sent as a thanks for the 'red rice', after all. ...Now, Kō, I'm sure you are going to take part in the coming meeting, but don't do anything careless, okay? I have a busy night planned using bonchi, but you need to work hard so you too can grow up into a wonderful adult with a busy life."

Yuki wanted to ask what the man meant by "a busy night" and "using bonchi", but he decided against it when he saw that Murakami was also very confused as to what was being put.

Mizukami turned around while operating the car's steering wheel.

"We're 'bout to reach the spot. It's colder over here, so…"

He pointed to his pocket which had a small bulge where his Trigger was located. Murakami began going for his pocket which contained his Trigger and Yuki's Side Effect made him do the exact same motion.

A warmth reached the back of his waist like someone had placed their hand there.

"I see you've gotten use to using a passive one," commented Mizukami

"That's because I've had to deal with too much already. For now, I'll add in something to stop my Side Effect."

"Right. That should be enough for here. ...I'll be wait'n' over here, so call me if somethin' happens. I'll make sure everything's ready to go."

"Thanks. Please do. Especially since it's Shiraishi's third child instead of the ones controlling the company. ...Although it's because she's as cautious as we are that we're holding the meeting in this area of the Forbidden Zone."

_...In fact, that's probably why they sent their child._

Even if something did happen, a daughter had the authority to make decisions for the company and had good odds of making it back with little issue.

"...Shiraishi Chisato, hm?"

.

Yuki knew Shiraishi Third Daughter Shiraishi Chisato as someone who never bothered to make many appearances to the public. There had been no males born into the family, meaning there were three daughters, but a girl filling these roles had not been any problem.

_...If I'm remembering right, Shiraishi has a lot of different relationships which makes things more difficult._

He did not want to get involved with more business, but some of that could not be avoided when it came to helping out Border and the directors. They had already interfered by having this meeting and getting involved with something Director Netsuki should have been doing. But...

 **2.7 Maime:** "Oh, I forgot to tell you one thing."

 **White Fox:** "What is it, Elite Agent-san?"

 **2.7 Maime:** "Great job. Since you called me that, I'll tell you. ...It's about Shiraishi. Do you know what happened to them in their conflict over inheritance?"

"Yeah," replied Yuki as this had come up at while driving.

 **White Fox:** "The conflict occurred between the second and first children. They were living like regular sisters, but their second child scorned the first child because their mother decided the first would be a better choice for taking over their company."

But...

 **White Fox:** "I believe that has yet to be properly resolved yet."

 **2.7 Maime:** "But they would have been forced to advance their choice...thanks to the appearance of a certain showing on television by the Yagura Branch."

 **Black Wolf:** "Jin-san!"

Yuki gestured to Murakami, telling him not to worry about it.

_...Based on the way he's saying this, I doubt Jin has really any proof either._

That was why he had lured them in to continue the conversation for him. That way, he avoided saying anything careless. _In that case,_ decided Yuki.

 **White Fox:** "Thank you for the warning, Jin. ...You're saying recent events have already caused the people of Mikado City to lose what they had been hoping for from us, aren't you?"

They were not accepted as a source of peace or as a barrier against Neighbors. All they had were the promises and...

"Now, then."

The ground around them was flat land with a few holes.

_...This place again._

**White Fox:** "Jin, it's about time for us. We can celebrate together afterwards."

He looked up just in time to see Mizukami stopping the car. Their speed gently dropped and the doors started to open next to them.

The wind blew in, but it did not feel cold.

Yuki refocused his mind as he felt the gentle shaking of the car resuming its ride.

_...We're beginning again._

This was an unofficial meeting with Shiraishi, but at the same time...

"Let's take the first step of a small but definite new beginning."

.

Shiraishi Chisato waited on the flat land of Mikado City.

Her arms were lowered at her sides and her feet were planted at shoulder-width with the right one shifted a bit forward. This stance allowed her to move at a moment's notice while she also analyzed the information reaching her through her legs.

_...The ground is shaking a bit more._

She could see a car come into view.

She could see the inside of the car once she was given a pair of binoculars and she could see that there were eight people onboard the vehicle. There were four girls and four boys...no, one was a female dressed in male clothing. Most likely, a strange person.

She remembered the area she was in as the place that had been where a battle with a strong Neighbor had been held. The area was flattened recently to make it seem like a battle did not truly happen. That may have been so others would not want to go see what it looked like after the battle.

Border was maintaining their image in the slightest of ways.

_...Most likely, the ground was distorted so badly and had Neighbor remains that they did not want others to see._

They had covered the area with parts of the earth that had been broken off by the large explosions that had occurred in the area, they were likely working with construction businesses for these kinds of matter. In that case...

"Perhaps Border is setting things up around the area. Perhaps each area is getting something unique."

Chisato spoke under her breath and suddenly noticed the gazes of the Border agents surrounding her at a distance as her "escort".

"Oops."

A smile had reached the corner of her mouth without her realizing it.

 _I'm hopeless,_ she thought with a self-deprecating smile before facing forward.

Someone stood about thirty meters ahead. Their Border uniform was a dull one with a gray color scheme that had black and white to contrast each other.

"I am the Yagura Branch's representative and A-Rank agent of Border, who I am also representing here, Tsukiko Yuki."

"Got it. I am Shiraishi's third child who is last in line to take over our business - Shiraishi Chisato."

 _Now, then,_ thought Chisato. _I wish Mother and Father hadn't given me so much to do._

But there was one thing she had to do for sure.

_...Position our family favorably for the future._

To do that, she moved her lightly lipsticked lips.

"It may be unofficial, but let us begin this meeting between Shiraishi and Yagura."

.

Yuki had Murakami stand to his right. The other boy got down on one knee, placed his turned off Kōgetsu on the floor, and face forward with shallow strength in his eyebrows.

Shiraishi Chisato was about twenty meters away, and...

 **Umi:** "Oh, I'll set up some soundproofing for any nearby electronics."

All electrical sound immediately vanished from their surroundings.

 **Umi:** "Um, do you not want anyone reading lips? I could cover your mouths with a mosaic, gaze, steam, or frosted glass plus voice alterations."

 **Black Wolf:** "Suzaku, I wonder at times if you are some kind of spy. And why are there so many options?"

 **Artist:** "Right. But there is generally no need to hide anything. …Isn't that right, Arafune and Hokari?"

**The Border Network has stalled due to congestion from a sudden surge of posts.**

... _This is not a good start for the meeting. And doesn't that mean everyone can see this?_

While wondering that, Yuki instructed Kimura, who was in the car, to record the minutes of the meeting. He then faced forward where Chisato stood in the same stance as before.

"Sorry about leaving you with nothing to do."

"No, I can gain quite a bit of information just by standing here. But..." Chisato tilted her head. "Where is your branch director?"

"He's a lost cause."

Chisato frowned at his immediate response and finally asked another question.

"What about your branch's top agent?"

"He's a lost cause too."

_In fact they're one and the same for us. In other words, he's a double lost cause._

Yuki nodded in his heart but then came to a sudden realization.

... _Eh? Double? Isn't that actually pretty bad?_

 **White Fox:** "Hey! Everyone! I know this is late, but I just realized we have a pretty big weakness!"

 **Life:** "Eh!? What is it? Is it something bad!? I'm busy fixing the position of my crotch supporter, so can it wait until later?"

 **White Fox:** "You are one of many!"

He saw messages from the others telling him to calm down and he saw Chisato tilting her head beyond the flat ground.

"Your branch director and top memeber are a lost cause?"

_Oh, no. There's been a misunderstanding. Some of us are used to hopeless directors and top members, but they tend to be useful in actual businesses. Although now that I think about it, I don't think I've met very many that were._

But...

 **White Fox:** "Oh, I get it. That means Shiraishi's members and branch directors are actually useful for them."

 **SenSen:** "Aren't we a lost cause as a whole if that news is enough to excite us?"

 **TetsuG:** "And you shouldn't show off our weaknesses, Yuki!"

 _I suppose not,_ he thought while checking some things on the small windows he had while in his Trion Body and facing Chisato again.

"Sorry, there seems to have been a misunderstanding."

Yuki chose his words carefully.

"It isn't that our branch director and branch top agent are a lost cause. What I meant is..."

A tab opened showing the smiling idiot in a Mikado City girl's summer uniform.

… _I'm going to kill him!_

As Yuki grew expressionlessly angry, Chisato nodded to urge him on, so he reworded his previous statement.

"He never had a cause to lose in the first place. What's more, there're even most lost causes in border than just him."

He ignored the others as they shouted at him.

… _Don't blame me. Everyone has their limit. The fact this idiot got me to admit my feelings towards Sensei is amazing._

At any rate, Shiraishi's directors and members were apparently proper leaders. And in that case, things would probably go well if Yuki did a proper job of negotiating.

That meant he needed to focus on handling this meeting with Chisato in order to draw out the higher ups.

... _Our goal is to build a relationship with Shiraishi that has a future!_

After confirming what he needed to do, Yuki spoke.

"Now, I would like to ask what you wish to accomplish in this meeting."

"Right. Very well. To sum it up..."

Chisato spoke with a smile.

"The Shiraishi family wishes to cut all ties with Border. Is that okay?"


	37. Yuki Tsukiko: Part 8

Yuki silently repeated the first thing Shiraishi Chisato had said.

_...The Shiraishi family wishes to cut all ties with Border. Is that okay?_

That meant they would be ending any kind of relationship, but there was more. That was only the beginning and the explanation followed.

"In other words...Border would be harmful to Shiraishi, so we would like to cut all ties."

The idea of cutting off any kind of connection between the two of them brought a chill to Yuki's heart.

 _This isn't good,_ he thought.

He had never expected this to immediately begin with an absolute severing of ties, but now that he thought about it, sending only their third child may have hinted at that.

What was he supposed to do?

 **Mi-Kon:** "Ah! Yuki-kun! You're an amateur, so don't try prostrating! It's dangerous!"

 _Those crazy people really do think differently,_ he thought as something else happened.

"I suppose that concludes our talk," said Chisato as she gently spread her arms. "Time to leave!"

After a sharp shout, a car rushed from behind her. It was not too long and it opened its door automatically.

_...Are we that far in regular technology!?_

The opened door gave off a bright light as she started taking steps towards it, so she only needed to take those steps and wait for it to close.

 **Haru:** "Eh? Wh-what's happening?"

 **TetsuG:** "Negotiations have broken down! They set up the meeting and now they have ended it. And that means they've cut their ties with Border!"

It was a simple but effective method. Because this was unofficial, they could dodge the issue if another business asked them what had actually happened.

 **Kuma:** "And this means Border will have to negotiate toward restoring their relationship with the Shiraishi family!"

_…_ _That's right!_

_They handled this well,_ thought Yuki as he held a hand against the light caused by the open door car.

If Chisato escaped here, anytime they faced the Shiraishi family, they would be forced to negotiate toward that restoration first and foremost. Even if it was the other side that had cut off all ties, the fact remained that they were no longer on amicable terms. So...

 **Shōgi Boy:** "Just to check, do ya want me to stop'er with the car?"

 **Manager:** "No, you can't do that. A clash like that would create an actual conflict to prove all ties had been cut."

Just as Suzaku said "in that case" in his own chat message, Chisato took her step into the open door car. Her legs produced a sound when hitting the inside and her short black hair was hidden under her hood.

She was leaving.

While taking the action, she gave Yuki a smile with the ends of her eyebrows somewhat lowered.

She was definitely smiling and then she opened her mouth.

"Farewell, Border members. ...You're going to have to deal with the businesses using business rules."

With those words, the bright light began to envelop her, but...

"Wait!"

A voice that was nearly a roar burst from the area behind the Border group.

Yuki recognized who it was without having to turn around, so he called his name.

"I don't know why you are here, but... 3rd B-Ranked Captain Ikoma Tatsuhito! You handle this!"

.

Chisato hesitated.

A shady-looking man appeared thirty meters ahead of her.

She judged him to be five feet and eight inches tall as he ran from the gap between the car and group. As the captain of Border's #3 B-Rank squad, he was capable of high-speed fighting and long distance combat if necessary. She was well aware of this man due to having been informed of the captains of Border.

He had come to a quick stop after running forward, but he could surely go into a sprint at any time. And when looking at their comparative initial speeds...

_...He would reach me._

She was walking into a car, so he could not stand a chance against her once inside, but...

_...Border has Triggers!_

_This is dangerous,_ she thought.

After all, Triggers were weapons used to fight off Neighbors and keep up high-speed battles that a normal person would be incapable of doing normally. That Trigger user would be able to determine whether her announcement of cut ties was in line with any agreement.

What would happen if they clashed and she was crushed by him?

"..."

 _Should I go?_ she hesitantly wondered.

 _I should,_ she decided. _But it definitely could cause some later trouble._

Of course, she had techniques of dealing with that. She had techniques that would let her escape without getting caught.

_...But..._

As she thought, she placed one leg inside the car. If she pressed down her heel, she would instruct the car door to close.

She decided to do so and rely entirely on the car.

 _That's what I'll do,_ she decided as she left her decision and her body in the hands of the machine.

The light started to dim down as the man let out a noise.

"I've got question."

 _What could that be?_ she thought.

 _If a simple question could stop me, I wouldn't be here in the first place,_ she also thought.

_If anything, shouldn't he attack me to try to force the Shiraishi family to remain at the negotiating table? Or is he going to ask me whether I follow the proper safety procedures when operating my car?_

But...

_...Yes._

Even as she thought she should leave, she may have also wished to stay.

There was a reason. The Shiraishi family was currently faced with a complicated issue that required strength. But because of that...

"It is no use."

She spoke up in order to cut away the slight feeling floating up in her heart.

She then imagined flight for some strange reason.

However...

"I've got a question!" he said again.

_...What?_

What was he going to ask her? Just as she reached the divide between a desire to leave and a desire to stay, her mind focused on the B-Rank captain.

"Do ya like guys who can play guitar!? And do ya have any younger sisters who'd like that!?"

.

Yuki saw Chisato's odd car sputter out a weird sound as if it had given out.

_...Oh, that was a nice reaction. Was that so incomprehensible that even the car couldn't take it? Yeah. We don't understand that guy too much either._

As Yuki calmly wondered that, several other sounds could be heard coming from the car as it began to breakdown. In order to make some adjustments, the car's lights flickered oddly, so Chisato sat up inside it with her eyebrows slightly raised.

She quickly looked to the left and right before staring at Ikoma who now stood before her.

"Eh? Wait! What was that!?"

 **White Fox:** "Hey, Tatsuhito, try not to say anything too weird."

 **Iko:** "Heh. No worries, Kiyoshi. That's a distraction. I'll ask my real question now."

Ikoma spread his arms wide and spoke to Chisato.

"I'm asking if yer someone's older sister. And if ya like guys who can play guitar and soccer."

"That's the same thing!" shouted Yuki. It was then supplemented with, "You just added some extra stupidity to it!"

"Ha ha ha. How're those the same? They're not at all the same, Kiyoshi!"

"You can't just vehemently deny it..."

"Are ya listening?"

"Unfortunately."

Yuki was glaring at him, but he did not see it since he had his back turned. He gathered strength in his shoulders and took a step toward Chisato.

"Listen. ...Before I asked'er if she had younger sisters who liked guys who played guitar. But...then she could be an older brother. And that'd just be annoyin', wouldn't it? Hm?"

Since Yuki was being forced to listen to this, Murakami gave him a look that was likely of pity.

_...Uh, you're being forced to listen to this too, aren't you?_

But the B-Rank captain took another step forward as he continued his personal argument.

"Listen," he began again. "It'd have been crappy if I assumed she's an older sister when she's really an older brother. To make sure that doesn't happen, I fixed my question and asked again! Right, Kō?"

"Uh, I was only pitying Yuki, so could you not drag me into this?"

Yuki could not agree more, but Ikoma had not forgotten who he was really speaking to. He once more asked his question to Chisato who had stopped moving.

"Now, answer me. ...Are ya someone's older sister? Ya look old enough to be one."

He received his answer immediately.

"Hm?" she began. "No, I have no younger brothers or sisters."

.

Chisato mentally held her head in her hands.

_...Is this what people talk about in business discussions!?_

This was not at all what she had imagined. She had assumed it would be a more mature conversation that compared the statuses and positions of their businesses while laying the groundwork for their respective goals.

But she could not leave at the moment because her odd car had to be fixed after that incomprehensible nonsense about being a sister was added into her decision to leave or not.

 _What am I supposed to do?_ she wondered.

She did not know what having a younger sibling had to do with business, but she doubted it was anything important. It was also causing trouble for the odd car. So...

"I have no intention of taking part in any nonsensical conversations."

If it was unimportant for business, then that was true. But just in case he did have some purpose behind it, she decided to listen.

"Unfortunately, I am the youngest child. If my age is what determines this answer, then we are done. Another thing… I could care less about men who can play the guitar."

.

"I see. Gotcha."

Yuki saw Ikoma drop his spread arms, lower his shoulders, hang his head, and release sighs that sounded all to familiar with him. He then turned his back on Chisato, faced Yuki, and showed him his deeply shaded lowered head.

"There's no point in comin' here. I was gettin' my hopes up over a borin' person. Of course, that ain't a rare occurrence. I did race over here for nothin' though."

"I'm not entirely sure I know what you're talking about. Or why you are even here..." Kimura spoke to Ikoma while wondering what was going on. She had come over the moment she saw the red and black man. "But since you rushed over here, I guess it really was a 'race' for your heart."

Her joke flopped.

.

 **Mi-Kon:** "Ah, Ikoma-san, are you okay? You took a direct hit from that one, so are you even still alive?"

 **SenSen:** "Yes, he might not have made it even if he managed to shield his vitals."

 **Manager:** "It isn't going to kill him! See, he's alive! Sorry to hear you didn't like it!"

.

As Ikoma stood motionless with his shoulders lowered, Yuki looked to Chisato.

Chisato's shoulders were also a little lowered and her mouth hung partway open as she looked back to Yuki. She seemed utterly confused, but...

"Well, if that's all."

She moved the odd car's fixing process along and prepared to leave.

As the car door began to close, Yuki nearly said "yes".

_...Wait, I can't let her leave!_

He had to do something, but it was so sudden that he was unsure what to say. Instead, he began typing on his phone's open tab.

 **White Fox:** "Kō! Help!"

 **Black Wolf:** "What! Do! You! Mean! By! That!?"

 **Life:** "Eh!? C'mon, Kō, adlib! You've gotta adlib! Don't worry. Kawa just lowered the bar so far that anything you say'll be fine!"

 **Black Wolf:** "Eh? But I still don't know what to say..."

 **Haru:** "Not to worry, Kō. Now, lower your hips and exert yourself."

Yuki did not want to think about what was beginning over there, but Inukai joining the Border chat conversations was a good thing. Probably. As for Murakami...

"F-fine then. I will handle this."

The gray-brown-haired boy stood up with a dignified movement.

.

Chisato saw Suzunari's ace stand up to face her.

What was he going to do? The odd car could leave at any time, but...

_...If I leave now, they could say I ignored his opportunity to speak._

She could no longer continue with her original plan of saying what had to be said and immediately leaving.

Plus, this was the ace of a different branch. Chisato had expected him to act as a bodyguard, not a negotiator. After exchanging words a few times, they must have shifted from the greetings stage to the discussion stage.

 _How troublesome,_ she thought as the gray-brown-haired boy patted the #3 captain's shoulder as he continued to hang his head. Then he faced Chisato.

"Are you listening? Look how depressed our #3 B-Rank captain is."

He then pointed at Chisato.

"This is your fault! I won't let you leave without paying for what you've done, so prepare yourself!"

_...Ehh!?_

For some reason, the terms "new" and "original" came to mind and the odd car nearly sputtered again, but she could not accept what this boy was saying. After all, the #3 B-Rank captain of Border had been the weird one.

_...Shifting the blame for his dejection onto me is nonsense._

So she shrugged and spoke with a sigh.

"Um? That couldn't possibly be my fault."

"Oh, but it is! ...Isn't that right, Yuki!? The #3 B-Rank captain's depression is the Shiraishi family's third child's fault, isn't it!?"

.

 **White Fox:** "Why would you hand it back to me?!"

 **Black Wolf:** "An eye for an eye."

When Yuki saw the pleasant smile on Murakami's face, he told himself: _Calm down, me. You've been faced with seemingly impossible problems countless times before._

_Yes, calm down, Tsukiko Yuki. This situation is truly regrettable, but you're a capable guy. Yes, you're quite capable when it comes to it. The truly important part is making sure it never "comes to it", though._

**Kuni:** "It's hopeless... Now Shiraishi's going to be our enemy and I won't be able to take part in their new testing..."

 **Umi:** "Wh-why are you being so pessimistic!? There's probably a much worse fate in store for us, so let's try to stay positive while we can!"

 **Almost Everyone:** "I think we found the real pessimist!"

At any rate, Yuki tried to find a proper use for what Ikoma had said.

_...How is the Shiraishi family organized?_

_If Akashi were here, I could check with him, but oh well._

He grasped at the connection that flashed through his mind and he spoke to Chisato who was hesitating between leaving or not.

"Listen, Shiraishi's representative."

"Yes. What is it?"

"Right." Yuki breathed in. "You seem to have misunderstood our #3 B-Rank captain's words."

"Oh, is that so? But in that case, what did he mean?"

"Right," repeated Yuki as he mentally prepared himself. _This is the important part,_ he told himself. "Listen. According to our information, the first and second daughters of the Shiraishi family are in line to inherit your family's company. That does not mean that more child will not be coming in from them, but we can clearly see that that is not the case. So our #3 B-Rank captain was asking if you are in fact an 'older sister' to others in general rather than as an actual family member. Views and values can be seen differently if that is the case."

_Damn. I didn't think I would effect myself with that last line._

Yuki patted Ikoma's arm.

"I will admit he intruded on your privacy surrounding your personal life and issues, but that is what he meant and it came from his desire for us to remain on friendly terms. Please do not misinterpret him."

* * *

Someone inside the Main Red Lightning nodded at Yuki's words.

It was Kurauchi who had moved to the central table with Ōji after Yuki and Murakami had left. He used his hands to eat some anmitsu in a glass container.

_...I see._

He set down the container.

"Yes. That was quite forced, but it is true someone can be an 'elder sibling' to those younger than them. Senzai and Hatohara are perfect examples of that. That interpretation is entirely possible."

_...But it would seem Tsukiko is taking a somewhat defensive stance._

In his final line, he had mentioned "his desire to remain on friendly terms" to seal off his opponent's escape, but he had added "do not misinterpret this" to drive the point home.

_...Is this some kind of influence?_

He was partially just trying to be extra careful, but it could easily be taken as coercive. As a freeloader in the building, Kurauchi was not entirely sure what to do about that, but...

"This is about the Shiraishi family."

Kurauchi opened a phone tab containing the information he had researched on his own.

"The second child leads as both the idea maker and informer, but she is supported in her education on both sides by her younger sister and older sister."

"If she is 'supported' on both sides..."

"Right." Kurauchi nodded at Ōji's prompting and slowly continued. "That second child is a second year."

.

"That's right. She's the same year as me. ...Although I didn't interact with her much even as a fellow student."

Two people stood in front of the Main Red Lighting and the more equipped one spoke.

She was Kumagai Yūko. She was dressed up in Nasu Squad's uniform and she placed her hand on the top of her Kōgetsu.

She gripped the hilt that she was rather familiar with.

"So maybe interacting with her would have been helpful, huh?"

She suddenly raised her eyebrows somewhat and looked to the right. Light spilled out from the Red Lightning's windows and Kageura Squad's Gunmer stood on the opposite side of the door. The Gunner was dealing with one of the stray dogs that would show up from time to time, but Kumagai kept her gaze flat.

"I didn't think something like that would actually come up later on in life. At least not while I was still in school."

"Oh, things can always end up being weird like that, so don't feel too bad about it. The people we sent over will take care of it."

"Shiraishi Yoshie would sometimes come to harass some people in my class, so it would cause trouble. We would even cross paths at times and give some kind of greeting to each other."

Kumagai added a "but".

"We had completely different friend groups, so there was no way we would even have a complete conversation with each other. ...Our friends may have had friends in each other's groups, but that's all there was to it."

Kumagai opened a phone tab for the Gunner to see. It displayed a listing of scores in her school from the highest to the lowest.

"This was our school's listings."

"So she was pretty high up there, even if it was still below the tenth spot. She probably doesn't have much trouble in school then."

"When you think about it, it's surprising that she is even able to go to school when she is known well enough as the second child. It even seems like not that many people really go to her for her family's business but rather just for regular school things. In other words, she is actually living a regular school life while also being completely out there once the school day is over."

"So it isn't like you really needed to try and befriend her when she is already doing well enough as it is. That feels like it would be nice~"

"Right...I mean, yes. That's right. But Kitazoe-senpai, do you know why she is able to live like that?"

The Gunner placed a hand on his lips and looked into the air.

"Umm," he wondered. "Even if her family isn't effecting things too much, I think they would have some part in that. Going off of the people I know."

 _He's clever,_ thought Kumagai with a bitter smile.

"Sorry. You're actually the upperclassman here. I messed up by saying that in the first place."

"No, no. Someone like me isn't going to care about something like that."

Kumagai sighed at the honest smile on the boy's face.

Then she looked back to her own phone.

"The older sister is the same. And I feel like this girl is even more capable."

* * *

"In other words, Border wishes to keep a friendly relationship with my family during this current time?"

Even as she spoke, Chisato reminded herself that they could not support Border in the current situation.

After all, they could not completely believe in Border when they knew that a crazy woman resided in it and used it as a shield against their business. Also...

_...Our own issues come into play._

Rebuilding what they needed and fixing what was damaged due to the latest invasion put them in an odd position with others who had taken less damage.

This was no time to dream of Border's protection and the guaranteed future they would receive from them. They had to think about what they had and what they could do for themselves.

_...Then that woman came along and tried her hand at businesses politics while destroying some of the weaker ones._

Taiyōko Kushikage seemed to carry her parents' want to fights, regardless of what kind they were to be.

"We are saying that while we will not be against Border in any way, we do not want our money going to somewhere that cannot protect everything we have built up to this point."

As she spoke, Chisato looked back toward Border's current representative. _Excellent posture,_ she thought when she saw the boy staring straight back at her.

"At the very least, we have no proof that you can maintain the city should another invasion happen. Besides, Border has not unified its own thoughts yet, has it? So how do you hope to negotiate with us and what do you hope to gain?" asked Chisato. "Listen. You are nothing but a disaster to those who you cannot protect and us people who cannot properly defend against Neighbors. You are also a nuisance that uses our money in a way that we cannot fully comprehend to wield your rights and future."

"Is it dangerous simply to speak with us like this?"

"Right. If you were truly meaningless, we could come up with countless excuses, but you do hold certain rights and a certain future. But if the other businesses learn that we spoke with you, rumors will spread that Shiraishi has fallen for Border's sweet words about the future."

Chisato told herself she could not show any hint of friendship here. She needed to make sure Shiraishi's intent to reject anything Border brought to the table would be apparent even if the records were leaked.

_...Of course, Mother and Father didn't give me the authority to do anything but that._

"That is my intention here. I came here to provide a warning while you seem to have the chance to speak with us and vice versa."

She pointed the index finger of her right arm toward Border's current representative.

"Please do not involve yourself with our company."

.

When Yuki heard what Chisato said, he sighed in his heart.

_...That's an absolute rejection. She's completely unapproachable._

**Black Wolf:** "What should we do? I can bring her to the negotiating table by force if need be."

 **White Fox:** "No, that won't be necessary. ...There are a few things here that seem odd to me."

 **Life:** "Eh? D-did I mess up bad enough for you to notice what I was doing?"

 **White Fox:** "Calm down, idiot. Calm down and go to the guard station. Calm down and hold your arms out for them."

 **Mi-Kon:** "Oh, Jinsei. On your way to the guard station, please grab a garbage pickup schedule for us. Your mom wanted to know what they will be doing for any upcoming holiday."

When he saw the idiot post "Fine then. I'll be back soon.", Yuki thought to himself.

_...A disaster, huh?_

Yuki gave a slight nod.

_That's true, I suppose. We are nothing but trouble for the people who aren't a part of Border and who can't understand thing that only we would. And we're even more of a disaster with that crossdressing naked apron along for the ride and a part of a good ranking team. We need to do something about that. Oh, but not about the crossdressing naked apron. About the current situation. Actually, we do need to do something about that idiot. So it's both._

Yuki gave a slight nod again.

_And I think I'm overthinking this._

So...

"—"

Yuki breathed in the night air which was more cold than cool on the ground. Then he spoke to Chisato.

"I would like to accept Shiraishi's warning, but on one condition."

.

 **TetsuG:** "You're going to agree not to interact with them? That will leave Border with one less sponsor, at the least. And a major one at that!"

 **White Fox:** "Stepping forward now would only strengthen their refusal. They can't trust in the future we bring and are much more focused on the present. As things are, the future we bring is useless. And..."

Yuki mouthed the words and they automatically appeared in the chat.

 **White Fox:** "Shiraishi Chisato will want to avoid having us do anything more. She is an important member of their company, but she is not from the very tops. She is only their last resort."

 **Kage:** "True. You don't usually find people like Suzaku who are technically in charge of these chats and working with the directors but can also act like a crazy Gunner."

 **Umi:** "You have that all wrong. And I'm not a Gunner. A Sniper is suppose to fire multiple shots in the middle of a battle."

 _A normal person with different standards is no different from an abnormal person,_ thought Yuki. But...

 **White Fox:** "But something bothers me about this."

He felt something odd in his heart.

To sum it up in one word: why? Something felt off and he could not work out quite what. He felt something in Chisato's attitude that felt like it would lead to a definite question if he pursued it.

_...Why?_

He continued thinking to clarify the unclear question in his heart.

_...Why did Shiraishi come here?_

Meetings like these were based on a mutual understanding, so to reject them, they only needed to ignore them. Instead, they had come here, made contact, and exchanged words.

Why had they done that?

He felt like there were several layers to the answer. Several layers of "reasons" were hiding the identity of the "why". It could of course be a trap, but...

 **White Fox:** "I want to hear someone's opinion. Preferably someone smart like Kimura or Kurauchi. Oh. Not to say people like Minoru and Satoshi aren't smart, so no offense."

 **Deer Prince:** "None taken."

 **Shōgi Boy:** "Gotcha."

 **Almost Everyone:** "Screw you too!"

 **White Fox:** "Anyways. Do you think this meeting is a trap?"

 **Kura-uchi:** "Yes. There is a high probability that there is 'something' behind this."

 **Zoe:** "Hm? Is this situation created by stopping Shiraishi's representative from running?"

 **Kura-uchi:** "I say that given the fact that they contacted us at all. This meeting and their intentions have only shown their rejection. That means their intent was simply to contact Yagura, tell us their rejection, and leave. Then why did they contact us at all? We don't know, but is that because this is a trap, because their true intentions lie elsewhere, or because they want us to think either of those?"

Kurauchi paused for a beat before continuing.

 **Kura-uchi:** "To find out, we have said we will accept their warning 'on one condition', but we were only able to do that thanks to what Ikoma-san and Murakami accomplished."

 **Iko:** "Kurauchi... Don't think that'll make up for being a traitor and getting Kanzaki to like ya for a bit."

 **Black Wolf:** "Um, personally, I would prefer if that adlib was stricken from the records..."

 **TetsuG:** "None of you want to make it sound like we knew what we were doing, do you!?"

As the others started complaining, Yuki looked to Chisato.

"We appreciate your warning."

"Those pleasantries aren't necessary. ...But what is this 'condition'?"

"Right. That is simple. In this age, it is something done to ensure a want for peace."

Yuki corrected his gaze to push back against Chisato's.

"Border will be giving you information. Rather, the Yagura Branch will be giving information on everything concerning the Taiyōko name and any other need-to-know issues."

"...!? You mean...?"

"Make no mistake. We aren't trying to do anything to your company."

And...

"This isn't limited to Shiraishi either. The Yagura Branch will send information to Shiraishi, Kurosaki, and Kobayashi. The latter via a member of Border who is a part of that family."

 _This is a bit of a gamble,_ he thought while completing his announcement.

"That is our condition for agreeing to stay out of company affairs. What's more is that we would like for you to continue sponsoring Border until a final decision has been made."

* * *

"Oh, Netsuki-san, Taiyōko just said something interesting in his negotiation."

When the people in the room heard Director Karasawa's comment, they all corrected their posture and looked at the screen. Some leaned against a wall, some sat in seats, some remained standing, and Jin Yūichi stood at the very center.

"I thought we would spend the night tracking down that strange group, but the representative sent by Shiraishi as a negotiator has made an interesting proposal. ...Severing off all ties, hm? An interesting reaction."

"Then what about Taiyōko's return proposal?"

"Right." Director Netsuki nodded. "Giving out that information to those three companies is not a bad idea. Those companies are currently filled with suspicion, and any information given could be 'used against us' when the time comes. That becomes a great weapon for them the less amount of people who know of it. The greater their suspicions, the more they will jump at the chance so that the other two companies do not get the upper hand."

He chuckled.

"I was extremely worried about sending Tsukiko for this. But he is taking to it really well. Even with some mess ups being obvious here."

After all...

"He is taking full responsibility by saying that the information given will be that of his own family and the branch he has become a part of. He knows that he will be blamed for anything concerning those two things."

* * *

_Now this is a troublesome attack, thought Chisato._

According to the other companies, information on that family was vital in any possible way. So refusing to take it could be like saying they would give up something important for nothing.

"I am not too sure if you are aware of this, but I myself use to be a part of that family. As much as I hate to say that... My inherited name had been 'Taiyōko Kiyoshi', but my current name is 'Tsukiko Yuki'. 'Tsukiko' using the characters for 'moon' and 'child'. 'Yuki' using the characters for 'reason' and 'valuable'."

 **Everyone:** "You damn liar!"

"What I am getting at is that I have no more connections with that family. If you were to worry about the information being false, there is no need for that. I am completely fine with giving away information about my former family."

Chisato chose to remain silent. She knew about that inherited name and the fact he had been disowned, but she had no intention of bringing it up here. She had no reason to do Border that kind of favor.

But she did have one thing to say.

"I do not have the authority to accept or reject this offer. As a person sending the information, you would be given full authority, wouldn't you? Our boss would need to make that decision.

"Simply bringing it up for consideration would be enough. You have my thanks."

"Your thanks is a frightening thing."

The Border representative's expression did not change. He simply looked straight at Chisato. Chisato was not an expert in negotiations, so she could not tell if the boy was desperate or simply keeping his expression unreadable.

_...This is an odd thing to feel so unaccustomed to._

She saw her limits as a representative there, but that brought something other than self-deprecation. She found it amusing that her lack of experience here was the very reason they were so cautious of her.

"—""

A quiet laugh escaped her lips.

Of the three in front of her, the #3 B-Rank spoke with his back turned. His odd depression may have given him a chance to hear her laugh.

"What was that?"

_...Oh._

_Whoops,_ she thought. _That laugh was careless._

She expected him to ask why she would laugh now, but...

"That sounded like it's been a while since ya last laughed. ...Has somethin' with yer company been keepin' ya from laughin'?"

Perhaps due to her inexperience, her prediction had been wrong.

"Yer probably carryin' a lot on yer shoulders."

.

Chisato could only choose to remain silent.

* * *

"Well then," said a voice in the Main Red Lightning.

It had come from Inukai who sat across from Arafune at a window-side table. He set his wooden spoon in his container of anmitsu, looked to the negotiation playing out for them in text form, and smiled.

"It sounds like Iko-san found something out about this girl."

"...Inukai? What do you mean he has found something out?

"Right."

Inukai shrugged toward him, bent his eyes, and stuck out his tongue. A cherry stem was tied in a knot on his tongue, so he grabbed it with a handkerchief and wiped off the inside of the container.

"It's the same thing I took back with Shiro-chan when we first met."

His smile seemed to increase a bit.

"It's something you lose sight of when you become too focused on things other than yourself."

* * *

Murakami felt confused as Shiraishi's representative remained silent.

_...Eh?_

The timing felt wrong for the situation, but then the #3 B-Rank captain sighed next to him.

"Then I'm leaving. I don't see any point in stayin' any longer. ...Kiyoshi, Kō, I'll be waitin' in the car over there, so call if somethin' happens."

 _Ehh?_ thought Murakami again.

He was not used to this atmosphere and Yuki was also frowning in confusion, but he was pretty sure he knew what this was. In English, it was called "love". In Spanish, it was called "amor". And in French it was too embarrassing to say. But he had briefly felt that was what was beginning here.

"A-are you sure?"

"Why'd I want to stay here?"

"Well, um..."

Murakami continued his confusion only in his heart. After all, Shiraishi's representative was standing in silence right in front of them, and...

_…_ _I-it's awkward!_

Part of him wanted the B-Rank captain to turn around, but it was possible the situation in his mind was entirely a misunderstanding on his part. That was when Yuki finally spoke.

"What has you so worked up, Kō?"

_...Of course you would ask that when you didn't even notice how Senpai usually is with you!_

**Haru:** "Worked up? We can't have that, Kō. You must be low on rice. ...Now, spread your legs and exert yourself."

Something was probably being mimed over there. It bothered him, but getting caught in the middle of it would be far too dangerous. Instead, he forced a smile and spoke to Yuki.

"Th-then we will be leaving it up to those three companies whether they will accept our information, correct?"

"Eh? Oh, yes. That is our condition for promising not to interfere with the businesses around Mikado City and maintaining the sponsorships."

 _That seems a little contradictory, but it was a good decision,_ thought Murakami.

_...Since this is allowed in the first place, and is usual for companies, no one can complain if Border does so._

They did not have a good read on the situations in those companies, but he could guess that they had no other option but to reject Border and Yagura at the moment.

_...That might be too naïve, though._

However, there would be no point in doubting that.

But the real decision would come from Yuki who worked well with words.

 **White Fox:** "If we send the information to all three companies at once, they won't be able to reject the offer so easily when the other companies might accept. That is part of why I want to hold some relations with all three companies at once."

 _In that case,_ thought Murakami as he faced Shiraishi's representative who was still silent and apparently on guard.

"How about we send our #3 B-Rank captain to personally deliver the information?"

.

"Wait, Kō!"

Yuki saw Ikoma turn quickly around and point at Murakami.

"You're tryin' to send me to a place where I can't even show off too well!? I'd rather not!"

"That kind of place has some pretty strict conditions."

 _True,_ thought Yuki, but...

_...Looking at a number of conditions, Tatsuhito might actually be a good candidate._

At the same time, Chisato sighed and leaned back inside the odd car.

She was leaving. Now that they had suggested the information idea, there was no point in continuing the discussion. They could only watch as she left.

Chisato gave Yuki a single nod and spoke.

"For any more specifics, I will need to contact our boss. ...I stayed longer than expected, but I think it was worthwhile."

"I am very glad to hear it. Now, about the future."

"Right. Once I get back, I will make a report and get back to you with the results."

"Will you be asking your mother and father to make the decision?"

Chisato did not answer. Instead...

"I will be leaving now."


	38. Chishi Akasora

A male voice fell to the nighttime snowy plain.

"Hey, Taku. Now that we've crushed most of them and are getting a break, I'd like to say something you might not like."

"Then I'd really rather you didn't say it, but I guess I'll hear you out. ...What is it, Chi-chan. Are you feeling lonely?"

"No, it isn't that." Akasora used his chin to gesture forward because his hands were in his pockets. "We took these ones out, but I'm betting Mei is sending in reinforcements now. Even if that could be considered normal, we both know what's actually happening."

The aftermath of a battle covered the vast snowy field in front of them.

The sky was dark and the ground was mostly white. The white of the false Trion Soldiers' colored the ground across the large space.

Far in the distance near the surrounding forest, figures could be seen moving about.

But...

"You can see that, right? This has gone beyond just a test for her."

Akasora was referring to the new white color he could see.

At the base of the mountains far to the northwest were large Trion Soldiers measuring multiple meters long. They were halfway through their landing process and countless figures were approaching on land.

"With only two people this time around, it took a bit of time. That gave her enough time to get into her weird zone that I saw at the demonstration. It looks like that's five thousand more to deal with."

"Another five thousand soldiers really is a lot of trouble. ...Of course, I can get by if I pay an extension fee. Although I'm sure Shobu-chan wouldn't mind too much if his lovely uncle cut down on costs."

"Where will you get the money?"

"I can get that from either one of you two for letting this happen in the first place."

"In that case..."

Akasora gestured with his chin again. This time, it was toward a color in the northwest sky.

That color was black, but it was not the color of the night.

"Hey."

He raised his eyes a little.

"How many do you think will be coming from there?"

A city floated in the northwest.

The giant floating island was approaching with a strange emblem on its side.

.

Rindō saw the city approaching.

_...That previous battle had been the initial testing of their equipment. That means everything from here on is just Takato letting her mind get to her._

"This will be something. Maybe she is now testing us as actual members and branch directors."

"It's been a while since I've seen that. It was their oldest city that chose to be purged because they wanted something different. ...And they didn't give any help to other forces while we kicked their asses. They're probably a lot of trouble to deal with."

The two of them looked into the sky and saw a giant bowl there.

The shallow hemisphere appeared to have been directly scooped up from the earth's crust. That table was at least ten kilometers across and it contained earth, hills, a river, and the buildings of a city on top. However...

"There aren't any lights. Just like I remember."

"Right. That isn't surprising. The city was populated by experiments, which would mean they didn't want others to see. So the Trion Soldiers and regular soldiers really had no will of their own."

Rindō looked at the black object around his wrist, but he did not know if that made him a good match for this opponent or not.

"Hey," said Usami from behind them. "Are we going to be okay here? I know you two are strong and all, but didn't it take more of you last time you had to handle this amount? And with people who were as skilled as you?"

"Yes, we know, Shiori-chan. They were indeed strong. The thing that is different from then and now is obvious. This is just a recreation from our own technology, so they aren't as strong as they were as originals. And even if we don't have as many fighters on our side or this advanced test, the two of us are well off with more experience and the use of a Black Trigger."

"Keh." Akasora turned to the side and looked up at the floating city. "So you're saying that because she died, we have a better chance? That's just messed up."

"Wait, what? I figured those Trigger were generally different, but that's all. I thought that the Yagura Branch would also have specially made Triggers. Not a Black Trigger."

Akasora turned back and found Usami had approached within arm's reach. She readied herself for an explanation.

"Oh yeah, I had forgotten that you didn't know that. Yagura will indeed be having their own Triggers, but that's due to their members all being oddities in their own right. What we are using is something completely different. They are both a single Black Trigger."

"Really? But I don't remember hearing about any other Black Trigger before Yūma-kun came."

"Right," replied Rindō as he looked to Akasora as well. "It was made a good while ago and has been erased from records. Rather, it was never put on any records. Chi-chan and Shinoda made sure that it wouldn't be used unless absolutely necessary. They are very particular about it."

"Is it that important? Oh! I'm sorry! If it's a Black Trigger it probably really is important. I messed up my wording with that one."

"It's no problem. And yes, it is important. I would honestly say that it holds as much importance as any other. It really depends on the people who know about it. Because of it, we lost two..."

Rindō looked up at the floating city sitting motionless in the sky.

"Well, that's getting into a bad memory. Although I suppose that thing up there isn't one that's any better."

"But what is inside that bowl that they would want to protect that badly?"

"Who knows. In all honesty, it's hard to remember that thing at all. Maybe it did have something to do with why we were there, maybe it was just something pointless. Maybe that is is where the 'cancer' came from. Either way, something was going on that we had not clue about at the time."

Rindō's breaths were not colored white, but he still took a breath just for show.

"I am getting a bit worried that we could be repeating too much history by letting Takato continue this while we can't see her."

From his side, Shokubutsu pressed his hand against his side.

 _Oh, even though I'm not your uncle? Am I scoring some high points right now!?_ he thought while watching the floating city.

As soon as he looked down, a wind blew along the ground.

It came from much closer to the false buildings behind them than the snowy field. It blew toward the area behind the three standing there.

"...!?"

Figures of white rushed from the forest on either side.

Snow was kicked into the air as a group rushed toward those three and the false buildings.

.

Usami was the first to react as groups of white charged their way from ahead and either side.

"Waaaaah! Tenryū-kun, what are we supposed to do!?"

"...Calm down..."

"...Shiori-chan, why didn't you rely on Chi-chan or me first?"

"Hey, if it's just going to be us around, then I'll take care of them all myself. Is that okay with you?"

 _Yes,_ thought Rindō as a tremor ran through the snowy field.

_...Others would still see this as a "test of equipment" and would stay out of it._

In that case, what were they supposed to do? He of course felt he had the power needed to handle this, but...

"...Isn't this weird, Taku?"

"You think so too, Chi-chan?"

"Right." Akasora nodded and fixed his tracksuit to leave it unzipped. "Even if she was going along with her calculations, shouldn't she have done something in a 'protect the castle' kind of way? Her calculations work with information, so the 'recreation of history' should have been made exactly the same."

"Eh? Eh? What do you think that means? Akasora-san, Boss, what is it?"

"Oh, well, it mean Takato trusts you, Shiori-chan. Or rather, that she trusts us to follow through for you."

"...Eh?"

Even in the dark, Usami's face visibly paled.

"You don't mean..."

"I do. I really do, Shiori-chan. Takato is not the one making these for us. Someone else is doing it, following her instructions. And..."

Rindō turned around.

"And she knows that we can deal with whatever is thrown at us."

A single figure was visible in the false buildings back there.

It was a feminine figure. She was slender and wore a unique uniform and long sleeves that made it seem like she was protecting from the false cold. She raised her hand and shouted over to them.

"Sensei, Rindō-san, Usami! I need to discuss some things with you!"

"Is that...?" asked Usami. "Mei-san!?"

"That's right," said Mei as she continued waving their way. "What's the matter? Why are you just standing there?"

.

The ground was white and the sky was black.

On that battlefield, Mei wore a strange uniform for a battlefield as her voice ran out.

"I want to run some things by you guys. I have a list here."

.

Someone turned back toward Mei's voice.

It was Akasora. He checked on the surrounding movement as he quickly turned back her way.

_...Oh, no!_

It was obvious what he meant. Mei was walking calmly towards his way and now looking down at a list. Her comment was clearly direct at him, so...

"Mei! What the hell are you thinking!?"

"Eh? Oh. I left that new girl in charge of this test. In all honesty, I couldn't deal too well with her, so that's why I came out here. I'm trying my very best tonight."

_...This idiot!_

"Why do you have to make things more difficult for us!?"

"Chi-chan!"

The false enemy was already approaching from either side, so Rindō shouted out while pulling on Usami's hand and running toward the false enemy formation up ahead.

"I'll head this way with Shiori-chan, so you deal with that girl!"

"Of course!"

He expanded the pink glow from his wrist onto his arms, but instead of planting his feet on the ground to prepare for a punch...

"Shikifuku!"

He used the Black Trigger's amplification on his legs to make a shallow leap toward Mei.

.

Akasora made his way forward.

He was approximately three hundred meters away from Mei who was defenselessly walking his way. Instead of landing, he took a skidding first step that brought him to one hundred twenty meters.

He prepared to take his second step which would bring him all the way to Mei.

_...Why is she using her real body to come out here!? Is she that lost in her calculations!?_

He was taking the step with his right leg while his left was his dominant leg, but he was well trained. He was not about to mess up a simple high-speed leap. So he did not hesitate to make the final preparation for the leap forward.

"Shikifuku!"

The pink glow appeared on his bent right leg. Glowing light appeared on the ankle and even the joints of his toes as he made that second leap.

But he was too slow.

As soon as he launched himself forward, a white form fell between him and Mei.

A Trion Soldier with reinforced legs had jumped down from on high and descended from the sky above.

_...Dammit!_

"You're in the way, you piece of crap!"

Akasora transformed his leap into a kick. Instead of just sticking the sole of his left foot forward, he kept a downward angle to the strike. The false enemy that had dropped in front of him had no time to dodge.

"Get destroyed all over again!"

The kick hit.

He used the force of the blow to pass over the false enemy that rotated three times in the air and he glided along a shallow arc.

The force of his leap had weakened, but it had not vanished. Unfortunately, the false enemy was approaching quickly from either side.

_...Will I make it in time!?_

His second step ended at fifty meters from Mei.

The enemies to his left had arrived too close, and...

"Oh. Something is going on."

Mei finally noticed the approaching enemies.

_...Oh, no!_

The false enemies on the left had almost reached her. There were still thirty meters between them, but that distance could be covered in an instant by Trion Soldiers and physically strengthened individuals.

Akasora did not have time to take all of them on before saving the Trigger-less Mei, but something rolled and bounced quickly in from the back and to the left.

It was the Trion Soldier with strengthened legs that he had knocked forward with his kick.

He had passed it by, but now it was rolling past him.

He took a combat stance as the mass of Trion tore across the snowy surface to his left. He also looked to the false enemies approaching Mei on the left up ahead.

"Take this!"

He sent out his left elbow and slammed his pink glowing fist into the Trion Soldier's back as it bounced up into the air.

"Shikifuku!"

With a roar of impact, he used his left fist as the explosive to launch the Trion Soldier like a shell. The strike was a corkscrew that added an inward twist from his hips to his wrist. A powerful spin filled the Trion Soldier as it flew.

"...!"

After the bursting sound of something breaking, the Trion shell reached the false enemy. The demon-like Trion Soldiers rushing in from the left were blown away by the hit from a body spinning due to a powerful gyro effect and by the wind that reached them.

The first three rows were soundly crushed.

Akasora ran on ahead of those results. More false enemies were approaching from the right, but...

_...I'll make it in time!_

He would be able to snatch Mei with only a lag of two or three meters. Sure of that, he made a third leap.

He would easily make it in time. Or so he thought.

As he made his leap, he saw Mei hold her forehead and shrink down.

"Ah."

It was a trion bullet.

.

In midair, Akasora did not so much hear the gunshot as he saw Mei's movements.

She wobbled on her feet and then her slender upper body bent forward toward the snowy ground.

The gunshot only reached him afterwards and Akasora continued watching what had happened up ahead.

_...Oh, no._

His leaping body went a little limp in midair.

He realized the slower group on the right had been the true threat. Most Trion Soldiers primarily used physical strength and some enhancements, so they rarely had any distance attacks.

"But was it that rarity that slowed down the group on the right!? They didn't have these kind back then!"

He realized he would not make it in time anymore, so he ended his leap partway and kicked deep into the snowy ground as he landed.

The sound of breaking ice burst out as he stopped himself while the false enemies on the right sped up in their race toward Mei. They all raised their weapons toward her.

"—!"

In that instant, Akasora saw a color race by before his eyes.

That color was black. It moved in every direction imaginable as it raced between the warriors on the left and right.

As the raging black movement made its counterattack, something happened to the several hundred demon-like Trion Soldiers on the front rows of either side.

"...!?"

They were all sliced through and green Trion sprayed into the air.

.

It did not happen instantaneously. Some time was needed for the wind to whip up.

But after that short time, everyone involved was able to see what had happened on the battlefield.

The front few hundred of the two thousand rushing toward Mei had collapsed to the snow with Trion spraying from them.

.

_...What was that!?_

Usami had looked back and seen what happened.

It was Mei.

However, something about her was different from when Usami had seen her just a moment before.

Her build was the same, as was her hair's length, her shoes, and everything else.

It was her stance and clothing that had changed.

_...She's hanging her head!? And when did she go into her Trion Body!?_

She was looking down and almost seemed to have folded her body below the chest. Her head was bent down as well, so her head was closer to navel height than shoulder height.

Every last hair on her head was dangling down, hiding her eyes like a tube.

And a voice left the bottom of that hair tube.

"Ah..."

That syllable continued quietly.

"Aeeeeee..."

The exhaled air was quiet and yet it seemed to carry endlessly across the plain.

"Ee."

She was sobbing.

The voice escaped from deep within the tube of hair.

"Hyaah."

Mei could clearly be seen with a pair of gauntlets and boots now on her limbs, imbedded slightly in the snow.

Soon, Mei's entire body trembled. At the center of the false enemies scattered across the snow and at the destination of the approaching false enemies, Mei bent her body even lower. A powerful tremor ran through her. She was crying. She shook her head once and a swinging wave ran through her silky dangling hair.

"Ahhhhhhh!"

Mei's black exploded within the approaching army of white.

.

Mei moved in curves.

When a demon-like Trion Soldier approached with a sword arm for a right hand, she made a quick rotation back and to the right. Her backwards kick sent her heel to the inside of the inner part swinging down the sword arm and deflected the entire arm outward.

The sword arm's trajectory grew diagonal and Mei lowered her body in the middle of her rotation. Her hair trailed after all of her movements and she slipped out and to the left as if circling below the demon-like Trion Soldier's right arm and blade that she had sent diagonally outward.

The Trion Soldier made a clicking sound as Mei slipped below it's right arm and behind it.

"—!"

It tilted it's body left and lowered it in order to increase the right diagonal motion of its sword arm. Now the blade would not hit the snowy ground and it could continue the swing of its right arm to pursue Mei behind it.

It did so. It made a right backhand as if scooping up the end of the blade from below. Even with its diagonal path, there was very little space to dodge it.

But Mei chose to dodge regardless.

Something extended from her spinning body. It was the very head that was swinging her hair far out from her body.

"Ee."

The action seemed more careless than flexible, as if she had dislocated her neck, and it brought her head into a rotation outside her body's rotation.

"Eeeaah!"

Instead of circling behind the Trion Soldier, she entered a confused spin.

It was an inhuman movement. The twisting, unstable rotation looked like a dance and she kicked her right heel into the snow. That launched her in front of the demon-like Trion Soldier who was swinging its sword arm back and to the right. She was just below its forward-leaning stomach.

Mei had intentionally thrown herself off balance to launch herself over the blade and back to her original location.

The false enemy had fully swung its sword, so the body was wide open. Mei tilted her still-spinning body to the right and placed her hand on the snow as if cartwheeling away from the false enemy. Except she was not trying to escape. Her hair swept across the snow as she rotated her body vertically and sent her foot up into the tip of the Trion Soldier's head.

The sole of her left heel hit the Trion Soldier's head with a gouging diagonal blow.

A solid sound rang through the chilly sky.

Mei bent her body forward and stood up just as the Trion Soldier's head was swept sideways.

"Kh."

"—!"

With that noise, it took a certain action.

It thrust both arms forward to grab Mei.

As soon as the thick arms wrapped around her slender frame, the Trion Soldier's false comrades rushing in from behind or in front of it.

Different types of Trion-made weapons were thrust into the body.

"—!"

.

They looked towards the false buildings. The sword arm the previous Trion Soldier had been cut off and it was now being dragged around by someone such that the tip scraped along the snowy ground.

That person was charging toward them while accelerating her rampaging spinning movements.

"—!"

It was Mei.

Black hair moved like a raging storm as she collided with the white circle without slowing down.

.

Mei was hanging her head.

She spun, swept the false enemy's feet out from under them, slammed her weapon into the enemy at full power, let go of it, stole another weapon from the rolling and scattering false enemies, made another full-body spin to slam that weapon into them, grabbed the weapon she had let go of earlier, slammed it into them yet again, and let go of it yet again. She would hit and let go, steal and strike, and it all happened at the leading edge of her fluttering hair.

"Ee...!"

With her head hung and her entire body trembling, she rapidly rotated while sticking her hips, shoulders, and elbows out ahead of the spinning momentum. She would send it all out ahead of her as if collapsing and she would accelerate further.

Her hair hid her face as a black tube. The only sounds were the slicing, the clashing of weapons, the breaking, the collision of body against body, and...

"Eeeeeeeeeee!"

Her wail rose high into the sky and she seemed to be tearing at her hair with her entire body.

"Eeaaaaaaaaaaah!"

She stole weapons, cut down false enemies, threw the blades out of reach, smashed legs, used the collapsing bodies as shields and stepping stones, and swung weapons around in both hands as additional acceleration.

"Ahhhh!"

She moved onward.

Even as she nearly fell over, she forced herself into a rotation to hop back up. She ran fast enough to surpass the false enemies trying to fall back, she thrust and swept with blades as she passed them by, and she constantly grabbed weapons from midair after having let go of them earlier. As if moving from weapon to weapon and as if attacking with every last weapon on the battlefield at once, in every place her rotation took her, she would grab a flying weapon's grip, spin it around with her fingers, and throw it to stab it into something.

"Eeaaaahhh!"

The wailing black hair raced across the battlefield.

For each weapon present, a false enemy fell.

.

Usami was running with Rindō.

Even if they were moving away from Mei, she was not so sure running toward the false enemy was such a good idea. But when she looked back, she saw a black whirlwind of motion approaching them.

"Eh? Wh-what is that?"

The false enemy was packed in tight around them. They were gathering along the central line from the left and right.

For the lowered-head motion that was stealing their weapons, running, and slicing through them, that central line was where the most weapons were gathered.

And just as Usami had predicted, Mei was approaching.

The white false enemies scattered to the left and right along a rapid and meandering path and the lowered-head blackness continued accelerating and wailing.

_...Wow._

The demon-like Trion Soldiers on both sides and to the front cowered back and put up their guard.

"—!"

It was not a sound that urged those false weaponized warriors to resume their charge.

The more slender-looking Trion Soldiers made their own expressionless charge.

They were made for a different purpose, but they had similar features to the other ones created from the memories of the two directors.

"—!"

They raised their weapons, gave strange noises, and faced their foe.

They used their modified bodies as if offering themselves up as sacrifices.

"...!"

With a noise, they added in their own destruction.

They collided and were destroyed.

They were scattered, broken, split, and sliced, but they acted as if this was the proper course of action for them. They never stopped and the ones that could still move acted like it was amusing. All the while, they gathered around Mei and returned to their state of fighting.

The demon-like Trion Soldiers followed. Their programming had seemed to be changed as they fell behind, so they now faced Mei instead of Usami and Rindō.

They ran right past those other two on their way to Mei, but...

"Ee...ah...ahhhh!"

After that cry, the entire group exploded in white.

Mei has activated her own personal Trigger as gauges moved along her limbs.

She did so while wielding each weapon she swung and abandoned in the air.

"...Kh!?"

As if counting out the number, the weapons stabbed into the ground in an arc.

A moment later, a chain of explosions linked that arc and the explosions traveled through the gathering Trion Soldiers.

A timed Meteora

"...Ah!"

But it did not end there. Usami saw the black form jump.

_...Up!?_

Mei held two large sword arms.

She had used the explosion to make a great leap and rapid rotation. She had been mainly attacking horizontally before, but now she used a vertical rotation to make her sword strikes.

And the attack was directed toward Usami and Rindō.

.

Usami saw Mei rotating toward her.

She was coming this way.

The lowered head and hair were using the explosive Trigger to power her jump.

"Ee...ah!"

She was rapidly approaching.

Usami was running away, but she would not make it in time. Mei's rotation was going to accurately bring her right behind her.

_...Here she is!_

She landed but did not stop moving. She made a single roll forward to try to negate the momentum of her fall.

Usami could tell her body was in the middle of the circular path Mei's two swords would take.

With the size of those swords, she would be sliced in two.

Those swords were already being swung by her rotating body.

Usami knew she was not going to make it in time and she would be hit.

"Ohhhhh!"

But a voice and a wind cut in.

"Akasora-san!"

That was exactly who it was. He had caught up to Mei and was about to pass her, but he gave Usami a sharp look.

"Guard!"

"R-right!"

Just as she turned toward him and placed her arms in an X-shape, a strike hit the center of the X.

"Shikifuku!"

.

Usami was knocked backwards.

It was a light blow from Shikifuku, but it was enough for her to feel the full weight of an actual attack. _Turning off all feeling in a Trion Body is sometimes a good idea,_ she realized as she flew back.

She seemed to float in midair as her acceleration left her and that was when she saw it.

Mei was charging in behind Akasora. She had finished her first flip and was preparing for the next which would slice through Akasora. So...

"Akasora-san, behind you!"

She was trying to get him to dodge, but the timing was poor. His Black Trigger would not reactivate in time.

As she flew through the air, Usami tried to make sure she would fall butt-first to the snow and tried to gather strength in her legs.

_...I have to do something!_

But just as she thought that...

"I appreciate how you charged on in here fully intending to rely on me, Chi-chan."

Three actions followed those words.

First, Rindō stepped up to Usami's right in his coated uniform.

Second, a yellow wall appeared above the ground to support her as she fell.

And finally...

"Chi-chan, I just have to buy some time, right?"

Yellow walls appeared between Akasora and Mei.

"They won't turn to zero, but Shikifuku doesn't like this prototype Trigger being used against it."

There were three in all, but they were immediately smashed by Mei's blades and strength.

However, they scattered a bit and still pushed against those blades, briefly delaying them.

"Shikifuku!"

The three yellow walls scattered, Akasora's Black Trigger reactivated, and he leaped over Usami's head all at the same time.

She looked up in surprise from the supporting wall as he flipped through the air, but he bared his teeth toward her in a look of joy.

"You idiot! Get running!"

"Don't be so mean," she said before realizing what he had meant.

Mei was already accelerating toward them again.

.

Usami screamed and quickly tried to get her feet back on the ground, but Rindō called over to her as he ran behind her.

"Oh, Shiori-chan, you're slow, so don't bother moving."

"Eh?"

Her question was answered by something appearing under her.

It was a solid wall of yellow.

.

It was a wall of Trion created from Rindō using the Black Trigger known as Shikifuku and it forced her to trip over it. It then lifted her up.

"!?"

The wall of yellow began to move in the air, following Rindō.

"Th-thanks..."

Some smaller walls began to shatter, from behind them, but to Mei, they were another barricade in addition to the gathering false Trion Soldiers.

Of course, neither the demon-like Trion Soldiers nor the quickly made walls could stop the fluttering black hair of that lowered head.

Usami recovered her balance as she was carried and she looked again to the raging wind behind her.

The black series of slashes and wails was still sweeping across the battlefield.

The crying never stopped.

Usami did not know why since she did not know Mei like some others.

"What is going on? I'd heard rumors, but why is Mei-san doing this?"

"Oh, yeah. It's been so long since anyone has seen it, so you wouldn't know."

She tilted her head at Rindō's comment and some movement arrived on the right.

It was Akasora.

He slowed his pace to stay alongside them.

"You say that, but you saw it only once and no one gave you a proper explanation. I'm the one you should be asking for this kind of information, not Taku."

"Right."

Rindō shrugged at the cries and collisions heard behind them as his feet ran along the snowy plain. He stared straight forward as Akasora's opened his mouth.

"The truth is, that is Mei when her calculation are applied to battle."

.

"What?" asked Rindō from in between Akasora and Usami who was being carried by the yellow wall. "Her calculations?"

"Correct. It's exactly as it sounds like. ...Mei has a calculating Side Effect that is extremely helpful to everyone except her. That kind of thing appeared here."

Another wail echoed behind them.

"She must have been an emotional person. You two didn't see it in person when we were doing the presentation, but she could not be stopped and overwhelmed Sawamura. That's why Yuki had more to deal with more than usual. When in battle, she has that kind of switch as well."

 _And when she switches, she turns into that?_ wondered Rindō as the source of the screams crushed the false enemy several dozen meters behind.

The Mei that Rindō knew was always looking out for others and enjoyed cooking and tangerines.

He could remember several times when she had brought some food for everyone at the Tamakoma Branch without telling anyone.

"But," said Akasora. "An even bigger problem would show up and crush her from the inside. She was probably exhausted from switching to a version of herself that was nothing but ones and zeroes. So..."

So...

"When asked by a fool a few years ago, she withdrew from being a fighter so skilled in everything she did to become a humble and mild manner Operator. Do you know what happens if she gets too stressed again?"

"That's obvious," said Rindō.

But Usami answered, so she said, "yes". When Rindō gave her a look of meaningless curiosity, she feigned ignorance and turned towards Akasora. He had some thoughts about her attitude, but...

_...Well, it doesn't matter._

They were acting just like always despite being on the battlefield with a wailing and raging wind approaching from behind. He figured it was a testament to their strength that an idiot unaccustomed to the battlefield could be so carefree.

"Then can you explain what happens, Usami? Go on. We won't interrupt."

"Okay. Mei-san has said that she use to get cluster headaches all the time until something had managed to stop that by knocking her unconscious. She said that the something that managed that continues to make her happy and annoyed to this very day. But she also said that she has not been stressed out since that time either. But she had muttered something under her breath, likely not knowing that I had heard it."

Rindō knew what happened after that because he had been the one she asked after that moment.

"She had said that when she was stressed, she becomes something that she never wants to remember."

.

"That's right."

Rindō heard Akasora speak quietly.

His voice seemed too soft for the destruction occurring behind them.

"Mei had gained an odd, but fitting, nickname after a certain stressful incident. It was caused by a certain red-haired woman that honestly needs to be stopped at some point. It was enough for her to forego ever fighting again out of fear of showing off that side of her. It's a miracle that she did not become like that during the recent invasion. If I had to guess, I would say that it was because of that idiotic student of mine."

"Then what was that we saw during that other time in the city?"

Akasora recalled Mikado City's inhabitants. They had been left with no choice but to destroy the area while moving the people out of the area for a certain reason.

Their main goal had awaited them in the middle of the destroyed area and could did not resemble a cityscape.

"Mei was there wailing with a dead child on her right arm. We only fought the Trion Soldiers at the outer edge. They were supposed to be a large amount of Neighbors in the area that was destroyed, but they had all been taken out and thrown about."

And...

"As she wailed, Mei made short work of the agents who went."

"Don't remind me how pathetic I was there, Chi-chan. But that's when she got that nickname by everyone who was afraid of what they saw."

Akasora frowned with disgust.

"Rampage Dress."

Rindō smiled bitterly and faced forward as he ran.

"Chi-chan, you handle this."

Akasora also looked forward. They were already in the center of the snowy plain. The false enemy Trion Soldiers seemed to be on their way to face Mei, but they were showing more than enough hostility as they ran by.

Akasora moved ahead and collided with the false enemy, but he was not the only one confronting them.

He heard a loud sound from the false buildings behind them. It was the wave-like rumbling of a charge.

"So your nephew is becoming active."

The false enemy formation had crumbled thanks to Mei's charge, so Shokubutsu was cleaning up the remaining ones.

 _In that case,_ thought Akasora as he continued forward, swung his arm, and pumped his body full of acceleration.

"Shikifuku!"

A strike starting from his right fingertips blew away the center of the false enemy's front line.

Their front line bent and swelled out. Finally, several of the large demon-like Trion Soldiers were blasted into the sky. But...

"Chi-chan!"

Rindō's voice coincided with a second explosion of light behind them.

The wind seemed whipped up by that light and it seemed to fly through the night sky to land in front of them.

"Mei!?"

.

Akasora saw bending and fluttering black hair pass by overhead.

The flow of black dropped in front of him with the movements of a paper fan being swung around.

The fall was clearly faster than simple gravitational acceleration, but that disturbed momentum brought it right into the false enemy formation up ahead. And it did so in a path traveling over those Akasora had blasted into the air.

"...Ah."

In an instant, Mei sliced through all of the giant forms he had sent flying and blades grew from their bodies. Before they could fall to the ground, Mei jumped further toward the center.

"Ahhh!"

She moved.

She rotated her entire body, rotated her arms, and sent hidden swords flying in almost every direction around her.

"Aaeeeee!"

Explosions went off in every direction at the very center of the false enemy unit.

Tearing sounds rang out as the Trion Soldiers were smashed, exploded, or blown away.

Even then, it was not over.

As Mei rotated, the false enemies who had slipped through the three hundred sixty degrees of explosions rushed toward her.

They used their positions, numbers, and momentum for this final charge. Mei was unarmed after unleashing all of her weapons, but a certain thought came to Akasora's mind as he too approached Mei.

_...Oh, no!_

His premonition proved accurate.

Several weapons reached Mei's hand as she rotated at the center of the attacking Trion Soldiers. They were all of the sword arms that had destroyed the false enemy in midair. She had launched them outward, but the recoil of the explosive blast had sent them back to her before the false enemy Trion Soldiers could reach her.

"Hyaaaaah!"

The term "counterattack" did not seem adequate to describe the precision of the sword arms launched in every direction.

.

Mei was moving.

She spun around and raised her arms higher than her hanging head.

"...!"

And she sliced through her enemy.

This was not a mere wide-range attack. She thoroughly cut and chopped at each individual false enemy. She did not hold back in the slightest as one attack led into another.

Blades flew, thrust, rotated horizontally or vertically, sliced, smashed, stabbed, and were pulled out.

For each weapon, an enemy fell.

They were directed in every direction and toward every location and the collapsing battlefield seemed to blossom like a flower around Mei. The sounds filling the air were the breaking of the bodies plus the waves of objects collapsing to the snowy ground.

Enemies were blown away, torn into, and destroyed before falling limply to the snow.

All the while, the rotating hair and body never stopped.

She released weapons, threw them high into the air, and never stopped even with no one taller than her remaining in the vicinity.

"Ee."

Her toes, shoulders, bent back, and turning hips all looked in a certain direction: the south.

The false buildings and Shokubutsu were there, as were Akasora, Usami, and Rindō.

As she turned her lowered head and body that way, she spread the claws of her fingers without hesitation.

"...Ah!"

She was about to move. She would race forward as she wailed and tear into enemy and ally alike. But...

"Mei!"

Someone kicked the snow into the air as they charged straight toward her.

It was Akasora as he tilted his entire body forward to dash.

"I'll deal with you!"

.

Akasora did not hesitate.

_...I'll stop her!_

The fact that she was his former student did not matter here. If nothing was done, she would destroy everything around her until she was stopped.

So he raced straight at Mei who was running their way.

After one, two, three steps, the distance between them vanished.

The approaching enemy was currently unarmed, but that did not mean he could relax. After all, Mei had been unarmed at the start of this mess.

He did not have a weapon either, so it would come down to close-quarters combat. So to accelerate...

"Shikifuku!"

He shone the pink light on his feet, knees, hips, shoulders, and back.

"Orahhh!"

His accelerating step smashed the frozen ground below him.

He showed no sign of holding back because he had once heard that, if not for this indiscriminate way of attacking...

_...Mei would rival me, Shinoda, and Seidō._

What he had seen at that destruction site was enough to not feel insulted by that comparison. As was what he had seen here.

_...She's a monster._

As a human, she could "switch off" the fact that she was human and enter an inhuman realm by letting her calculations go wild. And after she became a "monster", she did not try to control herself as a human would. She abandoned herself to all of the strength built up inside her and she ruled the battlefield while making no distinction between enemy, ally, good, or evil.

"Dammit..."

 _If I could do that,_ thought Akasora, _things would be so much easier._

He knew that there were always major downsides to Side Effects. His own made it hard for him to properly greet others while others like Kikuchihara and Murakami had to work hard for friendships. Then there were ones like Yuki and Toby who would lose control of their bodies because of it.

But this was different than those. This Side Effect always rivaled Jin's foresight. That meant it also had one of the worse drawbacks to it.

"...!"

He continued on.

Akasora used his entire body to attack Mei.

In an instant, black flowed through his vision.

While running, Mei had swung her entire body to the side and launched her sweeping hair toward him.

A sheen darker than the night sky swept by before his eyes.

It did not hit him. The hair simply swung by in front of him. It was almost like a warning or a sensor. It seemed to say that death would come to whoever touched that.

But Akasora did not hesitate.

He chose to move forward, but then a color other than black appeared in his field of vision from below.

It was the white of the snow hiding the ground.

Under her sweeping hair, Mei had kicked the snow up toward his face.

"...!"

His sight was stolen by that rising snow.

 _Is she completely insane?_ he wondered.

She had directed his attention the side with the horizontal movement of her black hair and then kicked up the contrasting snow in a vertical movement. Also...

_...So that's what you're after!_

Mei was trying to acquire a weapon, and there was only one she could acquire while empty-handed here.

"The ground!"

Thanks to the weight of the snow on top and the moisture that had seeped down and refrozen, an icy layer had formed below. It would normally not have broken and would only have been gone when the testing was over.

_...But I stomped on it!_

The piece of Shikifuku Akasora was using used his Trion and had strength that was determined by his emotions. When used to accelerate or attack, he would shake the earth with a powerful stomp or leap.

Mei had seen and understood that Shikifuku had destroyed the ground.

_...Is she actually perfectly sane!?_

She had rushed in unarmed to get him to attack.

She was not simply on a rampage. She would wail and react to the battlefield with split-second decisions, but for the most important points, she would predict things out a few steps ahead.

What made matters worse was the knowledge that the boots and gauntlets on her limbs were prototype Triggers that had been modeled after his piece of Shikifuku. That alone was a good enough weapon, but she seemed to want to disregard them.

Her weapon now was a fragment of the ground she had kicked up.

It was over a meter long and formed a sharp spear that would function as a piercing weapon.

Beyond her rotating and fluttering hair, her right hand grabbed the airborne ground spear.

She thrust it straight out toward his face and Akasora opened his mouth at the accurate attack.

"Oh..."

But he was not wailing.

"Ohhh!"

With an almost angry roar, he took action.

He swung his entire body and stabbed his raised right lower leg toward the snowy ground.

"Shikifuku!"

He launched an all-out attack toward Mei.

.

Akasora stomped his right heel forward and turned his entire body a bit to the right.

He lowered his hips, stuck his right hand forward, and slowly thrust his raised fist straight forward.

This was not a mere fist blow. His arm was still half-bent at the elbow and it was more like a tackle with his hand held a little forward.

But enduring the speed allowed the strength of his full body to rush forward.

He perfectly matched the timing of the stomp with the moment of impact, so the attack placed all of his kinetic energy on the front of his body. Lowering his hips placed his support closer to the ground, gave the force nowhere to escape, and stopped his movement, but...

_...I just have to touch her to send the full force of the blow into her!_

This technique allowed him to use his full strength over short distances.

The lowered hips left him with almost no reach, but he had immediately decided this opponent left him with no other option. She moved erratically, so he had made the split-second decision that a counterattack that supplied a powerful blow from a touch would be better than a normal punch.

He built up his power and released it.

He left his footprint in the ground below and the rest of that frozen ground shattered.

For a few inches around him, the ground bounced up from the stomp and the snow became a white mist. And in the center...

"I don't care if you have a weapon!"

He knew what to do now that she had abandoned unarmed combat and prepared a weapon.

"!"

The spear burst and vanished when his pushing fist struck it.

From the tip to her hand, it instantly turned to dust, as if being devoured, and then his strike continued on toward her hand.

_...Hit her!_

A simple touch would supply the same amount of force that had bounced up the ground for a few inches. The stomp prevented him from moving. Even if he shifted his stiff stance forward to extend his reach, it would only give him a few centimeters.

This attack only worked as a counterattack.

Meanwhile, Mei did not have anything like an acceleration Triggers without losing power. He had instantly switched his attack and she could not dodge, so it would hit. But...

"Ee...!"

Akasora saw the black tube vanish from before his right fist.

"...!?"

He immediately saw something else in front of him.

A vertical white line had fallen from directly above.

_...A sword!?_

.

It was one of the sword arms used by the Trion Soldiers.

It was one of those Mei had stolen, wielded, and thrown away.

She had thrown it high into the sky, having predicted Akasora's charge.

It was falling directly along the path of his charge, so if he had continued with his plan after having his vision stolen and being lured into attack, it would have sliced straight through his body.

But he had made a split-second change of plans.

That kept it from slicing through him and it instead fell right in front of his eyes.

Mei had missed, but so had Akasora.

"Kh!"

His fist was going to strike the sword stabbed into the ground in front of him.

But before it could, Mei took action. She placed her foot on the hilt of the sword and launched herself high into the heavens above.

"Ah...!"

She jumped over Akasora.

.

"...You're kidding."

From about twenty meters behind Akasora, Usami watched Mei's movements. The woman made a large leap and avoided Akasora's attack.

"You mean she's after me!?"

The answer to her question was about to land right in front of her.

It was Mei.

She must have barely pulled off the leap because her vertical spin was lighter than usual, but her feet were already positioned diagonally. The instant she landed, she intended to rotate and stand up.

She was also dropping accurately toward a certain object: a demon-like Trion Soldiers who had earlier been hit by a sword and collapsed.

It looked like it was functioning but not moving and the sword Mei had stabbed it with was still in the back.

Mei's landing point would allow her to grab that sword arm's end.

_...The jump wasn't shallow because she had trouble getting higher._

She had adjusted the jump perfectly even while moving like that.

"...Kh."

 _This isn't good,_ Usami thought.

Up ahead, Akasora had yet to eliminate the momentum of his attack, so he could not even turn around yet.

As for Rindō to her left...

"Shiori-chan! Over here! Hurry!"

Usami looked over to find Rindō a full twenty meters to her left for some reason. She thought about why he would be there and found an answer.

"You ran away, leaving the girl in danger!?"

"Anyone would run away from that! Chi-chan's just weird!"

 _He makes a good point,_ she thought while Mei prepared to land in front of her.

"—"

She determined what she needed to do, so she took a step toward Mei.

.

_...I-I need to be prepared!_

With that thought, Usami stepped forward.

 _This might not work. No, it probably won't,_ she also thought.

But she was a Border girl, so there was one thing she had to do. If she tried to run, Mei would only catch up, so she had to move a little forward, and...

_...Take that sword!_

If she could get rid of the weapon, she could stop Mei from attacking. At the very least, if she erased the possibility of instant death from a blade, more possibilities would open up.

But was that really the best option here?

She did not know. But as far as the best option for Tamakoma Operator Usami Shiori was concerned...

"This is all I can think of!"

She could feel tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.

"...!"

Still, she leaned forward and took her step.

She was determined to do this, but then...

"Oh, now that's the spirit. You could learn a thing or two from this girl, Rindō."

A wall moved in front of her.

_...Eh?_

It was Kushikage.

.

It all ended with a simple movement.

The black fluttering was falling down toward the weapon.

"I love how fucking passionate you are, Fuji. ...That's the best fucking lifestyle!"

With those words, Kushikage snatched her from the air with her body and right arm.

She then breathed in and let out a cry that reverberated through the sky.

"Quit the crap! I'm really fucking bored of this now!"


	39. --- Squad: Part ---

"Mei...was rampaging?"

Inside the Main Red Lightning, Yuki frowned at the information from Jin.

"This is getting dangerous. With Kushikage being the one involved, I'm sure she's sending it to whoever she wants."

 **2.7 Maime:** "Exactly. The entire situation is still unknown, but Mei had been going wild in Yagura's training room. I'm sorry. When I had mentioned it to her, it had been a small chance of that future happening. I didn't think it really would happen."

A likely source of the information was either Akasora or Rindō. Yet the truth to a handful of people was clear that Kushikage had been the one to inform Jin about it, knowing full well what would happen afterwards.

Murakami tilted his head.

"How could she have gotten so stressed out she would do that again?"

Kurauchi tilted his head and responded.

"What exactly does he mean by 'going wild'? I don't think I can image Takato-san being anything but calm and collected no matter the situation. And even if that were true, how is it something to worry about? We have multiple people in Border who enjoy 'going wild' on a daily basis. Some of which are in this room as we speak."

"You can only say that because you don't know Senpai like we do. And it's an issue because it will be Kushikage-san who is likely to inform every possible person about it. To you all, it might be something to see, but for us..."

 **2.7 Maime:** "That's right. The last time we saw Rampage Dress doing anything, I didn't see Mei for a long while. That time also had Taiyōko involved. ...It was terrifying, so I'm sorry for indirectly causing the issues that will be coming up."

Yuki thought to himself while Murakami erased all of the chat messages that popped up in quick succession.

_...Last time, I had to do some weird things to get her out of her room. The same will probably be applied here. What's more, I need to deal with Shiraishi cutting all ties with us, and my former team being idiots... This is all really just a big annoyance._

He felt like something big was happening.

It all felt connected, but he also felt like at least one piece was still missing.

As he wondered what it could be, Arafune tapped on his shoulder.

"Hm? What is it, Tetsu?"

"Yeah. I just got word concerning your former team."

He placed a hand on his chin and slowly continued.

"It would seem they have really been causing some trouble tonight."

"You mean...?"

Everyone frowned and focused on the B-Rank Sniper captain.

"You should head out and deal with them. It's about time you got off your ass and took responsibility for something you actually caused."

* * *

Yuki was well aware of how awkward things would be without Mei around.

_Actually, it would still probably be awkward even with her around. These kids can't seem to bring themselves to act like proper people without some help from others._

In front of him were three people with expressions ranging from nothing at all to a look of outrage. They stared at him as if he was nothing but trash that refused to get away from them.

He let out a sigh when he saw this, noting that without Mei he would have no one to put them in line should something go wrong.

_I decided to do this without asking Jin about the future. But I think that would mean I'm too reliant on him instead of making things to the way I want. Besides, he sees enough painful things as it is. I don't want to drag him into my problems._

His mind went back to earlier in the night when he had to negotiate with Shiraishi Chisato.

That was a time when his words mattered and what he said could change things for the better or for worse.

His words meant nothing here.

 **Black Wolf:** "Remember to be kind, but also give punishment for their behavior."

Yuki jumped for a second, forgetting that he had not left the chat.

 **White Fox:** "That's easier said than done. I can be nice, all frilly and whatnot, but that kind of stuff won't be enough for them. At this point, I'm not sure what they see me as. I am actually afraid of saying anything because it could lead to something bad."

 **TetsuG:** "Well you better figure it out. For a start, act like their former captain instead of there friend. They are nothing but idiotic children right now. If you don't they are going to be getting worse."

Yuki could remember what he had been told by Shokubutsu after the second round match of the B-Rank Wars and shuddered at the thought of the team getting worse.

"What do you want?"

Yuki looked forward towards the one who spoke.

.

Takeshi felt something start to boil in his chest the longer he stood in front of his former captain.

He had been called over by Yuki with Suzume and Toby also being called. The feeling of regret sunk in when he decided to agree to meet up with them all. Now that they were here, he could see why that was.

Yuki seemed to be stalling for time.

Mei was not around to calm them down at any point, meaning there was a chance to attack Yuki without any interference. That may have been the reason behind the stalling tactic he was using.

"Why did you call us over?"

Yuki looked directly to him as he continued his questioning.

Yuki let out a sigh while mutter something that sounded like, "I can see why she did rampage now... I'm an idiot."

Takeshi narrowed his eyes at the barely audible words that came from his former captain.

He watched as Yuki moved across the room to sit down on a nearby chair, disregarding the looks from Suzume and Toby.

"I wanted to apologize to you three."

It had been far too late for that.

"As an Unneeded, I haven't had much time to talk to you guys. It's actually been longer than I thought it was. Then I remembered that I never gave you guys a proper reason."

There was no reason needed anymore.

"But right now... I know you won't be listening to me. You won't care if I told you that I need to handle something concerning Mei right now. You three - Toby, Takeshi, Suzumebachi - will continue to ignore my words until I do something. Your last two matches showed me that."

"...You saw them..."

Suzume had been the one to respond.

"I saw the first one. It was painful for me to watch. The second one was watched by some people. They had told me about it."

He could not even bother to watch their second match himself.

"I have been hearing about the attitudes you three have been having lately. I saw firsthand what Takeshi is like. I had some words with him, but that is what made everything clear to me."

Takeshi could feel his fingers twitching.

Every word that came out of Yuki's mouth was enough to fill him with strong emotions of something he could not fully understand.

"I am glad to see that you are doing well enough, Suzu. Toby, I am sorry that I haven't done anything concerning your father. Know that he might just be put in his place soon."

They were nice words towards others.

That was how it should be, he knew. He did not deserve nice words for the way he has been acting. Toby and Suzume were the ones who had better things to worry about, yet he was stuck with the most pathetic part of himself.

"With this being said."

With that being said...

"I will be fighting the three of you. I will show you firsthand how weak you three really are. I will show you three how strong you are. Afterwards, I will properly speak with you. As real people who will not be caught up in your own worlds. Until we finish, I can only see you three as fools who rival me in stupidity."

.

Yuki looked at each member of the formed Kotowari Squad to gauge their reactions to his words.

He turned to his right.

_Suzu seems to be unsure about this. Maybe a fight won't be necessary for her._

He looked to his left.

_Toby looks ready to go. Maybe he just needs to release some stress. I guess I would be the best punching bag for him right now._

He looked in front of him.

_Takeshi needs..._

"Takeshi, you will be fighting me alone. You have no chance at fighting with others right now. You will fight me right now."

"I am fine with that."

Yuki could only nod his head while directing Suzume to get things ready for them.

She seemed fine with doing so, going over to Mei's desk and setting everything up.

_Now then..._

.

As the two boys made their way to their fighting area, Suzume typed on the computer while voicing her mind.

The only one who would hear her would be Toby, but she was fine with that.

"Hey... Are you honestly going to fight him?"

"Yeah. I'm still pissed off at him. He is the asshole who just left us like that."

She noted something about his words.

_He didn't say he wouldn't forgive Yuki-san._

She let out some air through her nose.

"I won't fight him. Not because I am not mad at him. I honestly want to hear him out first. His reasoning for leaving us, for not saying anything until now. I just want to listen to him instead of forcing myself to honestly put on a pitiful dance in front of you all."

"You can't put on a 'pitiful dance' even if you wanted. And you are fine in what you want. You are really being the mature one about this. That's fine. I won't blame you for not attacking him like I will. Like how Takeshi will."

"Thank you. It is honestly nice of you to say that."

They both knew something.

Suzume was well aware that they both viewed Yuki as a sort of older sibling. That made a world of difference for them.

A reason could be viewed from two sides by people who properly understood what it meant to be an older sibling. There were times when reasons would need to be said concerning things needing to be done. There were times when reasons should never be told concerning things needing to be done.

Suzume had a younger sister while Toby had a younger brother.

They both understood what it means to be older.

* * *

Kotowari Takeshi.

Border's own Laser-Shooter.

He was a true monster that could freely use the power of the Laser-Shooter prototype Trigger. And he was also the one who viewed the world as nothing important. As he had been fine appearing before Yuki after what had happened not too long ago, he could be called without exaggeration a revenge-filled person.

From what Yuki knew, he had blown off his arm in the match B-Rank War match because of his feelings towards certain topics.

With a new Trion Body having been made, that arm was back to how it was before.

"—"

There were no words.

As Takeshi cast his eyes down, his head leaned towards the side in an ominous almost mechanical way.

"— —"

"..."

When Takeshi fixed his head, he pulled something from his back.

A fluttering scarf made using a gray fabric was on his open palm. The ends had small tails and it looked long enough to wrap around one's neck a good amount of times. It had been a gift. Yuki was quite familiar with the cloth.

It had been given to Takeshi by Yuki.

It had been around the time Yuki had asked the younger boy to join his team. The scarf was given to represent the trust he had in Takeshi as a Shooter and friend. Yuki and Mei had even gone so far as to personally pick out what would be best for the boy at the time it had been bought.

Yuki could remember clearly that day as he saw the scarf.

Yuki's eyelids lowered as he spoke.

"What are you going to do with that? It doesn't look like it is just a part of your Trion Body and instead is the real deal."

Takeshi sneered at his words.

He moved his hand.

However, nothing came from it. This was because he had not moved his hand in order to gesture for something.

Takeshi produced a single orb of Trion before firing through the scarf.

Yuki's eyes lowered as he watched the scarf get destroyed by the powerful attack.

A sharp sound was heard as the fabric was tore through with no hesitation or remorse. The gift he gave to Takeshi had been destroyed with little thought. Of course, this was viewed in an unfavorable light to those who witnessed it. Takeshi looked at the small remains of the scarf.

And yet that monster's face had nothing but a dark look stuck to it.

"...Yuki. I don't have to care about something so insignificant now," Takeshi muttered as he let the rest of the scarf fall.

Takeshi looked to be full of something.

A look appeared within the boy's eyes.

"You said... You had told us before that you would be there for us."

Tsukiko Yuki had been mistaken.

He had been mistaken about how serious the fact he disbanded his team had hit the Shooter. And he had been mistaken about just how far the strong would go to get revenge on something so simple and trivial when they viewed it as important.

"Hey, Yuki. If the Laser-Shooter's power is put out of control, how far do you think the damage would spread because of it?"

Green beams of light that were much too dreadful shot out.

It wasn't just a few of them.

With the boy named Kotowari Takeshi at the center, hundreds of beams of light shot out in every direction.

.

Kotowari Takeshi "exploded".

Green light shot out in all directions with him at the center.

The overwhelming flood of light wiped away the air between them in the eerie night setting that was not too far off from reality. In the same way the lights of a city made the stars disappear, Kotowari Takeshi's power showed itself in the training environment as a symbol of the negative side of humanity.

The raging beams of light finally focused together into one spot. It was a single arm. It was a construction almost 20 meters long. Yuki looked up at it and almost felt a sense of majesty from it, but the arm of light then swung down above him like a collapsing building.

"...?"

He casually jumped to the side.

The Laser-Shooter arm did not just destroy the thick false snow. It destroyed the false earth below the snow as well.

An explosive noise rang out.

Yuki's light body was blown over 10 meters away. He made noise, having seen something far worse before.

As he moved away, Yuki thought.

He had not been directly hit.

If he had, he would have been blown to pieces.

The next strike was coming.

One small piece of luck amid all the misfortune was that Takeshi could not aim carefully after sending himself out of control.

However, the misfortune greatly outweighed the luck.

He could no longer see Kotowari Takeshi.

His beam arm had come undone and he was firing hundreds of beams in every direction again. However, it was not just for an instant. Like a saber from a robot anime, he was perpetually firing the beams. The boy's silhouette was blotted out. The intense dancing light burned afterimages into Yuki's vision preventing him from seeing anything else. The swirl of beams of light gave him a sharp headache and he merely stood on the ground. Takeshi's attack could worry the best of fighters, so it was nothing short of a miracle that Yuki's body was not sliced in two.

He could not approach the boy.

Approaching would bring him nothing but death. Possibly in a literal sense as well.

In all of his battles up to that point, Takeshi's Laser-Shooter had been overwhelming. After all, he could freely fire beams that could pierce through any cover and straight through his opponent's body. Letting him hear the slightest breath would bring death. That was how fearsome an opponent he was.

But this was different.

It was very different.

It was now just a raging blast furnace or a moving weapon. He could no longer see this as the boy who tried to stay in a neutral area with everyone he came in contact with. This was the result of his own foolishness catching up to him in the worst way possible. Needless to say, touching him was out of the question.

And...

"...Yuuuuki..."

Amid the explosive din, he could still hear that cracking voice. He could tell the voice was getting closer. Yes, it was getting closer. Even while Kotowari Takeshi "exploded" like that, he was slowly approaching. That blasting furnace that could destroy anything just by approaching was walking toward him like death incarnate.

That was resolve.

That was Laster-Shooter.

The power had been devilishly powerful to begin with and it had now been given an even more destructive effects with a focus on only attacking. Having become hell on earth, Kotowari Takeshi fully represented all that.

"...I have abandoned everything," said a nightmarish voice.

The tone of voice alone squeezed that boy's heart.

"I knew what would happen if I became unneeded, but I made sure to abandon it all, Yuki. It means I really don't care about anything else and can work well once this is over. Even if it means I am not needed. Like you. Right? ...Don't tell me you thought you could just talk your way out of this without considering how you abandoned us...!"

Did he understand what he was saying?

That was what Yuki honestly thought. He knew what it meant to be "Unneeded" as opposed to simply being "unneeded." Giving up and abandoning everything meant nothing when people still tried to help in any way they could. It was something that Takeshi would not be able to ever understand as long as he had a single person to look out for him. Even if that single person was a single girl who now needed her own help. Yuki knew that she would help, meaning Takeshi was not "Unneeded" in the slightest.

He couldn't win.

There was no way.

Yuki knew this. He also knew that he himself could not do much when anything he did would mean nothing to that monster. There was no opening. There was no blind spot. How was he suppose to attack a Shooter who was perpetually firing attacks 360 degrees around him?

"...Yuki..."

Something called his name.

Something approached him.

"Yuki."

Turning his back would mean nothing. Any distance he could make on foot through that snow would mean nothing if Takeshi just focused on his attack a little. And if he hid behind a tree, Takeshi would just blow straight through the trunk.

Even if he ran, he would be hit.

But standing to oppose Takeshi would meaning nothing.

In that case...

_What should I do here...?_

"—!"

The monster yelled.

The green that had blotted out his vision suddenly disappeared. No. The attack being fired in all directions collected in one place. It collected in one place in order to pierce through Tsukiko Yuki. It was solely to open a giant hole in the body of the target.

Trying to run away was useless.

That attack would pierce through any type of cover.

_He really is out of control._

Yuki was a person well known for his use of the prototype Trigger called Teleport. If he could see where he wanted to go he could teleport to the location with no issues at all. That meant he could dodge this attack with enough ease that it would almost be meaningless.

And then Kotowari Takeshi's yell spread out explosively.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Suddenly, all light disappeared.

Kotowari Takeshi's body fell down into the snow.

"Hah...?"

Yuki could understand the scene before his eyes.

He had not yet teleported. No third party had suddenly appeared and attacked Takeshi. No one had done anything and yet Takeshi had lost all power and collapsed like a marionette that's strings had been cut.

Yuki did not have to wonder what had happened.

_I was right."_

That was all he could think.

And then he saw something.

Kotowari Takeshi's body was cracking up as he sank into the snow. His face had spiderweb-like cracks running along it while some green smoke came from those cracks. It was a clear sign for anyone who used a Trigger and understood what long battles would lead to.

Takeshi had used up all his Trion.

His Laser-Shooter had been developed to purposefully continue high amounts of power continuously with the only need being that the user had to aim properly. Another downside to it had been the amount of Trion it needed to continuously fire the attacks. It was not something a low amount of Trion would be able to manage for more than a few seconds.

Takeshi had been the only one to take up the challenge of using the Trigger.

_He couldn't keep this up for too long._

It was something someone like Yuki could easily understand.

* * *

Suzume and Toby watched silently as the fight went on.

It was not a particularly long one with Yuki having no need to take any offensive action. There was very little movement from him while being fired at by hundreds of beams that tore through everything they touched.

It was a horrendous sight that would be burned in their memories every time they looked at the Laser-Shooter. They had not seen him during their last match, but now they understood how lucky they were to not see it.

"We are terrible..."

Suzume spoke with a downcast expression.

"We didn't even notice him. No... I am honestly terrible. I have not noticed either one of you."

"This isn't our fault... We trusted him and he did that to us." Toby was unsure who he was referring to at this point. "Yuki just left us and said nothing afterwards... Takeshi gave up on everything, not even looking at us. This isn't our damn fault!"

Suzume knew all too well that what he was saying was true.

She also knew that there was far more to the situation.

That was when she heard the sound of footsteps.

.

Yuki walked into the room where Suzume and Toby were. Behind him was the room where Takeshi was just laying on one of the mats for when they would Bail Out.

He looked towards the two who were at the computer with an expecting look.

"So... Who wants to fight me next?"

The two by the computer remained silent.

Yuki was ready to speak when he got a clear view at their faces.

It was all he needed to know that he did not have to fight anymore.

"Will you all hear me out now?"

Suzume and Toby nodded their heads while keeping their bodies where they had been already. They heard nothing from the room behind Yuki but assumed Takeshi would not be doing anything against them now.

Yuki let out a sigh while leaning against the wall next to him.

"Right. Where would you all like me to start?"

This time it was Toby who responded. His voice much softer than usual.

"Why did you disband Tsukiko Squad?"

It was a clear question that never got an answer.

"Because I thought you were ready. For what? I thought you guys were ready to be on a team without needing me around to hold your hands. You all have grown a lot since I met you, so I thought you wouldn't need me anymore."

"You could have still told us something beforehand!"

Yuki gave a biter smile.

This felt too familiar to him.

_I guess us Unneeded really don't understand others. Sekai and Denji were right..._

He coughed into his hand as he was glared at by Toby.

"That was my fault. I wanted it to be a surprise. It was indeed a surprise, but not a good one. I am sorry about that."

"Yuki-san, saying anything to us would have been helpful. It hurts even more to think that Mei-san also knew."

"Hm?"

This time he saw a bitter smile on Suzume's face. It did not feel right to have it there.

"Don't give us that. Anyone can tell that Mei-san knows more than anyone else when it comes to you. Even if you didn't tell her, I'm sure she could figure it out."

_That's not true. Kō actually knows more than Mei. If barely._

"But I guess we honestly can't blame her since this was your choice. Mei-san would have told us... Oh. Sorry. I am honestly getting off track here."

The girl in front of him was hurting. Unlike the other two, she was trying to hide it.

Yuki saw this as both a good thing and a bad thing.

He chose to respect her actions by continuing to speak.

"Next question."

"Why haven't you spoken to us at all since that time?"

That question made Yuki's heart ache a bit. Knowing that he truly was at fault for that one, yet not at fault at all.

He thought back to the time he had been spending since the initial disbanding of Tsukiko Squad and found that he really did have a lot to do.

This night was a clear example of the amount of stuff he had to do.

"I have been busy. With the Yagura Branch being made, I have been helping it as Sensei's aide. Beyond that, I have been doing things for the directors that I can't actually talk about. Any day I have off is because of my health. They are not the best excuses, but it is the truth."

The looks he was getting from the two in front of him showed clear signs of understanding.

His health had always been an issue, but with the directors needing his help it left even smaller amounts of free time. He did not have enough time to much of anything.

His words earlier had been that he saw their first match of the B-Rank Wars. That meant he had taken time to go see them when he could have been doing other things that would benefit others much more than giving them some happiness that they did not get at all.

When everything boiled down to the basics, the whole time they had been miserable was just because of some stupidity and circumstances.

_It looks like these two are starting to ease up. Which means..._

Yuki tilted his head so that his ear was leaning in the direction of the room behind him.

"Suzu and Toby got their question. Take, is there something you feel like asking me?"

There was a tense silence in the air.

It seemed as if there would be no response, yet Yuki continued to wait.

And after a few more seconds...

"Do you...even care about us?"

The tone was no longer that of a boy who had given up on trying to see the things around him and instead went to that of a lost child who could not find their parents in a crowded street. It was hard to not soften one's expression when hearing it.

Yuki nodded at the question, getting ready to answer.

He noticed Suzume and Toby looking at him expectantly.

"I..."

He gave a smile towards the two.

"I will never stop caring about you three." He moved forward to pat their heads. "You three were the first team I had as 'Tsukiko Yuki' and the ones who helped me to understand how to be a team leader. Things I learned being your captain have already helped me in dealing with the Yagura Branch and some issues connected to it. What I did... I say it was for you three, but it was just a selfish choice I made because I thought I would end up sticking to you three more than I should."

He turned back to the room without moving his feet.

"To answer your question, Takeshi... Yes. I do care about you three. I also care about Mei. That is also a reason I wanted to mend things with you."

"What do you mean?"

"Well... It seems that all of us have been giving her so much stress that she ended up reverting to part of her old self. It is something she wanted to forget, but it was forced out because of us and a terrible person."

He could remember when he had first seen it.

The real monster.

Takeshi's light show earlier had been nothing compared to the real monster that appeared on that day.

"Well, I think I will give you guys time to think about everything. I will go help out Mei. If you need anything...come get me. I will happily help."

With those final words, he started for the door.

He could hear some noises behind him and waited for a few seconds.

"Hm."

When nothing happened he simply smiled and took his leave.

.

Suzume and Toby watched as Yuki left without saying any more.

They both looked towards each other before placing their hands on their heads.

The feeling of that gentle hand was still there, lingering even after he had left. It was a nice warm feeling that came up inside of them.

"Suzume..."

"I feel better. There are honestly some things I still want to know, but this is fine for now. We caused so much trouble for Mei-san, so he needs to be there for her. If we tried to stop him from doing that... We would honestly be more selfish than anyone else."

She looked at him in return.

"And what about you?"

"I am still pissed. But it did make me feel a bit lighter to hear that. I think I can forgive him if given enough time."

"That's good to hear. But now..."

"Yeah..."

Suzume and Toby turned their attention to the room where the mats for them after Bail Out were placed. There was one person in that room.

"Even if he honestly forgives Yuki-san... Can he forgive himself for what he honestly did? How will everyone else be able to forgive him?"

Looking at each other for a moment, the two of them started for the room where the mats were placed.

They had only heard the question come from the monster they had seen on the screen. After that had been asked there was no sound from the room.

When the turned the corner to look inside the room, what they saw was...

"—"

Kotowari Takeshi, the monster who had fired hundreds of laser-like beams at their former captain moments ago, had his arms covering his face while his body shook. No sound came out but the two of them could tell what was happening.

"—"

"Takeshi?"

"—"

Letting out a sigh, Toby walked over to an adjacent mat, taking a seat. He said nothing and instead chose to just sit there.

Following his lead, Suzume moved forward as well. She took the spot of the last mat, making sure to keep an eye on both of the boys.

The three of them stayed in that position, thinking about what they had heard.

Their former captain had gotten rid of their team because he believed in them. Not because he was tired of them.

Their former captain had not said anything to them because life seemed to have been preventing him from doing so. Not because he did not want to see them anymore.

Their former captain cared for them, even when they had been fools for quite some time.

Their former captain was just a regular friend.

* * *

"Tonight really is kind of chilly."

Yuki made this remark as he walked through Mikado City.

It was extremely late with the only lights on being the streetlights of Mikado City and a few bars that refused to close for those who wanted to drink late into the night. The stores had all closed and the houses were dark so that their occupants could get some sleep.

The night's events continued to play in his head as he looked up.

With the area being a residential one, the stars in the sky were clear enough for him to admire. Each one shone with its own radiance that he couldn't help but be fascinated by them the longer he looked.

"I should probably tell Girikage and Shobu that it's fine to get attached to people. As the fifth and sixth, they can still get out of this. SenSen is deeper than I thought he would be, but I'm sure there is still hope for him. As long as they know what is important to them, it will be fine. With Sekai looking out for Girigake, he should know how to handle that. I will try my best with Shobu."

The words continued to come out without him really listening to what they were.

"I guess all this stuff with the companies, Border, and my former team really has me thinking about pointless things again. I went through all the trouble of getting this thing to pull back Mei from her thoughts and now I am trying to find out how I am only third."

Letting out a bitter laugh, Yuki looked down at the object in his arms.

Turning it over, he looked down at it to see the stars in the sky once more.

"They really are amazing. Stars. Even in a reflection, they produce such an amazing sight that you can't help but connect them."

He let out a sigh when he remember why he had the object in the first place.

"Even looking at the stars through this, I know that I still can't reach them. That is why I just need to work with the things I can reach. If that beautiful goddess is deciding to hide in her cave, I'll be the fool who brings her out with my merrymaking."

Stopping from his walk, Yuki looked up to see a house in front of him. A few houses down was his own house that he shared with a protecting hero, but that was not where he was needed. The house in front of him was the real place he needed to be at the moment.

He gave a small laugh at his own worthless words.

"Well, might as well get started."

* * *

Takato Mei stared into the space in front of her.

She sat alone in the house, her parents having left on another trip while he cousin was at his own home. There was no one around and only the light from the outside streetlights and the moon illuminated the room.

There was nothing in front of her yet she faced forward as if concentrating on something.

That something was her own thoughts.

_It happened again. I did it again. I showed that side of me again. That hideous side of me that even my parents don't know about. Back then was bad enough. I'm sure that was when people started to keep their distance from me. The repercussions of that are still lingering today. And now I have shown that side of me again. Rampage Dress. No. It's more violent than that. That kind of thing doesn't even fit me like something else would. It is something so disgusting that words alone won't be able to explain it. Something so terrible that even Sensei has to look at me with those kinds of expressions._

_That woman was also there. I believe, just like last time, she was there. She took everything in. She recorded it. I'm sure of it. She will send it to everyone. Everyone will know now. Every person in Border. Every person who has an Internet connection. They will all see that monster. That crazy thing that takes a Black Trigger and someone of Sensei's caliber to stop. Even then, it wasn't him who stopped me. The first time it had been the fool. This time it had been his sister. That family... That family. That family! No..._

"Ah..."

_That isn't true..._

"Aaaaahhhhh..."

_It had not been him... It was her last time as well..._

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

A howl rang out into the night from the single girl.

It was a terrifying scream that was only muffled by the walls of the house.

A piercing pain rushed through Mei's head as more thoughts filled her brain. Each one would lead into the next and would only increase in speed without a moment of hesitation. Her own mind was tearing her apart with no way of stopping.

Tears formed in the corner of her eyes as new thoughts were formed.

_That'srightIhavenowayofstoppingmhselfwhenIstartthinkingaboutsomething! Helphelphelphelphelphelp! Ineedhelp! Someonehelp! Butwhowouldhelpamonsterlikeme!? Noonewould! Yes! Iwillkeepsufferingbecausenoonewillhelpme! Justlikeusual! Yes! Innocent! Innocent! Innocent! ThatiswhatpeoplesaywhenItryandexplainthingstothem! TheysayIaminnocentwhenIamclearlynot! Iamnoinnocentmonster! Onlysomethingthatbringsworryandfeartoeveryonearound! Stopstopstop! Itissomethingicannotdo!_

She grabbed her head as the pain continued to grow.

_Wait... Waitasecond... Yes... Thatcanwork. Death. Deathwouldnotbringworrytoothers. Sorrow. Sorrowiswhattheywouldhave. But. Buttheywouldnolongerhavetoworryaboutmeorthemselvesgettinghurt. Whatdoesitfeelikethough? Whatdoesdeathfeellike? Ineedtoknow. Ireallyneedtoknownow. IneedtomakesurethatIknowwhatitfeelslikesothatIcanwarnpeoplenottodie. ThatishowIcanbeofanyusenow._

This was the result of the Side Effect that made her brain able to work like a super computer.

Unlike technology that can be programmed to stop itself when going too far, the human brain would do no such thing as it would continue to advance and learn more. Someone could not just manually stop the kind of thinking about new things without any sort of preparation.

Mei knew this (and it may have ran through her mind) but she could not even take a moment to try and stop herself.

Even the opening of her door did not register in her rapidly thinking mind.

The voice calling to her and the arms around her were also unregistered in her mind.

.

Yuki rushed inside of the house once the howl in the night reached his ears.

He wasted no time in running towards Mei, who was on the ground, howling in pain and clutching her head.

He knew that nothing he did would register to her rapidly thinking mind unless it was something drastic.

So he made a choice.

He did was he had done before.

"Sorry Mei..."

Using his hand, he hit her where he knew it would knock her unconscious.

He looked down at the limp girl in his arms and couldn't help but feel sadness at knowing what was happening.

"I guess I should put you to bed now."

* * *

Suzume knew that she would hate what she had to do.

It was the morning after she had learned about the circumstances behind Tsukiko Squad's disbandment. She had spent the night thinking about what everything meant and what she would have to do to better herself as both a member of Border and as a woman.

That brought her to her current goal, looking for someone who she knew was in the Border headquarters.

The end result of her search was going to be clear to her, but she continued to move with purpose. She knew that she would come to regret her decision later on and still moved because it was the best course of action she could take at the moment.

The plan had been to ask Mei if she could help in advancing as an Attacker while also teaching her how to be a Gunner. This would put her in a similar position to that of Yuki, Kizaki, and Arafune in the sense that she would try for a complete All-Rounder status. With the help of their Operator she was sure she could manage it, if at a lower scale than that of Kizaki.

That is where the rest of her plan came into play.

Some may have called her masochistic if they knew she was going to see this person for help, but she didn't care right now. She only cared about saying...

"Narasaka! Please be my mentor!"

All the attention in the area went straight to Suzume as she said this.

Everyone stared on with wide eyes. Most of them knew either Suzume or Narasaka and knew that the two got along as well as fire and water. So seeing Suzume bow her head and ask him for help made some wonder if the apocalypse was coming soon.

"No."

"Please!"

"No!"

"Why not!?"

Suzume was quick to straighten her position while glaring holes into Narasaka.

"Because I don't want to," the A-Rank Sniper said with a wave. "Why don't you go ask Satori?"

"Because you are honestly the best suited for this," Suzume said while grinding her teeth. She hated doing this in front of people, but she had no other choice. "So I'm asking you again... Please be my mentor, Narasaka...san."

.

From the other side of the table, Kodera watch with wide and worried eyes as Suzume and Narasaka continued speaking.

He had been amazed by the scene in general, but he was worried as to why Suzume would ask for assistance in sniping when he knew that she was well off when it came to that.

_And to ask Narasaka-senpai of all people!_

He was one of the people who knew best how both Snipers could not stand being near each other and would rather admit their loves before working together. So if his upperclassman had agreed to this request it would have been strange on a very high level.

"Um... Misaki... Why are you asking for help?" Kodera asked, making the two turn to him. "You're plenty skillful yourself, so I don't see why you need help."

"Thanks for the compliment, but..."

"She wants to be able to actually shoot her target."

He was confused now.

Kodera had seen Suzume shoot her target multiple times during practice and even got shot by her during the field training. She was never near the lower, or even middle, parts of the ranking when it came to sniping.

"I don't..."

"Her 'Stinger' and fighting style is proof enough," Narasaka said as Suzume seemed to tense up. "The reason she uses Lightning is because the speed as witch it fires. Because of her Side Effect she can get the timing right to shoot when the target least expects it. That being said, she can't find her balance well enough when using Lightning because of the weight. But she also refuses to use Ibis most of the time. Her regular sniping is average at best. That is why she chose to also use Attacker Triggers. That way she can at least fight in close combat."

"That's exactly why I'm honestly asking for you help! Ken-kun would most likely go easy on me when I mess up and others think I'm already good enough! You're not like that though! You know _exactly_ how bad I am and you honestly won't go easy!"

"How many times do I have to tell you? When I say 'no', I mean it. Your style of fighting, and your way of sniping, gets me mad to the point of wanting to hit something. You swing around the Triggers used for sniping around like they are toys and find pride in that. You being a pseudo-Attacker is fine and all, but you have too much pride in things normal people wouldn't."

"Tell me something you haven't already said! Whenever you see me, you just go on and on about how you hate my way of fighting! It's getting old!"

A loud screeching noise filled the area.

"Fine then! I hate you as a person! You are the type of girl I hate! You go at your own pace most of the time and disregard what others think until they scream it in you face! You get upset over the slightest things that are pointless! And let's not forget how you view yourself as the pinnacle of the world! 'The Summit's Flower'? What kind of bullshit is that!? You're nothing but a pathetic weed!"

Kodera was amazed at hearing the words come from Narasaka's mouth as if he had been holding it all in until now.

He looked over to see Suzume silently glaring at his upperclassman as if to actually burn holes through his head.

"Narasaka-senpai, that was a bit-"

"Nothing to say. Of course."

"...You're right... Everything you just said is completely accurate..."

Everyone watching just stared as Suzume hid in the shadow of her hair and went to the table just behind Narasaka. They saw her pick up the knife that was there and gather up her hair.

Narasaka and Kodera went wided eyed.

.

_"Mei-san, is this a picture of you?"_

_"Oh. Yes, it is."_

_"Wow~ You look so pretty with long hair."_

_"Coming from you, that's a major compliment. Thank you."_

_"Hehe~ You're welcome."_

_"..."_

_"..."_

_"Go on and say it."_

_"Sorry for asking, but this is honestly bugging me."_

_"Continue."_

_"Feel free not to answer... Why did you honestly cut your hair?"_

_"Oh..."_

_"Ah! You don't have to answer if you honestly don't want to!"_

_"No, no. It's fine... My reason for cutting my hair... Oh, right... It was because of a promise I made with Yuki."_

_"For Yuki-san?"_

_"You know, Suzume... A girl's hair is important. You already know that. But a girl who cuts her hair... Well that is usually because they want to make a promise to someone. Or at least that is what I have heard."_

_._

"NARASAKA TŌRU, I SWEAR THAT I WILL BECOME A GIRL THAT YOU WILL LIKE AND ONE YOU CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT!"

.

Kodera rushed over to Suzume, taking the knife from her hands and watching as the hair that had been cut fell to the ground.

"Ah! Misaki, what are you doing!?"

Ignoring her friend, Suzume continued to stare straight at Narasaka with a fire in her eyes. She knew that there was whispering around them as this went on, but she ignored that as well.

For his part, Narasaka let out a sigh as he shook his head.

He turned back to Suzume with a small huff and chopped her head. He did this at least four more times as she continued to tell him to stop and the onlookers just stared blankly.

"You idiot. I may not be Satori, but I can say for sure you looked better with long hair. There is no reason to be so dramatic," Narasaka said with another sigh. "Honestly... It's a wonder how Tsukiko puts up with you."

"Hey, that's my line! And what the hell!? After all that, you honestly comment on my hair!?"

"I guess it's fine though. It at least shows your serious about this."

Looking Suzume in the eye, Narasaka got a very feint smile on his face.

_Yeah. She likes putting on a show. But she wouldn't do something like that unless she was serious._

He knew her well enough to understand what her actions meant. That included cutting off a part of her that had always been precious to her. It had always been well kept and done in such a way that made others enjoy just seeing her because of it.

This was something he could say he was happy about.

Her resolve.

"Now then. I'll be your mentor."

The look in his face quickly morphed into that of someone looking down at an instect.

"But! You have to do everything I say."

"Um..."

"Alright. I suppose that's that then. Come on, Shōhei. Let's get-"

"F-fine!"

"Hm. Good. Then let's start by you yelling out 'Narasaka-sama is the best Sniper ever and I won't ever be as good as him!' Got it?"

"Wh-why you..."

"I'm waiting."

"...Damn you..."

Suzume took in a large breath of air and...

* * *

There away an audible growl in the area that could only be heard by a few amount of people. It had come from a certain boy with brown hair that made him seem like a delinquent. He would normally be seen wearing a gray trapper hat, but that was not the case during the past few days.

The growl continued to grow from the boy as he walked.

"Damn. I guess missing out on breakfast really wasn't the best idea."

The growl was from his stomach.

It was the morning after he had learned about the circumstances behind Tsukiko Squad's disbandment. He had spent the night thinking about what everything meant and what he would have to do to better himself as a member of Border and as a brother.

Thinking through everything he could do, when compared to others, he found that there was not much he could do without his Side Effect and the support of others. At some point he had become dependent on others to fight with him.

That is where he currently stood as an Attacker for Border.

"I need a mentor. If I keep trying to fight by using only the things I know... I won't get anywhere like that. It puts me at a dead end."

A list of Attackers and All-Rounders appeared in his mind as he continued down the hall.

Anyone using Kōgetsu would be out of the question due to him not being too familiar with that Trigger. Scorpion users would be the ones he would have to go to for any sort of help.

The first ones that came to mind had been Kazama Squad. They were known for being a team full of Scorpion and Chameleon users. His own movement and flexibility was not too different from theirs, meaning there was some synergy there. The issue came from clashing personalities between him and both Kazama and Kikuchihara.

After that it had been Kageura who appeared in his thoughts. That came with its own set of issues that were not too far from why he could not go to Kazama Squad. Toby knew that his energy would quickly annoy Kageura, putting him in a terrible position.

"Hm~ I can't even go to Shun for this. My stupid pride won't let me go to someone who is younger than me. Besides, our records are so messed around with that there really isn't much I can get from him. Hm~"

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard another growl come from his stomach.

Deciding that there was no point in thinking without having eaten anything, Toby started making his way towards where he knew food would be.

As he did so, he noticed the sound of footsteps walking in a different direction than him. He leaned forward to see who was walking passed the hallway and in one of the open lobbies of Border.

"Isn't that..."

Grinning to himself, Toby shifted his position so that he was in his "run, jump, and hope to not break any bones" stance.

He shot forward right after.

And when he did...

"(Big brother!)"

A much smaller body had appeared in front of him.

Toby knew he couldn't slow down his momentum from his initial rush and so decided to self destruct. He twisted his body so that his upper body was closer to the ground than before. His right arm was extended outward while still in a spin, touching the ground and pushing him to the side.

Toby's body crashed with the wall hard enough to gain the attention of anyone within the area. The spin had forced his body to hit the wall much harder than expected, showing him that he really did use too much force with his rush.

The small body that had appeared in front of him rushed over to check on him.

"(Ah! Big brother! Are you okay?)"

.

Minoru had heard the sound of something pushing off the ground and turned to look and what it had been.

He was surprised to see Toby in a violent spin before crashing into the wall next to him with enough impact for him to actually hear it. It had been a bit amazing to see that happen when the boy clearly had not used any sort of Trigger to produce that spin.

He saw a small boy run over to the fallen Attacker and went over to see for himself if the younger boy was okay.

Before he could fully reach the two similar looking boys, Toby had shot up with his arms wrapping around the small boy who had ran over.

"(Hey there, Step! How's the little bluebell been!?)"

"(Hehehe! I've been good!)"

Minoru smiled at the scene before him.

He had recognized the small boy as Stepney Awdry, Toby's younger brother. It was clear that the two really did a great connection with the old one clearly diverting attention to Stepney instead of his unsightly crash.

"Yo, Fuzzy Head. Are you okay?" Minoru asked as he reached the two. "That was some crash you took there. What happened?"

"I'm fine. This little guy got in my way is all. Nothing to worry about," Toby said as he held his little brother in his arms.

"Hey, you're the guy I saw at Big brother's first match!"

As if responding to the comment, a bark come from Minoru's side.

"Puppy!"

"Hahaha! Calm down there, Step," Toby said as he put the kid down. "This is Minoru Hatohara and his pup, Taka. Minoru, this is my brother. Stepney."

Minoru had another surprise when he heard Toby speak. There was something under his tone, but for the most part it seemed like he was truly happy and not putting on an act for others. There was no growling when he spoke while his posture was upright.

"Nice to meet you, Stepney. Properly that is."

"It's nice to meet you too, Mr. Hatohara!" the now named Stepney said with a loud voice and a big smile.

"You're pretty energetic from the last time I saw you."

Minoru gave a fond smile while looking at the two, being reminded of his own siblings.

"Oh yeah... That was because..."

Seeing the youngest one looking sad, Taka walked up and started licking his hand, making the boy giggle.

Being the other one who noticed the change in mood, Minoru looked at Toby to see a sad smile on his face as he looked at the boy and the pup. He wasn't sure that he should be getting into others' business, but he felt like he needed to know what was going on as a fellow brother.

.

For his part, Toby was thinking about everything so far. From when he had ran away from home to the current situation. He knew that his parents would be there soon to take his little brother back, but he really didn't want to see that. What made matters worse was that if he went too far against his parents it might effect his standing as a Border agent. He was a runaway after all.

"Hey, Toby."

Hearing his actual name being called, he looked up to see Minoru giving him a kind smile. As if to say he was proud of something.

"You are looking a lot better than before. I'm glad."

"Heh... Yeah. Yuki had a talk with us last night. I am not completely over everything that has happened, but I think I can get there. I just need some time."

He looked down once more at his brother.

"I'm just glad Stepney hasn't stopped calling me his brother. That might be too much for me if that were to happen..."

Minoru knew what he meant.

"But I am worried about something... Takeshi. He looked like he was thinking a lot about what we were told. He had left before I did, so I don't know what he is doing. If he did change his mind because of everything, I don't think people will forgive him. Ever. I'm still mad at him too, but I don't want others to not be able to forgive him."

Toby knew that there were incidents he didn't know about concerning Takeshi. It had been shown during their second round match. Kakizaki had been someone who had to deal with the brunt of it. That was all he knew.

"I'm not sure about everything that he has done, but I do know that he will have a lot of work to do. Lukas' forgiveness will be something he might never get. Then there are just the people who have seen him like how he was. They will have trouble changing their view of him."

He was aware of the time and work it would take.

"Even so..."

Even so...

"As long as you guys stay by his side, I'm sure something good will come out of it. Show him that people really can forgive him by not leaving him. The issue stemmed from him thinking he had been abandoned, right? Then make sure he doesn't feel that way again."

It was something obvious.

He had known what to do, but having been told what to do only brought resolve to Toby. It felt as if his want to help had been nothing but a feeling in the back of his mind until he was told exactly what to do.

"Minoru... Thanks!"

.

Minoru was happy to have gotten the gratitude. It felt nice knowing that the team he was fond of was starting to look towards a bright future.

And yet...

_I can't take all the credit for this. I am only saying what people have been doing for me. Those words sting me a bit when I said them._

He gave a hallow laugh while Taka looked up at him, seeming to know what was going on.

"Well it's good to see you doing better."

"Oh! Uh... Can I ask you something?"

"Hm? Go ahead."

"Can you... Uh... Will you please be my mentor!?"

.

Toby could feel his nerves start to get the better of him.

Asking Kazama Sqaud or Kageura would not have been an issue, but Minoru had already helped him out so much that asking to be his student made him feel nervous. It felt like he was relying on the older boy more than he should.

"That was...unexpected."

Toby did not move to look up.

"Big brother?"

Toby did not move to look at Stepney.

The few seconds that went by seemed more like minutes to him.

"Heh. Yeah. That really was unexpected. But not something I am against."

The reaction was instantaneous.

Toby shot his head up, wide-eyed that the A-Rank All-Rounder would agree to his request.

After all...

"That's great! Uh... I mean... Thank you. But...are you sure? You know that I can be a hassle at times..."

He felt a hand land on his head before ruffling his hair.

"That's fine. Compared to some others, you really aren't that bad. Besides, it feels nice to know that you see me as someone you can ask for this."

"Yay! Big brother has a mentor! I don't know what it's for, but yay!"

The two Border agents looked over to see Stepney jumping up and down with Taka following his lead. It was hard not to smile at the energy coming from the two of them.

.

As they were talking, neither noticed the two people who held themselves in high regard walking towards them. One was a tall man and the other was a woman who looked like she was perfect for the title "office woman."

They approached the small group without giving anyone else even a small glance.

"Stepney, what have we told you about running off on your own like that? And why are you touching such a dirty creature?"

Freezing at the voice, Stepney stopped his jumping to look over with clear worry in his eyes.

Both Toby and Minoru stopped as well, taking in the words said and the voice that had said them.

They could both feel anger rising up inside them for the same reasons. The first reason had been how they had referred to Taka as a "dirty creature" with a tone that befitted the insult. The second reason had been because they did not seem to truly care that their child had left them to seemingly find his brother.

They were truly terrible people who had given birth to both Toby and Stepney.

"Oh. You are here as well, Tobius. No wonder that dirty creature is here," the woman said, not even looking at the Attacker.

"Screw off, you damn bitch."

"Address your mother with more respect, child," Henry said as he glared at Toby and walked closer to Stepney. "Now come on. We are leaving."

Toby made a quick move to stand in front of his brother. His stance was one that he only showed when fighting against others in solo matches or in B-Rank War matches.

It was the stance of an animal protecting one of their own.

"If he wants to stay then let him. There is no reason for him to go with some assholes who won't treat him properly. Like an actual person or child."

"Why you..."

Raising his hand against his child for a second time, Henry was ready to slap Toby across the face.

The hit never made contact, having been stopped by a hand holding his wrist in a vice grip. Looking to the side, Henry saw Minoru glaring daggers at him.

"You dare to touch my husband, you ingrate? Really, are all members of Border nothing but brutes? Such rough barbarians," the woman said with a disgusted tone.

"You say that, but your husband here was about to smack his own child and a friend of mine. Like I would let him do that. I heard a bit about you guys from a meeting last night and I really don't care much for you guys."

"Oh? I assume that means you are involved with that child from the Taiyōko family. That would explain your want to resort to violence against my husband. Those bunch of fools are not good for anything except being cannon fodder and shields for others to use. If they were all gone then I'm sure no one would mind in the slightest."

"Don't talk about them like that! I don't know about the rest of them, but Hoshi is great person! You two assholes don't know anything that doesn't concern your own companies! Don't talk like you know her or her family! She doesn't hide behind riches and royalty like you spineless cowards!"

"Is that so? And what exactly do you know? Their first child is going around destroying businesses at her leisure because she is bored and has that name attached to her. Their second child is a disowned failure who could not even bare to keep his name and changed it to something as pathetic as 'Tsukiko Yuki'. Then their two other children are so unimportant that we cannot even bother to remember their names. So, tell me, you damn brat, how is it that we don't have the right to bad mouth them when they are to twisted that their own family had broken apart at multiple places?"

"Don't you-"

There was no time for other words to be spoken as someone went into action.

It had not been Minoru who was ready to defend his friends.

It had not been the two adults who could not seem to care about restraining their words.

"—!"

It was from the boy who had enough of hearing the adults.

Toby used a much force as possible to deliver a punch to Henry's stomach, forcing the man to bend down due to the pain of being hit.

He looked directly at Henry in the eye while letting out a growl that came from deep in his throat. It was unlike the one he had been using before and felt much more like someone knowing what they were doing instead of a wild animal.

"You damn brat! I will make sure that the higher up-"

"I don't care!" Toby looked up with such hate that it managed to give Minoru chills. "I didn't punch you as a member of Border! I didn't even punch you as a friend of the people you are mentioning! I punched you as your 'damn brat'! Things are between us! Don't go dragging their names in like it's nothing when you don't even know them as people! You two, who never bothered to even know your children, have no right to speak about others!"

"That doesn't matter... We will make sure you-"

"Fine! Go tell anyone and everyone that I, _Toby,_ punched the shit out of you! But don't you dare get anyone else involved! This is just another thing that is between us! I don't care if I'm out of Border! I don't care if you sue me or any other crap you can think of! I only care if you go bringing others who are much more like family to me than you two are into this!"

No one made a move or a sound after everything had been said.

They were gaining an audience, evident from the whispers and looks going around.

Yet none of them gave any attention to those who were watching from the side.

All that currently mattered were those involved in the conflict at hand.

.

Minoru watched with wide eyes as Henry slowly got to his feet while Toby continued to glare hard at the man.

"Big brother..."

"Stepney, come on. We're leaving. Now."

Minoru could only watch as Stepney took one look at his brother before slowly following his parents.

His want to not go with them was clear, but there was nothing either of them could do about it. They had not authority over the boy or who he went with. They could only watch him leave with a small wave back.

Minoru walked forward, placing a hand on Toby's shoulder.

"Are you okay?"

It had been how their initial interaction started. Now it came back to that same question.

"Yeah..."

Something major had just occurred with the boy. There was much more to it than his one word answer let on.

But Minoru knew what to do.

"Why don't we go? Let's talk about me being your mentor."

This was something that would lead Toby toward something better. Now that he had stood up against his parents.

"Okay... Thank you."

Minoru was happy to know that he saw something great.

* * *

"What am I suppose to do?"

Takeshi had been repeating that question to himself since the previous night.

It was the morning after he had learned about the circumstances behind Tsukiko Squad's disbandment. He had spent the night reevaluating everything about himself from his purpose as a Border agent and his views on everything.

He had tried to think about what he would be doing now that he no longer saw Yuki as someone to hate. It had left a hallow feeling in his chest when he thought about everything he had done up to that point.

Everyone he had managed to get to hate him.

There was just a list of people who now feared going near him due to his former actions that showed nothing but a crazed monster who could not tell enemy from ally, right from wrong. It would not be an easy task to lower that list by any means.

_There is so much I have to make up for. So much that I probably will never be able to do._

Takeshi let out small sigh as he resigned himself to the fact that he would be hated by a large amount of people for quite some time.

After all...

"Oh... Kotowari..."

There were some people who truly saw the worst part of him.

"You..."

Takeshi looked up to see Kakizaki Kuniharu looking in his direction.

He had only been staring down at the table in front of him, ignoring the whispering going on around him. That may have been why he did not notice the footsteps getting closer.

Now that Kakizaki had accidentally crossed him there was nothing but an awkward atmosphere.

"Um... Hello...Kakizaki-san..."

Takeshi raised his hand to give a small wave but was responded to with a flinch.

That had hurt.

Knowing there was nothing he could do to properly apologize to Kakizaki, he did the only thing he could think of doing. It would probably mean nothing to the other captain, but Takeshi would still be doing it to try and salvage any sort of better reaction.

He stood up from his chair, noticing how Kakizaki backed away when he did so, and stepped away from the table.

_This is all I can think of doing..._

Takeshi slowly lowered himself towards the ground, going to his knees before lowering his upper body until his head touched the ground. His arms were spread out and his hands lay flat on the ground.

It was a proper dogeza.

"I am...sorry for the way I have been acting. I am also sorry for the terrible display I showed when we fought. You have no reason to forgive me...but I wanted to at least apologize for it."

Takeshi would not surprised if Kakizaki were to have spat at him and stomped on his head.

_It's only fair._

What person would not want to get some kind of revenge against someone like him?

Who would not take up such an appealing offer?

"Uh... There's no need for that..."

Kakizaki would be such a person.

"You don't need to prostrate yourself like that. I mean, I won't be forgiving you just like that, but I can tell that you really mean that apology. There's no need to be humiliated like that in front of others."

Takeshi looked up to see Kakizaki expanding a hand for him to grab.

He slowly lifted his own, unsure if this was some kind of trick. Then he remembered that Kakizaki was not the type of person who would do such a thing.

He grabbed the hand and was lifted up.

_This is...odd._

The feeling of another person's hand. The warmth that came with it. It was such an unfamiliar feeling that Takeshi was unsure what to do once it had left in an instant.

He looked at his hand for a few seconds before directing his attention to Kakizaki.

"Hm?"

Takeshi quickly turned away, feeling that it was rude to just look at the older boy after what he had done.

He lifted his hand towards his neck, planning on going for his scarf.

Then he remembered.

_That's right... I destroyed it._

"Is something wrong?"

_Why is he asking? Shouldn't he hate me?_

"Uh... Hello?"

Takeshi lightly shook his head to get rid of his thoughts.

He faced forward once more, intending to speak with Kakizaki.

"Why are you being nice to me...? You should hate me. You should want me to stay away from you. There is no possible way someone should ever want to be around me after everything I have done and how I have acted. It is even a miracle that they still allowed me to be in Border."

He was saying much more than he intended.

The words seemed to just come out without any reservations. As if everything that had built up in him from just the morning thoughts were released.

"Like I said... I won't be forgiving you like it never happened. But that doesn't mean I can't tell how different you are. I don't know what happened, maybe Tsukiko finally spoke to you guys, but the fact you even apologized is enough to show that you aren't the same as before. Maybe you need some help with some things, but this is a nice start. A start doesn't always need to be something extravagant. Sometimes a simple apology is enough to get your feelings through."

The words may have just been to make him feel better, as a way to show how good of a guy Kakizaki was, but they were said with honesty that Takeshi became unsure once more. The fact such a nice person existed was odd to him.

He knew that people could be nice at times, but they all had the desires to benefit themselves and view themselves in a great light. Yet that did not show in this man. He may have had those desires as well, but that was not visible with the way he was speaking right now.

He was seemingly not the only person like this a new voice came from behind him, speaking in a matter-of-fact but still kind tone.

"Does that mean you will start leaning toward forgiveness the more he apologizes, Kakizaki-san?"

.

The two boys turned to see two girls standing there. One was a short-cut haired girl while the other had her hair done in a braid. The two were from the same team as seen by the fact they wore the same uniforms.

"Asano, Maya."

The two girls nodded at Kakizaki's confirmation.

Tsukiko Amaya - or simply Maya - moved forward, leaning in toward Takeshi. Her eyes scanned his face and expression, then moved toward his body and posture. Her gaze was a hard one that seemed to be figuring something out without needing to question him.

The discomfort was building up and was evident by the way Takeshi tried to go for the scarf that was no longer around his neck.

After a minute of her scanning, Maya took a step back and let out a sigh while shaking her head.

"I don't see it, Eri. I really don't see what you and Shana were talking about. He seems like a regular kid to me."

"Um..."

"Oh. Sorry about that. We haven't interacted much, but you have spoken to Eri a bunch, right? Well, she and Shana had gone to see your last match. They told me about what they had seen and I honestly can't see it."

"What did...they say...?"

"Shana said something like, 'He's just a crazy guy who is ready to shoot through himself to get to the target. It was weird and scary as hell. Like some kind of horror movie.' And Eri here-"

"I had just said that you were not fighting like you normally would. Something had been wrong with you that it was hard to even watch it. That's all."

Takeshi looked away from the two of them.

Kakizaki decided not to say anything about what had been said during the fight.

"But..."

But...

"As Maya has just said, that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. You seem more lively and less like a destructive force. Something clearly happened to you after that match, but I won't ask you about it. That is something that probably only concerns you."

"Basically, she likes you better this way. I didn't see you during the match, but I'm sure as hell glad I didn't. From the rumors going around, you gained a bunch of hate from others. That's gonna suck to deal with when you just got better. So..."

Maya gave a grin while patting Takeshi's shoulder.

"I'll help you out with those people. I don't hate you at all. I could care less about some crappy rumors so there's no reason for me not to help someone like you out. Besides, Eri here also mentioned how you would fight much better if you weren't having issues. As your next round opponents, I want to fight you at your best."

"Maya, that may be going to far. Kotowari is still probably dealing with something, so we shouldn't be getting in his business like this."

"No, Asano, I think that's a great idea. Helping him out now is probably a great choice. He seems to be lost on what to do with repercussions of his actions. Having more people who he can rely on can only benefit everyone."

Takeshi looked over to see Kakizaki smiling at him.

Whether it was a true one or one out of pity was unknown.

What had mattered were the words and meaning that came from them.

There were people who tried to benefit themselves since that is what mattered in the world the most. They would go about it in different ways from using others as stepping stone to destroying anything they could. Then there were those who did so by helping others and making sure they too would benefit from what was done.

Takeshi had not know the latter type of people existed.

_No. I knew they existed. I chose to ignore them because I was being stupid. That was all there was to it._

He knew that he could not be completely forgiven by some people, or forgiven at all by others, but he would still try. There had been no reason to take on such a task by himself when there were many other people who would be fine helping him when he needed it.

He was surrounded by such people and chose to ignore them.

He was surrounded by such people and now chose to rely on them for help.

* * *

A large amount of pain was what Takato Mei work up to in the morning after a long night.

She felt as if her head was about to split apart while her brain was trying to escape her skull. It was a familiar feeling that brought bad memories back, making the pain feel worse.

He heard a small noise and slowly looked up to see a glass of water and some pills in front of her face.

The one holding them smiled kindly at her.

"Take these. It'll take a while, but I'm sure you'll feel better."

Doing as instructed, she grabbed the pills and placing them in her mouth before drinking from the cup of water.

"Now then. I want to talk to you about a few things."

"Is it about...what happened?"

"You asked a question. Sorry. I didn't mean to make you sad."

Yuki sat next to the bed, looking at his friend with a calm expression.

"No. Well... Yes. But that can wait. What I wanted to say first is that you don't need to be so stressed out. I cleared things up with those three last night. I haven't checked on them yet, but I got a message from Minoru earlier concerning Toby while Kakizaki messaged you. It seems like they are doing better. They are at least getting there now. So we can be glad about that at least."

"I see. It took you long enough."

Yuki could only chuckle at the response.

"Yeah. That was my bad. Anyways. The next thing I want to say is concerning the meeting from last night."

"How was it?"

"You asked another question. Sorry. I didn't mean to make you worry."

He shook his head a bit.

"It was fine enough. Apparently Kō understands things that we don't and Tatsuhito is still an idiot. Kimura tried her hand at another joke, which then flopped and pretty much made Tatsuhito into a statue. The others weren't much help in the whole thing, but they seemed to be having some fun."

"And what about the actual results of the meeting?"

"You asked another question. Sorry. I didn't mean to make you curious."

He gave a nod.

"We were able to force them into a situation that will be difficult to get out of for them. I had used my inherited name and decided to give away my former family's information. It is a very small price for me if it means I can help by keeping the sponsors on Border's side. I won't be giving them that much about Mukuro and Hoshi since this really has nothing to do with them. But I will have to give them the information about Kushikage and my own information."

"Your information as 'Taiyōko Kiyoshi', I assume. 'Tsukiko Yuki' has no business with that family."

"Right. Besides that, there isn't much that needs to be said right now concerning the meeting. But there is still some information that I need to tell you about last night. Apparently, Kanzaki had been attacked and Akashi had an 'accident' near a material yard."

"What do you mean by 'attacked'? Kanzaki isn't someone who would be overpowered easily, so there is something else to what you are saying."

"I would rather you confirm things with her. She doesn't seem to want to talk to me too much when I still go by the name 'Tsukiko Yuki'. So you will need to directly ask her. Although Sekai has been sending me some stuff before having it confirmed that he can send it to the directors. So there is something interesting going on."

"You are using that word way too lightly for everything you are saying."

"I guess you're right."

"Now then..."

It was finally here.

"I don't want to waste more time... Tell me...about what happened."

.

Yuki let out a sigh as he was given the soft order.

He himself was not completely sure what there was to tell since all the information he had gotten was from those involved. A video had been attached to a message sent by Kushikage, but he made sure to prevent others from seeing it, along with trying to make sure it did not go anywhere else.

He had decided to watch the video with Murakami earlier in the morning.

_His expression was the same as back then. I guess it's still hard for him to come to terms that the beast we saw really was Mei. That's fair. He can only see her as the great senpai who would help him. These two... I really can't do anything for them, can I?_

Yuki could not blame his best friend for his views on the girl in front of him. Even his own view on her was a bit distorted because of how he knew her.

But now she was waiting for his answer.

His words would affect her in some kind of way.

So he chose his words carefully.

"We are to blame for what happened."

"Who are 'we'?"

"You asked another question. Sorry. I didn't mean-"

"Just tell me who 'we' are. That will be your apology."

Yuki closed his eyes and took a breath.

"Tsukiko Yuki, Kotowari Takeshi, Misaki Suzumebachi, Awdry Toby, Taiyōko Kushikage, Jin Yūichi. Border, the B-Rank Wars, my choices. Everything has been building up inside of you until that moment. The moment when you could not even find out that you were on a battlefield until you did. And when you did... Well, Usami now knows why you are called Rampage Dress now."

He saw Mei hold her head in her hands.

He made no move to stop her from doing so.

"I managed to stop others from seeing it. But... There were some people who did see it in the process. Kushikage had recorded it, but besides me and Kō seeing it on the video, Kimura, Umi and Haru saw it. I had forgotten that he didn't see it the first time it happened."

It had been a limited number of people at that time.

Yuki chose to forget about that fact.

"The others that had seen it due to the severity of it happening again were the directors, some others, and the branch directors. They were told not to show their branch members anything though or else they would be punished."

"..."

"You want to know why those middle ones saw it, right? You just don't want me apologizing again."

Mei gave a nod.

"Of course. Right. They had to see it. Senshi was already near me, so I had him see it while Umi, Kimura, and Haru saw it. I know they saw it, but I don't actually know if the others actually watched it. Denji most likely did, as did Sekai, but the younger ones probably didn't. I know Shobu didn't since he had actually been there at the time."

"So he saw that firsthand..."

"He was worried for you. That was all. He did not see what others would see when looking at you during that time. You know that he won't see you as anything bad, so there should never be worry concerning that. Not while Shikifuku exists."

"..."

Yuki looked forward to see that Mei had yet to remove her hands from her face.

This had happened before. The voice and her posture had only appeared that other time people chose to forget. That meant that there was only one real reference point to take from at the current moment.

Even so, that was enough for Yuki to know what to do.

There was no sound from the girl who refused to show her face. There was no movement from her either. It had gotten to the point in their conversation where she would decide to shit down due to the information she had been given.

Yuki used this chance to go towards the object he had brought the night prior.

When he moved it from where it sat he could see parts of the room swinging with its movement.

"You were in the Yagura Branch's training room, so no one actually got hurt. You were reliving the stress we had built up inside of you. There is no need for you to hide your face. You like to do this when something like that happens. When I'm finally able to get you to stop thinking, you want to hide away in your home and go without regard for the sun or moon. I know you want to hide from all those issues while also be the one to solve those issues, but..."

He moved the object onto the bed, right on Mei's lap.

"That woman..."

"When people like that go after you, it just means that you really are a good person. Since you are such a good person, there will be people who will want to help ypu instead of hurt you. I am one of them, so you don't need to worry."

"I just want to be a fair and simple person..."

"And I'm sure everyone else wants that kind of thing. Maybe not everyone, but it's not wrong to want that. When I laugh and you laugh, too, everything is forgiven. There is still a lot we need to do, so let's keep going."

He grabbed her hands, placing them at her side.

Now her eyes were focused on what was sitting in her lap.

"Take a look in the mirror."

Doing as she was told Mei looked directly into the mirror and saw her very own reflection in it. Something that Yuki and others had praised many times before.

"You're smile alone is enough to brighten up the day. So can you keep doing that while the rest of us help to prevent you from feeling down again?"

"But what about my Side Effect...? I can't stop when it starts going."

"Then I will continue to personally pull you out of that bothersome Side Effect of yours. No matter how many times it takes. Is that enough? I may been Unneeded, but I will change my views to help you out all the time."

"You... You..."

"Yes?"

"Th-that's..."

"That's?"

"That is n-not something! That isn't something that sh-should! Yes! Thank you!"

Yuki was unprepared for the head butt that came from the now blushing girl.

Mei's face was covered in red as she repeated new words out loud that only gave away her true feeling at having been told such a thing from an idiot.

From his spot on the ground, Yuki could only smile.

"I'm glad you feel better."


	40. Border

Takato Mei took a large breath as she stood in front of a door. The door lead to her team's room. There had been nothing wrong with the door itself, but what was inside was something she would have to prepare for.

Remembering everything she had been told by Yuki the morning after she had gone on a rampage, she readied herself to get some judgement.

The judgement would not be coming from knowing that she had rampaged, Yuki had assured her that no one that didn't need to know knew of what happened. The judgement would come from the fact that she was of no help to her team's issues and that she had been out since her rampage.

_I have to believe in them. If I am to trust anything Yuki tells me, this would be one of the most important. They are the team I have watched over for so long. I have...to...hope..._

It was wrong to think that.

Mei knew that she was wrong to think anything like that.

_They aren't some "team I have been watching" anymore. If what Yuki told me is true, they are a real team who no longer needs me or Yuki. I will trust in what I know about them and go through this door with a smiling face and a large amount of apologies._

She slapped her cheeks a few times to gain some motivation.

"Right. Here I go."

She placed her hand on the handle and turned it.

.

The moment Kotowari Squad heard the door open they turned to see their Operator walk in with a mixed expression.

There was some silence in the room.

Mei looked at the three of them with her mixed expression while the three of them looked at Mei with curious expressions.

The first to speak was Mei.

"He-"

She had no time to finish.

"We are very sorry for causing you trouble!"

Mei blinked a few times, trying to register what was happening in front of her.

Before she could finish her sentence, Kotowari Squad had gotten in front of her and lowered their upper bodies while apologizing.

Suzume was the first to move up, looking Mei in the eyes.

"We won't ask about where you honestly have been, Mei-san. We have no right to do so. Instead, we want you to know that we are ready to go! Ready to make it back to the top! And ready to make you proud!"

"Yup, yup! So please keep supporting us! All we have done so far is cause you trouble, but we still want you to help us, Mei!"

Takeshi only nodded his head, clearly not use to what was going on.

At the same time, Mei registered everything that was going on and found that her mind was extremely clear and her calculations were not getting the better of her.

"I..."

Giving a gentle smile, she closed her eyes while speaking to the three people who stood before her, fully intending to do as they had said.

"I will always help you."

She moved forward to sit at her desk, fully intending to listen to what they had to say.

"Now then... The information about what you all were talking about before I got here."

"We were going over what we would be doing in our next match." Takeshi tugged at the new scarf that was wrapped around his neck. "With our next opponents being Tsukiko Squad and Shor Squad, it's best to assume that everything is relatively even."

"Yeah. I've done so many solo matches with both team's members that I know how they move. Suzume's seems some of them, so she has their Rhythms down. The only exceptions on my part would be Fubuki and Eri. Minubuki is also a bit of a hassle since she's like Yōko in the sense that she changes positions when she gets bored with her current one. Other than that, Noah, Shana, and Maya I'm good to go against."

"I have Buki's current Rhythm down. I can also handle Fubuki-chan since we're usually next to each other during training. Like Toby said, I honestly have the others' Rhythms taken care of as well. The issue that comes up for me is Eri-chan since she's a Shooter. One of you two is better off fighting her."

"As for me... Shor and Shashin would be the most difficult for me. The two of them are the hardest for me to catch. Tsuk... Ahem... Maya-san is also a problem, but less of one at the moment."

"How so? She's just as good at moving as Noah. I'm pretty sure she can get to you."

"In the time between when Yuki helped us and now, I have gotten to see her in action properly. I'm sure I know how well she moves, so I think I can manage it."

"Take-"

"But I may still need some backup on that."

Mei smiled at the sudden change of tone for him.

"Beyond those three, if it ends up in a shoot out against Asano-san... I think can manage a win from that. Shirogane and Lee are also ones I can get definite hits on given the chance."

"Right. Now that we have confirmed what he can honestly do against who... I want to point out that we honestly have very selfish fighting styles as a team. Both Toby and Take are honestly offensive fighters while I can work as both offense and support. There is only one of me, so I think that after this match we should find another person for our team. A support would be nice, but I will settle for an offensive-support type as well. We just honestly need it if we want to deal with the top teams again."

The three others looked at her, knowing full well that it was the truth.

When they had been at the top with Yuki as their captain, he had been both their offense and support. Toby and Takeshi had gone for whatever they wanted while Yuki followed through with support. When he had been the first one to initiate a fight, he had been offensive until one of the other two got to him.

With him gone there was now a lack of support.

There was a bit of silence as they all thought about the words.

And then...

"But that's for after our match."

Suzume spoke up once more.

"We need to handle this match with what we honestly have at the moment."

"That's right. This is actually a good opportunity for us. We can see what we are lacking in this fight and use that to determine what comes next for us. I don't mean to sound rude, but we will be using Shor Squad and Tsukiko Squad as our first stepping stones to better ourselves."

"I'll have to apologize to No and Shay later, but that's about right."

The room seemed to lighten up from the small amount of tension in the air. There was no worry that something could go wrong when the three Combatants of Kotowari Squad were in an agreement on what to do.

The previous events that had happened due to the three of them were not forgotten and not yet forgiven, but they were moving forward as best as they could. They were showing just how much they wanted to move towards their better future by keeping the conversation going whole trying to not run everything by Mei at the moment.

That information was all Mei needed to know as she calmly sat and listened to their conversion.

.

"So that's what we'll do then. Senpai, you will handle Shirogane then support whoever you can find first. Toby will handle Shor and Maya-san. I'll will try to take out Lee and Asano-san so that I can also fight with Toby. Shashin will go to whoever finds her first."

"We're the ones picking the location this time around since we've fallen kinda low in ranking. This one is our best bet since we are the most familiar with it. Besides that, I can move smoothly through this section while Suzume has more than enough spaces to snipe from. It's the best choice for us. Although..."

Suzume and Takesbi turned to Toby, who was now wearing an odd expression.

"Can I switch with Takeshi? I fought No and Shay while he fights Maya and Eri. I know it's selfish, but..."

"You honestly want it to be an 'American Fight', right?"

Toby nodded his head.

Suzume gave a sigh while checking for Takeshi's reaction.

Boy seemed to really be thinking of the outcome should they switch opponents lime that. He had confirmed that he knew how the girl would fight due to previous events, but his original target would have been the best option for him to attack.

There was a moment of silence to allow the boy to think over the words.

And when he had the answer...

"...That can work..." Takeshi nodded his head before looking up. "That's fine. But that means Suzume-senpai will support me once she is done with her own task. I am not fully confident in my ability when it comes to those two, so I'll need Senpai to back me up."

Toby perked up at this.

"That's fine with me! After No joined Suzunari, I actually haven't fought him! This give both me and Shay a chance to see if he's gotten any better!"

Suzume and Takeshi twisted their heads so fast that one would think they got whiplash.

Suzume was the one to voice their shared question.

"What did you honestly just say!?"

* * *

"ACHOO!"

Noah Shor wiggled his nose while getting looked at by the others in the room.

He brushed under his nose while thinking that there was something in the air.

"Urg... I don't have any allergies to things in here... Maybe some is talking about me behind my back."

"(O captain, my captain,) that is not a real thing that happens. It's best to think of it as just something that came up in your nose to tickles you out of your fantasies."

"Please don't use that kind of line on me again, Prince. It's really embarrassing." He looked over at the boyish female who was grinning towards him. "And what kind of fantasies would I even be having right now. We're in the middle of planning out our next match against Takeshi's and Maya's teams."

The girl gave a slight laugh.

"That would be rather obvious. You want to see our very own Sora-chan in some sort of erotic maid outfit for your own pleasure."

Off to the side, a blue-haired Operator's contradicted his hair with the red on his face.

Noah crossed his arms with his eyes closed.

"Hm... Nah. I'm not into the crossdressing thing. That's Jinsei. I'm fine with you doing it since you're a really weird girl and all."

The girl gave another laugh and the innocent response.

It was clear that Noah did not know what she had been implying with her sentence.

Deciding to have some more fun, she looked over at the boy who was stashing by the door.

"It seems like my captain has become imprudent after joining the Suzunari Branch. Kuruma-san, who ever could have caused such a thing? You are far too kind and Kon-senpai always has to deal with Taichi. Could it be the one who is so happy whenever he sees his captain or former upperclassman?"

"U-uh... I don't think that. I know that Yuki is a bit...odd... But Kō has managed to keep his sanity up to this point, so I think he is still holding on by a sliver. It's best not to bring that up when he's around though. He may actually end up the same way as Shor."

"Oh? Could it be that you have also become sort of imprudent in your way?"

"I don't want to believe so."

.

Shirogane Fubuki gave a laugh that showed her sly smile through her fingers. This had not been her intention, but the end result was something that she was pleased with.

_To think that by this point they would still be really easy to tease. Oh yeah. We still have Minubuki muted due to her loudness. Let's see if she has calmed down any._

Reaching over the table, passed the thinking American and within view of the blushing Operator, Shirogane pressed on her tablet to include their third teammate.

The end result...

"YOU CAN'T SHUT MINUBUKI UP! MINUBUKI MAY BE BUSY RIGHT NOW, BUT SHE WILL GO OVER THERE AND PUNCH YOU RIGHT IN THE DAMN FACE!"

The room was filled with a loud voice from the speakers of the tablet that sat on the table. It covered the soft mumbling of Noah and the small noise from the blue-haired Operator to the side.

Shirogane had been prepared by covering her ears before tapping the screen.

She noticed that Kuruma seemed prepared as well with his hands over his ears.

The loud voice come through once more, making it hard for anyone to get their thoughts straight.

Shirogane decided to do something about the volume by lowering the speakers so that they could all focus once more.

The issue that came with that was simple.

_She's still really loud even when the volume is the lowest I can put it._

Shirogane gave a sigh while trying to make get through the yelling.

"Buki-ko, we can hear you now. Please lower your voice before your neighbors start complaining again. Your parents have already tried to get me to deal with the neighbors, so I would rather they didn't come to me a second time."

There was a quick silence as the words came through.

A few seconds went by before Shirogane moved forward once more to change the volume of the tablet speakers.

This time the same voice as before came through, albeit in a lower volume.

"Next time don't mute Minubuki then. That's messed up on a level that only idiots can do! I know that Kō-chan-san is starting to lose his mind, but he can still put up with Minubuki's voice! Don't tell her otherwise!"

"You guys really see him as a lost cause, don't you?"

"We know the real sly fox his is friend, so we have just decided that it can't be helped if he ends up thinking strange thoughts like, 'Senpai would look nice in this' or 'Kuruma-san has a nice ass when wearing that'. Things like those are common for guys his age. But then you can really come to appreciate when just oddities come up. Oh. Like when Captain had heard him muttering something along the lines of, 'Adlibing really does take some talent, doesn't it? It does. But in the most deranged way. Maybe I should go to the nearest Shinto shrine to cleanse myself.' Isn't that right, Captain?"

Noah's immediate reaction of turning his head was more than enough for Kuruma to think that he needed to talk to his team's ace just a bit more.

Even with the great reaction, Shirogane knew that she had messed up somewhere. Enough that it forced her into the position of speaker.

That position was not one she would like to be in since it would remind her of how she was getting effected by others daily. The words that came from her gave the same impression as a strange woman from an opposing team, but she could not help it when she herself could be considered cunning and scheming in a sense.

_I am a bit hopeless, aren't I?_

She gave a final laugh that gained the attention of everyone else.

_Oh. I didn't think it would be so hollow this time around._

Smiling to each person that could see her, Shirogane opened a tab on the tablet while speaking words that forced things in the room to change.

"Now that we had some fun... Let us get down to the real trouble here. Our next opponents are Kotowari Squad and the lesser Tsukiko Squad. ...No. Sorry. I'll also apologize to them later for that. I should just be saying 'Tsukiko Squad'. That was a slip of the tongue."

"We'll forgive it this time. Just make sure you really do apologize to them later."

"I'll write it down."

Expanding the screen for everyone to see, Shirogane displayed images of their next opponents.

"Let's begin."

.

The room became a bit more serious as the ones present looked at the six pictures on the screen.

"Kotowari Squad is comprised of the Laser-Shooter and captain; Kotowari Takeshi, their Attacker and most likely new ace; Awdry Toby, and their Sniper who can be extremely offensive; Misaki Suzumebachi." Shirogane moved her fingers to cross out the three images before doing the same for the last three. "Tsukiko Squad is comprised of their Kōgetsu Attacker; Tsukiko Amaya, their secondary Attacker; Lee Shana, and their Shooter; Asano Eri. The first and last are considered dual-aces."

She felt some satisfaction at having the other listen to her words.

"We should go over who our best and worst match ups are in this upcoming fight. From there, we can discuss real strategy against them."

"Uh... There is something I would like to add to this."

The attention moved over to the blue-haired Operator.

Hachidori Sora raised his hand while looking at the screen on the table away from him.

"Takato-san isn't on that list. While I suppose Operators shouldn't be included in these kinds of things, I think we should add her on this. From recent events we learned that she is actually well versed in a multitude of things. Besides that, her Side Effect is a fact that we can't just put to the side. Murakami-senpai has told me about it and... Yes. It really isn't something we can ignore."

"That's right. Even if she didn't have a Side Effect, Mei should be a factor to consider. She's not called the Ultimate Operator for no reason. It's best not to leave anything out."

"Hey, so Minubuki gets that Takato is really badass and all, but what even is her Side Effect? Is it anything like Cana-chan?"

Sora politely shook his head.

After a few seconds he went red remembering that the hardcore girl couldn't see him.

"N-no... From what Murakami-senpai told me... Takato-san's Side Effect is a super computer-like calculating ability. He wasn't sure how far she can go, but apparently her calculations border precognition when given enough data."

"That's some crazy stuff. Yūichi has actual precognition, so they probably tested it out before to see if her calculation really were that good."

"Murakami-senpai also muttered something under his breath, thinking I didn't hear it, but he said it with such a bitter expression that I felt bad for even hearing it." Sora took a sip from his nearby drink while looking down at his hands. "He had said that there have been three times where she let go of her mental restraints and went beyond any sort of precognition."

Shirogane and Noah looked at the boy with varying degrees of confusion.

They turned their heads towards the one by the door to see what he had to say.

"Um... I can't really confirm or deny that. If it's coming from one of her two favorite former underclassmen then it's best to take their word for it. I have seen her do some calculations written out and didn't understand any of it. I can't really say anything about her Side Effect. Sorry."

All four members of Shor Squad were quick to give their own apologizes towards the Suzunari-1 captain.

_Why did they apologize!? Now I feel even worse!_

Kuruma shrunk down a bit, deciding that he shouldn't bring it up and let them continue.

"Well this makes things easy."

Fubuki crossed her legs to place her hands on top of her knees.

"We simply have to remember that she has such a Side Effect and then toss her out of any sort of planning now."

"What!? But that should be our main thing, shouldn't it!?"

"Yeah! Minubuki thinks that's the most important part of this!"

Fubuki shook her head for her captain.

"What's the point of adding that in when we can't do anything about it? Kotowari Squad's fighters are their Attacker-Shooter-Sniper trio. They are the ones who go out to battle. We can't take them out and prevent them from doing anything. We can't do that when it comes to their Operator. She will be able to help them out whenever she wants. That means we just have to lower any sort of odds and keep our data hidden for the better part of the fight."

"So don't show everything we have at the start, right? If we show them something new right away, she will add that to her data and came get a better understanding on how to deal with the fights. I see... It makes sense. You're smart at times, Prince. Good job."

"Kuruma-san, please tell your ace to stop influencing our captain."

"I-I don't think it was him this time."

Shirogane furrowed her brows.

"Then it must be an even worse influence..."

.

Noah let out a sigh as he thought of how he could apologize to Murakami later for his team's Sniper's behavior.

Once he thought of the right gift, he looked back at the screen.

"Okay. So we know what to do concerning Mei. That being doing nothing." He tapped the screen so that the crosses were removed from the pictures. "Now let's get to what we have first agreed on. Who we are good against and who we are bad against. I'll start so we can get a proper understanding here."

He tapped three of the pictures, then two, then one.

"The ones I can handle with little to problem would be Eri, Shana, and Suzume. Takeshi and Maya may end up getting a point on me if I'm not paying attention. Toby is my worst opponent since he is just as fixable and quick as I am. His Side Effect is also something I can't really get over. My record is a losing once against him."

"Thank you for the honest words, Captain. Oh. And don't worry. Sora still likes you."

"Hm? I mean... I'm glad. Yes. I like you too, Sora!"

Noah looked over and gave a thumbs up towards the blushing blue boy.

Shirogane giggled at this while following her captain's lead by crossing off imagines with different colors. First she crossed out two, then three, then one.

She spoke up while ignoring the red blue boy.

"This is it for me. Maya-ko and Shana-chan would be easy enough snipes for me. My queen, Kotowari, and Asano will be rather troublesome. The former because we practice together a lot. The latter two because if I can't get them in one hit, I'll be taken out by their distance attacks. Their intuition isn't too bad, so that makes it just as hard. And obviously Awdry is just a monster for any long-range attacker. I still haven't gotten a hit on him during practice."

Nothing more needed to be said about the boy.

It was a known fact that, due to his Side Effect, Toby had become a part of sniping training at times. The goal was always to land a hit on the boy while all he had to do was keep from getting hit until the time ran out.

Only a handful of the best could even manage to get one hit on him at a time.

"So that just leaves Minubuki!"

Everyone noted that her volume went up again.

"Minubuki is great against everyone! And she's terrible against everyone! Gyahahahahaha! Isn't she great!? Isn't she the worst!?"

Noah and Sora released the sighs they had been building up to this point.

Shirogane looked over to see Kuruma furrowing his brows in thought. She felt bad since it was clear that he was trying to properly understand the craziness that had been said.

"Would you like me to explain?"

"Please."

She gave a laugh while crossing out the images once more.

"Buki-ko is...special-"

"Damn right she is!"

"-in that she is just plain crazy. She has mobility on par with our captain, so troublesome opponents like my queen, Kotowari, and Asano will have a hard time shooting her down. Shana-chan is relatively slow thanks to her Trigger, so we are all good on handling her. And I would say that between Buki-ko and Maya-ko they are equal enough. Oh. And I was referring to their abilities, not their craziness. Buki-ko has her beat on that."

Another yell came from the tablet.

"Buki-ko also has a wild style that differs from most. She doesn't think when fighting and decides to just do as she pleases. Isn't that right, Buki-ko?"

"That's right! Minubuki doesn't need to think when fighting since fights are like concerts! You just let everything out at once and - bam! - you get an audience that wants to hear you play even more! Keep going until you are tired out for your partner is completely sucked dry!"

"You should watch how you phrase that. Our poor Operator seems to be going red once more."

"No sorry!"

Shirogane could only pity the Minubuki beginner by the door.

"Well, Buki-ko is probably our best bet against that Operator and the dog. ...I need a name for him. Captain, would there happen to be any American dogs that are rather famous. I would choose one from this country, but that would be rather insulting when he is from America."

Noah turned his eyes to the ceiling while shifting his expression three times. Each one seemed like he was getting closer to an answer.

It was amusing to see, but also a bit odd.

"I guess... Oh! Yeah! Lobo! Not the Lobo from comics though. Well, I guess you wouldn't know that Lobo either."

"Lobo? Do you mean Hessian Lobo from that one mobile game Hanzaki-ko plays?"

"Huh? Oh. Yes and no. Yes to that Lobo. No to the hessian. The hessian was just an add on to Lobo." Noah nodded his head with crossed arms and closed eyes. "Lobo - The King of Currumpaw. I won't go into detail since it'll take a bit of time, but I do think that would be best."

"I see... Very well then. Buki-ko is our best bet against Lobo and that Ultimate Operator."

"Okay, okay. But hey, can I change that? I was actually hoping to fight against Tobio and Shay for this. The three of us need to settle something in this. I would appreciate it if I could deal with that while we have the best chance."

"You want to make a show of it, don't you? Is that an American thing or what? Either way, you are the captain, so we will have no complaints about that."

"Minubuki is fine with that too!"

"Thanks."

Shirogane laughed at the obvious nature of her captain.

"So that will leave the others to us, Buki-ko. I can go after some of the more irritating ones. If I don't take them out in one hit, I will change targets right away. That's where you will come in, Buki-ko. I will need you to handle the ones I miss so that they can't come after me."

"Got it!"

"I'm not sure how our fight will end, but I'll try and help in that when I can. If we bring the others into the fight, I can take others out. Knowing those two, Tobio and Shay will want it to be just the three of us, so they will probably do the same. Minu, that means you need to stay away from me. Try and drag Maya into the fight so I can handle her."

.

From his position by the door, Kuruma smiled while watching the younger team go over their plans.

It had only been recently that Shor Squad joined the Suzunari Branch in order to focus more on protecting the city. They knew that there was less of a focus on the rank wars when entering a branch, but that did not mean they didn't want to enter at least once.

The resolve they all showed was enough for him to happily welcome them once they had been told by their director that they wouldn't be the only team in Suzunari.

Something he had not expected from them was their individual odd behaviors and collective odd nature.

"Minubuki will definitely go all out and wreck some shit!"

It was too much at times.

* * *

Asano Eri could only shake her head as she watched her teammate suddenly burst out laughing while reading something on her phone.

Tsukiko Squad had started their meeting to determine what they would go against their next opponents in the current B-Rank Wars. It had gone well enough with them going over who they would be best against and worst against, but then the sudden burst of laughing had broken through their words.

It had quickly extended to her captain once she saw the message as well.

"Can we get back to our planning? Let's not forget that thanks to Maya, Kotowari Squad has even more information on us and now know what she can really do."

"Pah~! I've fought Toby enough to where they already knew what I can do! This is way more fun anyway! Come over here, Eri! You have to read this!"

"Just tell me what it says already. If you don't then we will never get anywhere with this."

It was the clear truth that she was sadly aware of as their friend and teammate.

"I got a message from Minu saying that Tobio's gotten a new nickname thanks to No! Apparently they have decided to call him Lobo!"

Eri remained quiet, not understanding how that was funny in the slightest.

Her teammates seemed to notice this as well since Shana spoke up once more, this time realizing what went wrong with her explanation.

"Lobo - The King of Currumpaw - was a wolf. Too much to explain, so I'll just say they're calling him a dog at this point! If he knew about this then I'm sure he would probably attack them~"

"Two things with what you said. First: what you are saying is that they are calling him a 'king', in a sense. Second: you just said wolf, not dog. There is a difference in that wolf is more dangerous than a dog."

"Point Allocation (Beat Lobo)."

Eri was genuinely surprised that her captain managed to connect her words with her wants.

"Alright, alright. Let's get back to this. It's already going to be hard enough when we have the slowest member on our team. Besides that, I can really only keep up with Noah and Minubuki."

"It's not my fault my Trigger is heavy! It at least has enough power to land heavy hits on people. Besides, as long as I have one of you two backing me up, I'm good to go."

"But that is a problem all its own. We know how you want to have that fight with Noah and Lobo, so we can't back you up too much. Our best bet is to just keep others away from you. How do you think that will turn out when our opponents are two Snipers, Laser-Shooter, and a generally crazy person?"

"Hey, I'm taking on the more troublesome ones anyway! Tobio and Noah are hard enough to fight when I have the advantage in some for,. With Kotowari Squad picking out the stage I'm at an even worse disadvantage."

"And you want to keep that fight between you three?"

"Of course! I may have a little chance, but I know those two well enough and how they fight that I think I can manage at least a point. What's more is that they don't know what I have now, so I don't have to worry about them suspecting anything from me!"

"These double-edged words really make me feel sorry for you."

Eri, even while a bit annoyed by the length of time they were taking for this, couldn't help the smile she got when listening to the banter of her teammates. It was still nice to just hear fine moments like these.

She may even have let out a laugh since both Maya and Shana turned towards her with grins.

She looked back at them, trying to pretend that nothing had happened.

It failed.

"Oh~? What's this~? What could our dear Shooter be thinking right now~ Could it be about the boy who has suddenly caught her attention as of late~? It would make sense since Rei has also seemed to taken some kind of liking to him!"

"That can't be the case though~ Eri is far too good for him! He is but a boy whole she is a proper woman! Yes, yes. He is special though. Completely special with his Laser-Shooter while she is still trying to perfect her technique. Maybe she simply has taken to his Trigger. She wants to be a Laser-Shooter too!"

She gave forced smile as a response to her odd teammates.

"Is there something wrong with you two? Wait. I know that answer already. Yeah. Maybe I should take you two to get your heads checked before we go into our next match. At least then I won't have to tell Kuni that I may or may not have accidentally fired at our two Attackers."

She couldn't deny that there was some interest in the Laser-Shooter of Kotowari Squad. Due to certain events, both she and Maya got to see the boy in a new light. His fighting style and personality were better shown thanks to it, as well as how some others viewed him.

The mention of Nasu had ask brought some thoughts to the surface.

The other female Shooter had trouble going against the Laser-Shooter at times.

_Nasu is definitely better than me right now, so it would be hard for me to fight him alone. I need one of these two to help me out with him before anything._

During the time she got to personally know the Laser-Shooter, along with Maya, she had been told something that she had not expected to hear from him.

Words of encouragement.

A moment of hesitation had come up during that time. She felt the pressure of something she had not expected and could not react in time. The matter had been taken over by someone else instead while she stood back.

The reaction afterwards had been disappointment in herself for stalling for even a moment.

That disappointment had quickly been overshadowed by kind words from the boy who she had been with. They had come unexpectedly, but were nice enough to get her to focus once more.

"I guess I do have my work cut out for me," she sighed out.

.

Hearing the Shooter sigh odd words out was enough for Attacker-duo to want to continue their teasing.

They held themselves back out of a small amount of pity from knowing what had happened before. It was enough for them to decide that moving on with their planning was a better option.

As their captain, Maya cleared her throat before speaking towards the other two.

"So it's settled then. Shana will be trying to take some points with our backing before she goes off to fight her American buddies. After that happens, Eri and I will be handling anyone left over. As long as it isn't a Sniper, we should be good on the front. Oh. That's not to say that we won't back you up later on, Shana."

"Got it, got it. But who knows. My fight can end way before yours with yours truly coming out victorious."

"Or cursing up a storm because of some bad luck."

"One or the other. Either way, something will probably happen that gets one of us pissed."

"Is that an American thing or..."

"You need to stop."

Maya smiled at her fellow Attacker with no worry.

"So this leaves us open to any changes that can come up. There is only one guarantee here, so we can just work around that. Anything else is something we will do and handle ourselves." She looked towards both of her teammates. "We've been doing well enough. Let's keep this up and move up in rank! So what if they know what we can do? We'll use what they don't know against them! We'll even use what they know against them! We've got this!"

In response to their captain's enthusiasm, both Shana and Eri gave their own smiles. They knew they could rely on their captain to keep spirits high when going into another battle against tough opponents.

It was her lead they followed and her attitude they gravitated towards. This combination was enough for them to truly give it their all. To better themselves when they needed it. It was more than enough for them to keep moving forward as a team.

"So since you are to enthusiastic about this, you can be the one to let Kuni know about our plans. Make sure it actually gets to her this time or else we will have some problems."

"Geh! Again? Do you just try to find a reason to dump these kinds of odd jobs to me? Shana already has her phone out! Why can't she just do it right now?"

"Because Kuni is currently busy. Did you already forget that she said she would be visiting Arafune Squad to see Kagami? If we interrupt them right now then we might end up with an explosion of colors where we don't want them. I mean, you can go to them right now. Just make sure you are wearing a full body suit so that you don't stand out afterwards."

"I swear that you have these responses ready and waiting for these moments! It would make sense though. I guess you would need to be ready in case someone needs a straight man to a nice joke. Hey,mid this doesn't work out-"

"I will not be your straight man."

"There it is!"

* * *

[Hello and welcome to the third round of the B-Rank Wars! Canaria here and I'll be your announcer tonight! With us this time is Kitora from Arashiyama Squad and Narasaka from Miwa Squad for extra commentary! Thank you for being here with us!]

[Right.]

[It's no problem.]

[So today we have the battle of Shor Squad vs Tsukiko Squad vs Kotowari Squad! What do you two think about this!?]

[It may turn out to be interesting with Kotowari Squad seeming to be better than before. Something seems to have happened since the three fighters of the team have been going around in high spirits. One of which enough to ask Narasaka-san to be her mentor.]

[You probably heard that from Awdry-kun, right?]

[...]

[And what about you, Narasaka-san?]

[That comment about that woman was unnecessary. Anyway. This really will be interesting. Besides Kotowari Squad, Tsukiko Squad and Shor Squad have been gaining some ground on their recent opponents. They didn't win against them, but they scored more points than most would have thought. That can be the case here as well if their respective opponents aren't prepared.]

[So is there any team or person you two are rooting for in this match? Seeing as how the two of you know someone from Kotowari Squad, I would think it would be them.]

[I am impartial towards the three teams and will comments as such.]

[I will root for anyone who isn't Misaki.]

[At least you're honest...]

Canaria looked at the two serious people with a wavering smile.

[W-well we can talk about the choices that have been made so far. Due to Kotowari Squad lowering in rank, they are the ones who get to choose the location and any conditions. The one they have chosen is... Huh?]

[That is odd. But I guess that's to be expected when it comes to them.]

The three commentators looked at the large screen to see images of an area that seemed to be half of a city and half of a forest.

[They picked a rare one to use. The forest section doesn't come up too much since Mikado City's inner portion is where the fighting is usually done. Although it does make sense when taking into consideration the team that chose this one.]

[How so?]

[Misaki-senpai, Kotowari, Awdry. Think of their fighting styles and tell us that this is not perfect for them. They are an agile team who is best when it comes to moving and forcing their opponents to move. Whether it be in the city or in the forest, I'm sure they can lay their traps however they please.]

[Something else to note is that, as Tsukiko Squad, we have seen how Tsukiko-san liked this particular stage. They should be more than use to this stage at this point. It's like playing on their home turf.]

[I see! Since it's a rare one, Tsukiko Squad and Shor Squad will have a tough time understanding where they should go.]

A small timer on the side of the screen slowly ticked down.

[Oh! It looks like they are about to go in! This will start the third round of the B-Rank Wars!]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am planning to split this story up into smaller ones and put it as a series. There will be a bit more added to those than what this story has. Mostly for the parts up to Aftokrator and the invasion itself. So feel free to wait for those or just read this story to know what will happen.


	41. Suzumebachi Misaki: Part 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shor Squad is owned by Zazaza gogo da

The first thing Suzume did when entering the battlefield was activate her Bagworm to hide her from any radars.

She had started out in the forest half of the area, meaning she was in a better position than someone like Takeshi who would have to deal with the trees around him.

She looked around while halting in her advance by landing in a branch. A radar appeared in her sight to show her the location of anyone not using Bagworm as she looked around to be sure that there was no one else around.

She knew what the other fighters were capable of and by default also being a weak point since they also knew how she did things. It was the mutual knowledge that made the entire match rather dangerous for each participating member.

_Times like these really show when someone doesn't have Bagworm. It's honestly irritating._

She shook her head when she remembered that only two people out of the nine fighting did not have Bagworm in their arsenal.

_"Suzume."_

"I honestly know."

Even with most of the fighters using Bagworm, Mei was still able to know what to do. Suzume knew that something was coming from having already gotten the Rhythm of the battlefield while moving through it. It was due to her Side Effect and being on the battlefield that she knew this.

_But..._

But...

_Mei-san honestly is sitting behind a monitor. The fact she can tell something like that while I still lagged behind by a few seconds is really telling how much of a difference there is between the two of us. As agents, as Side Effect holders, and as women._

She felt the sting of her own words.

Yet she continued to smile.

The reason was clear.

_I cannot win if I'm honestly not myself. My dances are pitiful when I compare myself to others. Even if she is perfect, I am honestly great! Even if she is loved by everyone, I am loved by the goddess of entertainment! Ame-no-Uzume is always smiling at me! Especially when I show my great and wonderful defenses!_

The strange girl grinned to herself while checkng around her surroundings.

_Yes! I am honestly pumped up now!_

"Heh heh heh~ Let's have some fun~ Let's honestly get started!"

.

Suzume loosened her body while on the tree branch.

She started to lean forward while feeling the wind's Rhythm change in a different direction. It no longer moved freely in a single direction, blowing through the artificial trees. Instead, it was forced to move aside as something cut through it.

From her position in the air, she noticed the Trion shots collide with the branch she had previously been on. The cracking of the false wood was heard as if to distract her from the next attack that followed.

More shots had been fired to follow the first ones.

She moved her upper-body to the side, forcing the rest of her body to follow along due to the force. The shots had passed by her stomach, back, and legs. Each missing by a small margin that was difficult to adjust to while in the air.

A third attack followed. This time it was a single girl with two blades.

It became more difficult to block this attack while still recovering from the shots fired at her.

"Heh heh heh~"

"What!?"

Suzume smiled as the blades came closer to her.

She seemed to be ready with a Shield appearing in front of the blade.

She gave another laugh as the first blade made contact. It hit the wall in front of it yet yielded no results. Instead of cutting through her body, the blade had been stopped by a concentrated shield that appeared between the two of them.

The shield started to twist until it clamped down on the sword, keeping it from moving. Once she knew that the first blade had struck and had been captured, Suzume continued her mid-air rotation. Unlike a moment ago, she now had something following along with her movement.

.

The mid-air dance had surprised Maya as she was forced to the side.

The force of her attack had been stopped and now she was forced to move one way. It was unexpected as no one would start such an odd action while in the middle of a fight against two opponents.

_Is this the difference between top tier and mid tier? Are we that far behind?_

She couldn't help the pessimistic thought that had suddenly appeared from missing her target.

No. Her attack has not missed. Her attacked had been taken in as if embraced in a hug by someone who was more use to fighting than she was. It had not been arms that embraced her, instead it had been a shield, yet it held the same meaning.

_Even that's wrong. It's not that she's more use to fighting than me. She's just use to taking care of others. This is probably an extension of that. She "took in" my attack, not even seeing it as much of a threat._

It had only been a few days since Kotowari Squad had fixed themselves up to be presentable once more. For her to be this out classed from the start was something that she was not fully prepared for.

"Heh heh heh~"

She heard the dancing girl let out another laugh and came to a different conclusion.

_Nope... Nope. This is just the difference between a crazy person and a sane person! I'm still doing great for the start of the match! This girl is just plain crazy!_

She unwaveringly remembered something.

_Oh... Is this how the others feel when I really go out of my way?_

Feeling a sense of pity for her team, Maya clicked her tongue while preparing for the landing that was coming up.

She tried to use the forced rotation by moving her body in the same direction. This way it would put Suzume off balance while she would make a full turn for the fourth attack.

Yet...

_"Maya! Get out of the way!"_

Hearing the voice of her teammate, Maya did as she was told.

Instead of waiting for the full rotation, she forced herself into a rapid spin while pushing off of the shield. The blade she had used to attack had been freed from the clamp of the shield and now she was hurtling towards the ground faster than she should have been.

It was difficult to see while in the rapid spin, but she saw it nevertheless. A green line tore through the air where she had been before started to disappear as if it had never been there.

_Laser-Shooter!?_

She felt her back crash into the tree behind her.

The moment her butt touched the ground a shot had been fired directly at her.

She tumbled out of the way but still ended up getting hit on her side.

Another laser-like beam shot through the air, forcing her to her feet and to move away from that spot at all cost.

* * *

[That doesn't look good.]

[After having her first attacks stopped by Agent Misaki and her amazing defense, Captain Tsukiko is now forced into a retreat! It seems that Captain Kotowari had also met up with his teammate to fire a counterattack that seems to be getting to Tsukiko Squad!]

[It was a mistake to think that Misaki-senpai wouldn't be ready for a close-range fight. Even so...]

Even so...

[That kind of mid-air maneuver is hard to accomplish. She had to move from the shots fired beforehand into a defense against Tsukiko-senpai.]

[I hate that I know this much...]

[Hm? Do you know something, Narasaka-san?]

Narasaka looked towards the screen with an irritated expression.

[Yes. It is because she had already started "dancing" the moment she stopped to look around. I don't know what exactly that entails, but I have heard some things from Akane and Satori before about her "dances".]

[Oh? I knew that she would dance on stage to entertain others, but never knew she would do that during a battle. Does it have to do with her Side Effect?]

[Yes. From what I heard... "She can only be caught by those she wishes to wither away for." Or something like that. It's what Akane had told me before.]

[Does that have anything to do with her wide range of defense?]

[No. That kind of defense is just her being a crazy woman. No one would think of keeping their opponents closer to them using Shield to trap their opponent like that.]

.

"That is a bit of an exaggeration. No one can say something so arrogant like that without properly showing what they can do. It was likely that she outsmarted her opponent and prepared properly instead of doing some kind of dance."

Girikage Kasei looked towards the large screen with puffed out cheeks and a chin held in the air.

He looked over to the person sitting next to him to see if he would get a response.

"Not that your sister didn't try heard enough."

"It's fine. I know you don't meant anything bad by saying that. But we can't really judge things for ourselves when he don't really know what it's like to actually fight."

Tsukiko Kaede smiled towards the younger boy.

"Thank you for the kind words though."

Kaede and Kasei had gone to the Border base to see the fight the former had been told about from his sister. It was a bit difficult to figure out the directions, but the two had managed to find their way into the room and into their seats before the match started.

Now here they were, watching as Kaede's older sister was stopped by a strange woman.

They had a hard time keeping up with the action since they had not been use to a real life battle like this. It felt as if they had missed important parts of the starting battle that would be able to fill in any questions for them.

"From what my brother had said about that women..."

Kaede looked back towards Kasei. The younger boy had a worried looked on his face as he spoke.

"She is hard for others to deal with. Both personality-wise and fighting-wise."

He then added,

"He doesn't feel that way personally though. My brother is too lackluster for that kind of thing."

Kaede knew what was happening.

The younger boy was trying to be an adult by fixing his words. It worked well enough for appearances, but it was clear that he was actually worried for Kaede's older sister.

Maybe it was that he was worried for Kaede himself. Seeing his sister being stopped by such a strange defense may have some sort of impact on a younger mind who was not use to fighting others the way those girls were.

He decided that it was best to think that Kasei was just worried about his sister instead.

 _It was fine to worry for a friend's family_ , Kaede thought.

This match held nothing like life or death over it, but it did not mean there was no meaning to it in the first place.

The current match was a way for the three teams to test themselves against the ones they viewed as equals in both combat and as people. This test was to determine if they had gotten passed some sort of hurdle that prevented them from moving forward with themselves.

Kaede and Kasei, while not even being Border agents themselves, responded in kind by watching as serious observers who would try to think about what was going on as if it were a real battle that determined the future.

That was what this match meant for those involved.

* * *

_I just need to hold off until Suzume-senpai handles her task. I should focus on taking at least one of them out and think of other things later. Having her help would be nice in case something happens, but I need to think of this as if I am fighting them myself right now._

Takeshi let out some air through his nose.

Noticing some rustling of leaves to the side, he put up a Shield to block the shots going for his head.

The rustling of the leaves may have been intended to cover up the follow up attack from the two blades circling around the trees beyond his vision. That attack had also been noticed and effectively stopped by firing a laser-like beam in the direction of the second attack.

_"Mei-san, how close are the other two to their targets?"_

_"Suzume is the most likely to encounter her opponents first. Toby drew the short straw by being the farthest one from his targets. As for the wildcard... She has yet to be found by either one."_

Takeshi felt something in his chest as he thought about their current situation.

This match was their test, so he needed to see it as such by following through with his thoughts and worries as their captain. It may have just been for appearances, but he was indeed their current captain.

Acting like such was what was needed at the moment.

_Breathe. Just breathe and relax. There's no reason to get so tense during a fight. It will slow me down and force be back into some bad habits._

He lowered his shoulder and loosened his face while creating another defense against shots fired at him.

_No one has found Shashin yet. She can fight from up close and at a distance. We need to get her out now. The best way to do that is probably to draw her out with a show. She is the type of person who puts her enjoyment over other things._

"In that case..."

He held his hand to his ear while firing another laser-like beam.

"Suzume-senpai, you're up."

Multiple orbs started to form around him before starting to circling around as if orbiting him.

"Toby, I'll be setting up the stage for you."

.

From their position a meter away, Asano Eri and Tsukiko Amaya watched as Takeshi spoke to his teammates. It was hard to hear or see what he was saying.

"He's not letting up. I suppose this is to be expected from someone like him. I have no time to fulfill the requirements here. If I can't fire these in real time then we'll be worn down shortly."

"Hey Eri, switch to just a full out assault. I can keep away from the lasers and keep his attention long enough for you to get some hits. It'll give you some time to focus."

"Alright, but don't you dare Bail Out on me. I'll really be in trouble then."

"Sure thing."

The two of them knew just as much about Takeshi and his style as he did with them. It had been a double-sided show by the captains of Kotowari Squad and Tsukiko Squad during that time. This had given both sides an opportunity to understand what they would be fighting against soon.

Both Maya and Eri were well aware that they lacked power when compared to the Laser-Shooter, but they understood that winning would require more than just power. It would take strategy and timing for them to get through this.

That was where they were as a team.

"Let's get going then. The longer we wait, the harder it's going to be for us to get anywhere in this fight."

As the two were about to go into action they saw that the orbs had changed from firing laser-like beams to simply floating around the boy as if orbiting him.

This simple action had caused both to raise their guards.

_What is he doing? If he stops firing then we will be given the chance to attack him. Unless..._

There was only one explaination as to why someone like Takeshi would halt his attack and put himself in a more vulnerable position.

_Is he going to..._

Eri could see it.

The orbs orbiting the boy started to shimmer for a second.

Then...

"-!"

Eri was quick to react to the sudden attack by forcing herself and her captain to the ground.

Five laser-like beams had been fried in five directions. The power behind them seemed to be Asteroid as they tore through both the air and the trees with little regard as to who was there. The destruction was a complete deforestation that created an open view by turning the lasers so that they circled around him and cut down the trees they had not initially hit.

_Did he go back to when he was a monster!? This attack can hit his Sniper!_

That was incorrect and Eri found herself being disappointed in her quick conclusion. She knew that he was better than that now.

_No. This kind of attack seemed much more focused._

"Kuni, how far does his attack reach?"

"The radius is large, but the attack is just short of reaching Misaki," Kuni answered back.

Takeshi had taken into account the distance of his own team to make sure that he would not be able to shoot through them just to get to the targets.

The attack may not have even been to take anyone out, instead to just clear his vision so that he would be able to see where his opponents were hiding.

* * *

_Nice going there, Take!_

Suzume smiled when she saw a laser-like beam reached just under where she stood on a tree branch.

She continued to smile as he brought out a Scorpion blade that wrapped around her middle finger as it replaced her Bagworm.

She was not visible on everyone's radars.

"Mei-san, would you honestly mind helping me out here? I'm just gonna get in a quick hit for all of this irritation I have."

_"Give me a second... Alright. I gave you all the possibilities that there are. Oh, but I cut it short with the most likely ones and the ones that most likely won't happen."_

"Well the answer is obvious, now isn't it?"

She gave no hesitation as she lifted her Lightning, firing it at the tree in front of her.

The choice had been correct as Shirogane was quick to jump away from her spot. The prince-like female was quick to change directions the moment her feet touched another branch.

The action was halted when Suzume had teleported in front of her, Scorpion ready to strike.

"Welcome, my queen."

Not wanting to follow in her opponent's pace, Shirogane brought up a shield to defend while lifting her own sniping Trigger. She fired her own shot while defending the close-range attack. The Ibis shots she fired missed by a close margin due to some mid-air dance.

The tree behind the target had been blown away from the attack.

Suzume smiled whole keeping her balance in the air. She used Shirogane's shield as a springboard to push herself back. The tree behind her shifted as she landed on it, swaying a bit to maintain her balance.

It was clear that this would quickly become a battle of attrition.

Knowing as much, she used the tree she was on to jump higher into the air to gain some higher ground. All the while her swaying never stopped.

The whole time she had managed to keep herself moving to maintain her pace as the fight went on. It had been a comfort for her to know that her dance could continue after everything that had happened to her.

"Heh heh heh~ I feel even better than before. My dance is honestly better than ever."

She let out a breath through her nose.

_Let's see... Mei-san said she would honestly use anything around to help her when fighting. So..._

Jumping down from the branch, Suzume purposely made herself more vulnerable.

This had been another part of her dance. It got to the low point right before the climax came. For such a thing to happen, she needed to make herself vulnerable to everything around her. This would all her to be protected by everything.

"Now..."

She spoke softly as she noticed the changing Rhythm of the battlefield around her.

.

Multiple shots had been fried from multiple directions around Suzume, coming in like a full chorus from surround speakers. They forced the battlefield to change its Rhythm to match that of the attack and keep itself in tact.

Suzume saw this all and reacted accordingly.

Her body started to rotate to the side. Her feet extended outward and her head moved to the side. A Scorpion blade came from the bottom of her foot, stabbing into a nearby tree. Using the rotation she had created and the swaying motion to keep her balance, she started to circle around the tree using the blade stabbed into the tree as her center point.

The shots fired went passed the rotating body and crashing into a different tree.

Suzume continued her rotation as she let go of the tree.

She pushed off the tree with a Scorpion blade around her middle finger.

Her attack had been for Shirogane, who had seemed to be mesmerized by the dance happening in front of her. Once the girl figured out what was happening, she gave herself to gravity and bag an to fall towards the ground.

She lifted her Trigger to fire at Suzume from the air.

.

_"Hey, So-bō, how far is Buki-ko from me?"_

_"She should be close by. If you can hold out for a little longer then you should be fine._ "

"I suppose I don't have much of a choice. I will continue this dance with my queen. It's really an honor."

Shirogane smiled as she moved back to get out of view of her current partner.

She was fully aware of how dances with Suzume went. The two of them were already in the middle of the dance. There was no chance for her to escape from it anymore now that she was properly incorporated into the dance in the forest.

From the moment the two had met, Shirogane had wanted to be involved in a dance with the honest girl but found that she had never been able to bring herself to ask for one. It had created a gap between the two of them where one would shine like a glorious star in the night sky while the other stuck to the ground, admiring that star from a great distance.

_I never thought I would be able to do this. I'll make sure to savor each part of it like it will never happen again. My queen, do you even know how happy I am to be doing this right now? No. After all, your focus isn't on me... I'm not the one who is going to be taking the stage with you. This is just a practice session for the other one._

She gave a bitter smile as she was forced back with a few small holes in her arms and chest.

_The one who will be sharing your stage is another person who can shine in the dark._

Something came crashing down from above the two.

It got between the two while cleanly cutting through a branch.

Shirogane let out a received sigh as the thing started to stand up.

"Sorry I'm late~! Minubuki-sama takes center stage!"

The rocker girl wasted no time in advancing forward for an attack.

Shirogane moved back as her teammate moved forward. Both fired their shots towards the dancing queen who stood at the summit where they tried to reach.

Their initial attacks had missed by some roasting and swaying as if a dance was truly being performed. The way the moves came started to make Shirogane realize that they truly were on a stage controlled by the queen herself.

When Minubuki got close enough to use the Kōgetsu at her waist, Shirogane made sure to focus on where Suzume's feet would touch to get the timing right for an attack.

It became more difficult to tell when Suzume moved on light feet as she used her weaker blade to stop the sturdier one from the rocker girl. Each step that was taken lasted for only a brief moment before going back into the air to continue the dance that sometimes took to the air and used the trees around them for it.

Shirogane knew what it meant to dance on the stage with the one who stood on the summit.

_So beautiful._

* * *

[Amazing! Even as she faces off against two opponents with no backup, Agent Misaki continues to fight while seeming to be fine! And is she...dancing?]

[That is likely due to her Side a effect and her natural talent with cultural arts. It's annoying to see it, but she really is tough when she starts to enjoy herself in a fight.]

Narasaka lowered his eyebrows as he watched the dance being performed on the screen.

[It is both a good and bad thing.]

[ _..._ ]

[...]

[Hm?]

.

Kodera had to wonder just how his upperclassman had managed to not notice his words towards the girl he hated. It was always amazing to see their interaction, but he really did wish they would not argue so much around him since he would end up in the middle of it at times.

This would most likely lead to another argument later on with him in the middle once again.

_And then there is him..._

"Ah~! Shirogane-chan and Shashin are so lucky to be dancing with Suzu-chan~! I think I'll ask her for a dance myself afterwards. I still have some backup material to give her as payment for times."

Satori Ken had been watching the fight intensely with most of his remarks being about Suzume's fights and a few about Tsukiko Squad's troubles with the Laser-Shooter.

The two had sat together since it gave the both of them someone to talk to should anything come up, but Kodera had yet to get a word in edgewise since Satori had been speaking for the both of them for the better part of the match.

He knew there was nothing he could actually do to get a word in against the other Sniper.

"Heh heh heh~ I am truly glad to see you are still rooting for her, Satori-kun. I truly do appreciate it."

The two sniper boys looked over to see a mature woman looking towards them with a kind smile.

She was familiar to them as the mother of the dancing girl on the screen.

"Oh! Mama Misaki-san! Hello!"

.

"Hello, Satori-kun, Kodera-kun," Seihana said as she took a seat next to the two. "I am truly sorry. I hope you two do not mind if I sit here."

"Not at all."

"So you came to see your new and improved daughter?"

Seihana gave a laugh towards the enthusiastic question from Satori.

She knew what he had meant by that and felt like it would still be best to answer.

The two of them were good boys in her eyes.

"Yes. I was truly going to bring my other daughter but she caught a cold."

The truthful mother lowered her eyebrows when she thought about her serious daughter in her bed with a red face. It seemed like such a terrible thing when she came to watch her honest daughter dancinging around and having fun.

There was nothing more she could do for her serious daughter at the moment except have someone watch over her.

_Does this make me a terrible mother? I truly want to be there for both of my children, but I do believe leaving my youngest with someone else right now truly makes me a terrible mother._

Seihana gave a sad hum.

"Mama Misaki-san?"

She looked over to Satori and smiled once more.

_He truly is a good boy._

A mother was always prepared to make sure children would not have to worry about her. She knew this and so fixed herself up while turning back to the large screen in front of them.

Her honest daughter continue to move around in her dance that seemed to have incorporated some Rock elements into it to match her opponent's Rhythm and balance.

"So how is my honest daughter doing? From a mother's perspective it looks like she is having fun. But I can only say that as an observer. You boys will truly know how she is as a fighter after all."

"Uh... She has given up her position as a Sniper to fight close-range at the moment. Her opponent's are Shor Squad's Sniper and one of their All-Rounders. She looks like she's holding out well enough since she has taken less hits when compared to the two bodies she is fighting against."

"Kodera-kun. You truly are a wonderful boy. Thank you for explaining it in a simple way for me."

"N-no! No! It's fine! I was just doing what you had asked for!"

Seihana gave a soft laugh at the blushing boy.

She made a mental note to have her honest daughter bring him some nice flowers later on. Free of charge.

* * *

_Almost there. I'm almost to the best stage. Toby honestly needs to thank us for doing this for him. He would probably do well enough in the trees, what with his Side Effect, but this stage is also nice for him._

Suzume gave a "Heh heh heh" as she moved back with a large leap.

She had a few holes lining her body as moved.

_Boo~ I honestly couldn't get too much into my dance because I know Narasaka is watching. Damn. Next time for sure. That is when I will fully be at the summit._

Her job had been to take car of the Sniper of one of the opposing teams. She was managing that well enough, but also had to deal with someone who had a sporadic Rhythm that slammed everything down with each attack.

Unlike the changing Rhythms of Yuki, Kirikari, and Murakami, Minubuki had a Rhythm that would change at times, but stay the same in nature. It was a static Rhythm that tried to overpower everything it came in contact with by forcing other Rhythms to bow down to it.

Suzume was well aware of the Rhythms of every other person fighting, but this one was always one that tried to overtake her own.

_Lovely. It's always lovely to honestly see it try to take over my own. She has yet to reach the summit, so I still stand at the top, above her. But she is honestly getting there._

.

Minubuki pushed forward by firing some shots from her gun while bringing forward her best arm to swing her Kōgetsu down. The attack had synchronized with some sniper fire from behind her.

The strange girl had defended against the shots by using a shield. Kōgetsu was pushed back by the middle finger wrapped in Scorpion that seemed more like a stinger than a blade.

"Hm... Fine. I'll honestly let one of you have this. If only because I want to see how Toby does against those two."

"Suzucchi is crazy as ever! Minubuki-sama loves that so much!"

Minubuki felt herself lean forward and had to wonder why.

_Oh._

She looked to the side to see the strange girl walking passed her as she started to fall towards the ground. A severed arm was falling before she was.

_Huh? Did Suzucchi give up her arm so she could get away from Minubuki?_

She felt something touch her back, pushing her forward before she could regain her balance from the fall.

The strange girl had used her back as a springboard to reach her real target. This left Minubuki falling without enough time to defend her teammate.

There was a quick sound from behind her and in front of her.

.

Suzume took the loss with grace as she moved forward while bringing out her Lighting.

Shirogane had seen her coming and Minubuki was busy falling towards the ground. It was the best time to finish her lackluster dance by walking off stage with her partner. This would be the end of their first dance to make way for the two shows that would follow.

"Heh heh heh~ Let's honestly see where our teams take us."

Suzume looked passed Shirogane to use Teleport.

She continued to smile as she fired her Lightning forward towards the prince-like girl's head.

In return, she saw the prince-like girl lift her own Trigger towards her face and fire.

And then...

**Trion relay system damaged. Bail Out.**

**Trion limit exceeded. Bail Out.**

**.**

By the time Minubuki caught her balance and turned to help her teammate the fight had finished.

Two lights flashed and raced in different directions.

"Boo! Minubuki-sama wanted to play some more! Don't take that away from her!"

"-"

The rocker girl was quick in her response to the feeling that came from behind her.

She twisted her body to that her legs were pushing off the ground while her upper-body was faving the side. She had brought up her Kōgetsu to block the attack from the wild animal who had appeared behind her as if to take her head.

A smiled grew on her face as she looked towards the head of brown that was trapped under a hat.

"Lobo!"

The moment the name came from her mouth, the boy was gone from where he stood.

She responded by turning around, expecting the attack to come from behind again.

But...

"-"

"Can't let you do that!"

A clash had happened just above her head.

Minubuki moved back as the two bodies hit the ground with their feet.

Her own captain had saved her from the attack that appeared above her head instead of behind her back.

Noah had grabbed a hold of Toby's arm, making sure the other boy would not be able to teleport away so easily again.

Minubuki saw this as her change to back up her captain.

She moved to the side, using her legs to push off of one of the many stumps that was around. It was clear that something had happened to cause the deforestation around them. Trees lay about the area with stumps showing where the trees had once been.

The attacks that must have happened to cause this had been on her mind. Although they were pushed aside to continue the fight without distractions.

_Now!_

She ignored the destruction around her to assist her captain.

It would be another point for them, even if they would lose another one themselves. It would provide a major advantage for them.

That was how it should have been.

"-!?"

Minubuki was confused when she saw her own body from a foot away. It was upside down and starting to fall to the ground with cracks running along the top and reaching her body. It was an odd sight to see when attacking someone else.

Then the entire scene came into view.

She saw her body. She saw the sky and the ground. She saw the deforestation. She saw Lobo and her captain. She saw the girl. She saw the scythe. She saw the reason as to why she lost.

"Oh. Hey there, Sha-chan."

**Trion relay system severed. Bail Out.**

.

Toby watched as a point escaped him.

"I'll see you later, Minu."

A girl with a large scythe had came by and taken the head of his target. The point he had been going for went to the girl instead.

She turned back to the two boys, forcing them to split apart and move back to an even distance.

He looked from the goggles boy to the scythe girl.

"It's about time. I got the worst draw of the straws, so this took longer than I wanted."

"Yeah. That was also my bad. I ended up taking a detour, thinking I could catch Takeshi when he was getting chased by Eri and Maya."

"Well, we're here now, so..."

Toby raised an eyebrow when he saw both the boy and the girl turn towards him.

"Let's take out Lobo!"

A twitch.

Toby could feel something bubble up in his mind as he heard the new name from two more people.

It started to make sense.

He formed two blades in his hand while crouching down a bit, mimicking the stance of an animal ready to catch its prey.

"Alright... I'll be taking two points now!"


	42. American

Taiyōko Hoshi watched with held breath as the dancers on the forest stage left in flashes of light to make way for the next event.

Instead of those who had elegant and smashing steps, wild ones who opposed each other were now standing on the open stage. Decorations lay around in the form of fallen trees and stumps. It had taken a good portion of the screen with another moving stage being broadcasted on the other side of the screen.

That stage had started to move from a forest stage that held lush trees to a cityscape that no longer had dirt and grass but cement and weeds growing about with buildings taking over for the trees that were left behind.

The second stage had three performers on it. The first was her classmate who had been called Laser-Shooter by others due to his use of his Trigger by the same name. Following him were two girls, each with their own determination evident on their expressions with the one who held the blades moving forward for attacks while the other girl prepared shots to fire.

"This really is amazing. We are the same age and part of the same organization yet..."

Yet...

"Kotowari-kun and Awdry-kun are able to fight on such grand stages with others who they view as equals. Something like that must take a lot of confidence. Enough to go against those new models that had appeared in front of us that day."

She thought of her own helplessness during that time and what could have happened if their teacher had not stepped in to save them.

_I am now a part of the Yagura Branch under Akasora-sensei... Oh. No. It is just Akasora-san now. He has been really down when I call him that though, so I am unsure what to do concerning him anymore. I should ask Kushi-nee and Mu-nii at some point if they have any tips to give concerning that._

_Oh. But that is off topic. I was thinking that I am still so powerless even when put together with such strong people. Even Tenryū-kun and his friends seem to be doing better than I ever could._

She touched the object in her hair, given to her by an upperclassmen who seemed to care for everyone.

She had worn it every day as if it was a charm that would give her some power.

"I suppose someone who only has the appearance of a princess can do as little as possible. What good are appearances when I cannot fight on par with those who treat me so well?"

"Well that's an interesting question. I didn't think I would hear such pessimistic words come from you, Hime."

Hoshi turned her head at the voice next to her.

Minoru was looking at the screen in front of him - looking at the two stages - while speaking to the girl who thought nothing of herself.

"Would you mind if I sat with you?"

"A-ah! No! Not at all! Please!"

She was quick to move over a seat, letting the older boy take her former seat next to the isle. This had been meant for his legs to have room to stretch should he need it.

Minoru took the seat with a smile before turning his attention away from the screen and towards her.

"Is this match giving you problems?"

"Huh? But I am not fighting."

"I meant with your thoughts. I had been sitting near the top when I saw you with a worried look on your face. Are you worried about your classmates? It's fine if you are. It's natural to worry about the people you care about."

Hoshi knew those words far too well.

Even if she did not like them, she knew it was rude not to respond to them.

"No... It is not that. I am..."

She looked towards the screen once more and noticed some movement from the forest stage where the wild ones gathered.

_Shor-kun is in a neighboring class. I should speak with him when I have the chance._

"I am just wondering what exactly it takes to be on a stage like that. Kotowari-kun, Awdry-kun... Even Shor-kun. They do not look like they have changed. Even though they went through a lot because of Yuki-senpai... No. He really is Kiyo-nii... Oh. My apologies."

"Go at your own pace."

She thanked him from her heart.

"Well... When we are in school compared to now... They are amazing. They are never afraid of putting themselves out there and showing just how strong they are. That alone is something to praise. Then they show that they really do have the strength to pull off whatever feat they are trying to reach. I am just... I am with them. I am in their class. I am with them when we need to team up at school. Yet I am nothing when compared to those kinds of people."

Her mind told her to stop before she could bring herself down. The beating of her heart was a sign to go on.

It may not have been the time or place for it, but she felt like she could learn something by saying these things out loud to someone who knew the same people she did.

"I have the appearance of someone important, but I lack the ability to do anything for others. Kotowari-kun and Awdry-kun are usually told they lack things when it comes to appearances, but they have a great amount of ability to accomplish things for both themselves and others."

.

Minoru gave a mental "Ah" when hearing what he was being told.

The girl next to him was someone he had only recently met when passing by the R&D department in Border's main base of operation. He had recognized the girl as someone who both Mei and Murakami spoke about before. Inukai had also mentioned her some time ago.

Now that he had gotten to know her just a bit better, he understood why her words sounded so sad.

_I understand how it feels to be powerless._

He knew well how it felt and was quick to realize that what she was feeling was a misguided version of it. There was no true harm in the words of someone who did not know what the other did, so he forgave her for what she had said.

"I see. Well it's good thing that you came to watch Kotowari Squad fight then."

The girl looked towards him once more.

He had turned his head to face the screen once more. The girl's eyes were not missed though, making him even more grateful that she was a good person with an honest heart and a good head on her shoulders.

"Toby had asked me to train him. He was actually nervous about the whole thing, something I haven't seen at all from him. He is usually so upbeat and going at his own pace that others tend to get dragged into it, whether they realize it or not. It's not a bad thing, but it is sometimes hard to handle."

Minoru gave a chuckle at the times when he had been absorbed by the energy the smaller boy had given off at times. There had only been a few people who could fully keep up with him outside of fights.

"Well," he began again, "he had also asked if we could wait for that training until after this match. Those two... Those three are lumped together as the American Trio by some people. It was a bit funny when they learned about that. They took it gladly, but it was still amusing that they did so that quickly. They view each other as equals, even when others see it differently."

"Differently? How so?"

"They only take their skills and power into consideration. If we are just looking at that, Fuzzy Head is technically the best due to his Side Effect alone. It outclasses both Noah-kun and Shana-chan's Side Effects. They are not pushovers by any means, but Fuzzy Head also has some backing from learning how to properly fight from Loki. Even so, they never see it like that."

These words were not his own.

There had been multiple times when Toby had complained to him how others viewed the three of them in such a strange light when there was no real difference between them.

It was always amazing how modest such a wild boy could be.

"Like I said; they view each other as equals. Not because they all come from the same country or because they all have Side Effects. It's because they realize they all have a lot of leaning to do as people and Border agents who want to help others. The same can be said for you. You are still relatively new, right? So that means you can be viewed as equal to either one of those two you mentioned. All three of you still have things to learn."

Minoru had not expected to give a small lecture to anyone else while watching the current match. The intent had been to see how far Toby was so that he could properly come up with a good schedule for their training.

When he saw the look he got from the girl, it made his words worth it. They seemed to stick deep within the girl, taking root and waiting for the right time to fully bloom into something amazing. It created a nice feeling in him.

"I see. Thank you very much for those words, Hatohara-senpai."

"Minoru is fine enough."

He gave a smile in her direction while keeping to the screen.

"Now then. Let's see what will happen here. Even from just watching, you can learn a lot when others are fighting."

* * *

It was not hard to see how things were unfair.

Trion, attack, defense, support, mobility, skill, range. Those were all internal factors to take into consideration when fighting with others who could use tactics. That was fair enough when all participants on the wild stage were close to each other in all those internal factors. The odd one out would have been "Lobo" who had the lowest score.

When the internal factors were taken into consideration and plans were made, external factors would have to be added it. Any surrounding forces would need to be added on with the internal factors that each person was responsible for. That had been left up to "Lobo" and his team to decide.

Once the internal and external factors were taken in then a final side factor had to be added into the mix. It was not something that could be worked on like internal factors and not something that could be chosen like external factors. It was a random factor that would attach itself to a person when their Trion was high enough to do so.

Side Effect.

A Side Effect would come to those who had high enough Trion and manifest in a multitude of ways ranging from things like foresight, super calculation, and lie detecting to enhanced hearing, echolocation, and intimidation. It was rare enough to where your average person would most likely not have one.

Yet the ones who stood on the wild stage shared that in common as well. Each held a form of ability that normal people would not be capable of under normal circumstances going about their lives. They had all been classified as enhancements by the ones who helped to ascertain that knowledge.

That was where it became unfair.

.

Noah Shor was well aware of where he was was placed when it came to the three of them.

His Side Effect of enhanced sense of balance had him squished between Shana's enhanced eyesight and Toby's enhanced reflexes. It made him able to stay close to either one of them as someone who could specialize in both offense and defense.

Knowing what to do against his two opposites, he shifted his position while moving his blade. The Kōgetsu blade that was in his left hand got tossed to his right as he pulled the Trigger holder for Kōgetsu out and held it in his left hand.

_Distance is what matters in this fight. The two of them are only good at close range fights. The issues comes in that Tobio has Teleport and Shay has reach with her scythe._

He knew there was more.

Toby specialized in short and decisive battles. His use of Teleport and Scorpion in tandem with his Side Effect made fights easy enough for him. Striking the vital spots of an unsuspecting person and beating them down with sheer power had always been his go-to tactics.

Shana usually had the assistance of her teammates due to her Trigger's weight slowing her down. It left too many openings for others to take advantage of when in battle. Those spots would be covered by her teammates most of the time.

_One can cover the distance in an instant and the other has enough reach to attack for a solid hit._

Then there was him.

.

Power was her specialty.

Shana knew that her specialty was terrible when it came to both Toby and Noah.

She was aware of Toby's Side Effect being a hard counter to her. He did not need to think when he moved away from her attacks. There was a chance for her, a weakness that she knew of better than most people, but that was hard to exploit when he was hard enough to catch.

The other problem was Noah.

The balanced boy specialized in a mix between offense and defense, transitioning between the two at will and never losing a moment due to his Side Effect. It was hard to keep up when he would never be at a loss of balance even when there was no footing for him.

_This is just on me this time. I wanted this as much as they did, so none of us have any room to complain._

She knew her weakness well enough and knew that her Side Effect was not the best when compared to the other two. That should have been enough pressure to force her into retreat and regroup with her teammates.

But...

_Like hell I'll be backing down from a fight with these two._

Shana grinned as she prepared her next course of action.

.

It was strange.

_Am I really that slow? Have they gotten faster?_

Toby shifted his feet on a stump, feeling around his leg and toes to check if he had somehow taken a hit when he wasn't looking.

_No hits taken. So then how did that happen?_

He had started thinking about how he had been stopped by Noah a moment ago. It was not unusual for him to be caught like that when it came to those above up on skill. Tachikawa, Midorikawa, Murakami, Inukai, Minoru, Yuki, and even Suzume, had been able to grab his hand at some point, but that had been either because they were faster than him or skilled enough to predict how he moved and react and the exact moment he extended his arm out.

Noah, while being fast and skilled in his own right, had yet to properly grab his hand while fighting and instead only grazed him at best. It was baffling how the previous action had managed to hold him back when his Side Effect would normally have protected him from any sort of contact.

_It's messed up of me to think so poorly of the guy, but it's the truth. My Side Effect is better and more versatile than he is. He shouldn't have reached me before I either teleported away or dodged the grab._

But...

_That's what happened. Going over everything again, I can start to see it. I was right with my first assumption. I am getting slower and they are getting faster. They are getting stronger while I stay stagnant. They build up defense while I can only try to dodge._

He tightened his grip on both Scorpion blades that had been created in his grasp.

_I became too damn reliant on my Side Effect!_

.

There was no signal. There was not even a way for them to all agree on it. Yet it happened as smoothly as of planned out by the three of them.

The wild ones rushed forward.

Noah was the first to use what was in his arsenal by placing a blue plate on the ground in front of himself.

The moment he stopped on it he was shot forward with speed that exceeded the other two. That speed made it hard to change course when he was so close to the ones he was suppose to attack. It also gave away that his target had been the one nicknamed "King of Currumpaw," who was fully aware of the forward attack toward him.

In return, Toby had brought us his arms in preparation for the incoming attack.

A clash between the two of them would force both to halt all movement to reorganize themselves. It would take him longer to do so since Noah's balance would never falter for a moment. It left him in the worst position where he would fall victim to an extra attack.

Noah had been well aware of that as well during his initial push forward. The facts were that the battle would go in an obvious direction if he continued forward with the intent to attack his animalistic friend.

"So then..."

"Of course you would do that!"

Noah grinned as he passed by Toby and used his shoulder as a springboard.

Once in the air, he used the extra time he had to place another blue plate in the air. The moment his feet touched the blue plate he was pushed forward once more. This time his goal was the moment when both Toby and Shana would collide due to the altered attack.

.

Shana had been unprepared for the sudden change in flow of the battle. She had fully intended on attacking both boys at once. If that did not work, hitting Toby would have been a nice alternative.

"!"

She was put into the worst position.

Noah had an aerial view and multiple angles to attack and Toby used his reflexes to twist himself while still moving forward. This put him in a position where he could keep moving while being able to defend against Noah.

It was hard to move with her large Trigger. The weight kept her from moving as freely as the two boys near her.

She would be cut down right away.

_Damn it all! I didn't want to do this right away, but..._

.

Toby felt his body start to move on its own once more.

The initial attack from Noah had been clear and obvious. It got Shana starting to move in a way to attack whoever she wanted at the moment.

_But I got slower._

Noah had managed to use his shoulder to throw himself into the air while also forcing Toby's body closer to the ground. With his chest and head so close to the ground he had no option but to keep moving forward.

That movement put him off balance long enough for both Shana and Noah to prepare anything they had against him. That included the attack that was currently going for him at a pace that was impossible for the girl to be going at.

From his position near the ground, Toby could see what had caused the odd amount of speed and power that came from the girl.

_Grasshopper._

A blue plate had been placed where the scythe needed to pass by.

By placing the end of the scythe on the blue plate it had accelerated while being swung around using both arms.

Toby continued to twist his body by the command of his reflexes. He lowered his upper body even closer towards the ground, lifting his lower body at the same time. The moment his upper body started to pass under the accelerated scythe it started to come up, forcing his lower body to lower itself.

The odd worm-like motion created the opportunity to dodge the attack.

Even so...

"Not done!"

With little delay, the scythe was already coming background for another strike.

This time it seemed to be even faster, leaving a bit of a trail behind.

Toby clicked his tongue as he felt his body start to move again.

"!?"

It had been unexpected.

His body froze up after starting a movement. A twisting motion was starting while a flip was also starting from the legs up. The two started to contradict each other, forcing him into a moment of no movement at all.

The reason as to why his body had contradicted itself was currently moving towards them from the sky.

_Crap! I need to teleport!_

With Shana moving her scythe around at an accelerated speed that seemed to be increasing, Noah had been forgotten about for a moment. While the boy had left his mind for a moment, his reflexes moved to take him into consideration.

With the twisting motion being for Noah, who was now close to the ground as well, and the flip being for Shana, who had pushed Noah away after his hand landed on her Trigger, his body was unsure which one to deal with first. He did not need to take his power, defense, or speed into consideration when his reflexes were a factor. Yet those reflexes relied on his power, defense, and speed. That meant his lack of speed had forced his body to decide on which attack was more dangerous.

_Damn. This is making me more mad at myself for being an idiot for so long. I really need to fix myself later on._

Toby let out a small growl at himself.

He looked forward to see Noah and Shana gaining their bearings once again.

.

It was fair.

Noah noticed it in the first few moments of their fight. It showed a bit at the start, but this last action had made him completely sure as to what was happening. It was odd for the other boy in the fight to use Teleport as a means to escape.

_His selling points have always been his reflexes, speed and power. For him to use Teleport means that something conflicted with his Side Effect to force him to think about escaping instead of naturally doing so._

Noah let out some air in a snort.

_Oh my bad._

_When I think about it, that is basically how a dog works, isn't it? In this case, it would definitely be a wolf though. Yeah. Lobo was the right name for him. Although I'll stick to calling him Tobio. Only us two are allowed by him to do that._

He felt a sudden urge of pity for the other members of Kotowari Squad.

It was known how that team worked and how well they would get along when not going through something. They became a strong force when focusing on each other rather than themselves. Yet that was hardly ever the case with their respective fighting styles.

Kotowari Squad had lost their leader and were now in a state where they had no one to follow into battle. That left them free to fight their selfish fights and not worry about working together. It was both a good and bad thing given their personalities and fighting abilities.

Both Noah and Shana knew this well since they were rather familiar with the members of the team. Both of them had been told before by their canine-like friend that they were considered two of his best friends, something they were rather pleased with at the time. Besides him, the two knew at least one other member of that team well with Shana putting on some concerts with Suzume and Noah being on relatively good terms with Takeshi.

With the closeness of the three teams it was easy enough to tell when something was going on during a fight between them.

When the fight became truly fair.

Noah adjusted his goggles as he shifted his feet to a balance between offensive and defensive.

_Right. Shay looks like she's noticed it too. It's best to test it out and see where we stand at the moment._

_._

It had only been a small moment, but it seemed to be enough for the three fighters to gather themselves once more for a second bout.

The first action had come from Noah who, while seeming to be taking a neutral position, pushed forward. His target seemed to be shifting as his Kōgetsu blade was ready to strike while the holster for said Kōgetsu had been removed in order to defend at a moment's notice.

It was another stightforward attack that held an alternative in it that most people would be unable to notice unless having fought against it before.

Toby and Shana responded with their knowledge of this by focusing on their own positions.

Instead of waiting for the attack to reach him, Toby had moved forward as well, teleporting after a few steps forward with a Scorpion blade arleady in the action of stabbing.

The situation had forced him to change from a cutting and slashing motion to a pinpoint stab. It covered less of an area, but it gave him more chances to change directions and apply more force when attacking. It left him with a bit more defenseless should something come from his sides and back, but it was what had to be done.

Another drawback to the stabbing attack was that it was much more avoidable with its linear path giving the target a chance to respond. An attack like that would usually be followed up by a slashing attack once the target moved, losing some power but making up for it by leaving a gash in them.

 _There are always ways to cover your attacks before going in for one,_ Toby though as he extended his arm out.

With his use of Teleport it had left Noah with no possible way of evading the stabbing attack, meaning Toby would not have to give up any power to move into a slashing attack.

But...

"!"

"Tch!"

Toby released his body from his mind, letting his Side Effect to take charge by lifting his foot towards the rising Kōgetsu blade on his left side. Moving up front the foot, his leg got above it and was followed by his knee and thigh. The moment his leg was high enough in the air, he released the Scorpion blade in his hand and created one at the bottom of the opposite foot.

The Kōgetsu blade that was raised up to either attack or defend was pushed down and back by the Scorpion blade protruding from Toby's foot. The owners of the two blades had used their arm and leg respective to push each other back as a large blade made a crescent slash at the now empty air.

The scythe user did not stop in her movements, instead continuing her swing while placing a blue plate in her own path.

The moment the end of the scythe touched the blue plate it accelerated forward. Normally it would have shot forward due to the push by Grasshopper. It did no such thing as it was for fully guided by Shana, who used both of her arms to continue the swing movement, making the scythe continue to cut through the air.

Shana used the power and momentum from the scythe to move her body to the side. Her legs made continued stomps on the stumps and she turned around a few times. Each stomp was followed by a small leap towards a new stump.

The rotating blade moved from stump to stump until it got close enough to one of the two targets it had.

The power and speed had gotten to a point where it was keeping up with either target it went after.

.

Shana continued to focus on each step she took and each jump she made.

After multiple dance lessons with Suzume and Minubuki, she had started to understand how to move and maintain some kind of balance when being pushed or pulled. In this case it was both her pushing and being pulled.

_This is really difficult, but I'm somehow managing it. Suzume has told me to think of this kind of attack as a dance. In this case it would be me who is leading but following the tempo of someone else. I guide my weapon but follow it at the same time._

Mei had always been seen as a perfect person in the eyes of everyone who knew her, but Shana saw things differently after having spent an extensive amount of time with Suzume. The strange girl, while not being a role model by any means, was truly at the summit when in action. She became an unstoppable and perfect beauty once she had started moving.

Shana found that she had been lacking in multiple places when she compared herself to Toby's reflexes and Noah's speed, but when she saw Suzume on a stage it had always been a different yet similar matter.

The start of her dances and the build ups in them would always make her start to think about how far behind she was from everyone she knew. Her fellow Americans had advantages in their Side Effects, her fellow music girls had achievements as both musicians and Border agents, and her teammates were considered dual-aces while she was always the first one taken out. This created a pit in her that made things seem more dull.

_But the moment that build up ends, I always feel so free._

The chorus from the song and the movements from the dances were always things that seemed to get to her core. It forced the thoughts from the build up to destroy themselves so that they could make way for better ones.

If her fellow Americans had advantages in Side Effects, she would use hers to find their weaknesses. If her fellow music girls had achievements as both musicians and Border agents, she would try for her own at her own pace. Her two teammates were considered dual-aces, so she would continue to improve so that she could continue fighting with them for as long as possible.

By the end of the song and dance she would always smile towards the ones who continued to encourage her and help her move forward.

That was why she was giving this her all.

.

Something that had started to occurs by the viciously rotating blade was that it had started to slow down. The speed seemed to be leaving it as the girl controlling it found that she was coming to a slow halt that made no sense considering her great momentum and use of Grasshopper.

It was as she stopped that she noticed the reason for it.

"Grasshopper!?"

There had been multiple blue plates around her, hanging in the air. Each one was angled in a way where if someone touched one, like she apparently had, they would not maintain their momentum or balance unless other factors were thrown in to assist them.

It was due to these Grasshopper plates that Shana had started to lose speed. The moment she would touch one, her rotation would be thrown off. This had created a cycle where she would start to lose control when being tossed around violently by her own attack.

_It was probably my body working on its own to slow me down so that I wouldn't end up destroying myself here._

She found it rather selfish to thank herself for knowing what to do, but it was a short lived as something new appeared.

Noah had taken the chance to move forward again from her right while Toby teleported from her left.

She had been left in a defenseless state as the Grasshopper plates disappeared, leaving the space open for the two boys to attack from the sides.

"I'm not done here!"

With a shout to encourage herself, Shana used her arms, wrists and hands to start turning the scythe she held. This time, however, she only lifted it half way, pushing the blade towards the sky and the butt towards the ground.

The timing had to have been perfect as Toby used two blades to defend from the blade, sending him back a bit, and Noah to lean in towards the ground, stopping him for a moment.

The two boys were quick to fix themselves with Toby's reflexes correcting his position and Noah maintaining his balance.

The latter followed his momentum and did a flip, landing on the tail end of the scythe. He lifted one of his legs and pushed off of Shana's body.

A cube of Trion appeared next to him as he flipped through the air. It spilt apart into small cubes before firing at the grounded Shana and the airborne Toby.

* * *

[Wow! The battle is getting more and more intense here! All three of them are moving so fast and fluently that it's hard to know who you are suppose to be looking at here! No one is letting up and even after an attack from Captain Shor, Agent Lee and Agent Awdry are still fine!]

[Seeing Lee and Shor pull off those kinds of moves really shows just how much they have trained for this. Both of them have a lot to do if they want to take out Awdry, so they must be prepared for that kind of thing.]

[Toby... I mean Awdry... He is not actually doing well here.]

Canaria and Narasaka turned to look at the young girl as she glared towards the screen.

From their points of view as an A-Rank Operator and A-Rank Sniper they figured Toby was going all out like usual.

The looks seemed to have been noticed as Kitora looked over to the two of them.

[What I mean by that is... Well, I suppose it's fine if you don't know this. But Awdry has always had a tendency to use his strength and Side Effect only. It was fine enough when he was with Tsukiko-senpai, but now that is catching up to him. His training has always been by battles alone. Shor and Lee-senpai have been training by working with others. Narasaka-senpai, I'm sure you know what that means.]

He did.

[It means they have been improving themselves and how they work with others. On the other side of that is Awdry. He has not improved at all and is not using everything he has. Whether it is consciously or not, I don't know. You know him much better than I do.]

[Right. Let me elaborate a bit on something. That being the state of these three. They are viewed as a trio since they are all from America. While we do have some...foreigners with us, those three are put off exclusively. As such, they are rather close to each other. So if they notice what we have, they might end up working to fix it during the battle.]

[Oh~! They care about each other so much~!]

.

"This is weird..."

Hoshi tilted her head when she heard Minoru mutter something under his breath.

"What is weird, Hato- Ahem. Minoru-senpai?"

"You're a good girl."

Minoru nodded at her question.

"Toby is not moving how I thought he would. Maybe it's because his attitude has changed, seeing as how he is fighting like how he normally does, but he looks like he is much slower than before. What's more, his attacks are also lacking in power."

Hoshi furrowed her brows at what she had heard.

It made sense when said, but it still seemed odd.

_It is likely that I cannot understand since I am still naïve when it comes to things like this._

From how she saw it, all three of the fighters were moving so well that she truly did believe they had organized the entire thing. The speed, power, tactics, and overall fight they had been showing off exceeded what she knew she was capable of under any circumstance.

To hear that one of them was not doing something right made her feel as if she was unfit to watch the fight.

The difference in abilities and rankings came into play when she thought about how they viewed the ongoing fight.

"I guess it is a bit rude of me to say this, but..."

Minoru gave a slight laugh, knowing that Toby would only whine to him later on for his words.

"He really can be compared to a dog with the way he is. I've seen him before in his real body and both Loki and Haru-chan have told me some of his exploits at random times. I guess he was born with a good body. Healthy and capable."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, sometimes there are just people who are born with a better body than others. Oh. I'm not talking about Side Effects either. My cousin is a good example of that. She doesn't look like she works out or has much muscle, but she is admittedly as strong as a good amount of guys. Me included. So she was one of the people who was born with a better body than most people."

"I see. So you believe that Awdry-kun is one of these people then? That he was born with a better body that gets other people to compare him to the likes of a loup garou?"

"Huh?"

"Ah!?"

Hoshi looked to the side when the words left her mouth.

"A loup garou? That's an interesting ways of putting it. I didn't think you would use that kind of example, Hime."

"Ah! That is my bad! I like the French language and that is simply the way it came out. I am sorry for that. Um... I meant as a dog. Yes. Even our classmates tend to say he is like a dog."

Minoru waved a hand, clearly amused by the girl and her vocabulary.

"May I change the subject back to what we had been talking about? About how you see that Awdry-kun is weaker than he should be?"

"That's fine," Minoru said with a laugh.

Hoshi was grateful for the change.

She looked over everything they had spoken about and prepared her next question.

"Why..."

She thought through her next question.

"Why do you think that is so?"

The moment those words came from her mouth she went red and covered her mouth.

Minoru and a few others listening turned to her with blinking expressions. It took only a few seconds before they all gave relaxed smiles while saying, "Ah~! What a refreshing and nice girl~ We need some more like that in Border~"

It went unnoticed by the majority of people, but Kitora had heard the comment said in unison and found that a sense of irritating suddenly welled up.

Hoshi was quick to give an apology towards everyone.

"Why do I think that?"

She was grateful for her wonderful upperclassman who took pity on her by reforming her question.

"It's like what was said by the ones up there." He directed her attention towards Kitora. "He is use to following others and using what he knows for the one he is following. Before it had been his captain, but this time he isn't following anyone. What's more is that he has no real need to direct his strength towards speed instead of power. He always had Loki and his team to have his back when he could not out speed someone. Even so..."

"Even so?"

He gave another nod.

"I think we are all realizing how bad he really is at times like these. How little he has actually trained. He seems to also be realizing it."

"Wow. You are really taking a liking to being his mentor, aren't you? But that is the reason why I am fine with that arrangement. I know that you are a good person, Mino."

.

Minoru and Hoshi jolted up at hearing the voice directly behind them.

The two of them turned their heads to see a smiling face with one eye covered.

"Kiyo-nii!?"

Yuki's smile lowered when he heard the forgotten name.

He let out a breath through his nose and returned the greeting, patting the girl on the head.

"When did you even get here? I didn't notice you at all."

"Sorry about that. But someone like me doesn't need to be noticed. Unneeded people can come and go whenever they want without being cared for, okay? There is nothing wrong with your perception of reality, so just stay the way you are, Mino."

Yuki could see that his words had ended up confusing the both of them.

His intention had not been to mention confusing things. There were just times when his words would come from his comfort towards people he liked and the person he hated. This was just an odd case where he was looking forward to something later on and let his tongue slip around the two of them.

He decided to take pity on the two of them by changing the subject by covering what he had said.

"Anyways. Hoshi, you made the right choice by watching this fight with Mino. He can help you with your questions."

"Hold on. Are you fine enough to be out here, Loki? Last I heard, you weren't feeling too well."

"Thank you for that. I'll admit to not feeling to well today, but I wanted to get out for some air. I'm in my Trion Body right now, so no need to worry about that. What's more..."

Yuki lowered his head so that it was laying on his arms above the seat in front of him.

"I wanted to watch the two matches going on right now. After all, this is my former team and Kō is one of my best friends. I need to support them whenever I can."

He closed his eyes for just a moment.

"This is all I can do... For those of you who are needed."

.

Minoru was once more confused by the words coming from his friend.

He understood well enough that Yuki fully and wholeheartedly supported the ones he cared for. It was proof enough that he would come out to see his former team and friend fight. Which one he had seen already was up on the air, but that was fine.

There were things that always came from the other boy that made perfect sense and absolutely no sense at the same time. His words towards everyone who wasn't himself tended to be a combination of both.

"Well, back to your discussion."

_He's trying to cover it up again._

"I will take the blame and responsibility for Toby's performance here. It's my fault that he is so bad at fighting right now. Mino, please help him get better and take care of him as best as you can."

It was a simple request that was spoken with the tone of someone having a casual conversation. Yet Minoru knew what those words really meant. It was a true request from someone who wanted to see someone they cared about get better without them.

He knew from experience how a request like that sounded.

The girl with them seemed to think of it as just a regular request as she nodded along.

"That was the plan. He went and asked me for help, so I intend to give it."

"Thank you."

.

Hoshi could only watch the conversation go on between her eldest brother and her upperclassman. It was not that she was being left out, she knew that they were talking about something she could probably never understand.

It was another difference between her sheltered life and attitude and their experiences as ones older than her.

_I understand that they want to help Awdry-kun get better. That may be something I can learn. I know that working as a team is important, but maybe just getting help from others is also something that can help me as well._

It would be rude to ask either one of the boys for help when they were already helping Toby.

_Even if I cannot ask them, maybe there are other things I can do that can equal that kind of request. I can see if Kotowari-kun is busy after this. There may just be something I can talk to him about that can improve me. Oh. Of course this may also help him as well._

She turned back to the screen in front of her and noticed that the three fighters seemed to be sizing each other up once more.

After watching them fight and how they moved she did in fact learn something new.

_1) Relying on only one thing such as talent will make you weak later on._

_2) Getting to know your opponent can help out quite a bit when fighting them._

_3) People seem to view Awdry-kun as a sort of canine._

Hoshi blinked a few times.

_I knew that one already._

Pleased with what she learned, she looked over at the two boys to see if they were still talking.

Their conversation may have gotten to a point where she could not understand them, but she would try to at least give some sort of response when speaking to them. It would only be right to be respectful to those older than her.

"Well, I think I'll be taking my leave here. I want to go see how Kō is doing. Hoshi, I think it would be best if you stayed here to watch this than go to see Kō. I will tell you about it later on, if you want."

"Ah! Yes! Thank you very much, Kiyo-nii."

"Good girl."

Yuki smiled towards her while sitting up straight.

Before either she or Minoru could ask if he was going to really leave, he was gone.

Hoshi blinked in surprise as her brother disappeared from before their eyes in an instant. It was sudden and unexpected, not letting her get a moment to understand what had happened.

She was glad when Minoru gave an explanation.

"I see now. He got behind us using Teleport."

It made sense now.

"But..."

But...

"That was too accurate... How much is he going to push himself...?"

She may not have been meant to hear those words as they were said under his breath.

Now her mind could only think about the meaning to those words.


	43. Eri Asano

Toby lowered his eyes as he stuck to the side of a tree using Scorpion.

He had used some Trion to create the blades that held him in place, but it was worth it given the current position of each fighter. The high ground was his while distance could be covered quickly by using the tree as a springboard.

From where he stood on the tree, he could see Noah and Shana preparing themselves for the next round of their fight. Following their own Rule of Three, this would be the last time they fought each other on the current stage. The opening and build up had ended with the three of them getting a better understanding of how much each other have improved.

_This leaves the climax for last. This is where we reach the high point. After that we will see who can go over to the last stage to interrupt their fight._

Toby gave a bitter laugh.

_We are selfish. Our entire team really is selfish. This kind of fight wouldn't be an issue if we actually worked together like the others._

Minubuki and Shirogane had worked together to take out Suzume and Amaya and Asano were working to take out Takeshi. Even the two in front of him seemed to be working together to take him out.

_Is this a sign of our worth or is it the perfect example of our selfishness? That's hard to tell without asking someone else about it. But I doubt even they would have an answer to that kind of question without thinking through their own lives for that kind of answer._

In the eyes of some it could seem more like the weaker fighters teaming up to fight the stronger ones while the stronger ones showed their arrogance towards those weak ones by fighting alone. It all seemed so methodically planned out.

Releasing a sigh from his chest, Toby pushed the thoughts to the side of his mind as his body naturally reacted to the sudden attack by the Kōgetsu blade held by Noah.

He could feel his body twist itself to the side, using the tree as a point of rotation. It was not unlike what Suzume had done, but the difference was clear in how they moved.

Suzume had been moving as if dancing on the side of the tree, weaving and circling around with careful movements that captivated any viewers. It was vastly different to the rough movements that Toby displayed which seemed to want to take over the tree instead of walking on it. One movement held elegance and grace while the other was demanding and crushing.

Knowing that the tree would not hold up against his movements, Toby pushed off the tree, ignoring the cracking sound that came after him.

Another forced movement came that made him stick out his arm as something cut through the air in front of him.

His hand briefly touched the top of the shaft of Shana's scythe, using it to push himself up and over the girl.

He brought out a Scoprion blade as his body reacted to the immediate attack that follow. The weaker blades cracked and broke apart at the attack, letting the large scythe cut through to his curled up arms and legs.

The damage was minimal, but enough to where he properly understood how much more he could withstand while being targeted by both B-Rank agents.

_Mei, can I have some calculations? Please._

Almost immediately, as if she had expected him to ask, multiple percentages for multiple scenarios appeared before his eyes. They had clouded his vision for a moment, forcing him to rely solely on his Side Effect to handle any oncoming attacks.

The results of the calculations started to decrease until they reached an amount he could count with both hands. The necessary actions to take for such outcomes came afterwards, instructing him on how to move.

He gave a quick reply of gratitude towards their Operator.

A sudden thought of perfection came to mind when he gave an extra moment to think about the Operator. More than just giving him the situations, she had given him choices to pick from instead of a single solid line to follow.

_She isn't perfect. I'm glad._

The members of Kotowari Squad knew as well as some others just how imperfect Mei was in all actuality. While she was still put on a pedestal by the three of them, she was still close to them. Close enough to where they could reach out to her.

That imperfection meant that she would not always find the single, sure-fire way to win for them.

_It makes things fun._

Toby smiled at the thought while going over the information that had been provided to him by Mei.

There we possibilities he had not considered and ones he himself had thought about for a moment. The ones he thought through seemed to have held the lowest chances of winning, making him realize that even he could only scape the bottom of what Mei could think of naturally.

Choosing one of them, one of the best ones, he started to go back into action. He no longer had a reason to stay on defense when he could be more offensive in this fight.

Now that it was the finale for their fight it would only be right to give it his all once more.

.

Toby moved around each attack once more.

His body's natural reflexes had provided him with an advantage most of the times by forcing his body to act to any incoming attacks or movements. This time was no different with both Shana and Noah targeting him for attacks while making sure to keep each other in their field of vision.

The Kōgetsu blade held by Noah moved diagonally above as Shana's scythe glided above the ground from below.

There had been only a small amount of room to move through with the Kōgetsu blade being able to adjust as he jumped up and the scythe giving little room to duck under. Teleport was the best course of action here, leaving the two to attack each other instead.

That was a part of a bad scenario.

Instead of jumping, ducking or using Teleport, Toby felt his body start to move and commanded his body a bit. His thoughts did not contradict how his body seemed to want to be moving, so there was no stalling that kept him from continuing to move.

His right arm moved out as both his legs were pushed to the sides.

"Ah..."

He didn't bring out any sort of blade.

"-!"

The Kōgetsu blade was pushed up using the left foot. The scythe was pushed down using the right foot. The entire body was thrown into the air while balancing on the hand.

The free hand he had touched the ground, freeing the first one to do as it pleased. The second arm had started turning to force the rest of the body to move along, rotating around so that the legs would start going down in a slanted motion.

Toby happily let out a howl he was unaware of while rotating his body as both Noah and Shana recovered from having their weapons moved away.

Using both legs, he pushed them again, this time with more force from his rotating position.

_There! And there!_

He saw something appear on the two parts he had hit with his feet.

.

Noah was honestly surprised by the sudden howl that was coming from his friend.

Most people would joke about the boy being an animal, but this seemed to take that beyond just teasing. The boy continued to move using all of his body parts now. Arms, legs, torso, head, neck, feet, hands. Everything was in full use as he tried to go for his prey.

There had been a moment of stagnation from getting pushed away by the wild boy. It was covered up by maintaining his balance well enough to attack once his feet gripped the stump he was forced onto.

Noah's blade had a nice reach, but this time Shooter-type Trigger would be better as a distraction while he got close enough for a physical attack.

Deciding that was the best option here, he accelerated forward, a cube of Trion appearing next to him before splitting up. It split apart once more as he got closer to his opponents.

Then...

"!?"

It was strange.

Noah was sure there was a good amount of distance between him and Toby, yet the boy was now in front of him, leg raised and ready to strike.

"Crap...!"

Expecting a blade to come out, Noah brought up his Kōgetsu to defend.

It was a surprise when there had been no blade. Instead, the kick had pushed him backwards using both power and speed.

The sight of the trees would have been nice if he did not fix himself when entering the forest.

He turned to see that Shana was just as surprised that he had survived the attack instead of getting cut.

"Heh~"

A voice came from above. The trees had a voice going through them that seemed to be moving further away.

Noah disregarded Shana altogether in order to keep up with the voice in the trees. The fight had been for the three of them, but the two boys were not against fighting each other first to make the final fight more decisive.

"Hahaha!"

The voice came again. This time it moved from above to below.

Toby now stood in front of Noah with an expecting grin.

Seeing this as a chance, Noah placed a Grasshopper plate on the ground as he moved forward.

He accelerated once more.

.

Toby did not panic when Noah approached with the speed provided by Grasshopper. He simply took a step forward while thinking.

_"Take, feel free to just fight."_

" _Right... I'm counting on you."_

His teammate was likely preparing to fire his laser-like beams while Toby moved as best he could.

He saw Noah's Kōgetsu pointed straight down in front of him. Noah was preparing to swing the sword up to slice from the crotch to the top of the head. It also allowed him to use the blade as a shield. And if Toby carelessly charged in, he would get cut himself. So...

"—"

Toby did not hesitate to move right in.

.

Noah saw the gray dog's speed.

The boy was still fast, even now that they realized that he was far behind everyone now, but too straightforward. He was right in the center of Noah's vision.

He was coming.

Instead of keeping his body low, the dog used a high-speed leap that was much like a light step.

He raised his left knee, so he likely intended to slip the knee past Noah's raised sword and either knee or kick him.

_...That won't work!_

Noah turned to the side to hide his body behind the sword and took a stance that allowed him to push the blade forward with his entire body.

He placed the downward-pointing blade in front of the dog and prepared to push it forward.

"Take this...!"

He shoved it forward. And in that instant, a certain color spread out before his eyes.

… _Gray!?_

By the time he realized it was clothing, something else had joined the scene.

It was the dog's speed.

From the very first movement, he understood what had happened. The gray dog had dropped down his raised knee, shin, and foot to kick off the floor and then swung his other leg behind him with amazing speed.

_A front flip leading into a heel kick!?_

.

Toby's flipping heel kick had the double acceleration of the left leg he had dropped down from above and the right leg he had swung up behind him.

Noah had expected him to make a high-speed approach, so his eyes could not keep up with the dog's motion as he flew high into the air. The swinging and scattering clothes did not help matters there.

But Noah did not hesitate. He had to fulfill his duty no matter what attack he was exposed to.

"Ohhh..."

He raised and pushed his blade straight forward.

That settled it.

After the swift flip, the gray dog's right heel accurately struck something.

It was the butt of the hilt Noah held high. The shoe heel that dropped down like an axe slammed the butt of the hilt down with a clang.

As a result, the tip of Noah's blade stabbed deep into the ground.

The blade pierced about twenty centimeters into the ground.

The gray dog landed with one foot on the end of the hilt. His other leg retained the momentum of his flip, so he took the stance of someone preparing to kick a ball.

"Now, then!"

A moment later, Noah fell back. No, he was forced to fall back.

After stomping the sword down with his right leg, the gray dog brought back the left leg that had swung behind him and kicked Noah in the center of the gut. A blade had extended out once it made contact.

The blow audibly landed and Noah doubled over and flew backwards, forcing himself free from the blade that had pierced him. He held her stomach with his right hand, bared his teeth, and took a deep breath. Trion was now leaking from his stomach.

The dog used the force of the kick to make a midair backflip.

When the dog landed, Noah took a defensive stance.

Another burst of gray speed soon followed. The dog swung his body to the left and right while instantly filling the gap between him and Noah. He must have noticed Noah's defensive stance because...

"...!"

The dog kicked at the Kōgetsu stabbed in the ground to swiftly change his angle of attack. He leaped toward Noah's right side.

The gray dog raised his right leg to settle this with a kick. He fully intended to use a blade. This space was meant for their battle, not for kindness.

_This is my pride as an Attacker!_

.

At that moment, the gray dog saw something beyond the arm on Noah's stomach.

"Shield!"

A small Trion shield protected Noah from within his disturbed clothing.

The gray dog's previous kick had done some damage to Noah, but not enough. Doubling over and taking a deep breath had been a bluff. He was willing to do whatever it took to win and he thrust he right arm forward as if to prove it.

"Shield...!"

Three layers of concentrated shields that covered the area of his body slammed into the gray dog from the front of the boy's mid-level punch.

.

Toby switched to a new way of thinking.

This was not a place for being kind, so he needed to eliminate the barrier before him.

_...A blade!_

He quickly swung his left arm behind him and grabbed something with a double Scorpion link.

It was the Kōgetsu stabbed into the floor. He pulled it out with the grapple-like Scorpion he had made. He was lucky he had loosened it by kicking it to change direction earlier. It pulled out and flew to his hand, but...

"Fly!"

He did not hold onto it. He grabbed it and the Scorpion with his fingers, swung it like a metal ring, and let go with a snap of the wrist.

The tip of the Kōgetsu shot through the air. In the blink of an eye, he could hear it tearing through the air and colliding with the shield.

One layer shattered and he stepped forward as it reached the second.

"...!"

That too shattered, but the Kōgetsu broke along with it. In an instant, the tempered blade swelled out like a pea pod, the Trion inside split, and cracks ran through the blade.

"—"

Followed by the sound of splitting air, the blade shattered, starting from the tip.

The Trion shards turned to dust and scattered through the air. But one shield remained and it had been thrown toward Toby.

"...I will be passing through."

He gathered a bit of strength in his right leg and made a full-body dash forward.

He counterattacked with a piercing heel kick which shattered the Trion shield down the center. He had jabbed with the heel pick made from Trion he normally used to anchor himself while clinging to uneven objects or slanted objects like the trees. The Trion pick instantly shot out at the exact moment of his kick and pierced the large shield.

Noah stood beyond the destroyed Trion light.

He no longer had a weapon and it was unlikely he could prepare another Shield so quickly. So Toby swung his right foot down and to the left while spinning and bending his body like a whip.

_...A left leg savate technique!_

He spun around.

His left leg quickly passed behind him and he aimed for Noah's chest with the heel.

At that moment, a shadow arrived from above. More accurately, it arrived from beyond Noah. As Noah took a protective stance, someone made a low and heavy leap over his head.

_Shana...!_

.

Noah had sensed the optimal opportunity.

His three-layer Shield had not just been for defense. It had also been to hide Shana's attack from behind him.

He had predicted the sword would break - his own Kōgetsu - but he had not expected the dog to break the third shield. The plan had been for the gray dog to collide with the second or third shield, lose his balance, and be hit by Shana's attack.

However, the dog had broken even the third shield and his kick was about to reach Noah.

But that was all. It was true he had noticed Shana earlier than he should have, but there was nothing he could do while performing his savate rotation.

Or so Noah thought.

"...Teleport!?"

Noah saw it from his position near Toby.

The gray dog had disappeared before his eyes. That was not what was so surprising. It had been where the dog had ended up after teleporting.

_Such a pinpoint teleport...! He couldn't even see behind Shana!_

Without a blade to attack and with a large scythe now going towards him at a close distance, there was no possibility that he would survive.

That left only one option left for him to do.

.

Three attacks were made in a single moment.

A large scythe came crashing down with a powerful force.

A rain of Asteroid shot towards the ground from above.

Two blades crossed each other with a neck being their target.

.

**Trion relay system damaged. Bail Out**

**Trion supply damaged. Bail Out**

**Trion limit exceeded. Bail Out**

* * *

[There it is! The final attack! It seems like each team gets a single point from that. But... I couldn't tell what actually happened there. Who took out who?]

[I guess it would be hard to really tell with the destruction that came from that. But if I had to guess... Toby took out Lee-senpai. Lee-senpai took out Shor. Shor took out Toby.]

[You seemed pleased by that. You're even calling Awdry by his first name.]

[Gah! ...Slip of the tongue. And I am saying this as an unbiased commentator. That's all.]

[Oh! Since you know Agent Awdry so well, Kitora-chan, can you tell us some things about what had happened between him and Captain Shor?]

[There isn't much to tell when it comes to that. He's a fool who gets too excited when in a high place. Although it looks like he decided to be smart instead of wild by luring Shor into the forest instead of staying out in the open. His team is use to hiding themselves from sight and attacking when they have the chance, so the forest is a perfect place for him.]

[It looked like Shor and Lee understood what was going on and worked together to try and take out Awdry. That clearly ended up backfiring and working out at the same time. ...Those three are very weird. For that to work out the way it did.]

[Well, with that fight finished, we have our last one of this B-Rank War match. It is Captain Kotowari against Captain Tsukiko and Agent Asano. How do you two think this will play out?]

[Going over what we have seen... Kotowari-kun had used a good amount of Trion to cut down the trees for Awdry. Then he had started leading Asano-senpai and Tsukiko-senpai off towards the cityscape. Now they are very close to the edge of the map.]

[It looked more like he was stalling for time than actually fighting. There are only a few minutes left, so that was most likely what he was going for. Tsukiko couldn't get close enough while Asano's shots were taken down by his Laser-Shooter.]

[In numbers, Tsukiko Squad has the advantage. But looking at the score... This will be deciding who wins. All three teams are tied with two points each, but Shor Squad is completely out. If Kotowari-kun wins here, he'll be taking four points. If Tsukiko Squad wins here, they will be taking three points. Both sides need to think carefully.]

* * *

There had only been two orbs floating around the Laser-Shooter since they had exited the forest. One had been to keep Amaya away and the other had been to deal with Asano's shots. Each one had a focus target on the two, making sure attacks would not be able to reach their user.

It had been because of these two orbs that Amaya was starting to reach her limit when it came to her patience.

_"Hey, have you found a way to deal with this yet? I thought we were suppose to have the advantage here with more numbers!"_

_"There is a difference when he is actually fighting us and when he is just stalling. I can't do much there since those lasers are more versatile than I had originally thought."_

_"Come on! You can think of a Shana-proof plan!"_

Both girls twitched at the loud voice of denial that came from their teammate.

_"Please watch what you say next time. That could have messed us up and gotten a hole blown right through our bodies."_

_"Sorry, sorry! I didn't think she could hear us yet!"_

.

Asano focused her eyes while continuing to evade the laser-like beams to the best of her ability.

The destructive power created by the Laser-Shooter Trigger was not something that was to be underestimated. After seeing it up close, she knew exactly what kind of power it held when compared to other standard Triggers.

_A continuous firing Trigger that creates lasers capable of piercing through or forcing someone to use up their trion for Shield and Raygust in a matter of seconds. Escudo would take longer, but it could still manage it if using the right Trigger and enough trion. It uses the four Shooter-type Triggers: Asteroid, Meteora, Viper and Hound. Each one has the same effects as if used regularly, but also works differently than one would expect. He tends to use Asteroid more than any other._

She had looked at the data that had been acquired from monitoring the only boy who used such a destructive Trigger.

_The pros of the Laser-Shooter Trigger._

_First is the power. Firing power combined with continuous firing prevents someone from simple defending against the attacks. They would not be able to keep up a defense long enough to find a way to counter it head-on. Hiding is also a bad idea since that firing power will break through anything a person can be hiding behind. Evading the laser beams is the best course of actions._

_Second is its range. The range of each attack seems to be dependent on his own wants and needs. As we saw in the forest; he can extended these lasers to an atonishing length that can still cut down whatever they come across. What's more is that he was able to stop the lasers from reaching his teammate and destroying her body. That means he really can force a stop to the lasers whenever he wants._

_Third would be the speed. The speed of each attack actually seems to be the weakest part of it. No matter how many times he has attacked us, we have managed to evade the attacks before they reach us. This is, of course, just when we can see the attack coming. Wait... No. That isn't right. It's because we can see the attack coming that we are able to move in time to evade the attack._

Asano could only sigh as she thought about the overwhelming advantages the Laser-Shooter Trigger had when compared to regular Shooters.

Yet...

_There are still cons to this Trigger._

First.

_Each time he is ready to fire an attack, the trion orb he is using to attack shimmers faintly before firing. That is why we are able to evade the attacks when we can see them. That is likely something he can't control otherwise we would not be able to see it. Granted, I only barely realized that. Back in the forest, it may have been on instinct when I saw it but, I did notice the shimmering yet thought nothing of it._

Second.

 _After having asked Kakizaki-san about his fight, I have learned that it takes some time for him to aim properly before attacking. I am not sure if that is because of faults with the Trigger or because the Trigger itself is_ too _powerful. Something else is location. If he isn't careful in using his power in a specified area, he can end up getting caught up in his own attack. That is supposedly what happened before. He blew up his own arm. But that means surprise attacks are best against him._

Third.

_I barely realized this as well. Is it because of the pressure or am I just not observing things properly? Either way, I found a third thing. That means I am at least going even with the pros and cons here. Yeah. Maya and Shana can't complain to me since I at least went even. But that means I won't be getting any praise either._

Asano let out some air through her nose.

She moved behind a building, fully intending to hide herself as best as she could while still moving. At the same time, she continued to watch the Laser-Shooter boy as he looked around with three trion orbs floating near his head.

_His aim is good enough as it is, but moving targets always takes more concentration since you are not guaranteed to land a hit. But he bypasses that concentration by using his arms and hands to direct each laser however he wants. That counts as both a pro and a con._

Asano scrunched up her face at the realization.

_That means I found three-and-a-half pros and two-and-a-half cons. I'm really leaning on the complaints, aren't I?_

Thinking about pointless things was a bad thing during battles. Yet the nature of Tsukiko Squad had always been enough for her to think about those pointless things during some battles.

With no way of confirming the odd thoughts at the moment, Asano forced herself to continue finding a way through the lasers that were being fired at her and her captain at set intervals.

The distance between them all could be covered by her captain if given enough time. Her own shots could also cover the distance while leaving her with a chance to hide after firing her shots. The issue that came up for the both of them was the same thing.

_Am I thinking about this in a way I shouldn't be? Let's see. I am thinking strictly about the Laser-Shooter Trigger and not about Kotowari-kun as a person. Even factors like that can come into play when fighting someone. I hate to use what I learned about him recently, but I'm sure that he will be fine with that since he is probably doing the same thing._

Takeshi had started to fix his attitude to the best of his ability. That alone had not been enough and so he had asked for help from her, her captain and the captain of Kakizaki Squad. At some point the Attacker and Shooter of Nasu Squad had decided to involve themselves with the boy as well.

Asano had spent a day with a few of them by request of her captain. During that day she had gotten a better understanding of the boy and had been told some things that may not have been meant to be heard.

_He was chosen as the one to test out this prototype Trigger because of his former captain's influence with the directors and his inability to properly fire shots as a regular Shooter. As the only person who is using the Trigger, he knows the ins and outs of it better than most. But..._

But...

_He hates the Trigger so much._

Asano could remember a conversation that had happened during that day. It may have only been meant for the two people there to hear, but she had ended up overhearing it. A sense of guilt had swelled up at the time, but that did not mean she was not interested in what had been said.

_This boy is..._

* * *

There had been no meaning behind not showing that she was listening. From the way the two spoke it was clear that this was no secret. There was no real emotion to the words, but that may have been why she could not show that she was paying attention to them.

"Nasu...san. May I ask you something?"

"That is new. You really are trying to be a good boy. Alright. You can ask your question."

It had been the end of an eventful day when she had heard them.

"What would you do if you had the Laser-Shooter?"

"I would use it. As a matter-of-fact, once all testing has been done, I plan on trying it out for myself."

Nasu's laugh could be heard.

"I should actually be thanking you for all the work you are putting into using it. I have even heard some others say that they wanted to try it out for themselves. But, at the moment, you are the only one allowed to use it for testing."

"Do you know why?"

"I do not."

There was a moment of silence.

After a few seconds, a small tapping sound could be heard.

"It's because I am unable to do anything on my own. I realized that after fighting Yuki-san recently. I had thought that nothing of it when I had first been asked to test it out. But now it makes sense to me. I had asked Mei-san and she confirmed it for me."

"What did she confirm for you?"

"Yuki-san noticed how terrible I am as a member of Border but decided not to tell me that I am bad at it. Instead he went to the directors and asked if the Engineers could create a Trigger that would make it easier for me to fight. Being an Attacker would have been hard since I cannot properly swing a sword in any possible way. Even using Scorpion would have been hard since I'm not use to using my body too much."

"And you had no patience to be a Sniper."

Asano widened her eyes when the words came from her mouth.

Those words had been meant for her mind and not for others to hear. Yet that was what happened, forcing some attention from the two towards her.

She turned to see their reactions and saw that Nasu was smiling towards her while Takeshi look away, unable to cover his face with a scarf now.

Nasu beckoned her over with a hand. The smile she was giving held nothing bad in it, even after having someone listen in on the conversation she was having. That may have been one of the reason Takeshi had started talking to her first over anyone else.

Doing as commanded, Asano got up and moved towards her fellow Shooters.

Feeling bad about the whole thing, she gave a quick bow before taking the vacant seat next to Nasu.

"Eri-chan said what I was thinking. _You have to be a Shooter._ Don't you?"

The male Shooter gave an odd sigh.

"That's right. If I want to be a Combatant then I have to be a Shooter. Even being a Gunner or Trapper is out of the question."

"I have an idea why that is, but I want to know why you think that you can't be either one of those two options."

It made no sense.

Asano tried to think of any kind of reason for as to why the boy could not be a Gunner or a Trapper. Why he had to be a Shooter to be a Combatant.

There was nothing that came to mind.

But...

"If you had asked me that before I received help... I would not have been able to properly answer that."

It seemed that the boy himself understood why.

"Ah... Aaaaaahhh... Yeah. Asano-san, Nasu-san, thank you for helping me with this answer. I will also be giving my thanks to Kumagai-senpai and Tsuki-... She will get irritated with me again if I call her that, won't she...? Right. Maya-san."

"Oh? Boo. Kuma gets the senpai treatment while we are stuck with such respectable honorifics." Nasu held her cheek as she spoke, voice much more teasing than before. "I guess that's fine though. I'll forgive you since you are being such a good boy."

The conversation was too much.

"As for the answer. Well... It would be too realistic for me if I were to use a gun. And the same reasoning could be applied to being a Sniper. Being a Trapper is also something I can't manage because of my lack of patience."

She had wanted to ask about what he had meant by his reasoning for not being a Gunner. It made sense, yet not enough for her to fully understand.

The chance to ask had been missed due to the other female Shooter speaking up once more.

"Knowing this before you did, Yuki-san had taken it upon himself to help you by asking for the Laser-Shooter to be made."

It went back to the original conversation.

"That's right. While I am grateful for that now... I hate the Laser-Shooter Trigger since it's just a reminder that I can't do anything other than fire destructive attacks that have made others keep their distance from me. I mean... Just look how things are with me and someone like Kakizaki-san."

Things were getting better with that single person, but there was still their fight that kept things from getting to their best point.

Asano was aware, having been in the audience at the time, that most people still feared the boy still because they were not in any sort of situation like Kakizaki was. Like how Tsukiko Squad and Nasu Squad currently is in.

_A situation where we are trying to help him better himself for others. This gives us light into things other don't know about. At this point we are all learning things about him at the same time he is leaning things about himself._

Even with the help, Kakizaki still kept a distance between the two of them. That meant there was a great walk that had to be dealt with when it came to the other Border members.

_Knowing everything as it stands..._

There was only one thing to think about this boy,

* * *

_He is pitiful._

He was someone who brought a sense of sorrow in a way that would not offend him.

There were different ways to define the word itself. One of those ways fit with the Shooter boy lacking in so many areas that he was truly "pitiful".

_But I don't pity him._

Asano knew that if her teammates were to hear her thoughts they would not leave her alone because of how odd them seemed to be at the moment.

Since they could not hear her, she was safe.

_Now that I have gone over everything again..._

"I can come up with a plan."

She nodded to her own words.

_"It's about damn time!"_

She cringed at her captain's words.

.

Three laser-like beams tore through the air as the time in the battle lowered.

It was the final moments with only a few minutes left in the match. It should have ended by this point, but it was due the Shooter boy that it had stalled out for so long.

Amaya was aware of the reasoning and thought nothing more of it.

There was no longer any room to think about when this fight would end. All that mattered was how it would end and who would come out victorious.

Knowing that, the girl grinned as she took a step forward.

"Let's finish this, Eri!"


	44. Tsukiko Squad (Other)

It was tense.

Tsukiko Kaede could feel his whole body tense up as he watched the time run down.

His sister and her teammate seemed to be having trouble on the final battlefield. The single boy there was managing to push back the two of them while maintaining his position. It was hard to tell without being an actual fighter, but even Kaede could see the difference between the three of them.

"My brother had said something about that guy."

A voice spoke up from next to Kaede.

"I don't think he meant to say it out loud, but he did. He said it and I heard it. Apparently, that guy has some sort of qualifications to be un... Un... Un-something-or-other. But it was apparently a big deal since he sounded so serious while saying it."

Some new knowledge.

Kaede now knew something more about the opponent his sister and her teammate were fighting. Whether that knowledge meant anything or not was something he could not figure out himself.

.

"Do you think he can do it, Hime?"

Minoru did not turn his attention away from the screen when speaking to the girl next to him.

He had witnessed what Toby was currently capable of and was now focusing on what Takeshi could do.

_Lukas had said that they were no longer friends. That seemed good at the time, but that may have actually ruined Takeshi even more. But as far as I know, he didn't really view anyone as a friend. What will happen now that he has some values he needs to go over?_

Having only heard about what happened, Minoru felt like there had been some hope in the Laser-Shooter. Hope that he was just going through something and could came back from it so that others would not have to worry.

He was seeing the result of everything that happened.

There was a clear difference between what he had heard and what he was seeing.

There was no need to hope when the answer was right in front of him.

"I am not sure... I do believe in Kotowari-kun, but he is against two people who seem strong in their own right. I am...far too inexperienced when it comes to judging these kinds of things. Please forgive me for that lack of experience."

"You don't need to apologize for something like that."

Minoru nodded his head sternly while giving a caring sideways glances towards the dejected girl.

"That lack of experience means you have a lot of room to gain experience. No one tries to stop moving forward, so don't focus on it and keep at it. You have good people backing you up at all times."

"You are very kind. Thank you very much, Minoru-senpai."

Minoru gave a return smile down at the girl while hearing some noise around them.

Their conversation was not anything close to a whisper. Others were listening in while focusing on the fight going on in front of them.

Males around them could be heard muttering under their breaths or letting out resigned sighs.

Minoru gave a hum while looking at the screen.

_She can gain fans just by being near people. Those people then focus more on her as she speaks and shows her personality. That's scary in its own right._

* * *

Amaya felt the edges of her lips move up by a small bit as she moved forward for the first time in the fight.

Up until now she and Asano had been defensive when fighting the Laser-Shooter with no way to go on the offense. It had started to make her jittery with her feet touching the ground a few more times than she would have liked.

With her remaining teammate resolving herself to finding a way to win, she found a renewed sense of spirit as she took a step forward. All uncertainty left her body the moment she felt the hilts of her twin Kōgetsu blades.

_"Kuni, how much time is left in the match?"_

_"You have roughly ten minutes left."_

Their time limit was set.

_"We are at the edge of the map and he has his back to it. If he tries to run then he would have to pass by one of us first. Maya, you're faster than him, so he likely won't lead us into another chase."_

"Good. I was tired of just running around while Shana got to have fun."

Asano continued on with a but.

_"But... That means he will be continuing this battle of power and defense. He could also try to force his way through."_

"So it's still going to be annoying."

_"Pretty much."_

Amaya felt a groan escape as he moved positions once more.

She took note of how the amount of hiding spots had decreased during their conversation.

_"I did come up with something though. To see what kind of plan he will be using in these last ten minutes. Maya, you're speed is what we'll need for this. You just need to rush in and try to get as close as possible. And don't worry about his attacks. I will deal with those on my own."_

"Oh! Have you finally gotten it down!?"

_"No. My form is is basic, but there is this one Trigger called Shield. It does wonders when trying to defend."_

Amaya felt herself twitch at the way she had been told that.

"Haven't you mentioned that Shield won't work against this guy? How is it suppose to help here?"

_"It's fine. Just make sure your legs don't get taken off. Oh. And if you can, please keep at least one arm. The rest of your body is a nice target for him. I'll just be prioritizing your legs, chest, head and one arm. The rest is up to you."_

"You little..."

Those were the things she did not have to worry about.

Asano had told her which body parts would have some guard to them, meaning she would need to move them out of the way should an attack go towards them. It seems easy enough since she would only need to focus on moving instead of defending or attacking until the last moment.

"Right! Let's get going!"

.

Amaya moved forward with both of her blades at her side, ready to be pulled out at a moment's notice.

It was a head-on attack that seemed to fit with her character.

The damage done to the surrounding area was preventing her from finding a quick hiding spot to use against the laser-like beams that came from the Laser-Shooter Trigger. It made the single focus attack even more dangerous for Takeshi as he shifted his legs and lifted one arm to his scarf.

Attacks like these were considered suicidal attacks out of desperation. That desperation could lead to a dangerous situation where he could get taken out alongside his opponents.

_I need to watch my steps as well. Too far and I will be leaving the area._

The difference in speed could be dealt with given how much information he had on the head-on girl running towards him. She was not one to think when attacking, being more of an instinctual person as opposed to a strategist.

"..."

Knowing that already, Takeshi fired his Laser-Shooter towards her.

The power behind it gave away that it was Asteroid being fired.

The single beam grew to two. The two beams grew to four. The four beams tore through the air, pushing the air away to make way for the attack that could tear through most defenses in a matter of seconds.

The targets had been her head, chest and two legs. If even one of those hit then the fight would have been over in an instant.

_Of course they would be defended._

Takeshi saw shield appear in multiples to get between his attack and his target.

The forward facing girl was likely not the one to crest them as he was still ready to attack instead of defend.

_Asano-san._

The girl was not someone to fear in a shootout. Her style was basic and lacking in some fundamental places while her speed and defense was real actively average when compared to the heavy hitters like Nasu, Izumi and Ninomiya.

But...

_She is a strategist. That alone is something to worry about. Although in this case it isn't too much of an issue since I am not too bad at thinking during a fight either. Still..._

Takeshi watched as each Shield was destroyed the moment his Laser-Shoot touched one. Even with the destruction of the defenses, the girl being defended had not taken a single hit from the four laser-like beams he had been firing at her.

Even if his Trigger broke through the defense with no issues, there was still a small moment where his attack would have to break through. Adding multiple layers of weak shields meant they would get destroyed easily, but it also meant that those small moments where he would have to break through would also add up.

This was the result.

His Laser-Shooter continued to break through the Multi-Layer Shield, but could never reach the moving target who had speed that exceeded his own.

The speed of the forward facing girl did not waver for even a moment as she moved through the Multi-Layer Shield and the Laser-Shooter's four beams of light. At times she would have to shift her speed to twist around surprise attacks, but that never used up energy for her run.

Takeshi took a step back when seeing the girl moving forward.

He then remembered how close to the edge he was.

_This is a nice strategy. We aren't too use to working as a team, so people like this are always great to see. Toby is usually happy while giving a small howl whenever he's in this kind of situation. Suzume-senpai would probably start wiggling around with her arms wrapped around herself. A doujinshi or two would even come out of it._

But what about him?

How had Takeshi acted during those times? How would he act at a time like this?

The answer came as the forward facing girl reached her target.

"...!"

Takeshi saw the girl finally get close enough to where he would be in danger if he fired his Laser-Shooter so close to himself.

"Finally caught you!"

The forward facing girl tightened her grip on both of her blades as she drew them.

Two large arcs followed the movement of her swinging blades. They were made in the air to show that the extending slashing Trigger known as Senkū had been used.

The attacked had landed.

Or it should have.

.

Amaya felt as if reality had lied to her.

She felt no feedback from her attack and she could not see the boy in front of her anymore. No lights were moving through the sky either.

_What happened!?_

The boy had disappeared a moment before her attack had connected with his body.

It was a strange occurrence that she could not understand. He had not Bailed Out and he had not moved beyond the bounds of the area. If either one had been the case, the match would have been over.

The answer had came as a Multi-Layer Shield and a yell appeared.

_"Maya! Move! He used Teleport!"_

Her body had registered everything before her mind did as her feet started to move while her upper-body moved forward to help her push away from where she stood.

The Multi-Layer Shield had been useful when they had been prepared and on the offensive. Now they hold no value as multiple laser-like beams tore through them and reached her. One of the beams took off the right side of her stomach. It had been a miracle that her middle and left side was still in tact.

She put away her offensive Triggers and shifted to help with defense, moving away while doing so.

Her own defensive meant nothing in the face of the destructive Trigger.

_Damn it! We forgot about Teleport! Compared to his teammates, he doesn't use it too much!_

She could only curse their forgetfulness as she realized the situation she was in.

Their initial attack had been a straight minded one that would rely on her speed for a quick attack to determine how their opponent would respond. Afterwards she would back away to a safe place where they could think of something else.

But that had failed.

Amaya had her back towards the edge of the battlefield and there were no longer any places for her to hide. Everything had been turned over in a single moment and neither one of the two girls had been prepared for it.

_Another thing that shows us just how much we are lacking... First Suzume and now Takeshi. The upper tier teams are beyond us at this point._

"Damn!"

She was trapped.

Right, left, behind, above. They had all been blocked off by the versatility of the Laser-Shooter and the destruction of all hiding spots. The only way out of it would have been to be taken out or leave the area.

Leaving the entire map during a B-Rank War match would mean that Kotowari Squad would not be gaining a point. It would also leave Tsukiko Squad's Shooter by herself and a bad taste in their captain's mouth.

That left only one option left.

"!"

Without any hesitation, she moved forward.

_I'll leave strategy to Eri. If I get in close and keep moving then he can't properly aim at me._

As soon as she saw one of the lasers attacking her, she would create a shield while holding onto one of her blades. The quickly made defense would break apart the moment the attack hit, but it would give her enough time to move where the damage would become minimal.

The process of creating and destroying the shields became the set pattern for their fight. Evading, predicting and countering had been the basis for each attack.

"Oh!"

Without much thought, Amaya moved her own back while her body shifted so that its lowered a bit to put more strength into her arm.

"There!"

With a hard throw, one of the two Kōgetsu blades tore through the air like a javelin thrown by a professional.

"Eh?"

The realization of what she had done hit her as her body turned to move from one of the lasers being fired at her.

She had used one of her two blades as a throwing weapon instead of a slashing weapon. That meant that either the slashing-throwing weapon would be struck down by one of the laser-like beams while she circled around him or she would be attacked while the slashing-throwing weapon went for her target.

It had been an instinctive attack more than a thought out one that ended up working out for her.

_Which will he go for!?_

She saw the choice a moment later.

Two laser-like beams went for her body while Takeshi moved to the side, arm stretched out. His hand reached out, grabbing the hilt of the blade

_Damn it!_

Her attack had failed again.

"..."

"?"

She tilted her head at the next action taken from the boy.

Instead of destroying the sword, he impaled the ground with it. Now the blade stuck up next to him, as if taunting her for her previous action.

It was a taunt for her to reach out for it.

.

Asano could see it from her position at a distance and in one of the few hiding spots remaining.

Her captain had decided that she would keep moving forward. There was no place left to go but forward. Pushing through that kind of attack would be impossible, but that had been her only choice, so she took it.

_As crazy as ever._

She smiled.

_But that makes me happy._

Asano's expression turned bitter when she thought about her team. Thought about the people she had met and learned from.

At some point she had felt something close to stagnation the more she saw her fellow Shooters. Nasu, Izumi, Kako, Ninomiya, Mizukami. There were many other Shooters who came to mind.

_Even Kotowari-kun._

Each one was strong. Each one had respect in some form from others.

Then there she was.

She had the basics down no problem. Creating the shots, changing the power and speed of each one, understanding the patterns that would be best to use. Everything that had been preprogrammed or needed the simplest of thoughts to work had always been easy for her in combat.

What was troublesome for her, and anyone else using Viper, was the more intricate parts of the Trigger that made it only have two people who could properly use it to its full extent.

_A keen sense of spatial awareness and the skill to visualize something that does not yet exist._

She gave a bitter laugh.

_Only Nasu and Izumi-senpai can do that. Then Kotowari-kun has his Laser-Shooter to make things easier for him._

She created a cube of trion before firing it off to assist her captain.

_I guess I'm still not too comfortable when firing my shots like the rest of them. Damn. Even Maya understands how to do this better than I do. Should I be sad about that or happy?_

She started to make her way towards a safer area where it would better for her to fire without having to worry about a counterattack right away.

A Shooter's roll could be switched from attacking to support. Some favored attacking because of their keep sense of attacking or their simple love for destructive attacks at a distance. Everything depended of the fighter and how they viewed the battlefield.

Asano found herself enjoying the supporting roll while attacking when she needed to be offensive. Being flashy and in the middle of the action had never been her priority, instead leaving that up to her teammates.

_They give me time to concentrate on my target. But the fact I need so much time means I still need to work harder to support them._

There was more to those thoughts that she did not want to think about.

_Kotowari-kun hasn't moved from his position. The only time was to move away from my attack. He knows that it's easier for any Shooter to hit a non-moving target. Is he doing that on purpose? Is it an insult?_

She shook her head as she thought about it more.

_No. He is just too use to this kind of fighting. He doesn't see the need to move around if his attacks are so dangerous. He really is a good boy. But..._

But.

_The Laser-Shooter Trigger is still extremely dangerous. Disregarding his personality, Kotowari-kun knows exactly how to use his weapons._

There was still an obstacle that was getting between them and victory.

A strong obstacle.

_"Hey, Eri! I need some more help here! I...'lost' one of my blades."_

It was a lie and they both knew it.

Asano let out a sigh as she focused on her next attack. If her opponent chose not move then she would take that for her own benefit. Using what she could was how victory was obtained for those unsure of how to win through power and skill.

.

A conversation came to mind.

Asano could remember how the conversation had changed along with the people. Takeshi had gone away, needing to find his team's Attacker, and had been replaced by her own captain. Nasu continued to sit next to her, a knowing smile on her lips.

At the time it had just been a random conversation change, but now she understood why it had happened.

It was to help her in this match.

She and Nasu had helped Takeshi by talking to him. That made him more prepared to fight in this match. Now it was her turn to get some help from her fellow Shooter.

_She is a very kind person._

Asano smiled at the thought of the help she had gotten afterwards.

From one Shooter to another, that was what it had been. Some extra help had come from her own battle-loving captain. Their words had been the same thing to make sure she understood it. Something that had been ineffective at first.

_I guess I do understand how someone can be comfortable with firing shots. It's like being comfortable doing anything else. You get so into it and enjoy it to where it doesn't even feel like you are trying to do it in the first place._

_That must be how Maya is when fighting._

Her captain always seemed so happy when fighting others. It had not matter what their rank was or how good they were. It had been the fact that she could fight and was comfortable swinging around her two swords that made her able to continue fighting without worrying too much about other things.

Some others from this match could have also been viewed in such a light. They were all comfortable with what they had been doing to the point that they thought nothing of it.

_Misaki was dancing with Shirogane and Shashin. Shana was having fun with Awdry-kun and Shor-kun. Even right now, Maya is going at it with Kotowari-kun. I'm sure they don't even realize what they were doing during that time. They didn't think too much about the fact they were in a fight._

Battle here were far different than how they were depicted in fiction. They had no power ups and spirit meant little when fighting others stronger than oneself. Asano was well aware of these facts, yet she found herself entertaining the thought of such things happening.

_When I think about it, even the requirements for Viper seems kind of like that. Let's give it a try._ _A keen sense of spatial awareness-_

"Kuni, can you send me some feed from Maya's view?"

_"Sure thing!"_

_And the skill to visualize something that does not yet exist._

A line that has yet to appear. A path that needed to be created, but could not be done by anyone else. Something needed to be seen by only her own eyes and then constructed from her own thoughts and imagination.

It had been foreign to a strategist like her who thought about the fight using the information she already had instead of what had never been seen.

But now...

_I think I get it. I'll take some hints from some people. Kotowari-kun and Maya being included in that._

Small spheres of trion started appearing. Each one was as small as a marble.

"Let's try it this way instead."

One by one, they seemed to appear as if loading a weapon ready to fire.

They circled around her wrists like rings.

.

Amaya was glad that she had managed to cut through enough to make a small escape. It had been due to the assistance of her teammate that she had not been shot through.

The amount of places to hide were still less than the number of fingers on one hand, so that left her with the only choice she had.

_Keep running._

The time for the match was getting shorter as they continued this chase.

As she ran, Amaya noticed that the number of laser-like beams had been shortened as well. Instead of three following her, there was just one.

Her second Kōgetsu blade was still in the ground next to Takeshi's stationary feet. This left her with only one blade to fight with at the moment.

_With time running out the best we can do right now is stall out so that both teams gets points instead of just their team. I don't think that we can manage this even with both of us going all-out._

It was a troubling situation.

With two less laser-like beams attacking her, Amaya understood that they could not win. The more beams that were targeting the more likely it would be for Takeshi to run out of trion. Since the number had gone down it meant that he was conserving trion so that he would not Bail Out due to running out.

Her own trion was running out with the quickly made defenses as well as a good amount escaping from the earlier attack that had taken one side of her.

"This really sucks..."

_"Maybe if you didn't go and 'lose' one of your blades, you wouldn't be saying that."_

Multiple defenses appeared once more in front of Amaya, holding off the laser-like beam long enough for her to make another escape.

The assistance from her teammate had been appreciated.

_"Hey, go get your other Kōgetsu. You having only one is weird. Don't just change fighting styles like that because you feel like it. I won't know what to do at that point."_

Amaya smiled at the command given to her by Asano. It was different from their usual banter and was filled with determination that had not been there before.

There had been no reason to respond with something like, "How am I suppose to do that!?" or "Easy for you to say!"

The time was running out and if her friend had told her to retrieve her second blade then it meant that she would be able to do so without fail. To do such a thing meant that she had to only do one thing.

Something she was use to doing.

_Keep running! Run forward!_

.

Amaya ran forward, preparing her defense while also anticipating Asano's own defenses. The target was the blade by Takeshi's feet that had been taken and stabbed into the ground.

There was nowhere to hide and nothing to use as a shield against the Laser-Shooter Trigger, yet the girl ran forward without much care for such things. There was very little time in the match and something needed to be done.

The straightforward attack was similar to the first one. Knowing that, Takeshi had prepared himself to repeat the process that had happened once already.

Doing the same thing twice should not work against anyone who was as smart as Asano, he knew, but it was worth a try to see if anything changed from the few moments where she had been absent from the match.

A second orb of trion appeared next to his body as his right arm was lifted into the air in front of him.

Two laser-like beams tore through the air with the target running right towards them without much thought of what would happen.

Multiple layers of Shield had appeared in front of her and curved to make a small semi-circle around the two beams. Amaya moved to the side, where the beams were not being fired. The Multi-Layer Shield continued to protect her from the beams as they shifted and started to move sideways.

Amaya ducked and twisted her body in the opposite direction the beams were moving, giving her even more time to move forward.

"..."

A third orb manifested in front of the boy, shimmering a bit as a sign that a third beam would be fired towards her. That would make it the maximum amount he would fire unless taking a large risk in the battle.

There was a few feet between Amaya as the grounded Kōgetsu blade. Three laser-like beams were caging her in from the front, right and left sides. Ducking or jumping would have been a good way of evading, but they would simply follow her and increase the time it would take to reach her blade. Creating more defenses would get a roughly five more seconds of time for her to move away and go forward, but at the cost of using more trion. Defending here came at a price.

But...

"!?"

Attacking becoming both offense and defense.

A rain of shots came down from above, stopping short of reach Amaya even as she ran forward.

Not wanting to take a direct hit and not being able to use another Trigger in time, Takeshi moved backwards. He was away from the blade.

Without his attention solely focused on the running girl, the three laser-like beams slowed down in speed and moved in a more slanted motion than in a straight line.

"There!"

Seeing her chance, Maya pushed forward while ducking under the beams. Her feet shifted so that she leaned towards the left. She was almost within reach of her blade.

"!"

The three beams disappeared without any warning.

She had registered it as she took another step.

When they had disappeared, three more were being fired.

It was a quick decision that allowed her to reach the Kōgetsu blade, but get shot through by the new laser-like beams being fired. Takeshi had not anticipated the rain of shots, but he was quick to adapt and change the battle in order to lose the blade in favor of gaining a point.

"That was a nice move! But!"

But.

"-!"

Once she was within reach of the Kōgetsu blade, Amaya lifted her leg starting from her knee going to her toes. The leg was raised even higher to where it touched the top of the Kōgetsu blade.

Using the blade as a springboard, she jumped into the air as the three laser-like beams shot through empty where that she had previously occupied.

She was moving forward and upward. There was no way for her to go down writhing being forced to do so by some other fact.

"!"

That fact had been a Shield in this case.

Amaya could feel her body become difficult to move while in mid-air, but she placed her feet on the mid-air Shield. With a push that came from the force of her jump, she moved down towards the male Shooter.

"Here!"

Holding on to her remaining Kōgetsu blade, she started with a slashing motion. She could see the three beams disappear once more, but knew that the next attack would come after she had landed. The amount of time it would take to prepare the attack gave her the chance she needed.

.

Takeshi saw the attack coming from the ground.

He had been unprepared for Amaya to jump into the air instead of grabbing her second blade.

_I don't have enough time._

He had gotten rid of the three beams he had been firing once he realized that his target had become airborne. He turned towards where she had jumped but could not correct his beams' potion in time, so he decided to create new ones to attack.

The issue came in the fact that she was already going in for an attack while he had tried to create the new beams.

_I have to at least move away!_

Commanding his body to do as he wanted, Takeshi pushed his body to right. His upper-body was first to go in the direction with the rest of his body following after due to it having to push the rest of his body.

That had been when the attack came.

The falling girl hand cut through his left arm while bear key missing his leg.

_Next hit!_

He had completely given up on attacking and prepared for the next attack that was coming.

Amaya had wasted no time in twisting her body while lifting her second Kōgetsu blade to cut through him.

_Teleport!_

Takeshi felt his feet touch the ground once more as he narrowly dodged the second attack. The momentum would be lost with the increase in distance between the two of them. This gave him his own chance to attack.

Yet something happened before he could.

"-!?"

A heavy shot came down from above, taking off his right arm. The attack managed to take out his entire shoulder while also scraping his side.

.

Asano smiled once her hit had been confirmed.

The small marble-sized balls of trion around her wrist continued to circle around her wrist for a few seconds before being fired off one-by-one. Each time one if them had been fired, a new one would take its place.

The two circling rings if trion had followed a path that had been created in the moment by following the arm movements of Asano as she tossed her arms to the side, up, down, and in many slanting motions.

This was how she would create the unseen paths and fire using those paths as a direction for Viper.

_Wow! I didn't think I would get use to this so quickly! There are still issues I have to work on, but now I understand it enough to help out Maya._

"Right! Let's keep going, Maya!"

.

Amaya continued to grin as she saw Takeshi second arm get taken off of his body by the shot fired from a distance.

The time they had left was extremely short, so she knew there was no time to properly compliment her teammate for such a great job.

_There we go._

As she ran forward once more, she grabbed the Kōgetsu blade that had been stabbed into the ground. Now that she had both blades in her hands, she moved in with her body closer to the found but with light steps.

That was when she saw it.

.

Asano was unsure as to what had happened.

They had been just pulled off an amazing attack on the Laser-Shooter. So then why did it feel like something was missing?

"Oh... That explains it."

She turned her head to the side to see that a large portion of the battlefield, as well as her own left side, was completely gone. The shape of the attack was similar to a large circle that had cut through the entire area.

"This was his last attack. It has to be."

Cracks starting running along her face. The amount of trion she had left was not enough to keep her going. Half of her body was now missing and he knew her location.

"So close!"

**Bail Out**

.

Amaya noticed the lights flash through the sky as she felt her own body. Her right side had been completely destroy along with the ground next to her. A large attack had been fired directly at her and in another direction.

With only three fighters remaining, it was clear what that light had meant for them.

"Crap. We lost."

"..."

"Heh~ But I guess did help us get better."

Cracks had long since appeared on her face before her body started to glow. Without anything else being said, her body turned to light before flying away.

**Bail Out**

* * *

[And there is the match! With only seconds left, the winner of round 3 is Kotowari Squad! Since Captain Kotowari was the last one standing, his team gains the survival points. This puts the final score at 2-2-6!]

[That last fight made it seem like Tsukiko Squad realized what they had been lacking. Both their captain and Shooter managed to take an arm from Kotowari and were only taken out because of an unexpected attack from him.

[Kotowari-kun may have gotten desperate with that last attack since they had so little time left. If that attack did not take the other two out, he would have lost for sure."]

.

"He won... I am so happy."

Minoru looked down at the girl next to him to see her holding her chest while letting out a breath.

The last fight might have put a bit of pressure on her since it seemed to be extremely close by the end of it. He understood how something like that felt by just watching it.

"So? What did you think if that last fight? Takeshi managed to pull off the win against two opponents. He had taken those two heavy hits, but still won."

"It was amazing to watch. Tsukiko Squad's members also did so well that I was rather speechless."

"What did you notice in their fight? You seemed to be paying a good amount of attention, so you must have seen something there. It's fine if you didn't, I just want to know if you did see anything particular there."

"Well... Um... It might be because I am still far too inexperienced, but I believe I was only able to notice the simple things going on. I apologize, Minoru-senpai."

"No, no. It's fine. How about we listen to the recap and the commentators' thoughts? See if you found anything similar to them."

"Yes."

Minoru smiled down at the girl.

* * *

Asano sighed as she got up from the mat next to where her captain lay. The two had reached Bail Out relatively close to each other, so she was still laying on the mat.

Walking with her captain to the next room, she saw Ayugai and Shana looking at the two of them. While the former sat back in her chair, looking exhausted, the latter walked up to them to give them high-fives.

"We lost. I'm sorry. I ended up taking too long to think things through. Next time I'll make sure we score more points."

"It's fine. You clearly went through some character development during that time, so I think that can count as a win. Besides, I got to pull off something fun in that last moment~ So it's a double win there!"

Asano smiled at the energy coming from Amaya, even after they both had just been taken out. It lessened the pain of losing a bit.

"So that's why you wanted me to tell you about my fight when you were in the middle of your own."

Asano tilted her head at the comment.

Shana, being the one who had spoken up, looked towards her.

"You didn't see it. This girl had asked me to tell her about my fight with Tobio and No while she was fighting Takeshi. Now I see why. She wanted to see if she could use anything from our fight."

"Hey, it worked out in the end. I mean, we didn't get the point, but I did mange to get the guy by surprise. Even took an arm off while I was at it."

"Yeah. So did Eri."

"Hey, I just noticed something." Ayugai was the one to speak up this time, gaining their attention. "Shana was the only one of your three to score any points this time. You two were so busy with Kotowari-kun that you didn't go after anyone else."

Both Attacker and Shooter froze instantly.

The loud laughter from Shana could be heard as her teammates tried not to register what had been said.

* * *

"The first squad to get thrown out if the match, huh?" Noah sighed out as he scratched his head. "Ah! I guess that's fine. When it came to points we ended up tying with Tsukiko Squad."

"Don't worry, Taichin! Next time Minubuki-sama won't lose! She'll make sure we win for sure!"

"That was my bad. I was too caught up in the queen's dance to do much of anything. I'll make sure to fix that next time it comes up."

Noah smiled towards his two teammates.

His own fight had been far too fun for him to think about anything else. He understood well enough how the other two, who loved dancing with Suzume, could get caught up in the match.

_At least we all pretty much had the time of our lives._

Righting his stance, he cleared his thoat while looking at each member of his team.

"Right. I'll be counting on you then. You too, Sora. Please continue being our Operator."

"I wasn't planning on quitting, Shor-kun."

"Heh heh."

Noah could only continue to smile at seeing the reactions of each one of his teammates. They had been the first team to get taken out, but they had managed to hold their own against a powerful defense and an amazing attack. That had warranted some self praise.

While still enjoying the company of his team, Noah turned towards the monitor Sora had been using to listen in on the commentators.

* * *

Takeshi could only stare blankly into nothing as he was forced into a pair of soft cushions for the briefest of moments before getting pulled into a headlock. He was able to see Mei looking at them with a small smile, but otherwise not doing anything.

The loud voice that came from the boy holding him could also be heard above him.

He would rather have not heard it at all.

"That was great, Take! I didn't think you would throw out a large ass attack like that at the end! You better put in that much effort the next time we are training!"

"I would rather not. I like those two more than I like you, so that is a definite rejection from me."

"Heh heh heh~ Foolish teammate, are you honestly trying to give me more material? I mean, I will take it with some gratitude, but be sure that a doujinshi will come out of it. But..."

Takeshi was unsure how to feel from the sly smirk he was getting from Suzume.

It never meant anything good.

"So how did it honestly feel to have two girls after you for so long? Heh heh heh. It must have been nice for you. But then again, you honestly might not understand what that would mean to others. I am sure that some people will get jealous if I say, 'My honestly adorable teammate was chased around and played with by two older girls. How does that honestly make you better than him? How is he a monster at that point?' Heh heh heh. Yes! This is perfect! A doujinshi and a song can come from this!"

Once the girl grabbed herself and started started wiggling around, he knew it was time to properly ignore her and the delusions that came from her mind.

Finally being freed from the headlock, he went over to the speakers to get a better listen in on what the commentators had to say about their match.

_I barely won. It's best for me if I can get some good advice here._

Both of his arms and a part of his side had been taken out at the very last moment. He used a lot of trion early on and later on in the fight, putting him extremely low should his last attack have missed.

Both Asano and Amaya had put up a good fight with the end of it being where they really showed themselves off. If not for his own knowledge of them, the fight would have ended far differently.

He was grateful for their help early on.

"Oh, hey, why don't we log in? That way he can mess with the others during the comments~"

Takeshi let out a sigh as he watched Toby log in to his account on Border's chat.

 **Werewolf:** "Hello, hello!"

 **American Idiot:** "We just got done fighting!"

 **Shore:** "Pay attention to what they're going to be saying."

 **Werewolf:** "But it's Ai."

 **Honest Sister:** "And Narasaka. Honestly no reason to listen."

 **Wisteria:** "All of you need to pay attention."

 **All:** "Right!"

* * *

[Now it's time for the review of the match! The start came from Captain Tsukiko and Agent Asano taking on Agent Misaki. It seemed like they were unprepared for her odd way of countering them and their offenses.]

[I doubt anyone would expect to go against such a...strange defense. It also seemed to work offensively as well. Misaki-senpai has always been a bit out there, so I am not too surprised by this.]

[In that kind of environment a Sniper should be key to victory. If we are applying regular rules here, that is. With Misaki being involved, it changed things to where the Snipers were the front fighters for the first part. Actually, she didn't really use sniping Triggers too much there. Basically, she turned everything upside down like the strange woman she is.]

 **Honest Sister:** "So Kitora-chan is fine. She has some potential for the future. Narasaka though... Well, you should all honestly say goodbye to him."

 **Platinum:** "Now, now. No reason to get so upset, my queen. Just dump him in a mob doujinshi and you will feel much better."

 **Hummingbird:** "This is a dangerous conversation..."

 **Wisteria:** "Please pay attention."

[Regardless of the strangeness... Agent Misaki was able to handle both Agent Shirogane and Agent Shashin. It seemed like she was holding herself back a bit though, so I feel like the end of the fight was just something Kotowari Squad felt like they had to make happen.]

[That should go nicely into the next fight. Since Misaki-senpai and Shirogane-senpai were taken out, that left Shashin to try and counter the attacks from Awdry and Lee-senpai.]

[If Shor had not shown up, Shashin would have been taken out. It was because of that that Lee managed to get that point. After that it just seemed to be more of a random brawl between battle-loving fools.]

 **Werewolf:** "'A simple brawl,' my ass! Suzume, I'll help you out at getting back at this jackass!"

 **Honest Sister:** "Heh heh heh~"

 **American Idiot:** "I'll punch his face in for that!"

 **Eri:** "You can't do that. You will get in trouble."

 **Shore:** "He just doesn't know how to have fun..."

 **Minubuki-sama:** "Oh! Oh! Taichin is mad!"

 **Hummingbird:** "Shashin-san, please don't antagonize him."

 **Wisteria:** "Please pay attention. All of you."

 **All:** "Right!"

[But that was just how it would see to some others. Their attacks and defenses seemed to be thought out, for the most part."

[They did not seem to miss a beat near the end. The start showed just how much Toby was lacking when compared to others. The time he had spent getting mad for no reason slowed him down and made him become stagnant while both Shor-kun and Lee-senpai continued to work towards bettering themselves.

[As harsh as ever, Kitora-chan... Especially when it comes to Awdry-kun.]

[But that isn't to say that he was bad. After notching his own lack of abilities against the other two, he worked on covering up those lacking areas. To do something like that in the middle of a battle is important and can be a deciding factor. It is also something that is usually done by more skilled people.]

[As tsundere as ever, Kitora-chan.]

 **Werewolf:** "I won't take back anything I said about Tōru. But Ai is being a tsundere again! What do I do here again? Oh! But I'm glad she realizes how great I am!"

 **Colors:** "Shut up and die already."

 **Honest Sister:** "Heh heh heh. We have our own semi-tsun over here too~ Just don't honestly go around calling anyone an idiot and we will take good care of you, Colors-kun."

[That fight ended, amazingly enough, in each team gaining a point. I guess those three really did want to stay on equal terms with each other.]

[I wouldn't be surprised if that was true...]

[Well, that leads into the next and last fight between Captain Kotowari, Captain Tsukiko and Agent Asano. The latter two seemed to be doing well enough in the forest, but seemed to loss in the cityscape. Agent Asano also seemed to be hesitating a good portion of the fight. Why do you think that is?]

[She was unsure.]

 **Colors:** "Unsure?"

[Unsure about what?]

Narasaka nodded his head, knowing full well what Kitora meant by her words. It had been seen in multiple Snipers during training before. For it not to happen with Shooters and Attackers was almost an impossibility.

The nod from Narasaka was seen by the two girls, giving Kitora a reason to continue her explaination.

[She was unsure if she wanted to show herself. As we had seen, the moment she attacked, Kotowari-kun struck back harder than she had. If someone is unsure if they can even hit someone stronger than them, they tend to hold back from giving themselves away. But that also becomes something bad when the stronger opponent ends up gaining advantage during that time.]

[Tsukiko most likely had no such thoughts since it was a Shooter she was fighting, but it is exactly that reason why Asano might have held off on doing much there. By the end of it, she did seem to get rid of some of that uncertainty and attack. The result was not bad either, but if that had been done before then the fight would have ended much differently than what we saw.]

[I see. So, in a way, you can say that the fact she was fighting someone stronger also helped her get over that uncertainty she had. This was a beneficial thing for Tsukiko Squad then.]

[Yes, well... There are of course more to it than that. There are other things that had happened that caused Tsukiko Squad to lose. One of which was strategy. Asano and Kotowari are strategic-types, so it also came down to who could outsmart the other one.]

[If we are talking about basic strategies, Asano-senpai lost in that very quickly. Kotowari-kun had really one in a single moment.]

[What moment would that be?]

[The moment Tsukiko Squad followed him out of the forest.]

 **Overprotective Sister:** "What!?"

 **Eri:** "My bad..."

 **Colors:** "..."

Kitora continued talking, not knowing the damage her words had done to the captain of Tsukiko Squad.

[If they had not left the forest, Kotowari-kun would not have been able to use Teleport as well as he did. The trees would make it difficult for him. What's more is that Tsukiko-senpai would have a better chance at closing in while Asano-senpai could fire from a good spot.]

[If Kotowari were to cut down the rest of the trees then he would have to use a lot more trion, putting him in an even worse position. Basically, the fight was decided the moment they followed him out of the forest.]

[I see. Well, I'm sure those words hit Tsukiko Squad hard right about now. I know that my team would go into hiding for something like that.]

[Is that really something you should be saying, Uta-san?]

The older girl only smiled.

[Well that wraps up this match of the B-Rank Wars. Thank you very much for joining me.]

[Yeah.]

[Thank you for having me.]


	45. Interlude

Seihana was glowing as the finishing comments were done.

Next to her, Satori grinned at the score that had been given.

"That was quite lovely. I truly enjoyed watching this. I suppose that is not what a mother should say, but it was truly something to watch."

From next to Satori, Kodera could be seen getting up. It was odd to hear such a thing from a grown woman who had just seen her daughter fight it out against two teams in a team-vs-team match. He said nothing on the matter, but wondered just what was going on in the woman's mind.

"So you enjoyed watching Suzu-chan dance about, Mama Misaki?"

"It was not just her." Seihana smiled as she stood as well. "Everyone was 'blooming' quit beautifully. While I do not know the members of the other two teams, I can tell that there had truly been some realizations there. The girls from the all-girls team have figured something out about themselves. The girls who were dancing with my daughter were truly enjoying themselves."

"Wow! You are really refined, Mama Misaki! Even your vocabulary is great."

"Oh my. You certainly know how to flatter someone, don't you, Satori-kun? I just just speaking truthfully. No need to mind my words. If anything, you and Kodera-kun know far better how much they are 'blooming' than someone like me."

It was strange. The words coming from the woman were strange in the way that she spoke like her daughter, using certain words that only they understood the meaning of yet seemed like general words for everyone.

As they waited for others to walk up the stairs, Kodera could not help but think about how the mother-daughter duo were similar and how different they were from each other.

"You had splendid commentary, Narasaka-kun. Someone like me understood it all, so you truly have a nice talent for teaching others. You seem to be 'blooming' in a lovely manner. You also seemed to understand my daughter very well. Truthfully, I think you all understand her much better than I ever could."

Kodera looked forward to see his upperclassman of the same squad. He seemed to have just gotten up from his seat next to Kitora since she had just walked ahead of them.

"All I can say is that I know her more than I would like to know. But thank you for the compliments. Even with those complement," he continued with furrowed brows, "I know I missed out on a few things. I'm not really 'blooming' at all."

The truthful woman gave a slight laugh towards Narasaka.

"On the contrary, I truly see that you are 'blooming proudly' right now. For you to own up to something as small as that means that you are a mature person who is continuing to grow. Ah, yes. You may just be perfect for my daughter."

A response was immediate.

Having been in dangerous situations before, Kodera was aware that those words were not to be messed with. The proof was right before his eyes.

While Narasaka only gave a deep frown at those words, Satori seemed ready to take some kind of action. Likely directed towards the Miwa Squad Sniper.

Unsure if her words had been intentional or not, Kodera took a step forward, intervening before something really happened between the other two Snipers.

"Um... Misaki-san..."

"Kodera-kun."

He nodded.

"You really like certain phrases, don't you? Misaki... Uh..."

He knew that he had to clarify who he was talking about. Both mother and daughter were "Misaki", meaning his use of their names would be how he chose who he was talking about.

_And she had told me to call her that name..._

He let out a sigh as he continued.

"Suzume...nee...also likes to speak with certain phrases. Her phrases lean more towards dancing with a few about 'blooming flowers'. Does that mean she gets that from you?"

Kodera chose to ignore the looks from Narasaka and Satori as he spoke the name.

The woman in front of him was going to give her answer, so he wanted to be respectful and listen to what she would say.

But...

"Oh my. I am truly sorry if I have confused you. The reason I keep saying 'blooming' is because that is what I truly see."

The answer made no sense.

"Heh heh heh. Maybe it is best if I say that I see 'blooming' the same way my daughter sees 'rhythm'. Does that make more sense? I believe she has truly explain that to you all if she has done so with me."

The follow-up answer made sense. At the same time, it made even less sense.

Kodera, Satori and Narasaka looked at the older woman as they all climbed the last few steps in the large room.

The match between Kotowari Squad, Tsukiko Squad and Shor Squad had just concluded and the group of four were leaving the large room. The group consisted of Misaki Seihana, Satori Ken, Kodera Shōhei and Narasaka Tōru. A conversation had been going on with them that lead to something interesting.

"Um... Misaki-san..."

"Kodera-kun."

He nodded, knowing that he was allowed to continue.

"The way...Suzume-nee sees 'rhythm' is because of a Side Effect. I don't know if she had told you that. So if you see 'blooming' then..."

Seihana only smiled.

She was glowing after having heard the finish comments in her daughter's latest fight.

* * *

"Some people just like being loud, don't they?"

Girikage Kasei huffed as he walked next to an older boy.

The older boy was Tsukiko Kaede, brother to one of the people who had just fought in the latest match. During said match he had been feeling oddly tense, unsure as to how his sister and her team would do by the end of it.

Now that the match was over, he felt as if his body was just a bit lighter.

_I guess that just shows how much that match meant. Especially for the three teams involved. If I felt tense just watching... How did they feel when actually fighting?_

There were a lot of unknowns for someone who had not been in a real fight before and who was only watching from a great distance. Those unknowns could eat away at a person, driving their curiosity to the point where they would want to be in loved themselves.

_But..._

But.

"I guess that won't happen. At least not for a while."

"What will not happen?"

Kaede looked down at the younger male.

He had forgotten for a moment that he had not watched the fight alone. Someone had decided to join him in watching his sister's match. There was someone who had see exactly what he had seen and who felt the same way towards his own older sibling.

"Hello?"

The look he was getting from the younger Girikage brother was that of a young boy as opposed to someone pretending to be an adult.

It made him feel more at ease.

"Sorry. I was thinking about something. Uh. About joining Border, that is."

"Because of your sister. I get it. I completely get it. I want to join at some point too so that I can help my brother. But..."

Kaede nodded.

"Our siblings won't allow it... I mean...I'm probably too young anyway, but you shouldn't be! Those guys... The ones fighting just now are younger than my brother, but older than me, so you should be fine since you are also younger than my brother and older than me."

"I don't think that's how it works... Even so, it's fine. I was only thinking about those who joined Border."

"Oh! You mean like our siblings. Right, right. Those two are great in their own right. Well, I guess there will always be someone better. We saw that today. Your sister was fighting a single person while she had her teammate helping her, yet they lost. Not to say your sister is weak or anything! I'm sure even my dull brother would have trouble. I think..."

Kaede could feel something twitch.

"Kasei, I enjoy your company, I do. But... You have absolutely no tact. You are still a kid, so I can forgive it, even if I am only a bit older. Even so, you really should take a page from your brother and be calm while talking."

"Huh? What did I say wrong? Well, as a mature person I will apologize."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Kaede could feel another twitch.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

A third twitch.

"You said you would apologize!"

"That didn't count?"

Kasei turned his head while mutter under his breath.

"Being an adult really is hard, isn't it?"

Taking three deep breaths, Kaede tried to calm himself down before he really yelled out in frustration. There was no reason to get agitated over something so slight when there were other things to pay attention to at the moment.

Now that the match was over he could go see his sister and talk to her. To better understand what it felt like during the match for someone who was fighting instead of someone watching.

Fixing his mind on what he wanted to know, he started again towards the door.

As he started for it once more, thinking of how he would go through the small crowd in front of him, he felt something tug his arm. Looking down, he saw that Kasei had been the one to do so. The younger boy was looking directly at him, nowhere else.

"Hey Kaede-san, answer me honestly."

"Ask properly and I will."

This time Kasei nodded.

"If we do join Border at some point, would it be fine if I joined a team with you? You are, admittedly and sadly, my only friend. As such, I would like to be on a team with you."

"Oh. That's all? I wouldn't really mind if you did or not."

"Eh? Eh!? That easy! Is being so relaxed something that comes with growing up!? No, no. That shouldn't be right. Hisa is easily disturbed and Taicchi is always bouncing around. I can't rely on Yoshi since he is just a lazy gamer. Too bad I can't call him a NEET."

"For someone who says he is mature, you like to tear through people who are older than you, don't you?"

"Hm? No. Not really. It's just that those guys are as idiotic as my brother. Not as dull, but they mess around as much as he does. I figure that I don't need to view them in a favorable light when I already know what they are like."

"I see..."

It was the only answer Kaede could think of as they walked out of the large seated room.

 _The difference between older and younger brother is amazing,_ was all he could think. It was not a statement he thought would ever come to mind, yet there it was.

"Anyway... Who would even be good teammate by that time? Going back in the conversation a bit."

"From what I saw in the fight... A very good balance would be good. Yeah. A nice one-to-two ratio sounds nice."

"What are you even saying at this point...?"

* * *

Hoshi could not help but laugh a bit as she overheard a conversation while walking out of the seated room. There had been no reason to interrupt the two who were going in a different direction, so she stuck to herself.

Would it have been childish if she wanted to join them? Was it too odd for someone like her to want to lower herself to that of children?

"I guess that would mean I am simply going three steps back after watching that match."

"That would be something different. Enjoying yourself and taking some steps back don't always go hand-in-hand, Hime. Besides, as long as you make up for any lost steps then you should be fine."

"Is that so? I believe I understand that. Thank you for the offhanded advice. I will make sure to remember it."

She looked up to see Minoru nod towards her. His approval of her understanding was nice.

"Minoru-senpai, you are quite use to handling those younger than you, aren't you? The way you have spoken to me is simple to understand, yet it is not demeaning in any way."

"I just...know how to handle certain subjects. That is all. Fuzzy... No. Huh. I guess at this point Toby deserves a better name than that. It would actually be a bit insulting if I called him by a name that referred to a him that no longer exists."

Hoshi smiled at hearing the kind words.

_He really does care for those younger than him. Thoughts like those are not ones I could imagine thinking of. I would have to be told to not call someone something. He is here, thinking get about Awdry-kun and who he really is as a person._

"And I gave him that name because of his trapper hat."

"..."

"He still wears it, but it just doesn't feel the same anymore. As odd as that sounds."

"From what I know about Awdry-kun, odd stuff just attaches itself to him. I believe it is fine to say that about him."

"Oh yeah. You two are classmates."

It was a simple fact that was easily forgotten.

Hoshi was quick to forgive him.

Her classmate was far more connected to Minoru than she was, so there was no reason for her to have any sort of negative feelings towards him.

"Well I guess that can be out on hold for the moment. We're almost to their room and you have been looking at me like you want to ask something. No need to hold back. Ask about anything on your mind. I will answer to the best of my ability."

_He is a really nice person! That is very unfair to someone like me!_

_._

Hoshi placed a hand in her chest while giving three deep breathes.

_Calm down, Hoshi. There is no need to be so amazed by something so simple. Although these kinds of people are not as prominent as the other kind..._

The amount of honest and kind people she could think of was enough to count on both of her hands.

Status was something that was important to a lot of people. Inside of and outside of school, it was evident to even her. She stood out among a crowd and her family name was not to be taken lightly by those people who really knew about it. This was how the space between her and most people had been created.

Her elder siblings had always watched out for her whenever they could, but that died out the moment they had left. One had been disowned while the other two had moved away until just recently.

_Kō-nii-san has been watching over me during the time they have been gone. I have even been able to make some nice and real friends in Awdry-kun, Kotowari-kun and Mikumo-kun. Oh! Kodera-senpai and Usami-san have been very kind to me as well, so they are very much welcomed._

A space that had been created by selfish people had started to fill up at some point by people who could only be described as "selfless" while still caring about themselves. It became a nice feeling that started to overflow beyond the hole that was created.

The thought of adding anyone else made her feel excitement that rarely came to her. It created a bubble that continued to grow until it burst and started filling the hole back up.

_Minoru-senpai would be a nice person to be friends with. But if I go through with my plan and they allow it...I will have at least one other person who I may be able to talk to naturally._

A elegant dancer appeared in her mind.

She had created a large stage out of a forest and performed for everyone watching. A smile had been on her face as she was joined on the stage by others who wanted to find out what it had been like to dance with her.

_She was so beautiful too. I am unsure if I can ever reach that kind of beauty, but that does not matter. Comparing myself to someone like that will create a new hole in me. Yes. I should only see her as the beautiful upperclassman who shines. Besides, I do not to be beautiful as long as I am useful._

Clenching her fists, Hoshi puffed out her cheeks while steeling herself.

As she solidified her thoughts, a laugh could be heard next to her.

It was the kind person who had sat with her during the match.

.

"You are a good girl. I can see why Loki brags about you."

"Huh?"

Minoru shook his head with a smile.

He remembered everything that Yuki had said about his younger sister. The amount of gushing from the boy had not been something Minoru had expected from him. At some point it had even extended to Murakami who, shockingly enough, also started going on about the girl.

_Now I see why._

The girl was like how everyone spoke of her, yet nothing like it at all. Another perfect person who had so many flaws that it shows just how imperfect they were.

His cousin quickly flashed in his mind.

"So about that question."

"Oh! Yes! My apologies."

"No need."

Hoshi gave another smile.

Minoru was unsure if he was hearing it right or not, but there was a small tapping noise that seemed to be getting closer. It made him lose some focus for a moment and so gave his own smile back as his own inner apology.

"Minoru-senpai, this is an important question, so please answer it very seriously."

"Um... Sure... I mean. Yes."

He suddenly felt nervous under the hard stare.

The tapping was becoming louder.

"May I... Minoru-senpai, may I examine your body thoroughly!?"

.

"Eh...?"

Minoru froze for a second.

The tapping came to a sudden stop.

The hallway was quickly filled by a loud chorus.

"EEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHH!?"


	46. Kotowari Squad: Part 2

"Alllllllllllright! We're back and ready to keep going! This was a fun match!"

The voice rang out through the hall.

A hard fought battle had just finished but the excitement remained.

The hallway was empty except for the group of four who had exited a room. It gave even more emphasis to the words yelled out as the echo that came after stretched out.

The one who had yelled grinned even as someone behind him rolled their eyes and another let out a small laugh.

"Do you have to be so loud? My head is still spinning from Suzume-senpai. I don't need s dog howling with everything he has. Oh, sorry, I guess I should call you 'Lobo' now, right?"

"Gah! Those assholes! Just coming up with a new random name for me! Tch. Whatever. Yeah. It's fine. It's not like I'm going to answer to that name anyways."

 **Honest Sister:** "He says he won't honestly be answering to his new nickname. Anyone want to bet on how long that will last?"

 **Haru:** "I give it by the next time someone calls him by that name. Whatever it is."

 **Platinum:** "Oh yeah. We are the only ones we know. We should share it out."

 **American Idiot:** "Don't worry, Tobio. No and I will still be calling you 'Tobio'. You can answer to that all you want. Oh. And I'm putting money down on a day before he starts answering to to."

 **Shore:** "I'll say a week. Generosity is usually paid back in full, right? Tobio, I'll take a Salisbury Steak. Thank you."

 **TetsuG:** "If that's how things work... A month. Okonomiyaki and tea will be fine enough. Actually, if you can make three days worth, that would be best. Saves me some trouble."

 **Werewolf:** "I hate all of you!"

Suzume let out a laugh as she watched her teammate continue typing.

 **Werewolf:** "Noah, when do you want it by? Tetsuji, I can't afford any sort of expensive tea, so easy to get stuff is all your getting. I'll also just make you a week's worth of the stuff if I'm already going to make it."

 **Everyone:** "And he still agrees to it!"

"You are honestly generous, Toby. Can I also place an order?"

"I owe those guys for something else anyway. It's no problem. Besides, it just means they like when I make food, so I have no complaints."

Toby scratched his head with a sigh.

This was not an uncommon occurrence when it came to the people he knew.

"Is your order for just you?"

"No. If anything, it's mostly for my mother and sister. They have been saying that they want some of your food since last time we had to honestly leave early."

"I see. Alright. I'll throw in some cinnamon buns with that. I'm sure Mitsubachi will enjoy them."

"Could you honestly make two of them with only a little bit of cinnamon? My stomach can't take as much as you usually put on."

"Fine. But you're coming over to watch me make this order so you can make it at your house next time. That will be your payment for them."

"Okay~"

.

Toby shook his head at the uselessness and incompetence when it came to making food from his teammates.

While Mei was fine with anything that was not curry, Takeshi could never make cup ramen without destroying the noodles and Suzume had always focused more on her doujinshi than cooking anything.

_I guess that's when you have to overlook that bad quality and see the better parts of them. Wait... Are there really good points when it comes to Take and Suzume?_

Toby stopped walking as the thought went through his mind.

"Hm?"

"Why are you stopping? Have you finally shut down from excessive energy?"

An odd sweat started to formed on his forehead.

_Mei's weak points are very few, so she gets a pass. But the other two! Let's see... I guess from a worldly perspective Suzume has a good body frame. Take is also pretty innocent to others who aren't me, so that can count towards them. But Suzume's personality is so hard to deal with for others! And Take is so reserved that it's hard to even see his innocence!_

_Wait, wait, wait. I also have a lot of things wrong with me. But I feel like I'm the only one who actually sees the other stuff we should be worrying about here! I can see my own issues, but those two ignore them because they find it annoying!_

**Werewolf:** "Hey, I just found out that my teammates are weirdos and rather useless when it comes to regular stuff! What do I do!?"

 **Werewolf:** "Excluding Mei."

 **Red Picture:** "You guys don't hold back at scratching at each other, do you?"

 **Werewolf:** "No. Not really."

 **Kitora:** "This is coming from you... You really have no room to talk."

 **White Fox:** "Ask Satoshi how to deal with that. Oh. And you now know I felt."

 **Shōgi Boy:** "Harsh. And why should he ask me? Only our captain is strange. Everyone else's manageable."

 **Iko:** "Huh? Did someone mention me? Was a cute girl? No? Forget it. I'm out. Before that. Lil' pup, fight me to forget about your weird as hell team."

 **Black Wolf:** "I don't think that's how it works. Toby, just grit your teeth and deal with it. That's how I dealt with Yuki for so long."

 **White Fox:** "Rude!"

 **Werewolf:** "I guess I have to do that... Thank you, Kō. Tatsuhito, I'm not fighting you! You keep trying to pet me, you weirdo!"

 **Honest Sister:** "Heh heh heh~ Thank you very much for the storyboard. That will make up for the terrible comment you made, idiotic dog-boy."

 **Shōgi Boy:** "Wait, wait, wait! Who's gonna to be in that storyboard?"

 **Honest Sister:** "Iko-san, Kō-san, Dog-boy. Heh heh heh. Yes. It's honestly something new, so it needs a proper ship name. How about IkoToKō?"

 **Grumpy Cat:** "Kashi is 'Kō'."

 **Honest Sister:** "Boo. 'IkoToMura' just doesn't sound as good. It honestly sounds like some kind of food that seems fancy but can be bought from a small bakery that also works as a café."

 **Werewolf:** "That's so specific!"

"That's so specific!"

"Why did you honestly have to say it while typing it out?"

Toby went a bit red as his reflexively yelled out.

He chose to ignore what Suzume had said I favor of looking at the chat once more.

 **Black Wolf:** "Um, please hold back from putting me into something like that. I already have to deal with Yuki, I don't really want to add more to that."

 **Iko:** "Hey, if you're gonna do that, can you at least make Kō and the pup cute girls?"

 **Black Wolf:** "Not what you should be worrying about..."

 **Honest Sister:** "Nope. I honestly don't do genderbends when it comes to the people I know. That is unless you honestly want to pay up for that change. I have no arguments with taking your money for something like that."

Toby moved back a bit as Suzume gave an ominous laugh.

He read through what had been put and starting thinking of the multiple times she had gotten money to prevent some stories from being made.

_That kind of offer was never up for me or Take! We had to deal with your crazy behavior the entire time!_

There was nothing he could do but sigh at the multiple lost chances.

"Wait... Wasn't Kō in a match? Did they finish already?"

It was Mei who answered back. It was clear that her intent was to prevent Takeshi from badmouthing him or Suzume getting more material from him.

"Toby, remember that you all took the entire time to finish the match. Murakami's match was not as long, so he has time to message."

"Ah... That's right. Oh, is that where you were planning on going just now?"

"That is correct. I wanted to go see Suzunari-1 after their match to ask them something. I will also be with Yuki afterwards. If you need me then just message me."

"If you are going to see Kō, can you tell him I'm sorry for accidentally involving him with Suzume and that I will get him some good rice the next time I see him?"

Mei nodded while taking a step forward.

Toby was confused when it was just a single step instead of multiple ones to show that she was leaving.

"-"

The moment two muffled voices reached his ears his reflexes went into action, already moving him in the most optimal position to walk ahead of the others to make so no collisions would happen and so he did not crash into the people moving closer to them.

With his right foot now turned to the left, his body starting to twist in order to have him walk backwards instead of forwards. The voices gradually got louder. Loud enough to where he knew exactly who was speaking.

He prepared to raise his own voice to let them know that they were there when...

"May I... Minoru-senpai, may I examine your body thoroughly!?"

He stalled.

Unprepared for the question, Toby lost focus and his thoughts stalked for a moment. The moment of mental stalling had contradicted what his body wanted, forcing him to trip and start to fall starting from his feet.

Once his mind caught up with everything, a loud sound filled the hallway.

It came from both him as well as Suzume.

"EEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHH!?"

.

Hoshi was surprised at hearing two voices yell from around the corner of the hallway. One of them was a familiar one she heard often while the other, even while yelling, sounded rather harmonious and in tune with the first one.

She walked forward and peered around the corner to see two of her classmates, their teammate and someone important to her looking directly at her.

The classmate who was on the ground for seemingly no reason shot up just as Minoru rounded the corner as well.

"Ah! Awdry-kun and Kotowari-kun!"

Hoshi was unsure if it had been her imagination or not, but she felt a strange wind move passed her while a brown and gray blur moved with the wind.

She turned around to see Toby standing in front of Minoru with both arms spread out and some red dusting his cheeks.

_So fast! I was unable to keep up with him! And..._

She did not want to believe it.

_He is in his real body?_

Toby had managed to get passed her fast enough to the point where she was unsure if it had been real or not while still being in his flesh and blood body instead of the artificially created one used by Border Combatants.

She was about to ask him what he was doing when he spoke up with a booming voice.

"Hoshi!"

"Y-yes!?"

She went rigid.

Hearing his own voice come out, Toby went a bit more red while speaking up once more.

"Mi-mi-mi-Minoru! You can't d-d-d-do that to Minoru! I mean...! Minoru is a-already t-t-t-taken!

Ma-ma-ma-Masataka! Masataka has already-!"

Hoshi tilted her head as the red spread out on Toby's face, almost reaching his ears.

"Th-th-they have already...c-c-connected! Their bodies! Their b-b-b-bodies have already c-connected! So you can't-! Th-th-t-thoroughly! O-only Masataka and d-d-d-doctor-rs can look at his b-body thoroughly!"

.

"..."

There was a long pause in the hallway.

A number of reactions happened during that pause.

Hoshi continued to tilt her head, eyebrows now a bit closer together.

Takeshi shook his head in exhaustion while Mei chose to respectively look to the side.

Minoru's own face has some red on it, but nowhere near the level of Toby.

As for Suzume...

"Heh heh heh... Heh heh heh heh heh... Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh! Lovely! Oh, how lovely! I never knew our dog-boy was honestly so pure and innocent! This changes everything! With this information, I'm sure we will honestly be getting more people reading some of the doujinshi! I had mostly put Toby as a seme, but now he can be the adorable delinquent uke who blushes whenever the semes appear! This is great! I knew I made the right call by starting my recording when he honestly started to fall! Heh heh heh heh heh! Thank you very much, Toby, Minoru-kun, new helpful girl! I will make sure you are honestly compensated!"

Suzume bounced in joy while hugging Hoshi and Toby from behind and the front respectively.

She was quick to pull out her phone and inform some people about what had happened.

 **Grumpy Cat:** "I see. This might be what we needed. It works well given how you have been writing that guy."

 **Platinum:** "Wow~ I never thought that my captain's best friend was so pure. Well I guess that makes sense given how my captain is. Hey, fujoushi and fudanshi, do you think you can write something with Lobo and my captain. Do whatever you want. I would personally like to see both of them as ukes, but that's all I have to say on the matter."

 **Honest Sister:** "I'm honestly in a great mood, so I have no problems with that! I'll even take the suggestion, free of charge! Yes! Yes! I can see it! IkoTo(Kō/Mura) (up for debate) and YuNo!"

 **Shore:** "Toby!"

 **American Idiot:** "This one won't be going away, will it...?"

 **Shore:** "Wait a minute! Who is that 'Yu'!? There are a lot of 'Yu' people!"

 **Grumpy Cat:** "Don't play dumb. She is talking about 'Yuba'."

 **Shore:** "Wait, wait, wait! That's unfair! That's extremely unfair!"

 **Polished Place:** "I won't allow this! Misaki, don't you dare make anything like that!"

 **Black Wolf:** "..."

 **Mi-Kon:** "Ah! Kō-kun is crying! He's really crying now! I didn't think that would actually happened! I'm glad to know that Awdry-kun is actually more pure than Suzume, but this is still bad! Suzume, please don't make it!"

 **Iko:** "Can you at least make 'em into cute, blushing girls?"

 **Shōgi Boy:** "Please stay out of this conversation. I'm pretty sure you're makin' this worse."

 **Everyone:** "A major understatement!"

More chaos came from the single strange girl who was swaying her body as if following a rhythm. At the same time if felt like she was preparing for a fight from close by.

Before she could be scolded by either Mei or Minoru, Suzume turned in her heel and made a mad dash down the hall way. Before she left she gave a nice yell towards Hoshi.

"Goodbye, helpful girl! I already know I will see you very soon! I honestly hope we have a nice dance with each other!"

Her steps were light, each one hardly touching the ground, but they covered distance rather well.

.

There was another pause in the hallway.

The one to break it was the head-tilting girl.

"Um... Is she..."

Finding the right words to form her question had become extremely hard when she tried figuring out what exactly she wanted to ask. There were multiple questions needing answers at the moment, so she was unsure as to which one she should ask.

There was no time to actually ask any as someone else spoke up after her.

"She is a strange girl. Don't mind her. None of what she said involves you whatsoever. Toby misunderstood what you had said, hence his reaction. I understand what you meant by your question, but please elaborate for these three. Thank you very much and tune in next time for 'Mei Answers It All'."

The girl who had all the answers bowed her head.

"Uh... I think a certain B-Rank captain is effecting you too much, Meimei. Maybe you should calm down a bit before your tsukkomi reaches others and gets them involved. Besides, none of us can play the boke part for you. At least wait for someone who fits that role better than us."

"I suppose you are right. Next time I will use my emotions to create a weapon that can count as a Black Trigger. I am sure that will help with it next time. Having something as hardcore as that usually gets some laughs."

"No, no, no! Please don't do that! Something that hardcore is only found in someone who doesn't understand what an actual joke is! The most you are allowed to bring is a rubber chicken or a banner! Don't go making Black Trigger-level kinds of props."

Hoshi pushed out her lips as she listened to the two cousins going through an improvised comedy routine. It had managed to go over her head to the point where she was unsure if it was a joke or not.

It was only due to the small comment from one of her classmates that she understood that she should not take them too seriously.

There was a wall between her at others who were close to each other. She understood that well enough to where she was fine just watching them.

_This is rather nice. The last time I had seen Hatohara-senpai he did not look so well. Physically he seemed fine, but there was a feeling about him that made me start to feel a bit sad. I was unsure on what to do at the time, but now there is no need for me to do anything._

She smiled as the improvised comedy routine slowly died down.

Thinking that was the time to get an answer on her question, she took a step forward.

When her foot touched the ground again there was something off. A small gust of wind had suddenly appeared again and the body protecting Minoru before was now doing so again, this time with less force.

Toby had managed to get passed her while shifting his body to face her front again.

Something like that had required precise footwork and timing given how he had been standing before. She did not know exactly how much precision it took, but she did know that if he had messed up during any part of it he would have crashed into the floor or the wall.

This was not something she was use to seeing.

"Awdry-kun... Fuji-nee had mentioned that there was a misunderstanding. Would that happen to be why you are protecting Hato-... Minoru-senpai from me?"

"..."

Toby said nothing, only holding his ground with a red face.

"I see... May I know what the misunderstanding is so that I can clear it up?"

"Taiyōko, do you know the way you asked your question?"

"Hm? I believe I asked, 'Minoru-senpai, may I examine your body thoroughly?' How could that...have been...taken..."

Takeshi nodded his head when the color red started to spread on Hoshi's face like it had Toby's. Her cheeks were burning while her ears were covered by her hair, hiding the red on them.

Toby's reaction and protection of Minoru started to make sense. It was a fair reaction given how it seemed from an outsider's perspective and with her poor choice of words.

But...

_I still do not understand the reaction from that beautiful dancing woman. Could there have been an even bigger misunderstanding that I cannot see no matter how hard I try?_

There were things that were not meant to be understood and she understood that well enough.

"U-um... Ah... I sincerely apology! Please forgive my terrible choice of words and for this entire misunderstanding! Awdry-kun, I am also very sorry for making you worried for Minoru-senpai."

"Don't mind it. You didn't mean any harm from it, so it's fine. An explanation on what you meant is all we need. Right...Toby?"

.

Takeshi fixed his new scarf.

_Oh. I didn't think about it now but the choice of cloth Nasu-san and Asano-san picked is very smooth and nice to touch. I think I should repay them later on._

There was no need to pay attention to the slight hesitation from Minoru as he spoke Toby's name instead of a nickname. It blended in with the conversation that did not involve him on the slightest.

"R-right... Well what I meant by 'seeing your body' was that I wished to look over your trion body. You see, I have started to work with the Engineers and have also heard that your trion body is a prototype one. I enjoy working on unfinished things and thought that I may be able to help with your body."

That had managed to catch Takeshi's attention.

"I see. That makes sense. I had heard that there was someone who enjoyed working on things that the Engineers didn't have time to work on, but I didn't expect it to be you, Hime. Next time please make it more clear."

"I am very sorry."

"No, no. It's fine. I was just making a suggestion."

"I will make note of that."

Takeshi nodded his head as well.

He had only been listening but made sure to register everything that was happening as something he could learn from.

"Besides that, I believe you are most compatible with a prototype Trigger that I have been working on. You are free to decline using it, but I thought I would at least inform you of it."

"I am willing to give it a try. I just need the details on it."

"Of course. Actually..." Hoshi trailed off for a second. Her eyes slowly turned to Mei before continuing. "Fuji-nee's personal Trigger is based off of the Black Trigger Shikifuku, right?"

"That is correct. It is more specifically based off the Shikifuku's 'emotions'. While my Trigger does not turn my emotions into power like Shikifuku does, it is still relatively powerful, all things considered."

"Right. Well, the Trigger I would like for Minoru-senpai is somewhat of an upgraded version of Fuji-nee's Trigger. It is also based of Shikifuku's 'emotions' and uses the Black Trigger as a main base for it. I cannot say everything concerning it, but I _can say_ that Minoru-senpai was the first person recommended to me by others. That is why I wish to see your body."

It had nothing to do with him whatsoever. Takeshi knew that and so decided to only listen to parts of it.

The answer seemed sufficient enough since Toby lowered his arms and Minoru let out a sigh.

_Hm. My other one had tassels on the ends and this one doesn't. ...I think I like this scarf more._

There was nothing to bring him into the conversation.

After some time he had managed to find some more things to be interesting. It always felt like a good sign that he was starting to incorporate himself into society properly. There had been times when he required assistance from others, but otherwise he had been doing fine.

One of many things that he had been properly taught by Kakizaki had been about conversations.

"If that is the case, I would be happy to help. You can just send me what I need to know, the time and the place and I'll be there. As long as I am able to that is."

"Thank you very much."

And this conversation had nothing to do with him.

From start to finish, he had no reason to involve himself in the conversation.

"I'll be going then. I just came by to congratulate you guys on winning."

"That's right. You need to get ready for tonight."

"Yeah. We are most likely going to be deciding who is going where. The choice is ultimately left up to Kimura or Yuki, but I'm sure none of us will have any complaints about it given everything going on."

"Yuki is one thing, but try and help out Kimura. She's a good girl and is trying her best. ...Even if her jokes flop hard."

"We just try not to talk about her jokes... Other than that, I get it. I was planning on going along with whatever is chosen. I guess I really can't reject it if you are asking me to go along with it now."

"Sorry."

"You're apologizes are usually scary. I don't mind."

That was their conversation. A new one that came from nowhere but had been created due to something that was already established.

_Will I be able to talk to someone like that? It feels like there is too much for me to do before I can reach that point with someone._

Takeshi fixed his scarf once more, now fully aware of how behind in life he was compared to everyone else. It seem impossible to be so far behind in something so important, yet he had managed it by blocking himself off from everything around him.

_Maybe that was just how it was suppose to be. Yes. I feel like I should not have ever had this kind of revelation to begin with. It just happened because of who I involved myself with._

Things that could never be red iced under normal circumstances. That was what Takeshi knew as "life". Such things included people he knew. People like...

"I'll be taking my leave then."

.

Minoru looked at each person before speaking his words.

His eyes finally landed on the boy with a new scarf around his neck that had been looking rather lost during his conversations with the others. The farewell he gave had been directed more towards that boy, as if expecting him to speak up about a previous incident.

After a few seconds of nothing coming up he turned his body to leave.

_I guess this is fine. He needs more time to go through life and figure out what to do. The way he acted during this last match has shown me that he really does view the world in a different way than before. What happened before this did not involve me._

Minoru felt his body tense up for a moment.

_It did involve Lukas though. Maybe it's due to my nature, or maybe because Yuki had prostrated himself in front of me, but I will overlook that the best I can when he gets Lukas' forgiveness._

It was hard not to smile at how much Yuki cared for the people he knew.

There was always an underlining feeling whenever he thought about the backstage actions Yuki would take, but he never brought it up out of respect. The feels only continued to grow when Yuki involved himself with things that should be taken care of by the people of higher positions.

The feel was not only towards Yuki as a handful of other people had also done things that did not seem to be fully understandable.

Yet when it came to his former team there seemed to be an over abundance of love for them to the point where he would do whatever he could to prevent them from getting hurt in a multitude of ways.

_It's just too hard to reject him at times like that._

Letting out a small sigh, Minoru started to take his first steps away from the group.

There was nothing more to be done at the moment and there was nothing he wanted to say to the scarf-wearing boy.

"..."

That was why he was surprised when a s,all voice came out from behind him.

He turned around to see Takeshi looking directly at him with his right arm slightly lifted, as if to stop him.

The boy's mouth opened then closed. This happened for a second, third, fourth, and fifth time. It finally stop when Minoru spoke up.

"Was there something you wanted to say?"

"..."

Takeshi lightly shook his head while facing the ground.

"No... I am sorry..."

Minoru wanted to sigh again.

It had hurt him a bit.

"Then-"

"Yes!"

The scarf-wearing boy had yelled out while still facing the ground. He may have even startled himself since his eyes were a bit wider than before.

"...Um... Can you please ask Wagner...san if it would be fine to..."

He shook his head again.

"...Nevermind... Sorry. I should just do it myself. ...When I'm not so useless..."

The last part had been said in a low voice, but Minoru was sure they had all heard it clearly.

He smiled once more.

This simple act by the scarf-wearing boy had made it clear that there was nothing to be worried about now. Important words were now added into his vocabulary and he understood what they meant, at least at a basic level.

With nothing else needing words, Minoru finally took his leave, happy to know that Kotowari Squad was better off than he had hoped.

.

Toby grinned as he slammed his hand down onto Takeshi's back.

"I'll be going too then. I want to go see my little brother while I have the chance. If something comes up then feel free to call me."

"The same goes for me. I will be going to see Suzunari-1 like I had mentioned. Takeshi, Hoshi, have a nice day. Also,mid you happen to see Suzume's mother around, please help her out."

The two powerhouses left the hallway, leaving behind a waving Hoshi and scarf shifting Takeshi behind.

With the louder people now gone the hallway became an empty area that was only filled the with light breaths by the two classmates.

"Siblings... Parents..."

Takeshi got a distant look in his eyes as he stared into nothing in particular.

"You are currently the only person in your family, aren't you, Kotowari-kun?"

He turned his head to see Hoshi give him a knowing smile as she put her arm down.

The two of them, while being classmates, had not had too many conversations. The space around them had usually be taken up by other voices that were much louder than theirs.

Not wanting to be rude he answered honestly.

"That's right. My family was killed during the first invasion. But there isn't a reason to feel sad about it. I never knew them too well to begin with, so I am not too concerned. What I just said... It may have just slipped out."

"I see... I do. Not know much about that upperclassman on your team, but I do know that Awdry-kun is an older brother."

"That's right. Toby is an older brother. Suzume-senpai is an older sister. I was the youngest out of four children. ...So like you."

Hoshi could only nod her head in response.

"That is why you looked at me like that. Hm. Don't worry. That seems to be the only thing we have in common concerning our families. Oh. But in that regard, I'm sorry that I can't sympathize with you."

The next response was a head shake.

"There is no need to apologize. I simply wanted to make sure we both understood what was going on. If you would like, we can change subjects."

"I would appreciate that."

Hoshi smiled again.

It was hard to hold any ill feelings towards the girl. There was a feeling of innocence around her that made it hard for him to bring up any bad comments towards her. At the same time, he felt as if there was a bit of kinship between the two of them.

It was something new that would have to ask Kakizaki about later on.

But at the moment...

"You all did wonderful during the match."

"Thank you for your words. There were things that I need to work on, but I believe that they can get over that."

A conversation was going on.

"Kotowari-kun, you are such a nice person."

"How so? I don't think I have said or done anything that puts me in such a good light. If anything...I am far from a nice person. I am the lowest a person can get..."

"If you can say that about yourself then you are a nice person. Someone who knows they need to fix things is much better than a person who does not understand the need to be fixed in the first place."

"You speak with an amazing amount of knowledge. I guess that is to be expected from-"

From a family of soldiers.

"-someone as smart and understanding as you."

The words were different. The meaning was different. It was as if pure and fresh air had just been pushed towards Hoshi, wanting her to take it all in without any payment.

"Ah. Uh... No. I was just using the words someone told me once. I feel like they apply to you as well...is all..."

A moment of silence between the came up, only being filled their their flight footsteps filling the hall.

Nothing needed to be said for the two of them to understand that another change in topics was needed. Anymore of their current topic and it would become dangerous.

.

Takeshi was unsure by what Hoshi meant. There was no possibility of someone saying that he was a nice person.

_After everything I have done... No. I can't be a nice person. I point my weapon at the actual nice people._

Hoshi having a conversation with him already seemed like more than he could ask for from someone like her. It was a direct one where he would have a say in where it went.

It made his heart skip a beat when he thought about it. Thought about someone having an actual conversation with him.

"Kotowari-kun, about your match. Was it challenging for you?"

If this had been asked before Tsukiko Squad's then his answer would have been a flippant one that meant nothing as an answer.

But now...

"Yes. While I did not deal with too many opponents like Suzume-senpai, the ones I did have were very much challenging. Asano-san and Maya-senpai work well together, so I had a bit of a hard time."

"Ah. But you managed to win."

"That may have simply because of some luck. They did manage to take both of my arms. If I was not a Shooter I would have lost at that point."

It felt nice to have someone not from his team actually listening to him.

"Even so, you all did so wonderful during that match. I am far too inexperienced so I could not catch everything that was happening. Minoru-senpai and the commentators were a bit help to me."

"That may have been for Toby and Suzume-senpai. Those two tend to go off and do whatever they like when having fun. I guess Maya-senpai is the same way though."

"Heh heh heh."

"Now then... You look like you want to ask me something else."

"Ah. If I may... What is it like to have a challenge?"

The follow up reaction was an instant one.

"I-I do not mean to seem a-arrogant or anything! I-it's just that I have not done a-a-anything challenging before! Um... I tend to do things that I know I can do, so I actively make it so that I am not challenged. My apologies."

"None are needed."

He understood well enough.

In a sense, he had been like that before. There had been no reason to challenge himself or put himself in such a position. If something had been challenging then he would run away from it and ignore whatever it had been.

The girl in front of him had considered him a friend both before and after the disbanding of Tsukiko Squad. To return the favor, and as someone who understood what she meant, Takeshi answered back to the best of his ability.

It was only fair given everything between them.

"I understand. A challenge... What does it feel like... Well... I can't really say. The best way I could put it is that it feels like it's frustrating when it's in the way and feels like it's crushing you when you lose. Each time you think about how you can't get passed it it hurts even more and feels frustrating."

It was all new to him.

Before, he would give up without giving it another thought.

His line of thinking had changed due to help from others. There was now a proper way to answer her question.

He could understand just how frustrating a challenge could be. How it could overwhelm someone to a dangerous point.

But...

"But it feels great when you get passed the challenge. It's fulfilling to the point that you get joy just knowing you managed it. I suppose...it's a good thing to have a challenge."

Takeshi was unsure but he thought that he felt the edges of his lips lift up slightly.

_If I smile... What does that look like? I'm sure it is a terrible sight._

"I see..."

He stopped walking when he noticed that it was only his footsteps that could be heard.

He turned his body around to look at the girl who had stopped. Her head was hanging down, face covered by her hair, and her posture was slightly more slumped than before.

It was a bit unnerving.

Then she started to speak again.

"Kotowari-kun..."

"Yes?"

Her voice had been low, making it even harder to hear her.

If not for the hallway being devoid of sound he may not have heard her to begin with. But he had, and he knew that what she wanted to say was something important to her. Possibly to him as well.

Her voice came out again, this time louder than before. Her head was now raised as well.

"Please, let me join your team!"


	47. Border: Part 2

A moment of silence.

There was a moment of silence that was unlike the ones previously.

Takeshi was unsure what to say to the girl who was lowering her body in a bow in front of him. The question was too sudden for him to process right away.

"Um... Taiyōko... You don't need to..."

The words came out slowly and without any certainty.

"You don't need to bow down... Um... It's just..."

He lifted his scarf to hide his face as she lifted her body. The tilt of her head made him feel much more confused at what was said.

Having a real conversation was something he was happy about. But...

"Why would you want to join our team? We are still trying to build ourselves back up, so there isn't much we can really do for you..."

"Well..."

Well.

"I have been a C-Rank agent and had no real plans other than becoming B-Rank. After witnessing you and Awdry-kun during the invasion I felt like I needed to put myself out and help others however I can. I had asked others about how to do so. Mikumo-kun was unsure why I was asking him while Kazuma-san was... Well I was just not too sure what he was saying..."

That made sense.

Whenever Takeshi was around the top Gunner he could hardly understand what the boy was saying. It was made worse whenever Ninomiya was brought up as a topic of discussion.

"I had thought that was enough. Then when the B-Rank Wars started you and Awdry-kun had been going through some issues. I had watched all of your matches, so I became uncertain once more."

He wanted to apologize for that one.

"But after seeing this latest match of yours I am certain. Seeing how well everyone worked together and how well you all fought, I want to be a part of a team. Since I think of you and Awdry-kun as friends and Fuji-nee has always been so kind to me I thought that..."

"That we would let you join us."

He felt like apologizing once more when he saw her face lower slightly at his tone.

He was not use to proper conversations like this.

"That is right. I want to know what it is like to be on a proper team. If I can be on the same one as you and Awdry-kun, supporting you however I can, it would be wonderful. I would be able to gain experience to better help others while lessening any burdens on you all."

A few thoughts came to mind as Hoshi finished her explanation.

During their latest match it had become apparent just how selfish they all were with how they fought. Each one of them wanted to fight on their own, only helping each other out when needed or when it benefited their own fights.

Yuki had been their main attacker as well as their supporter with Suzume slightly doing so as well. Once their older teammate had left their team they were left with minimal support.

_Mei-san can only do so much as an Operator and Suzume-senpai likes to do her own thing. Some more help would be nice for the times when Toby and I are out against our weaknesses._

He knew that thought was incorrect.

_Rather... It would be nice for when I am unable to keep up with the opponent. Toby is usually fine by himself._

There were always times when a single person would not be able to do something by themselves and needed help from others. Their team was more than happy to help each other when they needed it, but two of their three fighters loved to do things on their own and at their own pace. It left their third member behind when he was trying to fix himself while having no Side Effect like they did.

A realization of just how strong Side Effect were hit Takeshi hard.

Toby had enhanced reflexes that would move him out of the way of attacks. It was a protection that did not need to be activated and was always active. It kept him safe when attacked or out out him in an optimal position to attack. It was a simple enhancement that had multiple uses both in and out of battles.

Suzume was able to tell the Rhythm of anything she sees or hears. That alone would be useful enough to figure out a person or object at times, but Suzume was different from normal people. Her nature made her a strange girl that preferred to sway her body than lift her fist. Her body was more use to dancing than fighting. That boosted the power of her Side Effect, allowing her to dance with her opponent instead of fight them. It was an amazing defense that even outclassed Toby's.

_Hm. I can see why Toby thinks of us as weirdo. But he's also really weird himself. What kind of person resembles a dog as much as he does?_

Takeshi let out a sigh as he thought about how much weaker he was than either one of his teammates. They each had something amazing going for them while he was stuck trying to do things himself. His hard work seemed pointless when compared to their Side Effects.

What good was he when he was so far behind others?

.

Hoshi became more nervous as the pause from Takeshi continued to grow.

She had given her reasons and spoke nothing but the truth. All she could do now was wait for an answer.

The boy in front of her was a squad captain, but he would listen and discuss things with his team. He may have needed the opinions of his team before agreeing or denying her request. Whether he was thinking over an answer or just how to respond to her was unknown.

All she could do was wait.

_I hope that I have not overstepped the bounds of being a friend. I am sure they will not want me to join them considering what Kiyo-nii did to them._

A bitter thought came to mind.

_Our family likes to do this._

Bitter thoughts were rare and few in between for her, yet once they came it was always troublesome to get rid of them.

_They all like to leave others without any warning. It doesn't matter who it hurts or who is really effected by it, my family likes to just leave others because they want to do something else. I try not to be like them, but I feel like I may do it at some point..._

She was a victim to her own family's active lifestyle. There has not been a single time she has left others while others have only ever left her behind.

After waiting for so long there was no longer a reason to stay in place, waiting for others to come back to her.

Kushikage and Mukuro had returned to Mikado City, but they had not come back for her. Kiyoshi had left behind an entire life, never once returning to her. His name now meant nothing as she spoke to and about him. Someone else who would never return.

_Kō-nii-san is the only person who has not left me. Fuji-nee did not leave me either. She was never with me to begin with, so I cannot blame her. She was only following Kiyo-nii from the very start._

Akasora was there for all of his students, so it had a different feeling for Hoshi. Toby and Takeshi were also different in that they always felt like they were only ever looking towards themselves.

She was not close enough to other Border members or schoolmates to say if they have left or not.

So...

"I will..."

She was determined.

"I will never leave any of you! So please allow me to join you all!"

She knew what she wanted to do.

The choice she made ran the risk of having people leave her once more. Even so, she would never leave them like others had done to her.

.

Takeshi could see the resolve in Hoshi's eyes. It was clear and hard to miss even for someone as unprepared as him.

It was hard to deny her words after everything that happened to Kotowari Squad. The girl's older brother had left them in his own way and she understood that well. It was an understanding of someone who has only ever been left behind.

_I really am pathetic. She has been left behind by more people than me and I always felt sorry for myself. In that case..._

"Just to make sure... Do you know what it takes to be a part of a team?"

He was not too sure himself.

_If she can give any answer that is better than my own - which lacks knowledge - then I know none of us will reject her._

"You must be able to get along with your teammates. As well as work hard and support them however you can. Keeping pace with them is necessary in order to work well with them. Ah. You also need to listen to your squad leader. They are in charge of making the proper decisions for the team."

_Well that is not technically wrong. Actually, that might be how regular teams works. I forget at times just how strange our team really is compared to other ones._

Takeshi knew that her answer was far better than his own if someone had asked him. That was just the difference between him and others who understood simple things better.

Now that he got that better answer, it was clear what his response to request would be.

"Alright... Um... Yeah. You can join Kotowari Squad. But there is something I want to correct."

He mentally prepared himself for his own words.

"I am only a figurehead for our team. Our name may be 'Kotowari Squad' but none of us hold any higher power than each other. We are all equal in what we do concerning our team. If one of us has something to say then everyone listens. If one of us needs help..."

_Yeah. I'm very glad about this. These are the policies we all agreed on together._

"...We help each other out readily and don't ever regret doing so. So you don't need to listen to me as a captain and I won't order any one of you as such. What's more is that we do not make anyone weaker than us keep pace with us. We make sure our pace is manageable for those unable to keep up. If you understand all of that..."

With the most faint of smiles and an outstretched hand, Takeshi finished talking.

"Welcome to Kotowari Squad."

.

Someone watched on as Takeshi and Hoshi interacted and reached their conclusion.

Two people watched the two classmates speak to each other from the end of the hallway. One was Border's Kako Squad's Kako Nozomi and the other was Nasu Squad's...

"Nasu. You're help seems to have worked for both Asano-chan and Kotowari-kun. If they are strong and start properly protecting themselves, it will be difficult to instigate any teasing towards them."

"But I don't instigate any teasing."

"Heh heh. You're no fun."

"Is that so?" replied Nasu with a bitter smile. And she thought about...

_...Getting strong and protecting something, hm?_

Even Nasu and her team had a general idea of the situation concerning the two Shooters. And they knew how the younger one was probably being treated.

"If Kotowari-kun is moving ahead with some post-Yuki-san actions, he will have parted ways with his former personality and the burdens that go with it. With that loss of personality, he will need people to be there for him so he isn't left behind."

Nasu thought back to the words she had said to both Shooters. And then she spoke her mind.

"So they have an understanding of what they lack and have already started towards working on it."

"Yes. To be honest, that is both of their teams' specialty. Besides being funny."

Just her words were enough to tell the older Shooter was enjoying this.

This older Shooter had a habit of saying everything she wanted and having as much fun as she wanted, just like she was toying with her prey before finishing it off. And at the moment...

"And you seem to also be realizing some thing on that front, Nasu. That is why you can't instigate any sort of teasing towards them."

"That's true," agreed Nasu without smiling. But...

"You said this was their specialty, Kako-san, but do those team members understand that?"

"I imagine it's less that they understand it and more that they are so used to it that they don't notice it. After all, they all left a situation like that."

What was "like that"? Kako explained.

"Holding vainglorious pride is entirely meaningless. But...when you are alone, it can support you. That is what I mean."

"And since those teams don't need that...they aren't alone?"

"Even if it was unavoidable, do you somewhat regret what is happening now?"

Nasu did not respond.

This older Shooter could be very perceptive at times. But then she spoke again as if flipping her emotions around.

"Your silence is the same as Kotowari-kun's."

.

"—"

Only the words "heh heh" could be heard.

But when Nasu said nothing, there was a pause for a breath and...

"Once you are no longer _like that_ , any person will be able to go as they please at any time for a reason other than to remember old times."

"Sometimes your kindness is scary, Kako-san."

"That's fine, that's fine. Heh heh...!"

There was a pause of a few seconds, because she was holding her sides in laugher. And then...

"Kotowari-kun. ...We can make some guesses about how his choices will turn out, but even that can be hard considering who he is teaming himself up with recently."

So...

"If he admits that he was wrong all along then he will be giving in to what everyone had been saying. Not admitting anything will continue to garner unwanted hatred towards him."

_...So that's it._

Nasu understood what the older Shooter was saying.

This was Kotowari Takeshi's change. And to put it in words...

"Even if he is willing admit his own mistakes and what they caused, there is no guarantee that he will be accepted by the people who have seen him. He says that he needs to apologize, but that is not admitting to being wrong in his viewpoint of the world."

That was likely why.

"Others are trying to surround him while understanding that, but he does not realize that that is why they are doing it. Nor does he notice that he is being influenced by them on a small scale. By surrounding him like that, they are cushioning any blows he will be taking from the people who still hold grudges towards him as he tries to bring himself to admit his errors. At the same time, he seems to be drawing in some others with his naïveté."

Nasu thought, _This seems rather familiar._

It seemed like emotions were given precedence here.

But those actions were corrected by rational decisions, became the decisions of a whole, and moved the world.

"Kako-san."

"What is it?"

"Is the world moved by emotion?"

"No. ...At certain times, it is moved by reason and emotion corrects it."

Nasu felt like she was being told not to rush things.

"Both emotion and reason move the world. But it's because of that that we have to discuss and research an important question: are there rules governing that kind of thing? And while we have our hands full taking care of Neighbors..."

No.

"As someone who failed helping an innocent girl because of inexperience, this is not my place to speak. ...But, Nasu, you properly helped two people out, so this an answer you have to see. Tsukiko Squad and Kotowari Squad - and since they were also a part of the whole thing, Shor Squad - are the same, as they all stick themselves to people. I suppose that can also be said about one of the teams you have just faced in battle."

The beauty continued speaking.

"Kotowari Squad seems to gather those were lost, were missing something, or left. They have all held pride at some point, but they cast it aside. And after casting it aside, they have accepted and been accepted by 'that person' and stay with him. But now it seems as if they not longer need him. ...I was worried they would not notice or grow careless because they had already passed that point, but it would seem that is not the case."

"Kako-san, I understand now why this has made Kotowari Squad all the more troublesome."

"Ho ho? And why is that?"

"Right," replied Nasu while looking to the two people down the hall.

"Kotowari Squad may be able to correct reason with emotion, but now I think they can also correct emotion with reason. ...I am sure others with similar emotions will respond to that."

* * *

"I should probably start setting things up, so it's easier for me to deal with. Especially since things get crazy the moment people really start showing up. Well I guess it depends on the circumstances, but that's how it usually goes."

Kimura listened to Suzaku in a shaking, fast-paced place.

That place was atop a motorcycle. Specifically, the back of a motorcycle Kageura was driving. They were on their way to the Main Red Lightning for another discussion. Or that was the plan, but...

_...I-it's really shaking!_

In addition to shaking up and down like it was going to throw her off, it was shaking left and right too. Kimura had only avoided falling off by clinging to Kageura's mid-section as he raised one of his fingers, but...

"Waaaan~"

 _Krümel seems happy, so this is actually kind of an enjoyable attraction,_ she thought. _Still, it's a little too dangerous for the holder._

With her arms wrapped around Kageura's mid-section, Kimura looked back toward Suzaku who sat in the sidecar.

"Y-you're not having any trouble, Suzaku-san?"

"Eh? With what?"

_...Is it because his body has more ballast!? No, now that I think about it, he can ride on Kizaki-san's shoulder just fine too. ...Wait, that doesn't disprove the ballast theory at all! Wait, wait. Now that I think about it even more, Murakami-san rode on this when "Yuki" let Kageura-san take this motorcycle that other time. That must mean it's just my utter lack of athletic ability. So that's it. Hmm._

She then asked about something she had noticed.

"Kageura-san, why is everyone on the road running away from us?"

"What?" Kageura gave a quiet snort of laugher from his leaning position. "Now. You all had better speed up, or you're in trouble."

.

As he walked near an underground construction site, Senzai watched something speed by in the distance and opened his phone.

 **SenSen:** "Hey, is anyone there? A motorcycle just went by where I am while threatening people with a middle finger raised, so did something upset Kageura?"

 **Haru:** "Ohh, maybe he didn't like that he was never mentioned during that awful conversation despite being a rough character."

 **SenSen:** "If you understand it, then you deal with it."

 **Haru:** "Oh, right, understood. Kageura..."

**Calling: confirmed. Response: confirmed.**

**Kage:** "Yeah? What is it? I'm busy driving here."

 **Haru:** "Then why are you answering!?"

 **Umi:** "I answered for him. Don't worry, he's being responsible."

 **Haru:** "Right. ...You want to be treated as a part of the rough guy genre too, don't you!?"

 **Kage:** "Hey, someone get this guy to a good brain doctor."

 **Haru:** "Wh-why would you jump to that conclusion!?"

 **Umi:** "But Inu, you have taken a lot of blows to the head lately, so it's okay if you've gone crazy. We all understand."

 **Haru:** "Huh? Huh? I feel like I'm being treated nicely in the worst possible way. And now that I think about it... How did you even get the motorcycle?"

 **Umi:** "Yucchi let us borrow it to get to Red Lightning. Well he actually told Kage-kun that he could only use it if he picked us up."

 **Haru:** "Didn't he learn from the last time!?"

 **Manager:** "Apparently not. But does he ever learn?"

 **White Fox:** "So, hey, sorry to interrupt you assholes who like talking about someone who isn't there, but can you hurry up? If I make it there before you all then please go ahead and rethink your lives."

.

 _Why are all of their conversations so weird?_ wondered Kimura as the motorcycle came to a stop.

They had arrived at the Red Lightning.

It looked the same as the last time they had been there and noise could be heard coming from inside the establishment.

"They sure like to make noise whenever they can, don't they?"

"It would be weird for them if there was just silence.

"That's because some of those guys can only get work done if it's noisy. Then again, some of them get terrible grades in class, so we just call those ones 'idiots'."

"I see."

Even as one of the two in charge of the meeting, Kimura felt she still had a lot to learn about the people she was working with.

The metal machine between her legs and the metal side car next to it both trembled. The motorcycle tilted a bit towards the ground.

"Kimura, we're getting off."

Suzaku took her hand and helped her get off. That was likely to help her after the rough drive there, so Kimura did not resist the urge to place a hand on Suzaku's shoulder while trying to keep anyone else from noticing.

"Thanks."

"Think nothing of it."

Suzaku smiled and so did Kimura when she saw Taka greet Krümel by the door. And by the time Kageura moved over the motorcycle...

"Oh, Kawa-chan...and Umi too. Ōji and the others are doing a kind of inspection over inside. I came to greet everyone else."

Having arrived ahead of them, Inukai pointed deeper in to direct them. A valley between the piled-up materials created something of a passageway, and...

"What is this?"

It looked to Kimura like a mountain of papers had collapsed. It was so large that she could not keep her eyes off of it as Suzaku took her hand and helped her to move.

_...What are they inspecting?_

.

"This is the metal panel in question."

Everyone looked at the metal panel Kurauchi had carried to the front of the Main Red Lightning.

It was ten centimeters thick, five meters tall and wide, and meant for protection from the elements. In front of the café that was the Kirikari home, Kon, Murakami, and the crossdresser viewed the giant piece of artwork.

"At first glance, it looks like a normal metal panel."

"Yeah. If you ignore the one part that is meaninglessly abnormal," added Kon.

Something was printed on the bottom of the standing metal panel's front surface.

"That's a really crude drawing of Border."

Just as Yuki, who had returned from the other Red Lightning ahead of Kanzaki, suggested, an image of Border was printed on the metal with extended outwards and bent. However...

"The design is fairly off."

As Hitomi inspected it while sitting on the upper edge, she pointed out that the image looked more like a comic than a photograph. But she said more while kicking the panel with her heel.

"This thing feels like it could be alive. Someone probably used high-quality items to have Border be 'squished flat' like this rather than realistically. ...What do you think, Kagami?"

"Yeah. I tried touching it and it had feeling to it. The material used was really good, but the depiction itself was terrible. It's feels like someone was trying to do some weird stuff when making it. However, it was probably made on the fly."

Kagami tilted her head and crossed her arms.

"Hmm. This material is fairly strong when it comes to sticking, so this could be a lot of trouble. When they came up with the idea, I bet they got all excited at how much of a genius they thought they were and went all-out messing with us."

"Kagami, so why exactly would they use good material?"

"Well, Mizukami-kun, they probably thought they were big shots."

"Oh?" said Mizukami before Arafune placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I believe we could start by calling them assholes."

Mizukami looked to the side with a silent smile and Akashi glared back at him.

"Satoshi, stop looking to me when you want someone to redirect their words onto. And I'm not entirely sure I understand, but this is just some graffiti, right?"

"That would probably be the best explanation for someone like you. Basically, they are setting themselves against Border by putting this graffiti on metal panels used for protection at important buildings."

"Hmm."

The nudist crouched in front of the Border image and started slapping at it.

"Will it comes out if we hit it hard enough!?"

Kageura kicked the nudist right into the armor. The sound of flesh and bone rang out, the armor shook, and Hitomi fell backwards from the top. Everyone cried out in surprise and Kageura commented while still in his kicking pose.

"I guess Kagami was right. That didn't even scratch it."

He gave Kagami a thumbs up and then nodded again.

"I'll give you credit there."

"U-umm..."

As dull sweat poured down Kagami's face, the nudist peeled himself off the metal and recovered.

"H-hey, Masa-chan? Don't you think you can be too blunt at times?"

"What's wrong with being direct? Now, idiot, I have something to talk to you about behind here."

"Eh!? Wh-what is it!? A hidden kiss!? Something like that!?"

Kageura calmly circled behind the metal panel and the nudist excitedly followed.

Just as everyone started feeling worried, they heard the deafening noise of the nudist slamming into the back of the metal panel.

Kageura quickly circled back around.

"I guess an indirect hit from the back isn't enough to knock him out either. Now that that method failed, I say we give up on that idiot already."

"H-hold on, Kage! It's too soon to give up! And the fact you did that while being so calm is scary..."

"Yeah. I got it, Kō. You need to work off your frustration after eating too much rice and losing your last match by letting that idiot take direct hits from your attacks at full-power, don't you? Makes sense."

Kageura snapped his fingers and something came to a stop in the center of the road outside. It contained Yuki's motorcycle and Hokari in a pose of a merchant introducing his wares.

Kageura waved to Hokari.

"I got that guy over in the road to prepare my current mode of transportation, so enjoy hitting that idiot from either the front or the back. Go, go. Give it your best shot and don't hold anything back."

"Umm... Should I really be doing that with Yuki's motorcycle?"

"Kō, does that mean you want to do it if I'm okay with it?"

"No, um, Arafune? What do you think?"

"Think he'd be normal in three minutes if we soaked him in hot water?"

Kageura snapped his fingers and something stopped in the middle of the road outside. It contained a pot of boiling water with a four meter radius and Denji in the pose of a merchant introducing his wares.

Kageura waved to Denji.

"I made a mistake over there, but I called that guy over to prepare an udon boiling pot from a cafeteria to use. Idiot, you take a dip first."

"Wait, wait, wait. Are you trying to kill me!?"

"Oh? It seems like a good way of disinfecting your dick. By eliminating the root cause."

"Um, Kage? More importantly, I don't think the paint will come off."

"Kō-kun, that paint won't come off easily. If it did then it would not be high-quality."

Everyone in the same age group began giving their opinion, but two people three steps away were at a complete loss for words: Kitora and Tokieda.

.

_...What in the world is going on?_

Kitora realized just how squarely in the "normal" category of humanity she fell.

She had been watching these upperclassmen from a distance for a while and she had thought the captain of Suzaku Squad was relatively normal, but...

"I am glad no one was crushed when bringing the panels. I really was worried. I've seen far too many scenes like that in monster games lately."

For some reason, phrases like "I messed up!" or "Now I've done it!" appeared in Kitora's mind, but she resolutely ignored them all. She had something else to say here.

"Kimura-san, what should we do now that-..."

"Eh? Oh, the inspection's over, so you can leave. We have a lot to go over amongst ourselves."

"No, I was asking what we should do about the attack on Border that we clearly see."

"Right." The solo A-Rank agent with only one eye showing stepped forward and bowed. "Us solo agents intend to examine the situation and use that information to find out why it happened. Right now it's just graffiti, but I don't plan of letting it get passed that. So please ignore the other labels for now."

"You're going to leave the site of the attack unguarded?"

"That should not matter as long as no important personnel travel through the area. It's a labyrinthine area that requires a good amount of knowledge to really go through, but that's why there isn't a real reason to pass through there."

_...He's fairly normal at least._

What he said made sense. This small attack against Border - which did not count as a real attack - had be some graffiti, so all that was needed was to use different metal panels and make up for the lost ones. But...

"What if those people were trying to-..."

"Up-tight A-Rank-kun."

 _Maybe he isn't so normal,_ thought Kitora. She could hear someone behind him saying "Add on 'wannabe goody-goody' too!", but she ignored that.

She did want to hear what he had to say, but first...

"The 'up-tight' part was not necessary."

She heard a few "Ehh?" reactions, but she ignored those as well. And...

"Was there something wrong with what I said?"

"Well, it wasn't exactly wrong," said the solo A-Rank agent. "But we still can't fully count this as an attack against Border."

.

"—"

 _That's true,_ thought Kitora as the solo A-Rank agent said more in front of her.

"The mystery is not solved until the arrest is made. It is still possible a variety of elements lined up just right to create a misunderstanding that it was an offense against Border."

So...

"I believe your reading is most likely correct, but we must be prepared for the more unlikely possibilities as well."

"...I see. My apologies."

"No, no. I should apologize. Anyway, I do think I'll be asking for some help from the normal agents and citizens."

"In what way?"

"The offense happened in a hidden place, so whoever did it must want to hide. To put it another way, they don't want their identity to be known. In that case..."

"You want everyone to monitor each other?"

"No, no. Nothing as disconcerting as that. And I am sure you don't want that either."

_He's being pretty thoughtful. Or maybe he's just good at weaseling out of taking blame._

_...That seems soft for someone who caused Kotowari Squad issues._

_Oh, but this upperclassman is the one who managed to impress the masses during that second meeting. He must be so calm because he knows he has the necessary strength when push comes to shove,_ concluded Kitora.

 _In that case, he really was being thoughtful,_ she also concluded.

"Right. I was careless in my remarks."

"So was I." The ninja-like boy bowed. "Mutual observation isn't really necessary. ...I simply think it would be a good idea to have normal agents and citizens keep an eye out for anyone who goes into areas like that. With observers like that, we will know who was in the area of any future offenses and no one will fear their neighbors are monitoring them when we have clear keepers playing that role. So..."

"It would be easiest to give that job to the people who know the area and who works there."

"Yes. For the city areas, I believe normal agents would be best. For the outer areas, I believe the family members of those who work there would be best. With family members of the workers, they will feel less like they are being watched and it can help unify the workers."

"...Understood. I will relay this to the director and save you some trouble."

_He really is relatively normal. He never shows his whole face, he wears a casual outfit on a daily basis, and his illness is tearing away at him, but that's still relatively normal. I think._

The second-in-command of the meeting must have decided those two were done speaking because she raised a hand and spoke.

"With that settled, get that arranged as soon as possible. Make sure the directors know about it and inform the police so there is no suspicion from them and make sure we can contact them at any time."

"Right. Also..."

"Oh, you know about the unofficial secret meeting we had a few days earlier, right?"

"Yes. You decided to send information to Shiraishi, Kobayashi, and Kurosaki. Along with our agents."

She had received a report on that, but there was one thing she wanted to know to help prepare.

"Who do you plan to send?"

"Your team's informed the three companies, right? Then they should give us their opinions before long. Probably tomorrow at the earliest. I'll decide that once we have all their replies."

"Understood. ...In other words, no need to hurry? Tokieda-senpai, can we take care of the preparations?"

"Of course."

After seeing the supporter nod, Kitora bowed to the others.

"Take care of things."

Since her role was complete, she prepared to leave, but...

"Kitora, take this."

Suzunari's female Operator held out a paper box.

"This is a tart that Jinsei made. It has no seaweed inside, so feel free to take it with you."

.

Murakami shifted his eyes to view Kitora's expression.

Her eyebrows were raised in slight surprise.

She then looked Kon in the eye, stepped back, and bowed.

"Thanks... Thank you."

Murakami smiled bitterly at the additional small bow when she took it.

_...She reminds me of some people with the way she acts towards others._

She took the box, bowed again while seeming to shrink down a little, and finally left. Everyone nodded to each other as she did.

 **Demon Child:** "She still acts pretty decent, so tell Suzume no putting her in your doujinshi, Kagami."

 **Artist:** "I know. She apparently has some were-dog related material to work on right now, so she wants to get it done before anything else. We also have Umi-kun for summer, so she'll have to wait until after that."

 **Umi:** "I-I don't like the sound of what I just heard! Not one bit!?"

Murakami told Suzaku to calm down and then approached Kon.

"Kon? Wasn't that tart for you? If you like, you can take mine instead."

"Eh!?" The nudist started shaking his head. "No, that won't work. I made yours into a pie with rice in it. It's only for you, Kō-chan."

"Wh-what kind of bizarre thoughtfulness is that!?"

"Right." Kon patted him on the shoulder. "Your daily work has paid off, Kō-kun. He got the message that you want him to put rice in your pie. ...And based on that, Suzaku-kun's will have pieces of steak inside."

Suzaku opened his box and sniffed at it.

"Ah! It does! It really has steak in it! And it's medium rare even!"

"Correct. Arafune-kun's will have a whistle with it to keep dogs away, Inukai's will be made with hotdog buns and have grapes inside, and Yuki-kun's will have ice cream spread out at the bottom of it in different flavors that mix well together."

Each of them checked and either thanked Jinsei or quickly stuck the hidden item in their pocket.

As everyone gave Kon looks of wonder, the nudist stared straight at her.

"That's amazing, Yuka! It's like you're psychic!

"For me, this was an easy task. ...I saw you making them."

"Way to ruin it!"

"U-um, but that aside, what do we do about Kon's tart?"

"Don't be silly," said a new voice.

It was Kunichika. They turned around to find the Main Red Lightning's door open and Kunichika stepping out with sheets wrapped around her body.

"I had just gotten to sleep thinking about how much fun tomorrow would be, but this racket outside woke me up. ...Now, Jinsei-kun, I turned the oven on, so go make another one if you're going to. I'm sure none of you are planning to leave anytime soon."

"You read us like a book. ...And we do need some time to discuss the 'fun' that will be beginning tomorrow."

Kitora and Tokieda left because they were primarily in charge of making arrangements and making decisions on the scene. The other issues the rest of them were going to discuss had a different focus.

_...The future._

They all exchanged a glance and a nod. Seeing that, Kunichika gave a somewhat sleepy smile.

"Jinsei-kun."

She spoke to the apron-boy while placing a hand on the open door for support.

"Why won't you give Yuka the tart you left in the oven?"

"That one's for you, Yuu. I was planning to make a new one for Yuka."

"Don't be silly." The corner of Kunichika's mouth rose in a smile. "Then give the one in the oven to Yuka. ...You can make one for me after. Go on."

She pointed in through the door, but then she spotted the metal panel.

"What a weird drawing."

"Yeah..."

Murakami and the others could only nod in vague agreement.


	48. Chisato Shiraishi

Chisato stepped out into the light.

The Shiraishi-owned building of business was a large place that did not stand out too much among the other tall buildings and it seemed like the windows were tinted in a way to block from the sun. Only one place had light like this.

... _Even if it is an artificial garden._

The garden contained flower beds, a small stream, and a pond.

The sky was replaced by a monitor that recreated the actual sky outside. The monitor was made from several thin panels and it currently displayed the morning sky.

Wind could only enter or exit through the passageway, so the sweet smell of flowers and the clear smell of flowing water both tickled at her nose. She also felt a slight stuffiness, perhaps due to the recreated warmth of the sunlight.

Chisato walked down a gravel path cutting through the flower beds. She walked on her toes so that her heels did not make holes in the path.

"—"

The gravel did not even stir below her feet. She only heard the occasional quiet sound of her feet hitting the ground, but she produced no sound or motion from the gravel, as if walking on a solid board.

She reached a bridge crossing the meandering stream.

"Kotowari."

"Eh? Oh, right, right, right. Chisato-kun, wait just a second. Just a second, okay? I need to prepare the energy I need for this conversation."

A boy with a nice build and a straw hat stood up from the flow bed on Chisato's right. He had removed the shirt sleeves of his inner suit which was printed with the name Kotowari Musashi, he was also holding something.

"Kotowari. ...The main garden is a public space, so I'm not sure you should be planting potatoes in the flower beds."

"What? Chisato-kun, you can't let common sense hold you back. Oh, I'm ready now, so can I release my energy?"

"If you want."

"Then here I go. ...Hey, Chisato-kun! I went to all the trouble of making this wonderful place! We're an 'evil organization' now, so what's wrong with ignoring usual standards and growing some potatoes!? You got a problem with it!? Do you!? I even bred my own cultivar named after its golden color and an Incan king from its native South America! I went all Cusco on this Cápac Gold!"

"You didn't need to add the Gold to the name."

"D-dammit. What's that 'you have no guts' look for!? Just because you decided to keep the all color black for your hair unlike your sisters you think there's something wrong? Ah! No! It's probably because you're higher on the food chain than I am! Well that doesn't matter since I want to sell potatoes until I have enough money for a car or two! Let's make even more potato fields and hide them from the others! That sounds great!"

"What does my hair have to do with anything?"

"Well, that makes you the easiest to talk to. You have all the colors in your hair while your sisters decided to stick with one color using dye."

Musashi shrugged and Chisato frowned.

"All the colors? But isn't my hair just a single color that was just decided when I was-"

"Oh, that is just me using more words. It would be too much trouble if I didn't say all that. You need to get used to how I talk, Chisato-kun. You may be an expert at deflecting things, but you let words get to you too easily."

"Do I?"

"You aren't an elder sister, right?"

Chisato recalled the conversation from before, and...

"That was-...!"

"I never expected one of the sisters to get so confused and let herself be forced into negotiating with others. We should celebrate that you still have a human side left. ...Right!?"

Musashi coquettishly pointed at her, so she stomped diagonally on the blade of a hoe sitting on the ground. The handle shot up and struck his crotch from below.

"...Hh."

He sank into the flower bed while staring up into the sky and Chisato sighed.

"Why not train some? You have been wanting to join Border yourself when you learned about your brother, haven't you?"

A trembling hand rose from the flower bed, telling her to wait. After a while, she heard him slapping his lower belly and then speaking.

"Hn... Yes. I-I'm fine. I'm fine! It still works! It still works!?"

"Why was that a question and why do you sound so effeminate?"

"A-a girl would never understand! Heh heh. Jealous!? That's what you get!"

Chisato opened her phone.

"Nee-san, Kotowari has gone crazy again, so could you do something about it?"

"Chisa-chan, I will have difficulty dealing with the problem unless you are more specific."

"Hmm. I guess it's a problem with his brain."

"Ah! Wh-why are you calling someone else to judge me!? This has to do with our crotches!"

"Then how about I chop yours in two so we can share the problem? I'll throw my half away, though."

"J-just because you don't have one is no reason to suggest anything so frightening! Just so you know, mine just froze over!"

Musashi opened his phone and a note taking application labeled "I'll Never Forget This Notebook" and typed at it as he stood up.

 _What is with this guy?_ wondered Chisato before asking him a question.

"Where is Ruri?"

"Eh? Oh, she's over there. Eh? What's this!? You're interested in our division's next leader!? Who gave you permission!? Ow! What kind of girl throws seed potatoes at people at high speeds! You want to fight!? ...I'm sorry, so don't glare at me like that. But those seed potatoes are important. You're not supposed to waste food, you see. You eat them like this... Oh, no! I really did just eat one with eyes! Eh? Ruri-kun? You can go see her! You have my permission! You got that!? My permission!"

"I know I told you that you could release your energy, but how about you calm down a little?"

"Now, now. This is a liberal arts sort of energy. Oh, and Ruri-kun is over there."

Musashi grabbed a leaf and used it like a fan to point toward a cherry tree with green leaves.

A girl was swinging a wooden sword below it. She was somewhat tall and slender.

"Ruri."

Chisato's shoulders relaxed as she walked over and spoke to the girl with the wooden sword.

"You were all right?"

.

Chisato saw the girl turn toward her.

Her sweaty face looked her way.

"Chisato."

Ruri's hair was plastered to her sweaty forehead, so she brushed it up and smiled.

"Of course I'm all right. I'm always safe as long as I'm here, aren't I? Just like you all."

"W-well, that is true."

"Sorry."

Chisato tilted her head as Ruri tied her hair back.

"Why would you need to apologize?"

"Because I've been causing you a lot of trouble by being so worthless."

"It's thanks to you that we can even exist as a business, so we will do anything for you. It's the same as doing it for our own needs, after all."

"...Sorry."

Chisato could say nothing more when the other girl repeated herself with a bitter smile. Ruri resumed swinging her wooden sword.

"Have you seen my father? I haven't seen him all morning. Not even at breakfast."

"Eh? No, your father is-..."

"Chisato-kun!"

Musashi's voice interrupted them.

"Could you help harvest my Cápac Gold!?"

"What? Well, I don't mind helping out a little..."

She saw Musashi crawling through the flower bed with his butt sticking out.

"Now! Come harvest my Cápac Gold! Ahhn, hurry up! I'm spreading it wide! Wait, where did you get that sickle from!? And who would throw it!? Normal people would throw a seed potato! What is wrong with you!? Hmm!?"

"I've been thinking. Maybe I should start telling Kotowari what I actually think."

"You shouldn't do that, Chisato. Kotowari is sensitive, so it would make him even crazier."

"Heh heh heh! See!? See!?"

Chisato ignored Musashi as he began a step dance with his hands on his hips. As if to take her place, Ruri smiled toward him and opened her mouth.

"You're always such an idiot, Kotowari."

"D-don't make it sound like that's a foregone conclusion, Ruri-kun! Rui-kun! Why do you keep talking to me like that!? I need to take my mind off my little brother! Besides, I'm not that far under!"

"Ruri is next for the boss position of your division, so you lose quite spectacularly in rank."

"S-so do you! So do you! Ah, what are you whispering in Ruri-kun's ear!? Ruri-kun, don't smile and nod! Let me in! Pass that comment onto me! And Chisato-kun! Isn't there an unnecessary note somewhere in this building that states that I have some kind of authority? Maybe it's an only-guys type of thing that Boss-kun-san put up after having only a family of girls!"

"Yes, and I'm a girl, so that rules that out. As a boy, you'll have to work extra hard all on your own."

"What's that tone of voice and smile for!? You don't think I can do it, do you!?"

"Well, no. To be clear, it's biologically impossible. Are you saying you can do it?"

"What!? Of course I can! I'll totally do it! Don't underestimate your underling! Y-you won't like me when I'm angry! My favorite spells in RPGs are the instant death ones! I'll play both sides of the Cápac Gold myself! ...Whoa, that was close! What kind of girl throws hoes at people, Chisato-kun!?"

"Ha ha. You're really strong, Chisato."

"Umm." Chisato faced Ruri's slight smile but was unsure what to say. "You shouldn't pay much attention to him."

"You just told her to ignore me, didn't you!? Didn't you!? I'm an actual worker here, you know!? ...Okay, she can ignore me, so can you stop glaring at me...please?"

Chisato had to start from the beginning due to that interruption, so she placed a hand on Ruri's arm.

"Listen, Ruri. You are plenty strong yourself, so don't look at everything so negatively."

"But... Then why am I getting skinnier and weaker every day?"

Chisato wrinkled her brow.

"Even the head doctor won't tell me why. Only that the cause is an illness. ...I supposedly have a strong body like Father, but my body has been so unsteady and I keep getting skinnier."

"Well..."

"What's wrong with me?"

And...

"And if no one knows why, am I just going to keep getting weaker?"

.

Chisato was speechless.

_...It's just like Kotowari said._

This was what it meant to let words get to her. In most situations, she could immediately find the optimal response, but she was at a loss when it came at her in the form of words.

However, there was one thing she could say.

Businesses interacting were the rules of this world.

They were how things should be and how things should happen. Everything in the world was to remain in compliance with industry flourishing, so...

"There is nothing wrong with you. After all, you are give me enough freedom to deny working here later on. If there was something wrong with you, you wouldn't have accepted that."

"But...what about Kotowari?"

"Well... There is something wrong with him, but that's different."

"Whaaaat!? What did you just sayyyyy!?"

She decided to ignore him and continue the conversation.

The ends of Ruri's eyebrows lowered and she looked up at Chisato.

"But I..."

"It is true you're losing weight every day." Chisato narrowed her eyes. "But that should settle down before long. Make sure you eat. And...we are here to support you, Ruri. You only have to make your decisions. I will run down that path ahead of you and protect you."

After Chisato said that, she heard a sudden voice from beyond Ruri.

"Well said, Chisato."

It was a woman's voice and she knew whose it was.

"Boss Narumi."

A woman walked in from the garden's opposite entrance beyond Ruri.

She was a beautiful woman, as well as..

_...Ruri's mother._

A single mark shown from the right side of Narumi's forehead and she wore a red-dyed worker's uniform modified in a western style. That uniform swayed as she came to a stop seven meters away.

With Ruri between them, Chisato could not do anything from this distance. Of course, she had no intention of anything like that since they were on the same side, but...

_...She never lets her guard down in that regard. It makes her difficult to deal with._

Narumi smiled toward Chisato, which made Chisato cautious. When that woman smiled, she was usually plotting something unpleasant.

That was why Chisato made a smile of her own and spoke.

"Boss Narumi? I just finished informing Ruri of my return, so I would like to return to my room before going to see my parents."

"Before you do that, come with me."

It was forceful, but boss orders were absolute for anyone who was not at the very top.

 _I can't believe this,_ she thought as Narumi placed a hand on her mouth.

"I would like to speak with you about what is to come."

"What are you talking about?"

"Of course." The woman nodded. "We can make a suggestion of our own concerning who Border will send over, so I would like your opinion now that you have visited them."

Namely...

"Who could we ask for to ensure everything goes smoothly? The odd girl lover?"

* * *

Kon awoke to the distant sound of a morning bell ringing at the top of the hour.

She could tell she was lying on her side and she could tell where she was lying.

"...Nn."

She was on a bed. Beyond the warm sheets and creaking bed, her sleepy mind heard the distant sounds of construction. And...

_...Oh no. I need to get the food ready._

That thought led her to a realization: didn't she normally sleep with less sheets? The night before, she had stayed at the Main Red Lightning late into the night for their meeting. When Kunichika had invited her to sleep over, her weariness had won out.

"—!"

She trembled, stirred, opened her eyes, and found a face in front of her.

_...Jinsei!?_

She gasped in disbelief, but then realized who it was sleeping on their side in front of her.

"Kagami..."

Kagami breathed quietly in sleep with her sleeves removed and her inner suit parted at the crotch portion. And occasionally...

"Sniff..."

Her sense of smell must have been reacting to the scent of the sheets and blanket because she would rub her cheek against them, relax her expression, and yet generally give stern looks.

_...Jinsei must be causing her trouble in her dream too._

That thought brought some unease.

_...Where's Jinsei?_

He was not here.

"—"

It made sense. They had stolen his space to sleep.

But his absence still bothered her.

_...Is he here?_

When they had borrowed his bed, he had been making tea and some late night snacks while speaking with Kimura, Ōji, and the others continuing the meeting. Kon had stayed with them until Yuki, Murakami, Arafune, and Kageura had left along with Hitomi since they were all residents of a different area, but...

"Jinsei..."

His absence brought unease to her heart.

.

_...I'm imagining awful things again._

She corrected her fear. He was in the house. He definitely was. He had to be. There was no reason for him not to be. But...

"..."

Kon slowly got up while looking over at Kagami who remained asleep with the sheets wildly strewn around her.

She glanced around and confirmed that this was his room. They would occasionally help the ones with failing grades by bringing them here and she would bring by cooking books from her house, so she was familiar with the Kirikari home.

_...But it's been a while since I was inside Jinsei's room._

His room had originally been part of a twelve square meter living room. It had been connected to the hallway without any walls, so a T-shape of curtains had been added in. The space positioned next to the café area was Jinsei's room and the opposite space was a guest room.

Kon stood barefoot on the wooden flooring. She could see plenty of porn game boxes stacked up on the PC desk, but...

"So he's actually playing stuff like that. I should probably tell someone for safety."

She nodded in satisfaction that her efforts were paying off.

_...W-wait, there's something wrong with this! Oh, but he actually has the nunchuck device connected! Is shaking it up and down really supposed to be fun!?_

She figured people shook it a lot while testing it. But...

"Kunichika...?"

She pushed aside the dividing curtain to check the guest room.

Kunichika was sleeping inside. She was naked, wrapped in her blanket, and embracing a body pillow, which had a questionable image on it. It almost looked like a child and their toy.

_...Although I'm afraid to see that whole image._

Seeing that brought some peace of mind, but the previous unease only grew.

_...Where is Jinsei?_

She pushed aside the curtain bordering the hallway and peeked out.

The hallway continued to the left and right. The left led to the bath and the right led to Jinsei's parents' room and the café.

The left seemed deserted, as did the right.

_...He wouldn't be in his mom's room. Too many bad memories for him..._

After some hesitation, she opened the curtain and stepped out into the hallway. She thought about putting on her shoes, but she would be doing her habitual morning cooking afterwards anyway. She was only checking to see if he was here.

She placed her hand on the door to the café.

"..."

She hesitated and wondered what she would do if he was not in here.

"He is, isn't he?"

She recalled a time in the past when she had felt this same unease.

_...Back when he lost something important..._

.

She opened the door.

The Main Red Lightning was dimly lit by the artificial sunlight entering through the narrow window.

They had all had fun and discussed a number of things the night before and the smell of eaten pizza lingered inside. But...

"Oh? You're up early, Kon-san. Did we wake you?"

"Good morning. We started eating already."

"Oh, you want something to eat too, Yuka?"

She saw three people there: Kimura, Oshiro, and...

"Oh, you like cooking a lot, don't you? Sorry about that. I'm too use to doing it around here, so you can go take a bath, if you want. Yuu will probably unlock the door and interrupt, though."

He was there and he spoke to her.

Kon was relieved by that fact, but she did her best to keep it from showing. After all, Kimura and Oshiro were here as well. She started by interpreting what the idiot had said.

"D-don't be ridiculous..."

She imagined the scene of Kunichika interrupting while she was in the bath and she felt some heat in her cheeks.

Then Oshiro gave her a smile while cutting into an omelet with a knife.

"Kon-san, you get along quite well with Kunichika-san and the spirit, don't you?"

She wondered who "the spirit" was, but she decided to abandon that line of thought when the idiot puffed his chest out proudly. However, she did take a breath and released the tension from her shoulders.

_...Honestly..._

_Good,_ she thought. _This isn't like those years ago._

"Jinsei?"

"Yeah? What is it? Boobs? You want even more than you've got?"

She didn't know what he was talking about, but she did know he was there.

Never again would she not know what had happened to him and never again would no one be able to reach a hand out to him or head out to save him.

 _Good,_ she thought again.

_...Ah._

Drawn by her relaxed shoulders, droplets spilled from the corners of her eyes.

.

She unexpectedly began crying.

When the other three noticed, Kimura was the first to speak.

"Kirikari, what did you do to Kon-san? She's Suzunari's valuable Yamato Nadeshiko Operator, cooker who keeps Betsuyaki in check, and someone Krümel likes! As the current holder, I'll be forced to use my special attack: That is Most Regrettable!"

"That's way too long, Kawa! A-and I didn't do anything! I mean, did you see me do anything!? Hey, Yuka, I didn't do anything to you, right? Please tell them I didn't."

"No, that isn't it, is it?" Oshiro gestured to the empty seat in front of him. "I don't really know why, but something made you happy, didn't it?"

Kon nearly nodded at that quiet question, but...

_...W-wait, if I agree, they'll ask me what made me happy._

She had recalled the past, compared it to the present, and involuntarily been so overcome with relief that she cried. They would not understand and it would be too embarrassing even if they did.

"Um," she hesitated. "S-sorry, Oshiro-kun. I need to take a bath before eating, a-and I didn't put any shoes on, so, um..."

"Sure. I'll make you something that should be ready at about the right time, so hurry on up."

Why did he read so much into things in the weirdest ways? At any rate, Kon used his words as the cue she needed to turn around, but...

"Um, what are we doing today? Are we having a meeting before going to school?"

"Yeah. We need to decide who to send out with the information. At the earliest, they could be sent out today, so I want to get that done now. ...Now, Captain. Where are 'Yuki' and Tachikawa-san?"

"Onii-san had some thoughts about the offense last night, so he went out to examine the site. Tachikawa-san was apparently dragged away by Tsukimi-san. I chose not to go to that since I have heard things from Narasaka and Yoneya."

"Good call."


	49. Border: Part 3

The Main Red Lightning was completely full.

Kimura had been there before most of the others and she watched everyone finishing up their meals.

"Kanzaki-san and the dual-Kōgetsu duo had other business to attend to, didn't they? ...Well, they weren't even under consideration for this, so that's fine."

"Heh heh heh. Sleepover Operator, quit putting on airs and tell us what you want. Why did you gather us all here? Don't tell me you want to have a group marriage interview over breakfast! You even brought us non-eighteen-year-old people! We homestly have our stuff to do as well!"

The café door opened and Fuyushima stepped inside, but he immediately ran back out.

"Ah, Fuyushima-san! This isn't a group marriage interview! Where are you going!?"

"Come to think of it, we can't have other people coming in here. Okay, I'll go out and put up a 'Closed' sign."

"Wait! Don't go outside naked! And don't try to complain that apron you're wearing changes anything!"

Ninomiya raised his hand and stood up.

"I'll keep watch outside. ...Oh, and the food was good. Western food is nice every so often."

"What's this, Nino-san!? Do you want to make Kirikari-senpai your bride instead of Mino-kun!?"

Kon spat out the tea she was still drinking because she had gotten a late start to breakfast due to her bath.

"Wh-what are you talking about, Misaki!? It may be true Jinsei can be a bit of a heroine since he has a slender waist and skinny neck, is an excellent cook, can walk on his toes, gets captured at times, and is a great listener, but...!"

"Kon, um, I sometimes think that too," said Murakami. "But you don't have to be that blunt."

"Yeah," added Senzai. "I too had somewhat determined the same thing."

"Yes," agreed Nasu. "I see Kirikari like that a little too..."

As everyone else sank down in their seats to agree, Ninomiya sighed.

"You're choosing the ambassadors, right? That has nothing to do with me, so I'll wait outside."

"Understood," said Kimura while raising a hand toward the man. "We'll make sure you can hear the conversation. Just watch on with your phone or something. Oh, you too, Nasu-san."

"Oh, yeah. I have guard duty too? I think I'll call some others to look after the back entrance."

"Please do," said Kimura before turning toward Suzaku.

Kimura took a breath when she saw Suzaku nod with something appearing on his screen.

"Then let us begin. As the Ninomiya Squad captain said, we will be beginning a new strategy concerning the three local sponsors. And to start with..."

She raised three fingers on her right hand.

"We will be sending a few of us to Kurosaki, Kobayashi, and Shiraishi."

.

Kimura glanced over at one corner of the café.

"O-oh, no! If I'm sent to Kurosaki, I may begin worshipping wholeheartedly worldly things there and never return! If that happened, the poor books around Mikado City would feel so lonely! Technology would ruin me!"

"Fried rice made with Kurosaki's supplies would be Kuro-amazingly good. Hm. Guess I need to work on that one."

"Hmm. I might freeze if I went somewhere too cold because of the AC..."

"Ha ha ha. Stay in the car with me and there's nothing to worry about!"

"Ah! Ku-yan! Are you already searching for walkthroughs on beating the foreign characters in Savage Historical Reign: Super Nininbaori!? Oh, but the most recent location test revealed that Xavier's Kappahame can be downgraded to Two-Level Homosexuality with a Mid-Level Tea Utensil, so now isn't DLC Kanou Eitoku considered the best with his Sabi Gauge?"

_You people are jumping the gun here. And I have no idea what that last one was all about. Anyway, stay positive, Kimura Kawaguchi. Keep your thoughts positive when unpleasant things happen. But I do feel like I've had to keep my thoughts positive an awful lot lately... Well, I just have to think of that in a positive light too…_

"K-Kimura! Why do you look so depressed?"

"Oh, just thinking about some things. But..."

_...But it's good that all of them are so motivated._

The idiot seemed to be thinking about some things recently and he would likely find some kind of answer eventually.

"Okay." Kimura raised her hand. "Listen, everyone. This isn't just about the ambassadors being sent out. I have something to tell all of you concerning how Border as a whole will face these three sponsors. ...In other words, we need to be prepared to take action."

They all faced her. Silence fell and she felt her mood lifting a little.

This small expectation pleased her, but did that mean she really had been feeling worried lately? Or...

_...Oh, I get it._

She realized that it had simply been a while since they had taken action on their own.

 _But we're not there yet,_ she thought. _We're still in the post-invasion phase. We need to set a new starting point somewhere._

So with that in mind...

"Border's basic policy is to not allow anything to be lost. With that as our basis, we will be taking the following policy toward the three sponsors."

She nodded at the center of the silent group.

"First, our official priorities will be the peace and stability of the sponsors."

.

Ninomiya watched the phone while sitting in the chair prepared at the Red Lightning's entrance.

 **Manager:** "I want the representatives to seek the peace and stability of the sponsors. Use the information 'Yuki' said would be given for that."

 _That's pretty standard,_ thought Ninomiya from the point of a view of a Border squad captain.

So if Border was going to protect Mikado City in the future, they needed to announce they would bring "peace and stability" to bring back a previous lifestyle.

_...Of course, that means they need to know what it is the sponsors want._

Ninomiya was unsure if he should give a warning there, but then the next words arrived.

 **Manager:** "Do you understand what I mean by seeking peace and stability?"

Ninomiya frowned and tilted his head.

_...What you mean by seeking peace and stability? Don't you just mean as a policy?_

If conflict erupted between the other sponsors, the ambassadors would protest by saying they "sought peace and stability" and would suggest that Border might interfere in their conflict. That would allow them to act as an intermediary between two sponsors or to promise support in their recovery. That could bring a hastened end to the conflict, and it could also allow them to focus on the conflict while Border handled everything else.

It was a common method during conflicts and others had often played the role of the intermediary.

But Hogo Squad's Operator spoke.

 **Manager:** "As the other one in charge of this, I command all of you here to seek the peace and stability of the sponsors."

However...

 **Manager:** "If it has to do with the history of them, then you can generally ignore it. And don't stop any attacks against Border. We'll defend against those here. But make sure you stop any other conflicts or any losses that would be brought by other businesses."

"Also," she continued.

 **Manager:** "Do not threaten anyone. You can resolve things with a conversation of values, such as how both sides can benefit, but threatening them will only cause more problems for everyone. The sponsors cannot act at the moment because they had their sense of values changed. You need to return those values to normal. That will return everything to the way it was."

.

Kimura stood up and looked across the others.

"Listen. There are quite a few people who worked at those businesses that are saying they preferred how things used to be. The best way to move those people to action is actually to suggest the future peace and stability of Border when it comes to Neighbors. As long as the method does not bring loss, use what you can to get the sponsors back on our side for a proper future."

She said "listen" once more.

"Work with Shiraishi, Kobayashi, and Kurosaki and suggest the peace and stability that Border can build. That means we will deal with the Neighbor conflicts that can lead to another invasion. They won't end, but we will be more prepared. What's more is that we will deal with Taiyōko and anyone else going against them."

What exactly did that mean?

"In other words, we will get to a point where we can be considered a power instead of a world that Neighbors think can just be attacked and who the sponsors can believe in. ...We will hold the future in our hands."

.

Ninomiya was left speechless by the Hogo Squad Operator's announcement.

"..."

He frowned and sighed, but then found himself glancing over at the Shooter next to him.

However, the sick girl in a trion body was looking at her phone, doing something with it, and getting checked on by the people that showed up.

"Thank you for your concern. Please take care of things over there. If anyone weird shows up, let us know."

The female Shooter watched the three-person unit run off.

"—"

Then she suddenly turned toward Ninomiya and tilted her head with a hint of a smile.

"Is something the matter, Ninomiya-san?"

"Well... About Kimura's announcement just now..."

"Yes. I think that's a common way of looking at things for them. We have the personnel needed for it too. Although those personnel are all such awful people. Still..." Her smile grew a little. "I feel like we're finally making it official after waiting for a good opportunity."

"But...that's crazy. Last time, that... _deviant_ told Shiraishi Chisato we would be sending people over with information about his family on the assumption that we would not interfere. And now we are telling an ambassador to stop any conflicts?"

"Yes. Don't worry. I hear that age group is scarily good at making excuses for things."

 _At least try to deny it,_ thought Ninomiya, but he also had a feeling this was how things had been since he had arrived.

_...Are they really doing this? Actually, they've probably already made up their minds. I should be asking how this is going to turn out._

He started thinking about what was to come, but...

"Ah."

"Is something the matter, Ninomiya-san?"

The female Shooter asked the same question but with a definite smile this time, so Ninomiya nodded first.

"Well," he began. "I thought I wouldn't be involved with anything to do with the faker, but I have kind of unfairly decided I would observe how they handle things as the ones left in charge."

"Yes. That's right. This complicated stuff doesn't have anything to do with you or me. Normally, anyways. ...Then again, not all of Border is exactly normal."

 **Manager:** "Okay, I'll start with who's going to Kobayashi. That'll be Minoru-san and Hiura-san. Good luck."

"Waiiiiiit!"

Ninomiya started running at full speed from the very first step.

.

Everyone saw Ninomiya throw open the Main Red Lightning's door.

"What are you thinking!?"

The nudist was striking a pose in front of the door, so he was sandwiched between it and the wall, but Ninomiya did not even notice.

"Why him!?"

.

Kimura and the others exchanged a glance.

After a while, Senzai raised his right hand and spoke after the others gave him a nod of understanding.

"That is a refreshingly new reaction."

Kimura nodded in agreement and then realized something.

_...Huh? Does this mean I'm being corrupted by the rest of them?_

"Um, Suzaku-san? If possible could you use a 'bullying meter' or something to check on me?"

She turned around to see Suzaku with his back turned. The captain Sniper was whispering to Mizukami about a screen displaying some kind of meter. But when the Shooter noticed her, he frantically karate chopped the phone to the ground.

"I-it's nothing."

"Y-yes. It's nothing, Kimura! It's relatively fine!"

 _What is and relative to what?_ she wondered, but she decided to trust the expert's opinion. It did worry her that the expert was also a carrier of the infection, though.

"What's wrong, Ninomiya Captain? Is something the matter?"

Ninomiya Squad's Shooter Leader raised his voice and eyebrows.

"Why is Minoru being sent over to Kobayashi with the information!? He's not the one from that family!"

"That is one of the reasons why. The fact he is not a part of that family means we are showing true strength."

Ninomiya Squad's captain's mouth hung open at the immediate answer, so Kimura decided to casually continue as if throwing it out there.

"Another reason is that Kobayashi-san herself doesn't have much influence concerning the matter. At least from what my own captain has told me. I have no reason to believe he would lie when they are great friends."

"W-wait. ...Are you deciding that on your own?"

"Eh? ...Is Minoru not suppose to be involved with this?"

Ninomiya Squad's captain groaned and wrinkled his brow.

"Well, I didn't say that... But he is kind of-..."

Someone interrupted. It was Arafune who stood by the wall. He spoke after nodding toward the man.

"It's not that we want to put more work on him. ...Kimura, you don't actually need Minoru to do this, right?"

"Yeah. If he can't do it, then he can't do it. Some things just can't be helped."

"That's for sure..."

"Yes," agreed Kon who sat at an added table with Kunichika. She was pouring cream into her coffee cup to draw a picture. "After learning that he is helping Awdry-kun, it wouldn't surprise anyone if he just collapsed from exhaustion. He does a lot of work dealing with others. ...He is a special case, so he can just watch. He honestly helps out a lot and will be paid back for that, so you can head back and tell him with what you've learned once this is all over."

After hearing all that, Ninomiya Squad's captain raised his eyebrows, breathed in, and stared at Kimura.

"Are you making fun of him!?"

.

 _He bought it,_ Kimura told the others with some secret eye contact.

The next to speak was the Kotowari Sniper.

In the seat next to Suzaku, she pinched at the tart from the night before and looked to Ninomiya Squad's captain.

"But Nino-san, weren't you saying Minoru-kun wouldn't do anything? No, _can't_ do anything? After all, he lacks so very much: the need, want, passion, and apparently support from his lover."

But...

"But listen, Nino-san. None of that matters when the choice is up to him. Honestly not you."

"—"

Ninomiya Squad's captain was left speechless, but then he gasped.

"No, wait! What do you mean when you say 'support'!? I can never trust what your team says!"

"You silly man." The Kotowari Sniper pointed down towards Suzaku's crotch. "Based on my personal investigation, people with great support honestly have larger and calmer hearts! See? You can pokety, poke, poke towards Suzaku's crotch and he won't get mad at you!"

"Kh...! Misaki? I'm going to give you a calm and big-hearted scolding later. I'm going to scold you like crazy."

"You don't have to go along with that," muttered the others, but Kimura ignored them and faced Ninomiya Squad's captain.

"So do you understand now?"

"How the hell could I!?"

_...Eh? But I sort of understood that. Does that mean there's something wrong with me?_

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Mizukami hurriedly hiding a screen, but she decided not to worry about it. Instead, she sighed, let her shoulders droop, and spoke to the other Border member.

"Ninomiya Captain, are you listening?"

"...I understand."

_...Eh? Does he understand or not?_

**Mi-Kon:** "The concentrated insanity in this room must have gotten to him."

 **Kuni:** "Wow, Kon, you're really good at drawing faces with milk."

 **Kuru-ma:** "The buffer between his thoughts as a leader and his thoughts as an individual is preventing him from being honest, isn't it?"

That was more or less it, so...

"Do you understand?'

"Yes. No, I guess I should be saying 'yeah' for now."

Ninomiya Squad's looked down at her with his shoulders lowered.

"I need to be _properly supporting_ Minoru. ...I can't be thinking poorly of him. And as Misaki said... It isn't my choice to decline for him or not."

In other words...

"There is one thing I can do despite not being involved here. ...I can back him up as his partner and an adult. Isn't that right, Hogo Squad Operator?"

"Yes. With no relevance for yourself, Minoru will be the foundation for the negotiations since one of his team members is from that family. ...But there is a way to make up for the little of what time you will lose."

"By letting him act as a representative of Border, right?" He sighed. "By leaving him in your care. ...That may be what he needs if he is going to accept this. Which he most likely will."

He relaxed his shoulders again, looked to Kimura, and then bowed.

"Very well. ...If he agrees, he will go. Please make the necessary arrangements."

.

 _Good,_ thought Kimura now that she had a decision from Ninomiya.

She then looked toward the entranceway.

"Hiura will go with Minoru to Kobayashi, but Minoru will be the main player."

Nasu titled her head while peeking in from outside.

"Why are you looking at me like that? Hikigane-san is the one you need to be wary of concerning the matter."

"I was planning on having Hikigane-san himself go since he and Minoru would be able to get things done easily. When I tried to contact him about this meeting he had said that he was very busy and could not even be considered for the issue. Since that was the case, I decided on Hiura since she might enjoy the trip before her longer trip. Also... She actually holds some power _because of_ Hikigane-san. Or so I've heard."

"I see." Murakami nodded. "We're using Minoru as the main point because he knows more about Kobayashi, and then we're giving him the authority he needs to say whatever needs to be said for Border."

"That's right. And just for now, I am making Hiura an aide to the Suzunari Branch's ace. Murakami-kun will not be going to Kobayashi, but she will be acting as a branch member's aide and as one of Border representatives' aide."

"I'll make sure she knows."

Nasu nodded and looked to Ninomiya Squad's captain. The male Shooter's brow was still a little wrinkled, so the female Shooter smiled at him.

"Well, they have a strategy laid out for them, so they will manage."

"I hope so..."

"Don't worry. We'll do whatever it takes to make sure of it," said Kimura while raising a hand toward Suzaku.

Suzaku smiled and nodded, and a new window appeared on everyone's phones. A picture of a dog danced inside it, but...

"I sent a program to all of your phones. Oh, and it's a special one that connects to your trion body. Only for certain purposes though."

"Umi? What is this?"

"It sends our messages primarily through a special pathway instead of just the Border ones. They'll be sent through TSUBAKI and TSUBAKI HQ for transmission over the network set up between us. It makes using the chat while in a trion body easier, so don't worry. Unless you're being blocked by some high quality tech, you can send your messages from any one of those buildings with great service!"

Everyone sounded impressed, but Kazekiri asked a question with a smile frozen on his face.

"Suzaku? Don't tell me..."

Something appeared next to Kazekiri's face, displaying a smiling woman and man, both waving happily. Kazekiri quickly stabbed his hand through the something to break it and he forced a smile with raised eyebrows.

"Suzaku... This was set up with a certain companies backing, wasn't it?"

"Yes. TSUBAKI is neutral, but it's still best to have that kind of sponsor for this sort of thing. There are issues occurring between business right now. And in addition to that 'certain company' you mentioned, this also uses some allotment of the networks from different areas," explained Suzaku. "But, well, your parents immediately signed the contract once I said I would periodically send them pictures of you. ...Cooperative friends really are indispensable."

 **2.7 Maime:** "That's for sure."

"Cooperative!? I think they're using us! You asked me to come here with Shobu under the pretense that you needed help because of where my parents work! You just needed to get those pictures!"

"Calm down, Kirigiri-kun." Arashiyama placed a hand on Kazekiri shoulder. "Listen, Kirigiri-kun. If you think of it as your embarrassing pictures saving Border a bit, then wouldn't it be a very-..."

Arashiyama placed a hand on his forehead and thought for a moment.

"...Let's change the subject. A cheerful topic would be best."

"A very!? A very what!?"

"Wait a moment," said Kimura, but Kazekiri only tilted his head.

"Anyway, are you sure you want to only send that Minoru guy and that Hiura girl? I don't know much about them, so it really is up to you guys to figure that out. I'm really only here to make sure nothing happens to Shobu since you guys didn't call over Ame."

"Minoru will be fine. If Hiura is just going to be his aide, then I have nothing more to say on the matter."

After seeing Hogo Squad's Operator nod, Ninomiya placed a hand on the door.

"I'll listen to the rest outside. ...I'm eager to find out who will be sent to Shiraishi and Kurosaki."

.

Kimura watched the door slowly close after the Ninomiya Squad Captain and Nasu left. She then made sure the chat transmission line with those outside was in place.

"Next up are the personnel going to Kurosaki, but this one honestly carries a somewhat difficult problem. After all, they're currently in conflict with others. Namely Taiyōko."

She touched the screen map to slide it over to the northern part of Mikado City.

"Also, Kurosaki might become a pro-anti-Border force if things aren't handled very carefully and might even go with Taiyōko to bring down others. They might remain our enemy for a very long time."

"In that case," said Arashiyama with a sigh. "We cannot send anyone important there."

"Don't be so quick to decide that." Kimura stood up, took a few steps, and stopped in front of someone. "Kuruma-san. 'Yuki' isn't here now, but I want you and him to go to Kurosaki."

"That's fine. I will be fine as long as someone capable like that is there."

Kimura was relieved by his immediate response and smile, so she turned around.

"Also...Kon-san and Kirikari."

.

Suzaku looked up.

_...Eh?_

He spoke a reflexive question to Kimura as the girl looked their way.

"U-um, didn't you just say we wouldn't gain much from negotiating with Kurosaki? And it's a warzone now on that front, so why would you send Jinsei-kun, Yuka, and even Kuruma there?"

"I do know why you would think that," said Kimura.

Suzume nodded from the next seat over and placed her hand on Suzaku's shoulder.

"Aren't you forgetting someone?"

"No. I just feel like Yucchi would be back in three days no matter where we sent him."

"True." Suzume nodded again, rested her head on her hand, and looked in the same direction as Suzaku was. "Why do you want to send my foolish former captain to Kurosaki? The only souvenirs he could bring back are steak and sake, and that would only make Suzaku happy. Besides, in case you honestly forgot, my foolish former captain's original name contained the name 'Taiyōko' in it."

"It would not make me happy. ...Ah! What are those looks for, everyone!? Jinsei-kun, you say something too!"

He turned toward the door he had been pinned behind before.

_...Huh?_

"No one's there?"

The area was abandoned.

_...Yes._

He decided to assume his absence was intentional.

_...Yes. Everything's fine._

He could relax when he remembered that he had to be somewhere and that this was most likely the setup for some kind of joke.

Then someone moved in front of him: Kon. The Operator grabbed a spare chair from by the wall, placed it near the center of the floor, and beckoned Kitazoe over.

_...This is going to be something weird again, isn't it?_

Kitazoe nodded silently and sat in the chair.

"—"

Soon, a forceful blow struck the bottom of the floor panel below Kitazoe's chair. The idiot's voice followed.

"Huh? It won't open! That's odd. Huh? Ahhhn? Ahiiin?"

"Yes. Please be quiet. I will nail it shut."

"Don't renovate my house! And aren't you going to praise me for my setup?"

Kon casually began hammering in some nails.

"Ah, dammit! She's hammering them in as accurately as an expert carpenter! C-curse you! I'll do it right next time! I swear it! I swear it!"

Kimura glared toward the idiot's voice as he seemed to run away somewhere underground.

"Anyway, we know he's here, so I guess I'll explain why we need to focus on Kurosaki."

She took a breath and looked to someone by the wall.

"Kurauchi, take it away."

.

"Right, right," said Kurauchi as he opened a window on Kimura's instructions.

Unsurprisingly, it displayed a map of Mikado City. It was zoomed in on the area from Kurosaki to its surroundings.

"Alright, just need to show it up above."

Holding his device up, Kurauchi pressed a button and displayed the map on the ceiling.

"Now, then." He put his hands on his hips and took a breath. "It's really simple when you get down to it. Even without advancing near us, Taiyōko currently shut down the center of the area, right? Before, their makeshift border was shared with a large group, but a part of that ground has been destroyed through difficult means."

The red representing Taiyōko moved in from one side to the western side of the area, but some there was there to resist any more damage.

"Kurosaki is to the northeast, one of their partners is to the southeast, and both of their extended buildings and Border's branches are to the east. ...Now, do you know what's going to happen with this kind of future?"

"Yeah," said Murakami. He looked up to the ceiling and placed a hand in his bare throat. "Border's branches may be relatively safe and the partner business will be destroyed by Taiyōko."

"That's right."

Kurauchi lightly tapped the screen and the red advanced from the western area to the southern region of Mikado City.

"Do you understand?" asked Kurauchi. "Eventually, they will end up with a large sum of money due to continued success. They will also eventually join sides with Taiyōko at the rate she is going, but since they might refuse being destroyed, they won't fully be taken by her. And this is when they see that family as enemies."

"That isn't all," said Ōji as he crossed his arms next to him. "Ever since the latest invasion, we have been taking large sums of money ourselves to make up for that one Neighbor making it into the base. In other words, Border still has security in assets. But..."

As soon as he said that, Kurauchi displayed another map of Mikado City. The western end had a few red circles added.

"But ever since the recent invasion, some of the sponsors have instructed us to freeze the money that gave us as sponsors."

"...Freeze...the money...?" asked Shokubutsu.

Ōji nodded.

"It means they will not be taking it back, but Border is not to use it in any way."

Immediately, someone else asked a question: Kon. She tilted her head.

"What are those sponsors trying to do? Why would they not take their money but not let us use it?"

"It comes down to the threat of Taiyōko and another invasion, Kon-san," said Kimura. "Even if they wanted to take and use their money, they've just seen money used up by destroyed buildings. Moving money could make them the next target for Taiyōko. And even if they were to be taken, they can recover if they still have money waiting for them. So now that Border barely managed to push back the Neighbors, they want to leave that money with us, but they don't want us using it. And since they think the odds are good Border will only barely manage, they can't have us using the money they've left with us. Plus, freezing Border's money will benefit Taiyōko, if she really does become a complete enemy. This is a decent performance to remain on her good side. But..."

But...

"A large organization like Border would be useful against, and the only way to deal with, any Neighbors that come through Gates. However, we're currently in an odd position due to our B-Rank Wars going on. Since we barely managed the last invasion, the sponsors have to act on the assumption that we will be barely pushing back any invasions in the future."

"I see. So if we were to start getting along with Kurosaki..."

Still standing, Kon placed a hand on her chin and suddenly raised her right foot to knee height.

"...the sponsors will unfreeze their money with us and we will have proven we can overcome most of our financial troubles. That is why you want to send people as important as Kuruma-san and Yuki-kun. But what about the rest of us?"

"You are very level-headed, Kon-san. Kirikari is an idiot, but that idiocy has actually gotten him to some nice places."

"I see. That is a nice call."

She stomped her right foot, sending a light tremor through the floor.

Immediately, the image by the ceiling broke and the nudist fell and crashed into the table with his limbs sprawled out.

.

Voices of surprise filled the café, but they quickly quieted down.

Ninomiya heard them from outside.

"..."

He looked to the female Shooter next to him, but the girl only gave the café a quick glance before turning back to the other people.

"Okay, go patrol the area."

She was unfazed.

_...Is that how things work here?_

_When in Rome do as the Romans do, so I guess I should go along with this. But this is still odd._

While he wondered what was going on, Ninomiya checked his phone.

 **Manager:** "On the economic front and to have a good future, I do not want a hostile relationship with Kurosaki. After all, they possess a lot of power as a business. They also supply a good amount of our regular technology."

 **Black Wolf:** "If this goes nicely, we will have more backing for our research."

Suzunari-1's ace's words gave Ninomiya a thought.

_...Just how much of our technology comes from them exactly?_

It was a difficult question to answer given the amount of time he has been around.

 **Manager:** "Well, I guess it will mean that. But if possible, I want to secure more regular technology since they are needed for life on Earth without thinking about Neighbors. Without regular technology around we may end up in a reliant relationship with all forms of trion. So Murakami-kun, you go to Kurosaki too."

 **Black Wolf:** "What!? ...But Kuruma-san's family is the one who sponsors the Suzunari Branch."

 **Manager:** "You'll be their bodyguard. Not only do you have the actual strength, but you and Kuruma-san will 'guard' the others with your official positions. I'm sorry, but please try to look at it like that."

"What does that mean?" asked the female Shooter.

It took Ninomiya a moment to realize the question was directed at him.

"O-oh... Murakami is not originally from Mikado City and is our fourth ranked Attacker and Kuruma's family, as just stated, sponsors the Suzunari Branch. Kuruma's family isn't in conflict with Kurosaki and Murakami's 'outside view' as our fourth ranked Attacker can be seen as beneficial, along with the fact that he is Akasora-san's student, but if something were to happen to those two, it could make an enemy of Kuruma's family and Akasora-san - someone who is actually well known. And in reverse, leaving a favorable impression those two could improve those two powerful forces' impression of you. Their positions make them the best bodyguards available."

They were using all available personnel in every way possible. They must have really wanted to obtain stability with Kurosaki.

 **Black Wolf:** "Th-then I have no choice. I will join the others as my friend's(?) bodyguard."

 **Kuru-ma:** "I'll also join in, secure in the knowledge that I have a role here."

 **White Fox:** "Hey Kō... We need to have a chat about that '(?)' you just put."

Those branch members had decided to act for the sake of Border's future. So...

"I need to rethink some things too."

Ninomiya was nervous, but he had a role to play and he had little else to do. If he also had no complaints with that role...

_...I just have to let him go._

As soon as she thought that, some text scrolled along the screen next to his face.

 **Life:** "Fine then. It's early in the rank wars, but I'll prepare some extra clothes. But..hey, where'd Yuki go? Doesn't he have to hear all this?"

.

Oshiro was unsure what to do when everyone started focusing on him.

The focus made him a little nervous, but not enough to grow flustered. It was something else that moved his heart.

_...Onii-san._

He brought a hand to his mouth and thought for a moment, but then Kagami asked a question with a tilt of the head.

"Tsukiko-kun went to that scene of that offense last night, right? Is he doing his own investigation?"

"Eh? Yes, yes. That's what he said."

"Really?"

Kagami tilted her head further and exchanged a look with Kunichika.

"Most of the investigation was completed last night, so I don't see much point in him going there," said Kunichika.

"Well..."

When he trailed off, Murakami opened his mouth to help.

"I don't blame him. He works for the directors at those times, but he was late to obtain that information last night. ...He probably has some thoughts about that."

And...

"Are you worried about that, Hogo?"

There seemed to be some expectation in his voice, but he was exactly right. Yuki had been silent that morning, except when he suddenly seemed to notice he was being so quiet. Then he had said: "O-oh. I was just thinking is all."

Overall, he had seemed different from usual.

He had acted normal after that, but...

_...I wish he would confide in me more. Especially since he became my surrogate brother._

He sighed, but for some reason, those around him began fanning each other.

"Suzume! Suzume! Yuki-kun has finally started to enter the zone!"

"Heh heh heh. That's right, Kunichika! It's rather warm outside, but the temperature is rising even further! There's going to honestly be lots of stripping!"

Oshiro had no idea what they meant, but he thought they shared in his worries. Since Yuki was not here, he decided to ask for some advice concerning him. He wanted to know what to do during times like this morning.

"Um, can I ask something about Onii-san? It's about this morning."

"Please do! Please do!"

Oshiro was surprised when a group of mostly girls leaned forward.

_...They're all worried about Onii-san, aren't they!?_

He could not help but feel happy about that. Yuki was thinking about a lot and worrying, so he was relieved to have the help of these veterans who had known him for a lot longer than him.

"Um, when I woke up this morning, Onii-san..."

He was not used to the Japanese language after having studied different languages recently.

_...Wasn't like his normal self._

He did not think that would get across what he wanted to say. No one else was around to see his "normal self" in the mornings, so he decided to search for simple way to explain the problem.

He thought about what to say.

Yuki had been sitting on his bed hanging his head.

He had crossed his arms to signify he was thinking, but he had been groaning so much that Oshiro thought he might be sick. When he had called out to him, he had jumped in surprise and immediately turned toward him. That much was normal, but today...

_...Would you describe him as disappointed?_

He had a feeling that was not quite right.

Disappointment was generally in response to something other than oneself. When it was towards oneself...

_...Regretful isn't quite right and self-loathing is too strong._

"Oh."

Oshiro found just the right nuance. It referred to the heavy downwards direction of his mood. Was it "feeling down"? No, he had a feeling he needed more words for emphasis.

"Yes. Ever since he woke up this morning, um..."

He placed a hand on his cheek. He had sudden trouble with the language after having learned a few more, but using his native language would help them understand each other.

"Onii-san has been feeling himself down below."

"He went there!?"

.

 **Kuni: "** What should we do?"

 **Honest Sister:** "Heh heh heh. Don't you mean what do we honestly _want_ to do? But your team's Shooter would probably be overkill here. Doesn't Border have a way of torturing him?"

 **Manager:** "W-wait! There's clearly something wrong here! I say we double check on this!"

 **Mi-Kon:** "Then good luck. Go ask Hogo-kun just what Yuki-kun was 'feeling'."

.

Kimura took a step forward from the silent group and spoke to Oshiro.

"U-u-um, Captain? U-uh, about 'Yuki'..."

"Y-yes. What is it?"

"Um, w-was he really 'feeling' his p-pe…pe…no, I mean…" Kimura blushed. "Down below!?"

Everyone sighed, so she turned toward them with a flourish.

"Y-you got a problem with that!? All that matters is that he understands what I mean!"

"You're no fun, Kimura-kun."

"Now, now," said Oshiro as he nodded toward Kimura. "That's right. Thank you for worrying, but it's true."

Yes.

"Since early this morning, Onii-san was feeling himself down below."

.

 **Isa:** "He's quite the pervert."

 **Iko:** "When did Kiyoshi grow so distant from us?"

 **Viper:** "I have an honest question. What do guys normally do in the morning?"

 **Boys:** "Um..."

.

Murakami saw Kimura's shoulders droop as the girl stepped back.

She looked exhausted and Murakami considered giving her a word of support, but...

"You handle this."

Kimura tapped his shoulder.

"Eh? ...Wh-why me!?"

He protested, but Kimura averted her gaze and ignored him.

If it was his turn to add to the joke, there was nothing else he could do. He finally worked up his nerve, stood up, and stepped forward. He stood in front of Oshiro and forced a smile.

"Um...uh..."

He thought about what to ask. He of course had no intention of asking how healthy or hard his best friend was in the mornings. If he was going to ask about this, he had to do so more objectively.

"Shiro, when you woke up, what was Yuki doing?"

"Of course. Onii-san was sitting cross-legged like this, facing the wall, hanging his head, and...quietly feeling himself down below. Yes."

 **Black Wolf:** "What was that guy doing with the wall this morning?"

 **Haru:** "Kō! Kō! You mustn't get emotional! Calm down!"

Murakami took a deep breath and swore to himself he would not forget to smile.

"Did you...see anything else strange?"

"Yes. I'm not sure I would call it strange...but if you ask me, he was feeling himself down below extremely hard."

"Eh? ...Extremely hard? Down below?"

"Yes. He has felt himself down below on occasion before, you see."

"B-before? Um, since when?"

"W-well..."

Oshiro seemed a little concerned by how Murakami latched onto that comment. _Oh, no,_ he thought, but then he saw Oshiro sighing.

"Sometimes when he's busy at work, he doesn't arrive in time to pick up groceries or he misses a chance to go on a walk with Krümel-kun. He tends to somewhat feel himself down below when that happens."

 **Shōgi Boy:** "What's that guy been doin' while takin' out Neighbors?"

 **Honest Sister:** "Heh heh heh. Somewhat feeling himself? ...That fake ninja tries to be a sneaky ninja even then, doesn't he?"

 **Life:** "Y'know, this is pretty bad. Yuki's entering brand new territory here."

Murakami did not want to agree, but he had to. Hoping this ordeal would end soon, he asked another question.

"And what did you do, Shiro?"

"Well, I called out to him and he jumped in surprise."

 **Life:** "Yeah, that'll happen if you're caught off guard. I'm used to it, though."

 **Kuni:** "That's something we're really not too familiar with..."

 _I suppose not,_ thought Murakami as new text arrived on his screen.

Oshiro then continued.

"Onii-san was the same during breakfast, so it was hard to bear."

"Hogo-kun, I believe that is the normal reaction," said Kon. "It would be difficult to enjoy your food like that."

"Yes. That's right. When someone important to you is feeling himself down below, it's normal to be worried."

"Yes, yes! Very normal!"

Oshiro seemed relieved that everyone agreed.

_Don't worry, Shiro. We have someone who can be a nudist, crossdress, and cook dumplings all at once, so we can give a proper retort...I mean, reaction to more normal strangeness._

But then Oshiro's shoulders stiffened.

"But he won't tell me why he's feeling himself down below."

"Well, explaining it can really ruin the mood," said the idiot. "Hey, don't look at me like there's something wrong with me! Besides, Shiro-chan here is like Yuki's little bro, yeah?"

"Um..." Murakami chose his words carefully to best describe what to do in that situation. "At times like that, I think it's best to just be by his side. It can double as keeping an eye on his behavior. Anyway, um, what did he do then?"

"Right. He went to inspect the site of last night's offense while still feeling himself down below."

 **Artist:** "Is he an exhibitionist!? And what's he planning to do there?

 **Kuni:** "I kind of think it would be best not to think about it too much."

That was when the café door opened.

"Sorry I'm late. Yagura Branch's rep, reporting for duty!"

.

Yuki was a little disturbed when everyone gave him a look he had never seen before.

_...Eh!? What brought this on!? Is that a mix of contempt and anticipation? Damn. And just when I got passed that airhead without fighting._

"You're honestly the worst," said Suzume. "But I'll still put you in my doujinshi."

"Wh-what is this about!?"

"'Yuki'."

For some reason, Kimura was blushing as she held her right hand out toward him. Behind her, the idiot raised his right forearm a little and shook it up and down, but he ignored it.

"What is it, Kimura?"

"W-well, it can get in the way of your duties and there are a number of public morals issues, so try to stick to the more standard methods when controlling yourself. Also...don't do it in public."

 _Is she talking about stress? Well, dealing with these awful people on a daily basis_ is _exhausting._

Suzaku raised his hand.

"Kimura, as a Public Morals Committee Member, I say you should rethink sending Yucchi to Kurosaki. ...It would be a lot of trouble if he started doing it during a negotiation."

"Personally, I think he'd lose it to frostbite in no time if he tried that in AC," said Kunichika. "With his illness. ...Both of them apparently."

 _What are they talking about?_ he wondered and looked over to see Oshiro smiling at him with the ends of his eyebrows lowered.

 _Oh,_ he realized. _This morning._

So he faced Kimura.

"Not to worry. I had a lot on my mind, but after looking around the scene of the offense and thinking about some things, I'm feeling really refreshed."

"...Refreshed?"

"Huh? Why do you look so disturbed? I'm just saying inspecting the scene and moving my body around left me feeling refreshed."

"We understand, so you don't have to say it again."

He had Senzai's assurance, so Yuki looked straight at Oshiro.

"Sorry for worrying you. ...From now on, I will try to confide in you and...well, sometimes I might not say anything, but..."

He was afraid of how the others would react, but he said what he thought he needed to say.

"Can I rely on you at times like this, Shiro? As a brother?"

.

Oshiro was briefly confused.

_...Um..._

The others were saying something with their phones and Suzume was starting to draw something with unbelievable excitement, but...

"Um, you mean..."

His request to rely on him had confused him...or rather, he did not know how to react. After all...

_...This is the first time he has asked something like that of me._

No, it was possible he had when he had took him in, but that had been more about a powerful desire for him.

_...But this morning was about himself._

He had a feeling Yuki would try to put on a brave face, but he would let him accept him.

"—"

He would be able to support him, the boy who had accepted him as a brother. Yuki would let him. And he had called that "relying" on him.

_...Yes._

Oshiro obeyed the feeling inside him. He had decided to live his life the way he wanted and he was allowed to be with one of the people who let him do that, so...

"Okay." Oshiro smiled. "When you're feeling like that, feel free to rely on me as much as you want. It would make me just as happy."

"G-good."

He nodded with his hair pulled deep over his eyes, so Oshiro gestured to the seat opposite his, next to Inukai.

He heard his partner whisper, "We need to talk after this, Yuki. Shiro-chan is taken." Yuki seemed confused about what that meant, along with Oshiro himself.

He was not sure he should already be thinking about what to do from now on. And he was worried it was conceited of him to think relying on him would allow Yuki to continue saying he was "fine".

But one thing did bother him.

"Um, Kawa-chan? Onii-san will be fine, so can we get back to talking about Kurosaki?"

"Right." Kimura nodded. "I'll send the details with the log, but the people going to Kurosaki will be 'Yuki', Kuruma-san, Kon-san, Kirikari, and Murakami-kun. ...We're counting on all of you."

.

Yuki answered after a moment.

"Got it."

Kimura heard him agree without hesitation and heard Oshiro breathe a sigh of relief.

_...I guess the two of them will have to come up with a fundamental solution about him "feeling himself down below". Especially with Inukai-san being in the picture._

With that settled, she moved on.

"Next is who we'll be sending to the Shiraishi family."

She looked to both of the people she was about to name.

"Tenryū, Ikoma-san. That will be you two."

.

Shokubutsu tensed up.

_...Eh?_

He was surprised and caught off guard. He wondered why he would be chosen, but he also felt like this was the right decision. There was one main reason for that.

"...Because of...my past...?"

"That's right. You already have experience as someone who deals with business. You're also the Yagura Branch's director's nephew, so you're more than qualified to be an ambassador."

"Heh heh. Wait right there, plum-chested Operator. Don't you honestly have something to tell him? You can draw people in by leaving things unsaid, but you mustn't do that to those close to you or people who know people honestly close to you."

"Yes, I know. That's why I said 'more than'. Are you listening?"

Shokubutsu nodded, so Kimura continued.

"We're giving them the nephew of Yagura's director, so from Shiraishi's perspective...you'll mostly be a sort of hostage."

"...Really...?"

He often heard the word "hostage" in a suspenseful drama on the radio or television. Robbers would hole up in the bank, point their matchlock guns at the workers, and demand a means of escape. That was generally when the magistrate would show up for the following scene:

"Ha ha ha. Silly robbers, you should learn how to use those matchlocks before trying something like this. The safety's still on."

"Eh!? ...Ah, you tricked us, you son of a bitch! Get him!"

His uncle and his uncle's friends would always seem satisfied and say things like "That magistrate tricks someone every time" or "That's a pretty personal interpretation". But in that case...

"...Will you...s-save...the hostage...?"

"Eh? Oh, well, you aren't guaranteed to be a hostage. But it could happen. Basically, we're leaving an important person with Shiraishi as a safety to ensure we don't become enemies. We're saying we won't attack them because we won't want to lose you, Tenryū."

_...Eh?_

"...B-but...I'm not...th-that important..."

.

 **Shinoda:** "Allow me to interrupt. In reference to our duties in Border, I would make the following ranking: Shokubutsu-kun = Suzaku > Yuki, Sekai, Denji > Everyone Else Akashi Kirikari."

 **Life:** "Are those '>' things arrows!? So the further you go, the better you are!?"

 **Shinoda:** "It is the exact opposite."

 **Life:** "Did you have to answer that quickly!?"

 **Kaze:** "Nice job, Shobu!"

 **Mi-Kon:** "Those at the bottom should take a lesson from Suzaku-kun and rethink their life."

 **Umi:** "But why me? I've barely ever ranked that high."

 **Shinoda:** "You are always a huge help with the transmissions. Without you, we would lose a good amount of Border's transmission support, which would place a larger burden on us. When Tenryū-kun is out and about, we can fulfill our director roles since he is actually really a refreshing sight for us. Yuki, Sekai and Denji do a good amount of work for us. As for the others..."

"● **Akashi: His pessimistic assumptions and forceful course instructions are quite dangerous. Especially since he seems to forget he is speaking with the directors.**

"● **Kirikari: In the way (when not fighting Neighbors), lifts up skirts, nudist, sleeps, plays porn games on the monitors, etc."**

 **Umi:** "Maybe that last person really should rethink his life. At least Jin is useful to Border, so the skirt flipping thing is hard, isn't it?"

.

 _I see,_ thought Suzaku as he realized how important everyone was. So...

"Um, Tenryū-san? If you think going to the Shiraishi family would be too difficult, I can go in your place."

"...Eh...?"

Shokubutsu looked his way and began clasping his hands in front of his stomach. He may have been hesitating because the speed and complexity of his finger movements grew.

But...

"...N-no... ...I-I'll go... ...Because..."

He continued moving his hands as he turned toward Kimura.

"...Are the Shiraishi...people...bad people...?"

It was Ikoma, not Kimura, that answered. He stood with his goggles up and seemed to be fixing them.

"If ya define 'bad' as a lack of cute girls, then they're really bad people."

"Ikoma-san, just so you know, the Shiraishi sisters have been top ranked in multiple magazines because of their looks."

"Then they're good people, Ambassador Tenryū."

_...It looks like he's willing to go now, but is that a good thing?_

Suzaku was mentally sweating, but Shokubutsu had stopped moving his hands and he faced Kimura once more.

"...Then...nothing will happen...if I go...right?"

"Nothing should. After all, the Shiraishi family is actually taking care of their kids so they can inherit what they want. Causing trouble between the two of us now would be the same as throwing away their future."

"...Are the...Shirashi people...good people...?"

"Yes. If you remain true to yourself, I think they will all be good people."

Suzaku said that with a smile and Shokubutsu smiled back while squeezing his clasped hands.

"...Okay... ...Then I'll try my best...to do that..."

_...Oh?_

.

Everyone sensed something in Shokubutsu's words there.

Shokubutsu was speaking in the active voice.

It was possible he intended to continue like that as long as this continued. He was so intent on remaining true to himself, that he was straying from his usual self.

_...Not good, not good._

Kunichika then tapped on Kon'a shoulder and Kon knew what that meant.

"Um, Tenryū-kun?"

Shokubutsu looked up at her as if asking what she wanted, so Kon and Kunichika replied in unison while giving the boy a thumbs up.

"Yay! Let's do our best."

Shokubutsu unclasped his hands and raised his own right thumb.

"...Yay..."

He blushed and his voice faded away, but Kimura spoke up to help.

"Um," she began. "I will handle the negotiations over transmission. I will have Suzaku prepare a direct connection with Shirashi, so I'll make sure Tenryū and Ikoma-san can converse with everyone else in both audio and video. It will be through the chat, but your situation will be little different from sitting with us in a classroom."

"I'll do my best," said Suzaku with his job in mind.

Kon smiled at his words.

She then turned toward Kunichika who was tapping her shoulder again. The girl held her hand to the side of her mouth and spoke quietly.

"Hey, Kon."

"What?"

"Aren't you glad you have something to do? You don't like being neglected, do you?"

"Um...do you have a point?"

She tried to speak forcefully to act as a warning, but Kunichika narrowed her eyes and whispered from behind her raised hand.

"Crybaby."

"Y-you're calling me that again!?"

When had she seen? When had she noticed? Kon did not know, but of the others around her, only Jinsei gave him a thumbs up.

She hummed and opened a window with a displeased look.

Suzaku finished off by saying, "Okay, I'll be sending out the necessary settings, so everyone bring out your devices!"


	50. Hoshi Taiyōko: Part 2

From the outside, Border always held such a magnificent view as one of the tallest and largest buildings in Mikado City. Being dead center of the city also provided some more majesty for anyone not use to seeing it.

The outside was surrounded by open areas and deserted buildings. Playgrounds were also seen here and there, not a soul around to use them for entertainment. It was due to the first invasion on the world by the otherworldly appearance of what has now been known as Neighbors.

The inside of the large buildings, while mostly being monochrome, had multiple hallways leading to different areas. Training areas, research departments, lounging areas, and many more had been made for the people who entered the building. The center of the building had a large open area as well.

A single girl walked through the halls of Border until reaching a large open area where many others were gathered. Even after working for the organization for a while now, she continued to get lost due to a lack of presence in the building.

"I believe I have been here before... Oh, no. I hope they do not get mad at me for being so late. Kotowari-kun and Awdry-kun had left class early for duty so I was unable to ask for direction or follow them."

The single girl was Taiyōko Hoshi, a new member of Kotowari Squad.

"And after Kotowari-kun and Fuji-nee went through the trouble of having me officially on their team within a single night... I should properly apologize when I see them."

Hoshi had asked the day before if she could join Kotowari Squad, expecting it to take some time for the transfer to be complete. It came as a shock when she had been told by Takeshi during the school day that she had been transferred only a few hours after they had spoken to each other.

Her response had been a kind one, yet she had been told that she did not need to join them for their defense duty during the day.

"A proper introduction should come first. You know us two well, but you should properly meet Suzume-senpai before trying to fight alongside us."

Hoshi gave a hum as she sat down on a nearby seat.

_He said that but..._

Their previous interaction had been brief but Hoshi thought she understood well enough how the older girl did things. The image she had of the dancer did not change, even after meeting her in person.

It may have been due to her naïveté that she did not change her thoughts.

"Ah. It is most likely because of how naïve I am that they did not want me to join them earlier. They were being kind in their decision."

It was a habit for the girl to look at the brighter side of things.

But...

"I cannot blame my current position on anything like that. I suppose I could say it is because I never thought to memorize the layout of Border, but that is only an excuse."

In a rare act for the girl, a sigh escaped her lips.

She turned her head to the left. Then she turned to the right.

"Oh my. I really am out of luck then."

She tried to look around for someone she knew, yet there was no one. Every person she saw was someone new that she had never met.

_This is really troubling. I am already causing issues before even joining them proper._

Crying would solve nothing, she knew that and so she never felt like doing such a thing.

With that being the case...

_I suppose I will have to listen then. It was really a bit foolish of me to assume that I could find anyone without any assistance. Looking around did not help, so I suppose I can try listening instead._

With Toby and Takeshi both not answering their phones, likely due to being out at the moment, this was the best she could do by herself.

Closing her eyes and righting her posture, Hoshi started listening to the people around her for any voices that seemed familiar to her. She saw no one she knew, but she might gave been able to hear them instead.

The end result was a success.

.

Yuki smiled towards Murakami as he playfully pushed the boy.

The school day had finished and they had been properly informed by Kimura and the directors what roles they would be playing in the upcoming meeting with the sponsors.

They had both been chosen to go to the company building belonging to the Kurosaki family in order to convince them to continue sponsoring Border. Due to the meeting earlier in the day they were aware of what to do.

With that in mind, they spent their free time how they wanted before they would have to enter a den of enemies.

"That was a nice match, Kō. Even if you lost. Buuuuuut~ You losing to Kuga was unexpected."

"Of course you needed to bring that up."

"Heh. You already knew. Nice."

"If you fought him, you would understand how that fight was the way it was."

"Hm~ I wouldn't be against that, but you already know how busy I am at the moment. Besides, just by watching, seeing how _you_ lost, it's clear he has skill."

"Please don't push yourself."

.

Hoshi was quick to open her eyes and look for the source of the two voices.

Her eyes locked on to the two boys who has been walking behind her. One was her blood related brother while the other was a surrogate for her.

_I found the best people I could ask for!_

Not letting the chance escape her, she got up and made her way towards them.

"Kiyo-nii! Kō-onii-san!"

The two easily heard her and made it a point to stop right away to wait for her. Smiles could be seen on their faces, even as they almost caused some bodies to crash into them by accident.

Once reaching them, Yuki got her in a hug while Murakami simply gave her head a pat.

_This is nice._

A fluffy feeling was welling up inside of her chest as she was adored by the two boys she saw as her older brothers.

"What did you need? You had told Sensei that you had something to do today and wouldn't be at the branch office."

"Ah! I am going to formally meet my new team today. We has spoken about a meet up, but I still need to find out where their room is located."

The responses were immediate

"Who are they? Do we know them? Are they nice? What rank are they? Did they force you into it?"

Hoshi was unsure what to do as the two boys continued firing off questions. With each question they moved forward until they were only inches away.

With no other choice, she answered each of their questions honestly and with no hesitation.

"You both know them. It is Kotowari-kun's team. They are indeed nice. I am not too sure about their rank. They did not force me into joining them. I had asked Kotowari-kun if I could join and he agreed to it."

The next response was just as immediate.

"Oh. Alright then."

It was truly amazing how fast the two of them went back to being as if nothing happened.

"Well then... I was just looking for directions and was hoping to get some from someone. I noticed the two of you walking by and called out to you. May I please ask for your assistance?"

"Hoshi, you already know you don't have to act like that with us. We'll always be happy to help you. Knowing that you are putting yourself out there and joining a team - Kotowari Squad no less - is something we are happy about."

"Kō, you're making it sound like we are a couple and she is our child. She isn't bad in any form of the word, but I'm not sure how Mei would feel if we were together."

"That is a lie. You know exactly how she would feel if that was the case."

"I was trying not to think about it..."

"You are the fool who brought it up."

Hoshi laughed as the two boys continued their banter. In her eyes it looked like a real friendship that would have been hard to break for anyone.

It was something she always saw but never knew of.

Her laughing gained the attention of Murakami and Yuki. They looked towards her with some surprise before going to smiles.

_Ah. They can still smile in my direction. That makes me happy._

"So Hoshi, you need directions to Kotowari Squad's room? If that's the case then we can take you there and give a greeting ourselves."

"A-ah. I do not want to cause too much trouble for the two of you. Simple directions will be sufficient enough. I am sure Kiyo-nii and Kō-onii-san are very busy. After all- Kyaaa!"

It was unexpected when Hoshi collided with someone while taking some steps back.

Both Yuki and Murakami had been looking directly at her, getting a bit of tunnel vision, and had been unable to see the person until the last moment.

The sound the other person made when hitting the floor was that of a regular person who could not go passed an obstacle. The sound Hoshi had made was a small one, as if she was lowering herself to the ground instead of falling towards it.

_If Kushi-nee were here, I would get in trouble for not noticing. If Mu-nii were here then that would not have happened. Since Kiyo-nii is here..._

"Hoshi!? Are you okay?"

"Hey, you need to be more- Oh. It's you."

Hoshi looked to her side as she was helped up by Murakami. The person who had crashed into her was trying to find his glasses while getting glared at by her older brother. It seemed as if Yuki wanted the person to know who was going to yell at them.

Noticing the glasses by her feet, she picked them up and held them out towards the person.

"Um... There are your glasses, correct? Seeing them from this angle, you must really need them."

"Oh. Thank you."

Hoshi smiled as the person put on their glasses.

"Now it's time for your scolding, Wakamura."

.

Wakamura was unsure how he missed the person near him as he was looking around the area.

From just two sentences he knew her voice was soothing and nice to listen to. From a glance he knew her appearance was hardly rivaled and completely natural. From her stance and position he knew that she had a caring personality that catered towards others rather than herself.

 _Someone like her is hard_ not _to notice._

Then he saw them.

From just two sentences he knew Yuki was mad.

From a glance hew knew the two of them were in their trion bodies.

From his stance and position he knew Murakami was ready to do something.

"Wakamura. Explain yourself before we hurt you."

It was an order he was sure he was not going to refuse.

"I was looking for Yōko and didn't see you three there. I'm sorry for bumbling into you... Uh..."

"A-ah! Taiyōko Hoshi! Nice to meet you. And... Um... Kiyo-nii, Kō-onii-san, I am fine, so please do not be harsh on him. It was an accident. _An accident_."

Her name fit her appearance.

That was Wakamura's first thought upon hearing her name.

_I was right about her personality. She's trying to help me out when she is the victim here. Ah~ That kind of thing is so refreshing._

"Fine. _But!_ "

Wakamura felt a shiver when he noticed the glares from the other two boys.

"Wakamura, this is your only warning. _Make sure this never happens again._ Got it?"

He could only nod his head.

"And you've got a blush going on. Stop looking at Hoshi."

"Kiyo-nii~! Please stop harassing him! And, um..."

"Wakamura Rokurō. Sorry for not introducing myself."

"No, no! That is quite alright. Um... But Wakamura-san, you really do seem agitated. Is everything alright?"

"You don't need to be so formal. I can't be too much older than you. Plus, I did just run into you..."

"You are two or so years older than her. Besides that, it's beast to stay out of Katori Squad's affairs, Hoshi. No offense."

"None taken."

Wakamura was fully aware of how others viewed Katori Squad and their antics. What Yuki had said held no malice and was out of genuine concern for the girl. There was no blaming him for that.

It seemed as if his thoughts got through as Hoshi moved aside Yuki with a small huff, trying to get back into a conversation with him.

"If something is bothering you, I would like to help, Wakamura-san. Ah. But you said not to be so formal... So I may call you Wakamura-kun."

"Someone people just call me 'Rokkun'. But I guess that doesn't concern what you want to know. I was just looking for my team's captain. It's nothing you need to concern yourself over."

"What about Miura? Is he not helping you?" Murakami asked from the side.

"He's waiting near our room in case he spots her. I'm going around to find her, causing some trouble apparently."

"What the hell did you do to get in trouble with these two of all people? Must have been something pretty messed up, four-eyes."

.

A new set of footsteps had appeared close to the four having a conversation with only Yuki and Murakami seeming to notice it being there.

Once a voice came from the direction of the footsteps did Hoshi and Wakamura looked to see who it was. The person in question worse the same themed outfit as Wakamura while her physical characteristics were that of a female.

"I told you guys I would be a bit late. Why the hell did you go looking for me?"

The girl had a bored look on her face as she held her phone.

"You didn't tell us anything!"

"I think I meant to."

"Knowing you... Whatever. Let's get going. We still need to practice for the next round."

"Why? You guys just need to keep making sure to act me up and we'll be fine."

Wakamura's anger towards the comment was obvious by his expression.

Yuki and Murakami were well aware that they should stay out of the fight while keeping their distance. They had witnessed this kind of thing before and knee that it had nothing to do with them, smothered was no reason to get involved.

As for Hoshi...

"Even if that is how your team works, would it not be better to have more practice with them? That way you can all find new ways of helping each other. Ah! Yes. That sound like something a team should do. I should remember that myself..."

She was ignorant to what was happening.

Katori looked away from her phone to see who had been talking. She looked Hoshi up and down before giving a huff.

"You are really playing up the princess act, aren't you?"

"Huh?"

"Look, as long as they don't get in my way, I'm fine. Besides, I've already gotten down what I need to do, so there's no real reason for me to be a part of that. Those two can keep on practicing to help me out and all that since they can't finish the job themselves. You two get it, don't you?"

At seeing katori turn in their direction, Yuki and Murakami put up their arms in an "X" while shaking their head. They clearly did not want to be involved with the conversation.

On the other hand, Hoshi was far from done with the conversation.

"That is not how it goes! Wakamura-kun and this other person are working hard to assist you out. Since that seems to be the case, you should also be working hard to assist them. That is only fair since I do not think you would be able to win without their assistance. No offense of course. But, as humans, we need assistance from others and in turn assist them in return."

"Oh? And what if we hit our limits? There is no more ways to help someone out if all limits are reached. It's just a dead end that will waste time for everyone involved."

"That is not right either! When you hit the limit then you need to push passed it so that you can get even better! Besides, the capacity of a human is boundless and can go far beyond what anyone can think of! To think that stopping is a good idea is the height of...of..."

"See? You don't even believe what you're saying. You can-"

"It is the height of stupidity and arrogance! People like that are nothing but fools who are afraid of what can be found beyond their limits!"

If the temperature in the area did not chance but no one around would think that as the glare Katori gave felt as if the temperature went down a bit.

Seeing that, Yuki shifted his feet while Murakami moved his arms forward a bit.

Hoshi stood her ground against eh glare that was being directed towards her.

"So you are saying I'm an idiot then?"

"Not at all!"

"Wha-"

"I am simply saying that your way of thinking is idiotic and arrogant. I do not know you well enough to determine if you are an idiot or not."

"..."

Katori was at a loss for words.

Against this girl it seemed as if regular logic would not work while malice flew over her head as if it was just passing by. None of Katori's glare seemed to have even registered for the girl as she only looked back with determination in her eyes.

Seeing that this was an unwinable battle, Katori let out a rough sigh before turning around and start to walk away.

"There's no dealing with you, is there you dumb little girl. Whatever. I don't have time for this crap."

"A-ah! Mah I please ask your name first?"

"You are being polite after all that? Weirdo. Fine. My name is Katori Yōko. I'm that guy's captain."

With that, the girl left again before she could be dragged away by her teammate.

.

Hoshi only watched as Katori walked away from them.

After meeting Wakamura, she had not expected for his captain to be the opposite of him. She had been unprepared to handle a person like that.

"I really dislike people like her! I will still try to get along with her, but it will not be easy. Still... People like her deserve a slap on the wrist and...a kick to the chin!"

"I agree. I should go drag her back, so I need to be leaving. But Taiyōko, I'm in your side when it comes to showing her how wrong she is. I really look forward to seeing how you do this."

"A-ah! Yes! I will try my best!"

She lowered her head a bit when he gave a small laugh in response. It was clear he was not being rude by laughing and instead just reaffirming that he was on her side.

With her now joining a team involved with the B-Rank Wars there was a possibility they would be opponents yet here he was, saying that he was on her side. It was likely that he would not be going easy on her if they were to fight. She knew that. Even so, it was something to look forward to.

Hoshi smiled in his direction as he started for the direction his captain had gone.

_Wakamura-kun is a good guy. That makes me happy to know._

Remembering that there were still two other people with her, she turned around to see Yuki and Murakami talking in hushed voices. It was hard to make out what they were saying and trying to read lips was not an option when Yuki always made it a point to make it an impossible feet when he spoke.

The two boys seemed to have notice her looking towards them since they stopped talking and smiled towards her.

She placed a hand on her chest when a small ache started to form.

_It is not the same as before. They will not leave me. I need to just believe that they will not leave me._

"Is something wrong?"

"No. Nothing is wrong. I apologize for worrying you."

She could only smile and hope.

"I see... Well Kō and I need to get going. Sorry we can't walk with you to Kotowari Squad's room. I'll send you the directions though, so don't worry about that."

"Thank you, Kiyo-nii. I very much appreciate it."

"No need for that. Of course I would do this for my little sister."

_Then why did you leave?_

She tried to push the bitter thoughts out.

When her phone vibrated in her pocket she knew she had gotten the directions. While this meant that Yuki and Murakami would not be walking with her, it was still more than enough that they had helped her out.

The love she had for her family was overflowing, but at the same time she understood that she should not expect much from them. They would tend to leave others and always had something else to do.

They love her and she loves them. She would always be there for them as their younger sister and they would always keep to themselves, helping only when they felt like it.

It was just like their parents.

_Reality is painful._

She would not cry, she would not complain out loud, and she would never let these forbidden bitter thoughts be known.

People viewed her as the perfect princess in the family of soldiers, no blemishes to be seen both on the outside as well as the inside. Keeping that image up for the sake of others was all she could do on a basic level where her siblings could not reach.

.

Murakami could see conflicting feels each time he was with Hoshi.

At first it was clear what those feels were and how they came about. As time went on it became even make clear that he had only seen the surface conflict the girl had as he became more aware of how her family acted towards certain topics. At some point he learned just how much trouble tha Taiyōko family truly was.

The oldest sister was a monster, the oldest brother rejected his own existence, the younger brother was detached from everything around him, and the younger sister did not know what to do about any of it. It was the complete opposite of a fun actual family.

Besides the four siblings, he had met the parents of them a few times. Each time they had spoken to each other it seemed more and more like that were cautious around him. As if there was something they did not want to get out or that he would do something to destroy them. It was made worse when he saw that he was the only who got that treatment from them.

There was nothing he could do to help them.

Even now there was very little he could manage when compared to the four siblings. The monster was beyond his level, his friend would continue to reject himself, their brother would stay detached from him no matter what he said, and this girl...

"Ah! Kō-onii-san, may I ask for your assistance later on?"

He could only do the bare minimum for her.

"Of course. What do you need?"

"Eeeeeehhh!? What about me? What about Kiyo-nii!?"

"My apologizes, but Kō-onii-san is more reliable on the matter than you are."

It was hard not to be smug when Yuki gets hit some shocking truth.

"I need your assistance in testing something out. I will send you all of the details when I can, but I basically need you to assist in testing out Minoru-senpai's trion body. It is unlike a regular one and you would be best for this."

"Oh, so this is also helping out Minoru. Then I really can't reject this request. That is fine. Just send me everything like you said and I will be there."

"Thank you, Kō-onii!"

Murakami could only be surprised when Hoshi wrapped her arms around him, smiling all the while. The look of shock from Yuki was enough to make Murakami feel smug once more.

_I win this time._

* * *

As she neared the room, Hoshi could hear something.

"Let us pass, let us pass. Where does this narrow path lead us? This is a narrow pathway to our hopes and dreams."

A beautiful voice was heard as music accompanied the words.

"Please allow us to pass."

"You have no reason to pass. You will not pass."

"To celebrate our everything. We offer our everything to those lost."

Small rhythmic steps started to be heard as she drew closer to the room. They moved in synch with the music and words, as if they were part of the song itself and not a dance accompanying it.

_This song is familiar..._

An older woman's voice came to mind.

A younger girl's voice continued to sing.

"Going in may be nice, but returning would be scary. It is scary, but let me pass, let me pass. This is the narrow pathway to our hopes and dreams."

_This is a song of passage._

No one should have known that she was listening from beyond the door, yet it felt like this song of passage was being sung directly towards her. It felt as if she was being invited to pass through.

The words were different, but she understood where this song came from.

"Let us pass, let us pass. Where does this narrow path lead us? This is a narrow pathway to our hopes and dreams."

The chorus began again as the song continued in a beat-for-beat fashion that was not unlike a pop concert. The main difference was that it also felt old fashioned as meant for anyone who was hearing it.

"Please allow us to pass."

"You have no reason to pass. You will not pass."

"To celebrate our everything. We offer our everything to those with us."

It was ending.

"Going there is fine, but returning is frightening. I am scared, but let me pass. Let me pass..."

Hoshi knew what she had been reminded of the moment the song ended.

She had heard it while crossing the streets and when she had been younger. It was a song that most children heard and learned. The lyrics were different, but there was no mistaking it.

_Tooryanse._

This song was the same, yet so very different. Words were changed and the tempo was far different from what it normally was when player in Mikado City.

This was a song of passage.

For such a song to have such a meaning...

_She is talking about more than just herself. This song was not just for the people inside of that room. Everyone who can hear that song... It is for them to find their own way._

How had she known?

Hoshi was surprised that she could come to such a conclusion. She could not give proper answers to Minoru during the recent B-Rank War match, yet she managed to find an answer for a song she was not meant to hear, yet would have no issues saying she heard.

Then a new thought came.

_Should I find my own passage? Have I been stuck at a "gate" the whole time. Kiyoshi-nii, Kushikage-nee and Mukuro-nii... They may have found their own passage and were unable to take me._

Then what had become of Murakami Kō?

_I-_

"Hoshi, you can come in whenever you feel like. There is no need to be shy. You already know three of the four people in here."

.

Mei smiled as the door slowly opened.

A girl's head appeared from behind the door, a sheepish expression evident on her face.

"A-ah... Pardon my intrusion."

Once the girl was in full view, Mei quickly took note of the pin holding her hair back and smiled.

"Welcome. Takeshi has told us about your conversation with him. You are officially in Kotowari Squad and can participate in out next B-Rank War match."

"Th-thank you very much for this opportunity! I appreciate it!"

Mei was going to answer back but was stopped as Toby raised his voice from the sofa against the wall.

"No problem! Hoshi, we're friends and know how much of a hard worker you are! No way would we not want someone like you here!"

"Thank you, Awdry-kun."

"And..."

Mei smiled when Toby looked away with a small blush.

"Again, I'm sorry for the misunderstanding from before."

"N-no, no! That was also my fault for using the incorrect phrasing!"

There was no malice due to the incident and the two seemed to be fine taking the blame as a two-sided thing between them.

It was still rather funny to think about.

"Heh heh heh~ That did provide some nice material though. I am honestly happy with the outcome. The storyboard is coming along nicely and Ken-kun has been such a help with it as well."

"I am glad to be of assistance...?"

"That is not something to be happy about."

"Kō has been avoiding me and Tatsuhito is trying to pet me more because of you! Takuma is also keeping away from No because of that too!"

"That is honestly your fault for being so pure. I am sure Kōchō-chan will love seeing the end result. She has been asking for things on you, so you should probably talk to her at some point."

"So that's why she has been keeping that fake smile on..."

Mei only watched as the conversation went on between two of the best defensive Side Effect users. The minor issues Toby would be having could be solved by talking to Suzume, someone who understood such minor issues.

Next to them, Takeshi had taken to explaining how their team worked to Hoshi. The girl listened intently to what was being said, missing of some the small jokes that Takeshi tried to give.

_How nostalgic..._

The fluffy feeling in her chest was not something she was too accustomed to feeling. It was light and loose, yet firm and solid, as if it would not leave but held no burdens in it.

Being with the former Tsukiko Squad - with Yuki - the feeling was relatively the same, yet it felt overbearing. Everyone would enjoy themselves as much as possible, but it always felt like there was a pressure on them that made it feel as if it was fake happiness. As if nothing that was going on was real.

_I suppose that should have been obvious given who was always involved. Yuki was still faking his life. Takeshi still could not see "colors". Toby was more of a pet than anything else. Suzume was not as free to move as she liked. As for me..._

She was suffocating herself.

Her thoughts had to always been in check, making sure Rampage Dress was never seen. Each calculation felt as if it would lead to complete destruction. It was hard for her to be free when her own mind and body were restraining her.

But now...

"Fuji-nee?"

She can confirm that families are not always the same.

"I am fine. Thank you for coming, Hoshi."

.

It was strange to see Mei as she was now.

Hoshi vaguely knew about what happened with Mei and her change of name, but only the bare minimum. Only what Murakami had told her.

_She seems so much happier now. That is good._

She seemed much more free.

"I thank you again for assisting me. I will try not to let any of you down."

"Oh! How cute! Hoshi-chan, you really are adorable! Take and the dog-boy had told me about you, but their words honestly don't do you justice! You are way too cute and kind to be hanging out with them!"

"U-um... That i-is not true... Um..."

Once she was able to see again, Hoshi looked towards the girl who was backing away with an impish smile.

"Heh heh heh. Misaki Suzumebachi. Suzume or Suzu is fine though. Our team does not do formalities with each other, so honestly feel free to speak your mind however you like. Like I had said, I know a bit about you, Taiyōko Hoshi-chan."

"I-I see. Well, um, Misaki-senpai, could you please...not say such things? Kotowari-kun and Awdry-kun are amazing people, so please do not say I am better than them. I would...very much appreciate that."

The next smile the girl gave was much more soft, as if she was looking at a sibling who had just stood up for themselves. It was nice to see that smile, but it also hurt once she realized her own siblings would show no such smile towards her.

From the former of her eyes she could also see Toby and Takeshi looking towards them in surprise.

"You are a good girl, Hoshi-chan. I am honestly happy that you will be joining our team. Even so..."

The girl with a kind smile motioned for her to come closer.

She did just that as the girl lowered her voice while leaning forward.

"You need to understand that I am simply joking around when I say that. I know just how great those boys honestly are. They are like my very own little brothers, I I just have a tendency to tease them. If you want, I will try to keep that teasing down a bit."

Hoshi remembered the song she had just heard before entering the room.

It had been a song sung with emotion and the words were meant to speak of multiple people instead of one like how the original songs went.

Mei seemed to have been sitting down already so it was made clear who exactly had sung that song of passage. This girl had done so, speaking about her and the people she cared about. With what she had just said it was clear that both Takeshi and Toby were in that group of people.

She wanted them to pass through with her.

"What did you tell her, Senpai?"

"Nothing important~"

"Listen Hoshi, whatever she told you, just ignore it. She has a tendency to let things out that she really shouldn't. If you aren't careful, she will put you in a doujinshi! She's been doing that to me ever since I met her! She does give compensation... But that's not the point!"

The girl turned away from the yelling boy, fully intending to ignore him, and face Hoshi once more. Her kind smile came back as she spread her arms out wide as if to embrace her.

"I hope you honestly feel welcomed here."

The girl - Suzume-senpai - was speaking honestly. There was no teasing in her voice and she truly did want Hoshi to feel welcomed.

There was only one way she could respond to such honesty.

"May I... If I can really become a part of this team and have you all really accept me... May I pass through with you all?"

"Heh heh heh. Silly, pure girl. We have accepted you the moment you asked to join us."

That could only mean...

"Of course you may pass through."


	51. Suzumebachi Misaki: Part 4

Mikado City was a relatively average sized place with the only thing that truly stood out being the large building in the middle of the city. That building belong to the Neighbor-fighting organization known as Border.

Outside of that building was an area called the Forbidden Zone. It contained empty buildings and open areas.

Even further outside was the rest of the city. It was where the inhabitants of the city dwelled and went about their day-to-day business. Other organizations and businesses continued their work and schools continued to let people learn.

Even in the more rural areas there was something nearby.

One of those "somethings" was a flower shop that showed its wares outside with many plants growing.

The inside was the same with shelves and tables out that held pots and vases. Other tables were put out for people to sit at and admire the surrounding and the aroma. The colors that spread out throughout the shop made it seem as if a person was traveling through a full garden instead of a simple shop.

Besides the sight and smells coming from the shop, a sound could also be heard. It was rhythmic sound of a song being performed by tapping a wooden counter and humming from the throat by a woman.

"Mikumo-kun. No, I should probably call you Osamu-kun given how friendly our mothers are with each other."

The noise came from Suzume as she leaned her upper body on the wooden counter of the Misaki owned flower shop. Her finger continued to tap on the counter while her voice came out as sentences to go with the tapping.

Across the wooden counter stood a glasses-wearing boy with an apron tied around his neck and waist. The insignia of the flower shop was stitched into the apron on the bottom right.

"What is it, Misaki-senpai?"

"Boo~ I told you already to just call me 'Suzume' or 'Suzu'. Heh heh heh~ I will even allow you to call me some form of 'sister' even though you honestly aren't a Sniper."

"..."

"I'll let that sink in."

She gave another laugh as the boy gave an expressionless reaction.

"I guess that's what I get for letting you be around Kirin for so long. What a shame. I was honestly hoping you would have a taste at what it was like to be my younger brother."

"You enjoy having siblings, don't you, Senpai? Chika and Kotowari have told me how you treat them like younger siblings."

"That's right. Although I try not to lay it on hard for those two since I know that they have special circumstances concerning older siblings. I will continue to tease them, but I never look to honestly replace their siblings."

"Thank you. I appreciate you saying that."

She waved her hand dismissively.

It all came too naturally to her.

"If anyone should be showing their appreciation then it should honestly be me."

She changed how she tapped on the wooden counter, changing the tune of the sound and of how she spoke.

Mikumo was not well versed in music, but even he could tell that she intentionally did that to fit how he heard her words. It was clear that she was keeping him in mind when they were talking.

That was also appreciated.

"You have been helping our shop ever since our mothers honestly became friends. We are the ones who got her the flowers when you were on the hospital. I picked them out myself."

"They were nice. Thank you for them."

"That would be the second time you have honestly thanked me. One more time and I win."

"What... What happens when you win?"

Suzume smiled while adding a second finger to the tapping. The sound could be heard throughout the shop and it only continued to get better in his ears.

"Why, you officially become my little brother of course."

"You really want that to happen, don't you, Misaki-senpai?"

"Heh heh heh. I am honestly joking. There is only one real younger Misaki sibling in this family. Until my mom decides to have another one. But for now it is just her, me, and Mitsu. Everyone else is just some entertainment for me."

.

Mikumo tilted his head as he moved over to switch out some plants who started to outgrow their pots. The roots were starting to get out of the pot and were seen from just a glance. Multiple stacked pots larger than the one it had been in were stacked up by the nearby wall.

Without noticing what he was doing, Mikumo placed the plant in a new pot while swaying a bit.

It wasn't until he heard Suzume laugh again that he realized what he was doing.

"Osamu-kun, do you happen to know which Japanese deity I honestly like the most?"

"Hm? I didn't know your family was religious, Misaki-senpai. Do you visit the shrine a ways away?"

"No, no. That honestly isn't what I meant at all. I was simply talking about the mythology of some deities. In all honesty, our culture sure has a weird way of looking at things. There is a god or spirits in everything around us, according Shinto beliefs."

"I see. Then I don't know. About which deity you like that is."

"Would you like to take a guess? If you can get it in three guesses then I will honestly give you a present."

Mikumo thought for a moment as the tapping changed to a slow and steady one. It was perfect for thinking while bringing out some sort of stimulation to the mind. It created a sound that forced a different thought process to come out as the list of Japanese deities went through his head.

The girl asking the question loved putting on shows, enjoyed music, was in a team that liked showing off, was rather loud most of the time, and seemed unstoppable once they got into what they were doing.

Even now, as she wore makeup that was obvious but not overpowering, it was clear which one she would find entertaining.

The best goddess for entertainment of Shinto mythology.

"Ame-no-Uzume."

"Bingo! You are correct!"

Suzume smiled towards him while he looked back towards the counter.

"I was able to see your last match and noticed that you seemed like you were dancing. It makes sense. But..."

But...

"Isn't dancing during a battle a bad thing?"

"You know the story, don't you? About Amaterasu."

Most people from Japan did.

It was a well known story of how the sun kami of Shinto mythology shut herself in and was brought out by the kami of entertainment using a mirror, a magatama, and...

"Festivities."

"A dance to be exact. Ame-no-Uzume stripped naked and honestly started to dance near the cave Amaterasu was hiding in. The other deities found it so entertaining that they created enough noise to draw out the sun kami. That story is the reason Ame-no-Uzume is still considered a deity today and the dance performed was the basis for present day kagura dances. Now, Osamu-kun, in what way would you say that Ame-no-Uzume is strong?"

Was there any strength in that story?

The story of Amaterasu had Ame-no-Uzume performing a dance to draw out the shut in kami. There had been no show of power or divine force that brought out Amaterasu.

"I will honestly go easy on you here."

The tapping started to grow in speed again.

"In a way, can't it be said that Ame-no-Uzume was stronger than even the sun kami Amaterasu because she managed to bring out the sun through dance and frivolous behavior alone? While I am honestly not saying that I am that strong, my Side Effect can bring about a similar situation when I feel like it. Or when I like whoever I am fighting."

"Your Side Effect?"

He had seen that Side Effect during the first time they had met. It was something that let her manage to beat Kuga after a small amount of time.

_From what I've heard from others, it is also what she used during her team's last match too. How strong is her Side Effect that she would bring up a deity?_

"Your Rhythm is beautiful."

Mikumo blinked a few times while he let the words sink in.

She had used that word before, but he was never sure what she meant when she had said it.

People usually referred to a rhythm when talking about music and dance. Yet this strange girl used that word for people. She would say it after spending some time with them or watching them during matches.

It was hard for him to understand as someone who already knew little about the arts and anything stemming from them.

"Shall I explain?"

"If it wouldn't be too much trouble."

She laugh once more.

She was an entertainer for sure.

.

Suzume enjoyed the attention she was getting from the boy as he continued to help out at her family's shop.

_He is a good boy._

"My Side Effect allows me to find out how anything moves, acts, or just what they are like simply by seeing them and observing them for a bit. It then converts that information into what can basically be described as 'song and dance' for me. With that being said, I know so much about you now because I have honestly been looking at your Rhythm."

"Amazing..."

"In a way, it makes it so that I can prevent thugs from touching me. The only ones who can honestly touch me are those I wish to wither away for."

Unlike others like Konami, Mei, the directors, and some others, Mikumo had a plain and simple Rhythm that was much quieter than most. It was a small "song and dance" that could be drowned out by everyone else's that was around him. Compared to her own, it was a single loose string being pulled as opposed to a melodious harp being played.

Yet she found that wonderful.

_I am so use to amazing Rhythms or changing ones like Yuki-san that the simple things become the most fascinating thing to me. While we all play our own symphonies, it is honestly best to remember where all of that originates._

That was how Mikumo's Rhythm was. Even as he learned new things and continued to grow, that origin was always there. That simple nature that prevented him from truly standing out never grew dim just as it never flared up.

It was beautiful in the simplest of ways.

"I suppose I should thank you for saying that then. For someone who enjoys music as much as you do, it's nice to know that you like my 'Rhythm'."

"Heh heh heh. That's the third one. I win this game."

It was hard to stop enjoying the moment.

"Now then. There are two things I need to give you. The first is the reward for getting the correct answer. The second is an answer to your question."

As she listened the two things off her fingers stopped tapping on the wooden counter.

The effect the tapping had was small, yet it was also noticeable in a way. Mikumo stopped moving in a smooth motion and the sound of working behind her also changed.

"I will honestly be answering your question first. To do that I need to ask you a question. Why do you think it is bad to dance during a fight?"

"I guess... Because it leaves you as a target and can distract from the fight."

"But can't you say that distracting from the fight is also a tactic?"

Suzume lightly pointed at the boy with narrowed eyes and a smile.

Before either one could respond, a voice from behind came up.

"Not in the way you were doing it in your match. It was clear that you were guiding the fight to how you wanted."

"Oh, are you done back there, Miwa?"

.

Suzume and Mikumo looked passed the strange girl to find Border's #7 A-Rank squad captain standing there with an apron on that seemed to be an identical replica of the one Mikumo was wearing.

Miwa pointed behind him with his thumb while looking only at Suzume.

"I organized everything the way your mom wanted. I didn't touch some of the imported things since it seemed like she wanted them in specific places."

"Oh, that's fine. Thanks for honestly helping. You can take a break before finishing up for the day."

"There is only a few more things to get done. I'll just finish up for the day right now."

"You came here right after school, didn't you? Just take a small break with us for the moment. It's relatively slow today, so there isn't much of a rush."

"I would still rather not..."

"Hey, I'm honestly keeping my end of the deal here. I haven't put you or Osamu-kun in a doujinshi where you are wearing an apron. Do you realize how great a naked apron scene can be? I am honestly holding back for you two."

The two boys turned to each other before fixing their aprons awkwardly.

They had initially started helping the family owned flower shop as a way to stay out of one of Suzume's doujinshi. As time went on it became more of a hobby to help the family owned flower shop than an agreement.

For her part, Suzume kept to her word and held back from putting either one of the boys in her erotic doujinshi.

"By the way, just to reconfirm, I can honestly use the two of you in general ones, right? You have no complaints if you are used for more average doujinshi."

 **Yoshi:** "You don't slow down, do you?"

 **Simple Boy:** "Can that not be seen as a virtue as well as a worry?"

 **Kikucchi:** "I'm not sure that's a good thing, Simple Boy. Misaki has good qualities, but does that one really count as one?"

 **Decoy:** "Are you trying to compliment her or insult her?"

 **Honest Sister:** "Why are the boys honestly answering?"

 **Yoshi:** "Because you are honestly sending that call through the general 16yr old chat instead of your all-girls one."

Suzume made a mental note to put Hanzaki in an extremely erotic doujinshi for making fun of her while fixing her phone so that the call would only be heard by the females.

She looked over to see the response to her question from the two boys.

Mikumo gave a hesitant nod as Miwa looked away.

The two of them have read some of her harmless doujinshi and found nothing too wrong with being put in them. They were able to save face as well as be compensated for having their likeness used in those stories.

"Heh heh heh. It would be rude of me to not thank you two for helping our shop. I am honestly surprised by how well you two are working when you are both here though. You two even have some similar days and go about them with no issue."

"Misaki-senpai, I don't think me being in Tamakoma would be a reason not to work well with Miwa-senpai. Or at least work in the same shop as him."

"..."

Suzume and Mikumo turned to the older boy to see him giving the wall a nice good stare.

They continued to look towards him, waiting for some kind of response.

It took a few more seconds before he gave in, answering in the most monotone voice as possible.

"Mikumo is just another worker here."

"Heh heh heh. You two are extremely lucky I am a splendid woman who keeps her word, otherwise..."

She gave another laugh, this time covering her mouth to give a more sinister feel to it.

Sensing that something would happen should the conversation continue on, Mikumo took the initiative by asking a question.

"Miwa-senpai, what did you mean when we were talking about Misaki-senpai's dancing?"

The two upperclassmen gave a hum.

.

Miwa knew that he was not the best person to answer such a question when he knew so little about the strange girl.

_The most I know about her are what everyone else does and what Narasaka and Shōhei tell us about her. What I said before was just what I thought as a fighter._

"Heh heh heh. No need to feel any pressure, Miwa. We honestly don't know each other too well, so just say what you know with confidence. If I couldn't take criticism well then I would not be doing such a thing during a fight in the first place."

Her words were meant as a way to let him know that he could say whatever he wanted as a fighter and not someone who knew her as a person.

At the same time she was saying that she would not ignore his words just because he did not know about her. It was much like how his sister use to encourage him.

There was a small pang in his heart at the thought.

He pushed that feeling aside to continue speaking.

"Just to confirm what I had said before... Misaki, in your last match, your 'dance' felt like you were guiding your opponents how you wanted instead of just being a distraction."

"Right. That is what you had said."

He gave a nod in understanding.

"The way Misaki was moving made it seem much more like she was directing the fight to a position where her teammates could gain the advantage. But that was only against Tsukiko and Asano. Against the two Shor Squad members she was moving as if she wanted to win. The end result was...-"

"Taking the two of them out in some way..."

Miwa chose to forgive the interruption since it seemed like the younger boy was talking to himself more than him or Suzume.

He had seen it before, but this reconfirmed that Mikumo was quick to grasp things when given a bit of time.

"You call that a 'dance'. I guess I'll refer to it like that too since you did manage yourself during that fight. I won't like it though..."

"I honestly never asked you to like it. But I am thankful for that. I'll give you an extra two minutes for your break."

Her was starting to understand a bit on how the strange girl worked.

"I heard how you explained your Side Effect to Mikumo, so I'm fine with saying this now. You found their Rhythms and used it to incorporate them in your 'dance'. That isn't acting as a distraction. You are fully taking command of the fight and using your opponents' movement against them. You also didn't seem like you were really going all out against the two Shor Squad members, so I'm guessing you wanted them to keep fighting."

He waited for a response.

It was clear what words Suzume wanted him to use, but he would not give her the luxury of hearing him say them. Those words were for entertainers and fanatics, not someone who only thinks of taking out Neighbors.

"I was honestly giving them a chance to be on stage with me. Besides that, I wasn't meant to be the main act in that fight. Toby and Takeshi were suppose to do the real fighting, so you can't honesty blame me for messing around a bit."

"That was you messing around? I guess that makes sense given how you fought against Kuga last time..."

Mikumo was talking about the Neighbor.

Hearing about the Tamakoma Neighbor who had a Black Trigger made him tense up. Miwa restrained himself from commenting since he was still currently working in the family owned flower shop and Suzume was there to hear his words.

He continued to listen to the glasses boy while trying to keep the mindset of an upperclassman and not that of a Border agent.

"To use Misaki-senpai's style of speech... Can I assume that, in the last match, it was more of a 'rehearsal' than the actual performance? Since Miwa-senpai had said you weren't going all out, it makes me think that you were just practicing on the two Shor Squad girls."

"What a good boy. While I can't give you more time for a break than what Miwa got, I can honestly let you take a flower from this shop. Whichever one you like."

"Oh, um, thank you."

"Now then, about what you said. ...Miwa, can you give your take on that? Did it seem as if I was just practicing for what is to come later on?"

The two of them turned towards him once more for an answer.

It would have been easy for the strange girl to give an answer herself since the topic was about her, but she was shifting the attention to him for some reason.

There was no backing down when the only other two were a strange girl and glasses boy from Tamakoma.

"From what I remember... You lot-... No. I guess that would get me in trouble."

He rethought his words when he noticed the new look he was getting from the two underclassmen.

"Your team was only in the top tier of B-Ranks because of your captain. He left you and you immediately went down in rankings."

"We were honestly going through something. But I can't deny everything we did wrong, so I'll honestly forgive you for that brutal reminder."

"This seemed to be your comeback match though. You guys showed off that you can fight without him, so that might be why you didn't go all out. You say that it was because the fighting was suppose to go to your teammates, but you have too much confidence in yourself for that to be all."

"So Misaki-senpai knew that they would win. She was expecting her team would be moving up which would mean they would be fighting the top tier B-Rank teams again and she didn't want to show off what she can do."

"Heh heh heh! You two boys are quick to understand. At least on a basic level."

The strange girl smiled while tapping her fingers on the table once more. It seemed that she even stopped the recording she was doing since the start of their conversation.

Now they were talking to keep a secret instead of letting the information be known.

.

"Yes. I had no doubts that we would win. You can honestly call me conceited for thinking like that, but it was because I know us so well that I knew we would not be losing. It could have gone better, but I have no complaints about our performance. Toby and Takeshi were having fun and managed to get their points. It would be rude if I had taken that away from them just because I wanted to enjoy myself."

"Being an entertainer means you are trying to make the viewers happy, right?"

"Good job, Osamu-kun. That's right. Oh, but don't think that I am not honestly happy when I do that either. I make it enjoyable for everyone watching."

Suzume added a second finger to her tapping, watching as the two boys started swaying a bit to the tapping.

It was easy to move people's minds and bodies with simplistic things when they were understood.

There was only innocence, purity and enjoyment in the way she moved people, never wanting malice or resent want to enter her dances. Entertainment was a form of enjoyment that was meant to make both participants and audience happy instead of being a one-sided thing.

"A performer should not be doing the exact same thing each time they are on stage. If I were to honestly dance like that again in later fights then I would be no better than a rewatched episode of some anime. Nothing new or exciting. That is why I honestly decided on that dance being my Turning Point. A basis for everything that is yet to come. It was only the lights and music, so to speak. I'm sure you will honestly come across a point like that as well. Miwa seems to have already gone by that as well."

She glanced between the two boys while changing the rhythm of her tapping. She watched how they both gave different reactions with Mikumo lightly tapping his foot and Miwa tapping his leg with his finger.

There was no helping the laugh that came out when she noticed that. They were not that different in certain ways which made finding a suitable rhythm for them easy.

_I should honestly get their help while I have the chance._

Making it discreet, she started her recording. It was not connected to the chat, so there was no reason to really hide it from the two of them.

"Miwa, Osamu-kun, can I ask the two of you for some help? Since I have honestly mentioned Turning Point, I thought I could add to it using actual music and lyrics."

.

The entertainer was asking help from two simple boys. It was strange when they knew little about music.

Even so...

"I have no problem with that. But, uh, Misaki-senpai, didn't you say that you shouldn't do the same thing as an entertainer?"

"Silly boy, we were talking about fighting. No one doesn't listen to a song more than once. Everyone has something they enjoy that they will always come back to. It can be a song, dance, an anime episode or a manga chapter. This is no different. Besides, it is only adding to Turning Point and is therefore something new and something old put into one."

"I...guess I get it."

The entertainer laughed with a good nature.

She then turned to the A-Rank captain to wait for his answer.

"I refuse. I am only here to help out this shop, not be a part of whatever you are going to do.

"Of course. I would not want the great Miwa Shūji, captain of Border's #7 A-Rank squad and great Neighbor killer, to lose face. I only needed you two to sing with me. Since it seems like you don't want to help... Osamu-kun, you will be the only one compensated for doing this. I will even give you what I was going to give Miwa."

"No, no! That's fine! Just helping you is fine. Besides, I have heard from Karasuma-senpai that your songs are always great, so just hearing one here is going to be nice. Actually, hearing it before it comes out is already a special treat, isn't it?"

The entertainer was quick to grab the boy to hug him over the counter.

He managed to keep his glasses on as his head became trapped in her arms.

"M-Misaki-senpai!?"

"You are such a good boy, Osamu-kun! Right! You honestly don't need to worry about how you sound or keeping pace. I will take care of those things. Is that alright? Miwa, even though you won't be joining us in this song, would you mind keeping track of the recording at least? When I give you the signal, I want you to honestly press this here."

The two boys nodded their heads as the tapping stopped. Their movements followed along and stopped.

Taking the place of the tapping, music filled the family owned flower shop.

It started as a single instrument being played, making Mikumo unsure of how to start.

Seeing his expression, Suzume smiled while typing something on her tablet. She showed him the words and what he would be singing.

Once he looked down at it, her voice came out as both simple sentences as well as a rhythm being heard under it.

"Appear, O Scorching Shrine. Gods who witnessed the sun rise once more in Izumo, let this freely be proof of purification. Let our wishes become a sacred treasure some day."

She patiently waited for Mikumo to say what also needed to be said.

He was frantic for a bit before following her lead and saying the words instead of singing them.

"In the depths of the castle, the young maiden's blessing reaches and protects the four cardinal directions. In the realm of the living where the payers are said, the goddes who entertains all in the realm where prayers are heard gives her protection."

Suzume gave a nod towards the boy who now had to take a breath.

The music started to come out once they were done speaking. More instruments could be heard as the entertainer started properly singing.

"I cry until the tears dry up, like a fool, but it is what I want."

It was a single line, but it was what got Mikumo to start his part.

"I gently offer my fingers."

"Things I wish would not break, ephemeral and small."

She started again, this time continuing from her own words.

"As I was alone, you melted into the sea.

"The day it broke, even scattered throughout the world.

"I will always yearn for the shining of your life, the melody of your rhythm.

"Cherish everything, even when falling upon fertile ground.

"The silver colored rain I saw that day, my memories, let them shine."

She looked to Mikumo for the response.

"My hand is reach out from the oblivion, just to meet you, burning my body.

"You offer your cheek."

He was unsure how to respond, yet he felt like there was no judgement towards him.

The entertainer continued to encourage him with a smile while the A-Rank captain continued to look down at the button.

"Even dancing petals can overcome a storm.

"Never giving up, you waited for me.

"That day, it was granted, the desire we shared, even if scattered.

"Your dazzling light, reaching even the stars."

The song started to pick up once more. It was his sign to move his voice properly.

He had no way of knowing that he was participating in a form of tuning. The lack of knowledge had made the song more authentic.

"Folding everything up, piling up upon this fertile ground.

"That silver colored snow, our embrace, our hearts, let's do it all again."

This was where the entertainer would take the song back. Where they would connect their perspectives to finish the song.

Suzume lifted her hand as the music went on, ready to give Miwa the signal to press the button.

But before she could...

"-!?"

Two noises went off.

The first was the phone in Miwa's pocket.

He pulled it out of his pocket to see who had messaged him.

"Misaki, Narasaka wants you to go over for Sniper training."

The second was Suzume's tablet, which had informed her that two messages had been sent directly to her from the Border chat.

 **Double-Snipe:** "Suzu-chaaaaaaaan! Are you coming to Sniper trainiiiiiiiiing!?"

 **Old Temple:** "Misaki, Sniper training is going to start soon. Are you coming?"

.

Suzume frantically looked at the time once she was informed on what was about to start.

"Crap, crap, crap! I honestly forgot about that! I'm sorry, Osamu-kun, if I had remembered then I wouldn't have asked you to help me!"

"It's fine. It was fun to sing with you, even if I probably wasn't the best."

"What? You were better than I thought you would be. No offense of course."

"Misaki."

"That's right!"

When she was reminded again about practice she jumped. It was amazing how smooth she moved even as she rushed to take off her own apron and hang it up.

Once she did that, she packed up her tablet and took her phone from Miwa. She had made sure to save the recording so that she would not lose it before stuffing it into her pocket.

"I honestly have to go. My mom should be back in a few minutes, so you can wait until them. Miwa, you already know what to do after your break. Osamu-kun, just keep doing what you were doing. If you have an questions honestly just ask Miwa. If my mom honestly isn't back within twenty minutes, you have my permission to close shop."

The two boys nodded their heads.

Suzume let out a sigh of relief knowing that the two of them would take care of her family's flower shop until their boss came back.

"I'll be leaving then!"

* * *

"Mah~ Come on, Ken-kun, I said I was sorry for almost being late! I honestly didn't even know you were waiting for me!"

Suzume grained while walking into the large room filled with people getting ready for the join Sniper training going on at Border's main base.

Once she had met up with Satori the two had rushed to the large building while entering their Trion Bodies once they were inside. Satori wore his usual red tracksuit with the Arashiyama Squad emblem on the left side of his chest. Suzume likewise had the gray outfit of Kotowari Squad.

"I refuse to listen! You were practicing a new song without me even knowing! I thought I was your best friend!"

"Don't you dare pull that crap with me!"

With the boy being close to the shop when messaging her, Satori had heard a bit of the song that had been sung with Mikumo while Miwa recorded them.

Once he had gotten to her it was clear how he felt about not knowing about the new song that only the other two boys knew about. It was something that he was not expecting to find out.

Even so...

"Why I never! You think that I should not bring up the fact that we were once best friends even though you cheated on me like is? I am suppose to be the first person you tell when a new song idea comes to your mind. This is proof that reality is truly an unfair and cruel thing."

"What it honestly shows is that you are so dramatic that it outshines me when it doesn't matter. Stop being such a me and let's find a spot already."

"Aw~ But I thought that if we ever quite Border that we could be an entertainment duo! Doesn't that honestly sound great, Suzu-chan!?"

"You too!? I know you saw how Hanzaki-kun was making fun of me earlier. You didn't even say anything. If anything, I should be mad at you for not defending me."

"But you don't need my protection. ...Oh. Oooooohhhh! I get it now! You want to he treated like a princess! I got it. Right, then I will be your prince whenever you want, my honey."

Suzume could only laugh at the crazy words coming from the boy's mouth as they continued their search.

It was oddly crowded in the room with only single spots being open here and there. Familiar faces could be seen, but the two had wanted to be near each other since the male between them had waited for the female.

"Suzume-nee, are you looking for something?"

The duo turned at the voice that called out to Suzume.

They could see Hiura running up to them, smile on her face and red hair sticking out from under her hat.

"Suzu-chan and I were looking for a spot to sit. It's not the best place for a date, but she wanted this prince to accompany her to her training. I couldn't say no, so here we are."

"Alright Akane-chan, Ken-kun seems to be delusional again. I am honestly looking for a single spot for practice."

"There's an open spot over here! You can practice here!"

Another voice called out to them, gaining their attention. Once they saw that it was Hanzaki, Suzume smiled in his direction before turning to Satori.

Hiura also smiled, ignorant to what would come for the two boys.

"How great! Isn't it, Ken-kun!? You can go over there next to Hanzaki-kun and I can get a good picture for the next R-rated doujinshi! You are helping like you wanted and I get to get some payback towards that foolish gamer for making fun of me!"

She gave a light push to the nervous Satori while putting an arm around Hiura's shoulder.

It had worked out in a multitude of ways that she did not expect. She would be free of Satori's teasing, she would get back at both boys, it would be easier to find a spot for practice, and she was having fun. There were no downsides to what had just happened.

"Now then, Akane-chan, do you have any spot open near you?"

"There's on next to me. You are taking that one."

.

Narasaka saw Suzume visibly freeze as he made his way towards them. He had seen the entire exchange from Hiura showing up to Satori sulkily walking towards the nervous Hanzaki.

The moment she turned to look at him he pointed in the direction where he had set himself up. There was not much there, but an open spot could be seen right next to him.

After a few seconds she gave a resigned sigh while muttering under her breath.

"I suppose I don't have a choice..."

There was a smug feeling that started to surface when he saw her start to walk towards the empty spot.

Seeing her drag her feet just because she had to be next to him gave him a morbid sense of pleasure as well as some reluctance of his own. If it was not for the fact that he had agreed to be her mentor he would have thought nothing if her search for a spot.

He turned to follow her when the sound of new voices came to their ears. It seemed that Suzume was not the only one who was having trouble finding a spot for their practice.

"Ah, this is no good. There's no free spaces next to each other."

"Wanna go down a floor?"

"Yeah, let's do that."

The new Tamakoma Sniper and her friend - a C-Rank - had walked in and spoke out to each other. That had been enough to gain the attention of the entertainer girl who he wished would pay more attention to training than the people around her.

From the corner of his eye he could see one of the younger Snipers - Kageura Squad's Sniper to be exact - start to move the stuff from the seat next to him while calling out to the two girls.

_It seems that there are a lot of people doing that in here today. Although I'm the only one who is forced to do this since I agreed to mentor this irritating girl._

The irritating girl who was now walking away.

"Damn it..."

.

Once they had seen the two girls and the Kageura Squad Sniper call out to them, Suzume and Hiura became starry eyes for completely different reasons.

They did not hold back in making those reason known.

"A kitty!"

"An honestly moe ship!"

The two girls made their way over to the three with Hiura fawning over the cat and Suzume fawning over Amatori and Ema.

"Nasu Squad's...Hiura-senpai and Kotowari Squad's Misaki-senpai?"

"Hey there, Chika-chan~!" Suzume greeted while Hiura was having cat problems. "So, Yuzu-kun, letting Chika-chan here sit near you, huh? Heh heh heh. You know that you should honestly tell me when you are interested in someone. That way I can be ready to take any pictures.

The boy in question just turned away. He also knew well enough that letting Suzume get to him would cause so much trouble that even Azuma would have trouble calming her down. He was actually a little glad when the No. 1 Sniper interrupted.

Suzume was about to beg Tōma to help her out with Narasaka and Satori, but that was stopped when the practice was starting and Narasaka came to pick up Suzume.

"Eh?"

Literally.

* * *

"Thank you for the match. It helped me figure out how to control my attacks a bit more."

"It's no problem, Kotowari-kun. I got to see your fight with Eri-chan and Maya, so I thought it would not be an issue of you two asked me for some more help."

Takeshi fixed his scarf as Nasu looked at him with a kind smile. Kumagai stood next to her friend, also smiling towards the boy.

Having messaged the Shooter girl, Takeshi had wanted to better himself even more with some training. He had lost this solo match by a small margin while also gaining some advice from the girl during their match.

"Those lasers are something else though. I don't think I've seen them up close before, but they always seem to back a strong punch. Last time was a bit...much, but you look like you're doing a lot better now. Nice job, Kotowari."

"Kuma, you should probably stop now. Poor boy looks like he is going to burn up with those compliments. As well as the reminders."

"Nah! He's happy to be praised, right? It looked that way during your fight with Maya. You looked so happy that you had managed to gain an advantage against them."

The arm that went around his neck had made Takeshi go a bit red. It was not too often that he had come in physical contact with anyone other than his teammates. To have someone like Kumagai give him a one-armed hug while complimenting him was not something he was use to.

Even Nasu seemed to be enjoying herself when seeing the two of them interacting.

He wanted to also praise them for their hard work in their match against Tamakoma and Suzunari but was unsure if that was fine given how it had turned out.

He saw the logs from that match and how hard the team of girls was fighting to score points against the two aces of Tamakoma and Suzunari to only manage to get the points from Nasu's fight.

Would that have been rude of him? Was it something they did not want brought up?

He was still not use to interacting with others to know what was right and what was wrong when talking to others.

That was why he was grateful for the interruption that came moments later.

"Hearing people like Rei and Yūko say something like that about him makes me glad that Maya and Eri were against him instead of me. I was glad that I had my fun with Shana and Tobio."

The captain of Shor Squad smiled to the trio while fixing his goggles and waving in their direction. The goggles hung around his neck in a casual manner, giving them the impression that he was being relaxed around them.

"I was wondering if any of you would mind having a match with me."

"Not that we really mind, but why us?"

It was a good question that Takeshi also wanted the answer to.

Even if Toby had interacted with the other boy enough to where they were best friends, Takeshi himself had hardly ever spoken to the boy. He knew the same could be said for at least Nasu since she had very little in common with the goggles boy.

"Well both Rei and Takeshi are really good Shooters and I thought you would want some help with your own shooting. Or, you know, swordplay. We both kind of got beaten down by some wolves and need a nice comeback from that. I figured losers like us could help each other out."

Takeshi tilted his head.

This was where his lack of knowledge on people came back up.

_Those kinds of words seem like they shouldn't be said, but he said them so casually. He even went so far as to call them both losers for losing to Toby and Kō-san respectively. Does that mean it's fine to bring that up? Should I ask?_

He could only lift his scarf and hope that none of them saw his uncertainty through his expression.

"You don't need to put it like that. I guess I can't complain since you're coming from the same-"

"NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

None of them were prepared for the rush of brown and gray that came rocketing by from the side.

.

Toby smiled as he rushed through the large hall, dodging and moving passed the people around him. His Side Effect had managed to keep up with his movements, making it so that he would not crash into anyone as long as they did not pressure him.

His target had been the goggles boy who was talking with his captain. Noah was a former opponent now as well as a great friend that he needed for some exercise. There was just one problem.

_Too fast!_

But still slow.

From an outside view it would seem that if Toby did not stop his high speed run that he would eventually crash into something hard enough to break something. Since he was in a Trion Body he would not be hurt, but the same could not be said for whatever he would crash into.

To Toby himself it was completely different.

_This is still not enough! Nowhere close to enough!_

He had yet to start his training with Minoru and so felt that his speed was still lacking. As if each step took too long to touch the ground and that his feet were being weighed down by some force, preventing him from moving faster.

Focusing more on his speed, he was unaware of what was in front of him.

His target had been Noah, but he had managed to miss the right positioning and now what stood in front of him was...

"Take and Yūko...!? Crap!"

Seeing that Kumagai was in the way of his original target, Toby jumped into the air and put a hand on Kumagai's shoulder just before reaching them.

He lifted his whole body while putting as little pressure on her shoulder as possible, flipping over the four of them and managing to prevent the crash from happening.

Just as he landed on the ground, he pushed himself forward and launched himself at Noah. He ran into the boy and accidentally took Kumagai down with both of them. Due to her having an arm around Takeshi, he was also dragged along for the fall.

.

_That was Awdry-kun reacting to Kuma, not his reflexes making him react..._

Nasu took note of the new information as she turned around after the crash.

She looked down at the pile of people before taking out her phone and snapping a quick picture.

_I'll save that for some points later._

"Toby, what did I tell you about running into people?"

Takeshi was the first to speak up from under Kumagai's arm.

Nasu thought that he would be mad and possibly fire a laser at his teammate for the pile that he was now in.

Instead he seemed to just be mildly annoying while waiting for Kumagai to get up from the top of the pile.

She felt that it had been rude of her to think he would suddenly revert back to how he had once been.

"I wanted to fight a Kōgetsu user and saw No here, so I had to ask him for a match!"

The boy tapped his head a few times before turning to her. She found it odd since he usually did not have much to say to her considering they had completely different personalities.

"Ah! Right! I have a message from Suzume for you, Rei!"

"Me?"

"Yeah! She says, 'Nasu-chan! Help me out with your idiotic cousin or so help me, I will honestly use _that_ against you, and it won't be much of a secret anymore!' That's all."

"'That'?"

She went wide eyed once she heard the whole message. If Suzume was ready to use a hard kept secret like that then it meant that she really needed help.

The looks from the others around her made it hard to keep up the smile she had on, but she had managed to do so whole slowly bringing up her phone. There was no time and she needed to message her cousin before something bad happened.

"R-right... Tell her I'll see what I can do."

"Of course she would have some blackmail material on us all."

"By the way, what's with Tōru and Ken anyways?"

"Hey Tobio, you mind getting off of me now?"

"Apparently it's because of some kind of deal Senpai made with Narasaka-san that she now has listen to whatever he says," Takeshi explained. He had been told this by Mei so that he did not get any misunderstandings. "I wonder what the deal could have been..."

"Maybe she asked for help," Kumagai offered.

Nasu herself did not know the reason either, but she was in agreement with everyone when they have a chorus of,

"That can't be it!"

* * *

"Chu!"

"Well that was a cute sneeze."

Suzume ignored Tōma's comment in favor of paying attention to the feeling in her stomach. A feeling of wanting to hit a few people.

Once she got over that, she turned to her result from training.

As usual, she had managed to miss the center most of the time when using Lightning. At the same time, each shot had made it close to the center or directly in the center once she switched to using Ibis.

She was not the only one to notice her similar record as Narasaka looked to her, expression empty of any emotion.

"You still need to work on your shots with Lightning. Especially since you only use that during matches. Your Ibis shots need only a small touch up, so we don't need to focus too much on that. You don't like using Egret too much, but you should still have it as an option."

"So Lightning, then Egret, and Ibis for last?"

"No. Egret will be first and Lightning will be second. Since you need so much work with the latter it's best to work with the former first."

There was no arguing against the boy when she had been the one to ask him for help.

Practicing with Egret first is what he had said, but she wanted to argue against it. Under normal circumstances that would have happened. But right now...

"Fine, fine. I'll honestly listen to you for now."

"Good. Also, I want you to only use your Sniper Triggers for your next match. At least act the part of a Sniper since you asked for my help."

"I was honestly going to do that in the first place. You don't need to tell me that, you fool. Mei-san has been helping me out when it comes to other areas, but I am still the only Sniper Kotowari Squad has on hand. I figured I should help them like that this time around."

"So you're finally understanding the simple things now. Good job, I suppose."

The feeling of wanting to hit someone came back once more.

That same feeling started to go down the moment Narasaka's expression relaxed into a more neutral one.

"It took you long enough."

That same feeling flared back up the moment those words left his mouth.

It was clear that luck was not on her side as someone called out from the side, preventing Suzume from punching her fellow Sniper in the face.

"Narasaka-senpai!"

Both Narasaka and Suzume turned to the side to see the other three female Snipers walk up to them.

"As expected of Narasaka-senpai! You're No. 1 with a decisive lead again!"

"Not to bring you down, Akane-chan, but take a look at Tōma-san and Yuzu-kun. Narasaka honestly has nothing on those two at the moment."

Doing as told, Hiura, along with Izuho and Chika, looked to see a smiley face on one of targets and a star on the other.

Looking over herself, Suzume knew that the verbal surprise from the three was well founded. While Narasaka had hit dead center each time, those two had managed to mess around with precise aim.

_It's no wonder Tōma-san is still ranked first over here. Yuzu-kun is also pretty amazing for managing that._

"Points alone cannot measure someone's true ability, because there are 'unfettered talent' that exist outside the box."

A new feeling of wanting to make a snide remark towards Narasaka came up. It was pushed down due to those words being true.

"Ah. First time I've sniped with a kitty on my head," Tōma said as he walked over to the rest of them. "A pretty novel experience, isn't? Narasaka, wanna give it a try?"

"I'll pass."

"Then how about you, Suzu-chan?"

"Sure thing. If you try to snipe with a maid's outfit that is."

"Don't think there's one in my size."

Suzume smiled alongside Tōma while ignoring the groan coming from Narasaka.

At times it was too fun to mess with him.

The groan turned to words as Narasaka grabbed his belongings as well as Suzume's arm.

"You're coming with me. Tōma-san, I'm leavening. Give my greetings to Fuyushima-san."

"Eh...? Eh!? Am I being kidnapped!? By Narasaka of all people!? Tōma-san, Yuzu-kun, Chika-chan, help me! I would honestly rather go with one of yooooooou!"

"Stop yelling. Stop struggling. You're making a scene, you rotten girl!"

"Now he wants me to come quietly! He is honestly trying to be subtle while kidnapping me!"

.

That was the final straw.

Having enough of the strange girl's antics, Narasaka lowered his body a bit before lifting her up over his shoulder.

"Wha-!? Uwaaaaaah! Don't just do something like that, Bakasaka! Wait... I can honestly use that line for later! I'll go with you this once since I managed to get some material out of this!"

She was far too strange for him to handle.

"Alright, you need to stop this already. Now you're thinking of pointless things. You always have a tendency to think of stupid things instead of focusing important stuff and it's annoying!"

"And what was I suppose to be focusing on exactly? We were done with practice."

"..."

"Well?"

"...On how you're going to correct your aim..."

"Liar."

He could image the smirk that she was wearing while saying that.

"I have a question. What are _you_ thinking about?"

"..."

"Well?"

"...Nothing important..."

"Ha! There you honestly go then! You can't honestly go accusing me of something that you're doing! Hypocrite!" Letting out a sigh, Suzume fixed herself on his shoulder. "Well, even if I wanted to train some more with you, I have it get going. I need to see the others to talk about what we are going to honestly do on the next match."

Hearing that, Narasaka lowered his body once more to let her down.

"Hm. Remember to only use your sniping Triggers."

"I know, I know."

The smile she had on her face seemed more relaxed than ever seen around him. But...

_Why does that also get me a bit mad?_

That was an unimportant thought that he wished never appeared.

"Heh heh heh. You can come along for the next match to see how we do. I'm sure you can honestly have some fun seeing my foolish teammates fighting as much as they like."

_I should be focusing more on your sniping than your teammates, idiot._

"I'll be leaving then. When you see Miwa, tell him that even though he honestly didn't help us, I'll be sending him the song when it is complete."

With those final words, the strange girl took her leave with a wave.

Along with that, another unimportant thought surfaced.

_What is she talking about?_


	52. Kotowari Squad: Part 3

"So it's them..."

The others could hear the faint sigh come from Takeshi's mouth.

Kotowari Squad looked towards their figurehead leader to see that his eyes were only on the screen in front of all of them.

On the screen were six images of six different people. The six people were next to each other in a specific manner with three at the top, all wearing the same white uniform. Below them were the other three who wore a purple uniform that was a bit similar to the first three.

They were images of Nasu Squad and Katori Squad.

"This match might be more difficult than I originally thought..."

"Oh? What exactly do you mean by that, foolish teammate?"

Takeshi answered the girl without taking his eyes away from the screen.

"Nasu Squad has the right to choose where we fight this time around. Besides that, she's knows what I am capable of since she has been helping me a lot recently. Toby is always and open book and you showed of quite a bit in our last match, Senpai. Taiyōko is the only person here that has no fighting data to her name. She is the only new part of formation."

"I see, so you are saying that we have a bit of a disadvantage since both Nasu Squad and Katori Squad honestly know what the three of us are capable of and therefore see us as a bigger target than each other. Hoshi-chan is the only thing they don't know about. Does this mean we cannot win?"

"No. We can still win. I am only saying that it causes us a bit of trouble."

He could only assume his answer was the right one since the older girl gave a laugh.

"Senpai, you and Toby excel at creating new things during a fight, so I have no doubt that the two of you can score some points."

"Oh, but adorable teammate, aren't you forgetting something?"

"Yeah, I know. You don't need to tell me."

Takeshi finally looked up from the screen to look towards the newest member of Kotowari Squad.

Her head was down and he could hear her mutter something along the lines of, "So it looks like I really can give her a kick to the chin..."

He tapped the screen to gain her attention.

"Huh? Ah! My apologizes! I was listening, I was only thinking of something else. I should stop that, shouldn't I?"

People of this nature were still in a zone where Takeshi felt uncertain, so he could only lift his scarf in response.

The action caused Suzume to respond instead.

"There is nothing to apologize for. When someone honestly feels like thrashing another, it is only natural that it would take up their thinking. I can't tell you just how many times I lost track of time just thinking of beating Narasaka to a pulp, getting some nice revenge on someone who wronged me, or thought of who to put in my next doujinshi."

"One of those sounds extremely dangerous! That last one is it, I know it! Hey, Suzume, please tell me that I'm never part of that last one!"

"Heh heh heh."

"I don't like that laugh!"

Times like these was when Mei was needed.

For now these crazy people needed to be dealt with and there was no one else around who could do that.

_I guess I'm stuck with this job. Damn._

"Senpai, dog idiot, pay attention. We need to go over our positions now that Taiyōko is a part of our team."

"Then start by stop using her last name. Hoshi, again, remember that we refer to each other by first names on this team. I do it regardless because of where I came from, but we treat each other as equals on this team, so there isn't a need for last names."

"Ah. Yes, Aw-... Toby-kun. I will try my best to remember."

"I should apologize for that, Hoshi. I'm sure we are thinking the same thing regarding the matter. We got so use to last names since we started school. But Toby is...not incorrect. We are equals here."

"You really had to get that jab in on me, huh..."

Both girls laughed this time.

Takeshi could feel the difference from before.

They were true equals now.

.

Yuki and Mei had been put on a pedestal when they had been known as Tsukiko Squad. Placed above the three of them so that they understood who was in charge and who held more authority to them.

The two older members had told them they were equal, but it never felt that way.

Even now, Mei was held in high regard, but she was no longer placed far above them. Placed where they could not reach.

Kotowari Squad was a team of equality. No one member was above another and no one person was too far out of reach for the others.

If one of them was falling behind then the others would do what they could to bring them forward. They would not move ahead without each other and they would fall together now.

Reaching out a hand before had been a hinderance and something that would have been made fun of since it meant that one if them required the hand in the first place. Each one of them had only focused on how they could best gain a lead on the others and how great they could be viewed by Yuki and Mei.

That no longer mattered.

Reach out a hand was now something that should come naturally and be something that could only be viewed as precious. No longer did it matter who was forward or how they were viewed by others.

Being the one who had held that former thought process strictly and wholeheartedly, Takeshi knew just what it meant to have someone hold out a hand.

Due to his ignorance and pride he had made enemies out of the people who had feared him and his lasers.

There was no longer a hand being held out to him.

That had changed.

Yuki had finally taken responsibility and changed their whole team's structure. Even after leaving his team, he had helped them while not providing a hand.

That change had not been because he extended his hand towards them for a second time, but it brought about something new.

A new experience.

There were now multiple people who extended their hands out towards him. Towards his teammates.

_I won't let go of these hands. I don't ever want to risk going back to how I once was. That is how I can repay them. It isn't much, but it is all I can do at the moment._

Until he could stand on his own, those hands would be supporting him.

Some of those who were supporting him were in the very room he stood in, conversing with him as if he had not done something wrong before.

They would not forget what he had did, but he wished they never would.

They were treating him as an equal while knowing what he had done and what he had been like.

_If they can still treat me like a friend even after that then I can only be grateful._

"So what is our formation now?"

.

Toby had been the one to ask.

He was considered a genius yet he had asked Takeshi regardless.

"Toby and I will remain the main attackers. We are admittedly pretty selfish, so we go for whatever points we come across. Whoever we see or whoever we want to fight. Senpai is kind enough to deal with that and supports us as a Sniper."

"I can't help but to take care of my adorably foolish teammates after all. But Takeshi, I have honestly been learning how to fire like a Gunner and slash and cut like an Attacker. Can you honestly call me a Sniper still?"

"Even if that is the case, will you stop supporting us?"

"You understand me so well. No, I will never stop supporting either one of you. Hoshi-chan that includes you now as well."

"A-ah! I see! Thank you very much, Mi... Um... Suzumebachi-senpai."

"Suzu or Suzume is fine enough."

The younger girl gave a bow to the smiling girl.

The original Kotowari Squad members had their positions clarified. That just left...

"Hoshi."

"Yes?"

"You are not new to Border. Technically speaking."

"That is right. I have been a C-Rank agent for some time. I became a B-Rank agent after the invasion and because of Fuji-nee. Oh, um, Mei-san. I do know how to use different Triggers though since I was placed in the Yagura Branch with my siblings and Akasora-sensei. They taught me how to shoot things without a gun and the proper way to wield a sword. I am classified as an All-Rounder because of it. But I am still not the best..."

"Thank you for that information. If Akasora-sensei helped to train you then I can at least assume you are near our level. Um, not that I am...particularly saying that in a prideful way."

"Takeshi, it is honestly fine to be prideful at times."

"I see... I should keep that in mind then."

He made a mental note while continuing their conversation.

At some point Toby had taken to the nearby armchair while Suzume made her way towards the sofa next to it.

This made it so that Takeshi and Hoshi were the only two standing near the screen for the discussion.

_That's right. I should tell her that we move at our own pace._

"I have a question."

"Go ahead and ask it."

"Right. Every one of you likes to do things how you like. That was evident in the match I had watched against Tsukiko Squad and Shor Squad. So, um, my question is... Are you all perhaps shifting your pace so that I may be able to keep up?"

_That's right. This girl is smart and observant._

It had always been that way during their class.

Hoshi was always the first person to notice a mistake or point something out when others took no note of it.

This was no different.

"If that is the case... Please refrain from doing so. I am thankful for your thoughtfulness, but I do not want any of you to hold yourselves back simply because I lack experience. Even if I am to be used as a decoy or fodder, please do not treat me as anything special."

"Heh heh heh. Silly girl."

Takeshi could see tony nod his head with that statement.

He understood why Suzume had said that as well.

.

"Hoshi, you aren't special."

Toby knew his words would sound harsh.

"But neither are we."

Yet he said them without any hesitation.

"At the same time, all of us are special."

He knew how she thought due to being her classmate and friend for awhile. These words were meant to reach her in a way Suzume's could not.

The dancing girl may have used a mature tone and spoken like she knew what she was saying, but she did not know Hoshi like he and Takeshi did.

That was why he was the one who answered her words after Suzume.

"Yeah, we move at our own pace. We treat each other as equals. Hell, we even go so far as to basically flip off anything that tries to go against us. But none of us are the type to insult someone like that. Hoshi, listen."

"Yes...?"

Good. She was listening.

"What you just said, about us holding back for you, well, it makes me want to go and beat the crap out of something."

"I am sorry."

"Nice going, you mutt."

"Heh heh. You should be careful how you howl, idiotic dog."

"I'll bite the both of you! How's that sound!?"

The intention had not been for the girl to apologize.

Toby knew he had messed up and could only scratch his head.

.

 **Werewolf:** "Hey, anyone know how to properly say you feel like crap when someone misunderstands something?"

 **Haru:** "What did you say?"

 **Colors:** "He said he felt like beating the crap out of something. To a nice girl at that."

 **Green Boy:** "Ouch. How did she react?"

 **Colors:** "She apologized."

 **Werewolf:** "I'm bad with words, okay!? You all know that already! But the only other choice was to let either Suzume or Takeshi answer!"

 **Bamboo Sniper:** "That would also not end well."

 **Viper:** "Kotowari-kun needs a few more lessons before he can answer a nice girl."

 **Haru:** "We have some real nice haters here, don't we?"

 **Bamboo Sniper:** "I have heard how you 18 year olds interact with each other. You have no room to talk."

 **Haru:** "That's fair."

 **Deep Prince:** "Haru-chan, at least try to deny it..."

 **Werewolf:** "Hey, I still need an answer! I feel bad since Hoshi is way more nice than most of the girls I know! And she's a friend!"

 **Lyrical Luscinia:** "First you need to calm down."

 **Werewolf:** "I'm calm now."

 **Everyone:** "Try to be less obvious!"

"Toby-kun, is everything okay?"

"You took to my name kind of quickly, didn't you?"

"I am trying my best."

"I'm glad."

 **Honest Sister:** "Heh heh heh. This will be fun~!"

Toby glared towards the smiling girl.

There was true intent in Hoshi's words and apology. It showed that she was the type of girl Toby was unaccustomed to dealing with.

_Let's see... Suzume, Ai, Kōchō, Mei... Yeah, even after being in the same class as her for awhile now, I seriously don't know how to really interact with nice girls who aren't crazy to some extent._

"Um, Toby-kun?"

Saying sorry was the wrong choice here.

"I guess I should rephrase what I just said, shouldn't I?"

What would be the best way to tell her what he meant?

Suzume was always great with words while Takeshi tried not to use them too much. They were bad examples when it came to situations like this.

Hoshi seemed to take things at face value, so that appeared to be the best way of talking to her.

"Hoshi, I didn't really mean that I want to beat something up with what I said. What I really meant to say was..."

He thought for another moment to confirm his own words.

"It was kind of dumb to say something like that."

"..."

 **Honest Sister:** "Ouch. I honestly felt that one."

 **Green Boy:** "What did he say?"

 **Colors:** "He called her dumb."

 **Deer Prince:** "I think I need to work on his language skills before his fighting skills."

 **Werewolf:** "I hate the Japanese language! I didn't mean it like that at all!"

 **Lyrical Luscinia:** "Okay, okay. We know he is impulsive, so we have no choice but to forgive him."

He chose to ignore those words because of who had put them.

 **Lyrical Luscinia:** "Let's try again. First, calm down."

 **Werewolf:** "I'm calm now."

 **Everyone:** "Stoooooooop!"

 **Honest Sister:** "Heh heh heh. This is honestly great. Kōchō-chan is even helping the dog out when it comes to a possible rival."

 **Lyrical Luscinia:** "..."

There was immediate worry when the girl responded with an ellipsis.

Toby wanted to desperately answer back to her, but he had to focus on the girl currently in front of him.

Just before he could say anything, another message come through.

 **White Fox:** "Toby, you better not be going after my sister. Even if it's you, I'll still beat you down."

 **Black Wolf:** "Toby, I like you, you're a good boy, so don't make me smack you for going after Hoshi. Okay?"

 **TetsuG:** "Is it just me or is 'Idiot dog-boy' catching up to 'That Gunner' on the Border network?"

 **Umi:** "It is! I just checked and it is! Everything is so congested because of it! 'Stupid fox' is currently in third place, by the way."

Toby had to resist the urge to check the Border network for any rumors about him and the two girls currently being nice to him.

"I didn't mean it as if to say _you are dumb_! I just meant that _what you said_ was dumb!"

"..."

 **Colors:** "Just stop."

Letting his frustration out through a howl, Toby looked Hoshi directly in the eye.

The girl looked away from the stare, but he spoke regardless of that.

"Hoshi! We don't hold back for anyone on this team. It would be insulting to each other if we did that. We know what we've been through and know that holding back for each other is just a way of saying we don't trust each other!"

So...

"We won't use you as something less than a fight just because you don't have as much experience as us! We also won't hold ourselves back for you just because you don't have our experience! You're our equal and another member of our team, so don't go saying anything like that again, you got that!?"

He had finally said it.

 **Honest Sister:** "Heh heh. He finally got it right, everyone~"

.

Hoshi looked towards her friend with wide and open eyes.

The first two times it had sounded as if he was berating her, saying that she knew nothing about what she was saying or what was being said to her. But this time was different.

Everything Toby had said to her had gotten through clearly.

She was the same age as both Takeshi and Toby, but that meant nothing. She was not as skilled or experienced as them, but that meant nothing. She had not gone through what they had, but that meant nothing.

When facing these three people, she had to look them directly in the eye without looking down on them or them looking down at her. What she had to say on a matter was as important as what they had to say on the same matter. No one person was above another on this team.

She was on the same level as them.

It was an idea that seemed very much like a fantasy when she tonight more about it.

The Taiyōko family had always seen things as a form of hierarchy.

The father was above the mother.

The mother was above the children.

The oldest was next, followed by the next child and so on.

Hoshi was placed at the very bottom since her birth had been the last. It meant that what she said was always last to be considered when her siblings or parents also had something to say. It had been apparent that staying quiet on important matter was always the best case.

It may have been the reason her oldest brother had left them while also being tossed out.

It was a far cry from what she was being told here. Told that a hierarchy would never be made when it came to them. Such a notion even seemed frowned upon by them.

It was much more freeing than anything she had been involved with before.

Perhaps it was due to her upbringing and inexperience but she could feel tears start to try and force their way out.

_No! Hoshi, you must hold that kind of thing back!_

She now knew.

_They may not judge me for shedding tears, but that is why I must not cry. Blaming things on my lack of experience is no longer something that is allowed. Gaining experience and using that to assist this team is what I need to focus on instead of what I cannot do for them._

She tried to hold them back. Hold back the tears of happiness and relief that came to her.

A sense of liberation filled her body as the tension left her shoulders.

They had not even gone to battle with each other yet, but Kotowari Squad had managed to release everything she had held back because of her family.

Because of that...

"..."

She could not hold it back.

"What an honestly strong girl."

A pair of warm arms wrapped around her an a pair of cushions lightly pressed against her face.

.

As if dancing, Suzume had taken light steps while twirling to reach the crying girl in as little steps as possible.

Once reaching her, she wrapped her arms around the girl so that neither she nor her teammates could see the tears coming from the crying girl.

_These are not the tears that we should be seeing. For Hoshi, these tears are most likely the type that she never have come out._

If any one of them had seen the girl crying and her tears being spilled it would have been regrettable for them all.

The crying girl herself would have felt as if nothing had changed with her. As if everything going on was just another way of people treating her like a princess - like she needed to be taken care of.

Kotowari Squad would have to remember the times they only brought fear or disaster to people they cared about. The sight of the tears would have likely brought them back to when they were far too reliant on their former captain.

Suzume knew this would happen if the girl's tears were to be seen by them.

They were all inside of Kotowari Squad's operating room, yet even that seemed like it would have been too much for everyone there.

She held the crying girl as the tears touched her clothes instead of hitting the floor or the girl's hands.

_Her Rhythm is honestly loosening up._

The entire time Suzume had seen the girl it seemed as if she was forcing herself to stay upright and give no sign of defection in her stance.

Everything had now loosened up.

This was the girl at her most vulnerable. Everything was released here and it was now Suzume's job to make sure that she felt safe releasing everything.

"This is fine. We will not judge you, but we will make sure you stay true to yourself. You will never have to feel afraid when speaking to us and you never will have to think that you honestly need to hold anything back. We will always be there for you, so we ask that you also be there for us."

This was far too familiar.

The words were not ones spoken to her before, but Suzume knew exactly the words that needed to be spoken.

There had been someone who had expressed those words to her without having to say them.

But now...

"Hoshi, you are now our equal, but you are still honestly our friend. I honestly don't know you like Toby or Takeshi do, so if you can't confide in me, at least try to tell them something."

She raised her head to look at her two other teammates.

Takeshi had lowered his scarf and Toby nodded his head.

She was not speaking false words. Everything she said were also not just her own words. The two boys she called teammates felt the same way and showed their agreement with her.

_Yuki-san had been our goal. Something to honestly reach for when we thought no one else was there. We messed up a lot because of our foolish thoughts and because of his carelessness, but..._

But...

_We know what to do now._

* * *

"Are you sure you don't want to be with them right now? From what I got in the chat, Toby seems to be messing things up with Hoshi."

Mei looked over from where she sat.

The Yagura Branch had been finished and now held the people who would be working there. A room on the second floor was where Director Akasora would have his office. Where she sat was the general room with a table in the middle and two sofas on either side of it.

While she sat on one of the sofas, Yuki sat on the other. He had been leaning back on it with his phone just above his head.

"If you aren't careful, that phone is going to land on your face."

"Will you worry for me if that happens?"

"I will always worry for you. You just tend to always bring that out in me."

"Is that a confession?"

"I have nothing to confess to you. But if I did, I would do it in a much better setting. Certainly not in this branch office. Too many prying eyes."

She could hear Yuki lightly laugh.

Papers were spread out on the table, yet she was not focusing on any of them.

After she had been told about Rampage Dress and how Yuki had needed to help her afterwards, she had been doing a lot less when it came to work of any kind. Yuki made sure of that.

There was no running the risk of her calculations going out of control again.

The papers spread out were things pertaining to the newly formed Yagura Branch, the members of it, and the team that was up for consideration to join the branch. Each one was of importance, yet she had not touched a single one of them.

Yuki had taken care of them all and was now relaxing with her.

"Back to what you had asked... There is no reason for me to be there with them. I am just their Operator. Those four can handle the planning themselves and do not need me there to do it. They are grown up."

"We want to see it that way, don't we...?"

She would not ask what he meant by that.

"I had gotten too attached to them. That is why I left in the first place. Even so, I still see them as the children that need help, like when we first met them. I know that's wrong of me to think, but it is just what happens when someone like me starts taking care of others."

"...I feel the same. From a factual standpoint, I know they have grown up and no longer need us as much as they had before. They have grown into their own by this point. Yet... I feel as if I cannot let go of how they use to be. How they viewed us before they grew up."

And it was thanks to him.

When they had changed names, she felt as if she had been freed of any emotional restraints. As if she could let everything out whenever she wanted.

But she still held them back.

_I was free to do as I wanted and I wanted to hold them back. I let how I felt slip out from time to time, but that was all. But Rampage Dress..._

That had been the name given to her when her calculations had gone rampant, putting her in a state where everything was blocked out and the only things visible were those calculations. Everything seemed like an attack and everything seemed like it meant nothing.

Even with that name attaching itself onto her, never letting go, Yuki had stuck with her. Continued to provide support to her.

The last time it had appeared, when she had fought in the simulated battlefield, he had brought her a mirror. Only the reflection for her face had shown itself, but he had told her what that had really meant.

And now...

_I want to let everything out myself. I will say what I feel for those four. Holding anything back would be a waste that could bring me back to those calculations. That is something I don't want._

Just as she did not need her calculations, her team did not truly need her anymore. Not as support or as a reminder of anything. What they needed her for was something much simpler and much more kind.

"I will only go back right now if they ask me to go. That way I know they will need me as a friend instead of just a reminder."

"I see."

From the other sofa, Yuki sat up straight.

"In that case... Would you mind staying with me for a bit longer?"

She would not ask why.

"I enjoy your company a lot."

* * *

Toby and Takeshi watched as Suzume moved back after awhile. A smile could be seen on her face as she did so, words coming out a moment later.

"Do you honestly feel better?"

They turned to the girl who had been crying before and was now rubbing her eyes.

None of them had expected the conversation to reach such a point. Their meeting up had simply been to talk about their next match and yet it had reached a strange point.

"Yes... Um, I apologize for that. I did not intend for something like that to happen."

They all chose to ignore the unneeded apology.

"How about we move back to why we are here?"

"Takeshi, you are honestly suppose to give a bit of time once she has finished crying. Otherwise you seem insensitive."

"I see... I will take note of that."

"It is quite alright, Suzume-senpai. Takeshi-kun, we can continue our discussion now. I believe you were speaking of where I would be placed as a new member."

"Right."

As a new member of Kotowari Squad and a fresh B-Rank agent, Hoshi did not have much data on her. That meant they would need to figure out what she could do with them during their next match.

It had been a bit foolish to recruit her so early on after her promotion, but there was nothing to be done about that now.

Finding a place for her was what they were to focus on at the moment.

"To reiterate; Toby and I will be the main attackers for this next match. Senpai will be supporting us as a Sniper this time around. That means Hoshi will be doing one of two things." He lifted two fingers before putting one down. "The first is making sure that Suzume-senpai is safe. Be ready to defend her or distract the opponents should they get too close to her."

"And the second? For you to bring that up first must mean what I honestly think it does."

"Yes. The second would be supporting either Toby or myself. If I had to say... That one is the more difficult of the two. Toby's reflexes and natural ability to move is rather hard to keep up with while my Laser Shooter is not something I can let up on for others. That means you would need to be extremely vigilant if you were to support either one of us."

As the two main attackers for their team there was no chance for them to slow themselves down for the sake of someone who could not keep up.

"But what if she is used a surprise attacker, Take? Would that not also work as a third option? Working with only two options can usually lead to a person honestly feeling trapped."

"If this were the lower tier, then that would be an option as well. But this is different. Both Nasu Squad and Katori Squad will not be fooled if we tried something like that. In all honesty, it is also because you have not practiced with that kind of thing, Hoshi."

"That is true. While we do have some people like that at the Yagura Branch, I myself have never dabbled in such a thing. I would not be able to launch a surprise attack even if I wanted to do so."

That brought them back to their two options.

Supporting Suzume would have been the best choice for someone as new as she was. Even if she was to be taken out, there was still experience to gain from that. As either a watcher or a side fighter, she would gain something from it.

Supporting either Toby or Takeshi meant that she was liable to get in their way or slow them down. The experience she could gain from that would be great if she managed to hold her own. But in that same respect, she could also miss out in a lot of experience should she be taken out quickly.

The choice was obvious.

"I...would like to support the two main attackers."

.

_That's what I thought she would say._

Takeshi fixed his scarf as he thought to himself.

It was clear that the girl was trying her best, so he would not go against her if she had made up her mind.

_There is still time before the match, so..._

He let out a small sigh while hiding his smile.

"Very well. If you have made up your mind, we will work with that."

The expression Hoshi made in response was a fresh one of surprise and excitement.

Takeshi knew that he was not the only one to feel this way as both Toby and Suzume smiled toward the two of them as well.

"To tell you the truth... I am...rather fond of the idea that the three of us will be fighting together... Since we are classmates and all..."

There was a quiet pause as he fixed his scarf again, this time looking away to hide his blush.

He soon realized his mistake.

"!?"

The reaction from his teammates towards his words soon came after with Toby tackling him to the ground and Hoshi holding both of her cheeks.

.

 **Honest Sister:** "Heh heh heh~! Take that everyone else! My teammates are honestly the most adorable and you cannot tell me otherwise! For everyone bashing on Take, you can just go jump in sewage water!"

 **Double-Snipe:** "Oh! Suzu-chan is fired up now!"

 **Eri:** "If you don't mind me asking... Why do you say that? Did something happen?"

 **Honest Sister:** "I'm not telling. It is something only for our team to know about. Sorry~"

 **Wisteria:** "This means I am allowed to know."

 **Honest Sister:** "Of course! I'll send you over what honestly happened!"

.

There was a chance that Mei would inform Yuki about what had just happened, but that was also fine. Hearing something like that from the boy would have made anyone who knew him want to be there.

Without hesitating for a moment, she lifted her phone to take pictures of the two boys on the ground while the younger girl smiled with a small blush next to her.

"Takeshiiiiiiiiii! You really do see us as friends! Don't worry, bud, I'll always be by your side! You can count on me to have your back!"

"Heh heh heh~"

"On my. Takeshi-kun, I look forward to working with you. Yes! I will makes sure to support you however I can so that you do not lose faith in me! Thank you for this opportunity!"

"G-get off of me, you idiot dog! A-a-and Hoshi, don't thank me, just help me! Senpai, please stop taking pictures! See? See!? Idiot dog-boy, Suzume-senpai is going to use us for her doujinshi again because of you!"

The complaints of the Shooter were drowned out by the laughing of the Sniper and the cooing and rubbing if the Attacker. Even their newest member was of no help as she went on about how she would help their team in any way she could.

_Why am I stuck with them!? Nasu-san, you never told me what to do with strange people like this!_

**Viper:** "I get the feeling that I am being judged for something out of my control."

_They won't even let me respond to that!_

Takeshi continued to try and get out of the tight grip of his teammate as tears of his own started to form from the new experience.

 **Wisteria:** "Kotowari Squad, remember not to tease Takeshi too much. He is still relatively new to the whole 'emotion' thing."

It was far too late.

Takeshi felt like crying for a completely different reason than Hoshi. His face had gone from its usual pale color to a bright red as Toby continued rubbing his face against his chest and Suzume continued taking pictures.

This was also a new feeling that he had not felt before when they had been known as Tsukiko Squad. Unlike the ones he had felt with his fellow Shooters, this one was something that overwhelmed him.

Until...

"Sob..."

He could not take it anymore and let everything out himself.

"Eh...? Eh!? T-Take!? A-a-are you crying!?"

"He's a complete uke! Toby, Toby, good job exposing him like that! Good boy! Remind me to honestly give you a treat later on for this! Perfect! Our dog-boy shows just how much of a dog he really is and our Laser Shooter proves that he's honestly a uke! This next doujinshi is too to sell so well now!"

.

 **Demon Child:** "Focus on the censoring later then! We need that stuff in as soon as possible!"

 **Artist:** "Suzume-chan, did you get Awdry-kun drunk or something? I've seen some people get all touchy-feely like that when they are drunk."

 **Honest Sister:** "Of course not! I would honestly never give them alcohol! (On purpose)"

 **Everyone:** "That '()' is scary!"

 **Archer:** "Is no one going to stop her? If that is the case, I shall prepare my bow."

 **Megane:** "Um, your actual one or a toy one?"

 **Archer:** "I shall leave that up to your imagination, Megane."

 **UMA:** "Humu humu~ 三3三 But aren't Toby and Takeshi her teammates? She should be fine if that is the case."

 **Honest Sister:** "Yūma, you are honestly too good for Kirin."

.

Due to the kindness of Hoshi, Toby had been removed from the ground and Suzume seemed busy with whatever had been started on the Border network chat.

That left Takeshi to slowly climb his way back up to a standing position.

The tears were still threatening to spill from his eyes, but he ignored them in favor of regaining feeling to his legs.

_This meeting is not going so well now... Um, where should I even start back up?_

The redness on his face was also starting to leave and the quivering of his lip was subsiding. This new feeling he had categorized as "embarrassment" and wished to never feel that way again.

_That feeling is cursed! Why people have that kind of thing built into them is beyond me! I seriously thought I was going to melt or something!_

"Hey Take..."

"Wh-what...?"

Takeshi looked up to see Toby scratching the back of his and Hoshi looking down while fidgeting with her fingers, ignoring the wiggling girl behind the two of them.

"Sorry about that. We were just happy that you said something like that. You have never said anything so cool like that before and the two of us weren't sure how to react. (You're like our brother after all.)"

There was no way he could understand the last part given that it had been said in English, but he chose to think it was nothing bad. Even the way the Attacker had said made it seem as if he was going back to how he had first been, talking in a strange way.

Deciding that there was no other choice for him, Takeshi let out a sigh before rubbing his eyes and fixing his scarf. His oversized clothes had also gotten a bit messed up, making him seem much smaller than he actually was.

"Can we just...get back to our discussion? About our next match. I forgive you two... Well, at least Hoshi. You, idiotic dog-boy, need to pay up for... _that_."

The trio looked over to the wiggling girl to see that her wiggling had suddenly turned into a strange dance number with her phone continually going off.

They were afraid of what they would see if they entered the chat now.

With their minds on the same thing, they all turned back to each other and nodded.

"Right. Let's just ignore her for now."


	53. Nasu Squad: Part 2

"With that being over with..."

Takeshi fixed his scarf once more to hide his still red face.

Toby had retaken his sitting position off to the side as Suzume managed to calm herself down and stop the conversation going on in the Border chat.

"Let's reconfirm how our position are going to look. Just to make sure we didn't forget anything during that...incident."

They all nodded their heads.

"Toby and I will be our primary attackers. That means we most likely will be fighting Nasu-san, Kumagai-senpai and Katori-san. Seeing as those three are the ones who gain the points most of the time. Senpai will be our main support. She will be taking shots when she feels that it would be the best time. That being said... She will also be going after Hiura-san since she is also a Sniper. That is how she does things when not on the frontline. Tai-... Ahem. Hoshi will be our secondary supporter. She will be behind either Toby or myself and providing backup when needed. If given the chance, you should probably go after Wakamura or Miura as well. I breve oh can handle that."

No one said anything against the explanation.

They were all aware of where they would be needed and what they needed to do. It was agreed upon by the four of them as equals.

Hoshi had not been a part of their team before, so that meant any knowledge on the other two teams had came from the other three. Logs could only do so much to portray what a person was capable of in these kinds of situations. Having three members of Kotowari Squad know firsthand how each person fought could only give them an advantage.

"Ah..."

"Hm? What is it, Tai-... Ahem. Hoshi. Is something wrong?"

"A-ah! No, no. I was just thinking... Um, if it is fine, may I use some prototype Trigger for this match? It may be a bit presumptuous of me to ask this since I am new to the team... I have been working with some of the Engineers in creating new Triggers and would like to try them out in actual combat. Although it may be better to just use them in practice so that you all do not have the chance of going down in ranking."

"I don't see a problem with that. If it's something you have been working on then it's only natural to want to show it off."

"N-no, that is not..."

"If you want, we can use them too so you can see just how well they work. There may be better people to handle that, and you might want to just do it yourself, but we can help if you need it."

"It honestly does sound interesting. I have no issues playing around with prototype Triggers."

Hoshi watched with wide eyes as Kotowari Squad started talking about the prototype Triggers she had mentioned.

In a way, it was both expected and unexpected that they would allow her to use those unfinished Triggers. Even more so that they would want to use the Triggers themselves.

"So, what are the names of these Triggers? Let's honestly start with that. Then you can go about explaining them to us."

"Ah. Right. The first one is called Afterimage. The second is Fujin..."

"Like the Black Trigger?"

"That is correct." Hoshi nodded. "It is modeled after the Black Trigger known as Fujin, but it only works with Kōgetsu. With that being said..."

"Yeah. None of us use Kōgetsu. Sorry we can't try that one out ourselves."

"Ah... That is fine. I have Kōgetsu set for myself, so I can test it out personally."

That meant there was only one left.

"The last Trigger has no name yet and I am quite unsure as to what it could possibly be. My apologizes. I assume you will not want to try it out when there is no name to it."

"Nah, it's fine. I owe you a major apology, so I'll use that last one. It's only fair that I do something like that for you. Besides, I don't mind being the on,y one on the battlefield with a Trigger no one else has."

"I-i-it is fine if you do not want to test it out, Toby-kun! And there is no need to apologize for anything!"

The words went right through the boy's ears as he waved over to her with a grin.

By this point even she had become aware that he would not change his mind once it has been set. She had seen him like this before during school hours, but this seemed to be even more than those times.

This was a clear difference between them being classmates and them being teammates.

"Hoshi-chan, it's best not to argue with that dog over there. He won't be hearing over his own howling for a while. Although that is honestly not a bad thing this time since it seems that you still need to get relaxed around us."

Another person who was far different than what was originally seen.

"You have honestly worked hard on these, right? It would only be right to help you perfect them even more so that you can show them off to others and show just how great you are. If anything goes wrong then we will deal with it when we get to it. It is honestly that simple."

There was no arguing with any of them.

It was clear that they would be taking her suggestion of using these prototype Triggers happily with with confidence in her. Going against that would mean she had no trust in her new teammates.

It was very much different.

* * *

A loud sound filled the area as Kumagai slammed the palm of her hand on the table Nasu Squad sat at.

Nasu could only smile at the clear irrigation radiating off of the Attacker.

"Of course it would be Kotowari Squad and Katori Squad! We lost to Suzunari and Tamakoma, so of course we have to fight teams like those two now!"

"But Senpai, you looked like you were enjoying what was going on in the chat a second ago. Saying something like I that makes it seem like you just want to be a tsundere."

"That's not it at all! Kotowari Squad was already filled with a bunch of crazy people, and now they added to that. That means we have even more strange fights coming in the next match. This girl - uh, Taiyōko? - seems fine, but so did Kotowari and Awdry when I first met them. That things will get weird once we start fighting."

_"Who is she anyway? Her face seems familiar, but that is all I have. Nothing else comes to mind when I see her."_

The voice that came through the phone brought up a question that seemed to plague both Kumagai and Hiura. The way they looked around or crossed their arms was a clear give away to what they were thinking.

The girl they were currently looking at gave a small smile in her picture while he posture and lowered shoulders made them all think that she was not the type to join any sort of battlefield.

"Should I explain who she is?"

Kumagai and Hiura both looked towards Nasu while the voice on the phone gave an indication that she was also paying attention.

"You know this girl, Rei?"

"I know of her. I know nothing more than her name and who she is related to. Sorry if I was getting your hopes up."

"That's fine." Kumagai looked back down before addressing her leader once more. "So, who is this girl?"

"She is Taiyōko Hoshi - like it says here. Akane-chan, you and Hanzaki-kun often go out to eat ice cream with her brother. That may be why her face looks so similar. The two of them, when out side-by-side, do not look that different."

There was a moment of silence.

Kumagai thought about what had been said and started going down a list of people who looked like that. There were a few who had similar facial structures, but none of them had soft expressions like the girl did.

Hiura on the other hand knew of only one other person who she would frequently go out to eat ice cream with. The boy had always been kind to both her and Hanzaki as he would pay for their frozen treats every time he was with them.

There really was only one such boy.

"Yuki-senpai!?"

The voice of their Operator came through the phone at the same time Kumagai turned to her.

_"Taiyōko is related to Tsukiko-san? Didn't see that one coming."_

As if to confirm the thought, Nasu nodded her head.

She looked from the phone to her teammates that were sitting next to her.

"That is right. Taiyōko is the younger sister of Tsukiko-san. He had told me about it before when we were both at the hospital. At the time, he had asked me to keep it a secret, but I have recently gotten person to tell at least you three."

"That's weird. Why did he suddenly give you permission?"

"He had said that it was only fair since Katori Squad knows that fact as well due to a recent incident involving her and them."

_"Well that was nice. I guess... But how will that really help us?"_

"It tells us that she is trained well."

.

Even with tone she had used, Nasu had not sounded too sure about that sentence.

Kumagai was sure that there was some truth to that sentence, but it was more of a guess on Nasu's part than an actual fact that was known.

_It makes sense._

Even thought she had never fought against him before, Kumagai knew of the strength Tsukiko Yuki had as a Border agent. What was more was that he had managed to take down Midorikawa not too long ago in a solo match.

_Then again, from what I have heard, Midorikawa has been losing to random people here and there. When they met, Kuga took him out, didn't he?_

There were too many people to back up that specific fight, so she had no reason to think otherwise.

Beyond that single win were still more exploits that she knew were facts.

The first that came to mind was when Border had used Yuki to show the power behind the newly formed Yagura Branch. The boy had taken a bit of a besting, but she doubted that anyone she knew would come other of such a fight unscathed. Nasu had said as much when the two had watched the broadcast together.

Then there was the invasion they had fought recently. She had been told that Tsukiko Squad had fought against a humanoid Neighbor and come out victorious. While it had been stated that the three youngest members had been the ones to defeat the Neighbor, she had also been told that Yuki and Mei had been holding their own against the same Neighbor for a respectable amount of time.

There were a good amount of events that gave credit to the name "Tsukiko Yuki".

It was only reasonable to think that his sister was just as well off as he was when it came to fighting using a Trigger.

"She is a part of the Taiyōko family, right? The ones who were soldiers? Doesn't that mean she is really good at fighting?"

"Not necessarily, Akane-chan. Just because her family were soldiers does not mean that she is one as well. Besides, when compared to her teammates, she still seems like she would just be at their level."

"Which is still kind of scary."

Kumagai could only nod her head at those words.

"That's true. Rei, you've been helping out Kotowari and I have seen that myself. Even if she is just at their level, we should still be careful of her. Kotowari Squad is trouble enough as it is, so adding another one to them just increases the trouble."

"I am not denying that. All I am saying is that we should not _overestimate_ her or _underestimate_ her."

"Alright, then what are we going to do about this?"

"We can't look at this fight as just us against Kotowari Squad, remember that. Katori Squad is also a factor here."

"Those guys tend to just follow the same plan of keeping Katori alive though. I won't miss adding them into the plan, but they are easier to figure out than Kotowari Squad."

"Then shall we get down to the planning?"

.

Nasu made sure she had everyone's attention before speaking up again.

"We know that Suzume-chan will be going after Akane-chan since she is going to be the only other Sniper out there. That means we can either have one of us stay close to Akane-chan in case we spot Suzume-chan, or we can have Akane-chan save any firing until we are certain we will be getting a point. If she can't spot a Sniper than we won't run the risk of having Akane-chan get taken out."

"That means Akane would actually need to hold fire this time."

It may have been meant as a joke, but Nasu was able to tell from the Sniper's expression that their last match against Suzunari and Tamakoma left a strong impression on her.

Instead of retreating and preventing a point from being taken from them, Hiura had instead fired against Kuga and only managed in having him give up his already severed arm.

Feeling bad for the girl, Nasu diverted the conversation to sooth the harsh joke.

"Even if she does fire and gets found out, we will try out best to back her up."

"Hm? Of course we will. We won't just let her get taken out. We still need her so we can have a better chance at winning."

That seemed to work as Hiura lifted her shoulder a bit.

Nasu smiled towards her before gaining control of the conversation once more.

"We can decided what Akane-chan can do about Suzume-chan later. Let's get to the main issues here."

Who those were was obvious.

"Kotowari-kun's relentless and powerful attacks will be trouble for you two while Awdry-kun can actually get through my attacks. While she isn't as flexible as he is with that kind of thing, Katori can also be trouble if she gets too close to me or ends up in a one-on-one with Kuma."

"Tch. I hate that that is true. I'll have a hard time against Toby too though. Rokkun and Miura I can handle if I get close enough, but that's all. And we still don't know what Taiyōko can do, so she is a wild card."

_"Nasu-senpai seems like the best choice to deal with Kotowari-kun. Or Akane can try for a shot at him if one of you can put him in the right position."_

"But if she misses her shot, it's game over for sure. If not from Suzume then from Kotowari himself."

Would she even be enough?

It was no secret that compared to Asano she was the better Shooter. Even so, it had been two against one and Tsukiko Squad had lost against the male Shooter.

As one of the people who has been helping Takeshi she was well aware of what he is capable of and that had been what she thought about when bringing him up.

That was where the issue came.

She knew just how dangerous he was as an opponent. Even with what she knew, he was still strong enough to be considered a threat.

"And what about Awdry? If Nasu-senpai can't hit him from a distance and Kumagai-senpai can't hit him up close, what do we do?"

_"His Side Effect is annoying. Akane can't even try to shoot at him since he would be able to dodge it even without his Side Effect."_

"Hey!"

The other Kotowari Squad boy was just as bad as the first.

Even if they could come up with something to fight against the Shooter, the Attacker would be their next problem that they had to face.

"This is very different from the first time we fought them this season."

.

Nasu's words struck her teammates hard.

The first time they had fought them in the second round they had been going through some personal issues and could be taken out by people like Kakizaki or be distracted by Hiura.

But now...

"Kotowari-kun is focused and Awdry-kun is more determined. Suzume-chan knows us because of our Rhythms while Taiyōko is an unknown factor. Compared to our last match with them... This will be tough."

"Does that mean we can't win...?"

The words from Hiura hung in the air for only a moment before an answer came back.

"We can win."

Kumagai held firm as she said that.

"It'll be really tough, but we can win! We just have to think of something new to deal with them!"

No one was unbeatable.

It was a fact that there was no one who could not lost at least once in their life. This was where their determination to prove that came up.

To find a way through this obstacle was just something they had to go through as a team.

With that being the case, there were still other things to be used.

"Katori Squad..."

"That's right! We still need to deal with them too!"

"No. Well, I mean, yes. What I am talking about is using Katori Squad."

Multiple teams have done this before and it was nothing new.

"Katori Squad will also have a hard time considering how they normally go about things. We can use that to put more pressure on Kotowari Squad. We will take any hits we can on Katori Squad, but I'm sure both of our goals are the same."

"To contain Kotowari Squad."

* * *

Miura liked to think that Katori Squad could get along when they wanted.

"You two just need to back me up like usual. These guys aren't too hard to deal with if you follow our usual tactics."

"They know that already, so we need to come up with some extra plans for dealing with them. We might have been able to handle getting some points before when Kotowari Squad was dealing with issues, but they are different than that now."

"Not really. Kotowari is still just a brat and the dog never changes. He's annoying as hell, but we just need to shoot him up and that's that. Misaki is just weird."

"And Nasu Squad? What about Taiyōko being a part of their team now? Stop thinking we can every 'annoying' thing one at a time."

"That little girl is the most annoying if them all. But I haven't even heard of her until I met her, so I'm sure she isn't that tough. Do you think she can even properly fight?"

He really thought that they could all get along well enough if they tried.

At the moment it was hard when Katori and Wakamura were constantly at each other's throat due to the losses they suffered in previous matches. It even seemed to be getting worse and worse for each match.

With Somei currently out due to her own reasons, it was up to him to deal with the quarreling duo.

Thinking of something as quickly as he could, Miura pulled out his phone while stepping between the two who were glaring at each other.

"Hey, since there really isn't much to go on concerning Taiyōko, why don't we ask someone who might know? We can start going off of that to see if she really will be a threat."

His two teammates gave him a look before giving their respective responses of a nonchalant shrug and a push towards glasses.

It was Wakamura who verbally answered him back after a few seconds.

"Who should we ask. From what I saw, Tsukiko and Murakami know her well, but I doubt they will give us any information."

"Don't you remember a certain someone talking about her before? I guess it would make sense that you would not remember since he was rather vague about it."

Looking down at his phone, Miura opened a private chat as he continued talking to Wakamura.

From the corner of his eye he could see Katori perk up a bit as his mentioning of someone else who knew the younger girl.

 **True Hero:** "Shiron, can we ask you about something?"

 **Hero:** "Oh, Yūta-chan, sure! But, um... Why do I feel like I'm being indirectly glared at right now? It usually happens whenever you message me with some others..."

Miura and Wakamura were quick to look at Katori.

The girl was glaring as hard as possible at her phone. She seemed to have realized that she was in the same private chat as her teammates and the Hogo Squad captain.

Not wanting to give the true answer, Miura hesitantly started typing on his phone.

 **True Hero:** "Uh, about that... It might just be in your head(?). Have you been rest enough after helping other people?"

 **Hero:** "Yes! Haru-san and Kawa-chan have been making sure that I rest up! I know it's not in my head!"

 **Talented Yoke:** "Shut up, fake hero. Yūta, hurry up and ask him already so we can get this over with."

 **Hero:** "Oh... That's why..."

"Hey, don't be rude to him like that! And you know how he hates when you call him a 'fake hero' when Yūta has his chat name as 'True Hero'!"

"I'm so sorry, Shiron... I promise to buy you lunch some time."

There was no helping how Katori disliked the kind boy. It was just something that they had to deal with when it came up.

"And Rokkun, I'm not the one who made that name... I don't even know who did."

 **Rokkun:** "Sorry about that, Shiron. You can just ignore her."

 **True Hero:** "So about that question... I wouldn't want to take up your time."

 **Hero:** "Oh, right. Go ahead and ask. I will answer to the best of my ability."

It was hard to hold back from soothing the boy once it was clear that he was being a bit more reserved because of their captain.

He saw Wakamura mouth something along the lines of, "I'm messaging Inukai to take care of him. Just go ahead and ask."

Miura gave a nod, leaving things to their upperclassman.

 **True Hero:** "Is there anything you can tell us about Taiyōko Hoshi? Her fighting style or how good she is?"

 **Hero:** "Oh, uh, I'm sorry, Yūta-chan, Rokkun, but I already made a promise. Onii-san asked if I can keep from telling anyone about Hoshi-chan. But he also asked if I can not help Kotowari Squad for their next match."

 **True Hero:** "I see... If that's the case, I won't push it. Thanks anyway though. See you later, Shiron."

Locking his phone, Miura looked back over to see Wakamura trying his hardest to prevent Katori from touching her phone's screen.

It was clear what was going on.

"Let go! That guy is never any help and he needs to know it!"

"No! Shiron is a nice guy and I refuse to let you bully him any more than you already have!"

"He's just a fake hero who needs to stop butting into other people's privacy!"

With a rather hard looking kick to the stomach, Katori won and started typing on her phone.

From the looks of things, Wakamura seemed to also be messaging someone. If he had to guess then the likely choice would be Inukai to tell him to delete the incoming message from their captain.

_Maybe I should ask Suzaku-senpai to monitor Yōko's messages for a bit..._

_._

Katori could feel her anger start to boil over.

The irritating girl she had recently met was an enigma to her team and one of the only people who knew what she could do was not helping them in the slightest.

_There probably isn't much about her anyway. She looked scrawny and unreliable in a fight when I saw her._

"She's like a damn princess. I doubt she'll be any trouble during our match. Why are we giving her this much thought?"

"We need to take into account every one of our opponents. We can't put off any one of them since anyone can make an impact during large fights like these."

"A load of crap. The only ones who will really be doing anything are those of us with talent. The rest of you are just there to cover us. So that means it's just going to be Nasu and Awdry having to deal with me while the rest of you slap each other around."

"That's not how it goes at all! You have seen what Kotowari Squad as a whole is capable of and Kumagai was able to fight against that kid from Tamakoma and Murakami during their last match!"

"She got her ass kicked."

It was the beginning of a new argument.

Since their losing streak had started, she and Wakamura had been getting into even more arguments than usual.

Somei had been around to stop them most of the time, but there was only Miura.

She was well aware that the boy was rather spineless compared to their glasses-boy teammate.

"C'mon guys."

There it was.

It was how he would usually start his try and breaking up their incoming argument. The count had gotten passed thirty at this point and now she could only focus in the next time he would increase the number of the tally.

"Why don't we just go through each person and see what we can do about them? Even if it does end up with Rokkun and I backing you up, we can still think about what to do against everyone."

"Do whatever you want. Doesn't matter to me."

It was a bit entertaining seeing the glasses-boy glare in her direction as Miura tried calming him down.

Even if there was no point in going over what they already knew, there was also no point in stopping the two boys from doing so.

.

_Seriously... We managed to get by with having them back me up, so what's the point in changing that?_

They had also lost because they continue to repeat the same actions.

Glaring at nothing particular, Katori lifted her arm. With a single sweeping motion, she moved her arm to the side.

She ignored the looks from the two boys and proceeded to move her arm again. She made sure to have her arm in the same position and move across the same imaginary line she had made.

Her motions were "the same" on a different level than what was let on.

If someone tried to copy their own handwriting from the past, could they reproduce it perfectly? This was something to get overwhelming results by remaining on the existing course and never being able to leave the category of "same" no matter how restrictive and disadvantageous that could be.

What they had built up was what made them powerful.

They had taken what everyone understood as an idea or as a concept and raised it up to a paint where they could win by following through with it.

Multiple teams were the same way. Kakizaki Squad continued with their team tactics, Kazama Squad continued with their stealth and combination attacks. Azusa Squad followed a similar attack style using their two Attackers for combinations.

Each team would change how they moved during a fight due to the different situations, but they would still follow their own way of fighting that they had built up by practicing it over and over again.

Then there was that team.

_Those guys are terrible. How the hell do they win anyway? That really pisses me off._

Kotowari Squad - and the former Tsukiko Squad - had always been the same. Nothing was actually planned out and any plans made with them were always tossed out as if they did not exist. Everyone they did was ad-libbed with no preparation put into it.

Ikoma Squad seemed to be the same way, yet they never seemed to make plans at all. It worked for them seeing as how they continued to be in the top five B-Rank teams. It felt much different than Kotowari Squad who blatantly disregarded any plans told to them.

Now there was something else that did not remain the same with them.

Taiyōko Hoshi had become an addition to their team. Instead of disregarding her because of how their former captain had left them, they had allowed her to join seeming immediately.

_She isn't much. I know she isn't much because she doesn't give any sort of good impression. She's just a princess who thinks she can fight on the front lines like the rest of us._

The princess-like girl had no right to join when she did not understand what she was getting into.

_If I find her during our match then I'll show her just how rough it is to fight._

This unknown factor in a strange team was just an addition that could not add more to what was there.

Toby was the main threat of their team.

Takeshi was a secondary thought if you could get close enough.

Suzume was just a strange girl.

_This girl is nothing compared to them._

She had not done any battle tactics repeatedly during real fights with a team and she had not been on a team at all to gain the position she had with Kotowari Squad. There was no data to show she had done anything at all to be involved in a fight with her own team or Nasu Squad.

Hard work was for fools who thought they could get over their limit and end up failing due to the futility if that thought.

Talent was something a person was born with that placed them higher than others because if what they could do. Even then there was a limit for them. Something Katori realized during her time at Border.

But what about this girl?

She seemed to have no talent besides seeming like a princess. There was no data that showed she worked hard to get her position on Kotowari Squad.

She was in an area that Katori hated.

_She doesn't seem to actually be talented and she doesn't work hard. Even with this damn four-eyes complaining all the time about hard work, he's at least done something._

With those bitter thoughts in mind, Katori stood up.

She ignored her teammates as she walked towards the door.

_I guess I'll deal with her during our match then._


	54. Kotowari Squad: Part 4

"[Welcome to the fourth round of the B-Rank Wars! Tachikawa Squad's Kunichika Yuu here. With me for commentation today is the representative of the Yagura Branch and a member of Bakuto Squad. Tsukiko Yuki and Yamamoto Yorushi. Thanks for being here, Yuki-chan, Yama-san.]"

"[Glad to be here, Kuni.]"

"[A pleasure.]"

"[In this match we will be watching a fight between Katori Squad, Kotowari Squad and Nasu Squad. While Nasu Squad had lost their match against Suzunari-1 in the last match and Katori Squad has been losing a bit in their own matches, Kotowari Squad, after a terrible start this season, has started winning their matches. What's more is that we got word that they had added another member to their team starting this match. Is there anything you two would like to add to this? I'm sure people would love to hear from Kotowari Squad's former leader and local fool.]"

 **White Fox:** "Why do you do this to me, Kuni?"

 **Kuni:** "I need to make things entertaining."

Kunichika gave a lazy smile towards the glaring boy.

Seeing that he would not be getting out of this, Yuki cleared his throat for show before starting to speak.

"[Well, Gaming girl-chan, this is an important match for both Kotowari Squad and Katori Squad. This is their chance to enter the top tier of B-Ranks again. As their former captain and friend, I am happy to see Kotowari Squad doing better, but I will be remaining neutral during this match.]"

"[You say that, but...]"

"[What about you, Yamamoto!?]"

Yuki had found his escape the moment the glasses man glanced towards the two of them.

"[Why are you putting this on me? Oh fine. Ahem. From what we could gather, there is very little on Kotowari Squad's newest member. Even so, they seemed to have taken after their former captain and choose to fight their own fights. Each one works to battle in as solo of a battle as possible while helping their teammates. Meanwhile, Nasu Squad and Katori Squad are rather reliant on their captains and aces to take the points for their matches.]"

"[That is rather fair given how well off they are. Nasu is one of the few people able to Viper off in real time while Katori is just a generally good All-Rounder. To rely on them during matches is not a bad choice.]"

"[With that being said, I would like to point out that Katori Squad is the only team here who does not have a Sniper on their team, meaning they need to be even more care-]"

Yuki and Yamamoto looked over once they noticed the pause in Kunichika's words.

Another Border member had come from the side to slip a piece of paper to her before taking their leave.

After reading the paper, Kunichika blinked a few times before humming.

"[We have just gotten word that Misaki Suzumebachi of Kotowari Squad has yet to show up.]"

Murmurs in the crowd could be heard as Yamamoto pushed up his glasses and Kunichika's smile lowered.

As for Yuki...

"[Yesterday was Valentine's Day...right?]"

All attention immediately went to the faker.

"[Ah~ That would explain Suzu's current absence. She is probably on her way over here right now, but I'm not sure if she will be able to make it.]"

"[Oh, um, for anyone who does not know... Is there really anyone like that? Anyway, for those who don't know, Agent Misaki tends to...enjoy Valentine's Day. That being said, we will still be following the rules here. With this note given to us, she has five minutes to get to her team's operating room before she is officially banned from entering this match. She will be able to join her team in any matches after this, but she will not be allowed to be transported in once it has started.]"

"[Nice job being professional here.]"

"[What a rude jab at me!]"

"[Why don't we go over what we now know? Kunichika, which stage has Nasu Squad chosen for this round?]"

"[Oh, right. We have to announce that now. Thanks for reminding me, Bookkeeper-san!]"

"[Bookkeer-san...]"

"[Nasu Squad has been allowed to choose the location of the battle for this match, seeing as how they are the ones with the lowest ranking. They have decided on using one of the urban areas with a multi-layer overpass.]"

"[How the hell is that even a thing? Are freeways usually the only place where you will find a multi-layer overpass? What would one be doing in an urban area?]"

"[I hear that this stage was created by Jinsoku-san from engineering. Apparently he is one of the stranger ones there and decided this would be a good idea. I try not to go there too much because of that, so this is actually coming from my captain instead.]"

 **Tera-Zō:** "I would like to point out that Shūsei does not represent the rest of us and that he is a strange entity on his own. Please refrain from associating him with either the Engineers or the R&D department in general. Thank you."

 **Quik Fix:** "I'm really being targeted here, aren't I!?"

Yamamoto waved his hand while mouthing something along the lines of, "I don't associate with him either."

Kunichika and Yuki gave him an uncertain look before looking back at the large screen in front if them.

The murmurs below them were on full blast at this point.

"[Well... I suppose we should now wait and see what happens.]"

* * *

 **Werewolf:** "Hey, Suzume, where the hell are you? They just have the official announcement that if you aren't here we'll have to start without you!"

 **Honest Sister:** "I'm honestly so sorry! Even though yesterday was my day, that isn't actually the reason I'm honestly late! I'll tell you guys everything later, but know that I'm honestly hauling ass to get there!"

 **Werewolf:** "Use Teleport or something to get here!"

"That actually would be a bad idea. Remember that we would have to enter the battle with the Trion we had to start with. Her using it to teleport here would lower the amount she would have going in. It would just be easier to get a point from her."

Takeshi ignored the growl coming from Toby as he looked at the map of where they would having their match.

On the top right of the map was the private chat Kotowari Squad was having.

 **Colors:** "Senpai, please try to get here quickly, but don't use your Trigger. If you can't make it in time, we will just go in without you."

Having to fight against the likes of Nasu Squad and Katori Squad without their Sniper was not something Takeshi would have ever thought about.

The older girl was a key player in the match considering she knew the Rhythms of each agent and could get better shots in than Hiura.

_If Suzume-senpai is kissing during this fight then that means we have to think up a way around Hiura-san._

"Takeshi."

He turned towards Mei.

Mei had been silently watching from her computer as Toby rapidly messaged Suzume and Hoshi nervously fidgeted while eyeing the map herself.

"I know, Mei-san. I actually do want to ask you to see how we can change things at the moment. None of us can replace Suzume-senpai. Oh, and I'm not just saying that to be emotional. Myself, Hoshi and the dog literally can't do what she does. That being said, I want to figure this out myself. If I cannot come up with something in the next three minutes then I will ask for you help. Is that okay?"

"No need to ask that, Takeshi. I will always be here for you all, so feel free to do as you like. Just remember that we are all backing each other up."

"Right. Now then... How to go about this."

Kotowari Squad may have to go into battle without a Sniper. They may have to fight without a strong Side Effect for an outside view.

_Suzume-senpai always kept the other teams in check by keeping out of sight until she needed to show off. Most people did not want to be caught by her so they were always careful. The combination of her Side Effect at long distance and Toby's Side Effect at close range are always what others seem to focus on with my own attacks being a secondary thought._

He gave a bitter glare down.

_I should stop._

Thinking that others found him less dangerous than his teammates was not something that should have been viewed as bad. It had always given him a good chance to attack since others were focused on the Attacker-Sniper combination.

That combination was now gone for the moment with Suzume seeming to be unable to make it in time for their match.

Takeshi fixed his scarf with a sigh.

"Hm..."

Hearing the the sound of a nervous hum, he turned his head to look towards their newest member.

_Nasu Squad and Katori Squad shouldn't know what Hoshi can do, so there is still an element of surprise there. She can't do as much as Senpai, but this should still work out well enough. We just need to be sure that Hiura-san can just go around trying to snipe us._

Looking back down at the map, Takeshi narrowed his eyes.

Just from the view they had at the moment, it was clear where some good sniping spot could be. The area was also perfect for someone like Nasu to fire Viper and for Kumagai to fight head-on or retreat if needed. That meant that other Attackers and All-Rounders were also a bit well off when it came to one-on-one fights.

But...

"This is to counter me and Wakamura-san."

"Takeshi-kun?"

"Nasu Squad chose this location since it gives someone like Nasu-san more than enough room to do as she likes while also giving their Attacker her own space to fight. They seemed to have decided that Toby is who they will let roam free and that I should be the one put at a disadvantage."

"My apologies, but I still do not fully understand. Should you not have the better advantage here since the attacks you use are more versatile?"

"That would be true under other circumstances. This time is different since Take would have to destroy basically the center of the battlefield or get in the danger zone to properly fight."

Takeshi looked over at Toby.

He was one of the few non-Shooters who understood his firing style best.

"Rei's control of Viper can move around the different levels of the battlefield while close-range fighters, like the two of us, can move on those same levels. From the looks of things here... I would say they were already planning on limiting Suzume's movement too. The best smiling spots are kind of obvious. Them now knowing that Suzume most likely won't be fighting just helps them out more. Is that about right, Mei?"

"Yes. You did a good job understanding that, Toby."

At times it was hard to remember that, even with how excitable he was, Toby was still considered a genius when compared to most people. It seemed like he had not been the only one to forget as Hoshi seemed to gave a face as well.

Taking back the conversation for himself, Takeshi looked back down while fixing his scarf.

"Our team is now put at the worst disadvantage since Suzume-senpai will not be joining us."

"So are we at a loss?"

He shook his head.

"Not really. It just makes us play more cautiously. Or rather... That is what they will probably think."

Takeshi furrowed his brows at his own words.

"Sorry. I shouldn't say something like that when I hardly understand people right now. Oh, um, but I guess I should say that to Nasu Squad and Katori Squad later, not to you guys."

"So what should we do here then?"

He was grateful for quick transition back to their conversation.

Even so, the question sounded far too relaxed to be a real question.

_Hoshi is new to this team, so it's understandable that she would not get it right away. But from the way Toby and Mei are looking at me, it seems they got what I was implying._

"That is easy. We let the two of you go on a rampage."

* * *

"[It would seem that the time limit has been reached and that Agent Misaki will not be joining her team in this match.]"

"[It would seem that the time limit has been reached and that Agent Misaki will not be joining her team in this match.]"

"[That could be tricky for them. It was clear that Nasu Squad was finding a way to lock down Kotowari Squad's two distance fighters and Katori Squad's Gunner. This just means they have less to worry about now.]"

"[But that also means Katori Squad and Kotowari Squad will be moving differently than what Nasu Squad had originally planned.]"

"[You sure sound confident in that statement.]"

"[That's because I understand instantaneous changes when it comes to battles. And I also know the Kotowari Squad boys well enough.]"

"[Well we can see if that's true right now then. It looks like all the teams are now being transported in. With a map like this, where you end up being transported in can really make a difference.]"

.

"Oh my. Never thought I would see you pouting."

"I am not pouting. I am just mad."

Kōchō Kashi lightly glared at the screen in front of her.

Even as the seat next to her was taken up, she gave no thought as three teams were transported into their match.

That comment came from an older boy wearing the Ōji Squad uniform.

That was Kurauchi and he gave the Songstress Shooter a sidelong glance with his eyes.

"It would seem you came to watch Awdry after the fiasco in the chat recently."

"Heh. You would think that, given my lack of response at the end. ...But thanks to that, I was able to make some good lyrics. It really makes me wonder how Misaki-san isn't churning out song after song with a team like that."

"Maybe she is just too use to it?"

"That is true. She is just as relaxed as the rest of her team. That makes sense."

Kōchō puffed her chest out with a sigh before it retracted.

She was looking all around the screen as some of the agents not wearing Bagworm were visible.

One of them was Toby.

The was the boy who had managed to help her when she needed it and created a nice feeling for her, so she was seeing that boy who had changed from then.

"The opposing teams are looking beyond just one team or any specific members of each team. Kurauchi-san, what is your opinion of that? For example, what will things be like for this match?"

"Well." Kurauchi took a sat back on the seat to be further away from the screen and look around. "Kōchō, do you think these teams will give this their all?"

"They will take this very seriously. And they intend to turn this into their proof of where they stand. A team like mine does not care too much about ranks and that's why we never join the B-Rank Wars, but they are not the same by any means."

"Why?"

"Right." The Songstress Shooter nodded. "Katori Squad and Kotowari Squad have been dropped from the top tier of B-Rank teams. That means they will be trying to get back up there. Nasu Squad, while never being there, will take this chance to show that they can fight with people who have been up there."

"What does _that_ matter?"

"Because it is _that_ , Kurauchi-san." Kōchō laughed quietly and did not bother turning toward Kurauchi. "Heh. Think of it in reverse, Kurauchi-san. You are on a team who was originally part of Yuba Squad but, after separating from him, is constantly defying that same team. ...When you went with Ōji, didn't you think that you had a lot to go through to gain a better ranking after just separating from a team you had gotten so use to being with?"

"Well..."

Kurauchi seemed to realize something because he looked to the screen.

He faced the same direction as the Songstress Shooter to view the currently visible combatants.

The setting had been placed near midday and made everything clear to see, but Kurauchi spoke quietly as he stared at it.

"Are you suggesting they have a reason to not give anything up in this fight?"

"They probably do." Kōchō did not make a definite statement, but she did cross her arms over her chest. "All three teams have been constantly demonstrating that they are 'strong'. And what is it they gain from that?"

"Notice from people in a higher position." Kurauchi answered immediately, but he did not stop there. "If they can demonstrate that they have 'power' in their teams..."

That would mean...

"Everything they are doing would gain the attention of those who wish to test that power."

"Exactly." Kōchō nodded and took a breath. "Kurauchi-san, you have been an agent far longer than me. Since you have been on two teams now while I have been on only one that doesn't care for ranking, you have a better view. I will show my respect on that front."

"What about the fact that I am a well off Shooter?"

"If you are a well off Shooter, then I am a cared for Shooter." The Songstress Shooter glanced to the side. "If you insist on saying something like that, I too will insist on stating where I stand."

"I appreciate your thoughtfulness."

"And I am glad we have something in common. Besides, I am actually here as a 'fan' of Kotowari Squad. Besides Toby, I am actually interested in the girl he insulted and his captain who looks like he needs us Shooters backing him up."

"I see." Kurauchi nodded with a thoughtful look. "Ōji Squad has not joined any branches, but Akasora-san had said to watch one of Kotowari Squad's matches as an outsider to understand what the Yagura Branch will be like."

"Is that so? Then that means Ōji Squad and Kotowari Squad are under consideration by that 'Mr. Akasora' Toby told me about. I guess that means we - Motojime Squad - can't join."

"Sorry about that."

Kōchō smiled at him while looking back at the screen.

"No need for that. Now let's enjoy the show."

* * *

The first thing that came to mind once being transported in was to gather one's bearings and analyze where the placements were.

Hoshi followed this rule by looking around her while moving to start a run.

"Hoshi, you good?"

Toby was the first voice that came to her.

"Um, what exactly do you mean by that, Awdry-kun?"

"Oh, uh, just asking if you got transported anywhere weird. That's all. Sometimes stuff like that happens."

How often did it happen that he was worried about it?

Hoshi pushed the question to the side as she lowered her body.

"Ah, yes, I was safely transported. I believe I am on the overpass actually."

"Yeah. Mei sent us the exact locations of each other right now. Well, as accurate as she could with how things are set up. I still don't know which level you are on right now. From my position it looks like there are five levels to the overpass."

As he spoke through to her, Hoshi saw the map she had. There were two markers for her teammates and other ones for the opposing teams who were not wearing Bagworm. One of the dots coming from her team was moving towards her at a fast pace.

_That just be Toby-kun. He must have been placed rather far away._

The speed at which he was moving would mean he would reach the overpass in two minutes.

If she did not know how fast he could be, she would have thought that he was using a Trigger to rush towards her.

_He has always been at the top during Sports Day and class. This is no surprise._

"Hoshi, sorry I'm taking so long, but can you get ready for a fight? It doesn't matter what level you are on right now since Rei and her team planned for this sort of fight."

"This sort of fight?"

"Yeah. Take didn't go into as kuch detail as he should have, but this kind of setting prevents him from firing however he likes, exposes Snipers like Suzume and drags close-range fighters into a certain position. It's like placing the enemy where it would be a major disadvantage while placing allies in places where they would have the best advantages."

"That is thoroughly thought out. I am sure I would not have thought of such a thing."

"Nah. Once you get use to tactical things it's really nothing."

She remembered hearing that Toby had learned to play shōgi against a Shooter from a top tier B-Rank team as well as chess against yet another B-Rank team.

It was no wonder why he could make such a comment as if it was natural.

Even with those thoughts, Hoshi continued to be cautious of her surrounds as she conversed with her teammate.

"Then if I may... What would I be able to do exactly? Takeshi-kun has only said we may 'rampage' and that he had something planned out. Other than that, I am not so sure as to what I should be doing."

"Right. Since you're new to this whole scene, I think the other guys will either want to take you out quickly or gauge how well you fight. Either one will be great for this fight. If you get into any fights before I get there, try to do as minimal as possible why surviving. Once I get there, that's when we will be working together. When that happens, I will really need you to back me up. Back me up as much as possible. And don't worry, I'll make sure to protect you too. I will take full responsibility for you."

If her Trion Body had not been set to prevent blushing and the like, Hoshi was sure that she would be completely red.

She understand that it was just another case of Toby using the incorrect phrasing, but it was hard for her to think that it was nothing but a confession.

Thankfully she was not the only one listening.

"Idiot, that should be my line as captain."

But the other boy seemed to be just as bad.

"Hoshi, like the dog-boy said, you two will be doing the fighting. At least for the start. I am going to be setting something up and need any attention moved away from me. Sorry to ask this of you."

She wanted to respond, but there were two reason why she could not.

The first was because she knew that accepting the apology or denying it would make it seem as if what he was decided on really was something to apologize for. As if it was wrong to even ask that of her and Toby.

After interacting even more with the boy after his change, it was clear that she needed to be a bit more careful on how to respond to him. It would do not good at helping him if she gave a wrong answer.

And the second reason was...

.

Hoshi moved back as multiple lights came down from above.

_That is...!_

As she steadied herself on more, lights could be seen traveling across imaginary lines in the sky. All of them were in her direction.

The distance from where she was compared to where they seemingly originated was farther than her distance from Toby.

Each shot seemed to be set just a bit differently as there was the smallest amount of lag between one shot and another. This made for a difficult time at dodging as moving from a first shot meant running into a second shot.

_Toby-kun would be able to dodge these attacks with his Side Effect and Takeshi-kun is currently using Bagworm. Of course I would be the best target at the moment._

With that bitter thought, Hoshi pushed herself as hard as she could to the side of the multi-layer overpass. This sent her into a free fall as the shots hit the road hard enough to crack them.

With her front now towards the sky, she was able to see that she had been on the fourth level of the overpass.

Her vision moved from the two levels above her to the next set of shots that were moving towards her.

With this sort of accuracy it was clear that the Nasu Squad Sniper had managed to find her and inform her captain.

_Still..._

Forcing her body into a spin, Hoshi created a shield a bit below her.

Once her body was parallel to the newly created shield, she placed her feet on it before pushing herself off.

She tucked her body on as she started to roll on the next level of the overpass.

No movement was wasted when she turned her roll into a running start.

Her feet managed to hit the ground five times before she realized that the shots had not continued.

It was at the seventh and eighth step that she came to understand why that was.

"!"

Bringing up her Kōgetsu as quickly as she could, Hoshi made it just in time to stop an attack from Katori.

There was no room to breath as the older girl pulled out her gun to fire at blank range.

_I need to put up a shield! But what if Nasu-san fires at me again!?_

The moment of hesitation was all that was needed for her time to defend was up.

She tried to move back to gain some distance, but there was no longer any movement she could make to stop this attack.

"You did a good job, Hoshi!"

.

Toby grinned towards the two girls that had separated from each other.

Seeing that there were only two steps away from Katori, he took the initiative by pushing himself to the side while twisting his body.

After the previous match, Toby had learned that when someone moved at a fast pace most of the time they tend to notice even the slightest loss of speed.

That was the case here.

_Again!?_

To someone like Hoshi it was have seemed as if Toby and Katori were moving fast, but for Toby it felt like an eternity to just make the first step.

Once his foot had touched the ground for his first step, Katori was another two steps away.

The second step felt even slower than the first and Katori was now four steps away.

_I'm so slow! What the hell is going on with me!?_

There was no chance at catching her for a close-ranged battle at the moment. Toby knew that and so moved back to stand in front of his teammate.

He shifted his feet to feel the road under him. If felt no different than any other time he was standing on solid ground.

So then why was he slow?

"Sorry about that, Hoshi. I wasted the chance you gave me."

He frowned at his own words.

There should not have been any reason to say something like that, but they had come out.

What else could he do but apologize when he knew that he was now the one holding his team back?

"A-ah! No, no! That was amazing!"

Yet this girl rejected his apology in favor of complimenting him.

"But..."

She had more to say.

"Toby-kun, is there a reason to pulled back in the last moments?"

Toby went wide eyed when hearing this.

It was not something he ever thought he would hear be said towards him. Especially from someone like Hoshi.

There was no anger or bitterness towards the girl since she only said what was on her mind. The comment was meant as a genuine question.

_I pulled back? No. I got slower. I never pull back and never hold back. That would be rude to whoever I'm fighting. But she was right behind me, so she had a good view of what just happened._

Neither option made any sense.

Toby knew that he would never go easy on someone like Katori. His body may move on its own when using his Side Effect, but he would still use that movement to attack. He never moved away from a fight or backed down.

But he could not get slower.

There had been no factor that would make him slow down more than once.

He noticed it in his fight against Noah and Shana.

The speed he was reliant on had gone down for some reason during that fight. It was mystery to him as to why he had lost speed during that match and allowed the other two to catch up to him the way they did.

After that match had finished, he had gone to do multiple solo matches. In those matches, he felt that his speed really had lowered from before he was in that match against Noah and Shana, but it never went lower than that.

Yet here he was.

His speed had dropped again and he had been told that he pulled back from this fight.

None of it made any sense to him.

_I don't have time to think about it! Get with it, Toby! Even if you've slowed down or pulled back, you still need to focus! The best way to make up for this right now is to work with Hoshi!_

He straightened his posture. Two Scorpion blades were created, each being held in one of his hands.

Without turning back to her, he spoke directly to Hoshi.

"Alright Hoshi, I was late and I messed up here... But we're going to win this before Take even has a chance to do anything!"

"Right!"

* * *

"He is doing it again."

Kōchō stared at the screen with pursed lips.

Next to her was Kurauchi who had just been watching the screen as an outsider.

"What do you mean?"

"Toby is lowering himself again."

The words were followed by a low and irritated hum from the girl.

She had not expected to see this happen during a match. Even more so when one of the boy's teammates was not there.

_This may be troublesome._

"I have only seen a glimpse of it before, but Midorikawa and Inukai have told me about it." Kōchō glanced up at where the commentators were, focusing solely on Yuki. "But I'm sure that Tsukiko has seen it before as well."

"If that's the case, shouldn't Kotowari and Takato-san also know about whatever this is?"

"Not necessarily... The only times this seemed to come up were very specific. And apparently they did not last this long. Oh, and I mean during two matches back-to-back."

"So what exactly is going on then?"

There was where the issue was.

Kōchō herself was unsure how to properly answer that question.

What was happening was something hard to explain since the boy himself seemed to hardly know what was going on. That gave reasoning as to why it was happening a long time.

Still, she tried to find the best words to explain it.

It seemed that her explanation was unnecessary as a voice filled the room.

It had come from the boy's former captain.

.

"[So Toby is comparing himself again, huh...]"

"[What do you mean?]"

"[I'm not too sure.]"

Yuki did not need to turn his head to know what kind of looks he was getting.

"[I'm not sure what exactly goes on with Toby during times like these, but he always seems to be comparing himself to others. That's why it seems as if he is pulling himself back or intentionally slowing down. From my perspective, it seems like he compares himself to others and then gets disheartened after doing so.]"

"[You were Agent Awdry's former captain, so there is hardly anyone better to answer than you. If you are not that sure then the rest of us are kind of out of options.]"

Seeing the younger boy in such a state brought back some memories for Yuki. They flashed briefly, reminding him of their first meeting.

_I need to put those thoughts away for the moment. I need to act as a neutral party right now._

"[Even knowing that something is going on... He needs to focus on what is currently in front of him.]"

"[That is true. Katori is currently at a good range to fire at both Awdry and Taiyōko while Nasu knows where they are and can fire whenever she feels like. There is no time to compare people when in the middle of a match.]"

* * *

Hoshi watched Toby move to a proper position.

She feared that she had said something wrong and wanted nothing more than to apology for it. There was no room to do such a thing when Katori was already moving to the side and Toby looked ready to push off the ground.

With something going on concerning Toby and Takeshi getting some things set up, she could only think of doing everything she could to gain some points.

Even if it meant taking on Katori by herself.

_"Hoshi, we're going to draw out Rei. As things are, she can't hit us if we cover each other. That means either she will have to come to us directly or have Yūko come at us. So we just need to stick with each other for the moment."_

_"Understood."_

_._

The two moved forward with Toby taking the right and Hoshi the left.

Toby moved first by pushing off the ground again. This time he used Teleport to get closer instead of his feet.

From her position Hoshi saw Katori start to raise her gun while holding back Toby with a blade.

Reacting to the sight, she created a shield to block the hand from moving the gun any further.

Toby had taken the opportunity to balance himself on the opposing arm to flip over Katori.

The moment his feet landed on the ground, he moved forward.

With the shield still in place, there was no room for Katori to turn.

"Tch!"

Instead of turning her body to move backwards into the attack, Katori had taken a different option by turning the gun in her hand and firing behind her.

The reflexive Side Effect of Toby's went into action by forcing his body to swerve to the side in order to dodge.

He went in for another attack once he saw that Hoshi had reached the right distance to assist him.

It would have been easy enough to take the older girl's head if not for the new shower of Viper shots coming down on them.

There had been no warning and there was no mercy in the attack that came from multiple directions.

There seemed to be no one target as Katori also had to protect herself from the attacks.

"Hoshi! Don't back down!"

Listening to his own words, Toby moved forward still, not focusing on the shots coming at them and instead on the girl inches away from him.

He had made the right choice as multiple shields appeared above him, taking the hits that could have reached him.

On the opposite side of Katori, Hoshi though nothing if the multiple shield that appeared above her to protect her from the Viper shots coming from above.

The two moved in at the same time, each with a blade in hand.

Their blades clashed against each other as a feeling of something tearing came back to them as feedback. It was strange since it should have taken longer for their blades to reach each other.

The tearing feeling had apparently been only a part of Katori's arm.

They both turned in time to see the same girl already firing shots at them from the side, now being protect from the Viper shots herself.

With his Side Effect already going into action, Toby gave up his blade in favor of creating another shield in front of Hoshi to protect her even more from the front as well as above.

Under normal circumstances his body would continue moving without his mind wanting to, either creating a contradiction or allowing his body to move how it wanted. That had always been how opponents managed to put enough pressure on him.

But right now...

"!"

His body and his thoughts aligned well enough to allow him to move forward without worrying about anything else.

The speed was still lower than what people had been use to, but the distance and narrow space between Viper shots made it difficult for anyone to completely move away from him.

Something caught his eye from the side. There had been nothing in his body telling him to move away from it and so his reflexes decided on another action for what it was.

"Catch," it said.

So he did just so.

With both his right and left being using to shield Hoshi from attacks, he could not bring out a Scorpion blade to attack. Even cracking a makeshift blade from a shield would do nothing.

That was why when he felt the weight of a Kōgetsu blade he thought about what a great teammate he had.

Pulling the blade out of its holder, he drew it as quickly as he could.

.

Katori bit back a curse as he tried to move back and away from the oncoming beast.

His speed had been much slower than she remembered and he had been completely focused on protecting the girl who could barely move through the rain of Viper shots and the shots she herself fired.

Kōgetsu was much heavier than any Scorpion blade, so his speed fell ever so slightly once more as he moved slower to her.

"Yōko, jump down! You won't make it otherwise!"

_I don't want to run from these two! But..._

There had been no choice for her at the moment.

She knew that one if her teammates had managed to make it in time to protect her a bit, but this was different. Neither Wakamura or Miura could protect her without giving themselves away right now.

The only thing she could do to make sure she would not get hit by the heavy blade was to move as far back as possible and do what she had seen the girl do. Jump off the side of the overpass and land on the level under them.

It would put her on the second level of the overpass. It meant running from the beast in front of her and the girl who knew nothing, but it also protected her from any Viper shots from above.

The three levels would protect from direct fire from above and even Nasu would need to get closer to pinpoint exactly where she was before firing. Even sniper fire and sight would be useless with the extra levels above her.

So instead of salvaging her pride, she took a leap back as the Kōgetsu was drawn.

It had managed to nick her foot, but otherwise left no mark on her.

There was always going to be a moment for someone to attack when leaping from one of the levels, but she knew that one of her teammates was close by and could defend her from any shots fired at her.

Indeed, a shot did come for her.

It was not a Viper shot but rather a sniper shot.

A shield formed before the shot could connect with her.

"You guys saw that too?"

"We can't go after it. By the time we reach Hiura she will have already moved."

"Useless megane."

She let out a sigh at the same time she landed on the second level of the overpass.

"Those two will follow me down here or go after Nasu. They don't look like they will split up any time soon since the little girl is too new to fight any of us."

"Be mindful of Kotowari too."

"He hasn't done anything this whole time. Maybe he just doesn't care about them anymore."

She knew that if anyone had actually heard her that she would be attacked immediately. Beside Kotowari Squad, Nasu Squad had also taken a liking to the boy, that meant they would, not hesitate to attack her for that comment.

There was no reason to care about a boy who was unsure of himself even after receiving so much help. Attracting attacks was not her plan, but that may have been the byproduct of her words.

Yet nothing came.

No shots came to the second level of the overpass and bodies did not land on the second level of the overpass.

_What the hell is going on? Even if they did go after Nasu, there should be more sound than this. There's nothing going on right now._

It could have been that the other two teams were planning their next move. It would only be natural given the situation.

But that felt wrong.

It was not that they would not do it. It was that Kotowari Squad would not be quiet when regrouping.

"Then what-"

Katori's answer came soon after.

"They found Yūta."

The sound of Somei's voice was followed by multiple lights flying through the air. Each one seemed to be directed at a single location.

If those shots were going towards Toby and Hoshi, who had apparently found Miura, then they would certainly crash into their opponent as well. Losing a member of her team was not something she wanted so early on in the match.

Even so, there was very little that could be done at the moment.

Nasu's Vipers became more deadly as one went up the overpass. If Miura was at the top, there would be no chance of assisting.

Or that was how it should have been.

"Now what!?"

* * *

"[Waaaaahh~ So pretty~ Leave it to Yuki-chan's former team to do something like that!]"

"[Hey, hey, Kuni, that sounds very unprofessional. Oh, and I don't teach them anything like that. Please don't assume everything bad concerning them is because of me.]"

The three commentators looked towards the screen as a laser-like beam rose up to cut through the rain of Viper shots that came from above.

"[Disregarding the imagery. Kotowari just gave himself away to protect his two teammates. They seemed to have found Miura after he protected Katori twice. That means two of the hiding agents have appeared.]"

"[Oh, no, that's not right. Take isn't stupid. He's a great kid when he wants to be.]"

Yuki ignored the slightly offended look coming from the glasses-man.

"[If he was taking this long to protect them from Nasu, that means he had something planned. I have no doubt that this might actually be what Kotowari Squad needed to move forward with the fight.]"

"[Now that you mention it... They didn't go after Captain Katori when she jumped down to a lower level. That must be because they knew what they were doing and decided to ascend the overpass instead of descend it.]"

"[Exactly. Don't forget that they have Mei as an Operator and that Toby is considered a genius. Take is also really good at finding things out during a fight. While that doesn't mean that someone like Nasu won't be able to notice this stuff, I think that it will be too late once she does.]"

* * *

Toby grinned as he rushed towards the defending Miura.

Instead of chasing after Katori, it had been decided that he and Hoshi would climb up the multi-layer overpass instead of jump down a level. It had been where a new target was.

The thought of Nasu's Viper shots hitting them was a bit off putting at first. It had even happened like originally thought, but reassuring words from their captain had been enough for them. It became even more reassuring as those Viper shots were cut down by the long beam of light from the side of the overpass.

With no more worrying about the long-range attacks, Toby moved forward to cut down Miura while the chance was there.

Takeshi could only watch at the moment as this went on.

From his position near the overpass he could see the battle between his teammates and the lone Miura. Under that was a confused Katori. Near them all was Nasu, who seemed to be trying to find out where the beam of trion came from.

_I still haven't seen Kumagai-senpai or Wakamura-san and Hiura-san should be hiding out right now._

His attack-turned-protection had worked well enough.

A single orb of trion lazily floated around him as if guarding him. Unlike the one he had used in previous matches this one seemed much smaller and more faint, as if it would disappear at any moment.

Takeshi took not notice of the orb as he continued to watch out for any Viper shots. While he could not do much to protect his team from close-range attacks or sniper shots, he would undoubtedly take out any long-range attacks that came from Nasu.

_This should be good. Now that they know I can take down her shots, Nasu-san will need to get in close to fire without my intervention. The distance she would have to have against Toby should be enough for him to attack._

He fixed his scarf as he analyzed the positions of the people he could see.

Attacking Nasu with his own laser like beams would continue to make her think she knew where he was, but that would also give him away in a different way. Getting her close to Toby was the best course of action.

She knew what he was capable of after having helped him out before.

To fight her right now would mean a loss no matter how he fought.

But...

"Take, you cheeky jerk! So that was what you were planning!"

Hoshi did not respond due to being in a fight. Toby on the other hand knew that he could fight while communicating due to his Side Effect.

"I was planning on holding off from using this until we fought either Ninomiya Squad or Kageura Squad. With Suzume-senpai not here to back us up I thought I would do something to cover that."

Was it too arrogant to assume they would win this match and return to the top tier of B-Rank teams?

_Should I have asked if it was fine?_

No. There was no point in asking if it was fine when they were in the middle of a match.

Nasu or Miura might have been nice enough answer after the match, but they would not converse with him during said match.

"Um, may I ask what it is that you did, Takeshi-kun? Ah, and I may not be able to understand it all right away, so Fu... Mei-san, may I please also get it typed out to read once there is a moment of break?"

There was no holding back this girl from asking about something during a match. If Miura knew about it, she would have likely asked him as well.

Takeshi was unsure of what to do until Mei responded kindly to the girl. That meant it was fine for him to explain.

If she did not understand what was happening then it may mess her up at some point.

_I should not say it out loud. Just in case there really is someone nearby._

_Maybe I should have explained it sooner... But Even j was unsure if I was going to use it in this match since it was still an uncertain thing._

He noticed that Mei was had already changed things so that his words were also typed out under his chat name of "Colors".

That may have been so that Suzume could view his explanation later on in their private chat.

 **Colors:** "Instead of keeping my, um... Orbs? Balls? Uh, my Trigger of choice... Instead of keeping them near me, I placed them around the battlefield. Right by the overpass, if I'm going to be accurate. After practicing a bit more with the Laser Shooter Trigger I had found out that I can control them remotely with an amazing amount of distance. It's just that the more distance between me and them means the harder it is to move them. Firing them is no problem though. The amount of trion it takes is the same, so they are just as strong as ever."

Maybe it was because no one every used the chat during a match, mostly because it was inefficient and possibly not allowed, but seeing the words displayed next to his chat name was odd now.

Once going over his own explanation again he realized why he wanted to use it against the top two B-Rank teams.

Kageura's Side Effect would be relatively useless when using this sort of attack. Takeshi would still give himself away due to his feelings reaching Kageura, but nothing would be felt from where the remote lasers were placed. Kitazoe and Ema would have also been great targets seeing as they did not have wild Side Effects.

Ninomiya Squad may have noticed the tactic, but they would likely have to be hit first before that would happen. The attacks would be effective until they were found out and destroyed. If hidden well then it would take a rain of Hound from Ninomiya to actually take it out.

Thinking about it had made Takeshi lift his scarf to cover his face.

While he would not blush in his current body, he still felt embarrassed at figuring something out agains teams that he was unsure he would fight.

_Maybe... It's because I know us. Not as well as I would like, but I know us. Hoshi is still new, but she seems to fit in just fine. We are classmates, but Suzume-senpai barely knows her and yet they seem to work well off each other._

There was no point in thinking about something so relaxed, he decided. They were still in a match and these relaxed thoughts were meant for after the fight was over.

Silently nodding to himself, Takeshi turned back to the fights going on.

With things set in place, there were a handful of outcomes he could think of. They would pale in comparison to what Mei would be able to find out, but he did not want to put a burden on her.

That meant only one thing.

_I need to keep this battle going until we win._


	55. Katori Squad

"Aaaaahhh! I finally made it! I'm honestly going to be in trouble later for missing out on this! Damn! I really wanted to mess around with Akane-chan and Nasu!"

Suzume took repeated breaths as he leaned on the wall closest to her.

Dancing around never felt like it took any energy from her at all, but general physical activity was always a nuisance since it left her winded afterwards.

"This honestly...sucks."

"It's about time you made it. You missed this match, so that means I'm going to lay down some punishment the next time we are training."

The voice speaking directly to her made her jump up against the wall.

The boy who had been speaking to her glared from his seat with his arms crossed. Next to him was his glasses-wearing underclassman who was looking at her with worry.

She returned the glare towards Narasaka while giving a small wave towards Kodera.

"It's honestly not my fault that my degenerate of a father decided to make an appearance today of all days. Oh, but I won't be going into that with you here. Only my team and a select few will be told what actually happened."

"I don't care to know anyway. I'm too busy watching the match you are suppose to be a part of."

"You honestly want to end up in a mob doujinshi, don't you? That can be arranged. Especially since you look more moody than every today."

The two Snipers continued to glare at each other without looking towards Kodera.

The sound of murmurs below them brought the two towards the screen in the front and the comments coming from the commentators.

"[This match looks like it is really getting into it now. With Captain Kotowari shutting down Captain Nasu's Viper, she will need to get in close to attack anyone on the multi-layer overpass. It seems to be even harder to deal with since Captain Kotowari seems to be in hiding.]"

"[Kumagai and Wakamura have also yet to make an appearance. Both of them need to get in close to do any damage. Kumagai being an attacker is a given, but Wakamura is also locked down because of Take's attacks. Meanwhile Akane is holding back from taking any shots since everything is an uncertainty right now.]"

Suzume was surprised when she saw the current position of the three teams.

From the angle they were giving it seemed that Toby and Hoshi were facing off against Miura on the fourth level of the overpass. A replay of the failed attack by Nasu also came up on the right side of the screen.

She narrowed her eyes at the laser like beam that cut through the rain of Viper. It felt different than what she had seen before.

It could have been Takeshi trying something new, which she would welcome any time, but there was a lingering feeling in her chest when she saw it.

"You might have missed it, but they also mentioned how Awdry is holding himself back by comparing himself to others. Although it was an uncertain comment by your former captain."

She looked back down at Narasaka. He was not looking at her and instead focusing on the screen. Likely so he could see how Hiura would do things since she was currently not in the battle with her team.

"I don't owe you anything by telling you that. I am telling you more for your teammate than you. Believe it or not but I am a bit fond of Awdry."

 **Old Temple:** "Awdry gave him some chocolate before."

Suzume nodded towards the underclassman Sniper.

It was an unexpected thing to find out, but it also counted as gaining new material.

She had never thought of putting Narasaka and Toby in the same doujinshi since there was never anything in common for them besides her. That was now changed with this new information.

A reminder had been set in her phone to give Kodera a reward for letting her know of this.

Now nodding to herself, Suzume continued watching the screen.

"Without me there, they are honestly lacking in a way to get to Akane-chan. Besides that, the blessings-... Ahem. Sorry, I'm still in performer mode. Anyway, the cover I usually provide for them is also gone. Toby is an Attacker would loves nothing more than get close to his target while Hoshi-chan focuses more on close-range sword fighting and shooting. Take is the only one who can cover long-range attacks."

"That seems to work well enough since he is locking down both Rei and Wakamura. The only downside there seems to be is that there is no way for him to attack if they are on the overpass, since he might end up destroying it."

"Yeah, but you see it too. It honestly isn't that hard to realize that that is what our dog-boy and Hoshi-chan are for. Even so... I am honestly getting irritant knowing that Nasu picked this man just for us."

"At least you noticed."

Feeling a bit indignation towards that comment, Suzume flipped her hair before crossing her arms under her chest.

There was no chance she would miss what map had been chosen and for what reason.

"This is honestly our worst map since Take doesn't like getting too close to his opponents when firing and all the best sniping spots are easy to spot. Even a novice could honestly see it if they tried."

Nasu Squad wanting to lock them down was a given. Before, when they had Yuki on their team, it was clear that this kind of plan could only hold back two of their team while the remaining two were still free to do as they wanted. If it worked against the third team, even better.

It had left two free points to take in the form of a Shooter and a Sniper. That had left the Attacker and All-Round to be bombarded from multiple side.

_Yuki-san was the reason we had won those matches. People stopped using this map against us once they realized our best fighter was uneffected by it in the slightest._

With Yuki no longer being on their team and Hoshi not being as skilled as him, it was a perfect chance to test then and see if this kind of strategy still worked. Now they would be able to lock down Suzume's sniping as well as Takeshi's Laser Shooter.

Or that was how it should have been.

"Heh heh heh. None of us accounted for my absence and they did not think that Take honestly had something to counter them."

"To be fair, hardly any of us know what to expect from your team, Misa- Uh, um... Suzume-nee..."

Suzume stopped her glare to smile down at Kodera.

"I will honestly take that as a compliment, Shōhei-kun."

She laughed at his relief. He was an honest boy who made it hard for her to be mad at.

With nothing else to do, she leaned on the railing, ignoring the looks she was getting from Narasaka and Kodera.

"Now then..."

She gave a bitter smile towards the screen.

"Let's honestly see what they can do without me."

* * *

Nasu look left and right while holding her hand to her ear.

She ran forward once she was sure that there was no one around to attack her.

"Akane-chan, have you found Kotowari-kun?"

"No! I looked at where the attack came from, but there wasn't anyone near that area! Do you want me to attack Toby and Taiyōko?"

"Not yet. I want to confirm where Kotowari-kun and Wakamura-kun are. Kuma, how close are you to the overpass?"

"I'm about to reach the base of it. Do you want me to go up to where they are?"

"..."

Nasu glared up at the overpass.

The lower someone was on the overpass the harder it was for her to fire Viper. The top level and the base level were the best places she could fire at while the second level was the hardest. It continued to get easier the more you went up.

The amount of things to consider when firing grew the more down the target went. Base level was just easy since it would currently be eye level with her.

_At the moment, Awdry-kun, Taiyōko-san and Miura-kun are on the fourth level. Katori is on the second level._

_If the battle on the fourth level continues, I'm sure Miura-kun will lose. He may be able to get a few hits in Taiyōko-san, but he would lose. That would free them up to go after someone else._

That was the fourth level of the overpass.

It would be easy enough for her to fire at the level once more. The issue came in the form of the laser-like beams fired by Takeshi, who they had not been able to locate just yet.

Firing now would mean using up trion just to have a chance at finding the Laser Shooter. On,h a chance.

While on the second level...

_It's just Katori. If we send Kuma then that fight might go on for a bit. At least long enough for me to get there. But we don't know where Wakamura-kun is._

It was another factor that could change the outcome of a fight.

If Kumagai was sent to hold off Katori, Wakamura could come in and assist his captain. That would make it a two-on-one battle that would end with Kumagai's loss.

Should she send Kumagai to Katori? Or would it be better to wait for Wakamura to appear? That would then either lead to Miura losing and Kotowari Squad gaining a point or having a two-on-two fight with Katori Squad and Kotowari Squad.

"Rei?"

This was her decision.

The choice she would make as a team captain.

"Kuma, go to the second level and try to drag Katori towards the edge of the overpass. If you can get her in sight of Akane-chan them you two can take care of that."

"Right!"

"And what about you, Rei?" Are you going to keep looking for Kotowari-kun?"

She knew what they wanted.

Takeshi was no fool when it came to battle tactics. It was clear how he wanted to force this fight to go.

That left her with only once choice.

"I will be going to the fourth level. Even if I get too close, I can manage to do a great amount of damage to Awdry-kun. With any luck, I will take him out."

That's right. Like their last match, she would take on as many people as it took. She would fire she shots and score points while leaving everything else up to her teammates.

"Kotowari-kun's attacks can't reach us while we are in that overpass. He will have nothing else to do as long as Akane-chan keeps moving after firing. If he wants me to get in close for a fight with their Attacker, we will force him to do the same thing."

"And here I thought you would go easy on him since we decided to help him."

She smiled.

Nasu knew that they were just being nice when they decided to help Takeshi as a person. It had been because she was asked by a fellow sick person.

It became more of a real mentorship as time went on. Never being able to reach friendship. That seemed to be blocked off from the boy for the time being.

But that was fine.

This was her way of testing him.

She would follow his lead and drag him out. His current way of fight was similar to his closed off personality.

If he could be forced out by this fight them it might effect him as a person.

_Maybe I am going easy on him. But he is such a good child that I can't help but want to ease up._

A chance like this was her way of showing just how easy she would be on him.

By dragging him out.

* * *

_Isn't this really bad!?_

Miura groaned inside while narrowly dodging a strike from Hoshi.

His feet immediately moved to the right with Toby passing by his left.

This was followed by with a makeshift shield being created to block the Asteroid shots from the dodged Hoshi.

_"Hey, can I get some help up here!? Rokkun? Yōko?"_

_"Can't you handle them yourself? Kumagai just got up here and we're already going at it! It's just a stray dog and a dumb girl! Deal with it!"_

_"I'm on my way, Yūta. Yōko can handle herself for now."_

_"Of course you would go to where that girl is!"_

Said girl was moving toward him again.

He made sure to always have both opponents in his field of vision. While Hoshi would still be manageable if she left his sights, Toby would get him without fail.

It was clear why Katori referred to him as a wild animal. Even so, Miura apologized in his head to the Attacker boy.

_"Haven't you fought that dog before anyway? It shouldn't be that hard to know what he is going to do."_

_"No! I haven't actually!"_

_._

As he thought back on it, he could remember all the times he had a chance to fight against Toby. At some point he had become known of caring about younger agents and helping whenever he could.

When he had approached the Attacker for the first time he had been fidgety and a bit nervous. The request was declined with a half-hearted reason. Miura thought nothing of it at the time.

It had only been after the fifth or sixth time he was rejected that he get a true answer from the boy.

"Uh, sorry, Yuki told me I have been rude with how I was rejecting you. It's just that you're a really cool guy. I've seen how nice you are and I'd feel bad if I beat you up."

At the time he could only blink at the response.

He had not expected the reason to be something so innocent. The boy had even made sure try and keep eye contact with him, even as he looked like he wanted to move away.

"I'm cool with hanging out or something, but I don't want to fight you. Oh! And it isn't just you! Mr. Tatsuya is also someone I don't really like fighting! So I haven't!"

"It's...fine?"

He had not meant it as a question, but that was exactly how it had came out.

It may have been due to the shock factor or not, but he could not register the comments about beating him up.

Under normal circumstances it made the boy sound arrogant and conceited. It was hard to hear those words like that since he had been trying his best to be respectful.

The difference was clear when compared to others who spoke the same way he just had.

Others wold follow it up with another comment about being better than him, yet this boy said no such thing. Even when he answered the boy there was a still a moment for him to continue.

The boy was respectfully waiting for him to say anything else.

So he did.

"Yeah. I, uh, sure. I guess I'll stop asking you for a match then. Or rather, I won't go to you when I see your name on the listing. I don't want you to feel pressured into fighting me. It's all good practice after all."

Miura tilted his head at his own words. He had meant to say something along the lines of, "All in good fun," but it had came out differently.

"Right! Yeah! Thanks for understanding!"

After that conversation, Miura had found out more about the boy and battling. He enjoyed having solo matches. So much so that he would tackle others into having a solo match with him at times.

It seemed that his main target would tend to be A-Rank agents or high level B-Rank agents. He had most likely viewed Miura as someone less than those people, someone who could not keep up with him doing normal fights.

Each tackle sent into whoever he wanted to fight seemed to also be filled with with something that was hard to notice.

It had always been in his steps, his expression and the grin on his face as he got to whoever it was.

It was a bit sad that he would never get a reaction like that since he had knew how the boy felt about him, but he decided that there was no point in dwelling on something so pointless. It was better to be viewed in a good light than a bad one.

But that meant he was unprepared for the current moment.

.

Toby came toward him with the intent to take a prize from their fight.

He had the backing of his teammate, but she seemed to be barely keeping up with Toby. The speed he was seeing was slower than anything he had seen before and yet he still could not fully keep up with it.

Each movement was a harsh knew that made Miura think he was going to end up on all fours before charging forward.

Every chance he gave to have a solo match with the boy had been rejected, so now that they were in the middle of a match, in the middle of what was essentially a pseudo solo match, he was unprepared to counter each movement.

His own attacks seemed to also hold Toby back from going too far. Yet another byproduct of their lack of solo matches.

_This is still dangerous! Even if I can't get to Toby, he's protecting Taiyōko really well! Why does that make me happy!?_

He had heard before that fighting against Kotowari Squad long enough could drive a person to insanity.

It sounded much more like people being angry at a loss or just unsure what had happened, but now he understood exactly what they meant.

This boy and the girl were forcing thoughts into him that he had not expected when entering this match.

Even with his speed being lowered by some strange factor, Toby continued to move how he wanted. There were only a few moments of halting and it always felt like he was doing it on purpose so that his teammate could keep up with him.

The energy he brought to the battle gave a feeling of not wanting to lose. The only time the grin had fallen was when he realized his speed had decreased. Now that he had gotten over that, he was continuing to grin as he moved forward.

Hoshi had been a new addition to their team yet Miura could see that she had taken a quick understanding to how Kotowari Squad worked.

Toby was their main attacker, never giving an inch unless it was necessary, and Hkshi was his support. She would defend both if them from attacks while doing her best to support those same attacks.

It was a combination of mutual trust and understanding of each other's abilities.

_Oh. Of course that would be it._

He gave a bitter smile inside when he thought of how different their two teams were.

While Kotowari Squad was a team filled with people who only cared for each other and worked to cover each other, Katori Squad was a team that had their captain as their center point. They focused on backing her up while she took on the challenges in front of them.

_We are very much different as teams. Even Nasu Squad falls somewhere between our two teams._

It was a bit hard to not be bitter at the differences between their teams.

Backing up Katori was how they fought as a team. He would not complain about something they had agreed on as a team. It worked well enough for a long time, allowing them the chance to fight against the top tier B-Rank teams.

At some point it had not been enough and their team continued to go lower until they got to this point.

_Yōko and Rokkun's arguing is also something to consider here._

He had tried to break up their fights as much as he could, but his cousin was the one who held the power to do so.

Wanting to let out a sigh and having to keep it in was a bit troubling.

_I guess I just have to hold on until Rokkun can get here. I'm not too sure how we will do with Toby still around, but we should be able to manage until Yōko gets here. If it's just Kuma then she should be fine on her own._

Resolving himself to this fight was all that could be done.

Even as blade moved and shots were fired, his resolve was all he had to keep the battle going until support came for him.

The Viper shots from a distance had stopped and Kumagai had revealed herself. Wakamura was going to help him and Nasu was likely going to get close to fight as well.

Everyone around the battlefield was gathering to the multi-layer overpass as the match went on.

To keep up with this would mean he would have to do as much as he could to keep himself alive until all of Katori Squad could regroup.

But...

_Wait. This is strange._

It made sense from a grand perspective, but when going deeper it felt like there was something missing.

_I need to get some distance._

Miura lowered his stance as he activated one if the Trigger on him.

_Chameleon._

Once the stealth Trigger started to activate, he jumped back as best as he could.

Toby moved forward at the same time Hoshi had moved, making it known that his inetions were clear in using the stealth Trigger.

Gaining distance was not to gain a chance for a sneak attack or to go down to the second level and help Katori.

Now was not the time for him to fight when he had noticed something missing.

A reason.

What reason was there for everyone to gather at the overpass?

Hiura would be unable to snipe if they were on any level other than the top level and Nasu could only fire at a distance while they were on one of the upper levels or or the base level.

Toby, Hoshi, Katori, Kumagai, Wakamura, and Miura himself could only fight in the overpass. It was where they would be safe from the Viper shots and sniper shots. That meant they would need to fight each other before thinking of taking out the long range attacks.

But they were not the only ones in this match.

_What is Kotowari doing? He has to be in the same position as Nasu, but none of us have seen him coming towards the overpass. It was because of attack that Nasu wasn't able to reach us, true, yet he made no move after that._

Everything did not add up.

.

With that in mind, Miura focused back to the two in front of him.

Even as he used the stealth Trigger it felt as if they were where he was.

He saw Toby take a step forward, making him take a few steps back.

There was a chance that Toby's Side Effect could counter this stealth. The enhanced reflexes had a chance to attack him through his invisibility.

That may have been why he was glad to hear gunshots a meter away. They were too far to reach him but were close enough to target the Kotowari duo.

The battle had shifted and so he moved forward as well.

He turned off Chameleon as he his hand went for the Kōgetsu at his hip.

The battle would begin anew.

* * *

"[It looks like Miura found something.]"

"[Can't he just be waiting out his fight with Agent Awdry and Agent Taiyōko since he is at a disadvantage?]"

"[Do you really believe that, Kuni?]"

"[Well I do need to make sure everyone gets it since you suck at explaining.]"

"[Fair. Anyways. No, it's not that simple. Notice how he is not really moving after using Chameleon. He isn't going for an attack against the Kotowari Squad duo and he isn't going to help Katori. That means he noticed something off. Yamamoto, can I ask for your take on this?]"

"[Right. First, Kunichika, have you noticed it?]"

"[Of course. But like Yuki-chan, I'm not the best at explaining something like this. Besides, we don't know for sure what it is.]"

"[Then I will answer.]"

Kunichika and Yuki glanced toward the glasses-man.

He pushed up his glasses in response.

"[Miura might have noticed that everything is now going toward the overpass. It is the main part of this map, so it is obvious that is where people would end up. But...]"

But.

"[But Nasu, Kotowari and Hiura have no real reason to go there. They could just wait it out until everything is settled on the multiple levels of the overpass or just target each other. Nasu and Hiura going after Kotowari and vice versa. Nasu's Viper is good against anyone in the overpass, but there was still no reason for Kotowari to defend his teammates against that kind of attack. They wee in a situation that did not require that.]"

"[Meaning _he wanted Nasu to go to the overpass_.]"

"[Right. He wanted Nasu to be inside that overpass, where his teammates would have a harder time dealing with her at such a close range. He has something in mind seeing as how he has not gone after the hiding Hiura.]"

.

"Heh heh heh. That boy certainly likes to keep things to himself, doesn't he?"

Suzume gave a bitter smile towards the large screen in the front.

Below her were Narasaka and Kodera, both watching with interest as the battle of the overpass continued on.

Miura's disappearance and the commentary from the trio a few feet away had sparked words from Suzume.

"Isn't that normal though? From what I remember, didn't he shoot through Awdry during your first match?"

"This is honestly different from that. During that time, he was shut down and chose to ignore normal human behavior in favor of winning. Right now he seems to be keeping to himself so that he doesn't have to fight. Leaving this up to Toby and Hoshi-chan really does seem like the best course of action here."

"So he is just putting the burden on them?"

"I should honestly smack you for that, Narasaka."

Suzume glared down at the older Sniper. There was no response to it, leaving her to answer his question.

"Toby and Hoshi-chan are honest children. To a fault in fact. I am honestly not sure they can lie to save their lives. That reflects on their fighting. If Take had told them anything specific then they may end up giving it away. But if they take out all opponents before that, there is no reason to mention it. If they get taken out, then there is no reason to mention it."

"So Kotowari is just waiting to see what happens to his teammates to decide if he wants to attack or not?"

"Exactly. Good job, Shōhei-kun. That means when he does attack..."

"It will create a big impact in this fight."

To answer his response, Suzume nodded her head.

Narasaka could not see it due to where he was facing. Even so, it was clear what her answer was.

* * *

Kumagai was ashamed and proud to admit that she was surprised that she was holding out this long against the Katori Squad captain.

The two were constantly clashing blades with Kumagai having an advantage using Kōgetsu while Katori could only parry using Scorpion.

This fight, for all intents and purposes, should have gone to Katori given how different the two were when it came to their fighting styles.

Kumagai held her Kōgetsu using both hands, adding more power and control to her swings, but it left her with chance to adapt to a sudden attack. If the situation became too dangerous, she could always fire off some shots to gain some distance.

Katori was different from that certain attack style. Scorpion blades continued to form in her hand, block attacks from the Kōgetsu, then get destroyed. It created a repeated cycle that was intertwined with the shots she had tried to fire from her handgun.

The small difference if the handgun created some worry in Kumagai, yet it did not hold her back from taking a step forward and swinging her blade down.

_As long as I stay this close, I can deal with her shots!_

Lessening the distance between their bodies gave no room for Katori to fire any shots since Kumagai could just as easily push the gun away. Firing to the side as a distraction was also out if the question when her Scorpion blades were stuck in a cycle of creation and destruction.

The two were in a rather close stalemate where the odds of winning were determined by their respective amount of trion and outside factors coming in.

One of those factors was Nasu.

Kumagai knew that her captain had been on her way to the overpass and told her to focus on fighting Katori while she went to the fourth level to attack.

While the second level only had Kumagai and Katori on it, the fourth level had Toby, Hoshi and Miura. Wakamura was also likely to join them, creating a battle where Nasu had the chance to take out four opponents at once.

It was quite similar to their previous match.

.

During their match against Suzunari-1 and Tamakoma-2, Kumagai and Hiura had been left in charge of taking care of the two opposing aces and both had been taken out by those aces.

They had managed to do considerable damage to one of the two, but it ultimately meant nothing when they had gotten taken out.

That had left Nasu to score points for them on the other side of the battlefield.

Even when the fight was two-two-one, she managed to much more damage than both of the, put together.

Now here she was again, fighting against a team's ace and captain while her own captain was on a different level going to fight four people at once to score them some points.

_I need to at least do this! She is being mindful of the edge because of Akane, but I just need her to get passed the shadow of the third level so Akane has the best chance at firing at her!_

Holding off the captain was trouble enough. Forcing her towards the artificial light would require more thought on her part.

Katori moved to gain a chance to attack while Kumagai moved to continue pushing back Katori. This had created a repeated cycle of creation and destruction of multiple Scorpion blades as well as no room for shots to be fired from the handgun.

Within this released cycle there was been only slight moments that Kumagai was sure she would not be able to use.

Using two hand to fight held the advantage of power and control, but it also prevented her from using those slight moments.

_In that case..._

It was an unorthodox way of moving during a fight considering how it was not used for such a thing.

The risk of failure was rather high when using this kind if movement against someone like Katori, but should it work out, the reward would be just what she needed.

_Besides, with who is in this fight, this really isn't out of the norm._

Contrary to what some people believed about Border agents, they were still normal people who liked doing normal things. They enjoyed what others enjoyed and disliked what others disliked. It was only their fights that had been different.

Kumagai expressed this by enjoying playing sports with others who were Border agents and others who were not. Besides being enjoyable, it helped her with Kong her body and figure out hero to properly move it.

In multiple sports it was common to move through and around an opposing player to gain the ball used for the sport. That usually required great foot work as well as the ability to notice how the opposing player would move to protect the ball.

With that kind of thought process, Kumagai moved her leg starting from her knee.

Her first step had not been made to go in front of Katori. The foot that touched the ground first had landed on Katori's right, next to her own foot.

The action had out Kumagai even closer to the girl due to moving closer than before.

As a response, Katori moved back while turning her body to the side.

Her turned continued as she lifted her handgun.

The timing was slightly off with Kumagai having to make up for the use of both arms holding Kōgetsu and the one arm used for the handgun.

Accepting the rotation as a counter attack, Kumagai began her own. Unlike Katori's rotation, which began on two feet to turn into one, Kumagai's was one that used her full body to circle around Katori instead of moving back.

It was hard for her mind to keep up as he body continued it's action in a more automatic way having already known how to use these action from playing sports.

_But there! Right there!_

It had been a quick decision that she had not fully registered.

Releasing Kōgetsu with one hand had been another risk with her current motion of rotation.

Katori's rotation would finish first due to have started first and having less actions to it than her own. That meant she needed to also make up for that time difference by creating an extra action for Katori.

That action had been a simple slap.

With one hand now free from holding onto Kōgetsu, Kumagai used that free hand to move towards the rising handgun to slap it away a before it could be aimed and fired.

It had worked well enough with only her leg taking a small amount of damage.

By the time Katori's rotation, and subsequent stabilization, had ended Kumagai had finished her own and ended up facing Katori's front again.

This time the distance was small, so that gave a new chance to attack.

Kōgetsu was not an option of attack since she was holding it with one hand while still correcting herself from her own rotation, but that same rotation had created something else.

That something was called momentum.

Using the momentum from her rotation, she lifted her leg to push Katori back before the girl could raise her handgun once more.

It was a simple kick that provided no real damage.

_But it got her in potion!_

"Now, Akane!"

_"Right!"_

A small sound could be heard as the cement from the second level of the overpass cracked.

Trion could be seen leaking from Katori's side as yet another shot came towards her from behind.

Kumagai smiled as she moved forward, holding Kōgetsu with both hands.

Now with their opponent in the light and to the edge of the overpass, they had a better chance at fighting her.

With Hiura shooting from the edge of the overpass, that left Kumagai to keep the girl in place so that she would not enter the shadow of the third level again.

The former cycle of creation and destruction of the Scorpion blades had ended, along with her distance to the girl, but now there was a second factor to this fight that changed how it could finish.

Kumagai continued to smile as she moved forward.

Her feet pushed off the cement and she readied her blade again.

.

_"Are you two done messing around with that dog and the dumb girl!? I'm stuck with sniper fire now!"_

_"How did that happen!?"_

_"..."_

_"Yōko!"_

_"Just hurry up, you damn megane!"_

Katori clicked her tongue as she moved to the side again.

With her back to the light and front to the girl with Kōgetsu, there was no real room to move around.

Kumagai would continue to move forward while leaning towards one side or the other.

Katori had first seen this as a chance to get back into the shadow of the third level of the overpass, but that had been her mistake as a sniper shot would always follow her when she moved.

If her right was stopped by a blade, her left was stopped by a shot.

If her left was stopped by a blade, her right was stopped by a shot.

It created a small cage for her to fight in instead of an open level where she could move however she wanted.

_Does this mean Nasu isn't coming over here? Would it even be better to have her up there with those guys?_

If she were to take on all of Nasu Squad by herself then it would be a definite loss.

As it was, she could manage holding off Nasu Squad's Attacker and Sniper, but their Shooter would have been something else.

This was another difference between elites and others, she noticed.

Elites could manage fights by themselves if they wanted, but other people would gave to group up to deal with those same elites.

It was great to think of herself as someone who needed this much work to fight. It was not great that she needed to put in so much work to fight against these two people who were trying their hardest.

_I just need to find a way to hold off one of them. Or..._

It had been an option she had chosen before to escape a different dangerous battle of people teaming up against her.

This time was different as there was no one to back her up and she would not be going in the same direction as before.

At the same time, she had less to worry about. With Nasu being shut down by the Kotowari Squad captain, there was no fear of Viper attacking her again.

_In that case..._

Glaring once more at the girl in front of her, Katori started to move.

She moved at the same time Kumagai had, closing their distance more than they had before.

Like the times before, Kumagai started to lean towards the right as she moved forward. That meant if she tried to go to the left, a sniper shot was sure to follow.

That was exactly why she moved to the left.

Using her Scorpion blade to bat away the initial Kōgetsu strike, Katori started to lean towards the left.

There was only a small window to defend or dodge the sniper shot.

_But each time she had been going to a vital area. Which means..._

Instead of trying not to get hit, Katori lowered herself even more as she leaned towards the right.

A shot had been fired and struck the cement.

The initial attack may have been for her head as she managed to duck under the attack instead of taking the hit herself.

_Now!_

There had always been a moment before Kumagai could rush her and Hiura could fire.

Katori took that moment to move backwards instead of forward. The action had put her in a clear view of any snipers, which had been why another shot came through and struck her arm.

_It's just Lighting! Not too much damage done._

She used as much force as she could to jump off the edge of the second level and into the open air.

Instead of falling to the base level, she placed a Grasshopper plate below her. The effect had been immediate with her body being sent upward.

Another sniper shot had came when she went into the air.

It had struck her arm a second time.

She ignored the shot in favor of placing another Grasshopper plate. The moment her foot touched the plate, she had been tossed into the third level of the overpass.

Her body was tucked in as she rolled along the cement. The roll turned into a small jump so that she was on her feet.

_Yes! Take that, you tag teaming assholes!_

"Now then-"

_"Yōko, go help the boys out. Nasu is getting closer and it really does look like she is going for the fourth level. Taking out Awdry would be great before she reaches them."_

"Fine, fine. I'll use the other side though. I don't want more sniper fire on me."

With those words said, she went into the shadow of the third level, fully intend on taking points for her team.

* * *

Miura engaged in a sword fight.

He held a long blade in one hand. The enemy's weapons were light and easily replaced, but he had to strike down the enemy regardless. Thus, he adjusted his position to maintain a firm grip on the ground.

... _I can't keep this up for long. Even with Rokkun._

Strings of actions danced around in his head to determine what would be best to take on this opponent while backing up his teammate.

The actions for this battle went through his head and were swept away as he struck at his opponent with a single solid noise.

The Kotowari Squad Attacker's sword technique was rough.

But not from a lack of skill.

He was not contained by any standard form and he used speed and strength to forcibly create the best possible actions for himself.

Thus, there was no "waiting" in his attacks.

At times, there was no pause for breath between attacks.

That left no apparent opening. If he was to match the movements and behavior to "strike at an opening", he would have to intervene in the boy's speed and strength.

_He kind of is like a beast...!_

Light scattered as the series of slashes constantly targeted his vital points.

Each individual attack was soft.

He was using the tips of his fingers instead of his joints. A wrist could only bend and turn so far, but these slashes were launched with whip-like speed and would even spin around. Also...

... _Using only his fingertips adds to his reach...!_

Those factors, combined with the Kotowari Squad Attacker's bursts of speed, led to a series of slashes.

Even if the boy had seemed to slow down, there were moment where his original speed had come back.

He was a lone wolf, but he might as well have been a full unit of troops.

His swords flew in gently but heavily.

The boy was using even more strength than necessary to defeat him.

His sword technique had undoubtedly been developed through battle with an enemy more powerful than him. He mixed speed with brute force and included no attempt at trickery.

Miura dealt with all that while moving to get his blade through.

If the only opening was found by intervening in the boy's speed and strength, then that was what he had to do.

Most of his power was being used for evasion and blocking the enemy's swords. His thought speed was causing him to mentally heat up, so he had very little power left to spare. Thought was only useful after he had gotten his body to move appropriately.

Also...

"Hoshi...!"

Even as she was engaged in her own battle with Wakamura, Hoshi was aiming an Asteroid shot his way from the edge of the fourth level of the overpass. She would occasionally fire at him while one-armed from her fight with Wakamura.

She only fired one shot at a time to ensure she did not hit the Kotowari Squad Attacker, so she predicted when he would attack and sent an accurate shot then.

She too would be using her thoughts to take aim. Her firing pose was fixed in place because she could not divert any thoughts to moving her body and defending at the same time.

But Miura did have a method available to him.

He had a teammate who was currently firing at the Kotowari Squad duo.

He would have preferred to target the Kotowari Squad Attacker only, but...

"...!"

Wakamura returned fire on Hoshi.

He did not need rapid-fire here. The goal was to make her move. While moving, she could not take such careful aim to fire on Miura.

.

Toby could hear the sound of a gun being fired behind him as his attacks collided with the single blade of Kōgetsu.

Behind him was less of a fight and more of Hoshi protecting herself and him from the gunfire from Wakamura. The noise irritated him to an extent, but there was no point in thinking about it.

As long as that gunfire could not reach him then there was no problem with a little bit amount of noise.

What needed his focus was the fight currently in front of him.

His attacks continued to connect with a solid feeling after he had changed his attacks. Instead of relying on the limited motion of his joints, he had thought to hold the blades between his fingertips.

The motions coming from that felt off compared to holding onto them, but it worked well enough. Creating them to break them also provided useful when he needed to move to a different spot.

Yet even with this fight going in his favor, there was still the issue of his lowered speed.

He had started to understand why his speed started to fall but found that he could do nothing against it as it was a more unconscious thing he was doing. He held back even more at the unwanted though of fighting someone like Miura.

_I guess this is why I'm only reliable as a beat stick for us... Attacking is all I can do._

It was a bitter thought that rarely came to him during a battle.

Battles for him were something to enjoy and be enjoyed with by others. A test of each person's abilities and a showcasing of what they are capable of. There was no reason for bitterness when enjoying oneself.

But that was what was holding him back at the moment. His own bitterness towards nothing by himself.

Sighing to himself inside, Toby moved back as he noticed that his opponent's blade had disappeared.

_Chameleon again, huh._

Using the stealth Trigger required the user to not have any other Trigger active.

That meant this would be the second time Miura would have to recreate his Kōgetsu after having to use Chameleon.

Toby understood well enough what to do after having fought against Kazama Squad members enough times.

Instead of keeping a distance away from where the opponent used Chameleon, it was best to attack as best as one could.

The best attack he could do was a multi-directional attack.

_Hedgehog should work well enough for the moment._

He put his body to work right away by starting a rotation as a blade came from his body. Soon another came out before disappearing from sight.

This had happened again and again with each blades appearing and disappearing so fast that it seemed as if his body was covered in blades instead of only two constantly being created. It was a cycle of creation and destruction unlike others during a fight.

He was purposefully destroying his own blades.

The trion from the destroyed blades could be seen scattering around him. The light meant nothing itself, but with the added feeling of something lightly pushing them aside it was clear that Miura was still close to him.

The blades that were in a constant cycle of creation and destruction began to move with his rotation while scattering light from the trion around him.

He started to force his rotation in the direction of where the light from the shattered trion was touching something.

The two blades that were being constantly created and destroyed made contact with something for a single moment before the light from the shattered trion was being pushed a bit away from him.

_This won't work as it is._

Toby started to slow down his row trion as the two blades destroyed themselves once more. This time they were not recreated.

_I guess now is a good of a chance as any to try that out._

Looking over to the side he could see Hoshi still engaged in defending them from Wakamura's attacks. The glasses-boy seemed to also be advancing slowly since he was a bit more forward than the last time Toby checked.

He nodded to himself as he made his way behind Hoshi.

_"Hoshi, when I give the signal, teleport to a different area. Preferably behind Rokurō."_

_"Understood."_

Toby readied himself by creating a shield in front of himself.

It was unlike him to have anything as defensive as a shield in his Trigger slots. Most people understood that he was very much forward with his fighting and preferred only attacking Triggers and anything that could move him forward.

Shield was not one of them.

Disregarding his own change of Trigger, he prepared something else while putting up the shield.

After a discussion on who would be using what prototype Trigger, Toby had decided on the one that required the use of shield.

Going into a fight against a Shooter like Nasu and people like Katori and Wakamura meant they would need to prepare a counter to the shots fired toward them. Toby more so as he was an Attacker.

That was just what this Trigger was meant to cover.

_"Now!"_

Toby watched in fascination as multiple things happened in a single moment.

It also ended in a single moment.

.

Miura was unsure of what to make of what he was seeing.

He had taken some hits after turning on Chameleon due to Toby's strange style of attacking. That had not been enough to take him out, so he continued to make his way toward his teammate who had continued to fire at the duo.

As he made his way closer to the Gunner, while making sure not to get hit, he saw a shield appear in front of Toby.

It was different than the ones being created by Hoshi. The ones from the girl were large enough to defend the major parts of the body, but this one was created in a very rough manner. As if the boy had barely ever created a shield before.

Seeing something like that had made it clear to him that the duo was planning something against his teammate since Toby was ready to protect himself.

_"Rokkun, be careful. They might have something crazy to do again."_

_"Got it. Keep your distance then so you can be ready for what happens after."_

Miura gave no response to that.

It felt wrong to wait for what happened after.

Would he be enough if this worked out and Wakamura was out of commission? He could not even take one of them out as it was after all.

Wakamura had the advantage of keeping his distance while attacking, meanwhile Miura had to get close before attacking. That meant it would be better to have Wakamura in the fight right now than have him there.

Deciding that to be the best option, Miura made his way over to Wakamura.

He quickened his pace as he noticed Hoshi start to shift her feet while turning her gaze to just beyond his teammate.

_She is going to teleport!_

And she did.

Just as she did that, something happened.

To be accurate, multiple things happened in a single moment.

Miura responded as quickly as he could.

He pushed Wakamura to the side with no thought to his actions.

It also ended in a single moment.

.

As Hoshi disappeared from where she stood, the remaining gunfire from Wakamura collided with the shield Toby had created.

As the gunfire from Wakkamura collided with the shield Toby had created, Miura appeared to push Wakamura away, stopping the firing.

As Miura appeared to push Wakamura away, the shield began to sparkle like stars in the sky.

As if on command by all of the simultaneous action, the sparkling shield shaken brightly for a single moment before something came from it.

No. That was not right. Something did not _come from the shield_.

Something had _bounced off the shield._

The shots from Wakamura that had hit the shield bounced off the shield and were sent back to the original spot of where they came from.

With Wakamura no longer taking up the space, it had instead fallen onto the person who took his spot.

Miura.

"...Huh...?"

Cracks started forming along the Attacker's body as multiple holes could be seen in his body.

The cracks continued to spread until they started taking over his entire body.

Once it had reached that point, his body started to shine before turning into light. That light then flew from the fourth level of the overpass and into the sky.

**Bail Out.**

.

Toby watched with wide eyes as Miura turned into light before flying off. A sign of Bail Out.

The nameless prototype Trigger required a surface to take any attacks coming toward it so that it could stop those attacks and send them back to their origin.

That had been how Hoshi explained it to him.

He had been amazed at hearing about that and decided he would try it out. He would be using Shield after a long time, but that was no issue.

Now that he had witnessed first hand what the nameless prototype Trigger was capable of there were many thoughts running through his head.

One of which was the beauty of what he had just seen in his shield.

The shield had sparkled and shone with a brilliant light before the attack had been sent back. Even he could admire something as nice as that.

He would make sure to let the girl know his thoughts of the Trigger.

"Ho-"

Before he could, the sound of a familiarly robotic voice was heard.

**Trion limit reached.**

"Eh...?"

In a new moment different from the previous two, Toby's body turned into light.

That light had followed the previous one by leaving the fourth level of the overpass and flying into the artificial sky.

The only other words he had before leaving in that flash of light were the same ones people heard during these times.

**Bail Out.**


	56. Takeshi Kotowari: Part 2

There was only silence in the room.

No one made a sound after having witnessed two people leave the fight.

Even as the points changed in the screen in front of them, all murmurs had stopped and the three commentators only stared at the screen with varying looks.

It was only after someone had made an outburst that everything had began moving once more.

Yuki coughed into his fist while Kunichika looked around and Yamamoto pushed his glasses up.

"Wha-wha-what was that! Ah! This is bad! This is really bad, Kurauchi-san! I am not sure how to react to that! Is he going to be okay!? I doubt Toby is going to be okay with a loss like that!"

"O-okay, okay... I get it, so please stop shaking me so violently, Kōchō!"

_Oh, she understands him well enough. Good job, Kōchō. Should probably tell SenSen that Kurauchi is currently losing some brain cells._

"Heh heh heh... Heh heh... Wait! Honestly wait a moment! Yes, yes! Like that! These reactions are perfect! I only saw these reaction and have no clue as to what they are honestly for! Oh, oh! Hahaha, that poor Shooter boy is getting shaken to high hell by that Shooter girl! Hey, wait, I can honestly use that! Thank you for the material, Shooter boy and Shooter girl in the audieeeeeeeeence!"

_Oh, she is still crazy I see. I should probably tell Satori that Suzu is having a bit of a breakdown right now. Maybe just as a warning._

There was no helping the crazy people around him at this point.

They were all a lost cause.

Yuki nodded to himself with a reminder to inform the two later on.

_Now then..._

"[Everyone currently watching, raise your hand if you want to know what just happened.]"

All hands in the room, including Kunichika and Yamamoto's, went high into the air as the words left his mouth.

Nodding again, this time to no one in particular, Yuki turned his head with a straight face.

"[Right. Kuni, go ahead and explain what we just saw.]"

 **Kuni:** "Eh!? But I raised my hand just now! I raised it! I really did, you mean fox! Don't just throw something like that at me out of nowhere, Yuki-chan!"

 **Manager:** "Aren't the two of you in the middle of commentary for a match right now? That is the third message you have sent so far."

 **Kura-uchi:** "Uh, to be fair, I am also here and can say that Kunichika is fair in her shock."

 **SenSen:** "Should I go over then?"

 **Almost Everyone:** "To make things worse!?"

_Oh, they actually responded to that one._

Yuki ignored the side glance he was getting from Kurauchi so that he could continue to look at Kunichika.

She had coughed into her own fist before putting on a fake smile. He was sure she would be sweating if her body allowed it.

"[Um, yes, well clearly...]"

"[Clearly?]"

"[Clearly...someone cheated!]"

 **Almost everyone:** "That was your response!?"

_Oh, Kurauchi must have put this in a chat call._

That may have been what the side glance was for.

He could already see all the messages that would come in the chat criticizing Kunichika for making such a comment. It would not be lived down for some time, that was for sure.

"[If you don't know, that's fine. Just say so, Kuni.]"

"[I am not a fan of hearing that from you... But yeah, I have no clue what just happened.]"

Yuki looked to Yamamoto in case the older man wanted to add something to what they had just seen.

He was the type of person to analyze something when it first appeared in front of him. Seeing something like that happened must have gotten his interest rather quickly.

"[From the looks of things... Miura must have noticed something happening and reacted to it while using Chameleon. If he had been a moment late, Wakamura would have been the one to be take out by seemingly his own shots. Even so... Shield has no effect to it that can create such an action, and there are no other Trigger that can do that either. At least to my knowledge.]"

"[That is probably because it is a prototype Trigger.]"

"[A...prototype?]"

"[That's right. Hoshi enjoys unfinished things and enjoys finishing them. That being said, she wanted to finish something from start to finish. So she created some prototype Triggers that Kotowari Squad seems to be using here. This one in particular seems to require Shield to initiate.]"

"[From the looks of things... That Trigger had taken the shots from Wakamura and tried to return to its origin of fire. It would have hit Wakamura had it not been for his teammate.]"

"[Leave it to someone on Kotowari Squad to make something like that...]"

 **White Fox:** "Thanks for saying that instead of the more hurtful version."

"[Well with that... Kotowari Squad gains a point for taking out Agent Miura while it seems that no one gets a point for Agent Awdry's Bail Out.]"

"[I suppose it would count more as a voluntary Bail Out as opposed to a forced one, seeing as he took to damage and the Bail Out was due to his own actions.]"

"[These prototype Triggers must be a way of getting around the fact they are missing a member for this match and have a disadvantage on this map. Or at least, they _should_ have a disadvantage on this map.]"

 **White Fox:** "Would it be bad for me to say that I am really proud of them right now? Like, can I really be blamed for feeling so happy?"

 **Kuni:** "I can say it for you if you want."

 **Kura-uchi:** "From the way the conversation is going, it would not be the best option to say that. Especially since we know that Misaki is here now."

 **Haru:** "Aw, but he is just happy for his pups. I say go for it!"

 **Manager:** "At least make it sound like you are 'proud as an agent' instead of a fool who doesn't want to let go of them."

 **Deer Prince:** "You are kind of done with this, aren't you, Kimura-chan?"

 **Guest:** "Aren't you all suppose to be busy!?"

Yuki clicked his tongue.

His chance to mention his pride for his former team had passed. Now it would sound off to hear him say something like that.

It would not have been anything new since his words always tended to mix together on accident.

_I guess real commentary is necessary...now..._

Looking back to the screen, he blinked with no readable expression being shown on his face.

_What is happening now?_

* * *

"I am sorry! I am sorry! I am so sorry, Toby-kun! I am so sorry that I messed that up!"

Hoshi disregarded the look coming from Wakamura as she moved to the edge of the overpass.

She felt like crying out, and would have if she was in her real body, but all she could do was try to move away from where she had messed up.

"I did not think that would happen! That was my fault! I shall fix that and buy you some chocolate as an apology! How much would you like!?"

"Eh? Eh!? Hoshi, Hoshi, calm down! It's fine! You had said it was a prototype, so I don't blame you! Um, uh... Yeah... Please focus on the fight! A-and think of it like this! Because of that, Yūta was taken out, Rokurō looks so confused and no one got a point from my Bail Out!"

"Yeah, Hoshi. You can just blame the dog for that one. He was a fool who should have won without using your Trigger."

"Taaaakeeeeshiiiiii! I don't want to hear that from someone who is not fighti right nooooooow!"

"That is because I have been setting things up. Oh, and Hoshi, I have something set up, so be ready to move when I say. Is that fine?"

"A-ah! Yes! Of course!"

Now was not the time to focus on her mess up. Instead, she should figure out how to use that mess up to gain an advantage that she would otherwise not have.

At the moment, it meant that she would need to gain some distance so that Wakamura could not fire at her from where he stood.

The more her feet touched the cement of the fourth level of the overpass the more she felt as if she would not be able to outrun the boy behind her.

_Oh. I believe this is what appears in shoujo manga. I will need to ask Suzume-senpai about that later._

Yes, normally, a boy chasing a girl after she had made a mistake would appear in such a manga.

But this was far different and the girl could not decide if that was a good thing or not.

There was no more reason to think about such things says she continued to make her way to the edge of the overpass.

She knew that Nasu was coming from the sunny side of the overpass due to Mei's assistance. That meant she would need to take the side with a shadow where she was sure she would be safe from any close-ranged Viper shots.

"!"

Or that was how it should have been.

Hoshi bent back as far as she could until the top of her head almost touched the cement.

She lifted her arm so that it would touch the cement before her head would.

The shots that had come from the side of the shadow passed by above her as she continued to bend so that she turned it into a backflip.

She could hear some movement behind her as she leaned towards the right to dodge the next set of shots coming from the sunny side of the fourth level.

_"Hoshi, Nasu is right above you. She is on the top level."_

Those words rang in her head as she continued to move.

Each attack was spread out and she could see some shots go lower, likely going into the third and second levels were Katori was.

She took note of how Wakamura was also doing his best to deal with the shots that continued to spread out.

_"Um, how should I go about doing this? Shall I try to attack Wakamura-kun as well?"_

_"No. Hoshi, I'm on my way there. If you can try to get to a position where you can leave without getting shot, that would be nice. ...Oh. Sorry. That did sound rude, didn't it? My bad. If you can just try to hold on for a bit... That's fine."_

Hoshi confirmed that she knew what Takeshi wanted her to do.

She began to move again. This time her feet started to take her to the ramp leading down the fourth level instead of the edge of the overpass.

From an outside standpoint she came to realize just how odd the multi-layered overpass really was.

Unlike the ones she normally saw, this one had pieces of comment hanging from the edges of the overpass to create a barrier from the light outside of it. That had been what was creating a shadow side and a light side.

Then there was the strange way it had been layered with the five layers being more like a parking garage than a road. The curves on the road were more unnoticeable from the inside with only small dents on the edges instead of clear turns.

She had intended on using those small dents to hide from the Vioer shots that were coming through from under the hanging cement on the overpass.

_If I remember what Fuji-nee had told us then this overpass should be modeled after the overpass in the next city over._

Apparently there had been a multi-layer overpass built in the next city over from Mikado City to make it seem like it was much more active than it really was.

The overpass had been more of a background detail that people drove on for the fun of it instead of using it to get to a location.

_I do hope that no one had fallen off of it before. It actually seems unsafe when running along it like this._

With that thought lingering in her head, she accelerated a bit by adding a push to her steps.

Now that she me a there had been a plan made, she would just need to do as she was told and follow through to it.

.

Wakamura gritted his teeth as he continued to defend himself from the Viper shots that had been coming through the edges of the overpass and under the hanging cement.

He had been unprepared for his shots to be fired back at him. He would make sure to properly thank Miura once the match was over.

Besides losing a teammate in the match, he had also lost a point since Toby's Bail Out would most likely be considered voluntary instead of forced. That meant his team had lost a point and had a point taken from them.

There was another chance to take a point from Kotowari Squad in the form of a girl. The one he had been firing at until a moment ago.

After getting over the initial shock of losing Miura, he prepared to fire once more when the girl started to move toward the edge of the overpass.

It had been surprising that she managed to dodge the shots that came in from the side. The amount of space she had was small, yet she managed a backflip to move away from them.

That had lead him to believe that more attacks would be coming.

They had. Right next to him to be precise.

Vioer shots had started coming through the edge of the overpass with some more going down to the lower levels.

_She is also focusing on Yōko. That means she managed to push back Kumagai._

Nasu Squad had become the only team with all of its members still fighting in a single moment.

He knew it was not that amazing given how the B-Rank Wars normally played out. Especially when it came to the top tier teams. This was just another way to show that.

_This means Nasu is right above us. On the top level._

_"Yōko, we need to meet up before we get taken out too. Nasu is in the top level, so she can keep firing into the lower levels. She is spreading her attacks out so that she can get a hit."_

_"You think I don't know that, idiot? I'm also getting attacked here!"_

Now was not the time for their arguing, as much as he hated not giving a response to her rudeness.

He was grateful when he heard the voice of their Operator come through, soothing a bit of his anger.

 _"You guys, be careful when outside of the overpass. Yūta just told me that he thinks there's something strange going on with how things are playing out._ "

What was strange?

Wakamura wanted to ask that before they made any serious moves.

There was no time to ask that and get an answer as a new wave of Viper came through.

"A-ah! I am sorry, Wakamura-kun, but I will not be fighting you here anymore. Although we may end up fighting in this match again."

"Eh? Oh... Uh, yeah."

He was unsure as to what was going on when the girl had started speaking to him.

He had been firing at Hoshi up until a moment ago and here she was telling him that she could not fight him here anymore. She was telling him that she would not attack him while he tried to get away.

_She actually is an odd girl._

But he had found that her words did make him a bit happy. Just knowing that she had thought to tell him that made him feel happy.

With that feeling overcoming him for a moment, he felt a new vigor come out. He wanted to fight her again during this match.

To see her again in this match.

That would first require him to get out of the fourth level of the overpass and meet up with Katori. They would then go from there.

Understanding what he needed to do, he moved toward the edge of the overpass.

He brought up a concentrated Shield as a new set of Viper shots came through.

They hit the solid defense but could not break it.

This was where he would escape.

* * *

Nasu carefully walked along the road of the top level of the overpass.

She had been firing into the lower levels of the overpass with only the base level being safe.

Once she had reached the overpass, she had been shocked to see two lights leave before flying into the sky.

There had been two Bail Outs.

That had meant there were two points they could not get from the other teams.

It had also meant that there were two less people to worry about.

What had also caught her off guard was what she had been told by Shiki after she had seen the lights.

"One of those was Awdry."

The one person who had the best chance at reaching her under these conditions was no longer around to fight.

The lasers coming from elsewhere still prevented her from keeping a distance, but this had been a major turn for the match. She was clear to get close now.

Now with the knowledge that Toby could not reach her, she fired from the top of the overpass.

From that spot she could fire into the lower levels while having Hiura watching out for her and Kumagai ready to attack anyone who wanted to get close to her.

It was a place where she could no longer be touched.

"...Hello."

Yet someone had decided to get close to her. Decided to enter the space where she would have the best advantage.

His scarf moved with the light wind that came with being at the top of the overpass and his gaze was a stoic one that have nothing away.

He had no snuck up on her and did nothing to hide himself.

Hiura had not warned her about the boy, meaning he had used Teleport to reach her. But she could see him from her position, leaving him even more open.

She remembered that he had greeted her when she noticed him and thought it would be better to answer him than stay silent.

She spoke even as she prepared for a fight.

"Kotowari-kun, when in a fight, you don't want to greet your opponent. It might seem arrogant to others. Oh, but hello to you too."

"I see... That makes sense. But I could not think of what else to do since I can't make anything to fire at you right now."

What had he just said?

"Kotowari-kun. Listen."

"Yes?"

"Are you listening?"

"Yes."

_What a good boy._

She smiled inside at the response while keeping a straight face on the outside.

"You should not have said that."

The number of shots she created doubled as she prepared to fire at him from all angles.

She knew that he was not a fool when it came to fighting.

Their current interaction was a strange one, but so was his whole team. Something like this was nothing abnormal when she thought about it.

But what could he gain by telling her that he could not fire at her?

He had removed his Bagworm and did not seem to be in a rush to try and run away. Even his stance was one of a relaxed person instead of someone who was facing off against a large amount of trion bullets.

She thought that he might use Shield to block her attack, but that had been why she doubled the amount of shots she would fire.

It had been a way to see if he would react to the danger he had just put himself in.

There was more confusion in her since she could not see any falsehood in his words. He had been telling the truth about not being able to fire at her.

_Just to be sure..._

_"Akane-chan, be ready to fire at him. I will be testing to see what he does. After that, shoot at him if it does not involve Shield."_

_"Roger!"_

There was an understanding between them now. A plan on what they would be doing.

Now she had only needed to out that small plan into action.

.

With no warning at all, Nasu fired all her shots toward Takeshi in a fanned out manner. A second wave had been sent after, this time focusing solely on him.

The boy did not move of from position. The relaxed stance he had held strong.

As the shot got closer Nasu had noticed something had moved with the boy.

His eyes.

His eyes slowly turned to the side. His sight was no longer on her and was instead looking behind her.

It had been a clear sign of Teleport being ready to activate.

With that now in her mind, she prepared a new set of shots to fire.

The first set was close to reaching him as the third set started to prepare for their own firing. The second set was closely following the first set, leaving little space between the two sets.

"I think I need some help here."

The moment those words left his mouth all the shots from the first set had connected. The second set had connected immediately after.

But they had it connected with him.

Each individual shot had connected with small shields.

Every time one shot connected with a shield it would break apart and scatter light all around. The fragments of the broken shields would then hit the next set of fragments, creating a smacks shield and assisted the fully formed ones from the second set.

The shields were weak enough to be broken apart and scattered, but they had also been enough to stop one shot each.

There had been no reason to expand a large shield to defend when multiple small ones would do the same amount of protection.

Seeing that each one of her individual shots were being protected against, Nasu prepared a new set with a different trajectory set into them.

If she could manage to confuse him then he would not be able to react to each separate one.

That was why she fired without any hesitation.

Yet it happened once more.

Without fully looking at each shot, Takeshi was protected by small shoes that continued to get destroyed and scatter their fragments around.

Once a target was hit by a shot it would confirm the contact and not go further than that. But that only applied if the object in question was solid enough to be registered as making contact.

These fragments alone would not be solid enough or large enough to be considered objects that made contact with the shots. But once the fragments started gathering in a single point then it could be considered as a solid object that connects to the shots.

_This is not Kotowari-kun. He is not doing this himself. Being in the middle of thes shots would give him a good view if each keen of them, but that last set was too irregular for him to see each one. Which means..._

_"Akane-chan, fire at him! We need to confirm what this is not his doing!"_

The only response she got was from a shot being fired from behind Takeshi.

It had been shot from a clear blind spot that even he would not be able to notice until it was too late.

Unlike her own attacks, this had struck the correct target.

The shot fired by Hiura had actually hit Takeshi by the way he was leaning forward.

_So he was denying himself this whole time?_

"Wait..."

This did not feel right.

Even as Takeshi started to lean forward from being hit, there was nothing to indicate he would Bail Out.

From what she could see, the shot had managed to hit Takeshi in the head, a fatal shot no matter who you were.

That should have been more than enough to make him Bail Out immediately.

Instead, he continued to fall forward until...

"There she is."

Nasu heard a heated sound and turned around in time to see a laser shoot into the air in the direction of where Hiura had taken her shot. From the corner of her eye she could see a strap hit the floor.

The laser like beam tore through the air until it reached the building that the shot had come from.

The building could not withstand the attack it had received and started to collapse.

Within the collapsing building a light could be seen. That same light shot into the air before flying off to the distance.

**Bail Out.**

Nasu remained speechless as she prepared for both offense and defense.

_But he said he could not fire! How did he do that!?_

"Oh, Nasu-san, I monks that look. I didn't lie, seriously. I'll even say it again."

He would repeat what he had said.

Nasu was unsure what to look for to make sure he was telling the truth.

"What I had said... That would be: 'I could not think of what else to do since _I can't make anything to fire at you right now_.'"

She was correct in her hearing. He had indeed said those words.

Then how had he fired at Hiura who was hiding in the building?

"You said not to converse in a fight, right? Then I will tell you later. For now..."

Nasu shifted her feet as he fixed his scarf.

She was now prepared for both offense and defense.

Multiple Viper shots were prepared with different trajectories inputted into them while a shield could be created at a moment's notice.

With everything set up, she fired.

.

Takeshi watched as the shots aimed at him came toward him.

_"Takeshi-kun, would you like my assistance again?"_

_"No, that's fine. To tell you the truth, I am going to run out of Trion after I do this. Setting those up was one thing, but firing them takes the same amount of Trion as ever. Between the one I used to keep Nasu-san in line and the one I just fired, plus the small shields I had to make, this will take up the rest of it."_

He could see that each Viper shots had its own set trajectory. Some of the, he would not be able to defend against using shield just because he was unsure as to where they would go.

_"I should apologize to you now, shouldn't I, Hoshi? This means you'll be left to fight the rest of the battle. You can run and Bail Out if you want. None of us will thin any less of you."_

_"Ah, that is fine. This will be preventing two points from being taken, correct? Then I am fine with being blamed should I lose against any of them."_

The way she spoke gave a clear indication as to what her intentions were.

There was no reason to try and prevent her from fighting when she seemed to ready to do so.

_"Oh yeah, Takeshi, I got a message from Suzume. I guess she understands you rather well. She had said, 'Tell Take that if he is going to finish this off with a big attack to honestly say something when he does! I need some special material and this might just be it! I'll honestly get him something to eat afterwards! Anything he wants!' So do with that what you will."_

His upperclassman was always strange. It was more than just her too, seeing as how most of the people older than him had some strange quirks to them that he could not fully understand.

That may have been why he decided to play along with the girl's wishes.

_I am going to make sure she goes broke though. That much is certain._

Now that he was pleased with his choices in this match, he released his scarf from his hand and looked toward Nasu directly.

He lifted his foot before stomping on the cement with little force.

"Target set. You might not want to say anything. You'll bite your tongue."

He pointed a finger to Nasu as he scarf began to move with the wind again.

Once the shots got close enough to him, something could be heard under them.

It was a strange sound that started to rattle the overpass.

The sound was followed by a crumbling noise as the cement started to break apart in front of where the shots were moving.

A heated sound erupted from the cement as a large laser like beam tore through the overpass and into the open air above them.

The shots that had been moving toward him in a straight line collided with the beam before being completely erased.

A second and third beam rose from under them, erasing the rest of the shots.

"A shot that goes to the heavens...and a prison on the land..."

He could vaguely see Nasu staring at him as more beams came from different direction. The look she was giving him clearly showed her confusion at his words.

He wanted nothing more than to cover his face from embarrassment.

Yet he continued to speak.

"This can represent my anger itself."

There was no hope that his words were not being recorded by his team.

He knew that other people would hear what he was saying later on.

"Appear..."

_What had she said in the song recording she sent us?_

"...O scorching shrine."

It did not seem worth it anymore.

His embarrassment did not seem worth some food he would likely not finish.

What had covered for that was the look he saw on Nasu's face as more and more laser like beams came up destroying the cement they stood on.

The multi-layer overpass they had been fighting on started to crumbled under the violent attack and tore through everything it came in contact with.

There was no room to move for either one of them.

"I should watch my behavior..."

As he finished his words he could see Nasu take step back.

That step had been what finished it all.

The moment her foot touched the overpass, a last laser like beam shot up, taking her entire leg.

At the same time, the overpass finally gave way to the large scale attack.

The two Shooters took note that their feet were no longer touching anything.

There was no chance for Takeshi to teleport away or closer to Nasu as he fell towards the ground. The attack took a large amount of trion to start and he would not finish until he was satisfied.

The attack had been far different from any before and any other Shooters had tried.

Unlike the attacks that were hurled into the sky, this attack strikes up from the ground, rendering anything above it asunder from below. The tremendous attack had created a devastating movement that destroyed everything it came in contact with.

It did not have the firepower of a rain of Meteora, but the true strength of this attack was that it changed everything above it, making it open for any more attacks from allies. What was more, it caged in whenever was inside of it, leaving no opening to move or attack. Defense would also mean nothing from the onslaught of beams.

_Setting this up was a hassle, and I wanted to save it for the top tier, but I suppose it is fine to show off what I can do._

From the corner of his eye he could see another light flash in the sky as it went to a place that was not the battlefield.

Meanwhile, in front of him, Nasu continued to try and move. Tried to get away from the cage.

There was no escape.

Once one of the beams touched her limbs, it was destroyed.

When she tried to fire a shot, it was erased.

Any shield she put up was shattered as quickly as it was formed.

It was an attack that used everything to destroy everything.

To make sure he won, Takeshi continued firing. He would continue firing until he won or ran out of trion. In this case there was a chance of both things happening.

_This is fine. I hate to leave Hoshi here, but that is also fine at this point. Because-_

**Bail Out.**

**Bail Out.**

Because it had all became simple.

* * *

Wakamura blinked as he stared up at the ceiling of Katori Squad's operating room.

Once he realized where he was, he turned his head to see Miura looking at him. He had a bigger smile on his face.

"So that was what it was."

Miura had thought that something was off.

Now that something had happened, it was clear what it had been.

"Kotowari had something like that planned. There was no way of us knowing about that, so no need to feel bad."

"Good job getting that lady hit though."

He nodded his head whole moving toward his teammates. A sigh leaving his lips as he reached them.

At the first noise of something strange he had started to move to the edge of the overpass again. With no more shots coming through it was safe to assume that he had a small window of opportunity.

Taking that chance he had was just what he did.

He had jumped down from the edge of the overpass just as the first laser like beam came from below.

The attack had surprised him. The power behind it was amazing and had managed to take his leg and arm before another one came up.

He had managed to move away from the second and third one when he noticed that many more were coming up.

During the second round something like this had also happened in Kotowari Squad's match against Nasu Squad and Kakizaki Squad.

An onslaught of laser like beams that tore through everything in front of them. It had been what created fear for the Laser Shooter who had initiated the attack.

_This was also terrifying in its own right, but..._

But this was different than that first time.

That time it was clear that Kotowari did not care about what he was doing, firing at everything around him. This attack seemed much more focused, as if he was trying to trap someone inside of it instead of destroy them.

The fear from this destructive attack was more general than a fear of the single boy who had attacked.

Wakamura had known that there was no reason to think bad about the boy from just this attack and so stealer himself to try and do something about the amount of trion he had been losing because of the laser like beam.

His eyes landed on the ground to see if there was a spot where he could not be hit.

He found once and got ready to land, even if it was going to be awkward.

"Crap!"

That had failed the instant he saw someone coming from the side.

Kumagai had appeared to miss getting hit by the large attack from the lack of damage done to her.

If he were to land then she would attack him while he was unable to do much.

He thought about what to do and came to a final conclusion.

_There really isn't a way out of this, is there?_

With a conclusion reached, he aimed his gun toward the ground. At the running Kumagai.

He began his own attack by firing at her while trion continued to leak from the two lost limbs. If he did not lose to the trion loss, and subsequently Takeshi, he would lose to the armed Kumagai.

Both options were not good.

But there was nothing he could do to change that.

At this point all he could manage to do was to inflict some damage to Kumagai so that his captain may have a better chance at taking her out.

Some of the shot had managed to make it to her. He could see the trion start to leak from her body as he hit the ground.

She had given him no time to get up as she rushed forward and took his head.

This was her point.

**Bail Out.**

.

Wakamura sighed at what had just happened.

He had managed to do as little as he could have done before he stood no chance.

He looked to the screen in front of Somei to see what else had happened while he got taken out.

"Both our team and Nasu Squad lost another point and had another point taken away from us. Apparently that large scale attack had been to take out both Hiura and Nasu. That means Kotowari got two points."

Those had been the points Nasu Squad had lost.

"That attack seems to also taken all of his trion. He also had to Bail Out. But like with Toby, it was a voluntary one. Or that's how they are counting it."

That was the point that was taken away from them.

"So who is left?"

"Yōko, Taiyōko and Kumagai are the only ones left."

"How will this play out...?"

"You managed to do damage to Kumagai while Taiyōko had to defend Kotowari from Nasu. Yōko is probably the one who has the most amount of trion remaining."

"That does not mean she has the real advantage. Something happened when you attacked Awdry and Kotowari had that attack ready. We can't be certain who really has an advantage anymore."

He could not deny that.

This match had been strange from the very start and there was doubt about the reason why.

* * *

Yuki could tell that he was receiving look all around him. The two people next to him were looking at him, the people below him were looking at him, the people behind him were looking at him, and he was sure that everyone in the chat was questioning him.

He knew he was being judged heavily for what they had just seen.

So he responded to all the looks.

"[I did not know he would do that.]"

 **TetsuG:** "Try not to sound so proud and we might believe it."

"[Oh, look, it didn't count for a point for Nasu Squad. That's the second time it happened.]"

"Ah, he sounds so proud..."

He ignored the odd chorus coming from the audience in the room.

"[Doesn't that make this team more crazy then? It might really mean this is your influence since it had been Kotowari and Awdry who were the ones to Bail Out while in the middle of a battle without giving any points.]"

"[Why do you feel like blaming me?]"

"[Because you are easy to blame for what we are seeing. Also because it is clear who that attack was really meant for.]"

"[He probably wanted to save that kind of thing for the top tier. Captain Kotowari has managed to take two points in such a short amount of time while also preventing anyone else from taking a point from him.]"

"[Oh, yeah, that would probably work against that idiotic, piece of crap, useless, unnecessarily pointless airhead. Then again, the hot air in his head might just start lifting him up and over the attack.]"

 **Almost Everyone:** "You need to calm down!"

 **Haru:** "Yuki, can you please refrain from insulting my captain so much in front of so many people?"

 **Deer Prince:** "I would like that too. Oh, but Haru-chan, you should probably give up now. I am a major advocate for them to calm down when it comes to each other and I have just about given up on trying using the easy ways."

 **Kage:** "I say let him continue."

 **TetsuG:** "You would..."

 **Black Wolf:** "Kunichika, don't you think you should focus back on the main topic of the match?"

 **White Fox:** "Alright, I know at least some of you fools have your own matches going on! Why the hell are you also on here!?"

 **Almost Everyone:** "..."

 **White Fox:** "Wait... Did you guys already lose in your matches?"

"[Some people are fools...]"

"[Please, tell us how you really feel.]"

He could see Kurauchi giving him another look from down below and thought that he should have a serious talk to Senshi once this was all done.

_Oh yeah, Kō is not out of the clear either._

"[Anyways.]"

"[Due to that attack, there are now only three agents left in this match. Each team has one member remaining.]"

"[This may also end up differently than expected. At this point all expectations should be thrown out in favor of pure guesses.]"

Yuki nodded his head to agree with the comment.

He was also unsure as to what they would see in the last moment of this match.

_Suzu is back there, isn't she? I wonder what she has to say about all of this._

.

"Heh heh heh. That was a good job, Take. Now I need to hold up my end of that deal."

"You told him to say something, didn't you? I saw his lips moving."

Suzume smiled down at Narasaka again.

She had not expected Takeshi to agree to her request since it was clear that he was still getting use to other people.

Then she had seen the attack he used to take out Nasu. Something that resembled the old Takeshi but clearly showed how he was no longer the same as before.

"To think he would use one of my lines. It was one even I was unsure of, but he honestly made it work well enough."

"One of your lines? What do you mean, Misa-... Suzume-nee."

It seemed that Kodera was starting to learn as he got glared at by Suzume for a second time.

Forgiving him for a second time, she laughed again while looking at the screen.

She started moving her body to an unheard rhythm.

Her feet did not leave the floor, but her hips swayed from side to side while he upper body shook.

"That would be... He created a proper 'scorching shrine'. There is honestly no reason for me to get into the details, but he managed to find out what I had been missing when I mentioned that before. To find some thing that even I was missing means that he is thinking about something that I am not able to think about."

"Oh... I see."

"I hate to say this, but this is more than just Misaki's crazy nature, Shōhei. There is actually something to what she is saying."

Suzume laughed again at the way Narasaka sounded reluctant to know what she meant.

"To think differently than her, to find something she has been missing, it means he is viewing it at such an angle that... Well, you saw what just happened. A normal person would not think of attacking like that."

"That would be because normal people would not win in a situation like that. A normal person would not have a defense like that. A normal person would not get as far as Takeshi has. Please do not underestimate us when it actually matters."

"If I ever underestimated Kotowari or Awdry then I'm sorry. I never believe in you since I already know how you are. Don't think your summit dance is anything to pay attention to during a fight."

"Oh? It seems like a certain bamboo idiot wishes to get some divine punishment."

It was now their personal argument that filled the back of the room.

Suzume knew that there was a slime chance that this would be resolved, so she had started to think if a comeback for whatever would be said to her.

She started to listen intently for a response from Narasaka. What he would say would lead into what she would say.

Instead she had heard a groan.

It did not come from below her or where the three commentators were.

The groan was a feminine one that held a bit of a rhythmic undertone to it.

Looking further than the commentators, she focused in on the Shooter duo she had taken note of before.

_That's right. How are the other Shooters taking this?_

.

Kōchō groaned from next to Kurauchi as she watched the match in front of her.

They had just seen the large scale attack done by Takeshi and heard what others had to say about it.

She spoke up with arms crossed while Kurauchi occupied himself with his phone. He seemed to be reading something terrible from the expression he gave.

"Are we suppose to compete against that as Shooters? This is why we don't enter the B-Rank Wars. There are way too many odd people in them for us to handle. No matter what Mai wants."

"Kotowari has his Laser Shooter, so I doubt anyone will look to us for an attack like that. From what I have heard, Nasu is helping him in some way and yet she was surprised but that attack. It is safe to assume that it was a Kotowari Squad Special."

"Wow... That sounds like they own some kind of restaurant. Actually, that doesn't sound like it would be abnormal for them."

It was the sad fact of the matter.

There were, without a doubt, strange teams in Border who did things at their own pace. Ones like Ikoma Squad and Tachikawa Squad came to mind. Teams that managed to win by doing as they pleased.

But Kotowari Squad was still an odd one, even against those teams.

Kōchō only knew what she had been told by Toby and what she was currently seeing, but that was more than enough to understand.

Kotowari Squad made plans like any other team. But how much if those plans did they follow?

Everything they did felt much more like improvised stunts than parts of a plan to win. It seemed like they were more focused on having fun with what they were doing instead of how to win.

Their Sniper was more of a dancer than anything else while their Attacker moved around the battlefield like a dog looking for someone to okay with. Even their Shooter seemed to be showing off more than attacking.

Kōchō would readily admit that her own team was rather relaxed when it came to fighting and orders, but even they followed what they were told and took fights seriously.

All of this stemming from their former captain was a possibility. At least until she remembered her interactions with Toby, what she had heard about Suzume and what she had seen of the girl, and what she was seeing with Takeshi. Even the new girl seemed different than others.

The former two moved at their own pace with little thought as to what would happen to them or others nearby. It was a freedom that prevented others from knowing what would be the best course of action with them.

The latter two seemed more reserved than their two teammates. But even they seemed to move in a way that they found fit, only following others when they thought it was fine with them as well.

She could see that it was a team who knew of people who tried to keep them down and chose to ignore that in favor of doing what they wanted.

_If I were to find a reason to enter the B-Rank Wars then it would be to fight them. And to find any other teams who were like them._

She smiled to herself at the thought.

It seemed that Kurauchi was finished reading whatever had been on his phone since he was looking to the screen again.

"If we are not expected to compete with that, would it be safe to say that we can help instead? Is it bad to want to see something like that grow and support it when we can?"

"That is an interesting question."

Kurauchi did not turn away from the screen again, but he did continue to respond to her.

"Since we are just talking as 'fans' here, I would say that it is only natural to want to support something like that. You seem to be enjoying this, so wanting to see more of it is only normal. As a matter of fact, not wanting to help with something you like so much may lead you to regret it later."

"I have only ever been on the receiving end of that kind of support. I have never been a 'fan', always the 'main attraction' with my team. I am not too sure how to support them as a 'fan'."

"Think of how your fans support you. More than that, think of how you can support them as three things."

"What would those three things be?"

"A fan. A Border member. ...And as a person. If you manage to get to that last one, you can try to move that up by referring to them as 'friends' instead of you being a 'fan'."

Kōchō nodded her head.

The words would stick with her even after this match.

After all...

_Do I even consider Toby a friend?_

The boy she had the most constant with when it came to that team. If he could not be considered a friend then there was no chance to support them as such.

She would be left as a simple 'fan' at that point.

She laughed once she realized how far she had to go before she could support such people who seemed far above others.

"Heh heh. I can see why Motojime-san likes you, Kurauchi-san. You really take things seriously, don't you? Even as someone like yourself, you know how to properly explain things to someone like me."

He also gave a nod in response.

"That would be because I have the most unlucky person in the world as a best friend."

* * *

Hoshi had seen it all while being ready to defend her captain.

The entire light show had destroyed the overpass while she stood a safe distance away.

Takeshi had informed her of what he was going to do and told her to get away from the overpass while man twining a good distance to him.

_Using himself as bait to lure out Hiura-san... He even managed to take out Nasu-san._

He had managed to take two people out while preventing anyone else from gaining a point against them.

The same thing had happened with Toby, but that had been an accident because of her.

Even so, this meant that she was the only one who had yet to score a point and she could be the point someone took from them. She had been to,d that she may leave the fight to prevent a point from being taken from them.

But they also allowed her to stay so that she may prove herself.

She knew both Takeshi and Toby as they were classmates, but that did not mean she could help herself from having a single thought.

_I have joined a truly great team!_

They had allowed her freedom while also protecting her and relying on her.

Kotowari Squad had started the match with one less person, but they still relied on her to support them in their fight. They did not tell her to only be there when needed or leave when she was not needed or in the way.

She was not treated as a princess who needed protection.

She was treated as a member of their team who could fight with them whenever she wanted.

It was unlike what she had been use to growing up.

That was why she walked forward.

_I noticed Kumagai-san falling before Wakamura-kun. That means there is still someone who I can take a point from. And from looking at Radar, there is still someone else._

It had to be Katori.

She was the only other person who had not been taken out.

That meant there were two possible points she could get.

_Right! I should get to work now!_

She leaped from the building she had been on.

_I still have my chance to show off after Takeshi-kun and Toby-kun went to the trouble of using those two._


	57. Hoshi Taiyōko: Part 3

The fourth B-War match had reached its climax in an instant.

With the overpass destroyed and the Sniper taken out, there was no chance for hiding once the final three fighters noticed each other.

The debris from the overpass lay stacked onto of each other. There was no way of knowing what had came from the second level or what came from the fourth level.

Atop the debris, Katori jumped to reach the remaining two opponents.

The distance between her and them required some extra movement, but she would still make it there before one if them would be taken out.

_Kumagai and that idiot girl. Without a Sniper around, Kumagai is just another Attacker. Maybe even easier since she used two hands to hold Kōgetsu._

But she had been held back by that Attacker girl.

She clicked her tongue at the memory of only minutes before.

_Then there is that dumb girl._

From what she had been told by Wakamura and Miura, that girl had mostly been defensive. The only time she attacked was when she was in the presence of Toby and was assisting him.

It meant she had the best chance of winning since she could attack, defend, and move around however she liked. She did not need to hold a blade with two hands like Kumagai and she did not need someone else to help her fight like Hoshi.

It was the difference between the elite and everyone else.

She was good at she did already. No need for anything extra like the other two girls.

They needed support to fight and she did not.

An elite could manage on their own. If they had hit their limit and could not get over people who were not talented like them then they were not truly talented to begin with.

Kumagai could only try hard to get better and that girl only had a talent for looking nice. There was nothing to fear from such things.

That was why Katori moved forward, through the debris. It was proof of her abilities. Proof that she could get these two remaining points by herself.

"-"

As she got closer she could make out two moving figures.

They did to seem to have clashed yet, meaning she could still make it before they tried to take each other out.

_This should be enough. These two points plus the survival points will make up for the points we lost._

.

Kumagai changed directions from moving directly in front of her to a space just beyond that.

She had seen Hoshi coming from one side, but then a second enemy had appeared in her Radar.

_That can only be Katori._

If she were to run in the space between Hoshi and Katori then she would end up meeting them in the middle.

She was the only one who lacked any true distance attacks, but she could fall back on the shots she did have.

They had failed during her fight against Murakami. There was a chance of that happening again against these two girls.

Even with the amount of time spent with Nasu practicing, there had just been no way she could have won with a half-baked attack that she showed in her last match. The result could end up the same, she knew, but it was something she would have to try.

After all...

_I know how strong Katori is and I don't have a good grasp on Taiyōko. That puts me at a bit of a disadvantage. But..._

But.

_They are not as strong as Murakami-senpai!_

"-!?"

There was little time to react as the blank space between her and Hoshi was filled up. The girl had managed to cover the distance in the blink of an eye.

No, that was not what had happened. There had been a sound that came before she had appeared.

_She didn't cover the distance! She made the distance nonexistent using Teleport!_

It was the signature Trigger of the brother and had extended to the team. For this girl to use the Trigger was no real surprise when given a bit of thought.

Teleport had the ability to cover distances by using Trion and would take up varying amounts depending on the amount of diagnose between the user and where they wanted to go. While still being in the prototype phase, it came with some drawbacks.

First was the distinct sound it made before being used. Something that someone could notice without seeing it in action.

The second was determining where the teleportation area would be. The user would need to look at where they wanted to go, giving the opponent a chance to react to where the user would end up.

The third was the amount of Trion used depending on the distance and the wait time before being able to use it again.

The first weakness had been noticed and the second weakness had been bypassed since Hoshi had been looking at her the whole time.

_That means I need to figure out when she will be able to teleport next. Think for a moment... Yeah, just a moment._

_The distance between us means that she won't have to wait long before she is able to use Teleport again. But right now she decided to fight against me, which means she doesn't plan on moving back for a bit._

_Still... There is still something she needed to take into consideration when deciding to attack me first!_

Something came from the side.

Kumagai reacted to what she had seen from the corner of her eye back releasing some of the force pushing against Hoshi. It had made the girl start to lean forward due to the loss of support.

Noticing that, she started moving back to dodge the shots fired from the side.

"-!?"

As she started to take a step back she saw Hoshi moving forward without stopping.

With nothing supporting her anymore she would continue to move forward while still having all of her force pulling her. Her balance should have been lost and she should have fallen to the ground at the same time the shots connected with her.

_Wait!_

The girl did not wait.

Kumagai started her step back by moving her knee forward.

She had wanted to make as much space as possible while still moving away from the shots. That meant she took the risk of extending her leg and knee forward to move her foot further back.

With her knee hanging in the air for a moment, it gave an opportunity she had not expected.

A weight was placed on her raised knee, forcing her to keep it up so that she would not lose her own balance.

Hoshi had continued moving forward from her falling position by lifting her own leg, starting with her knee.

Instead of moving backwards, Hoshi had decided to move forward. Her knee was raised first, outing it above Kumagai's. Her leg and foot followed, rising above Kumagai's knee and placing her in the right position.

She took a step.

.

Katori was surprised by what she had seen.

The small girl who looked like a fairy tale princess had noticed her attack, began to lose balance due to Kumagai's quick decision, and then fixed herself accordingly.

She had took a step forward from her falling position, continued it using Kumagai's raised knee, and finished it by continuing to push forward over the older girl.

Hoshi had managed to right herself while dodging the shots fired in end direction. At the same time she had managed to pushed Kumagai back enough to also miss getting shot at.

Katori was sure that she could perform the same action if given the chance, but that was only after the training she had done as an Attacker. Anything before that and she would have failed, most likely taking Kumagai down with her on accident.

Yet this girl had managed it without even looking toward her.

Even after taking her step forward, Hoshi did not take a moment as a cube of trion appeared above her head before splitting two times.

With the obvious attack coming, Kumagai got to her feet again before running while Katori moved to the side so that she would not be hit by the return fire. The attack itself seemed much more like Hoshi wanting space than an actual attack as she did not move from her spot.

Righting her posture, she calmly placed her hand back on Kōgetsu's hilt.

This was the last fight in the current B-Rank War match. There was one member of each team still standing and they all faced each other.

The captain of Katori Squad - Katori Yōko.

The Attacker of Nasu Squad - Kumagi Yūko.

The newest member of Kotowari Squad - Taiyōko Hoshi.

Each one of them was relatively uninjured with Katori and Kumagai only sustaining some marks before of previous attacks while Hoshi was lower in trion due to her previous assistance.

In a way it was even.

"..."

Yet something chose to change that. Rather, some _one_ chose to change that.

A small clicking sound was heard before a whisper came.

Kumagai and Katori both turned their heads to see what the clicking noise had been and noticed Hoshi taking out her Kōgetsu once more.

Both feeling that something unpleasant was coming, ran toward her, each with their own way of attacking.

"Fujin Kōgetsu..."

Kumagai began a swinging motion starting from the upper right to the lower left. It was an action meant to cut the girl down while also being able to change directions slightly if need be.

Katori moved at the same time by firing shots forward while pulling out a Scorpion blade. An attack that came in two forms.

The attacks were clear and obvious. If Hoshi moved to either side, she would be cut down. If she moved back, she would get shot. Moving forward would just put her in range of all the attacks.

There should have been no way around this.

"...!"

And yet there was.

Hoshi began her own swinging motion before her Kōgetsu was fully out. The movement was a simple sideways slash that could only reach things along its own line.

From their positions, the slash would have reached Kumagi first and then Katori if the first target dodged. With the attack starting before theirs, but finishing after theirs, it would be easy enough to dodge.

That had been what both older girl had thought as they prepared to defend and dodge the slash that had already been in motion.

"-?"

"...!?"

But they were caught off guard when no slash came.

What was also strange was the fact that the shots fired by Katori seemed to vanish without hitting anything.

It was only after a few seconds did everything register in their minds.

"...What?"

Multiple shallow cuts appeared on their bodies with the areas ranging from their cheeks, to their stomachs, to their feet. It was strange experience, but one that would have be thought about later as they noticed the close distance to the young girl.

Both older girls moved back to fully take in what had happened to them.

They faced forward and saw something that should not have existed on their fight.

Fujin.

The Black Trigger that consisted of a blade covered by ribbons of Trion.

Each ribbon, in actuality, was a stored slash that could be thrown out by having it run along a surface. The number of ribbons was equivalent to the amount of Trion a person had, but the damage would be amazing either way.

That powerful weapon meant for S-Rank Border agents was currently there, in front of them.

Yet it seemed different.

Instead of a blade being wrapped in ribbons of Trion, it was a simple hilt that had ribbons of Trion coming out of it. Each ribbon seemed rather thin and did not seem to extend out too far, but if stretched out, they could be the length of a blade.

The girl who held such a Trigger shifted her feet while flicking her eyes between both older girls.

Her lips parted as words came out once more.

"Shall we continue?"

* * *

"[And yet another surprise from Kotowari Squad! It seems that Agent Taiyōko is using a new Trigger that greatly resembles the Black Trigger Fujin!]"

"[Most likely another prototype Trigger. Am I correct, Tsukiko?]"

"[Looks that way. Yeah, it looks like Fujin, but the differences are there. For starters, there is no blade. The original Fujin-... Uh, I'm not actually sure if I am allowed to tell.]"

"[We should assume that you aren't allowed.]"

"[Right. Well then, I'll cut it short. The original Fujin has a blade while this one does not. The ribbons on the original are thicker while these are thin. Even so, this is not something someone would expect to see in a BRW match, so it'll be interesting to see how Kuma and Katori fight this. As well as how Hoshi fights with it.]"

.

Suzume smiled at the screen in front of her.

She had been informed about the three prototype Triggers Hoshi had made and found this one to be the most beautiful to watch.

_I suppose the one Toby used was honesty nice, but it lost some points by forcing his Bail Out._

She had watched carefully as Hoshi activated the Trigger.

It had been hard to see given the small time it took for everything to happen, but her careful eyes had managed to pick up on it.

As the attacks had been going for her, Hoshi continued her slashing motion as the Trigger activated. The once solid Kōgetsu blade started splitting apart as it was pulled out. Mich like a flower, it spread out from the solid blade into the thin ribbons of Trion.

It really was like a true blooming flower.

"Heh heh heh. She honestly gets points for how it looks. Even now, it seems kind more like a show than a fight. Oh, I can use this image for something. Both a dance as well a picture should be good. Ribbons are always good for girls like her."

"What are you going on about now? Stop saying unimportant thing and focus on the match. You need to find a way to catch up since you missed out on this match."

"No offense to my lovely teammates, but I am still above them when comparing fighting abilities. Toby may be able to catch me, but that is only if I allow him to do so. Takeshi and Hoshi-chan still have a good way to go before I consider giving in to them."

"This is why I hate hearing your commentary."

"Because I am right."

"Or because he wants to see those lips used for something else."

Suzume jumped as a hot breath appeared next to her head and a voice filled her earring.

She was quick to side step while missing the hand that started to go for her hip. The same hand had also been swapped cautiously by Kodera. A daring move that she would have to repay later on.

Both Narasaka and Kodera were quick to turn around as the offender put a finger to his lips while pointing to the screen in front of them.

"Don't want to be too loud. What if we can't hear the shitty commentary from those three? I don't want to miss out on Yoru's explainations."

"Bakuto Denji... What an annoying man."

Suzume felt a shudder run down her entire body as she took a step away from Denji. She could not help but agree with Narasaka's words toward the grinning man.

Even as he lowered his body to get a better look at the screen, she moved to a better position to move away.

It seemed that no one else had noticed the man's presence since her former captain had made no move to attack the man from a distance.

"Now, now, that's no way to talk to me, Tōrun. Don't forget that I can make life difficult for you, if I want."

"Compared to dealing with this girl? Even you can't do anything about that."

It may have sounded like a put down toward her, but Suzume was sure that it was Narasaka's own way of trying to calm them all down. The words were meant as a way to show that they should continue their normal actions with this man around.

She tried to follow along to the best of her ability.

"-"

But nothing came out.

She could not find it in herself to say anything that could give Denji ammunition to use against them.

After all...

_Yuki-san always told us to never let him get any ground when he is speaking normally. He will honestly use anything he can get to gain some sort of advantage on others._

It showed in his Rhythm.

Because there was no possible way she could categorize his Rhythm.

"If you keep staring at me like that, I'll assume you are free for the taking, Suzu-bachi."

She took note of how both Narasaka and Kodera moved at those words.

The man let out a shallow laugh when he saw the action as well.

"I'll leave this be since #3 is here. Even if he is doing commentary, he'll probably still attack me for being around one of you guys." He shrugged toward Yuki. "Besides, I'm actually here to watch this fight. I want to see how Yūko does here. So just put up with me for the rest of the fight and then you'll be free. Got it?"

No one said anything in response.

Saying anything would acknowledge his words.

* * *

Hoshi looked toward the ribbons of Trion that had bloomed from her Kōgetsu. She had seen them before in testing, but now that she was using them in actual combat, they seemed much more beautiful and deadly to her.

As the one who invented the copy of a Black Trigger, she understood how to use it and to go against it better than the two older girls.

That was why she had taken the first action.

In a fight with someone stronger or more skilled, the first action would be one of the most important ones. It would determine how each person would move.

Whoever took the first action would be at more of a disadvantage since it would give the opponent an opportunity to retaliate in some way. They would be more prepared for the action than the one who had started the action.

"!"

Even so, she was the one to make the first action.

Hoshi ran forward with the hilt of Kōgetsu in her hand as ribbons of Trion came from it. Each ribbon seemed thin and could not extend far out.

But there was something she had over using the regular Kōgetsu blade.

_So light..._

With the blade seemingly split apart into ribbons, the weight was lighter.

It should not have been that way since the ribbons had bloomed from Kōgetsu, meaning they should also contain the same amount of mass and weight the blade had. It made no sense.

Not until she thought about it more.

_I used some of the slashes to attack. Those ribbons did not reform, so that means they are one use each._

With less ribbons now coming out, the weight they had was gone. It had made the split apart blade lighter than when it had all been a single blade.

The weight difference at the moment should not have been too noticeable. But it was to someone who had been using Kōgetsu for quite some time.

Hoshi took note of how the ribbons moved and how they really did move in a way that real ribbons would.

_What if I try to force them to move?_

She thought about the action as her feet took her closer to Kumagai and Katori.

She focused on only a single ribbon and tried to give commands to it.

The ribbon seemed to follow her command as it lazily moved in a direction different from the other ribbons. It had gone forward instead of backward, even colliding with other ribbons. Yet each time it touched another ribbon, it never disappeared.

_Oh, so they cannot cancel each other out. That is good to know._

With that knowledge now in her mind, she made a slashing motion while facing forward.

The hilt moved with her arm and hand while the ribbons followed along, leaving a small trail behind them.

.

Kumagai and Katori responded to the slashing movement.

They had seen the first action created by Hoshi and answered her properly. The first action was not something they decided to take as it could lead to in unexpected phenomenon.

The previous attack had been a surprise with Hoshi showing off yet another new Trigger and gaining a bit of ground in their current fight. Something akin to the Black Trigger Fujin was not something they expected to see in a B-Rank War match.

But that was not something that keep them away.

They were mindful of the ribbons that had managed to attack them before as they moved forward.

The initial swing was an obvious one that they chose to dodge by moving up or down.

Hoshi may have anticipated that as she continued her swinging motion by starting to rotate her body.

It left her side open to attacks, but if she could get through the full rotation then she would have more power behind her swing.

Being the open closest to her open side, Kumagai took the next action for herself by pushing her Kōgetsu forward. She also did a slashing action.

If she could not hit Hoshi with this attack then it would go on to attack Katori. It was an attack that kept both opponents in mind.

The same was also thought of by Katori as she lifted one arm to point her gun toward Kumagai as a Scorpion blade came to her hand for Hoshi.

The two older girls replied quickly how they had been attacked before. Each ribbons had been what cut them up, meaning those were what they had to move away from.

Kumagai took an extra step forward as the last of the ribbons moved in front of her.

Her reach was greater than either one of the girls close to her, meaning she would reach Hoshi before she had a chance to fully rotate or Katori could cut into her.

"Two to the left."

Kumagai reacted quickly to the words by continuing her swing while moving back. It had put her a bit away from reaching Hoshi, but also stopped her from getting cut.

Two of the ribbons that had already passed by her had somehow moved in a direction unlike the others.

They had moved toward her.

"Three in front."

Three more moved along with the two.

Unlike the first two, these three had gone for Katori instead of Kumagai.

All five of the ribbons had managed to skim the two older girls before vanishing from sight.

The rotation Hoshi had started picked up a bit more speed as the five ribbons disappeared and cuts appeared on Kumagai and Katori's face.

The initial attacks continued on as the ribbons disappeared.

Kumagai continued her own swing into Katori.

Katori continued firing while moving from Kumagai.

Both girls clashed for a single moment before gaining distance once more.

.

Katori could feel her anger start to come back up.

Her attack had missed and she had received news cuts to her face. They were minor compared to a full slash, yet they left a major impact on her.

_"It's a bit of a given that she can control those ribbons. The fact you heard her means that speaking out makes them react faster than just mentally commanding them. It gives you a bit of time to react."_

But not enough time to fully dodge.

She pushed the bitter thought aside to focus back in her two opponents.

Neither one was really a threat under normal circumstances. Kumagai was not at her level hole Hoshi also seemed to barely be keeping up with them. Their fighting capabilities was not the issue for her.

What was it that was keeping her from winning then?

She knew the answer right away.

_I don't know what's going on!_

Her understanding if the current situation was what was ho,ding her back from defeating these two girls.

Hoshi brought in unknown prototype Triggers to this fight while Kumagai seemed to have gained something from her fight with Murakami in the previous round. These things combined placed her in an odd position on not knowing what to do.

She gritted her teeth as she tried to think of a way around these two uncertain factors.

"I just have to do my best. Yes, just my best."

Katori turned to the star girl who had started saying something under her breath.

She seemed to be trying to psych herself up with those words instead of telling someone else about them.

Doing something like that right now was just giving false hope to ones self.

Saying something like "I have to do my best!" "Just give it my all!" and "I at least have to try." all meant that the person in question was lacking in actual ability. They did not trust in their own skills to win and were only looking at what they could do.

During her times of becoming an Attacker and Gunner had she never said such things. They would have only made her believe that she could go beyond her set limit and give her false hope. Once her peak had been reached, there was nothing else for her to do.

This only showed just how star girl was without her new Triggers.

She believed in the false hope she gave herself instead of the reality she was placed in. Someone like that should not have been on the battlefield to begin with.

And that was why Katori found herself more irritated.

This girl's presence and personality chose to live in her own world instead facing reality.

So she would be the first target.

.

Kumagai moved at the same time as Katori.

She had been able to see how she reacted to Hoshi's words and knew what the end result would be.

A frontal attack.

In the case of Katori, a frontal attack while firing to the sides or above was the best action she could take.

The ribbons of Trion were dangerous, but their reach did not seem to extend too far out.

They seemed to cut just like any other blade and could be controlled by Hoshi either by her thoughts or verbally. The latter seemed to be the quickest way of doing so.

With that new knowledge it was clear how to fight against it.

_Even I can tell what to do. I just have to make sure to predict where she will direct those blades and block. If they work the same as any other blade, Shield will be able to block them or I can just use my own Kōgetsu to defend._

Compared to Murakami and Katori, Hoshi's movements were easier to read and slower to put into action. She was still low compared to others who had experience.

_But she is doing well, that's for sure. That Trigger is also pretty interesting._

She decided in what to do once the match was over with a nod.

With her mind now clear on what to do and what was going on, she moved on the opposite side of Katori.

She would make the same kind of action that would be aiming for Hoshi while having Katori as a secondary target in case her initial target managed to get away.

The ribbons began to move as Hoshi started closing the distance between them all as well.

It had been difficult to judge how many ribbons there had been originally, but now it was clear how many she had.

_There are noise of them now and she had used at least eleven before. That means there were around twenty when she first activated it._

That meant there were only nine left for them to deal with.

If Hoshi was not careful, she would run out and have to way of defending against close ranged attacks.

Moving in toward those ribbons would be a risky action, but would have a high reward in it went well.

Katori seems much more focused on taking out Hoshi and seemed to only barely notice Kumagak at all. That meant the focus of Hoshi would be mostly on the girl trying to take her out than the one just trying to attack.

Kumagai raised her Kōgetsu with both hands as she got closer.

Hoshi began a new rotation with the ribbons coming after her arm's movement.

She looked for a ribbon that could be attacked without running a high risk of getting cut and went for it.

Her Kōgetsu blade connected with on of the ribbons for a moment.

She felt a bit of push back from the ribbon before it vanished right in front of her.

The same thing happened on the other side with Katori's scorpion blade breaking due to the contact with the ribbon.

Like before, two ribbons started going in a different direction than the rest. The first went for Kumagai and the second went for Katori.

Kumagai moved back a bit while bringing up Shield. The ribbon hit the shield before vanishing like the previous ones.

_Good! It does work!_

"-!?"

She was surprised when something else smashed into the Shield.

The shots that had been fired by Katori a moment ago had come form the side and were stopped by the Shield that had made for the ribbon.

Glanced to the side to see that Katori had also used up one of the ribbons by creating a new Scorpion blade to take the attack.

That meant there were only five left.

"What!?"

Once it registered just how many ribbons were left, Kumagai saw that Katori had taken a different action than she had.

While she had taken a step back to get some distance and balance herself out again, Katori had continued to move forward.

Her movement swerve more rough than she remembered, but it seemed that she just wanted to push forward and breakdown anything Hosni had.

Each attack had been meant to be the finishing one, but lacked something. It was unclear what that something was, but even she could notice that Katori would be able able to win at this rate.

That was when she heard it.

Hoshi's voice came out as she was being attacked.

"I understand now. What makes you special is numbers. It is like the blades Toby-kun uses." Hoshi once again accurately defend against an attack. " _You always use the same attack with the same motions._ That is the answer. You have repeatedly done the same thing for a long time and it has built up. By making the exact same motions in the exact same way, you turn those very motions themselves into a way to support you! Yourself a year ago, yourself a month ago, yourself a week ago, yourself a day ago, and yourself an hour ago. Those are the strengths you use!"

But that was not something all fighters would be able to do.

Her motions were "the same" on a different level altogether.

If someone tried to copy their own handwriting from the past, could they reproduce it perfectly? This was the technique to forcibly draw out overwhelming results by remaining on the existing course and never being able to leave the category of "oneself" no matter how restrictive and disadvantageous that could be.

What she had built up was what made her powerful.

She had taken what everyone understood as an idea or as a concept and raised it up into its best form as a real phenomenon.

She stood near the top of those who attempted to gain the power to take on others by polishing and improving their skills.

"You really are amazing. Especially in the way you do not show it off. You put on a cool expression and pretend to look down on the world with a cold heart, but _you are actually the most passionate and the hardest working one._ You embody the hope that people will eventually be rewarded if they put in enough effort."

Kumagai found herself agreeing with those words.

They seemed to be what Katori's actions looked like.

But...

"You also gave up on that, correct? No, I should say 'right?'"

Kumagai could now see why Katori was so focused on defeating this girl.

She was what Katori had given up on.

Hoshi did not understand Katori's view on effort and talent not because it was hard to comprehend. It was because she did not believe that putting effort into something was pointless and that talented people were the only ones who could make it.

The proof was right in front of them.

The girl who put effort into what she did was holding back the talented girl who had decided that she had reached her pinnacle.

There was a clear difference between the two girls, yet they were fighting on equal ground.

Being unable to witness such a thing anymore, Kumagai moved forward once more.

Her feet pushed off the ground as she found herself agreeing with Hoshi once more.

She had been trying to get better as well. The effort she put in to make up for the lack of solo matches showed.

But how had she felt when that effort was not good enough?

Her fight against Murakami showed just how far below she was compared to other Attackers. Everything she had done during that fight was nothing more than a spare for the #4 Attacker while she had given her all.

The loss could have created a hole in her that would have been hard to come out from, but she had managed to keep herself up. It was a loss she was sadden by, but not one that would drag her down.

Even so, to think of catching up to that level was not something she had wanted to think about. It just seemed overwhelming.

Until now.

The sight of Hoshi pushing back Katori's talent with her effort was something she found a bit inspiring.

The girl may have dealt with some of her own losses before, but here she was, with Kotowari Squad and fighting against someone who had been at the top tier of B-Rank teams. She had no support and had two opponents to fight, yet she was not backing down.

_As her senior for Border and regularly, it would look bad if I did not respond to that conviction!_

* * *

"Looks like Yūko found something."

Denji grinned toward the screen.

From the corner of his eye he could see the Snipers edges get away from him, yet still paying attention to what he was saying.

"After he loss against Kō, she was being annoying with how she was acting. I was about to do something but thought that she could deal with it herself. After all, she's suppose to be strong, not weak. A loss like that isn't something to think about since it was against Kō."

He turned his attention to the Snipers this time. He enjoyed how they jumped at his sudden attention.

"I guess you three wouldn't understand that. One of you is an entertainer, another is just a kid who enjoys puzzles, and of course we have the failure who is only ever stuck as #2. But I guess I can relate to that one since Sekai has me beat in so many ways that even I can't catch up to him."

None of them said anything.

Suzume and Kodera seemed to just be wanting to stay away from him, not so much hating him as just feeling uncomfortable around him.

Narasaka was different.

_There it is._

Narasaka glared at him without backing down.

He was unsure which of his words had struck the Sniper, but something indeed had gotten to him. His hateful glare was proof that it was something Denji had said.

_It's not directed at Suzu-bachi anymore, so I guess that makes my work here done. But..._

There was no fun in just leaving like that. After all...

"It's still up to me to watch out for Yūko since I decided that she would be fine enough to tell. Since she knows things, she has to be able to keep up with others. Kō and whoever Sekai has are out if the question, but she has to at least beat Kazuki down there."

None of them said anything.

The three Snipers seemed to understand that they should keep their mouths shut when he was around.

He was sure that Yuki had told Suzume to do that, but he was unsure where Narasaka and Kodera found that out.

He shrugged at the silence while turning to face forward again.

"-"

Just as he did, something hit him in the face.

The noise that something made brought the attention of some of the people around them.

Denji looked down to see a shoe was what had been thrown at him. From the way it had been thrown, there was only one place it could have come from.

He looked a bit over from the screen to see Yuki glaring back at him.

_Alright, alright, I get it. I'll take my leave. But..._

Denji gave a gesture to show his defeat before bending down to grab the shoe that had been thrown at him.

"I'll be taking this as my prize."

Giving a bitter smile to himself, he waved toward the three Sniper before making his way toward the door.

_I need to get ready anyway. We were both hired recently, so I can't fall behind Sekai again._

.

 **Kuni:** "What was that!? Don't just throw your shoe behind us!"

 **White Fox:** "Denji was there. I didn't want him near Suzu, so I threw my shoe at him."

 **Kura-uchi:** "Apparently at the price of losing said shoe."

 **White Fox:** "Worth it."

Yuki could hear Kunichika sighing next to him at the same time as getting a questioning look from Yamamoto.

Using his finger, he wrote Denji's name in the air so that he would not have to explain himself to others.

That answer seemed to be enough as Yamamoto gave a silent promise to throw some book at Denji later on.

"[With this match coming to an end, it seems that Agent Kumagai has decided to really go in on the offense. A bit late for that, don't you think?]"

_Nice save, Kuni!_

Remembering that they needed to provide commentary for the match, Yuki added his own words.

"[It may have been hard to tell, but Hoshi had been saying something. Most likely to Katori. Maybe her words also had an effect on Yūko too.]"

"[You are better at moving your body and reading others, Tsukiko. Could you tell what she had been saying?]"

"[Of course. But I can't really say anything since it seems that Hoshi was just wanting to tell Katori something. It's not my place to say anything beyond that since it technically doesn't have to do with the match.]"

"[That hasn't stopped you before.]"

 **Black Wolf:** "Good job, Kunichika!"

* * *

Hoshi noticed the change in atmosphere.

Katori seemed to be the same, each attack looking to be fatal but untimely missing its mark. They had not even reached the ribbons of Trion that she had been using to attack.

It was Kumagai would seemed different than a moment before.

She had been staying back and keeping a distance from both her and Katori for some time now.

Hoshi had been informed of the previous match Nasu Squad had before their match began. She had praised Murakami for how well he had done, but she had also felt bad for Kumagai.

It had seems that the loss had effected her a bit since she seemed more cautious when it came to fighting here. A battle against Border's #4 Attacker would indeed leave that sort of impact, she knew.

But that seems to have changed after she had expressed her admiration for Katori.

Once Hoshi and finished saying what she wanted, Kumagai took action by moving forward.

She knew that this fight would be impossible to win so long as there were two people who she had to fight. They were both above her in fighting abilities, so it left her with little choice.

_This needs to be the final confrontation._

Stealing her nerves, Hoshi responded to Kumagai by pushing Katori back once more to face both girls.

Katori was only facing her, intending to only attack her with Kumagai being an afterthought.

Kumagai seemed more prepared, having also turned to both of them instead of just one of them.

She only had five more blades left to use before she would have to recreate Kōgetsu. By that point she would be relatively defenseless with her only viable attack being Shooter Triggers.

_Since that is the case..._

She pushed herself.

_Here I go!_

Attacking with these blades was no like attacking with Kōgetsu or multiple Scorpion blades. They moved differently, got lighter each time one was used and their movements were based on how she wanted.

With that in mind, she moved using her arms and legs as main points for blocking.

Getting cuts on her body parts would be bad, so she decided that she would use her arms and legs to divert each attack from the base instead of the tips.

The first one would be Kumagai who had a longer reach.

She moved her free arm forward while making sure to keep away from the Kōgetsu's blade.

_Reach!_

By shifting her feet to follow the movement of the Kōgetsu, she had managed to reach the two hands holding the Kōgetsu.

She pushed against the two hands so that the blade would be forced to move in a different direction.

Kumagai had noticed what she had been doing and started applying more force to keep her swing going.

Instead of fighting against the new force, Hoshi let it go and put the blade off course due to the extra force.

There was no way to escape without getting some form of hit, so she let the blade cut her diagonally across her arm to mitigate the damage.

That left Katori to come from the other side.

"-!"

She responded to that by using the force made by Kumagai to pull herself away from the Scorpion blade going toward her.

Katori's reach was shorter than Kumagai's, meaning she had more room to move.

Hoshi saw how much room she had to move and took her chance.

Shifting her weight to the side, she began a new rotation.

This rotation placed her behind Kumagai while moving closer to Katori.

She started to command the blades starting with the one closet to Kumagai.

_Oh?_

The blade that was meant for Katori vanished before to could reach her.

The reason for that had been Kumagai.

Before the blade could reach Katori, Kumagai had slightly lifted her Kōgetsu. The two blades hit each other for a moment before the ribbon-like one vanished.

_Does she wish to take us both out?_

Regardless of that, she only had four blades left.

There were only four more attacks and Katori was moving closer while Kumagai was preparing for both a frontal and behind attack.

.

Katori ignored what Kumagai had done to keep moving toward Hoshi.

Firing any shots would run a risk of getting cut by Kumagai, so using a blade was the on,h way she could attack at the moment.

So that was what she did.

Hoshi's rotation would come to an end behind Kuamgai. That meant she had to reach beyond the girl together to Hoshi before her rotation ended.

She started moving her feet to move around Katori with only one target in mind.

That was why she missed the blade that was brought up to her face.

"!?"

A Kōgetsu blade had been raised to block one of the ribbon-like blades. The side and height of it had more meaning to it than simply blocking a blade.

It had been to also attack Katori.

With her whole body already in motion there was no chance of stopping.

The attack also made her defenseless.

"..."

Four ribbons came into Kumagai's view as she continued her own motion to cut off Katori's head.

The one who commanded those ribbons began to slow down her rotation.

As he feet started to balance her out, green lights were fired.

.

Three actions happened in a single moment.

A girl who could not stop her movement decided to fire shots.

A girl who continued her full sword swing saw ribbons of Trion get closer to her head and chest.

A girl who finished her rotation saw green lights aimed directly at her.

.

**Bail Out.**

**Bail Out.**

**Bail Out.**

* * *

"[And there is the end of the match!]"


	58. Top Agents: Part 2

"Damn it!"

A loud noise filled the room.

The match was now over and Katori continued to express her feelings on the subject.

"!"

By kicking the beanbag chair on the floor.

"That damn girl will be on my case because of that now! She wasn't even the one to take me out! I'm the one who took her out!"

"Calm down already. Taiyōko isn't like that, so don't say she will be doing something that is unlike her."

"Shut the hell up! You didn't even get a point! I won't want to hear anything from you, idiot four-eyes! You are just saying that because of your damn crush on her!"

"I-! What!? No! I don't have a crush on her! I just know how to respect other people! Besides, she was holding her own against you easily! That should be enough to show you up! Stop trying to lower people down just because they can deal with you!"

The response was an immediate beanbag chair to the face for him.

That was the second sound that came in the room.

Miura could only mince from the side at the sound and sight. Both were rather unpleasant.

He looked over at Somei at the monitor with a bit of worry.

"I don't think I have seen her this mad before. To think that Taiyōko would get her this mad without really doing anything."

"I am a bit interested in her too. I might go and speak with Taiyōko at some point, so feel free to tag along."

"Eh? That is fine and all, but you going right to her is a bit surprising. Well, I guess not given the circumstances."

"With that being said..." She spoke up without turning away from the screen in front of her. The noises behind her were low enough to where she did not have to shout. "Both of you need to calm down. They are giving the final commentary, so pay attention."

Katori and Wakamura stopped their glaring at each other to turn toward their Operator.

Regardless of what was going on, the final commentary was important to go over what had happened. It would be coming from A-Rank agents, meaning it would not just be wasted words.

* * *

"[With that, this match is over. We will now be giving our final comments on the match and how each team did. We will start with explaining the choice of environment. This match took place in-]"

"[Let's be honest and just call it the overpass map. It is hardly used since it was modeled after the next city over. The multi-level overpass was where the fighting occurred since its structure was built in an odd way.]"

"[Nasu Squad was the one who got to choose the location due to their lower status. Due to the overpass being where the fighting usually happens, it is a bad location for Gunners, Shooters and Snipers because it is not built like a normal overpass. Otherwise it would be a good place for them.]"

"[It showed with the way that Wakamura had to also go into the overpass so he could fight. It was clear that they were trying to think of which members they could prevent from fighting by using this map. But seeing what Kotowari Squad is capable of it is obvious that they had to choose between stopping their Attacker or their Shooter.]"

"[Rei's Viper is also at the point where she could fight outside if the overpass, so they would be at less of a disadvantage because of that. Their choice must have been to keep Take from fighting so that are I could bombard Toby while keeping a distance.]"

"[Ah, but that plan was both a success and a failure. Captain Kotowari had managed to set up a defense that prevented Captain Nasu's Viper from making it in. That forced her to head into the overpass to attack.]"

"[Exactly. That should lead us into the fights that actually happened. The first would be the fight between Taiyōko and Katori. Although that was more of a skirmish until Awdry came in. That was when Katori became too overwhelmed.]"

"[That seemed to be something we noticed. This match, Capatain Katori ran away a lot and seemed extremely focused on Agent Taiyōko.]"

* * *

"Stop glaring like that. It was obvious that it was what you were doing."

"...No one wants to go against that damn dog or be outed by a Sniper. Those guys need to leave me alone."

"You can't just..."

"Shut up, stupid four-eyes."

* * *

"[If it wasn't for her running away and Miura's help, Katori would have likely been taken out. Even though Toby was holding himself back, him attacking with Hoshi's backup was enough for that fight.]"

"[Oh, right! I remember you saying how he was comparing himself to others and that was keeping him from going any faster.]"

Yuki crossed his arms while nodding.

Those words remained true for him as he remembers just how easily he had been able to keep up with Toby's movements.

Seeing such a thing was rather sad to him since he understood why it had happened.

"[It is more than that. Toby's Side Effect is his reflexes. Those reflexes force his body to move one way when they kick in, so it becomes hard for him to go against them without stalling for a moment. Unlike my own copying Side Effect, he can't go against his reflexes. I have been able to control my body because my Side Effect is not as hard on my body as his.]"

"[So his reflexes have no stopping point. I see. That does explain some things.]"

"[Yeah. But another part of that his that his body need to be able to keep up with those reflexes. If his movement is too slow then an oncoming attack will easily get through. His reflexes may even start a new chain of actions because the first one failed. I have seen it happen before and it does not look good.]"

.

"In that way it also holds him back. Since he loses control of his body for that to happen it means his mind also has to keep up with what his body is doing. He is a smart boy, so his mind could also be at a different speed than either his body or his reflexes."

Kōchō sighed from her spot next to Kurauchi.

He seemed to be listening to her words wheel checking his phone periodically.

From what she could gather, he was in a chat with other people his age and what they were saying was not something she wanted to think about.

_Will I be like that as well? I mean some of us are already there, so..._

She let out another sigh. This time in fear of her own future.

.

"[In a way, that is also amazing. The fact he did so well under poor conditions.]"

"[He is a good boy. I have no doubt that with some help he will easily beat out some others in the top tier.]"

 **Deer Prince:** "Good job putting pressure on me! I am that help, remember!?"

 **TetsuG:** "I wish you luck with that."

 **Haru:** "Toby isn't that bad...? I'm sure it will go fine. We're counting on you, Mino!"

 **Deer Prince:** "Why was that first part a question?"

 **Manager:** "No pressure though."

_Wow, that one got to even Minoru..._

Both Yuki and Kunichika ignored the chat that was going in due to the former's words.

"[So that puts us to the next fight. After having ran away from her fight, Captain Katori had to fight against agents Kumagai and Hiura while Agent Miura was found out by the previously mentioned duo.]"

"[We should talk about Katori's fight first. The other one leads into something none of us were expecting.]"

"[Good call.]"

"[With that being said, we were able to see a bit of how Kumagai was able to improve in the short amount of time after her previous match. For those of you who don't know, she had fought against Murakami Kō of Suzunari during her last match and lost rather soundly.]"

"[You really don't mince words, do you? Oh, but I guess I have no room to talk since I was on Kō's side the whole time.]"

Yuki ignored the glare he was receiving and focused on how Yamamoto chose to push his glasses up and speak instead of making any action against him.

"[I am stating fact. Anyway, I was not finished. As I was saying... Her last match showed how poorly she could match up against someone of that level. This match was similar in the most basic of terms. With Hiura there to back her up, I am sure she would have lost this fight as well. But she seemed to have noticed an idea movement to change that course for herself.]"

"[Agent Hiura played a good part in that fight by keeping Captain Katori on her toes, but even they could not take her out before she ran away again. Still, that means they had managed to push her back with only Agent Kumagai being completely on offense.]"

"[The last fight was where she truly showed us how she took that loss. But that is for later. I believe we should get to the fight that had been happening at the same time.]"

"[I am assuming that we will get some information about the prototype Triggers in a bit, right?]"

Yuki took a glance down at his phone before giving a thumbs up to Kunichika.

His messages were shown so that she understood.

"[Yeah. I am getting something from Mei explaining them. Apparently Kotowari Squad is fine with letting others know about them.]"

"[Would this be considered a power move by them?]"

"[No. I am pretty sure that they know that their tricks will be found out soon, so they might as well come out and tell so themselves. It may be more of a matter of pride than anything else.]"

"[In that case, we will skip explainations until the end. Right now we can talk about agents Awdry and Taiyōko fighting against Agent Miura. Although there isn't much to say there since Agent Miura was also pretty overwhelmed by the other two.]"

"[Miura is very much respected by younger Attackers, but he is not necessarily stronger than them. Midorikawa is a good example. So seeing him fight against Awdry and Taiyōko made it clear that he was outmatched. That was why Wakamura had gone to help him instead of Katori. There was more of a threat there than there was elsewhere.]"

"[It was at that point that the first two people were taken out. Well, actually...only one of them was taken out. The other was considered a voluntary Bail Out. It seems that Miura had noticed that Kotowari Squad was planning something, so he had taken the initiative to try and prevent that from happening. The end result was a showing of Kotowari Squad's first new Trigger.]"

"[It seemed to have been more than enough to take out Miura. But it had also shown just how much needed to be worked on since it had also taken out Awdry after he had used it. That had left it as a fight between Taiyōko and Wakamura.]"

"[That was around the time Rei's had gotten to the top level of the overpass and started firing down below.]"

"[Kotowari's plan to get Nasu onto the overpass had worked, but she came at a better time for herself. With Awdry out of the picture, she had a clear way of attacking with little way to get attacked. In a way, she was able to turn tat plan around on him since it forced him to enter the overpass to attack her.]"

"[We got to see some excellent teamwork by Captain Kotowari, Captain Nasu and their teammates. Agent Taiyōko and agent Hiura did a good job backing up their captains in offense and defense respectively. What's more, we got to see just how well Yuki-chan here trained his former teammates in the usage of Teleport.]"

"[Hm? Oh, no, that was not Teleport. Or at least a regular Teleport.]"

Yuki nodded his head at the two confused looks he was getting from his left and his right.

he crossed his arms while continuing his explanation.

"[I am good at using Teleport, but even I would have had a hard time dealing with that kind of attack without my Special Teleport. What else is that the teleportation kicked in after Takeshi had been sniped by Akane. At that point thee would be no way of teleporting without Bail Out activating.]"

"[So what you are saying is...]"

"[Yeah. That was another prototype Trigger.]"

'[From the sound of things, Kotowari Squad's win here today was because of these prototype triggers and the unknown factor they brought in to the fight.]"

"[You can't look down on that. Using anything to your advantage is the best way to win. Those prototype Triggers were created by a member of Kotowari Squad and used by that team. What is more is that they are willing to let out the information of those Triggers. They clearly want it to be known that they will be using those Triggers in the future.]"

"[Oh, it looks like you hit a nerve, Yamamoto~]"

"[That was not my intention. Sorry about that, Tsukiko. I will make sure to be more careful next time.]"

"[As long as you realize that.]"

.

 **TetsuG:** "Why don't we get let off that easily when we mess up?"

 **Kage:** "Is that a real question? It's because this guy has so many complexes that he just throws that off on us."

 **Haru:** "Don't be ridiculous. He only throws some of his complexes at us. This is because he cares so much about his pups that he wants to make sure that no one is saying anything against them."

 **Ōji:** "And then your captain comes in."

 **Haru:** "He doesn't go after them! He knows that, besides Yuki, he will get in trouble with other people. Yeah, like Mei."

 **TetsuG:** "Oh, but besides her, Kō can really got into rabid mode when he wants or when someone really talks crap about them."

 **Black Wolf:** "Why am I receiving friendly fire!?"

.

"[Anyways. Due to that fight, we get to the last battles.]"

"[Plural is a bit much. Agent Kumagai was able to score a point on Agent Wakamura after Captain Kotowari used all of his Trion to destroy the overpass. That same destruction had caused any true tactics to fall apart.]"

"[That final fight would be three-way fight between Katori, Kumagai and Taiyōko. If we were to disregard the prototype Triggers, it was obvious that Taiyōko would have the hardest time in that fight. ...But we saw that it still may not have turned out that way.]"

"[That's right! Captain Katori's odd behavior during this match truly showed in that fight. She seemed to have been targeting Agent Taiyōko the whole time while only fighting Agent Kumagai when necessary.]"

"[There was a small incident before this match concerning Hoshi and Katori, but I didn't think it would end up like this. Kō and I ended up staying out of it when the latter tried bringing us into it. Apparently that was all it took for Katori to become so close minded during this fight.]"

"[She is easily spurred by simp,e things like that. It is no wonder this match ended the way it did. But moving from those two, I would like to talk about Kumagai a bit. By the end of it, it seemed as if she had figured something out and worked toward that.]"

"[Yeah, from my point of view, she managed to grasp something she had been lacking before. Something that had probably been taken because of her fight against Kō.]"

"[So it was all Murakami-kun's fault?]"

"[Definitely. It was all Kō's fault and he had someone else clean up after him.]"

"[The ace of Suzunari-1, everyone!]"

 **Black Wolf:** "Now I am just being picked on! I expect this much from Yuki, but from Kunichika too?"

 **Shōgi Boy:** "I hear some howling."

 **Ōji:** "Strange. I hear that too."

Yuki and Kunichika tried their best not to laugh. It became hard as more responses came through, but they managed with their faces being the only thing giving them away.

Seeing such a thing, Yamamoto let out a sigh while pushing up his glasses.

"Heh heh heh... After dealing with that man, that kind of comment is honestly necessary for me right now."

"They really don't hold back when it comes to fighting each other..."

He could not argue against the comments coming from the back of the room.

His own age group had a tendency to mess around with each other, but they had people like Yuba and Mei in it that balanced out any strangeness from the others.

The same could not be said for the ones a year or so younger.

"[Ahem. I believe we should be wrapping this up now.]"

"[Oh! Right. This last fight was where we saw the third prototype Trigger used by Kotowari Squad. This one greatly resembled the Black Trigger Fujin.]"

"[Tsukiko, have you received the information concerning these prototype Triggers?]"

The fox boy looked down at his phone as multiple messages came up. It was proof that he indeed get the information from his former team.

He looked up while voicing his confirmation.

"[Yeah. I just got it. Should we go in order of appearance?]"

"[Sure. You aren't as bad as Akashi, so go ahead and let us know what was going on.]"

 **Secretary:** "Why did they fire at me!? Murakami-kun should be the real target, right? Right!? I have done nothing to receive that hit."

 **Black Wolf:** "Akashi, I would like to have a talk with you at some point."

Yuki once again ignored the messages coming in.

There would need to be some apologizing to the Suzunari-1 ace at some point. Most likely with rice as a bride of forgiveness.

With a plan now made for the future, Yuki looked at his phone to exp,ain't what they had witnesses before.

"[First would be the one Toby had used to take out Miura and cause a technicality in the match. It currently has no name and can only be activated by using a 'surface'. Be it blade, shield or whatever. As long as it is a 'surface' made by Trion.]"

"[So that means we can rule out Triggers like Escudo or the guns a Gunner uses.]"

"[Probably. Anyways. The Trigger is meant to take the attacks done to it within a few seconds and send them back from where they came from. In simple terms, it bounces back along the 'lines' the attack originally came from.]"

"[That does seem like a powerful Trigger that came change the tide of battle. But the downside seems obvious. A forced Bail Out. I guess that is better than having to stay in or else Agent Awdry would have just been taken out and lose a point.]"

"[It does make it easier to fix when the downside is obvious like that though. I wonder how that will turn out later on. Now moving to the next one...]"

"[Right, right. That one is called Zanzō. Oh, I might try this one out later on... Anyways. It is a simple replacement that requires the user to have Teleport equipped. Set a target to where you will teleport and something to take your place.]"

"[Rather niche, all things considered. It sound good, but Teleport isn't really that popular of a Trigger. Our best bet is to rely on Yuki-chan and his former team to see how that works.]"

"[I can probably convince Arashiyama to try it out too. Remember, we're not the only ones who use Teleport. We just do it more often than others.]"

"[So the last one?]"

"[That would be Fujin Kōgetsu. As we saw during the match, it splits the blade of Kōgetsu into those ribbons. No... They really are blades. Each blade is thin, but is still a blade. From what this match showed her, Hoshi has figured out that it is able to push back a normal Kōgetsu for a moment. What's more, each blade can be controlled mentally or verbally. The latter seems to be the fastest way to control them.]"

"[The downside to this one seems to be the loss of the actual blade. It is fine if they manage to oust back a bit against something like Kōgetsu, but it is only for that single moment. Using the actual blade for that would provide a better outcome in defending. You basically lose all defense for this one offense.]"

"[Hm... Hm... Crap! Oh, I mean...]"

"[That was not very ladylike, Kuni. And yes, we know we are going over the limit here. I will take responsibility for that since I had to explain the prototype Trigger for Kotowari Squad.]"

"[Thanks for that. So we should finish this off talking about the teams, yes?]"

"[There was actually not too much to say. Nasu Squad and Kotowari Squad were well prepared for this match with the latter just trying out their new Triggers. Katori Squad could not get their momentum going, so they could only manage a single point in their three-way fight. They clearly need to straighten themselves out or else they will continue to fall.]"

"[As opposed to Kotowari Squad, who has already fixed themselves and have gotten their own momentum back. They have even gone so far as to add someone new onto their team as well as those Triggers.]"

"[They still need to be careful. Taking a page from Nasu Squad would be good. Kotowari Squad using those Triggers is also what made them lose their two main attackers. Toby had to force Bail Out while Takeshi seemed to be reliant on Zanzō working to escape a fatal attack. This seems to be their true first time using them, which was not a good thing. They are not at the level where they can do something so free and get away with it.]"

"[Ikoma Squad and my own team tend to do that, don't they?]"

"[Look at those positions though. Your team is first among A-Ranks while Iko Squad are third in B-Rank. Kotowari Squad still as stuff to learn before they can do something like that. Especially since they did not have Suzu with them during this match and Hoshi is not as experienced as the others.]"

"[And how do you suppose they can learn from Nasu Squad concerning all of that?]"

It was not Yuki who answered the question.

The answer came from the glasses man next to Yuki.

"[Nasu Squad continued doing what they knew, understood what the situation was, and changed their actions depending on that. From a tactical standpoint, they were superior. I would say they just need to keep working on their power and ability to regroup quickly.]"

"[But I bet Yuki-chan is proud of Kotowari Squad, right?]"

"[No comment.]"

"[Heh heh. Hit the mark. But that will conclude this match. Thank you for joining me and providing that commentary, Yuki, Yamamoto.]"

"[Of course.]"

"[No problem.]"

* * *

"~~~"

"She looks so happy. Is it because of what your ice cream buddy said, Akane?"

Nasu smiled from her spot away from the giggling Hiura and the equally smiling Kumagai.

What they had heard from Yuki was him holding back from saying anything harsh. If it had been something important for them to fix, he would have said so or gone to Yamamoto for the answer.

It was because of that holding back that Yamamoto seemed to hold his tongue of saying anything about them. The difference in knowledge on their team meant that Yuki was the better option to answer anything in them.

_Still... That seems to be a bad habit for him. Holding back too much will lead to him going easy on teams like ours who need some harsh things said to truly hammer in what needs to be corrected._

She appreciated how he had made their team rather happy with the praise, but that praise was said as a way to inform the other teams of their own mistakes.

"No..."

"Huh? Is something wrong, Rei?"

Kumagai's question brought something new to her mind.

Was something wrong? That was what he had been referring to when talking about Nasu Squad.

Something had been wrong due to their last match, but they had called that out already. Going so far as to make fun of their friend to do so.

Once she understood his words, she could not help but to start laughing behind her hand. It soon became to much and she started laughing without restraint.

The looks from her team showed their curiosity and worry for her.

 _I should say something now,_ she thought while calming herself down.

She took a deep breath to look at them.

"There was nothing wrong. I just got the meaning of those words and the words Yuki-san was saying."

"What he was saying? Wasn't he saying that we were fine because the other teams were not at their best?"

"Yes...and no. He was telling us that what we had done was correct and the right course of action. It most likely means that if we can continue fighting like we had today, we will be able to grow strong enough to join the others."

"Are you sure? That sounds amazing! I was just thinking he was being nice!"

Yes, that seemed like the best answer.

Yuki was the type to use words to his advantage and change them when necessary.

But this had been different.

Those words had usually been reserved for Kotowari Squad, but they had been directed toward them instead. It was a way to show them that he was viewing more than just his former team during the match.

It could have also been seen as words of gratitude for taking care of Takeshi, but there was an issue with that.

_He is not the type of person to just say "Thank you" for something like that. Which means..._

He had meant it.

That kind of thing from an A-Rank agent was nice.

"Well I suppose that means we can't be letting him down after that."

She smiled once more to her team, receiving similar smiles.


	59. Kotowari Squad: Part 5

The first thing Kodera noticed once the commentary had finished was the way Suzume looked toward her former captain.

_She must have also taken to those words. Even if she had not fought in this match._

Yuki's words toward Kotowari Squad would of course not only be directed at the ones who had fought. It was meant for everyone who had been a part of it and anyone who would join later on.

They were words meant as insurance for the future instead of words for the moment.

_In that case, he was also directing that toward himself. Oh, that makes sense from what Misaki's has told me. Tsukiko-senpai could be the type to be hard on myself because of what he failed to do._

It had just been a guess, but he was sure that he was near the actual truth to that.

Suzume would talk quite a lot about her team as it was now and how it had been before. Just from those words it was easy to tell how each member could react to certain circumstances.

There were not too many times he came in contact with Yuki, but the times he had, and from what he had heard from Suzume, he could figure some things out about the boy.

Understanding even a bit of the boy would be enough to understand why Suzume would react the way she did.

_She is looking for some more guidance beyond what he had just said. I guess she would still look up to him. Oh... And now she is dancing._

.

Kodera gave a questioning look at Suzume as her body started swaying a bit at the same time as she was humming a small tune to herself.

Instead of turning it into a full dance, she slowed down to a stop. She had been thinking about something.

"Okay, okay, I understand. I honestly understand."

"Um, what exactly do you understand?"

"I understand that we still cannot stand on an equal level as Yuki-san. Even Kunichika-chan and Yamamoto-san are way above us."

She looked down to Kodera without looking down at him. The gaze did not extend to Narasaka, but the words were directed to the two of them.

"Even you are far above us, Shōhei-kun. This jerk is also above us. We are indeed trying to get better, but we are not trying our best. I may honestly be at the summit, but you all are in the sky. There is a still a ways to go before any one of us can say that we can look you all in the eyes on equal footing."

"That's not true! Misaki, you are great as it is, and we just saw the rest of your team in action. I am sure that you could give us a hard time if we had to fight you all."

"Don't try to make her feel better, Shōhei. The fact of the matter is that we would have trouble because they are all crazy. But that craziness is also what is wrong with them. It is something that they need to think about instead of just going with it."

Suzume and Kodera turned to Narasaka, who was getting up from his seat.

He turned to face the two as well, but he gave nothing away with his look.

"I am not saying that them being crazy is the only reason, but the way their crazy works is not the best way for them to do things. Misaki, tell me, once one of you puts an idea into action, and it fails, what do you do next?"

"We..."

"They rely on someone else for help while trying to take care of it themselves. It is a contradictory move that they all seem to go to when it happens."

The trio of Snipers looked over to see a duo of Shooters walking up the stairs.

.

Kurauchi and Kōchō had listened in in the conversation between the trio of Snipers.

The words from Yuki would have an effect on everyone who was involved in some way with the match.

Thinking that the girl in the back would to take those words to heart was only a given.

The question that came from Narasaka was what they had not expected to hear.

In place of an answer, Suzume had hesitated for a moment.

Understanding what the answer was and saying it out as truth were two different things that took a certain mentality.

Answering in her stead was the best solution they had.

"Sorry to interrupt your talk. As 'fans,' we fell like we should get involved with this conversation. At least with the time we have."

That term had only been meant for him and Kōchō, yet he said it without thinking too much about it.

No one seemed to mind.

"So how do you all suppose we fix this 'craziness' you are honestly referring too?"

"There is no fixing your crazy."

That one hit hard.

"But wouldn't it be better to just mix that crazy with each other? You all seem to be lacking in teamwork while also seeming to be all for it. You all are full of contradictions that seem to go against each other. Taiyōko is the only one who seems to be too straightforward to do that."

"Is that why you chose her to support you all?"

"That was honestly a call on Take that we followed. Besides, Mei-san also knew her, so neither Toby nor I had an issue with it."

"I see."

There was not much to see in the first place.

Suzume was latching on to the words directed toward her and her team as if it would open a new door for them all.

That must have been what let her continue talking even as it seemed that Narasaka was moving to leave with Kodera being right behind him.

"Misaki, there is something going on soon, so there may be less people who can help you all. But from what I know, Awrdy will be receiving some help and Kotowari is already getting help from Nasu and Kakizaki. While you do not seem to need help, I do recommend coming up with a way to incorporate them with each other as well as yourself."

"That does sound like something I can manage. But I might have to do that after they have honestly gotten more help. A person's rhythm rarely changes, but it can honestly change under the rights conditions. That can effect what I can do for us."

Kurauchi nodded with a small smile.

He looked over at Kōchō to see what her reaction to all of this would be.

Instead of what he had expected, she was simply staring at Suzume in wonder.

_Oh._

_Is she wondering if she should say something? Normally she would be joining Misaki in a song, but she does not seem to be like that._

Kōchō stepped forward once she noticed the look he was giving her.

From his spot on the stairs, he could see that Narasaka had stopped his movement to see what would come from this as well.

"Suzu-... No. Misaki. If it is fine with you, I can watch from the outside and tell you guys if there is anything particular that changes. Seeing things from the insides tends to create a sort of bias that could skew your sight on things, but an outside view will see things from a different angle. That is why you wanted to watch this match as well, right Narasaka?"

The Sniper said nothing in response. His eyes slowly trailed to the side as if confirming what she had said.

It was a way of showing his support even when someone like Suzume had become a part of it.

"Why do you want to do that, Kōchō-chan? I'm sure that Toby would enjoy that, but it still seems odd for you to go out of your way for the rest of us like that."

Was it really that odd?

_It must be because she is only use to Tsuki... Yuki and Takato treating them like that._

Kotowari Squad had many people on their side, but they did not seem to realize it.

"Narasaka over there may hate me saying this, but you already know how my team works. We are not particularly fighters. But that means we can be supporters instead of fighters. So I would like to support Kotowari Squad as their 'fan' first."

"Oh my. That does sound interesting. I did not think we really had any 'fans'. Uh, yeah, sure. We would appreciate someone like you honestly supporting us. Yes. If that is the case, I am sure that we can only get better. None of us like to look bad in front of someone watching out for us."

It was a fact that none of them could deny.

They would all work hard for each other, but it was when they were being watched by someone else that they truly shined.

Someone else supporting them could only lead to great things.

_I should let Senshi know about this kind of thing. He may not get it, but I can explain in a way he would understand._

* * *

"You three understand what this means. Don't let his words get you down or else you will end up in a bad place."

Mei looked over the three youngest members of Kotowari Squad.

Neither of them seemed particularly bothered by the words, but they could not hide the subtle feelings they had.

Yuki's words would always get to Takeshi and Toby as their former captain. For Hoshi it would be because it was her brother's words.

She was certain that somewhere inside of her, those words hit something. It would have been unfair if she was not also responsible when it came to Kotowari Squad.

But she knew well enough what his words meant and what she could do to help.

Her experiences had helped her come to an understanding of multiple ideas and concepts that the rest of her team had yet to realize.

That was why she continued looking at them, waiting for an answer.

Takeshi was the first to speak.

"Mei-san, we can't guarantee that we won't get upset... But we can promise you that we will not stay that way. We did not have Suzume-senpai here with us, but we can't blame that for what happened."

"I apologize for the failure of the Triggers and for my lose as well. I should have taken my leave as soon as I could to prevent that from happening. B-but even so, I will do my best next time!"

"That is fine, Hoshi. We all understood what could happen when entering this fight. You had also gotten permission to continue fighting. We are all responsible for what happened in this match."

Their Shooter and new member seemed fine enough.

Nasu had been helping Takeshi as much as she could, so there was no need to worry when they had to fight each other.

Hoshi had been involved with something concerning Katori, but her actions had been fine and rather level headed. Everything that had happened was more than they could have asked for from her.

The two of them were sticking to Takeshi's words. They would feel down due to losing in some way, but that would not be keeping them down.

But...

"Toby."

The boy looked up to her, smile nowhere to be seen.

His expression was unlike what they had seen before.

Unlike with the time after Yuki leaving them, and unlike the time with his father, he genuinely showed what was bothering him. It was on his face as clear as day.

"I will not be holding back. You do understand that."

"...Right."

"Good," she nodded.

Mei continued to look at Toby while he arms began doing something else.

"You look like you want to go for a run. But that won't help you get your speed back. Your power does not seem to have lessened, but your speed was wailing. You also could not fully focus on the match."

She began fixing something with her hands as she continued.

Each word came out rather harsh, but an undertone of calm and caring was heard.

"With that being the case, please go for that run. I have informed your mentor about it and he will be joining you along the way. It may not help, but sadly...neither can I. I am not the best person to help you out here. So I will be relying on your own will and his guidance for this."

She stood up with boxes in her arms.

Using light steps, she reached Toby in no time and with as little movement as possible.

She held out one of the boxes to him while the others were placed neatly on top of her open palm.

"Without my calculations... I know you can get through this."

He looked to the box for a moment before reaching out to grab it.

"Mei, what is this? A bento?"

"It would be hard for you to eat my cooking right now. No, this is a new Trigger."

"What? Why would I need this?"

"It is actually a training Trigger, so I don't recommend going into a battle with it."

"Does this mean you want me to fight using only Scorpion?"

"It does not have an offensive Trigger in it. I will not tell you what it is, but just know that it was what I thought would help you out. You don't have to use it, but it is just a thought."

"...Okay...? So are those also for those two? To help them out?"

"These are actually bentos I made."

The sigh that Toby let out made it hard not telling him that it was a joke and that they were just small gifts for the two as well.

Before she could correct her words, Toby had started speaking again.

She had missed her chance to make him feel better.

"Yuki said that I was comparing myself to someone, but I don't know who that would be. There would be no point in comparing myself to someone like you, and anyone else that comes to mind would feel like an excuse."

"It could always just be Yuki-san or another person you close with. Maybe even someone like Kanzaki-san, considering you are both speed oriented."

That was not right.

As someone who knew the mentioned girl, Mei was certain that it was no Kanzaki who he had been comparing himself to this whole time.

"..."

No other words came from him besides a quick "Thank you" and a small bow. It was his way of saying that he was finished with the conversation.

That was fine with her. She allowed him a chance to walk out of the room.

Mei was well aware that she was getting looks from the other two in the room and so answered their unasked questions while splitting up the boxes in her hand.

She held them out for the two to grab as well.

"Takeshi, you know better than Hoshi what he is like during times like these. They don't come up too often, but you have seen it at least once."

"Yes. His energy was completely drained from this match. The words from Yuki-san seemed to have also gotten to him a bit."

"Good. Since you know, you are free to go. I will be leaving as well."

"I think I will stay behind for a bit. I want to go over some things."

"I will stay with him. Assisting in this is all I can do at the moment."

Mei nodded once more.

There was no reason to stop the two.

With that, she started for the door.

When she turned the knob and opened the door, she was greeted with a familiar face who held out two boxes of his own.

Making sure the other two could not see the boy, she made her quick escape before closing the door behind her.

.

Takeshi fell back into a nearby chair with a sigh.

They had won their match, but the feeling of victory was not what hung in the air.

"That dog boy's emotions really show, and Mei-san looks like she is also uncertain on what to do. For her to look like that... Did we do something wrong by her standards?"

There were many more things he had started to question.

Suzume had clearly seen their match. So what did she think of it?

How had Nasu Squad and Katori Squad viewed the match?

Was it really their best showing as a team?

The title of captain was just for show to the members of Kotowari Squad, yet a feeling of self disappointment started to surface.

Their actions had been because they agreed on what to do, so the responsibly would be shared throughout their entire team.

So why was the feeling of self disappoint so evident to them right now?

"If I may..."

The spot next to him was taken rather quickly by the newest member of Kotowari Squad.

The look Hoshi gave was also one of uncertainty. But it was not the same as any of theirs.

"Oh, uh, yeah? Was there something particular you need?"

"Ah? No, no, no! My apologizes. It is just that I wanted to see if you were alright."

Takeshi's only response was to blink.

It took a moment for him to collect his thoughts. Once that was done, he started to speak again.

"I'm fine. I said I would stay behind to look over some things, but I just wanted to rest a bit before leaving. Since we have everything here, I'll still go over it, but for the most part I just want to sit here."

"Ah. I must be disturbing you then. My apologies for that. I will leave if you want me to do so."

"It's fine."

He blinked again, this time only thinking to himself.

_Am I just assuming everything is fine? Huh. I don't think I have viewed anything like that before._

There was a difference between his former choice and his current ones. Knowing that was more than enough for him.

"You are a part of this team now, so this room also belong to you."

"That is right. I was told that we are free to say things as we like... If that is the case, I would like to say something that may help you. ...If that is fine."

Even as she tried to be forward, the star girl had managed to be formal with him.

It was still something he was getting use to seeing.

"Go ahead..."

"R-right. Well, Koto... Take...shi-kun, I believe that there is a misunderstanding among you senior members. Specifically about responsibility."

_Is she trying to get out of her responsibilities?_

No. That was far too out of character for her.

Even he was aware that he had just thought something extremely rude about her and would apologize for it once they had finished speaking.

"Please feel free to disregard my words as I lack experience and understanding. This will be coming from a girl who can only view things at a basic level."

"That is not always a bad thing. But I appreciate that you are saying that."

Was it the right thing to say she appreciated those words?

Something else he was uncertain about.

Even so, he let her continue.

"You and Fuji-nee have said that we will all be sharing the responsibilities of choices made. But I do not think that is right. At least for certain matters. As an example: the shared responsibility this time should be the usage of the prototype Triggers, the tactics employed during the match, and the value level set for our opponents." She held up three fingers for each reason. Using her other hand, she raised three more finger, starting with her index finger. "The individual responsibilities this time around would be who we chose to fight, how we went about those fights, and the result of those fights."

"If that is the case, it would me that you and I share a good amount of responsibilities. I am responsible for allowing your continuation of the fights after Toby and I had to Bail Out and for guiding and using you during my fight."

"Meanwhile, I am responsible for continuing to fight and asking for approval, introducing the prototype Triggers, and losing us a point. There are other things to consider, but on a basic level, I hold more responsibilities here and would like to be held accountable for them. They were not responsibilities that should be shared when I am the one at fault."

Takeshi blinked at the words.

_I see. So that is how she is trying to make things better._

By saying that most of the responsibilities were to be split instead is shared, she was lightening any burden on the rest of them and taking it for herself.

Normally that would also be frowned upon, but he could see that she now being held down by those responsibilities like the rest of them were.

_We have gotten use to weighing ourselves down because we have more experience. Since she lacks experience and is much newer to all of this, she feels it less._

It had not been building up on Hoshi like it had the rest of Kotowari Squad. There was so little on her when it comes to things such as the B-Rank Wars and solo matches that she could afford being held accountable for the actions they all thought they should share.

.

When he thought about it, her previous words to Mei had been similar, but they were different then when any one if them had said it.

While they all said something along the lines of "I will do my best," it had always meant they "I will do my best to catch up." It was a way for them to remind themselves that they should be catching up to something.

For Hoshi, saying "I will do my best" was a way for her to say that she will do everything she can, but she will not be trying to catch up to anyone. Her best would be what she could accomplish and not what would be expected.

_In that case..._

"Hoshi."

"Yes?"

He looked toward the girl, feeling like some of his burdens had been taken.

His feelings toward his title were the same, his self disappointment did not go away, and he knew that he had a lot to work on. But...

"I will do my best."

She smiled back in response.

They had come to an understanding of what they needed to do.

"Yes! I will also do my best!"

* * *

At the Kotowari Squad operating room, cleanup time was been put on hold for the captain and newest member.

Each member had gone their own way with one of them never showing up. That left two members to quickly leave and the remaining two to stay.

"Okay, I would like to go over what happened from both our standpoint as well as the commentator's standpoint. Is that fine with you, Hoshi?"

The captain gave his question and looked toward his teammate.

They would leave later on when they were satisfied. However...

"...You brought this for me." muttered Mei on the way to exit the Border base.

The fox-boy walked beside her. He carried a large bento box full of leftovers.

"Want some crab with cheese?"

"Sorry, but I had a similar dish earlier."

But he was only giving her a chance to speak. Probably, anyway. She seriously hoped he was not just going to open up that bento box.

He continued to walk.

That meant her hope was granted.

_...Now, then._

He had started a conversation so she could speak, so how was she to respond?

Around them, the other agents were walking around without a care.

But after he took a few more steps...

"Should we sit down and eat?"

"...If that is what you want."

"I cannot fight on an empty stomach."

Hearing that, Mei sighed as she walked.

"There were no chicken dishes."

"There was some soy sauce fried turkey."

"Then I'll have that."

There were surprisingly few locations available to sit in the area.

She was still not used to life without her calculations going rampant, but she did not think they could sit in the middle of a hallway. And the rooms around them belonged to other teams who may not want to be interrupted by them.

"There are some benches up ahead."

That was exactly what they found in the area connecting some hallways and leaving a space.

It was still rather early and not close enough for the lights to even go dim.

 _This atmosphere isn't exactly conducive to talking about advice,_ she thought as they found an empty seat looking out toward a large space with other walking around.

They had a nice view from there.

They could see others going about their business and others relaxing how they wanted. The artificial lights gave each person a shadow in multiple directions, but no one ever noticed that.

 _This a nice place,_ thought Mei.

He clearly knew a lot of the people in this area. That was likely because he would work gofer jobs part-time. People would occasionally call out to and greet him while Mei placed the bento box on her lap.

_...Oh, this crab with cheese is seasoned with olives._

It was fatty and oily, which did not seem very healthy, but it provided a nice accent when eating something else.

The soy sauce fried turkey was also quite good, but she decided that was enough fatty foods.

"This egg and bean rice is pretty good."

"Because you end up wanting a staple food."

"Yes," she agreed while scooting the bento box so it sat on both their laps. She was on the left and he was on the right. His right arm was in the way, so he placed it behind the bench and skillfully used his left hand to grab things with his chopsticks.

"We're going to finish this off before we get home," he said.

"We can always head to the Red Lightning," she replied.

Then she expressed her thoughts on her current situation.

"This has become a lot of trouble."

.

 _I am no good at talking about myself,_ thought Mei.

So she talked about the surrounding situation instead of herself.

"It is so much trouble."

"Because you are the only member of Kotowari Squad who cannot go out to fight and you have to just sit back and let them figure things out or you run the risk of going back to how you were?"

"You figured that out quick. Also, take a breath."

"I sort of understand you."

"I see you have learned how to be noncommittal."

"Please, enough praise."

She thought about that for about 3 seconds. And then she brought a hand of understanding to her forehead.

"Oh, my bad. Sorry for praising you."

"As long as you understand. But, Mei. ...This is part of what it means to leave your power, for lack of better term, so you should help them out when you can. Isn't there anything you can do? Other than money. We're running short on that since I already ordered my prescriptions for this month."

"I am aware. We share the address you use to order them, after all. ...And just to be clear, I do not have that kind of need."

"I see..."

That was apparently a disappointment, but she was not about to keep that thread of conversation going.

She reached her chopsticks toward the asparagus in sweet soy sauce as she continued on.

"You can prepare yourself for anything, but you still end up complaining."

"Did you want Western food?"

"Yes, but this is not what I meant."

Mei sighed and grabbed some boiled fish with tomato sauce.

"I don't like how I feel like I can't keep up with you now."

"Yes, you did give up on trying to keep pace with me, didn't you? And I just had to use a mirror."

"How you did that is irrelevant. It's the situation that matters."

 _I am hopeless,_ thought Mei. _He is trying to be nice, but I just snapped back at him._

"Can I have these?"

"You can have two."

He readily took three, so she glared at him.

But he did not seem to care as he spoke.

"My age group is always cannibalistic, so you don't need to worry about it."

"Someone could get hurt if I cannot bring myself to do anything."

"Oh, that is not a big deal."

Before she could ask how, the fox-boy calmly continued.

"Border tends to have people who cuts bridges in half, jumps out a window to get to lower levels and other stuff just because we find it fun."

"We never hold back."

"Indeed. We have learned to live entirely in the moment. Some of us even curse when we mess up by just small margins."

"You were doing something else."

"A bit before that, I had had some fun making dust explosions. Dust explosions are great. They really clean out your windpipe."

"What a wonderful place."

"You only just now figured that out?"

"Yes," she nodded.

"So what is wrong with not being able to fight?"

"It is exhausting."

"Why?"

"Because after watching this match and hearing your words, I understand that I am leaving it up to the young ones I care about. It is rather sudden, but that is only because I have been thinking of other people instead of those who are immediately involved with my life."

"Then could you cut me?"

"I could cut you."

"Then that is good enough."

She did not know what he meant, so she said something instead of asking a question.

"You could cut me."

"I could."

"Even if I was using my normal body and you a trion body."

"You would not die."

He was confident.

"No matter what I did, you would find a way to remove all possibilities of getting hit and use what you can to fight back without fighting. And if that was not enough..."

"..."

"I would protect you, so do not worry."

"You would protect me from...yourself. That's a new one. Fox brains must be nonexistent."

"Worry not. ...None of my training would make my blade unstoppable. Remember that Sensei is also really weird."

"Think of my immediate counterattack."

"You can only stop my blade because you are not the kind of person who would do so."

"Right." She nodded. "So you are telling me to keep fighting even when I don't have to fight."

"Yeah. As long as you can fight, you can manage somehow. So only think about not losing anyone. And, Mei?"

"..."

"I believe we just need to help you more."

"Yes," she said with a nod.

 _As long as it looks that way,_ she thought while keeping the thought to herself.

"These are going to be some busy times."

"I will ask Sensei for some help before I have to leave."

"Okay. I will rely on you some more then."

Mei tilted her head toward the Kotowari Squad operating room which was no longer in view.

"All of a sudden revelations is a very 'us' way of doing things."

* * *

Murakami Kō had soon received a notification that had been sent by Yuki concerning Mei. It had been followed up by a second message saying that he should get ready for their meeting with Kurosaki.

A third message came through from his teacher.

"...So I need to be prepared."

The meeting was very close by.

He would be with the majority of his team as well as an idiot and his best friend.

They would know what to do.

... _It seems almost pointless for me to be there._

Murakami looked to the boy who had stopped in front of him.

"Kaede, was it?"

"What is it, Kō-nii?"

"...Did you get that from Hoshi?"

"Yup. That's what they call you around here, right?"

"Around here, they call me Kō or Murakami."

Hearing that, Kaede's expression stiffened.

"Um, sorry."

"For what?"

"...Do you...like jokes?"

"...I do watch TV variety shows with my team and friends."

"Such as?"

"Well," said Murakami with a nod.

His younger and older teammate knew a lot about those shows from their friends in their respective age groups.

But he only watched them because they did. His own age group was too busy fighting each other.

Still, he knew which show his younger and older teammates most enjoyed.

"Teacup Dash, where 5 people get into a serious fight over tea supplies."

"Oh, yeah. They did one on a Mediterranean desert island recently where they were chased around by the primitive man, didn't they? It takes a show like that for no one to accuse it of being staged."

"Yes. ...I'm still trying to figure out why people enjoy that show."

Kaede's expression froze. After a while, he hung his head with sweat pouring down his face.

Murakami could tell this was bad, so...

"Hey."

"...Ah! Sorry! Sorry, okay!? Let's get back on topic!"

He was troubling an underclassman.

He did not really mean it as a way to make up for that, but he decided to ask what he had intended to earlier.

"You came to ask me about something for Hoshi?"

"Kind of. I came to meet up with my sister, but she had asked me for this favor since I still have to wait a bit. She had messaged me saying that she would be with her team captain for some time and that you don't have to go for the testing right now. ...Is that fine?"

"I have no complaints if she wants to know something. It is also nice to meet Maya's younger brother and another friend of Hoshi's. A bit surprising that you don't have glasses though."

"Oh, right... Likewise. Thank you for the nice greeting. ...I appreciate that you are also staying until my sister comes by."

"I see," he said while getting back to checking his messages.

He did not want to seem rude, but his teacher always came first when it came to messages. Well, depending on if his captain had messaged him or not.

But then Kaede asked the question for Hoshi.

"Besides not having to do it right now, are you still fine to test something out for her?"

"That make sense." He responded immediately. "I am wondering why she doesn't message me, but I can ask about that later. For now I just need to answer her question."

"Do you have a complex with her?"

"That would be her actual brother. I just watch out for her."

But Murakami had another thought.

... _I don't fully deny that, do I?_

He felt like he had talked a lot today, but it was still nothing compared to Yuki and the others.

So he kept speaking to avoid an awkward silence with Kaede.

"From the looks of things, I actually won't be able to help her out. I have a bit of a busy schedule change recently and my teacher has just said he needed to see me for something."

"That sure is a difference in values... Or at least that is what I have heard from others."

"It might be best not to always repeat what you hear. Some people I know would take great advantage of that."

"Oh." Kaede nodded. "I will keep that in mind then."

"But that is mostly my age group. So anyone who is eighteen years old is who you should be careful around."

"...I think you've managed to convince me already."

He could not decide if he should thank him for that. But...

"Back on topic. I will need to apologize to her later. For now I need to focus on something else."

Two important things had just come up for him.

* * *

"Um, Toby?"

Minoru called out to his right as he ran.

They were near the industrial area of Mikado City.

Mei had informed him that once the match had concluded, the commentators finished their comments, and their team spoke, Toby had gone for a run. He had what'd to try and regain some of his speed and this seemed to be his way of doing so.

While that had been where he joined the young Attacker, Minoru and Toby ran along a walking path marked out with rope.

They were not in a hurry anywhere. They were simply running to maintain their physical condition now.

They had already done this once before, when they both just wanted to have some fun, but the way they held their bodies changed compared to then.

During this time, the temperature loosened their muscles.

To adjust and tighten their muscles, they ran. They could normally perform this conditioning with equipment, but this was for a different reason.

They wanted to familiarize themselves with Toby's speed.

_...Or is that a sign of how worried I am?_

Minoru followed that thought with spoken words.

"Unlike the other areas, the sun will shine on us when we move toward the city, so be careful."

Some areas of Mikado City were some kilometers long. Taking a wide circle around them was a great distance. They were making two circuits at their own pace, but...

"Toby?"

The other boy was not responding.

Minoru saw that Toby was staring forward and a bit down as he ran.

He was obviously lost in thought. And...

_...Oh?_

The ground at his feet was shimmering.

The wavering light looked a lot like a heat haze and it was not an illusion.

While he ran, Toby would sink lightly down on his ankles and have his toes cross from either side. Each time, he seemed to be attempting to make a certain movement.

"—"

But he would cancel it partway and it would mess him up.

That action created an odd image that seemed like a heat haze.

A large wagon carrying materials passed them by.

It contained materials for the scaffolding that would be used to construct the walls for a nearby building. Metal beams stuck out onto the walking path, so Minoru moved out of the way.

Toby, however, did not.

He lightly twisted his body and continued facing forward.

"..."

"Toby!"

Minoru was sure it would hit him.

_...Huh?_

But then he saw something.

Toby's body passed right through the scaffolding material that stuck out to the side.

It was not that it did not hit him.

To Minoru, it looked like Toby had continued running forward, hit the material, and yet "passed through" it.

_...Eh?_

He did not understand, so...

"Toby!?"

There was a sharp tone in his voice now.

Just then, Toby's shoulders shook.

"What is it, Minoru!?"

Rapidly turning around was a mistake.

He slammed the side of his head into a different metal beam that had been passing by behind him.

With a dull sound, Toby crouched down. The cart's driver looked back.

"Hm? ...Huh? Did I hit you, young man!?"

He sounded so confused because that should never have happened.

But Minoru recalled what had happened just before that: Toby had strangely "passed through" the beam.

_...What was that? And why didn't his Side Effect stop the second one?_

This was not the time to analyze that.

But he realized they were gathering even more attention.

Now was not the time to be worrying everyone. As Border agents, they needed to seem like they were the offense and the core of defense for the city, so he bowed to them with a smile.

"No, he just tripped over my foot by accident."

They all nodded in understanding.

An elderly man shouted over at him while loading a cart with flowers to decorate the inside of a building.

"You're just the epitome of grace, aren't you!?"

The driver and everyone else laughed at that and Toby stood back up.

"My bad. ...Please continue working immediately."

"Right!"

They all replied in unison and resumed moving.

Minoru looked to the high rise buildings and sighed.

"Um, Toby."

"Huh?"

"You dodged the metal beam sticking out from the cargo passing by, didn't you?"

Toby looked back at him with no change to his expression.

His shapely eyes remained motionless for a few seconds, and then...

"...Huh?"

He looked troubled. Also...

"I dodged a metal beam? ...But I hit it. Which is weird given my Side Effect."

"No, not that one. You dodged the first one that was in front of you."

"Well, I do sometimes subconsciously dodge because if my reflexes."

_...Umm, that's not what I meant..._

How was he to explain this?

"You see..."

"What is it?"

Minoru held his left arm up in front of his eyes.

"Think of my arm as the metal beam."

"And what did it do?"

"Right. It approached your forehead like this."

Minoru pressed the arm against his forehead but moved his head forward, as if pushing the arm out of the way.

"You went like this and seemed to slip through it or pass through it, so you ended up on the other side."

Toby watched as Minoru pressed his arm to his forehead a few times.

They were below the clear sky, but also in the giant shadow formed by the buildings. And after a while...

"...Pff."


	60. Toby Awdry: Part 2

There was a large crop field below the sun.

It was a vast area. A forest created a dark shadow beyond the distant horizon and mountains rose from beyond even that.

The field contained so very much crop.

The shadows of waterways occasionally cut across its green surface.

It was a rather safe area away from the main bustle of the city.

Away from the Gates.

The black holes containing some electricity were not seen in this area.

There was a clear line that separated the area from a nearby industrial area.

Occasionally, some silhouettes could be seen moving around the two areas.

"Those are the workers for the two areas. I guess they get along pretty well."

A voice spoke in the center of the crop field.

A solidly-built figure stood in that expanse of green. He was a man with a tattoo on his face. He was...

"Gya gya gya gya gya. That damn boss lady using me because my name is said the same way as her brother's. 'Seikai Kiyoshi' is written so different than that 'pure' crap he used." He pulled out a meh I always object before muttering something under his breath. "But stealing me this thing is worth it. None of could join Border because that fox guy kept tabs on all new recruits."

He nodded.

"Yeah, we pick on their friends just a bit and all hell breaks loose. They weren't even a gang."

With that, he looked ahead.

There was a giant black ball there.

It was not nearby. It was a long way away, but its size threw off his sense of distance.

"To me it appears so small. But to the assholes at Border, it looks so damn close."

The black ball had been what was known as a Gate.

There were more than a few of them appearing per day. They came in many sizes and sometimes dropped a good number of Neighbors off.

This was was different.

It was small and looked like whatever came out would be taken out right away.

Seikai placed a hand on his forehead as he viewed them.

"But I guess I can't use them to stir things up. Damn. And boss lady is going to literally kill me if I don't mess around a bit."

* * *

"Y-you don't have to laugh at me. ...Oh yeah, I forgot that we need to work on your communication skills."

Minoru felt heat rising in his cheeks as he clenched his fists and protested.

Toby held his right hand to his mouth and raised his left hand to say "wait".

"N-no, Mino, I'm just not sure what you mean by that..."

"I'm asking you because I don't understand it myself."

"So you did that because you really don't understand?"

That seemed to really tickle his funny bone. He turned his back for a while, but eventually turned back around and took a breath.

"My bad. I'm really sorry about that. I'm sure you only did that because you are worried for me."

"Yes, yes. That's right, that's right. That's the entire point of this, Toby."

Minoru knew he was glaring and Toby cleared his throat.

"Hm. I really have to apologize because I don't remember that at all."

"...It isn't something you were practicing?"

"Not intentionally, no."

Toby took two steps closer and then took Minoru's arm.

"Was it...like this?"

He took the appropriate stance with Minoru's arm as the metal beam.

They were facing each other with Minoru posed like he was elbowing the other boy.

But he figured this would help explain it, so he did so.

"Yes. And you seemed to pass right through this arm..."

"Hm," said Toby as he moved forward without warning. He was leaning forward a bit and he took a step forward while holding up Minoru's arm.

"Oh?"

His face ended up on Minoru's chest.

Everyone working in the area turned back at once.

.

 **Kitora:** "I hear there is a commotion in the industrial area. ...Hatohara-senpai and Awdry, any idea why?"

 **Deer Prince:** "...Uhhh, not a clue. No."

 **UMA:** "Hey, this is the right connection. Wa-..."

 **Red Picture:** "...Hm? Did he get cut off? Well, whatever. Am I connected?"

 **Werewolf:** "Ohh, you finally in the chat, Yūma? Welcome. But your connection does seem unstable, Kirie."

 **Kitora:** "Just do your work..."

.

 _Kitora just scolded us,_ thought Minoru.

_...But I really messed up my positioning this time._

It was only natural for _that_ to happen if they were facing each other head on.

Toby looked up at her.

"Minoru, that would have been a disaster if you were a girl and had activated the Giant Breasts Defense."

"I'm not too sure if that is Suzume-chan's influence or your own words..."

Minoru moved alongside Toby and held his left arm out in front of the other boy's face as if throwing a backhand blow.

"Getting back to what happened before...I think it was _like this_."

"I see. So the metal beam moved in from the front...and I moved forward."

Toby must have been pondering his previous mistake because he did not move himself.

Instead, Minoru moved his arm toward Toby's forehead.

"The beam moved like this..."

He moved his arm right up to Toby's forehead.

It made contact.

He held it there for a few seconds and noticed the sweat on their skin.

"Well?"

He removed his arm and saw Toby's wrinkled brow below it. The boy tilted his head.

"—"

Toby did not seem to understand, but Minoru did not understand either.

"Do you have any ideas?"

"...Eh? Oh, Minoru, can you do it one more time? Maybe it was just my Side Effect."

"Okay. ...Like this?"

"No, um, with more force this time."

 _Wouldn't that be dangerous?_ he thought as he swung his arm. _Even with your Side Effect._

He stopped at the last second.

He had made an accelerated swing of his arm with the hand relaxed. But Toby stared unblinkingly at it as it stopped before his eyes.

He was highly focused.

After a while he nodded. And...

"Minoru, please swing all the way through with that same force. That kind of speed is hard for me to catch without trying."

"Okay. ...Like this, right?"

 _He plans to really do it,_ he realized while swinging his arm.

He intended to swing his arm all the way through.

So he went for it.

And he indeed swung all the way through.

_...Eh!?_

He heard the sound of bone being struck and felt an impact in his elbow.

The hit caused Toby's knees to give out below him.

"Ow."

The problem was that Minoru had not expected to actually hit. The nerves of his elbow seemed to short-circuit because a powerful tingling raced up his arm and through his shoulder.

They both crouched down and held their forehead or elbow for a few seconds.

"M-Minoru, you really are skilled in martial arts. I can confirm that."

"Y-you should know that already."

"Umm, what are you two doing?"

Kashio walked up.

.

Kashio had been going for a run.

He lived a primarily indoor life, but the past few days had taught him it was important to build up some strength. After all...

_...I can't keep falling behind...!_

He knew a few days was not going to make a huge difference, but he hoped doing this long term would help him grow taller and stronger.

By the time he had grown tall and built up some muscle, he expected the state of Mikado City would be even better. Then he could go to the Yagura Branch happily with his team.

_...Or that was my plan anyway._

"What are you doing?"

The two boys here had much more experience training their bodies, but they were crouched down on the ground.

The two of them were use to fighting intense battles like today, so he wondered what had happened.

"Are you two doing special training?"

"N-no, that's not it at all."

Minoru stood up and rotated his arm so he could see. Beyond him, Toby also stood up and fixed his collar. And...

"Yutaka, are you out on a run?"

"Yes. I had some things to think about and I thought I could start training my body better."

"Oh, are you planning to try and keep up with the Yagura Branch?"

Kashio thought about that one.

_...I have to get to the point where I can say I am._

_A boy needs to be able to show off,_ he thought as he answered Minoru. _But not as much as Awdry does._

"That is right. I am thinking about keeping up with them if we do end up accepting the offer to join them."

As soon as he said that, a wave of chatter spread through their surroundings. The voices quickly spread outwards in a game of telephone.

"Hey! Kashio-san says he's going to keep up with those guys!"

"Ehh!? Kashio-san is coming to our side of Mikado City!?"

"Yeah! Kashio-san is coming to the side!"

That exchange and cries of surprise made a full circuit of the area around the industrial area.

After a while, the wave of voices arrived back from the other side.

 **JK:** "Kashio-kun? What is this I'm hearing about you 'coming thrice and covering Mikumo-kun with lassi'? Some weird sex thing? Wait, who even is Mikumo-kun?"

 **Kasio:** "No! How did it end up like that!?"

"Now, now." Minoru smiled bitterly and waved his right hand back and forth. "This just means everyone is worried about you, Kashio-kun."

"I want to be the kind of guy that won't be holding people back!"

"Got it." Minoru nodded and opened a chat. "Nakagami? Kashio-kun apparently wants to go to the Yagura Branch really badly."

"Yay, super high damage!" replied Nakagami in the chat.

... _Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?_

This was the first he had heard of this. Or rather, he had not said anything that definitive.

And what was Nakagami's response about?

"W-wait just a second! What's this about me and super high damage!?"

"Eh?" said Nakagami. "You promise you won't run away if I tell you?"

_...I don't like the sound of that...!_

But someone else spoke up to bring an end to that conversation.

It was Toby and he took a breath first.

"Even if Yutaka is showing some fighting spirit, isn't sending him to the Yagura Branch alone going a little too far?"

"...R-right!? That is going a bit too far, isn't it!?"

"Right," agreed Toby. He then placed a hand on his chin and looked at Kashio. "So try not to push yourself too hard and work to accomplish only what you can, Yutaka."

"But I'm still going?"

"Oh? You aren't going?"

Minoru looked and sounded truly surprised.

Then he lowered the ends of his eyebrows.

"Um, sorry. Was I mistaken when I said you would be going to the Yagura Branch alone?"

Every part of Kashio's body and soul begged him to say "of course", but...

_...Kh._

He held back.

Because he had to be manly.

A real man could not fall back from such a thing just because Minoru was worried.

Yes, there were times when he had to make himself do something. That was his duty if he was to meet others' expectations like he wanted them to do for him.

_So I need to fill my heart with the power of insanity._

_...There it is, there it is, there it is! It's rising from my imagination!_

_Okay,_ he thought while clenching his right fist in his heart.

"No, you were not mistaken. ...I will go to the Yagura Branch on my own!"

"Are you serious, Yutaka!?"

"I am!"

"We had thought they would have a hard time with a boy and girl that Mr. Akasora has trouble with, so none of us were planning on going near there unless we had a lot of A-Rank agents with us. ...But you will be going there by yourself!"

... _Ehhhhhhhhhhhh!?_

 _Not only is this the first I have heard of that, but you are not even playing fair here!_ he thought to no one in particular.

 **JK:** "Ohh... I think this is going to be even more brutal than I expected."

 **Kasio:** "Please stop making this sound even worse than it is!"

 **Ame:** "Then let's look at just the facts: without Yuki-san around soon, you would have a high chance of dealing with the Taiyōko Older Sister and the Taiyōko Younger Brother."

Just the facts was bad enough.

But he did have a thought about what he had heard.

 **Kasio:** "Is the situation really that bad? And who are those two?"

 **Kitora:** "Are you dumb?"

 **Kaze:** "Kitora! Don't say that about Kashio! His brain has been producing tons of anxiety-inducing chemicals!"

 **Kasio:** "Do I have no rights as a human being!?"

But Minoru took a breath and spoke.

 **Deer Prince:** "Don't worry. My age group tends to attack each other on a daily basis. Something like this really isn't something to get worked up about."

It was awful through and through.

But there was nothing they could do about it, so Kashio decided to end the conversation for now and let Nakagami think about whatever she wanted. However...

"Achoo!"

He had apparently grown chilled in the tall building shadow.

He wanted to be manly, but his sneeze sounded awfully childish to him.

_...I need to pull myself together._

As he thought that, he saw Minoru smile.

"You should probably hurry into the sun. There is something we would like to test out here."

"What you were doing before?"

"You could say that, yes."

"I am getting used to all this and that is worrying me..." said Kashio.

 _It isn't pleasant at all,_ he thought as he took a breath and resumed running.

"I will go on ahead! After completing a circuit, I think I will return to the base to see if I can have some solo matches."

.

Minoru lightly stretched his arms and his whole body.

He filled his lungs with the afternoon air in the tall building's shadow.

"Okay, Toby. We never solved that mystery, but let's finish our run for now. Kashio-kun already went on ahead."

"Right. My next match isn't for a while, so we have to keep at it."

 _My, my,_ thought Minoru.

_...But you were distracted because you were too focused._

However, he left that unsaid.

The boy was not aware of it, so telling him would only make him hesitate further.

So Minoru remained silent and nodded back. Toby calmly lined up alongside him.

"—"

And they began to run. They stepped forward to run next to the materials being transported.

Their first few steps were slow, but they soon picked up speed to match the length of their paces.

They passed through the people's shadows once more and then Toby spoke.

"Minoru?"

"Yeah. What is it?"

"Later, you will be using Border's pool for some training that was suggested, won't you?"

"That was the plan. After Loki told me about some tricks he does, I do things like create a platform on the water and balance on top of it."

"Right. I would like to spar with you then. ...Lately, I have felt somewhat lacking in speed."

Minoru smiled a bit that Toby had chosen now to reveal that he had lost confidence in himself after his sudden drop in speed. Because while they ran, Minoru was the only one he could tell.

Of course, Minoru was also the only one with the skill to train properly with Toby. However...

"I move in a more systematic way than you, so I'm not actually sure how a simple spar can help as much as a fight. It's a bit unconventional than fighting others."

"That's fine, Mino. You already know that I am really unconventional myself. My way of fighting is just really wild."

They argued over who was more unconventional until they reached the edge of the area.

There they entered the sunlight. Their bodies warmed up as they ran alongside the materials being transported.

"Alright. Let's spar after I finish up what I need to for Border. So in a few days."

"Right. I look forward to it. Then we can take a break at the stall nearby."

Just as Toby said that, Minoru noticed something.

_...Oh?_

A cart carrying materials was moving alongside them. But...

_...That's strange._

They had made their way around the area

The area was near another area of Mikado City that species in growing crops. Since it was close to the industrial area, there had been some protection for it. A nearby river could be seen, but these materials should have been going toward the industrial area.

So why had these followed them all the way around the next area?

.

_...Is there any reason the materials are being sent needlessly around like that?_

Minoru looked at the cart of materials.

He recognized the person in the driver's seat.

It was a familiar face.

But it had been so long that he could not recall the person's name. And he was afraid to be mistaken, so he asked the others in his age group.

 **Deer Prince:** "Um, everyone? Do you remember that group weird group that, um, we fought a year back?"

 **Pokari:** "Himeji's Yakiniku Three Musketeers?"

 **Deer Prince:** "No, those were ad campaign characters for a yakiniku shop. Kageura-san soloed them all and there were only 3 of them."

 **TetsuG:** "Then do you mean Nagahama's Eight Fish Legions?"

 **Deer Prince:** "I remember a tired Zoe...-san saying 'Eh? The Eight Wish Legions?' and challenging them, but I don't think that's who I mean. Besides, that was an eating contest and not a fight."

 **Pokari:** "Those were so hard to tell apart since their names were all 'Fish-sama', 'Fish-shi', 'Fish-san', and so on."

 **Black Wolf:** "I think it was just that we defeated them before we could hope to learn which was which..."

 **Zoe:** "Umm, then was it the Eight Swordsmen of Weird History?"

 **Deer Prince:** "Their catchphrase was 'we are dying to discover the best parts of history', but they were discovered as history otaku patients in some hospitals on the first day of the fighting which made their catchphrase literally true. That one was also a debate and not a fight."

 **TetsuG:** "Yeah, I doubt they meant it like that..."

 **Manager:** "You guys really like to think that everything is fight, don't you?"

That third one had even had an appropriate connection to weirdness, but that was not what Minoru was looking for here. Also, they seemed to deal with numbered groups a lot. Of course, that was because each time a friend had been getting picked on.

 **White Fox:** "Was I considered one of you at that time? Because if it was someone we fought, then wouldn't it be the gang that had been picking on Yuka and the girls?"

 **Deer Prince:** "Yeah! That's it. Thank you very much. ...I couldn't think of it since Loki was still someone most of us were not use to having around."

 **White Fox:** "You're welcome. But, Mino, what about them?"

 **Deer Prince:** "Toby and I are by the transfer point between the industrial area and where the crops are growing. Well, Seikai Kiyoshi is right here next to us. You know, the one who thought he was cool by trying to take three of us on at once. Yeah, he looks like he's in a Trion Body. But I don't remember ever seeing him around Border."

 **Almost Everyone:** "...Then he's using the Trigger illegally!"

 _Eh?_ thought Minoru.

 **Deer Prince:** "U-um, couldn't it be that he joined Border and we just don't know?"

 **White Fox:** "I have no record of that happening. Remember that I started keeping track of new recruits after that fight. Please kick his ass for me. I hate that we had the same name, just written differently."

 **TetsuG:** "Why is he there?"

"Then," said Toby outside the chat but looking over Minoru's shoulder. "Why not ask him?"

"Good idea..."

Minoru tried asking as he ran.

"Um, Seikai Kiyoshi?"

When he called out to him, he turned around in the driver's seat.

"Yeah. ...What do you want?"

.

 _It really is him. Thank goodness,_ thought Minoru as she got right to the point.

"Why are you here? And apparently using a Trigger?"

"...That would be a long story."

"Could you sum it up for me?"

"Fine then." He nodded. "I came here to find two guys confirming their mutual friendship with a run. I caught the scent of youth and decided to bask in that lively atmosphere."

Hearing that, Minoru nodded once.

Then he breathed in and shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Thief!"

.

Minoru saw Seikai Kiyoshi frantically wave his hands side to side.

"H-hold on! You're jumping to conclusions!"

He seemed to have something to say for himself.

_...I guess there could be a reason for this kind of thing..._

Minoru sighed and asked another question while still running.

"What is the meaning of this?"

"Right. Because of some connections from my past, I'm working for a crazy bitch and stopped here to check things out for her. Sort of like making sure she can win."

"Thief!"

"H-hold on! You're jumping to conclusions!"

He seemed to have something to say for himself.

"For one thing, an actual fight hasn't broken out yet between her and your sponsors!"

_So it is Loki's older sister._

That was true. They were of course still enemies in a technical sense, but it was worth considering how to handle this situation.

Minoru sighed and asked another question while still running.

"What is the meaning of this?"

"Right. Since she'll eventually be fighting everyone she wants, I came here to check things out and found some guys confirming their mutual friendship with a run. I caught the scent of youth and-..."

"Thief!"

"H-hold on! You're jumping to conclusions! And why do you keep saying 'thief'!? What have I stolen!? Oh wait... That fox guy keeps track of these things, doesn't he?"

"Thief!"

"Hold on, you idiot! If you do, I'm sure you will understand how pure my heart is! I'm being forced to do this! Even if I did take the Trigger from some idiot who wasn't paying attention!"

"Mino, how about we beat him up now?"

"Yeah!" he agreed while Seikai turned his cart.

The cart quickly accelerated from the slanted position.

"Ah. You're trying to get away, aren't you?"

"If my words can't convince you, I don't have a choice!"

Seikai stood up in the accelerated cart's driver's handles and swung his arm. He swung it toward the boys as they quickly picked up speed.

"See you assholes later!"

"W-wait! That cart is stolen!"

"Ha ha ha. Can't catch me!"

A metal beam sticking out from a pile of materials hit Seikai on the back of the head.

With a solid sound, his body flipped through the air and over the materials loaded on his own cart.

He fell off.

But Minoru and Toby had only just picked up speed as they turned their Triggers on.

Minoru took note that Toby's attire was different. Unlike the usual gray outfit of Kotowari Squad, it was a white one resembling that of a C-Rank agent.

"Crap! I forgot that I took that training Trigger from Mei! What Trigger did she put in here!?"

They had to slam on the brakes when their enemy met this unexpected fate.

But by the time they stopped, they had already passed him by and were even further away from him than before.

"Oh, no...!"

The surrounding people were not fighters, so they could not capture Seikai Kiyoshi.

So Minoru turned around and ran. Toby was right there alongside him.

"Kh...!"

And he accelerated.

This was a familiar Trigger. And currently the only one Toby currently had on him.

"Kiyome...!"

.

Toby used Kiyome for a short dash that quickly filled the gap between him and Seikai Kiyoshi.

He was not too familiar with the Trigger, only seeing two other people use it, but he had to work with what he had.

Seikai Kiyoshi hit the ground rolling, stood back up, and began running once he noticed him.

_...He is surprisingly fast!_

He was older.

Toby was fifteen years older. Based in their age and height, he would be faster on his feet than Toby due to their strides. So if he was to catch up...

"..."

He had to use Kiyome.

_If it was Teleport then this wouldn't be a problem!_

He needed to catch up in a hurry. If he could delay him by just a bit, Minoru could arrive in time.

_...Of course, it's good that we can fight him as a pair._

After all, he had no offensive Triggers.

Seikai Kiyoshi, on the other hand, did. He appeared unarmed, but...

_...Here it comes!_

He swung his arm toward them as he ran.

That thick arm was being used to aim. No blade would come out and no gun would be made, meaning it was a Shooter Trigger.

"Sermon Cannon!"

"That's Meteora, you idiot!"

Green light raced along his arm and left his hand as a glowing projectile.

In response...

_...Right!_

Toby dodged. As the bullet passed him by, he deflected it to the left.

It hit some materials being transported and exploded.

The bursting light and the blast itself were weak, but it made a lot of noise and the surrounding people finally noticed what was happening.

"...An attack!?"

The workers were only citizens being used to transport materials.

Most of those who could actually fight were not a part of Border and so did not have a Trigger.

_...So we have to do something here._

Toby had a sudden thought.

 **Werewolf:** "Ai, were you the one who was scaring people away because you thought they couldn't handle Neighbors?"

 **Kitora:** "Oh! So you noticed my excellent job, did you? Is there some kind of problem?"

 **Deer Prince:** "You made some niche situations even harder...!"

_...That is very true!_

But the situation was what it was.

Everyone had reflexively come to a stop.

They were unsure if there was any danger nearby them.

If they had been trained, they would be able to make a few different decisions. They would immediately decide whether to fall back to safety or to defend against the danger.

But if they had not received combat training...

_...After hesitating, someone will be unable to bear the pressure and they will run._

That would be dangerous. Everyone would think "me too", seek that "uncertain safety", and begin moving every which way.

So before that happened...

"...!"

Toby accelerated between the stopped people.

His eyes were focused on his enemy.

Everyone had stopped and become obstacles, but the older boy was slipping his large body between them.

It was like water.

The more obstacles there were, the faster he seemed to move.

And as Toby pursued him...

"Kh..."

He was hurrying, but...

_...My movements are rough!_

He grazed people and dug up the dirt beneath him.

Part of him thought that was fine. That was just how this acceleration worked. After all...

"Not Teleport! But Kiyome...!"

It had its origins in a purifying way that most Shinto people would know.

For him it seemed different.

_With the way I run, it is more like a headfirst fall. In that case it could be like Japan's Minamoto no Yoshitsune's surprise attack._

Yoshitsune had appeared on a cliff behind the enemy formation and, as everyone else thought about taking a detour around, he had jumped down from the cliff. It was a technique for relying on your horse to descend a cliff. So if Toby was using that to accelerate...

_...Of course it is going to be rough. But I like the sound of Headfirst Fall more than Purification._

It was a wild Trigger.

 _But,_ he thought. _Because of my running style, it provides a falling acceleration focused on speed, so I guess it should be used by the person in the lead._

It was not something for use in a crowded area. So...

"...Now, then."

Toby looked to reach "the lead".

.

Minoru saw something as he ran: Toby jumped as he ran out ahead.

_...Okay then._

It was a great leap. The boy in a white Border uniform soared up onto some materials being transported.

And Toby placed his left foot on those materials.

A moment later, he disappeared.

_...Kiyome!_

He had poured almost all of his strength into acceleration.

As if to prove it, he appeared atop some materials a short distance away and then vanished again.

He next appeared on the back of a car and then on the roof of a materials storehouse.

"—"

 _I can't keep up with him,_ thought Minoru.

Even something like Grasshopper had a set limit to its speed, so it would simply not be enough.

Kiyome was a Trigger that continually got stronger the faster the user truly was.

He was clearly following "after" Toby, not following "along with" him.

This of course meant Toby would catch up to the enemy, but also...

 **Deer Prince:** "Toby! You're moving too far out ahead!"

He called out to him, but...

"—"

There was no response.

_...Not again!_

Yes again.

Toby was focused just like during their run earlier.

He must have been thinking about something because he was failing to monitor his situation.

This time, he was probably focused on pursuing the enemy.

During training, taking time to think was important.

But at the moment...

"...!"

A stir ran through the surrounding people as they noticed Seikai and Toby.

They began to move. Some cried out in surprise and others in confusion.

"—!"

The frightened and panicked crowd got in Minoru's way.

.

Toby realized he had caught up to the enemy.

_He really was using Grasshopper._

It had been the only way for him to keep his lead.

They were on a waterway. It was a small artificial river that passed through the crop field.

It was about 5 meters wide and about a meter lower than the crop field on either side.

The water was less than 10 centimeters deep and small stones were lined up below the water.

This was probably the "path" Seikai Kiyoshi had used to approach the open part of the two areas. He kicked up the water as he ran about 10 meters ahead of him.

He heard something from the area behind him while he kept up the pursuit.

"—"

Everyone was raising their voices after finally noticing the chase.

Toby initially interpreted their distance from the area as distancing him from the work site.

That meant the enemy could no longer do damage to the others or to the city.

He was also well aware that leaving the area increased the risk to him. After all, he had no offensive Triggers and he was lightly equipped. He was also short on support.

He told himself he had to give up the chase after Seikai had made it a certain distance away.

_...As long as I keep that in mind, I should be fine._

He would not pursue him too far.

Of course, he had achieved impressive results by continuing the fight during the battles against the other B-Rank and A-Rank agents during solo matches. So he decided he had to pursue and approach him to a certain extent.

So he did so. And...

"—"

Seikai Kiyoshi accelerated.

He looked back Toby's way and his narrowed eyes definitely focused in on him.

He knew why he had looked back: The waterway bent to the left up ahead.

The waterway was a level lower than the surrounding crop field.

The crops growing there hid the waterway from view after its leftward curve.

If he was careless, Seikai could use the terrain to ambush him.

He likely intended to make clever use of this. His feet audibly kicked up the water as he turned his body around and...

"Sermon Cannon!"

"That is still just Meteora!"

He fired a shot at lower hips height. And it was not a rapid shot.

It was a slow trion projectile that was more released than fired.

.

Toby realized the enemy was luring him in.

The speed and position of the shot was all the proof he needed.

Seikai had targeted his hips which were essentially his center of gravity while running.

If he was hit or if he blocked it, the blow to his center of gravity would bring him to a stop.

And it was slow.

A faster shot would have more force behind it, but then the bullet would reach him sooner.

Since he was trying to buy enough time to escape, it was better for him if the bullet took its time reaching Toby.

And the slower bullet allowed for more accurate aiming. So dodging it was his only option.

However, the direction in which he dodged was the problem. There was water below him, so crouching would slow him down.

If he jumped above it, he would expose his entire body to projectiles. Even with Kiyome, he could not change direction while in the air with no footing.

At times like these, his Side Effect would kick in and dodge for him. The issue was that since there was multiple ways to dodge these attacks, it was supposed to Toby's mind to choose which one would be the better option.

So it had to be left or right.

But dodging to the left would be dangerous.

The curve up ahead was to the left. If he dodged left, he would be hugging the inside of the corner, but the higher ground and crops on the left would be in the way. As soon as he entered the corner without being able to see ahead, Seikai could hit him with a counterattack.

Right would be safer. However...

_...That would delay me around the left corner!_

That would mean widening the gap between him and the enemy.

Toby noticed Seikai Kiyoshi's calm. He had fired one shot as if placing it in the air behind him, but that had given him several different advantages. He had likely been trained for this. Meanwhile...

_...If only I had my actual Trigger...!_

Then he could have used some Scorpion blades to take the hits or use Teleport and continue forward without losing any speed.

The enemy shot approached.

He had to make a decision. So...

_Yeah, I like the sound of this better._

"Headfirst Fall...!"

He accelerated.

.

Seikai pulled something out from under his clothes.

The object reflected what was behind him as he fixed the angle to make sure he could properly first things he saw were the water and the rocks in it. The way it carved gave him for of an angle.

The wide angle of the reflection showed him a wide area behind him.

He saw something odd in the center of that mirror.

Toby disappeared in an instant.

_...Is that the teleporting Trigger boss lady told me about...!?_

He viewed it as something normal for any member of Border, but he did not slow his running legs.

The enemy had not actually disappeared.

He indeed saw a movement in the mirror he checked in a hurry.

It was down below.

Due to the curve of the odd mirror, it was hard to follow movement toward the bottom.

On top of that, Toby had taken an unexpected action.

He had leaned over to duck below the Meteora shot he had fired.

In Seikai's view, ducking below it had been the 2nd best answer.

The best had been to dodge to the right and take the outer corner. Even if he was delayed by that, he would be safe and he could make up for the delay later.

He could not dodge to the left or above because that would expose him to danger.

Below had been the second best option, but...

_...Ducking down reduces his speed!_

However, the enemy had not ducked down. He had leaned to the side as if collapsing into the water. And...

"He accelerated!?"

He had launched his leaning body forward to maintain his speed.

_...I see!_

This enemy's acceleration Trigger did not strengthen his body. It accelerated him from his footing to the direction his feet took him.

He was not running; he was falling.

So what mattered was the indicated direction, not his stance. He could fall headfirst or back-first.

And the enemy made his leap. His forward "fall" took him below the bullet and, just as he finished passing below it, he righted his body and accelerated himself forward.

There was no hesitation in any stage of his triple fall.

"Damn, kid! That was cool!"

Seikai swung his left arm. By shifting his arm, he prepared a new set of attacks to use here. The trion bullets seemed to wrap around his left arm and moved from there to his body like large rosary beads.

"Sermon Cannon Machinegun!"

"That's just a barrage of Asteroid!"

He fired them in quick succession.

.

The glowing bullets punched into the nearby wall.

The fist-sized shots were fast and fired in rapid succession.

Their firing sounded more like blowing wind than a roar and it was joined by the loud noise of footsteps.

In the lead, Seikai ran while facing backwards and kicked up the water.

In pursuit, Toby ran while leaning forward and kicked up the water.

Seikai was the first to make his way around the left corner.

He hugged the inside of the corner to make the most of his lead.

And while the nearby wall provided cover, he fired trion bullets so they would pass through the other side. And he sprayed them up to down.

For Toby, this created a horizontally-sweeping barrage that covered the inside of the corner to the outside of the corner.

"How about that!?"

Seikai shouted that while falling back and that was when Toby made his approach.

He took a center route. It was the same route as the one on which he had ducked below the previous shot.

He had not changed his route in response to the random vertical spray of bullets from Seikai. He simply ran, and...

"...!"

He removed his jacket. A moment later, he grabbed the ends of the sleeves, scooped up water like the jacket was a basket, and swung it in front of him.

"...Take this!"

He released his jacket toward the barrage cutting across at just below chest height.

The water had not had time to soak in, but the jacket struck the barrage with the weight of the water it surrounded.

Even if it was not officially meant for combat, the uniforms of Boder members tended to have some general protection. That and the weight of the water was consumed by the enemy bullets.

Of course, the destructive trion bullets would not be stopped by something like that.

A few shots hit it, tore through the water and jacket material, and pierced through.

This was not completely bulletproof.

But the bullets that hit the jacket and water were slowed just a tad. And Toby took aim for the gap that created.

"Headfirst Fall...!"

He used his acceleration to throw himself sideways through the air.

He led with his right shoulder, twisted his body, and shifted into a flop.

He kicked off the water's surface and moved quickly enough that the water only splashed up after the fact.

But not even that was enough. He had launched himself face-up in the air, but the later bullets were going to reach him.

That was why he turned himself around.

He began a midair spin to shift from face-up to face-down. He pointed his belly down and moved his right leg to kick at the water's surface.

"—"

His toes breached the water's surface and reached the stones below.

He had his footing. And just then...

"...!"

He used his acceleration not to pass through the barrage but to pull himself out of it.

Even so, a few of the bullets still had the speed and trajectory needed to reach him. Because he had twisted his body starting from the feet, his face was furthest away and it had not quite left the barrage.

But he had seen them. And he could instantly grasp the trajectories of just a few.

So he could dodge them.

He cleared the barrage using his twirling and accelerating body along with physical strength centered on his head.

A few strands of hair were taken by the barrage of trion bullets.

But that was all.

He had cleared it. The next acceleration was already entering his body.

Behind him, the abandoned jacket and water belatedly burst.

That spray could not keep up with Toby as he moved forward.

He fell forward.

.

Seikai watched the enemy's movements.

He was catching up. The enemy approached with enough speed to do that.

Seikai thought while moving at a speed so great that the kicked-up water looked slow.

_...Triggers really are amazing. Boss lady showed me how to only use some of them and I'm doing great against this kid. Even if he is a C-Rank and a kid._

He instinctually arranged the scene into something that made him look better, but he really did wish he lived in a world like that.

Needless to say, reality was cruel. Reality was nothing like his own, so he was instead being pursued by an accelerating boy who blasted water explosively into the air.

_Yeah, maybe mixing in Meteora was not the best choice here._

That was a problem.

The enemy's charge would not stop. He had done an incredible job of forcing his way through the barrage.

Seikai was impressed how he had combined his jacket and the water to escape that tight spot. However...

_...Why!? Why would you remove your jacket while behind cover!?_

An athletic boy had removed his jacket in a stream below the sun.

He hardly felt much if the sun's rays while using this false body. But there was still a bit of feeling hitting him from the realism put to make sure the user would not end up in their own little worlds.

The accelerating boy must have also felt something like that.

"You damn beast!"

Seikai scattered gunfire. He fired close-range at the enemy who was rounding the corner. He spread his three fingers and fired the trion bullets along them.

It had been easy to control the direction using such methods.

"Take this!"

He launched the 3-way trion bullets.

.

Toby saw the enemy's 3-way scattershot. And he shifted his position.

He chose to dodge Seikai Kiyoshi's attack.

The attack fired at him was a simpe attack by using Meteora or Asteroid for their damage output then released carefully instead of using trion just to miss.

He seemed to launch the trion bullets as if pushing them with his palm.

It was a large palm and looking at it told you the angle at which he would fire.

But the palm was pointed downward when he fired this scattershot along his fingers.

If fired in the direction of his palm, it should have flown downward. But that was not what these bullets did.

They followed his fingers and were pushed out from the tips.

 _In that case,_ thought Toby.

_...This guy's scattershot must be controlled by the spreading of his fingers!_

When targeting someone using his fingertips, it was difficult to intentionally "divert" the shots.

Seikai Kiyoshi had the middle of his three fingers aimed at him.

So Toby leaped into the gap between his middle and outer finger.

"Headfirst Fall!"

He made it.

But Seikai Kiyoshi reacted by swinging his right arm as he fell back.

He added a winding motion to the bullets.

The rapid-fire Asteroid bullets formed a horizontal wave and drew something like a whip with their trajectories. They flew past Toby, collided with the nearby wall or the water's surface, and filled the air with clumps of dirt and spraying water.

But Toby immediately responded to the motion of the enemy's bullets.

He followed suit.

_...I can do this!_

The bullets had speed and density, but they came in a wide 3-way spread. This was much easier to dodge than a blade or spear tip aimed at him.

Before this, he had fought opponents whose every attack was meant to be lethal.

Compared to that...

"—!"

He crouched low and jumped forward.

Just then, two things happened before his eyes.

First, Seikai Kiyoshi leaped backwards.

Second, he closed his fingers.

He greatly compressed the density of the barrage and fired all three shots toward his face while he stayed low.

The distance between them had not shrunk. Seikai had matched his jump to his.

_...He predicted my action!?_

He wondered how but found no answer. He simply dodged the barrage.

"Oh...!"

He lowered his body and plunged his head into the water.

He let his stance collapse as much as possible to dodge the bullets.

His head, shoulders, and chest struck the water and bathed in the scent of algae.

But he had dodged them.

The sweeping air passed overhead. Or rather, over-hips since that was the last part of him to drop down. That was proof that the enemy bullets had passed him by.

He had made it through.

But he was in a dangerous position now.

Plunging to the bottom of the river while accelerating would only lead to self-destruction.

So he first thrust his hands forward below the water. He grasped the bottom of the river as if trying to plunge his hand into the stones there.

At the same time, he slammed his forehead against the riverbed.

Water splashed up as his forehead broke through the water and collided with the stones at the bottom.

But that provided three points of support: his hands and his forehead.

It was a lot like the preparation for a handstand, but that would only make him a target.

He needed to force his hips to the left, spread his legs, and...

_...Spin them to the side...!_

A handstand would have swung his legs straight up, but he swung them around to the left instead.

With a forceful twisting of his arms, he took a face-up position while twirling around.

His skyward vision saw the enemy.

Seikai was aiming his three fingers at him while falling back.

He continued to fire and Toby was still being pursued by his winding bullets.

So he removed his arms. He released his hold on the riverbed and used his legs to launch himself.

His left-swung legs pulled his body over.

His hands and head left the riverbed.

"—"

He now stood on the left wall of the waterway.

He was standing, but his body still had its momentum. So he used that as his initial speed.

"Headfirst Fall...!"

He accelerated and shook the water from his body as spray.

.

Toby chose to run starting with his knee.

After all, he was accelerating from a wall. He first had to right his horizontal body.

But landing vertically in the waterway would create a dangerous time lag as he stood back up.

So he fell knee-first. He was nearly horizontal and he sent his knee into the water.

"...!"

At the last second, he kicked his toes into the water.

When his lower leg hit the riverbed, it could provide acceleration.

So that was what he did.

He began a forced falling acceleration while in something resembling a crouch.

He released it while positioned low and nearly horizontal to the water's surface.

"...Oh!"

He pulled his opposite knee close to his chest to make the next stride.

With each step, he accelerated.

And as he moved forward, he lifted his hips.

To run along the river, he slammed each step backwards and accelerated.

He lifted his hips, fixed them there, and did not raise his upper body.

If his body shook from the force of stepping on the riverbed, he would lose the force needed for his run. If he was to build up his speed, he had to keep his hips high and swing his upper body to match the rhythm of his legs.

_...Here I go!_

The enemy had predicted his previous action.

So this time, he included a motion that crisscrossed his legs as he ran in an arc. And...

"—"

Toby grabbed a handy stone from the riverbed and threw it.

He threw it outside the path of the shots that Seikai Kiyoshi fired while swinging his arm around. It flew in a high arc.

He had thrown it so it would hit before he arrived. And with this timing...

_...It will obscure his view!_

In the end, Seikai Kiyoshi moved to avoid having the falling stone obscure his view.

"..."

The enemy took a large step back.

From Toby's perspective, he somewhat increased the distance between them. That step was added to the shrinking distance between them, so they were about a step and a half apart now.

But Toby had made him jump back.

It was now Toby's turn to match his timing.

He made a crouching jump that matched the position and timing of his landing.

He would be aligned with the center of his chest when he landed.

"Headfirst Fall...!"

He spun around backwards in midair.

_I'm getting pretty use to this thing, aren't I?_

He launched a spinning axe kick that carried the acceleration of Kiyome.

His falling acceleration gave it the same force as landing from a great height. He supported himself with his left leg which scraped and slid along the riverbed.

He was sending his full bodyweight toward the enemy.

Even if the attack was not as effective as hoped, turning his back protected the front of his body and he could use the rebound of the kick to jump the other way and put some distance between them.

And even if the enemy stopped his three-finger rapid-fire and instead fired from his palm...

_...His palm is pointed downwards!_

That was why he had not jumped in from below despite his crouching stance.

If he was below, Seikai could intercept him from his palm.

But by staying low to the ground, the enemy was forced to continually attack downwards. That meant he could not raise his hand.

That allowed Toby to make this axe kick with any possible counterattack suppressed.

_...Also..._

Toby thought, _Given our distance from the industrial area, I have to settle this here._

So he made his attack. He leaped to the inside of the right arm he swung around.

"...!"

He launched his accelerated right heel.

In that instant, he heard a voice. It was Seikai Kiyoshi's.

"Seriously? Fine. I'll play this way."

.

Toby saw Seikai take a certain action after those words.

He slightly spread his three fingers once more.

It was a small movement, but it was enough for the trion bullets to stop traveling down his fingers.

The new trion bullet moved to his downward-facing palm.

It was loaded into the center of his right hand, but he would have a hard time sending it toward Toby. Toby was already moving past his hand as he launched a backwards axe kick.

His counterattack would not arrive in time. The palm blast was meaningless, but he released it regardless.

He clenched his hand.

His large palm and three fingers squeezed the attack while his wrist turned.

A moment later, the trion bullet exploded in his hand.

With a loud noise, cracks ran through his solid hand and the force opened his three fingers once more.

"Oops."

Toby saw the recoil launch his hand forcefully upwards.

But moving upwards brought his fingers to a certain location:

"Straight ahead."

He had turned his wrist because he had predicted this.

He had used the recoil of the misfire to rapidly pull his right hand upwards. He had accepted damage for this movement.

"Here goes."

Toby's axe kick dropped down on Seiaki's hand.

The next trion bullet would be loaded in his right hand at almost the same moment that Toby!/ heel would strike that same hand.

_...Am I going to hit!?_

If he did, that bullet would misfire too.

As someone using a trion body, Seikai would not actually be harmed, but the previous misfire had still damaged his hand. If someone using a training Trigger like Toby was exposed to that, it could easily take off his foot.

He made up his mind in a split second.

Yet his Side Effect of reflexes had also made a choice.

While spinning his body, he twisted the leg supporting him. He turned his toes in the opposite direction of his movement.

"Crap! Headfirst Fall!"

.

Seikai saw the trion bullet fly out of his raised right hand and into the sky.

And Toby had been launched into the air.

He whipped up the wind as he flew to a height of about 7 meters, but it was more of an explosion than a jump that had launched him.

He had not been hit. His acceleration Trigger had malfunctioned.

He had not just crashed into a wall of speed. The next burst of acceleration had reached his body in a broken form and sent him in an uncontrollable direction.

It was a lot like receiving a physical blow.

He was launched without any consideration for how he would land, his entire body was doubled over, and he was twisted to the left.

At this rate, he would fall into the crop field to the right without his speed dropping much at all.

The effects of the malfunctioning acceleration Trigger must have remained with him as he flew in a large arc, but all he did was stab into the waves of crops.

It was over.

The crop field groaned and the wind swayed back, but there was no sign of the enemy moving within the crop.

_...Should I say that I won?_

Seikai looked to his right hand.

The raised palm had large lacerations in it.

Meanwhile, his opponent would have taken damage from the speed crashing into him, but his fall had been cushioned by the crops.

Something did seem odd though.

The boy had no longer in a jacket less outfit and instead had ended his fall in normal clothes.

_I guess that really does count as a win._

Even so...

"I doubt he got any lasting injuries."

He compared their injuries and compared that to the result of the battle.

_...Now, then._

He clenched and lowered his hand as it began leaking trion.

He heard a voice in the distance.

"Toby...!"

It was Hatohara Minoru.

The height of his voice suggested he was running down a path between sections of the crop field.

A raven haired boy was running through the sun in search of his friend who had collapsed into the crop field.

"...I guess this is kinda payback."

He wanted to see it for himself, but that would put his chances at risk. He had confirmed the state of some things, so withdrawing was most important now.

"But I feel bad since that C-Rank kid had nothing to do with that fight. ...Can't go back now."

Now, then.

"How will boss lady view the results here and what will she do about it all? Whatever. I just better get my pay for this crap."


	61. Yagura Branch: Part 2

Sasamori breathed a deep sigh as he walked.

He was on the way from the Border base to the Hisama Branch.

The sun was just beginning to move lower in the sky. The numbers on his phone showed the late time.

The recent B-Rank war match had already been finished, so everyone was begging their next action.

His friends were busy with either stuff for their team or getting their own things done with before deciding to have some free time. Sasamori had thought that going to the Hisama to see one of the Hikigane members may bring some kind of result while he waited for someone to be free, but...

_...Is there really a good option there...?_

Hikigane Squad had migrated to the Hisama Branch without actually joining it. The youngest member of that specific team could recently be seen near the Hayanuma Branch on multiple occasions. It had been rather strange, but they had all gotten use to the two branches being a meeting point.

Sasamori viewed it as a way for Hikigane Squad to figure out if they enacted to join a branch as well.

The Hisama and Hayanuma branches had always been seen as standard buildings that were simply affiliated with Border. Nothing particularly of note to them.

Sasamori had wondered why those branches would be the focus for Hikigane Squad and now he had an answer:

"They are way more normal than Tamakoma and Yagura."

.

Tamakoma and Yagura.

Those were two branches of Border. They were located on different sides of Mikado City.

According to others...

"The Tamakoma Branch has some of Border's strongest agents and they even go through Gates a few times. The way they go about doing things is also different compared to how the rest of us do things. I guess I saw that firsthand already in our match against them. Even in their later matches, they show that even their newest members are good."

But...

"Word has it that the Yagura Branch also has some really strong people there. I don't really know who is all in there, but I do know that Tsukiko-senpai belongs to Yagura. They showed of that he can take on so many Neighbors at once, so I guess they also have a standard for who they let join. Daigo has also said some things about them that make me wonder..."

Those were true, but it showed how different those two branches were compared to other ones that also belonged to Border.

Was that a way for them to show off that they were supported to the other branches? However...

_...Fighting against that kind of thing is kind of fun for people..._

It felt a lot like a game when someone found unexpected connections or made predictions.

"The Suzunari Branch that has Murakami-senpai in it also got a new team added to it, didn't it? Shor Squad joined them a bit after the invasion and they have been doing rather well for themselves too..."

One of the other branches of Border had Murakami Kō, the fourth ranked Attacker in all of Border.

Murakami was a high schooler that was both serious during a battle and kind outside of one. It was clear that he could go far if not for the team he was currently on, but that had never sat well with him.

In other words, a strong Attacker had decided that he would continue with the team he was on.

However, Kuruma Squad had decided to ignore those kinds of words, but as for the fox boy who was fond of that team...

_...He tells off anyone who says that kind of thing, so there is still a need to be careful._

The official explanation had been that he was just being kind, but for the one who chose to see things differently...

"Social standards are different in every age, right?"

Once someone like Suzume saw that, the hetero and homo factions had gotten into a barehanded fistfight, the faithful and adulterous factions had started using joint locks on each other, and even the height difference, gap moe, friends-to-lovers, and crossdressing factions had rolled up their sleeve to join the brawl.

They had ultimately settled on a gray zone solution of "he had some sort of feeling and just wanted to be helpful", but Yuki had been enraged when he heard of this and he had said the following to everyone he could reach:

"I can't stop Suzu because no one really can, but I sure as hell can make sure that Mei puts you all through the wringer for adding Kō - her favorite underclassman - into all of this. End of story!"

That had led to a response heard over and over in the halls of Border:

"You didn't tell me that!"

And that incident created an odd rumor among the agent of Border:

"Tsukiko will punish you if you make fun of a Suzunari member."

That had lead to an unfortunate misunderstanding for a certain Tsukiko girl.

The somewhat troublesome fox boy was let off the hook due to the misunderstanding, but...

_...Some of our senpai seem to spit out the truth on the matter, so some of the other must have a rough time..._

This time, the people of the same age group as the fox boy had been set up for making them seem more like rumors.

But Border's first strong branch, the Tamakoma Branch, was also very interesting to Sasamori.

"Even their new members seem to fit their string description."

Tamakoma had come first and Yagura had come last, so Tamakoma would be their branch senpais.

_...Some people would probably like this kind of thing and turn it into a story..._

In fact, there was no probably about it.

Sasamori breathed in and faced forward.

He was on the familiar path to the Hisama Branch.

_...If I change directions just a bit I would end up going to Yagura, wouldn't I?_

There was no reason for him to do such a thing.

Going to the Hisama Branch or Hayanuma Branch had just been a quick way to finding Girikage without messaging him. However...

"Hmm..."

Sasamori suddenly came to a stop.

He looked around at where he was now standing.

There were buildings that did not seem as familiar and a park could be seen nearby, which meant...

"...I accidentally changed directions."

He had come to a stop because he had realized that his thoughts had made him change directions, but then...

"Huh? Sasamori-senpai, why are you just standing there!?"

.

Hiura saw Sasamori just about jump off his feet.

He did not actually leave the ground, but his entire body shook as if stretching upwards.

_...Is that a normal thing my senpai can do...?_

_They do always seem to stick with their shtick,_ thought Hiura as Sasamori slowly turned around.

Hiura predicted Sasamori would be mad or would make some kind of _tsukkomi_ , so she put together a response in her mind. However...

"Ahh..."

Sasamori sighed when he looked back over his shoulder and saw Hiura.

It was a breath of both relief and relaxation. He finally fixed his clothing's collar and spoke.

"Don't scare me like that, Hiura."

"Oh, um, uh."

Hiura had not predicted this reaction.

If anything, it was timid.

_...U-umm?_

Hiura could not figure out why Sasamori would be acting this way. However...

"Sorry. D-did I catch you at a bad time?"

"Eh? No, not really. ...Why would it be a bad time?"

_...I was asking because I don't know!_

But once Sasamori brought his breathing under control, he looked the same as ever.

And...

"Hiura, are you going to the Yagura Branch over here?"

"Yeah. I wanted to ask Yuki-san something before tomorrow! And if I ask them, I might get some candy!"

"...If you're hungry, I could give you a piece of candy. It was suppose to keep Daigo in order, but this should be fine."

"I'll take it!"

Sasamori gave her a brown sugar candy wrapped in childish wrapper, so she immediately ate it.

"It's so sweet! Hopefully it will last until dinner."

"I really don't think that's possible. ...Huh?"

Sasamori looked to the Yagura Branch on their right.

Hiura looked in the same direction, although Sasamori was in the way. Sasamori then grabbed her shoulders.

"—"

He wordlessly pulled her back below the eaves of a store.

They were at a clothing store three buildings away from the Yagura Branch. They were now shaded from the sun, but...

"Um, Sasamori-senpai?"

"Oh, yes. Just a moment."

Wondering what this was about, Hiura looked out from behind Sasamori and toward the Yagura Branch.

She saw someone standing in front of it.

They held a phone in front of the entrance.

"Murakami-senpai?"

.

Murakami sweated in the sun.

_...I actually came...!_

No, there was nothing weird about coming here. People he knew well were here.

And his teacher from the first two years of high school was now the director of this branch. Akasora would sometimes call his former students over for chats and to see how they were doing, but now that he thought about it...

"...He might just start a lecture because of what is going on."

If he had to go through a lecture when not in school, it would be hard not to think that Yuki or Kageura was rubbing off on him, so he wanted to avoid that.

Whatever the case, he was here to see his teacher. He had been called over for an unknown reason, but there was a chance that he did indeed know I what it was about.

And if he was right about what this concerned, his teammates would have a better chance at being safe. And they were clearly planning on keeping up with the rest of them.

As their ace and teammate, it was his duty to help them whoever he could. He wondered how long he would have to prostate himself to make up for it if a floor of a Kurosaki building was destroyed.

_An amateur prostration might not be enough._

But he was concerned about something else as well.

_...What will happen if Kushikage-san sees me over here?_

Yuki had told him many things about his older sister and that she had no intention of not going after him because he was friends with the fox boy. Her attack would be constant and when he would not expect it. But...

"She hasn't made any move toward me yet..."

He felt that he should be okay that Kushikage seemed to be busy with the sponsors, but that had also put a feeling of unease in him since it meant that she would be prolonging her hunt on the matter. Fighting against an attack from her was another matter entirely.

He wanted others to be safe.

That was his honest desire, but if he was not prepared, he would not have a chance at dealing with her.

_...The fastest method would be to listen to Sensei or Yuki..._

But he was a student to Akasora, a friend to Yuki, and a teammate of Kuruma. Due to the previous showing, citizens, small store owners, and other Border agents would sometimes show signs of trying to build connections with him and that could feel troublesome.

He knew who his friends were, so he preferred to ignore those extra matters, but fighting Kushikage could create such a connection.

 _So,_ he decided in his heart. _I will stand by them all without worry to show that those connections will not work with me._

However...

_...It isn't right to use the relationship with everyone to eliminate a personal annoyance of mine._

More and more thoughts filled his mind.

He had come here because if his teacher, but could he really step through that door?

He knew his teacher would be there, but what would he think when he saw the state his student was in?

"...That's right."

He felt like there would be no saving him if he saw a look of surprise on Akasora's face.

But he felt like it would all work out if Akasora would accept him as a student again.

He felt like he could leave everything with Akasora if he said he was glad he had come.

So what would happen?

He kept thinking, but before any of that, he wondered if his teacher would eventually notice that he was waiting here.

Even if he had his teacher's support, a student was not to set foot inside his teacher's home.

_...Wait, has he moved in? I would think so considering where his house is located._

He wanted his teacher to notice he was here. But at the same time...

_...It isn't right for a student to make his teacher come out and greet him either._

So he would not call for his teacher.

He was standing perfectly still in front of the office and its door. What would people think he looked like here?

"I think I know."

The thought suddenly hit him.

_...A guard dog?_

_._

_...N-no!?_

A dangerous word had entered his mind.

_No. That is not what I look like._

_I mean, a guard dog is watching out for people arriving, so it would have its back to the door._

He was facing the door, so he was not playing a guard dog's role.

 _Yes, that's right,_ thought Murakami. _This is certainly nothing like a dog sitting at the entrance waiting to be fed. Yeah, those guys compare me more to a wolf than a dog. Unlike Toby. I feel bad for him, but I don't want to be targeted when it comes to Inukai or Tōma._

Then another thought hit him.

_...This is the same as a dog waiting for its master!_

What was he supposed to do about that?

Yes. He could not face the door and he could not face away from the door either.

"I just have to face sideways!"

.

Sasamori saw Murakami fidget for a while and finally turn to face away from them.

Why was unclear.

Hiura tilted her head while watching along with Sasamori.

"Is that what I think it is...?"

"Hiura, do you understand Murakami-senpai's bizarre behavior?"

"Well...it looks a lot like how a well-behaved dog will sit to the side of the entrance so it doesn't get in its owner's way. I guess that does suit the Murakami-senpai pretty well."

"No, um, that can't be it. Because, uh, Murakami-senpai isn't a dog. Awdry, maybe. Not Murakami-senpai. Actually, maybe we can just call him a wolf. Yeah, let's just go with wolf."

But it was true Sasamori had thought "oh, he's wagging his tail" earlier.

However, Hiura did make some sense.

Murakami was waiting.

One important factor of his relationship with Akasora was gaining his teacher's approval.

A student and Border agent could not beg his teacher and senior member for things, so the teacher and branch director had to accept the student as a matter of course. That was one type of ideal relationship.

Was the black wolf using this to seek that ideal?

Yet if anyone visited, it would be obvious he was waiting.

But as Sasamori watched the boy change position again as he waited in front of the door...

_...That is a lot like what I have been told about Murakami-senpai..._

He was bold in his actions, but that boldness was always directed outwards. His one weakness was on the inside.

If he did not get the acceptance he needed, he would lose any direction for that boldness.

He would lose all meaning and strength. He would simply lose his destination.

_He uses a sword and shield when he fights, so he is more of a knight, isn't he? So instead of a knight going somewhere, he would be more like an unmoving knight who protects his current location._

To Murakami, that would mean no longer being of use to others. He would only be a member of Border who acts only when it would be necessary.

That was of course a valid course for his life.

But he had wanted a different path and it had been given to him.

So he waited.

He waited for his teacher to open the door either coincidentally or intentionally.

He had to understand that this was like a game. And once he was satisfied with his game, he would probably open the door himself. However...

"...Yes."

"Eh?"

Hiura looked over and Sasamori realized he was blushing himself.

"No, um..."

How was he supposed to explain this?

As he watched Murakami in profile, he saw the black wolf tensing his shoulders a bit and occasionally taking deep breaths to calm himself.

"...He looks like he's having fun."

Sasamori started to feel jealous, so he corrected his thoughts.

He reminded himself that he would probably act just like that if he was the one standing in front of the door belonging to a certain someone.

.

Murakami patiently waited.

He was good at waiting. He had waited years before he had found people who accosted him.

The short time spent standing here was nothing compared to the agonizingly long wait to see if anyone would be his friend or not.

"Oh, you're here, you're here."

The door suddenly opened.

The teacher was there.

Right in front of him.

 _Eh?_ thought Murakami while unable to react to the sudden occurrence. But before he could take another breath, the teacher descended the Yagura Branch's step and took him by the shoulder.

If he do not go at the same time, he would end up up being pulled along instead of walking. That was when became back to his senses.

"...Um, Sensei?"

"Hey, were you waiting long? I thought you would probably be showing up about now."

Hearing that made his blink twice because he thought Akasora might have seen him. However...

"I knew you would probably arrive by now, so I thought I would open the door so you could come right in."

"H-huh? By how?"

"Did you forget that I use to be your teacher, Kō? That actually shouldn't be possible."

"Oh, uh, well..."

As he tried to figure out how to answer that, Akasora pushed on his shoulder.

They stepped up into the entrance and Akasora guided him inside. For a few hesitant steps, he was unsure if he should let him pull him or if he should actively follow him.

He ultimately decided to "not fight it".

"...Ah."

Once inside, he realized something.

There was no one there.

He was the only other one.

Shokubutsu would of course be somewhere nearby, but there was no one else.

This was best for a student who was meant to stand by his teacher's side.

And a thought occurred to him.

_...I'm glad no one else arrived while I was waiting._

If someone else had gone in before him, he would not have been able to feel this emotion.

This was nothing more than being the only one to arrive, but he was glad he had come so despite his hesitation.

_...Yes. He cares for all of his students, whether they be current or former._

He breathed a sigh of relief and satisfaction and his teacher gestured toward the bottom of the shoe rack.

"Come on in, come on in. Also..."

He smiled and looked at what he held.

And he asked a question.

"You are going with Yuki, right?"

.

Murakami tried to think about what he meant.

He tried to think about how this would look, what his teacher would say, and what his friends would say, but...

"...Yes."

He managed to say it, albeit quietly. And then...

"Yes...!"

He repeated herself. Meanwhile, he felt heat gathering in his cheeks and in his entire body. He was not confident he could restrain himself once that heat gathered beyond its limit.

_...That's right._

There was something he had to say here.

"I look forward to standing next to Yuki, Sensei."

He said it.

He hoped he felt the same way.

And he hoped his teacher had not just been talking about the next couple of days or until things have settled down.

Then his teacher reacted.

"Hm!"

"...Hm? What does that mean?"

"Well, Kō."

"Y-yes, what is it?"

"Umm," said the teacher while raising his hands toward him.

It was clearly a "wait a second" gesture. However...

_...Wait. Don't tell me..._

Had he been mistaken, so he had to correct him?

He felt the heat in his body begin to fade.

That was exactly when he asked his question.

"You decided on that long ago, right?"

.

Yuki flipped through his phone while lying on her bed.

They would be leaving to visit the sponsors soon. So soon one would need help with information. He knew he could get from himself, Sekai, and the directors over at the Border base.

_...Bringing some cooking from Kuruma-san would be good for some laughs, but is that what we want?"_

They would all need to work hard regardless, but coming up with a plan in advance was important. So he thought about what they had going for them concerning information and connections as well as what they could get sent over as insurance.

"...Oh?"

He knew his teacher and his friend were speaking in the main area.

But he heard something hard hit the floor in there.

The Attacker had likely hit his head.

He knew what had happened. The wolf would have fallen down to the floor.

He had spoken with their teacher and he had said something he did not expect. Yuki knew that had to be the situation.

_...He just have stepped back onto the broken floorboard._

He and their teacher were no longer alone. Shokubutsu and others were there too, but...

_,..As someone who stands on the borderline, they are "alone"._

Yuki was in a complicated position where he was turned a bit toward those two who were "alone together".

"I'm so thankful for that."

He had always been afraid of what would happen if something happened when he only had his teacher.

And if something happened to one or the other of them, then there would only be the one left.

_More importantly, it would mean only one of us would be there for Shobu when he needs it._

But now there was Murakami there to help them more.

Akasora would probably bring in more than just him, but the wolf was the one his teacher was the most _aware_ of.

The boy had arrived as he was meant to and he was always a trusted student that even Yuki could not deny.

_...A wolf would probably be so happy he pissed himself... But I guess he isn't as childish as Toby._

What was he supposed to say about a black wolf that fell to the floor while not paying attention?

Yuki made sure there was some rice added into their plan while smiling and shifting in his seat. He felt amusement tickling at his heart.

"They say a happy life can pack on the pounds, but is it supposed to take your legs out from under you?"

.

Murakami thought about standing up.

_...U-umm._

He had to stand up.

Besides, he did not even know why he had fallen down to the floor.

Looking down at his feet was how he had been able to figure it out. A floorboard had been broken and he had stepped on it.

He noticed a hand.

Instead of laughing at him, Akasora looked down with an apologetic look and an outstretched hand.

He took it and stood up.

But his teacher then held his palm out toward him.

"Wait just a second, okay?"

"...Eh?"

The teacher ran to the other room. For no apparent reason, he tapped the wall by the entrance, but that was probably a ritual of his.

And his teacher soon came back.

He held a black object and he stood in front of him with it.

"Hey, Murakami Kō."

"You have your lecturing voice ready, so I'm a little worried about this situation."

"Just bear with it for a moment. Hey, Kō."

"Y-yes?"

Akasora had told him to bear with it, so there had to be some meaning to this.

So he waited and his teacher suddenly continued.

"You listening?"

"Yes."

"Kō, I need you to work hard out there with your classmate."

Umm.

"To do this right, I'm supposed to hand this over while shaking your hand."

"Am I suddenly graduating!?"

Why could he not imagine himself doing so without Akasora around?

But he knew what his teacher was doing.

"Are you giving me Shikifuku?"

"Only a part of it."

"W-well," hesitated Murakami. "Will this also be a kept secret?"

"Yeah, I'm just doing this for now. I thought about giving it to Yuki or Jinsei, but...hey, don't give me that look! Anyways...this is just some insurance for when you have to do your job over there with everyone."

But...

"Since it is just a meeting with the sponsors, you most likely won't have to use it."

After that, he fixed it around Murakami's wrist until a yellow band came out to connect it.

"Keep helping out, okay?"

Hearing that, he took in a breath and...

"Yes." Murakami bowed his head. "Until he burns out and I have no more use to anyone, I will keep going."

The ceremony was no more than words. They were not actually binding a contract or exchanging protections.

But his teacher said, "This should make you a temporary S-Rank, right?"

"I think so."

"...I guess giving you ten boxes of onigiri from yesterday wouldn't be right, would it?"

"I-I am not that much of a rice lover!"

"In that case," he said while lowering himself.

_...Eh?_

He lifted his hand and then Murakami felt something warm and large on his head.

He had pressed his hand against the top of his head and then moved it.

He had clearly petted him.

"There."

"...S-Sensei!?"

The mix of suddenness and surprise led Murakami to quickly raise his head. His teacher stood in front of him and rubbed his head.

"You prefer it this way, right?"

"Well, it does seem appropriate...but why so suddenly?"

"Right. I use to have people pat my head when I was younger and did so with Shokubutsu, so I figured that was the best way to do things."

_...Even he was treated like that, Yuki!_

_But given what happened here, we need to thank some people, Yuki!_

_You never know what consequences something will have,_ noted Murakami as the teacher seemed to grab his head to more roughly rub it.

"Umm."

He stood up and hurried back to the other room to put away the remaining parts of Shikifuku.

In the short time that his back was turned, Murakami pressed his right hand against the top of his head.

That was where had had patted him. He pressed the palm of his hand there to confirm the location.

"—"

Then he brought the hand to eye level.

He remembered the few times such a thing had happened when he was still a child. A way to cheer him up when he was sad.

_...Nn._

He felt his teacher's kindness.

If he was not himself, a person without his Side Effect, he knew he would forget this warmth and the feeling of the hand. But because he was himself, a person with his Side Effect, he would not forget what happened here.

_...He really is a good teacher._

He placed the now completely broken floorboard in the corner of the room.

"Sensei."

"Yeah?" he said while walking back in.

"I am going to be leaving now, okay? ...I want to figure out the best way to use Shikifuku. At least for myself."

.

Murakami entered the Yagura Branch and did not come back out.

Sasamori intently watched that fact.

_...Umm._

That meant Murakami had entered the branch office.

There was nothing odd about that. After all, it was a building belonging to Border and was used a point to help the people of Mikado City.

So there was nothing odd about an agent like Murakami to be there.

 _But,_ thought Sasamori. _Murakami-senpai is the Yagura director's former student, according to Daigo._

That meant he had _entered_ the Yagura Branch building as a student.

_...I wonder if there is some meaning to that..._

What major meaning could there be?

And was Sasamori simply curious, or was he actually overthinking? However...

"Huh?"

The door opened and someone stepped out.

It was Murakami.

_...He's leaving?_

_It can't be,_ thought Sasamori as he saw Murakami with a strange object.

Did did have business somewhere, had he forgotten something, or had his teacher asked something of him? However, the visible profile of his face showed his eyebrow raised and his lips smiling. There was no sign of negativity there.

But he descended the step and held his nose a bit high.

"Now, then," he said in a carrying voice. "I'm a little worried about leaving Sensei in there since I saw his paperwork, but I need to figure out Shikifuku."

With that, he began walking along the road to the city.

He was leaving here.

Sasamori and Hiura were left alone again and Hiura chose to speak.

"Sasamori-senpai."

"? What is it?"

Hiura was smiling at him.

"I forgot something, so can I head back real quick?"

"W-wait a second, Hiura! You're running away, aren't you!?"

"W-well, I don't really have a reason to be here yet, so I'm just going to go!"

"Now I kind of have to ask: why were you here?"

Sasamori asked that with a smile and Hiura averted her gaze.

And she answered quietly.

"Because I wanted to check on something with Yuki-san...?"

_...Wow, now that was a bit forced._

Well, that was probably how it looked to those who were not a part of it themselves.

And that was why Sasamori felt like he would be selling himself short if he simply went along with it.

_...Ah, I guess this might involve what Daigo was muttering about, isn't it?_

If even he could figure that out, it had to be pretty bad for the people looking in from outside.

However...

"Huh?"

Sawamura walked up from the city.

She carried a basket of bread on her back and held some largish luggage in her hands.

"Sawamura-san kind of looks like Musashibou Benkei right now, doesn't she?"

"She does..."

Sawamura walked up to the office's entrance.

Sasamori and Hiura ducked down.

Hiura spoke in a mixture of curiosity and seriousness.

"Is Sawamura-san hesitating over a lot of things like Murakami-senpai was?"

Meanwhile, Sawamura casually opened the door and walked in.

It happened right before Sasamori was about to respond to Hiura's question.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"...That was casual."

"Yes. ...She didn't even knock."

"...I think that plan was a failure."

"Sawamura-san can be awfully masculine, after all."

Then the door opened again.

Sawamura herself came out. And they heard the teacher's voice from inside.

"Huh!? Where are you going, Kyōko!?"

"To continue my work at the base. I need to be there in case Shinoda-san needs me."

"Eh? So you haven't told him how you feel yet!?"

"Ho ho? So you want to be loud enough that he can hear you? Do you want to be hit?"

"Dammiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit! Why do you lose your girlish charm when I'm around!?"

"You sound like a teacher wishing he could get some good students just by signing up."

"You're only getting harsher!"

"No. If we were ranking this, you would only be a 5."

"Out of how many? Is that high or low?"

"...Which would you prefer?"

After rejecting his question, Sawamura continued.

"Besides, you talked big during the early days about being reliable enough to support any student or coworker no matter the situation, but here I find you all alone doing paperwork. What is that supposed to prove? And what happens if you end up sleeping at your desk?"

"Dammit! Dammit! I don't even know where to start with that one, but Kō already showed up! See, there's the floorboard he broke! Well? Don't got a comeback for that, do you!?"

"That floorboard looks like it was already broken, so I can only assume it is a floorboard that you yourself destroyed."

"Every once in a while, even I know when to fix things up."

"I see." Sawamura gave a thumbs up and entered the office. "As far as your reliability goes, I will accept Murakami's willpower and recognize Murakami's decisiveness."

"Huh, huh? What happened to your judgement of me?"

"Oh, dear. What a self-centered man."

"Wait! I'll have you know I'm a top tier teacher! Got that!?"

A strong wind seemed to rush in and close the door.

_...That was incredible..._

Hiura gave a deep nod while ducking down next to Sasamori.

"I feel like the truth resides in Sawamura-san's words."

"...Then the truth must be a very inconvenient thing for life in general."

But Sawamura started walking toward the city, so the two watched her leave.

_...Now, then._

Sasamori sighed in his heart as he tried to figure out what he should do.

.

Shobu thought he saw Murakami walking by shaking a little.

_...H-huh?_

He came from the direction of the Yagura Branch, but he seriously doubted anything could do something so bad to make him start shaking.

Also, the only people who would need to go to the Yagura Branch so frequently should have been elsewhere or at the branch office already. Only the people going to the sponsors would need to go constantly to go over things with Yuki.

 **Shobu:** "...Boss...is anyone...there...?"

 **Red Sky:** "Oh, Little Plant? Well, Kō and Kyōko stopped by before, but they left. So it's just Yuki and me. Not the best company I could ask for, but it is what it is."

 **White Fox:** "Hey, hey. I'm relaxing right now thinking about what we can do later on, so your messed up uncle is taking care of other things. Or I guess in other terms, my messed up teacher is harassing people. Wait, messed up teacher! When I said 'harassing', I didn't mean you can go and harass me! I'm your student, so I can't believe you would even think of doing that!"

 **Red Sky:** "Idiot! Idiot! That's way too many setups for me to go to jail! Calm down!"

 _...Uncle has a...hard time...with Yuki-san..._ thought Shobu.

But something felt odd about this.

 **Shobu:** "...Why hasn't...everyone...gone...?"

 **GM Aide:** "They all hate him... In a gal game, this is where the heroine rejects him in front of the school gate saying, 'Walking home with you would gather too much attention and fill me with shame. You're a creep.'"

 **Red Sky:** "That last part was from you, wasn't it!?"

They were always really harsh with each other. However...

 **White Fox:** "Let's see. I think Akane should be coming by anytime now, so I wonder what's keeping her."

Shobu agreed with that.

Nasu Squad had finished their match earlier on along with Kotowari Squad and Katori Squad, so it would not have been surprising if she had gotten there soon.

_...I wonder...why..._

With that thought, Shobu arrived at the road to the Yagura Branch.

Just then...

"Oh, hey, you are from Yagura too, right? Hey."

He heard Sasamori's voice and saw a hand waving toward him.

.

_...Wah..._

Shobu just about shouted out loud when someone waved at him without advance warning that they were going to called out to him. He only managed to restrain herself because of the note of tension in the boy's voice.

Something had happened.

So he followed the waving hand behind cover.

They were between some water buckets behind a storage shed 5 buildings down from the Yagura Branch.

The boy was ducked down low there, so Shobu asked a question.

"...Y-you are...Sasamori-sama...right?"

"Well, um, yes, but that honorifics is a bit... Yeah."

"...Is there...something you...need...?"

Shobu felt rather scared due to not knowing the boy, but he would remain polite.

"Oh, not really. It's just Hiura over there."

When he focused on his eyes, he did indeed see that girl.

Hiura stood in front of the Yagura Branch.

She was all alone with her Trigger in her hand and she was swaying a bit in front of the door.

_...Ah..._

Shobu knew this girl due to her knowing Yuki.

It was not that he did not like her, but her energetic personality was not a good fit for him.

She had brought nothing else besides herself and her Trigger, which meant that she was only here for a visit.

It felt a lot like she was preparing herself for some kind of rejection.

Shobu nodded and thought about what that rejection could be.

"...I see..."

Knowing what was going on, he could only figure that it was a rejection as a representative of Border to the sponsors.

She was only a part of this because of her connection to Hikigane Sekai. And Hiura herself may not have fully made up her mind on the matter.

She did not know what to do about the possibilities before her eyes.

This may have happened before too.

Shobu had been told some things by both Yuki and Sekai about her. A recent event being her finding out about her family moving.

Adding the situation with the sponsors may have affected her more.

_...Oh... ...I should not be worried..._

It was not because he did not care about her.

If she was at the Yagura Branch then it meant that she was preparing for the meeting with the sponsors. Minoru would be the one she was going with, but Yuki had been trying to figure out a plan.

"Hm..."

She was most likely here to check on Yuki and what she could do. The swaying of her body was also an indication that she was not here because of uncertainty.

Since she had her Trigger in her grasp, there was a chance that she was also mentally preparing and using the Trigger would help.

Shobu knew that using a Trigger and switching out your real body for a fake one helped at times to settle into reality.

_...But what about Sasamori-sama...?_

.

The boy next to Shobu had been lurking around the area and seemed to be focusing on Hiura.

_...Is he...watch out...instead of just...watching...?_

As far as he knew, Sasamori was older than either he or Hiura. It could just be an upperclassman watching out for their underclassman and nothing more. The freckled boy seemed like a plain person, so this may just be the way he did things.

Girikage had spoken to him about Sasamori before. With no one to tell his secrets too, the older boy had said that the likely choices were either Sasamori Hisato or Hanzaki Yoshito. That had lead into information about the both of them being told.

Shobu thought, ... _Hanzaki-sama also knows...Yuki-san... ...But Sasamori-sama seems much more...reliable...and cool... ...Maybe I should...speak to him...to get to...know him..._

 _...Just in case...Daigo-san decides to...say any...secrets..._ It may have been disrespectful to think Sasamori was "convenient" for something like that, but it was surprising to find out he could think that way.

So this had to be the time.

But his hesitation was even greater than normal this time.

This could be a way for him to start doing things on his own instead of having others do it for him.

"...Is there...trouble...?

"I'm not sure. We saw the Murakami-senpai go in earlier."

"...Eh...? ...Kō-san...?"

But his uncle had said there was no one else in there.

 **Shobu:** "...Boss, where is...Kō-san...?"

 **Red Sky:** "You can just call me Uncle... Anyway, he said he was going to go figure something out."

 **Shobu:** "...U-um... ...A moment ago...I saw him...shaking...?"

 **GM Aide:** "Akasora-san, did you do something to make Murakami shake? I see. You seem to have a real issue with your students, so I will promote you from 'creep' to 'scummy creep.'"

 **Red Sky:** "That's not any betterrrrrr! Not better at allllll! And it wasn't me!"

 **GM Aide:** "Then I shall keep your rank as-is."

 **Red Sky:** "I suppose so, but why do I suddenly want that promotion now...?"

The shaking was still a mystery, but since no further problems had come up, it was probably all right.

However...

_...Sasamori-sama..._

Shobu felt it was best not to lose this chance. So...

_...Go for it...me..._

Shobu focused his attention to Sasamori's direction and clenched both his fists.

Go for it.

* * *

The red room had red carpet, red fabric on the walls, and a red ceiling.

The large room was illuminated by lights embedded in the ceiling and walls. The bed attached to the wall was white, the desk was a dark wooden color, and a girl stood in the center of the room.

"Are these my options?"

She had short black hair, white skin, a white hood, and inner clothes colored red.

She was Shiraishi Chisato.

Colors were spread out before her eyes. The formal outfits in the room's closet had been lined up on the red floor.

"Even if welcoming the representative is an official role, do I really have to wear something like this?"

She sighed, crossed her arms, and looked to the clothing lined up on the thick carpet. Even if they were dress clothes...

"Our business is top tier, so what are we trying to prove by leaving the chest open like that?"

She had chosen them herself, so complaining was not going to help.

Her aides had chosen some and she had been given some others, but she had left them in the living room because she did not think they suited her.

_...I'm not a real representative in the first place._

So why did she need something like this now?

 **Musashi:** "Chisato-kun, you always buy clothes or makeup when you're feeling stressed or in a good mood! It's a bad habit or, to put it another way, a nice vice, so how about giving some of that money to the poor who are suffering every single day, by which I mean me!? How about it!? Just 120 yen is enough! Okay, nearly convinced her this time! Oh, and I was wondering why you would buy so many clothes you never wear, but isn't this the perfect chance to wear them all at once!? You could say you're wearing layers because it's cold! You could say it's a fat suit! C'mon, do it!"

 **Chisato:** "That isn't funny, so tone it down a little."

 **Musashi:** "Okay... How should I put it...? Um, are you mad...?"

 **Chisato:** "I always have to wonder how you can switch back and forth like that."

 **Musashi:** "Yeah... It's probably a stimulation of the brain."

 **Chisato:** "So what do you want?"

Musashi took a moment to respond.

 **Musashi:** "Isn't the red one fine?"

"In what way?" she asked with a frown, but she did not type it into her phone. That guy would trip you up in almost everything, but he never missed when it truly mattered.

But...

 **Chisato:** "No, I'll choose for myself."

 **Musashi:** "Are you curious?"

"Of course not," she said without typing it in.

 **Chisato:** "I would never wear something like this, so I want to choose for myself. That's all."

 **Musashi:** "But..."

There was a pause before the rest of Musashi's words arrived.

 **Musashi:** "That means you think this is important."

 **Chisato:** "If you keep interpreting things the way you want, I'll tell Rizu-san."

 **Musashi:** "D-don't do that, Chisato-kun! You always do this! You always rely on others instead of attacking me yourself! Doesn't it hurt your heart that Rizu-san has been getting careless while scolding me lately!? Oh, poor Rizu-san! Do you _want_ to see me moaning in pain as he scolds me!? Do you!? You do, don't you? Well, if you insist, I'll get everything set up to record it and then head on over to Rizu-san's place! Don't you regret it when you see me going all out! Goodbye."

 **Chisato:** "I have a feeling you would fit in at Border. Especially since you seem to know more about them after stalking your brother. And I'll tell Rizu-san to prepare a water-filled cell for you."

 **Musashi:** "You're inciting me to rebel and then punishing me!? How convenient!"

There was a quick follow up.

 **Musashi:** "And I am not stalking him! I am keeping tabs on him so I know when a good time to grab him and go is! Kidnapping your own brother shouldn't get me in trouble! I just need to make sure he isn't doing anything wrong! A good big brother does that after all! You and all your booby-justice wouldn't understand!"

"Enough of that," she said while looking out the southern window.

There were shadows on the ground. They were black vehicles and another colored car accompanying it from Border. They would arrived not two days and a Shiraishi car would bring them in.

 **Chisato:** "How are things on the other side?"

 **Musashi:** "Well! According to the scouts, they've sent out someone to monitor the situation! And a troublesome someone for us! If Ruri-kun reacts, we'll do something about it, so you do things your way there!"

 **Chisato:** "Got it. In that case, I think I'll go with the red one."

She went with Musashi's suggestion. After all...

 **Chisato:** "There's no point in dressing up.

For one thing, she had no one to dress up for.

_...That's right._

She was unlike her sisters and she would find any way to go about this meeting. No one would expect it from her and that was the best option. Some had treated her nicely, but due to the issues with her body and personality, she needed up doubting their true motives.

"Not only am I the only one who doesn't have a chance at inheriting the business, but there's also that old failure of mine."

Once this job was over, she wanted to get something to distract her. She wanted to indulge in some entertainment.

But escaping from reality with those thoughts was not going to change who she was. With that in mind, she looked back to the chat log.

 **Musashi:** "You really are a girl, aren't you?"

"What do you mean by that?" she said while looking out the window.

She did not matter. The third daughter of the Shiraishi family was their most different daughter and nothing more than that, so she needed to focus on Shiraishi's future path.

"We're about to start dealing with the troublesome antics of people who don't understand what is really going on."

Chisato stared out the window as she spoke.

"First of all, we need to sacrifice Border."


	62. Kō Murakami

Murakami walked.

He had no destination in mind. Only...

_...This is not good._

His thoughts were directly linked to his body.

His gait was light and grew to a jog.

"..."

The next thing he knew, he had arrived at the stair-filled park near the Yagura Branch.

He had no intention of descending to the area below. Besides, the open grass half of the park had been destroyed during the Aftokrator invasion and so it had been under repair.

From his position, he could see that everything from that half of the park onwards, including the residential district, had been removed to the third row back so it could be repaired.

There were some surviving area behind that, but...

_...It did a lot of damage. Even after time has passed._

By standing by the railing overlooking the park, he could tell just how large-scale the invasion's battle had been.

"It's good the building for the Yagura Branch survived..."

He could not say their battle had been a good thing. The scene before him looked more like destruction than anything.

But he did think they had kept the damage to a minimum and they were making an attempt to ensure everything was being improved as it was repaired. Also...

"—"

He placed a hand on his wrist.

His current outfit's was a short sleeved one for some mobility, so his skin showed through.

He could feel the strange chill of the Black Trigger Portion there and the pressure of the trion as it wrapped around him with surprisingly little restraint.

Then he had "petted" him.

Both had left their "mark" on his body. Leaving some kind of mark on his body felt so very important to him, but was that because he was loyal to his teacher?

But more than that...

_...I am a member of Border._

He and his teacher had held a private temporary promotion ceremony.

That was a shared secret.

.

Murakami thought, _Sensei and I have a part of our relationship that only we share._

Of course, everyone knew that he was his student and understood what that meant.

But only the two of them knew that it had grown deeper than that.

He had trusted Murakami enough to give a precious item for him to use. With that kind of action, he had shown that Murakami was not his student when it came to Border and was closer to his level.

He did not need to announce this as his teacher's student. He only needed to hold his head high and live his life as he had before.

It had been the same when he had decided not to fall behind his fellow student.

If that had been a way to remain his student...

"Hm. Heh..."

Then this had been a way for him to place himself by his teacher and fellow student's side.

There would likely be more instances of this in the future.

_...I look forward to it._

He rested his elbows on the railing and placed his chin on his arms.

They were hot.

He could tell he was smiling uncontrollably.

And...

"Hm..."

His body was celebrating. Heat filled it and he felt restless.

His loosened body felt a bit better when he pressed his knees to the railing and lowered his body a bit.

"..."

He took a breath and let his body relax.

_...Honestly..._

He sighed and sensed a short figure to his left.

It was a basket.

A closer look showed Oshiro's dog was holding up the basket with his mouth and looking around the area nervously.

He seemed lost. He was only trying to get from the area to the Red Lightning, but there was too much construction at the moment.

After checking to the left and right, the dog seemed to notice him. It faced him with its paws sticking forward like a snake's head.

"Umm, it's that way."

When Murakami pointed toward the path to the outer city, the small dog nimbly twisted himself around and hurried in that direction.

It looked hesitantly back once, so he waved.

It waved the basket back and then hurried on its way without looking back again.

_...I did a good deed._

Part of him thought he could not afford to get used to things like this, but that was his fate if he lived here.

He looked over and saw Sawamura on a temporary suspension bridge that crossed the stair filled park while it was under construction.

She was likely going to the Red Lighting.

She must have gone to the Yagura Branch after Murakami had left and she was now on the way to the other building.

"I'm glad his student did not show up after anyone else..."

 _Nothing could have been more pathetic,_ he thought as he saw the small dog catch up to Sawamura from behind.

Sawamura noticed it and looked back.

"—"

The dog must have told her about Murakami because she came to a stop and looked Murakami's way.

She raised her left hand and waved hello.

So Murakami did the same.

Then Sawamura resumed walking and Murakami sighed again.

_...The heat inside me has calmed down a bit._

Rather than letting it cool, he may have simply grown accustomed to it.

When he remembered what had happened before, he felt like a child who had been praised by their parental figure, but it was still a happy thing at that level.

He would allow that feeling to stay inside him forevermore.

"But..."

His own Side Effect scared him sometimes.

He was honestly impressed he had rested for a bit to make absolute sure he would remember everything.

Even now, his body wanted him to close his eyes for a few minutes.

If he had been sitting with his teacher right now, he might very well have asked some pointless questions in an attempt to be praised.

He felt an odd temptation and allowance in his mind that told him there was nothing wrong with doing that.

He had only resisted earlier because his grownup pride had subconsciously kicked in.

 _But,_ he thought.

_...Yuki is always holding back a lot when it comes to Sensei._

Murakami was only Akasora's student for academics, yet it was this bad for him.

Yuki was Akasora's student for both academics as well as a member of Border, so it had to be a lot worse. Based on what he had been told before, being praised and scolded as a member of Border felt much more like something was happening than when it came to school, so he had to be restraining himself quite a lot now.

Of course, it was also frightening how Akasora accepted that from Yuki.

He would constantly find ways to improve Yuki as a person, a student, and a member of Border when he knew how Yuki would act, so he was either pleased with the results or as dense as can be. _Or does he just want to mess with Yuki?_

Also, all of that seemed to have knocked a screw loose in both his friend and teacher, but was he only imagining that?

And when he compared his situation to that...

"...Huh?"

He realized something.

_...Sensei is showing favoritism toward me too...!_

At the very least, he did not doubt Murakami's abilities to use Shikifuku. He would acknowledge they were someone who might get it taken, but he would trust that they would not.

That was probably why Akasora had not given up on his two students. Because doing so would mean betraying the trust of someone he had helped.

The Yagura Branch director's pride would not allow him to betray the trust built up in the ones he had watch grown up, even if just a bit.

That was why he had decided to not given up on Yuki back then. _Although what motivates him now may be a different matter._

"But then what about me?"

Something else occurred to Murakami.

_...I went there because I was asked to go as a member of Border, didn't I...?_

What did that mean?

"Umm."

_...Can I ask him that...!?_

He had to be considerate of a number of things. But if he ignored all that, this situation allowed him to be an equal. After all, that was supposed to be part of being "a member of Border".

Shocked, he shoved his face between the arms resting on the railing.

_...I am getting to immature levels of Yuki!_

He had thought he was ready for everything when he went to the Yagura Branch, but he felt like he kept running across unexpected conditions and situations.

What he did not know was how much of this his teacher was aware of.

But whether he was aware of it or not...

"I know what Yuki would say: 'That's what you're after, isn't it?'"

Murakami looked down.

With his head lowered between his arms, he could look down into the park below the railing.

Or so he assumed.

What he actually saw was his friend. Past the railing, his friend was dangling down from the railing's support bar and looking back up at him.

And before Murakami could react at all...

"Kō, you're happy about everything, aren't you!?"

His friend used just his legs to rapidly jump up the railing support bars.

He jumped to the top of the railing and flew in an arc while Murakami pulled his head back.

"That's the spirit!"

He got him in a headlock with all his might.

.

Murakami was quick to wrestle his way out of the rough grip around his neck.

Compared to someone like Arafune or Kageura, Yuki's grip was not the strongest. Even while using a Trigger, he seemed to be easy to escape from.

_...Is that him going easy or his body making it happen?_

Whatever the case, he was able to get out if the headlock with relative ease.

Placing a hand on his chest, Murakami let out a breath before glaring at his friend.

"What are you doing?"

The pale boy had the nerves to just grin toward him.

His gray outfit and straps gave away which body he was in right now, so Murakami could only guess that he was currently doing something for Border instead of himself. There were times when he liked to be in this body, but he had no reason to be at the park right now.

_Unless..._

"You left before I could get to you, you jerk. Were you just trying to ditch me without giving any sort of greeting?"

"I didn't even know you were there. I thought only Sensei, and maybe Shobu, were there."

"So you wouldn't have greeted Shobu then? That's even worse."

Murakami moved his hand from his chest to his forehead. Another breath was let out as he shook his head.

The accusation was a hollow one, he knew it, but he did feel bad that he did not consider greeting anyone else in the building.

Thinking about the building brought him back to everything that had happened and everything he had just been thinking about.

_I can try to hide it from him, but I'm pretty sure Yuki already knows what I am thinking about..._

True to his thoughts, Yuki's grin grew a bit more.

Murakami always found that particular grin a bit irritating to see, but it was far better to see it than for it to be gone. It was a way for him to know that everything was right for the moment.

That Yuki was still able to give such an expression.

"..."

The new thoughts just have reached Yuki since his grin lowered a bit before moving back to how it was.

His hand began to move and Murakami followed along until it reached his wrist. At that point Yuki had began speaking to him again.

"Well since Sensei gave that to you, why don't you try it out? Even you would have a hard time using it for the first time. Especially if it is an emergency. We should go and see what you will create."

"We can go back to the Yagura Branch if you want?"

Yuki waved his hand.

Murakami followed the motion closely.

"I just came from there and you just came from there. I say we go to your branch this time. Suzunari has some nice places to sit and watch, so it would be better. Besides, I'm sure you guys have even more things set up for being a longer standing branch."

"That is true. Okay. Just don't expect to see anyone else there. Everyone is currently out doing their own thing."

"Oh ho? Is that a nightly invitation, Kō? I'm flattered, really, but I don't think my body could handle such things."

Murakami could feel a small twitch start to form.

He could be as patient as possible when it came to anyone else, but the fact Yuki knew the perfect way to get to him was something he was both happy and mad about.

For now, he decided, they could just ignore the stupidity and make their way to his branch's office.

* * *

The sky was filled with the colors of the night and two lights could be seen in that night sky.

One was the lights of Mikado City's streetlights and the other was a collection of buildings that made up a part of Mikado City.

Outside of the window there would occasionally be clouds in the sky. From the direction of the wind, clouds would gather around each other and combine before continuing to move on with the wind in the sky.

Even thing was quiet, but there sometimes be sounds coming from outside. It could have been people walking around before it got too dark, or at times there were animal noises from some strays. From the sound of things, everything moving around tried to cause as little disturbance as possible around the area.

And occasionally there would be some loud ones walking by.

They were people from different parts of the city..

Sometimes it was just one and sometimes there were multiple, but they would all travel through the area or be returning.

The more quiet ones would alter their movements as if watching of the rowdy ones coming and going. As those ones took time to change their direction, they would be respectful. There was never a need to be rude to strangers.

However, a sound struck them and produced noise with no regard for others.

The noise that came was a small hum of a car that had a low pitch at times and a high pitch at others. It was of course audible to the people walking about, but inside the Mikado City buildings, people could also hear it.

There were a few special buildings throughout Mikado City.

One of those buildings was located just outside of the Forbidden Zone.

It was the Suzunari Branch.

"Kō, I think you can stop now."

.

Hearing that voice, the gray-haired boy named Murakami turned his eyes toward the speaker.

"Oh, Shor? Isn't Yuki still getting ready? ...And I am just about done here."

As Murakami turned around with a blanket draped over his shoulders, he saw Noah without his squad uniform and his goggles dangling from his neck.

Noah approached Murakami who sat on a couch. He had been the one to place the blanket on Murakami when he thought the older boy was asleep.

"Yuki has apparently been finished for awhile now. He said he just wanted you to get the best understanding of how to move."

"Yeah. That is very like him. So how is Yuki?"

"Right," said Noah with a nod and a glance toward the hallway he had come from. "He looks like he's fine enough to move around. I was talking to him a bit while doing some homework as he worked on whatever he was working on. I don't know if it's because he can't let go of them or something, but he asked me to help out Toby. Apparently Minoru was suppose to do that, but he is busy. I have no complaints about it, especially since I saw what was happening firsthand, but I am not too sure I am the best person for the job."

"Having pressure put on you like that is tough." Murakami smiled moonlight filtered in. "But you are a great friend to him, right? And Yuki told you what Minoru had agreed on with Toby, right? So then you know that you are actually great for the job."

"I guess so. But my balance will be the only thing going for me there. Oh, but I guess it still won't be anything compared to having to deal with Yuki, right?"

"Yes. We both have some wild friends."

The two boys lowered their heads, but Noah recovered first. He sighed and shrugged.

"At any rate, you guys seem very busy. I get that something is going on and won't pry too far into it. Even I can figure that this must be something really important since you two are setting something up and you specifically are watching some videos of Yuki fighting. I have not seen him really fight expect for his display to the reporters, but even I know that this is something else entirely."

"Yeah," said Murakami with a gentle sigh.

Just like Noah, he was not in his Kuruma Squad uniform and his posture was relaxed, but he had also removed the Black Trigger Portion. However, he hid it below the blanket draped over him. He smiled with a hint of bitterness.

"After the next few days, this specific busy work will come to an end."

.

"I see," muttered Noah with a sigh of his own. "I really am just a newbie at these kinds of things, so you guys have much more to think about than someone like me."

As they were in the Suzunari Branch, Kuruma Squad was far more experienced than Shor Squad who had been formed this year. If they tried to catch up to such a team, it would fail and be seen as arrogant. It could be used against them during matches, so they had to be careful to not step on any toes and go at their own pace. Kuruma Squad would naturally help out however they could, but they had not gone easy in the slightest as the older team in the Suzunari Branch.

"From what I know, it doesn't matter when you joined for formed a team. Just take a look at Tamakoma. Yagura even."

"True. But as someone originally thinking of going to Tamakoma, this situation is a bit humiliating. I would prefer if they viewed me as more of a stranger."

"That would make you sad, wouldn't it? You had said before that you are friends with Tamakoma's Mikumo and Kuga, right?"

"Yeah," answered Noah. "With the exception of some special people, I feel fine when I lose, when someone wins, or when I know that I am weaker, it doesn't particularly bother mean unless they are sore winners. But... That makes me bad as a captain." Noah stopped speaking for a moment, but finally continued. "Most of you have something going for you in that you have Side Effects, know how to properly plan, or are just strong by your own merits. While I do have a Side Effect, it really isn't much. Being able to keep my balance is not particularly that great. My planning skills are probably below average. And I am pretty average when it comes to fighting. There really is just so much to keep up with that I am not too sure that I can help out someone like Toby. Or even my team for that matter."

"So you are experiencing what a normal person does?"

"I guess. But wouldn't you say that I am _too normal_ after seeing all the people you have and fought everyone you have?"

Murakami thought for a moment before answering.

"You have things wrong."

.

"Eh?"

"I may not be the best for this since I only have what I have been told by captains," answered Murakami from beyond his blanket. "It may be a bit much for me to say this kind of thing since I am the #4 Attacker and have a Side Effect like mine, but I do want you to hear me out. All that stuff you just said, I have also seen it with other people. Kuruma-san and Yuki have questioned their abilities as captains, what they can do for their teams. People like Kikuchihara and Lee, someone you know well, have rather simple Side Effects, but they manage just fine with those. Some people fight even without them, so you are technically lucky there. As for planning and the simplicity of yourself... Well, there really isn't that much to say. Planning isn't always something someone needs to do alone. That is why you have a team. Even if you just come up with a simple outline of a plan, you can have your team build on it and create something great. Also, saying that you are plain is a bit insulting to some others, don't you think? From what I have seen from Tamakoma alone, Mikumo seems plain as well, but look what he has done."

"I see," said Noah.

As a someone who has been in Border longer, Murakami could easily figure out what to say after having seen such things before. He was rather unique when saddened, but there was never a time when he did not bounce back because of one thing or another. Each time, he had gained something from his experiences.

_...Well, I'm not about to compare myself to him. And that's why I should stop being such a downer over here._

Murakami was speaking as someone looking out for an underclassman, a fellow member of Border, and simply as a friend. And once Noah realized that, he found that he could not argue against what he had been told.

_...But is there a real reason to argue in the first place? I may just realized why he can get along so well with some certain people._

"...What is it? Why are you lowering your head like that?"

"Oh, it's nothing."

 _Why are you worrying him?_ thought Noah with a bitter smile.

Murakami had never spoken to him about anything like this before. It was likely due to the time, the place, and the fact that they were alone. But...

"You really are a nice guy. I can't even say you would do otherwise if things changed a bit."

"I guess I wouldn't. It's just something that occurs when dealing with some people."

"Right. So I guess I need to pump myself up to help out Toby. I have seen firsthand what is going on with him. If both Yuki and Minoru are trusting me with this, I can't let them down."

"Who was thoughtful enough to bring you in?"

"Taichi was the one who suggested we join you guys, but Mr. Tatsuya can be pretty understanding."

Murakami's expression changed. His eyes opened in surprise, but they soon bent in a smile.

"You don't need to add that kind of honorific. I am sure he is fine with just his name being said, so don't worry."

"You know him so well!"

Seeing Noah's slight smile brought a smile to his own face.

For the past hour or so, they had to wait for Yuki to set up what he wanted. He had gotten permission to work with the equipment and had been using his time for himself. However...

"You can keep relaxing, Kō."

"But I haven't seen what Yuki is doing just yet. It is a lot of trouble, but I have no choice."

He smiled, but his requirement to stay away from Yuki weighed most heavily on him.

_...He must be worried since he knows more about Yuki than anyone else._

The wait was a bit agonizing and it continued to hold out for the two of them. There was no one else in the building, so it was lacking someone else to talk to at the moment.

Even those like Noah who was not angry when there was no one to talk to and those who preferred to know what was going on like Murakami would bee oppressed. But there had been one saving grace.

"You two, I'm done over here. It's time for some promised action, so get up and come over here."

Yuki had finished.

.

Noah turned toward the approaching boy who did not wear his uniform like a ninja outfit.

_...The scary part is that I hear ninjas dress normally to blend in better in Japan._

He knew that movies and other media were nothing to go on and that there would be no way a real ninja would expose their secrets, but watching Yuki for the last how had convinced him that there was definitely the more to the boy. More was added to that fact when he thought about his friend.

And so he nodded toward him.

"Glad I was able to help a bit."

Yuki stopped five feet away and lowered down in preparation to flee at any second.

"Y-you're plotting something, aren't you? You are, aren't you!?"

"...What have Tetsuji and the others been doing to you? Are you okay?"

"And if we were plotting something, why would we tell you?"

"I suppose that's true. ...Wait. Why aren't you denying it?"

"Just calm down," said Noah while waiving his hands.

_...But it really is thanks to him that I even got to meet someone like Toby._

After all, he had heard from Toby about how he had joined Border to follow Yuki.

But he had undergone a lot of training and he held the position of Yagura's second-in-command. He had acted on his own, earned trust from multiple people, and prioritized others ahead of him.

And once he had realized that, he found a lot of respect for the boy who had managed to grant him a strange team who was currently making their way back up.

Thinking back, that had only happened after an incident.

_...An incident he had caused himself._

When the former Tsukiko Squad had been split apart, it created something dangerous in the former members. Something that had lead them to a disgusting place.

Meanwhile, people like him, people who cared about that group, had tow tines such a disgusting sight. A sight of seeing people like them destroying themselves for a reason that they had not expected.

The boys had primarily gone to destroying themselves on a harsh manner, the Attacker seeming to be a savage mutt and the Shooter showing no care to the world around him. The girl had primarily kept to herself and quietly self-destructed.

The other members of Border had tried their best to help those three out. Noah, Kitora, and Kōchō had acted as mediator for Toby when he was on a rampage, when he refused to speak, and when he had gone too far. There had not actually been anyone for Takeshi, when he thought about it. Suzume had been confronted a few times, but only put on a bitter smile. The three of them had caused a good amount of trouble.

"I never thought we would be so helpless for them."

.

Noah saw Yuki scratch at his head and smile bitterly.

"Well, those three can be very stubborn at times, meaning it takes a lot of effort to get through to them when something like that happens. I really need to thank you for not giving up on Toby and them because if his they acted."

"It's fine. I never thought that Toby would get like that, but it had happened. It's not much different from a wild animal, but you knew what kind of person he really is, so you didn't give up. Another reason why you are perfect for helping him."

"Right," said Noah with a nod.

By staying by Toby's side during such a time he had gained something from it. Kōchō had a hard time dealing with it, so he had taken it upon himself to stay by the boy's side.

Kitora had done the same thing, so he knew that she had also gained something from the entire ordeal that was going on with Kotowari Squad.

As far as he could tell, no one had been around for Takeshi. He had been a bit of a loner before, but this had made things worse. If not for having to stay by Toby's side, he would have gone to the Shooter to try and help. There had been times when he saw the Hatohara Squad Operator get close before having his attention taken away or the youngest Ōji Squad member move toward him before being pulled away by someone else.

There was also his Trigger. It had been a factor in people keeping away from him and he been used to show just how destructive it could be. That had allowed others to brand him to easily keep a distance.

_...He had things the worst since other people don't always know the full story._

Because if this, people had started referring to the Trigger as "the great destruction" and "the monster beam". Recently, he had heard talk from passing Shooters that it had actually gained some popularity due to the different ways Takeshi had been using it. That was apparently due to his own match with Kotowari Squad.

"But their lives are really improving now."

"Yes. Even though it was your fault to begin with," muttered Murakami with a sigh.

"I really am inexperienced," said Yuki with a bitter smile.

"Is that for what I said before? But you are right. The two teams you have lead were filled with people who were took strong for you to handle." Murakami turned to Yuki. "I am thankful you helped Senpai after helping your former team. You are the last person I need to tell this to, but you seem to be the only one who can take care of her."

"Jin is also up there. He has somehow become the leader of some of her fans," said Noah. "They've started placing bonchi bags and drinks in front of Tamakoma as offerings. The other day, they were making offerings with a giant stone currency they made at some point, but I made them throw those away. Too weird."

"They are getting really rowdy, aren't they? I guess that is to be expected when he is one of the three people who has managed to actually get close enough to touch her. Be it butt or breast."

"I need to beat them up," cut in Yuki. "Jin stopped himself from doing that last time. He is also our 'watcher', so I can't say much against him. But those guys are just being idiots."

Noah and Murakami exchanged a glance and they both nodded.

"Why has such a considerate guy never had a girlfriend?"

.

Noah's question led to the two boys exchanging a longer glance.

The moon was out, but the night was still quite dark as they spoke. The lights had not been turned on in consideration of Murakami relaxing.

"It's probably that gray outfit. A guy who wears that and would discard it so easily would be out of the question."

"Yeah. I see. The flaw was so large I didn't notice it at first."

"S-stop! Don't discuss this like I'm not even here! And how would you two know what a girl likes!?" Yuki folded his arms. "Also, I have already decided my girlfriend will be cute and have a modest chest."

"Is that so?" Noah exchanged another glance through the darkness with Murakami. "Hey, Kō. Why do guys like him set up needlessly high hurdles for themselves? Even I won't be picky with anyone I can get."

"Yeah. It may be that when they do that, they can delude themselves into thinking their failure is due to no one meeting their standards rather than due to their own unpopularity."

"I see. What's the point of having pride like that? I don't understand it at all, but should I feel sorry for him?"

"Nwohhh! You guys don't show any mercy, do you!? Kō is one thing, but I thought Noah would be cool!"

"Calm down." Murakami held up a hand to stop Yuki and then smiled. "How about you focus on your job later on with us? One of the representatives should clear your hurdle."

"I can tell the difference between a hurdle and a gantry crane," commented Yuki.

Murakami smiled at that.

"Well, you do help out a lot. Is it tough fulfilling your role as a Yagura Branch representative?"

"No. I always carry the tools I need for training."

"Tools?" Noah tilted his head. "Do you even use actual tools to train? For example, I thought you trained your jumping strength by jumping over a growing stalk of cannabis. Like ninjas, you ninja-boy.

Noah was correct. As a child, Murakami had read Masked Ninja: English Akakage. In that story, the ninja had cultivated fast-growing cannabis and jumped over it every morning to naturally train his jumping strength. That alone could not possibly be enough to train, but a group of freaks who hid their faces for their entire lives likely had a secret method.

Yuki nodded in agreement.

"I'm not a ninja, but that training method was used up until my shitty, pieces of crap, useless and heartless father's generation."

"Really?"

At the prospect of learning a ninja secret, the two boys leaned forward with intense curiosity. Yuki nodded again and explained.

"To start with, while he was no ninja, he had actually been a bit of an otaku because his dad and so on were and shoved it right in his face. ...Apparently. I didn't pay too much attention to him, but he did tell Kushi and me some things he use to do for training. Most of them were from some manga he read, others were the real stuff."

Yuki looked nonchalant at the topic, but Murakami had noticed the way he tensed up a bit.

"My father's generation grew a large amount of cannabis in the area's planter because they thought they could use some if it for their own personal training. But they accidentally brought it back to their rooms, accidentally grew a whole lot more, accidentally rolled it, and accidentally smoked it. They naturally ended up in the magistrate's office and-..."

"I get the feeling I'm about to hear something that will get me in trouble, so stop there. And for future reference, did adding 'accidentally' to everything hold up in court?"

"No, no."

Yuki shook his hands, so Noah decided to pretend he had never heard any of it.

Yuki sighed at the expression and shifted his gaze to just behind him.

"Anyways. Why don't we get started? There is a lot to do."

"Hm? What did you need to do anyway?"

The ninja-like boy grinned.

"I set up two training sequences for Kō."

* * *

Kuruma was curious when once he arrived at the Suzunari Branch's training room.

_...Oh, so this is where they were._

He had been out discussing with his parents on what would be coming up, that being going to the sponsors of Border.

But he had noticed something odd while Betsuyaki ran up to the boy sitting in front of a monitor and when they had seen the Sniper and Operator of Shor Squad come in.

"Why hasn't Kō or Yuki come out at all? And..."

Kuruma looked over to the monitor.

The screen on the desk was illuminated by what was happening in the training room.

There was a large amount of straps on the floor which seemed as if they had been thrown to the ground instead of falling to the ground.

"Those are...Yuki's, aren't they?"

Sora identified it as he moved over to his captain while focusing on the others. Shirogane agreed.

"Perhaps he went 'splay!' in there after being hit by one of Kō-tan's harsh attack."

"How can you say things like that after eating tomato in your udon for lunch? But anyway, we can ask the people here what happened."

Kuruma noted when Kon and Shashin came onto the scene. He made sure they were ready to leave the room at a moment's notice and then called out to the ones in the training room.

"Yuki, Kō, what's going on here? Are you guys messing around before we have to go off, even if it is in our training room?"

"This one is on me, Kuruma-san. Besides wanting to mess around with Kō for a bit, I need to set some things straight here."

His usage of "wanting to mess around" led Shirogane and the others to shift their feet.

They were prepared to move. Everyone knew which way they would get out. That was just how much battlefield experience they had when it come to him. So while they might not be certain, Kuruma felt confident they were not in danger either.

"One question, Yuki. How exactly do you want to 'mess around' with Kō?"

"Right. It doesn't have to be long. I just want a quick fight so I can check on something. Once I've seen what I want, I will let him really practice."

Then Yuki started moving forward. He crossed the distance until he was behind Murakami and facing the camera for the others to see.

_...Is he doing something?_

"What happened here?"

"Curious?"

"Yes. We know you must have done something for those straps to be there."

"You noticed that, did you? Fine, then. I was just showing Kō something I tend to do now. The performance should have helped him out."

Kuruma thought about what that meant.

_...For him to want to show Kō something means that he wants him to try it out, doesn't it?_

It could also be seen as a small conflict for the branches. There was no reason for such a thing, so he had thought that was off the table. So...

"Did you fight Kō or Noah here?"

"Sorry about this Kuruma-san, but the result is none of your concern. All I will say is that it was the result I hoped to see." Yuki raised a hand and pointed at someone. "Alright, Kō. This time I am actually your opponent."

.

Murakami was listening to the conversation between his friend and his captain when his eyes narrowed at Yuki's statement.

"So you want to get started?"

It was why he waited. There was a connection between him and Yuki.

So Yuki was pointing straight at him.

 **Kuru-ma:** "Why are you two fighting?"

 **Black Wolf:** "Sorry, Kuruma-san. I need to explain after this."

 **8 Skies:** "Perhaps Tsukiko-san really likes Murakami-san."

 **Platinum:** "Timeline-wise, those two would make a really good male-male couple."

 **Mi-Kon:** "Why does the most pointless trivia have the biggest impact?"

 **Shore:** "Well, if you want a simpler explanation, Kō is going to be busy and probably exhausted out of everyone here."

 _That's true,_ thought Murakami. He even had to practice with Shikifuku.

_...But that is also why I am doing this now._

While making a mental note of that, Murakami finished preparing himself and took a breath. He then turned toward Yuki and stepped forward.

"Kō, go ahead and use Kōgetsu for the moment," said Yuki in front of him.

Murakami nodded his head and activated his own Trigger. He gladly grabbed Kōgetsu and squeezed the grip in his right hand.

He did not go for Raygust on his other side. Yuki was trusting him on this.

So he raised Kōgetsu in front of him.

"As the Suzunari Branch's ace, I, Murakami Kō, accept your challenge."

"You sound so cool. No joke. I appreciate it. That lets me test what I need to test."

 _Test?_ wondered Murakami.

Yuki immediately began to move. He leaned forward, and...

"...!"

He took his first step. In that instant, Murakami saw something in front of him.

Yuki's body split into five copies of itself.

.

_...Copies!?_

_A classic ninja move,_ thought Murakami.

It was such a classic that some manga included standard countermeasures for body copying techniques.

But those kinds of things should not have been possible in real life, so what he was seeing caused a small lag in his actions.

Even in certain cases, a copy is said to be made as afterimages of high-speed motion. It would look like multiple copies, but the enemy would be moving along a fixed loop and he would only see the afterimages. So even if the number of attacks would appear equal to the number of copies, they should each be the midpoint if a single flow of motion, so stopping one should stop them all.

But that kind of thing should not happen.

_This guy could be capable of such a thing though..._

Since that seemed to be the case here, it led to the standard countermeasure:

_...Launch an attack along the loop!_

Murakami moved forward. Five Yukis were rushing toward him, but he stabbed Kōgetsu between the one in front of him and the next one to the right. He placed the blade in an intermediary point of the loop.

"How about that!?"

Just as he asked that, the five Yukis all turned around. And they did so while circling behind him.

_...Eh!?_

_Strange,_ thought Murakami. If they had all turned around at once, it meant he had made a full loop of the copies, yet Murakami felt nothing hit his blade.

"...!"

And Yuki made a sword strike with the bladed Idōgetsu as he turned around.

.

Noah heard quintuple clashing swords.

That was not a sound that a looping afterimage copy technique from manga could create.

"Is that what he was working on the whole time!?"

Noah cried out in surprise.

Yuki was launching sword attacks on Murakami in quick succession. The five copies of him moved at once to attack from every direction.

Each of the blades had real weight behind it and blades flew around Murakami when he blocked them.

This was not a copying technique that used illusions or great speed to create the appearance of multiple copies.

Yuki was using their technology to create solid copies.

_...So that's why he didn't want us to watch him in here._

**Minubuki-sama:** "Is Minubuki-sama going crazy here!? How does that stuff work?"

 **Shore:** "Right. Yuki used the system to basically create was is considered a Trion Soldier. So when he made them he must have made it so they synch up with him completely to make it look like his own copies."

Yes, the trick was technology. The tactics was more thought out and reversible than simple high-speed movement.

"Even so, you could think that someone like Yuki could pull it off. You get it, right? Like when you move your arm super fast and see two or three extra images of them your arm. I guess that wouldn't really be possible, since even Idāten only leaves a flash instead of an image. Even so, this looks like it slows him down since he synced the other four up with his own mind."

But Yuki had sped it up and he could even use different actions between copies.

That was like moving your fist to create multiple copies and then changing the way you clenched your fist at each point along the vibration.

How much thought had he out into this simple training test?

 **Mi-Kon:** "Shor-kun, you let him set this kind it thing up?"

 **Shore:** "You all seem really fine with him, so I let him in when he said I can't see...but I guess I really should have waited with him."

He had not thought it through.

But Yuki setting this up was a different matter. He had five copies, they were perfectly coordinated, and they targeted Murakami's blind spots and weak points.

"...!"

And they sped up even further.

.

Yuki split himself apart and ran.

The biggest advantage of having five copies was not the increased number of attacks; it was the widened field of vision. Since he could observe his opponent from multiple angles, it was child's play to tell where their blind spots were.

The Suzunari Ace currently held Kōgetsu in his right hand and was focused on defense. That concentrated his defense to the right and it left his left side open, but...

_...Sticking to a one-handed grip was a smart choice._

If he held the sword with both hands, he could keep the sword at the center of his body. That was ideal for blocking weighty attacks and allowed him to protect the center of his body, but that was meaningless at the moment. He was being attacked from all angles, so a two-handed grip would weaken his ability to swing the sword to the left or right and it would prevent any bursts of speed. Plus, there would always be a blind spot below his arms.

So instead, the Suzunari Ace turned his right side forward and swung the sword with his right hand. He made light movements of his right wrist to deflect Yuki's attacks with quick sweeping and stabbing motions.

He also used his left arm to deter Yuki. When Yuki circled to the back or front of his sideways body and attempted an attack, he would raise his hand or swing it behind him to give the illusion of a coming Kōgetsu attack in that direction.

He was good at this.

His movements were solid and he also had the technique to handle multiple opponents like this. Plus...

_...Nice job, Kō! You're using the information on me that only you know!_

_._

Murakami reacted to the attacks.

He used steady sword fighting technique, but he was assisted by his in-depth knowledge of Yuki.

Yuki's copies were created from the technology of the Suzunari Branch but were synced with him, so there was a time lag between his actual moment and the propagation of his body. But the range of the body allowed Murakami to generally measure the enemy's distance, speed, and range of movement.

Knowing the range of movement was most useful. That let him avoid moving more than necessary when striking back.

_...From there, I just have to figure out his current rhythm!_

_...Oh, I should apologize to Suzume later on for that comment._

There was always a rhythm to people's movements. He had once gotten a small lecture by Suzume on that fact. When someone swung a sword, they had to pull it back before they could attack again. Even with multiple copies, they were not all constantly attacking.

So Murakami only had to assign a single sound to each of the attacks and pull-backs. And for each of the five Yukis movements...

"Nn."

Two attacks arrived.

"Nn, nn."

One arrived and two returned.

"Nn, ah, ah."

Each of the five Yukis had two sounds. So the rhythm was decimal in nature.

"Nn, nn, nn, ah, ah, nn, ah, nn, nn, ah, ah."

The Black Wolf hummed. He read his opponent's attacks and defenses, he sang, and...

"Ah!"

He inserted his own attack into the mix.

.

_...Kō is sometimes a monster._

The wolf counterattacked at a rate of once every five times.

Yuki had of course expected interference with his copies, but he had expected something less steady and more forceful.

But this was different. The enemy had worked out his attack tempo, yet he was not conforming to it.

If anything, this enemy was moving to deflect Yuki's attacks.

Yuki realized how dangerous this was. The Suzunari Ace was most likely using ideal movements without even meaning to.

He was reading the gap between attack and defense and then using that for his own offensive ideal movements. He had come up with the idea in this battle and had begun to actually implement it.

_...He can be very dangerous._

Yuki remembered just what kind of threat this boy could be for other Attackers.

And he remembered something else: what Taiyōko Kiyoshi had said in his final moments.

_...There would never be a change for me to win if we were to fight fairly._

That was the statement. Yuki was currently assisting the creation of a powerhouse. He was not some great teacher and he could not become one ever, but he was helping create one of Suzunari's strongest members.

And he heard something.

The wolf's "nn" transformed into an "ah".

And each time he heard it, he saw more lights and his blade was deflected.

He realized his enemy was surpassing him once more. This time he had even used something he had learned from a female Sniper. So...

"How about this!?"

.

Murakami was suddenly hit by an enemy's attack.

A Yuki circled to his right and attacked with a blade.

That alone was the same as the previous attacks, so Murakami sent Kōgetsu toward it with a light snap of the wrist.

But as soon as the light slash hit, Yuki twisted his arm. He shifted to an attack that struck with the forearm more than the elbow.

But Murakami had already swung his blade. As a result, Kōgetsu dug into Yuki's arm and sliced 1cm deep into his forearm.

_...Eh?_

That was a real result. He had successfully injured Yuki. However...

_...Oh, no!_

Murakami realized what Yuki was trying to do. It was his sense of sight that told him.

A green gas sprayed from Yuki's arm and that filled the surrounding space thanks to the high-speed movement he was known for.

.

Yuki intentionally let a few more groups of trion move through the air as part of his trion mist.

More than the trion, he was interested in letting his trion gather there as a decoy for the Suzunari Ace.

_...Now, how about that?_

How far could this enemy go?

And he wondered if these people were capable of not giving up.

To not give up was to be indomitable. And that required something.

The most important thing was the willpower to never wish to give up.

But that alone was not enough. Willpower was meaningless if you were defeated or lost.

So you also needed the skill to keep that from happening.

When he had visited the Tamakoma Branch in the past before, he had been defeated by their preparation. The final attack from Kizaki and the Operator had required a certain level of organization.

They had put together a tactic that kept them from having to give up.

But giving up was not something you could always see coming and deal with it or crush it in advance.

The spontaneous desire to give up was the most dangerous kind.

That kind arrived when you least expected it – when everything fell apart despite all your preparation and organization.

These branch members had strength. They had the strength to surpass their opponents. But...

"Show me whether or not you have the skill to constantly tear down the desire to give up!"

Yuki targeted his enemy's back. He sent two attacks from the front while also making three stabbing attacks from behind.

The enemy spun around and tried to dodge, but it was too late. Yuki could see his wide-open back. So...

"...!"

Yuki threw his entire body forward to hunt down this wolf.

.

Just as Yuki used every one of his actions to strike down his enemy, he saw the Suzunari Ace's decision.

The wolf spun around to forcibly turn himself sideways in relation to the middle one of the three copies attacking him from behind. But that was not a problem. The two on the left and right could still stab him. However...

"What!?"

The Suzunari Ace threw his body toward the middle copy behind him.

He used a light burst of speed and he did not even turn around as he did so.

_...He's jumping right toward my blade! Is he trying to get himself killed!?_

This did not seem like an acceptable "answer" to Yuki.

The desire to give up had to be crushed with strength, but this answer was entirely reliant on luck. However"

"—"

Yuki saw a stream of trion scattering from his right arm as it thrust the blade forward.

And the two Yukis attacking from the front saw the Suzunari Ace's face.

His eyes were closed.

While not having the same level of hearing as Kikuchihara, he had concentrated on the sound of the footsteps and his knowledge of Yuki to track the moments of the five trion copies. And he had shut his eyes to sharpen his sense of hearing enough to distinguish the movement of the trion leaking out and scattering from Yuki's own movement.

The propagation of the sound was of course slower than their movements, but attacks began with a preparatory stance.

Even if the sound propagated slowly, he only had to detect that stance to know the attack was coming. And...

_...He read my copies' stances to accurately charge right toward me!_

He was not relying on luck. He had used his own abilities to adlib.

While turned to the side, the Suzunari Ace slipped between the three stabbing blades of the three copies.

None of them hit him. You could call it a Flat Chest Evasion.

_...Way to go, Kō! That kind of solution will make Suzu happy!_

Instead of giving up on any of Yuki's attacks, this enemy had used the trion trap to arrive at the correct answer. Meanwhile...

"Dammit!"

Yuki knew he had moved too close. It had been necessary to defeat this opponent.

But when that opponent rushed toward him, the distance between them seemed to vanish.

"—!"

Yuki let his five copies' slashes and jabs hit him while he seemed to embrace the Suzunari Ace.

It almost looked like he was holding the enemy close while protecting him.

.

Murakami felt the strength draining from Yuki's body.

He took a step back and saw just one Yuki standing in the clearing trion mist.

He had several stab and slash wounds, but...

"Yuki. What all did you really want from this anyway?"

Yuki looked over at him.

And he smiled.

Then he waved a hand back and forth as if to say "I'm leaving".

With a sigh from him, both Yuki and Murakami left the training room to join the others. Both decided to stay in their trion bodies instead of going back to their real ones.

Yuki made the same hand motion as before while continuing.

"Don't worry about it and get going. If it was really important, you know I would tell you...Kō."

"Are you sure, Yuki?"

That question came from Kuruma. And Shirogane followed suit.

"What will you do now, Tsukion, um..."

"Um?"

Shirogane held out her right palm as everyone watched her.

"I know a weather is next."

"Yeah," said the Shor captain while leaning his entire body on the chair. "It's a really simple name to read correctly."

"Heh. Do you really think that is enough of a hint to clue me in?"

 _Is that something to brag about?_ the others wondered before hearing bitter laughter from Yuki.

"I'm going to head home and get some rest. Sorry for using your stuff guys. If I stayed involved any longer, I would hate how much of a nuisance I was being. Also..."

He looked to Murakami and then to the ceiling.

"I was of some small use. That's good enough for a job before something major," he said. "So forget my stupidity. I can send you the second thing I set up, if you want, but I should get going anyway. If I don't leave right away, Shiro and Mei will be worried. Plus, I want to avoid seeing anyone particular before I head home."

Murakami felt like he could trust the bitter smile in the boy's voice.

_...And I can also see just how much he cares for Senpai._

In a way, the two seemed to be together already.

Not that that was too surprising.

But Murakami's captain spoke to Yuki.

"You were preparing us for later, right?"

"I was not preparing you. ...I simply tested you and approved of what I found."

Yuki let out a sigh and his feet started moving toward the exit. His phone also gave off a sound.

"I'll be going, Suzunari. It's time I started thinking about what we will be doing. So seeing me off will mean you want to be dragged down with me."

He left in a single instance of teleportation.

* * *

Yuki landed on the ground after his teleportation. He thought he saw the others waving to him, but perhaps he was imagining things.

Still, turned off his Trigger and sighed.

And then the color red sprayed from his mouth.

"Yuki-san!"

Some branch members had come to him after a message, so they cried out in alarm. But even as he endured the blood coming out in time with his coughs, he raised a hand telling them not to worry about it.

"Going from the commentary to a fight was a bit much when I was already down in the morning."

Not all of the blood staining the floor was from his mouth.

Yuki had been hit too. Also...

"Kh."

Blood gushed from the three slashes on the left side of his body.

No part of his mouth or side was untouched by the red. Several bandages could be seen to try and stop the bleeding, but how long would they stay like that?

He sighed again and then inhaled quite forcefully.

He had trained his body to the point of pulling off some great feats, so he could stop the bleeding by tensing his muscles. But more than that...

_...This isn't always going to last._

He peeled off a bandage applied below his outfit. It had some anesthetics that allowed him to take action without any pain.

Without that, he never would have gone to Border to give commentary, knowing full well what his real body was like. But for that commentary, he had at least shown his pride in his former team. The Suzunari Ace may have noticed due to knowing him so well, but that may have been why he had gotten through to the boy.

He held great pride in the people he could help.

The commentary had been for his beloved former team and the fight had been for his beloved friend, but which one was more beloved?

"Someone go and tell Sensei something. Tell him Murakami Kō will be absolutely fine. Request that he stop fussing over such things since I have proven that someone so unneeded was beaten. Once that goes through, I will go see him and make fun of him for being so doting over us."

"Yuki-san!"

"Ha ha. Don't listen to that, okay? That kind of thing should not be heard at your age."

He laughed, leaned his back against the edge of the wall, and looked up at the night sky through the open window.

"I will be taking my leave later. I'm heading home."

He thought back.

"My house is close to Mei's. Did you know that area is known for its kind people? It's a small area, but there's lots to do there. The people around make good tea too. You should visit sometime."

"How can you say that after telling us not to listen to you!?"

He answered their reply with laughter. And he lowered his gaze. He looked out at Border base and the Forbidden Zone set up around it for them to fight Neighbors and he saw a few lights were others had been.

Everyone else was getting ready.

The branch members - Nakagami, Kirisame and Kazekiri - began to move as he watched those lights. The visible area of land vanished as his vantage point fell.

 _No, wait,_ he thought. _My vision is actually lowering a bit._

He was slowly slipping off the wall.

"Yuki-san!"

"Don't worry about it," he said. "You're coming to visit me, aren't you?"

As the others ran over, he pressed his back against the building's wall and sat back up. He somehow even managed to cross his legs.

"But that won't be for a while. We still don't know what will happen with the sponsors, so we might all have more work to do."

 _Yes,_ he thought. _If this becomes a part of history, then they'll all come to visit._

And he thought of himself as a turning point for others as Border made their next move.

"Go learn what is best, okay?"


	63. Border: Part 4

Someone on the roof viewed the three platforms in the distance.

It was Kimura. She, Suzaku, and Kunichika were using a triple telescopes to view them from the roof of the Border base. The telescopes showed the Border cars joining the groups of cars arriving from three different directions and the platforms that had been set up.

The ones bound for Shiraishi and Kobayashi had apparently already arrived at their respective platforms. A small barricade was placed around both groups and the newly arrived cars to demonstrate that they had been welcomed in.

However, the car bound for Kurosaki had been a little delayed, so that group had to wait.

"I guess we're letting them know we'll be here until the respective cars reach them."

The regular cars that had seen everything going on were passing by around them on their way to their respective destinations.

Kimura and the others had yet to settle into the building.

Some of the other agents had left to do their own things, but Kimura wanted to avoid returning to the inside of the building until the cars had arrived. They had only sent some others back ahead of them because they were unnecessary.

There were many who had woken up late and did not leave the Yagura Branch.

They had likely intended to take a short rest after getting up and starting back to the Border base or their homes. They had been lazing around due to an incident the day prior involving some wandering Neighbors. They had only learned that others had left because there were less people around.

_...Those guys can be so relaxed at times._

Mizukami had said that everyone had left already, but Kimura was still worried.

_...Yesterday was a bit taxing since we went late into the night._

If those wandering Neighbors had not shown up, they would have all gotten a better amount of sleep, so they were lacking in a necessity for thinking straight under calm circumstances.

"Even if those guys had taken some medicine to keep awake, they will probably be tired once it wears off."

Kimura was feeling a little concerned, but Suzaku walked over with a smile.

"It's okay, Kimura. Those guys usually get their energy from fighting each other by this point."

"Yeah. I know that. ...I shouldn't be letting my concern show that plainly."

"Wan."

"Yes, yes."

Kimura pressed her cheek against Krümel. Suzaku must have decided Krümel could handle comforting Kimura because he simply opened a his phone while still smiling.

"I just received a message saying Hiura and Minoru have arrived at the Kobayashi platform and Tenryū-san and Iko-san have arrived at Shiraishi's platform. That just leaves Jinsei's group. They were delayed a little, but they probably needed some time to refresh after everything from yesterday."

"The negotiations with the three companies have only just begun and we've already run into issues."

"I know," agreed Suzaku before giving a gasp of realization. He tapped on the Shiraishi platform on the north end of the screen.

The magnification increased. When his finger moved in and tapped on it a few more times, the blurry image was processed and the Shiraishi-made car that seemed like a limousine became visible in the center of the distant Shiraishi platform.

The Shiraishi platform had removed some of the barricades to let the Border car in, so its flag was visible. The specks seen there were probably Ikoma and Shobu. There were also some aides including businessmen.

Someone left the stairs to greet them.

"Is that Shiraishi Chisato?"

"Eh? Is that a surprise?"

"Yes. That kind of car belongs to the dual-bosses. And is Shiraishi Chisato wearing what I think she is?"

The image was small, but it looked like a dress blowing in the wind.

* * *

Chisato felt something she had not felt in a long time.

_...Complete and utter regret. Why would I go out in the wind dressed like this?_

Her regret came from the light material with no protection. It probably would have been fine on the surface or indoors, but on a upper level platform, the wind whipped the clothing around even with some air buffering.

It was the same wind she always felt, so why was she so bothered by it? Her hair whipping around had never been an issue, but the westerly wind from the right was also affecting her dress's skirt.

"...Ah."

If she did not hold it down, it would lift up and reveal her legs, the base of her legs, and her butt. She normally had those areas exposed to more easily move around during practice, but it felt careless to leave the areas hidden by the skirt so defenseless.

_...Kh._

She found a way of holding her hands that held down about eighty percent of the skirt. She placed her right hand down to hold the skirt against the front of her right thigh. She gave up on the left of the skirt and faced forward.

"Border's 6th Ranked Attacker Ikoma Tatsuhito, are you the representative here?"

"Nope, the representative's Shobu here, Yagura Branch's director's nephew. I'm just going along with him."

He looked to the hand on her skirt.

"But what're you doin' there?"

"I-I am not doing anything. Whatever are you talking about?"

"I see."

As the Attacker nodded, Representative Tenryū looked up at him while holding his bangs and coat down against the wind.

"...The wind...is strong..."

"Yeah. Border's completely covered and even the ground has buildings stoppin' things, so the wind'll naturally be stronger on a platform. But..."

He looked to Chisato's right hand on her skirt.

"Shobu, you could learn a thing'r two from the Shiraishi family. ...This kind of wind isn't worth mentioning for them."

Chisato seriously considered knocking him to the ground, but then she heard the Shiraishi Business support members whispering behind her.

"Hey, maybe we should have upped the buffering more with some banners. Shokubutsu-san is having trouble!"

"B-but this way we get to see him squirming around like that."

"I feel bad for him yet I can't deny I'm enjoying it. Is this what you call woman's sinful nature?"

 _That boy must be fairly popular,_ realized Chisato as the Attacker approached her while unlocking a tablet to display a few pieces of official paperwork.

"Now, let's start our work visit with a handshake."

Chisato realized what he was after when she saw his outstretched right arm and five fingers raised from his right hand, but this was a scene of business. She maintained a smile and returned his handshake with her right hand. She squeezed as hard as she could with her hand, but he accepted it with the strength of an attacker. Then the wind blew in from the right.

Without the hand to hold it down, her skirt blew violently upwards and the Attacker immediately let go of her hand.

"Sorry. You should've shaken hands with Shobu, not me. I got a little carried away there."

_...Why you-...!_

Her smile stiffened as she silently protested, but she still shook hands with the actual representative. The representative was able to use his left hand to hold down his coat as the wind was coming from his left.

 _I chose the wrong position on the battlefield,_ Chisato belatedly realized as the Attacker looked to the ground.

"Well, you're the third kid, so I can guess you don't often wear clothes like that. They suit you well and they were a nice choice for a business meeting. This was just a messed up location."

"...Eh?"

 _That must mean Musashi made the right choice this time too,_ she thought.

But...

"Choose for yourself next time."

"—"

 _He saw right through me,_ she thought. _But how?_ she also thought with a slight disturbance in her heart.

"...Um..."

The representative raised the hand still held in Chisato's handshake. He must have wanted to let go, so Chisato frantically did so and bowed. When she apologized and took the boy's hand again, the representative nodded.

"...U-um, Ikoma-sama...i-is not a...b-bad person..."

"...Eh?"

"...He does like...girls a lot...though..."

"That's right," said Chisato while glaring at the Attacker.

_...Why did he even come to Shiraishi? Don't tell me..._

_Our Ruri is a girl, along with my sisters. And according to what magazines are saying, they are all good choices. In other words, they are all good choice girls._

_Don't tell me,_ she thought again, so she decided to ask.

"Border's 6th Ranked Attacker, I would like to know why you came here to Shiraishi. Would you mind telling me?"

"You don't know?" he asked with a sigh. "My goal is to...yeah, find some nice girls around in this game of business."

Just as the Attacker said that like it should be obvious, the Kobayashi group to their west lowered its barricades. They had welcomed in their business car just as Shiraishi had.

* * *

As Ikoma and Shobu began their business with the Shiraishi, a discussion was taking place inside the tent covered platform for Kobayashi.

"Hatohara-san! Are you sure you don't need to head out for the business meeting!?"

"Yes. At this point, it will only be a greeting. Plus, it's Akane-chan's job to deal with Kobayashi's summarized demands for now."

Minoru answered the newly B-Rank agent's question while wearing the Hatohara Squad uniform.

He was not in his spot on the platform by the cars. He was in a tent a bit away.

Over at Border, Kimura and some others were making sure things went smoothly and he had postponed his testing session with Hoshi while making sure Toby had been okay after his failed game of chase. The Kobayashi business men and women had not asked to greet him, so he was spending his time in that tend to relax for a moment. But..

"Hatohara-san, what kind of group is Kobayashi?"

"Well," said Minoru to gather the newly B-Rank agents' attention. He steadied himself while using a nearby pole as a cone, and faced the north side that his the Kobayashi group from view. "The Kobayashi family are actually rather nice and the parents care for their children, who in turn care for them. I can't say I know too much about their business works since Hisoka doesn't care too much about the business to begin with. But apparently they have a strong person on their side and a fun assistant that takes on multiple roles for that person. Their work is building universities and houses, so they have a good business going on for them here. That's most of what I can say."

_...They also have the excellent sense and charismatic leadership of Mogami-san._

"Oh, the name of that powerful person is Mogami Yoshiko, by the way. And as someone with a high power in there, she has expanded some of their reach and influence on others. She had a cruel character unique to everything else, but that strong will and powerful feeling have-..."

"Have allowed her bosses to prosper, so they're willing to allow her to stay with them?"

"That's right," answered Minoru. "The more severe she is, the more people sense a strength in her. ...People are drawn to someone who shows they can make full use of their authority, might, intelligence, and experience. She is someone rather indispensable to the Kobayashi family."

 _That ability is something I lack at the moment,_ thought Minoru with a sigh.

"But, well..."

As everyone watched, he put his hands on his hips and looked up at the tent.

"I am wondering why they had only sent her and where Hisoka is right now."

_...I should assume that she managed to convince everyone to let her have this one._

That was when he heard a sound.

It was a distant sound and he nearly mistook it for the rumbling of the wind, but...

_...Movement?_

The two sounds came from a moving body. It was the loud noise produced when someone was moving through an area with speed.

"I suppose that would be someone form Border to keep watch on the areas with those three businesses so close."

* * *

The two Ōji Squad members moved as if hopping from Border.

The parted-haired, prince one in the Ōji uniform moved out a bit ahead and messaged back to the slick-haired, disciplined one in the Ōji uniform. He looked back while looking at the radar on his hand.

"Kurauchi! Has Director Shinoda contacted us yet!?"

"Yes," said Kurauchi while looking at everything in front of him.

The small window at the corner of his eyes showed small waves of sound.

The waves came from the voice of the General Director.

"Ōji-kun, we have sent you the basic data as an attachment. Suzaku-kun and Kikuchihara-kun created a 3D model of the surroundings, so please make corrections using that."

A small window opened to indicate the data had been sent over. Kurauchi was surprised at the quality of Kikuchihara and Suzaku's map of the surrounding people and considered asking them to assist Suzume for some doujinshi so he would to have not do so.

"From the inside of Border, you can't get an external information, right? I'll send back whatever I get through sight, so will you check over it?"

"Right," Director Shinoda said while looking over some screens.

Ōji came to a stop.

.

Ōji frowned as he saw the sound waves from a different person with their name under the waves.

"What is it, Jinsoku? What happened to Akasora-san? Attacked by an angry parent again? So what does our non-combatant machine freak king want? If it's about what I did to your machines, I won't be taking it back even if you get down on the ground and beg for forgiveness. Normal prostrations aren't enough to move me anymore. They're losing their effectiveness after doing it so many times."

"If you want to be in the receiving end of my high high altitude cannon Trigger named Blooming Bunker Blast, you can always just say so. ...And fake prince, I assume you know just why I'm speaking with you."

"Yeah, I know. ...You want to be in one of Misaki's doujinshi, don't you? I hear there is a bit of a line, but I am sure she can squeeze you in somewhere."

An attack flew down from above and passed by two meter on their right.

Ōji glared over at the attack as it vanished into the ground.

"You weren't even trying to hit? You really suck at this. Not that it matters when we are moving right now."

"I was firing blond from instead of a building, you know? ...Hm? What is it, Terashima-san? You want me to hurry up? But this is normal for us. And go to sleep!"

"See, you got him mad at you. ...But I more or less understand, Jinsoku. You're from the business world in reality, right? So what's your opinion as the former second-in-command of a business division? Your primary enemy has made some peace with those businesses and has dismissed you, but do you have some information on Kurosaki related to that?"

"Yeah. There's a chance a mother is going to show up to this three-part meeting."

"What?"

Ōji frowned and Kurauchi tapped him on the shoulder.

He moved back a bit to look at the radar that Kurauchi held up. The radar that had been expanded displayed some new things that they normally did not see. Ōji touched it, which showed...

"The transparent image of our surroundings based on Border's analysis."

The data they had sent had already been sent back after analysis by the multiple commuters belonging to Border.

Ōji reevaluated it and viewed it.

_...Is there something here?_

As if to answer him, several small windows opened horizontally around him in the previous direction from before.

The translucent monitor portion displayed the results of the data analysis. Writing and icons had been added by the people to provide information on what he was looking at. But...

"The red light indicates the business groups, right?"

Ōji knew why there was no emotion in Kurauchi's voice.

The three businesses' group cars were glowing red with Kurosaki to the west, Kobayashi to the northwest, and Shiraishi to the north.

"But there is also one coming from inside of the Forbidden Zone."

The red dot of light was small but definitely approaching. And with numbers in the dozens.

"Neighbors are here!?"

And...

"Ōji! Incoming attack!"

Ōji saw the light of a trion attack, but it was not coming from the Neighbors inside the Forbidden Zone.

The light flashed from the outer edges of the Forbidden Zone to the north, north-northwest, and northwest.

They were ultra-tall cannons in the form of Banders and their size stretched toward...

"Border! Put up your defenses!"

Ōji cried out just as light began exploding in the seemingly empty area of the sky.

The Border base had been hit.

Ōji understood that the Banders had only appeared near the three groups, yet it still seemed strange. He place a hand to his ear and shouted to the Border base.

"We are under attack! Neighbors have appeared with no signs of Gates opening!"

* * *

"Wh-what is going on!?" asked Suzaku of the tablet sent to him and the explosions of sound and light overhead. "We just sent our representatives to the three business and everything was looking fine, so what's with this stuff whooshing by and going boom and then all the danger coming in from the Forbidden Zone!?"

"Ahh, I more or less understood that, so is it too late for me?"

On the roof of the base, Kimura somehow managed to keep herself from hanging her head and instead looked up into the sky.

Bright lights were scattering there as evidence that trion attacks were striking the Border base.

After a short delay, the sounds of impact arrived like distant thunder.

She could feel the overlapping rumblings in her gut.

Alarm bells began to ring in Mikado City. Screens displayed around the city to guide people to evacuation sites. Five large screens changed to display something else.

"Hello. I am Netsuki Eizō, Media Director for Border. Sorry about all the troub-..."

Voices erupted from the city.

"Don't display a guy on Mikado's screens!"

"Don't waste that high resolution monitor on a close up of a guy!"

"Any married men can get lost!"

Suzaku looked to the city visible past the Forbidden Zone.

"Yes, yes," he nodded. "Mikado City might be the main city for these things, but they're a lot like us, aren't they?"

"They might respond well to someone like Murakami-san transportation surfing, so I'm glad they can handle a panic."

The screen's image switched over to an aide.

"Good day, everyone. I am the aide to General Director Shinoda Masafumi."

A cheer rose from the city.

"Eight shots are about to hit. But none are directed toward the city."

Explosions of light filled the sky and fear filled the people's voices, but Sawamura and the interior of Border behind her remained motionless.

"These Neighbors will not be making their way to the city, as our agents will be on the scene soon. Not a single one of them will make it passed the Forbidden Zone, so I will advise moving as far as you can from it. Make sure to-... What is it, Jinsoku? Oh, there are some new ones mixed in. Yes, I saw them, so it would seem so. That may change things. Everyone, please follow the original plan and head to the evacuation sites."

The people raised a cry of agreement while evacuating away from the Forbidden Zone. They were moving southwest.

"That's Mikado City for you..."

Kimura wondered why Suzaku sounded so serious yet did not look back his way, but to understand the current situation, she described the situation before her eyes.

"There are some Neighbors from last night, that is why Sawamura-san did not go into specifics. That means someone is controlling them."

* * *

While others sat motionless inside of the Border base, the main control room cut off all footage from outside to become a space surrounded by work. Because if the recent invasion, the room had been installed with more information processing, but..

"Enter standby! After confirming internal connection, release all transmission path ways and synchronize all branches under the correct protections."

Shinoda's voice reached them via voice transmission and the light of screens glowed from the monitors placed in the room.

"Right."

Text began to scroll by and several images began to play.

A portion of the large screen in the front slowly revealed a torii-style program chip on it. A different Border member entered from the corridor with a new program chip in their hands.

"Make the switch."

On Shinoda's command and signal, a Border member used both hand to pull out the old program chip out. The member who had just walked in used both hand to place the new chip into the open hole. After pushing it inside, she exchanged a glance with another member.

"Connected!"

"Confirmed."

She tilted her hand before pulling them back. The previous chip was placed in her now-empty hands and she began to walk back out into the corridor.

Meanwhile, the computer had the new chip inside and many more Windows appeared in the monitor.

"We have the engine division's authorization! Shifting to standby mode!"

A member of Border working on a computer to the side suddenly turned back toward the others.

"While checking Ōji-san and Kurauchi-san's information, a transmission arrived from lower levels of the building. Connecting to the main screen."

With those words, a small window appeared on the top of the large screen.

It displayed a small group of Bados above the southern area.

"Those are simple Neighbors. A small group like that should easily be taken out by some of our Snipers. The amount is of no issue, but something else seems to be there. They have moved out to the front, so I will zoom in while providing commentary."

The Neighbors in the very lead was a strange one that looked nothing like any of the others they had seen.

The entire body of it seemed much more mechanical than others. The coloration was a cool color that could start dragging in heat.

"Is that...?"

When the Border members saw the cloud decorations with gilded edges, they matched the image to their memories.

As they all worked to retrieve data on the Neighbors, one on the side members raised her right hand.

"According to my data, that is one of the 'Falcon' Neighbors used by the Wanderers. According to what we have, it is the weakest ones they have."

* * *

"That is one of the ones used yesterday? ...So someone went that route, have they?"

On Border's large roof, Kimura crossed her arms to think after hearing about the "Falcon's" arrival.

Next to her, Suzaku was managing Border's transmissions with his tablet.

"What does it mean for a Neighbor of the Wanderers to be here? And Kimura, that reaction sounded a lot like something my idiot teammate would say."

 **Life:** "Oh, I thought that too. It really sounded like him."

 **Manager:** "Shut up, you! Are you actually wearing your clothes!?"

 **White Fox:** "That's what you're worried about? And I think Umi was the one that brought it up."

 **Manager:** "Oh, yeah... I just went with my usual reaction. Sorry, idiot."

 **Life:** "Th-that's not much of an apology!"

_Pipe down._

She needed to focus on the enemy, not the crossdresser.

That "Falcon" was a Trion Soldier of the Wanderers. According to the information they had, it was one of their weaker ones, but...

"Those guys had everything settled last night and should not be 'greeting' us again. They had taken back every one of their soldiers and make it seem as if they were never here, but this is clearly not the case."

"We saw some strange stuff last night. Did someone trigger their anger?"

"I doubt it." Kimura shook her head. "Even if someone did anger them, we have shown that we are more than capable of handling them. Thinking of doing something like that would loss them resources. And if they have a Trion Soldier here with the regular ones..."

She brushed up her bangs.

"I can only guess, but the Wanderers are most likely not a part of this. ...Someone had apparently gone to their base after Akasora-san, so there is a chance they could have taken something."

"You mean...someone stole something from them while we were busy with them?"

Kimura hesitated for a moment before answering.

"That's right. I can't confirm any of this since Futoyuki-san is not allowed to say much at the moment, but the Wanderers must have been taken advantage of."

.

Kimura sighed.

_...This isn't good._

She had a few thoughts on the matter, but one of them was most important of all.

_...That person probably had the thought to make it seem like it was someone else's fault because of what has happened recently._

It all went back to the invasion they had managed to hold back.

After that, someone had decided Border could not protect people when it truly mattered.

"Whoever this is had taken it upon themselves to show something. ...That means we are their enemy."

"In that case," asked the Tachikawa Operator who had remained quiet thus far. "What do you think their strategy here is? Something dirty? After all, first it was the normal Neighbors and now it is the specially made ones. Is that person that bothered by us?"

"Yeah. I'm guessing they want to give us a warning. And their strategy is simple. ...On the pretext of showing Mikado City something special, they're going to see just how these businesses respond to the representatives we have sent."

"Then what are we going to do?" asked Suzaku.

The Tachikawa Operator smiled and shook her head.

"Do you really think there's any chance we are just going to sit idly by?"

* * *

"That's right. There's no chance we would sit idly by, nor is there any reason to."

Ōji spoke as he observed his surrounding and sent the images back to Border.

He tilted his head and looked over to the city and the edge of the Forbidden Zone. There were seven branches containing Border members. There were people in and around the buildings.

"We're at the center of attention here. What do you think would happen if we didn't do anything now? Whoever fixed this up would think we had no intention of proving out worth after we already dealt with two invasions."

"Ōji, your tone is getting a little harsh there."

Ōji smiled bitterly at that.

"Some people are hopeless. They like idiots, but hate coward. So..."

So...

 **Ōji:** "Gucci. Keep track of all the groups while we settle this as peacefully as possible. ...Like with an immediate counterattack."

* * *

_...Why are so many of our age group naturally bloodthirsty?_

However, Kimura knew mentally holding her head was not going to solve this, so she scratched at her head and opened her mouth.

"Hmm... If the three business are not going to turn away from this, I guess there's no choice but to show off."

Suzaku gasped at that and then glanced over at Kimura.

"Um... Should I really be hearing this?"

"Heh heh heh. Don't be silly, Umi-kun! Are you planning to shoot at them without knowing why?"

"Oh, um, but, well, shooting things technically isn't my job..."

"You can hear this," said Kimura. "You're in charge of the transmissions after all."

But now that she thought about it, the Sniper had so many roles it was a little unclear what his job was.

Regardless, she inhaled and worked to speak as calmly as possible.

"Pass this on to the representatives."

 _This is where we just have to bear with it,_ she thought before continuing.

"Even if the Neighbors attack the base and even if they continue onward, do not stop them. We will defend ourselves here. ...What you all need to do is stop any unnecessary inner conflicts being fought between those businesses and groups that hold a good amount of power. But do not stop any conflict with Border."

So...

"Play your parts as representatives even if they fire on Border and its branches."

* * *

Shirashi Chisaro sensed the noise and light of an attack as she continued fighting with her dress in the wind. The attack did not just come from the Shiraishi family. She could hear Kobayashi and Kurosaki's areas having a similar sound in the distance, but the intensity of that noise and light was enough to tell just how seriously those two had it.

In her opinion, the Neighbors on those sides were not holding back much at all.

In truth, only the strongest Neighbors could actually do damage to a structure as large as Border. And when they did not know how the branches would react, they were forced to keep their distance.

_...So they will naturally be firing with more intensity just to reach them in the first place._

Her group's data processing officer would be measuring the intervals between the other sides' blasts to measure the rapid-fire ability and durability of the attacks of the Neighbors they had seen almost daily. But...

"Border and its branches are focusing on defense? Are they trying to show whatever is attacking that they are more prepared to defend themselves than the rest of us?"

She asked her question to the Attacker looking to the south with a forearm held over his eyes.

"Prepared to defend themselves? What do you mean by that, Shiraishi Chisato?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Right." The Attacker nodded while still staring into the distance. "Are you sayin' you'd hit someone you feel has already hit themselves?"

"Well..."

Chisato trailed off and the Attacker nodded again without taking his eyes off of the southern sky.

"Ikoma Squad would hit 'em."

"W-wait a second! That wasn't supposed to be a moral lesson!?"

"What're you talkin' 'bout? ...If someone hits us on the cheek, you'd turn the other cheek. But showin' you've learned your lesson and by acceptin' the second hit, you learn something 'bout your opponent."

"You can learn something about your opponent like that?"

"You can." The Attacker nodded without facing her. "If they strike you again, you learn of the pain they feel by makin' it your own. And if they don't strike you again, you learn of their tolerance. That's what I've been taught. And to my clever eyes..."

He exhaled from his mouth and nose and let his shoulders droop.

"This situation shows just how anxious whoever's attackin' is."

"..."

Chisato hated that she could only judge that analysis as correct. They were witnessing an attack that tried to rival an invasion with no true backing.

Even though Border was the one being "hit", they actually seemed to be viewing the rest of them more calmly than anyone else.

Chisato realized that the Attacker was not looking to the Border base and the branches spread out in the city.

_...He's looking at that strange bird-like Neighbor?_

Trying to figure out why would be dangerous. Shiraishi's enemies and allies were clearly defined at the moment, so she had to remain silent.

And as she maintained her silence, the Attacker nodded thrice.

"But that aside..."

"What?"

"Right. ...Listen. There's also somethin' to say 'bout restraint. After all, if you hit someone too much and cross a certain line, they'll apparently begin to enjoy it. What I'm sayin's, they'll the ones that'll be in trouble if Border starts to enjoy this. So they shouldn't take this too far. That'd be what Kimura wants."

"I have no idea what you were talking about for most of that, but it doesn't look like they are going to stop attacking." Chisaro breathed in and looked to the sky. "Also, while we do have to make a powerful demonstration ourselves, I would think Kurosaki has to make the most powerful demonstration of all since they're already looking to the Neighbors. If they take this too lightly, they could end up losing it all at once."

* * *

The light of trion attacks flew through the sky from the north, northwest, and west.

A few silhouettes were visible near the source of the lines extending from west to east.

They were the cars of the Kurosaki group and the Border car from Border.

The courtyard around the Kurosaki group did not have a simple platform with them.

Festival stands, a wide open space, and a festival tower were built in that central courtyard, but...

"So basically, they're holding a shrine festival to celebrate our business visit. ...They even have a shrine, so it's quite well made."

When arriving, they had been told yukatas were the dress code, so Murakami wore one as he carried his borrowed Black Trigger Portion and looked around from the head of their group.

They were in the courtyard of the Kurosaki meeting location, a rather open area. The larger buildings would normally cover the area like a ceiling, but the area had been transformed into a strange for the festival.

The people walking between the festival stands were the primarily business crew as well as their families. They were speaking with each other around the stands, playing in the water of the shrine's large spring, and constructing the tower they would later dance around.

As Murakami observed them, his nose detected a mixture of many different seasonings.

_...There isn't anything out of the ordinary around here._

"It's okay, everyone. Meeting their representative here should not be a problem."

He turned back to see the nudist wore a flesh-colored naked camouflage yukata. He nodded in acknowledgement, looked across the festival, and then tilted his head when he saw Kon, Murakami, the Yagura Branch Representative, and Kuruma.

"Are you all really not wearing anything under your yukatas?"

"Well," said Kon as she crouched down and lifted the bottom of Murakami's yukata up to just below his stomach. "The latest trend seems to be wearing nothing but antiperspirant tights below in order to claim you are 'not wearing underwear'. Oh, and thank you for your cooperation."

"In a way, you're leaking our information! Our private information!"

"Calm down, calm down. I did the same thing because Yuki-kun said it was customary."

Kuruma lifted up his yukata to show them. He blushed as he did so.

"I'm glad I had Yuki-kun with me when choosing the other day. Apparently a lot of people only wear this on the bottom. You made a good friend, Kō."

"Yagura Branch Representative, I would like a word with you about a variety of things..."

Meanwhile, the surrounding Neighbors fired on the Border base again.

The people enjoying the festival looked up to the trion attack and the light that scattered when it hit the wall to the east. Also...

"Tamayaaaa!"

_...I feel like that isn't entirely accurate to the situation!_

Even if they were firing on the Border base, Murakami was not sure it was right to call this the Border Fireworks Festival. At any rate, Kuruma spoke as he looked to the east.

"Kimura-san said we had to bear with this, so that's our job here."

He smiled with the ends of his eyebrows lowered and Murakami could only agree.

"That's all we can do when that's the official policy we've been given. Even if that policy was only decided recently."

 _But what are we going to do?_ He thought just before a voice reached them from the shrine.

"I haven't seen any of you before. Let me get a look at you."

It was a man. Specifically, a tall man with white skin. He must have come from the shrine spring where the children were playing in the water because he had a white swimsuit tied with a tie inside of the swimsuit. He had a towel over his head and he walked toward them with the towel flowing behind him.

Despite being wet and wearing sandals, he did not make any excess noise as he approached. That was why Murakami stepped in front of the others. He lowered his arm so he could activate the borrowed Black Trigger Portion at any time and he lowered his knees a little.

"Who are you?" He asked in place of bowing.

The tall man crossed his arms and answered the question while removing the towel.

"I am the hired hand of the Kurosaki family and Extended Supervisor Hikigane Sekai. I apologize for this being so sudden, but..."

He snapped his right hand's fingers with his arms still crossed and the wind began to blow.

A transport truck to the right of the business cars began to quickly accelerate toward the Border base.

"Eh!?" said Murakami as Sekai nodded a few times.

"I was hired on once more by the Kurosaki family and so will not be on your side this time around. Without someone as Unneeded as me around, I'm curious how Border and the branches will respond."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am planning to split this story up into smaller ones and put it as a series. There will be a bit more added to those than what this story has. Mostly for the parts up to Aftokrator and the invasion itself. So feel free to wait for those or just read this story to know what will happen.


	64. Border: Part 5

_...Now they've done it!_

Ōji realized what Kurosaki was doing.

Kurosaki was currently fighting Taiyōko and they were being attacked thanks to Awdry more or less betraying them. If any influence reached any part of them, they would be taken over by a greater business or a single girl wanting political power.

So as a performance for Awdry and Taiyōko, they were attacking the Neighbors to demonstrate their strength.

_...While also showing what they'll do to anyone if they carelessly try to attack._

By doing that, they could give a warning to Taiyōko and the others attacking however they liked and as well as a warning to Awdry, the group that had betrayed them.

 **Ōji:** "That makes the attack against those Neighbors, and technically against us, a demonstration in three or four different ways for Kurosaki. They even went so far as to apparently hire Hikigone for this. ...Gucci, give us permission to attack. Just like Border is defending against the enemy Neighbors, we can act as representatives by 'not stopping their actions' but 'stopping their attacks', right?"

 **Manger:** "You can do it, can't you?"

 **Ōji:** "I think you might be a better commander than secretary boy."

"Right?" asked Ōji while looking around.

Something in the west was reflecting the sunlight. It was a Kurosaki transport car. Ōji judged it to be fifteen kilometers away and set the proper values in himself. At the same time as Kurauchi, he pushed his body forward and pointed it straight forward.

He used the falling speed to catch the car's movement.

"Here we go."

The two Ōji Squad members moved toward the moving vehicle.

.

Two black lines traveled on the green earth below the blue sky.

They used their enhanced legs, given strength by the Triggers provided by Border. Both were pulled forward with some acceleration from support placed beforehand.

He wind that was blowing against them while they ran washed over the captain as he sent out words using the limited telepathy provided by the Triggers. His voice itself was drowned out by the wind, but the words still came through their connected minds.

_"Kurauchi! I can see them! They're eight kilometers away!"_

_"Right! I think we should swap positions once we are within five kilometers!"_

_"Yeah! We'll be making a turn, so make sure you are ready for it!"_

They had a single goal: stop the car that Kurosaki had sent toward the Neighbors.

_...And do it in a nondestructive way!_

They would demonstrate that they could shoot down the car, but they would intentionally avoid doing so.

They intended to destroy the rear bumper to knock it off course. After all...

_...That will show that's all we need to do to erase that threat! Neighbor attacks do way more damage than any regular car can._

_"But we'll show them that we're here now!"_

Ōji upped his speed using a Grasshopper plate set beforehand.

He had to hurry because Kurauchi had not hesitated to accelerate in front of him. Ōji desperately pursued him through the hole in the wind created by the body.

_"...We're in range! That means..."_

"Yeah," replied Ōji as he pushed down on the new Grasshopper plate. He leaned forward and pursued Kurauchi while making sure not to be blown away by a stray plate.

_"Here we go, Kurauchi!"_

_"Well, I was actually thinking I should tell you to watch out. Look."_

The color green passed by over Ōji's forward-leaning head.

_...A trion attack!?_

He assumed it had come from the Kurosaki group, but he was wrong.

_"It came from the car!? It isn't unmanned!? And they have Triggers!?"_

_"There are no trion signs onboard! So..."_

Ōji understood. Kurosaki had predicted this counterattack. And...

_"Ōji! Their attack is coming! It's multi-stage!"_

_._

With the B-Ranks three kilometers away, thirty-two projectiles resembling green lights were launched from different parts of the approaching car.

They were trion cubes.

**"Remote: Trion Attack: Multi-Shot Split and Homing Hound: Confirmed."**

Each cube broke apart into eight different cubes and an acceleration had been added to each one as well. A moment later, they drew arcs through the sky as they flew straight toward something.

In the early sky, the many pillars of light turned at sharp angles, let out a spray of light, and surfed through empty air.

Their targets were the two approaching B-Rank agents, but then a red light appeared on the sight device on the interior of the unmanned moving far.

**"Additional shots: Confirmed."**

More trion multi-shot attacks were scattered about for a second and third stage.

Some of the trion shots were caught up or set incorrectly, collided with each other, and shattered, but the unmanned car did not car. The black car continued scattering trion shots through the sky as it move toward the two B-Rank agents.

.

After forcing his way past Kurauchi to move out front, Ōji saw it.

_...I think Hikigone asked Mottomotto and Fuyushima-san for help with this._

More than just a barrage or a barrier, a solid space of enemy projectiles appeared before his eyes.

The attack had been made to deal with the Neighbors around them instead of the members of Border, but it seemed that the car could only target anything using trion. The intended targets had been swapped out because the two members from Ōji Squad had interfered.

"Not bad. If all they have to do is fire a ton of multi-stage Hounds, a simple car will work as well as any agent. It's useful enough for resisting a short-term counterattack."

Ōji felt he should complain. He felt he should curse and verbally abuse the accidental enemy for doing this, but...

"Hah!"

He heard his own voice in the wind. He wrinkled his brow, but stared at his opponent and let out a noise, without knowing if he should twist his mouth into a smile or into a look of anger.

"Don't underestimate the top tier B-Ranks, Kurosaki!"

.

As soon as the Ōji Squad captain arrived within two kilometers of the transport truck, he rushed to the far right.

He continuously fired four guided Hound shots while moving in a gradual side arc. The dedicated Ōji Squad Shooter followed. Like a school of fish, the transport truck's homing attacks increased their density near the front. But...

"Over here!"

While the Ōji Squad captain rushed to the far right, the Ōji Squad Shooter was moving his body in that same direction as he fought to maintain pace with the truck, but then he forced his body to the left.

"...!"

He almost seemed to jump over to the other side of the truck.

The enemy attack could not keep up. Their density was still focused on the far right, so they quickly created arcs of pursuit.

But Ōji was already circling around the back of the truck. He moved back in a circling motion and a guiding line could be seen in his eyes.

As the enemy attack resumed pursing him again, the Ōji Squad captain swung his body, but he was not changing direction.

"I can see you!"

He created a cube of trion while preparing a shield and pointed his hand toward the pursing enemy attack.

"Hound!"

Trion shots flew from the Ōji Squad captain as it took high-speed evasive action and flipped around.

The number of shots was the same as the number of destroyed shots.

Flashes of light collided in midair and the Ōji Squad captain made a shallow move as if to move between the scattering light.

The boxy front of the transport truck released several beams of light.

"Laser Shooter!?"

They flew in straight lines at first, but they did not maintain that straight path. They were homing versions. Light sprayed out as they took a winding path toward the Ōji Squad Shooter who was following from a little behind, but...

"Could you be any more obvious!?"

The Ōji Squad captain rapidly fired Hound shots toward the laser-like beams approaching from behind his teammate like sunlight.

However, he was not targeting the laser-like trion beam itself. He instead targeted the homing multi stage Hound shots approaching the other boy. Those many Hound shot were a means of attack, but at the same time...

_They are what the Laser Shooter is tracking! It's blatantly obvious if you look at the trajectories!"_

Sure enough, the laser-like trion beams were flying in diagonal trajectories that more closely followed the Hound shots than the Ōji Squad Shooter himself.

The Ōji Squad captain chose to avoid the shots pursuing him and focused instead on the ones pursuing his teammate.

"Kurauchi! Trust me!"

He readied his body by forcing a line to himself, so...

"Yeah!"

The Ōji Squad Shooter ran straight to the Ōji Squad captain without any fear.

The laser-like beam released from the truck like sunlight continued pursing him, but that did not matter.

The Ōji Squad captain fired. His repeated shots overlapped, grew to a true raid-fire, and repeatedly shattered the Hound shots still pursing his teammate.

Green light burst in the sky and sounds of destruction blossomed.

The green lights were split apart time and again as the laser-like beam swept through the air, but...

"Hound!"

He fired one last time to finish his attack and that led to the conclusion.

The green pursuers had vanished from behind the Ōji Squad Shooter. As soon as only the rough wind remained, the truck's laser-like beams ended their winding pursuit. And...

"Kurauchi!"

The Ōji Squad Shooter caught up to the captain.

Without even looking back, the Ōji Squad captain moved forward and smiled.

"C'mon, Kurauchi. You need to come straight toward me."

His rapid-fire shattered all of the Hound shots remaining in the blue sky visible above the horizon.

"But Ōji, having you right in front of me is actually really distracting."

"Thanks for the compliment. Or I will at least take it as one."

"Fine."

With that reply, the two Ōji Squad members accelerated. They moved toward the transport truck they were just about to pass by.

They did not hold back on the speed and the captain pulled ahead due to his greater acceleration.

"Here we go!"

The Shooter moved forward to pass the captain.

* * *

The visual of multiple attacks hitting each other filled the sky, followed by sound that could only barely be heard.

The transport truck had stopped.

The truck stopped once everything had been used up firing on the two Ōji Squad members to prevent any damage done to it.

"I'm guessing that they realized a bit of what was going on here. Even with that much firepower, I had to set things up so that the entire thing wasn't filled to the brim with shots. It took a good amount of convincing to add the prototype Laser Shooter on there, but oh well. I'm guessing they thought leaving it to run out of fuel was far better than letting that piece of junk run into something and cause damage in the surface."

In the lively festival, Sekai commented on the outcome with a sigh as he viewed it through a tablet screen displaying a magnified image.

As he watched, a giant building seemed to loom over them, even from this distance.

"I guess that shows off Border some more. ...Quite an extraordinary view for our festival here."

The building remained stationary, but it felt like there was more of a presence to it now compared to before.

That was the Border base.

On that base was a flat roof with the edges raised and antennas could be seen on the four corners of the building, but a single spot of red and purpose was visible on top. It was a Sniper who was ranked first.

_...I see Tōma started to get bored in there._

An Ibis could be spotted in the hands of the boy, but he was laying flat on his back on the Border roof. As he did so, he was raising his arms and aiming it one way.

"So they are helping him using better sight and distance measurements, are they? The irritating ones seemed to also be doing their best inside."

.

Yuki viewed the Border transmission from Tōma

 **Isa:** "I might not be a match for Umicchi when it comes to firepower, but I can manage well enough with my usual sniping. If I wasn't using a Trigger then I would have nothing to handle the recoil, so I don't have to deal with an almost literally pain in the ass."

"Also," he added.

 **Isa:** "There are a few others here to help out. Can you see them?"

"Yeah," confirmed Yuki.

The tablet screen he was viewing with Kuruma showed a unit of a few B-Rank and A-Rank Snipers aiming a total of eight Trigger in various directions.

Ōji and Kuauchi's presence was one way they were showing off to the three business, but also...

_...We're showing that we can accurately locate so many enemies._

Those sniping positions could not be taken immediately.

Border had released their Snipers not just to show off the unit that would be attacking the skies, but also to show they could target the enemy from a great distance.

Border had essentially revealed the source of the attack to everyone else. Even with the Snipers, they had chosen to harm their own position to harm the enemy.

Border's solo Engineer who worked with machines Jinsoku Shūsei was speaking in another window inside of the tablet.

 **Quik-Fix:** "How about that!? How about that, spy!? My extra help with measurements is pretty cool, isn't it!? It's using data if what has been used and known blind spots, and it's already this cool! Isn't it just plain adorable!?"

 **770:** "What? Are you stupid? If you're gonna have those guys fire, you've gotta start with shooting a ton of Hound Laser Shooter shots from the side of the base. Don't act like you're all-that after using those walking fools instead of the base, you amateur."

 **Quik-Fix:** "You're exactly the kind of adult I hate! You always act like you know what you're talking about!"

 _Such a fulfilling relationship between idiot and bigger idiot,_ thought Yuki as Sekai looked his way. _Ah. He isn't going to go easy because it's me, is he?_

"Using those Snipers who can move at a moment's notice is a decent idea. Each side of Border can be protected independently and can defend if need be, so I can see why you would want people like that to move whenever you need it. When using them for real, do you have sniping stations where they can fire while at least kneeling?"

Everyone looked Yuki's way when he asked that, so it looked like they wanted him to respond.

_...Well, it probably would be best for me to respond since even he can't read my expression._

He mentally nodded while adding an extra thought.

_He is taking this seriously, so I need to make sure I don't know him for now. This is his job and so he is speaking as if he is a seriously working for Kurosaki. As much as that makes my stomach churn, I have to deal with it._

The nudist acted like being a nudist was his job, Kon would begin using her Kon Logic, Murakami was likely still full of energy after figuring out how to use Shikifuku, and he would feel bad leaving this to Kuruma.

So he quickly answered "right". He had no real reason to actually answer Sekai's question, so he decided to change the subject.

"How did you like those Hound shots? Nice, weren't they? Those are the true romance of men."

"Oh?" said Sekai as he raised the right corner of his mouth and nodded.

 _When he crosses his arms, he looks like a really cool guy, but even that trick doesn't bring him anywhere close to Akasora-sensei,_ he noted as Sekai pointed westward with his chin.

"Did you try to stop that truck in response to the threat of an enemy vehicle containing a sort of bomb, just like the large flying Neighbors had in its body?"

"Does Kurosaki view the Illgars, the Neighbor mentioned, as a threat?"

Yuki asked while realizing he was making a precarious tightrope walk. Sekai did not nod, but he did smile a little.

"Of course, since it can create a great amount of damage by blowing up near any area with buildings. Even just hitting a blank spot of Mikado City can cause a tremor to occur, making the ground shake and any nearby buildings risk getting damaged. Even if it is only on the insides, it is still damage done. And that does not include any glass that may break."

"Well..."

Yuki knew that it be true since earthquakes did that exact thing. As a conversation topic it was a what-if, but those kinds of ideas were still there.

At any rate, Sekai sighed and nodded in front of him.

"Right. We would still find it rather hard to explain since an earthquake or other natural phenomenon can cause just as much damage, if not worse, so placing all blame on something that has yet to properly happen would be a bit much. Even so, apparently, one such thing happened a while back in a river. That is why it is best to make sure every base is covered in case something comes up."

.

Yuki listened to Sekai.

"My friend was near the river when it happened...that is, when Kitora Ai of Arashiyama Squad took it down and sent it into the river. As a front-line defender here, I believe I understand just how important runaway explosions are to the area."

"In that case," said Yuki while raising his right index finger as if indicating their selling point here. "With us around, you do not need to worry about those kinds of Neighbors exploding close to buildings."

"What? Make no mistake here. Even Kurosaki and their business can prepare for something like that. We just need a few average or higher works and someone who can handle some shaking."

 **Ōji:** "The fox's crappy sales pitch just wasted all of our efforts out here. Sob..."

 **White Fox:** "It's not my fault that Sekai-san isn't going easy! And you're willing to pretend cry if it means making fun of me!?"

 **Demon Child:** "Anyway, you can't come back until you make up for what we lost there."

 _Fine then,_ thought Yuki as he raised his right hand again.

"Then how about this?"

About what?

He worked at cheerfully responding to Sekai's question.

"Since both Kurosaki and we can at least defend in some way against explosive attacks, we know we both understand the threat Illgars pose. And in Mikado City, technically speaking, Kurosaki is in the west and we are in the east, so with the two of us there, we can reduce damage to the city and the surrounding areas. Isn't that right?"

 _Did that do it?_ he wondered as he looked his way.

_...Huh?_

Sekai had narrowed his eyes sharply.

"We cannot leave the full protection of Mikado City to you." He had wiped all expression from his face. "Someone else is much better suited to that role and we have promised to protect ourselves until we see them again. So even if you have shown your strength by intercepting that transport truck, you have not earned any more points than that."

He was quite definitive and he turned to the side with a snort.

He had utterly rejected them.

 **Umi:** "I had a feeling that would happen... Maybe Yukicchi used up all his business talk skill back when dealing with the reporters."

 **Simple Boy:** "Oh, sorry. I'm just getting some snacks for ?, so continue on without me."

 **Kōgetsu:** "Welcome! Welcome, Yuki-kun! You're one of us now!"

 **White Fox:** "I had a feeling you would react like this, but you didn't actually have to do it! But you know what? I don't care! I'm solidly on the Mei route, so I know I made the right decision here!"

 **Manager:** "Don't screw up our business talk because you don't care!"

 **Iko:** "Heh heh heh. There's a world of difference between that and my definite progress on the cute girls route."

They were the same as always, but then Sekai sighed and turned back toward him.

"But what will you do, Border? They will continue firing, you know? The three angles they are taking from the businesses are still approaching the base, so the force of their bombardment will only grow. And..."

 **Isa:** "Iko-san! Check what they're doing there! The Neighbors near Shiraishi are growing fixated!"

_...Growing fixated!?_

The trajectories of the attacks were growing simpler. That made it easier for the Border base to defend, but it also meant those Neighbors could focus on doing something else. And then Ikoma sent a transmission back.

 **Iko:** "They're launchin' some more Neighbors toward the base. Ones that can fight in the sky."

"Yes." Sekai smiled. "That is probably because Shirashi will not be backing down from here either.

But that was not all. A window opened with an "emergency" designation. It was a warning from the Border base.

 **GM Aide:** "Something is happening to the Falcon with the Bados in the south! It seems to be transforming after we had taken down the Bados!"

It was...

 **GM Aide:** "It looks to be growing larger and changing shape after crashing into the Bado remnants!"

* * *

"It's transforming? They can do that kind of thing now?"

Ōji had returned to the area near Border and he was using his Trigger to view the information from the Border base.

The falcon Neighbor approaching from the south was seen in the small window, but as the visual advanced, it zoomed in and its parts could be seen moving about.

The Neighbor that looked like a falcon began shifting its body around and pulling in any unnecessary parts. It started growing a bit as the color turned from a cool color to a blazing red.

Kurauchi narrowed his eyes when he saw it.

"That's the same Neighbors? It can transform? Are you sure that isn't some trick?"

"Yeah. I think it's a real transformation. But that isn't all. You can see that, can't you?"

Ōji pointed at the Neighbor in the image.

It hung over the Border base, but the multiple lights from some cores were visible on its head.

He clicked his tongue at the fact that there were multiple orbs.

"It has multiple cores. ...In other words, it had taken the cores, so it will take more than a single shot to take it down. This isn't good."

"True. But as people with Shooter Triggers, we might not be the best ones to say this isn't good."

"True."

As Ōji smiled bitterly, something else occurred on the overhead footage. Something started flying out behind the red falcon Neighbors. It had a cool color.

_...Another one!?_

No, this one was not as large. It was a false one that had no core in it. And...

"There is nowhere to really attack..."

But that was not all. A new window appeared with sound waves comes from it.

The name under the window was nothing but question marks.

"Border. I guess you can see them from where you are. In that case, I can tell you about those Trion Soldiers since they belonged to us."

A name had been changed out for the question marks. Ōji's eyebrows rose when he noticed the name of the person speaking.

"So they let you out for a bit... Then go on and say some things."

The man in question may have smiled a bit at the response.

"An introduction first. I am Futoyuki, the former leader of the Wanderers as well as someone who created Trion Soldiers like that one."

.

Ōji's eyebrows lowered when he heard that kind of introduction.

"So you were in charge of building those falcon-looking Neighbors, right? Is that why it's here?"

"Ohh... I always thought that name was pronounced differently."

"Everyone does at first, Kurauchi."

Meanwhile, Futoyuki seemed to shift in his spot in the sound wave. He may have gone to support himself on his arms.

When someone gave a troubled noise, Futoyuki responded kindly.

"That first one was named Rise."

He then shifted again while creating some more noise.

"And the second one is Blaze. They are technically the same thing and completely different soldiers."

* * *

As soon as Blaze appeared, the Neighbors near Shiraishi accelerated toward the Border base.

Shobu sensed it from the slight shaking below his feet rather than from the wind.

He more or less knew why they were speeding up.

_...Those flying Neighbors...? ...It's a big deal...when they are...far away..._

Earlier, Shirashi Chisato had said something about the attack on the Border base.

Tōma-san and his friends who chose to snipe seemed to be having some fun with the flying Bados above them, but it had to be a big deal to deal with the cleanup if they fell to the ground. If they broke, they would have to be collected without people noticing. And sniping from that distance to here could hurt the Shirashi people, and that would be a different sort of problem.

_...Kimura-sama called it...a b-business...? ...Business problem... ...So..._

**Shobu:** "...Tōma-sama... ...P-protect the...base..."

 **Isa:** "Hm? Oh, Tsuki's little student! We'll be fine! We're all skilled and we're excellent shots! If they show up, we'll just shoot them all. And our people have been building up a bit of stress lately, so if the enemy makes it here, they'll get all worked up and intercept them. Hey, everyone! The Yagura Nephew just ordered us to protect the base with our lives!"

 **Boys:** "Right! We'll work ourselves to death!"

 **Girls:** "Leave it all to us, Tenryū-san!"

_...Eh...?_

_...Wait... ...H-how do they...know about me...?_

Where had he gone wrong? Shobu did not know, but he could tell they were fired up. He quickly tried to extinguish that fire.

 **Shobu:** "...I-I didn't mean it...l-like that...?"

 **Isa:** "Eh? Oh, I gotcha, I gotcha. ...Hey, everyone! The Yagura Nephew has a complaint! He doesn't want you to die; he wants you to survive!"

 **Boys:** "Right! We'll make sure we're alive and well even if the base burns down around us!"

 **Girls:** "We will run away even if those guys start dying out!"

_...Ehhh...?_

_...But they would...just Bail Out...not die..._

Shobu felt that was half right, but would it make him an overachiever to try to get the whole thing right?

"...Umm..." he hesitated.

 **Shobu:** "...D-don't hurt...e-each other...okay...?"

 **Isa:** "Hey, everyone. The Yagura Nephew just sent you some kind words. Take a look at this reply."

Shobu hoped they would understand if they saw his reply for themselves.

 **Light Snpr 3:** "Hey, I think Shokubutsu-san's right. We might've been hurting each other here.

 **Mid Snpr 7:** "Yeah. We're always blaming each other when there's insufficient power or getting into fights over unreturned mags and mistakes in the shift schedule. ...We really are hurting each other."

 **Light Snpr 5:** "Maybe people really can understand each other. ...Okay, let's work together as one to intercept the Shiraishi Neighbors and revive the engineers!"

 **Isa:** "You're amazing, Shokkun. I was worried about everyone's teamwork since our exhaustion's about at its peak, but you really brought them all together."

Shobu felt like apologizing for everything, but as he sweated in his heart, a large form rose from the rear area of a large neighboring group.

_...Another falcon...?_

He perceived it as a large falcon. Aftokrator's Rabbits had been humanoid rabbits, so this was probably just as powerful. He hoped this would not lead to anything bad, but he did not go beyond hoping because he had a feeling the damage would only spread if he said something about it. But...

"Border Representative, I hope you are prepared."

Shiraishi Chisato faced Shobu while holding down her skirt.

"I wish to see how Border will defend the base against these Neighbors."

.

Chisato sighed inside her heart.

_...What has me so worn out?_

This was so close to the front line. She had a goal to aim for and she was prepared to accomplish it, so she only needed to do so. That was how the Shiraishi family worked.

_...We are not purely citizens of Mikado City._

She heard that the people from Border had chosen to place their organization in Mikado City because that was where they had lived. It had been their home and they figured it would be better to place themselves there instead of elsewhere.

Unlike those people, the Shiraishi family had been in a frigid land. It had little sunlight and snow was a constant sight. Even now, that are must have been covered in deep snow with sunlight being scarce.

She had heard a number of theories as to why her family had moved to other locations instead of staying, but every theory agreed that there had been discord with their family and some other forces around them.

The skills to survive in the frozen land could be seen in the underground construction techniques used by their company, but it ultimately meant nothing with Neighbors coming through Gates and destroying what they had built up. Also...

"We can't believe in others to protect us..."

She muttered those words while staring straight at Border's representative.

"We did warn you. If you try to approach us and monitor us, we will simply reject you. ...So how about it?"

"...How about...what...?"

"Right." Chisato nodded. "If you leave now, never return to us, give up on our money as a sponsorship, and remain away from us, we will clear the way for you here to fight and even act as an intermediary to help you find peace with the lesser businesses."

"No."

The boy replied immediately. It almost felt like speaking with a child, but that was not it. Thinking that would be selling the boy short. After all...

"We have something we need to do."

"And what is that?"

"A promise."

The representative fell silent as if that was enough of an answer.

Chisato could tell there was conviction behind the words. He trusted in those words, so they were more than just reflexive resistance. Threatening him, attacking him, and attempting to persuade him would not change them. They sounded like words he would continue speaking as long as he remained "here", no matter what anyone did.

_It is not hard to realize this boy is hesitant every time he speaks, never seeming to believe in his own words. But this time there was no hesitation. He is determined to be here._

It was a frightening thought. It was not that Chisato's suggestion itself was unacceptable to him. They had a promise to uphold and the suggestion was unacceptable because it did not fit with that promise.

That was troublesome.

It came as the result of his connection to someone else and it was something he had decided for himself rather than given into. In that case, that decision would not waver. However, reality continued on despite that willpower, so...

"Those flying Neighbors are heading out."

Light filled the area a bit away from the group and near the rear. Those Neighbors had once again ignored them in favor of attacking the base.

"—"

And they left.

.

The first flying Neighbor was a Bado. It started up before the rest and was quickly destroyed by the fast moving Rise behind it.

 _That one sounded like it had a whistle,_ thought Chisato.

As the whistle's tone filled the air, two wings spread out to catch the air and they flapped for a quick ascent. The Rise seemed as if it was letting the other side know it was heading out.

Chisato spotted almost excessive armor on the front of the ascending Rise.

_...I guess whoever this is isn't being reckless._

She then looked to the Attacker who was staring up into the sky with a thoughtful hand on his chin.

"I see you aren't trying to stop them. That's a total of twelve Neighbors on their way to the Border base, you know?"

"It's not our job to stop an attack in the base. The twelve Neighbors here are their problem. We're here for a reason. Send out your cute girls; nothin' else really matter right now."

"Did you...just let something slip there?"

"You must be hearin' things. Cu. One of those subliminal messages. Te. Over at the base there're some weirdos who – Gir – usually end up hearin' some strange things too. Ls."

"I think you are going to drive me insane, so I should probably go ahead and ask. ...How can a supposed great member of Border continue to speak down to us when you are getting attacked left, right, and above?"

"Do you have a problem with the way I look at things?"

"Yes," replied Chisato. "Because I feel no freedom in reality."

"If your dreams're the only thing you view as freedom, then you can only ever get it while asleep."

"I see your type enjoy your wordplay."

"I learned it from Kiyoshi." The Attacker sighed. "He thought it'd be cool if we started messin' 'round with words since there're times when you need to use words instead of a sword. ...You should count yourself lucky all I have're words. That goes for Shobu too. If we took action, it'd end up ugly. In other words, we're bein' nice by stoppin' ourselves from doin' anything' since we would be showin' off more than we need too. Plus, it isn't cool to just go off like that whenever. You need to understand these things, woman. Now, will you be sendin' out those cute girls? Hm?"

"W-wait! Enough nonsense!"

Chisato watched the third Neighbors fly overhead and pointed to it.

"Quit changing the subject and answer me! The Border base truly is being fired on as well as attacked by a lot of Neighbors. Some Gates even started opening. And we truly not longer wish for Border's future and are looking to ourselves for guidance instead! What do you have to say about that reality!?"

"Nothin' at all. We're not the type of people to be critics on reality. Listen. We don't have time to be critics. ...And we don't wanna take over anythin' or change yer reality. Those kinds of things just aren't how we do things, got it?" The Attacker remained entirely composed the whole time. "We're sent here with a certain duty and others'll handle what that duty doesn't cover. That's our 'weapon' against anyone who wants to escape reality."

"Then..."

Not even Chisato knew what irritated her so much about this, but she swung her hand down and shouted at him.

"Then what do you think you can change about this reality...about this situation!?"

As soon as her words reverberated through the sky, something happened.

The Neighbors flying in the sky tilted forward, began to spin and was pierced through.

.

Chisato saw one of the flying Neighbors flip in the sky overhead.

 _It was hit,_ she thought. _By an attack from a strange angle. It must have been initially hit by a normal hit, so we overlooked it among all the trion attacks going around._

But it had been too sudden to immediately determine where it had come from.

_...Border!?_

No, that was too far away for this kind of attack. And the flying Neighbors had began to spin to the side, so it had come from the side. Someone was making a gentle approach from there.

"Kobayashi! ...No, you are just one of their workers! I'll say this properly!"

Chisato glared at the woman.

"Mogami!"

* * *

 _What is going on?_ wondered Kimura with widened eyes.

She had honestly been planning to request that Mogami obeyed correct procedure as a representative for Kobayashi.

_...I was going to ask that they follow a procedure by moving back and away from the fighting so we do not have to worry._

Kobayashi was currently not too aggressive, but that did not mesh with everyone else. She had meant to make waves here by pointing that out, but...

"Why?"

"Heh heh. Kimura-chan, asking 'why' of reality is like admitting you live in your own dreams. Reality is about the 'what'. The parts beyond yourself matter more."

Kimura could not help but agree, so she immediately erased the disbelief in her heart. This was actually happening. It was reality.

Under the watchful eye of whoever was attacking, the three businesses should have been only watching the firing on Border, but Kobayashi had strayed from that. Kobayashi's current representative and high ranked members had to have commanded that."

"Mogami Yoshiko!"

A transmission from Ōji arrived with a hand-drawn map.

 **Ōji:** "Kobayashi via Mogami has begun attacking the Neighbors too! ...And they're returning fire!"

* * *

The platform that had a tent nearby with an A-Rank agent inside was the area for the Kobayashi family and their workers and flats opens out from two sides of the platform.

The opening structure produced a metallic noise at regular intervals as it pushed out devices that activated what could only be seen as Escudo. Each one was a few meter barricade-style Trigger used by Border. Multiple of them covered the edges of the area from front to back and they were lacking any emblems belonging to Border.

People in yellow-dyed uniforms ran across the area. They were attaching steel cables to various places and then praising their hand.

"Connected!"

With that word, Trion barriers shaped like upside-down torii surrounded the Kobayashi area.

A moment later, an explosion of light collided with those barriers.

The barriers appeared in triple layers and shook as they endured the impact. Fragments of light scattered through the air.

That single trion-based attack had not come from the side of where Shiraishi were placed. It had come from the other side. Specifically from where the Neighbors had been located near Kurosaki.

A second and third shot arrived and hit. Noise filled the sky, dust scattered, and explosive fragments of light burst across the sky both horizontally and vertically. But by then, most of the other Kobayashi cars had moved under the barrier, they had switched all their defenses to the side facing the enemy, and they produced their barriers.

Then return fire came from the Neighbors near Shiraishi as well.

The first shot hit while the second and third missed. They must have used that first shot to calibrate their aim because a rapid series of shots came along almost that same trajectory.

The Kobayashi area bathed in glowing spray from the trion-based attacks arriving from the left and right.

Countless flowers of light danced through the windy sky like cherry blossoms. The sounds of impact sounded like the beating of a drum and the ground shook violently despite it not taking direct hits. Several of the defense barriers shattered and were remade, but...

"Ka ha ha!"

A color danced atop the Kobayashi area's platform as the light washed over it.

It was a woman.

She wore a white shirt with no shoulders to the sleeves and fox-brown side skirts. She and her colors spun in time to the platform's vibration.

She used her toes and heels to turn her body and twist her waist while her light brown hair and her ears covered in white fur fluttered in the wind. The pressure of the blowing wind rang the bells attached to her ears.

"Keh."

With that single loud syllable, she reached into her sleeves and pulled out folding fans. When she spread the fans out, there was no paper between the slats. They were actually fan-shaped controllers and they were linked to cubes of trion now visible on the sides.

**"Connection: confirmed"**

As she danced and waved the two fans, the Kobayashi platform produced noise and fire.

She was returning fire against the Neighbors near Kurosaki and Shirashi to the left and right. The trion attacks matched her dance.

"Ka ha!"

The sounds overlapped.

"Ha ha ha! Do not think I do not have the money for hiring someone myself! You may have that sighing boy and the stiff daughter over there, but remember that I also someone of importance to the company of my bosses!"

The woman waved her arms, instructing the cubes along either side to fire from front to back.

"It is laughable to think that a single man was able to show me so much in such a little amount of time! I am a representative here and so I will be taking responsibility for using something Border has made by hiring Bakuto Denji and having him let me fire!"

The trion-based attacks raced across the sky like a wave and then picked up speed.


	65. Denji Bakuto

Hikigane Sekai's group and the Shiraishi group had both been in effective firing range.

As the trion attack suddenly came, the festival at the Kurosaki area ground to a halt and Murakami immediately chose to protect those from Border. He extended his arm out as a yellow glow came over the Black Trigger Portion. Section by section, chains began being produced from the yellow band keeping the Black Trigger Portion circling around his arm. Using those chains, he sent them to crawl along the ground and surround everyone behind him.

Now that he was prepared to act if something happened, he tilted his head.

"Now, what is the meaning of this?"

 _This doesn't qualify as an emergency just yet,_ he told himself while looking to Sekai.

Sekai contacted a few people to fulfill his role as supervisor and selected a few prearranged patterns before opening a window on his own tablet. It displayed...

_...Someone close to Yuki at being a fox._

Just like Yuki, she held an air of mischief that could hardly be contained. In this woman's case, she could make use of such a feeling. She had much more power in the world than Yuki did and she seems much more comfortable flaunting such a thing, so the excitement of this vixen's dance had led to a sly grin forming on her lips.

She had no restraint, meaning she was of importance. Which meant...

"What is the meaning of this!?"

Sekai glanced over at Murakami as he shouted to the vixen in the window.

"Mogami Yoshiko! Do you not want stability in Mikado City!?"

* * *

Mogami Yoshiko laughed into the sky before responding to Hikigane Sekai.

"How wretched."

She spread her teeth, aimed forward, and swept her arms and fingertips around to trigger more trion shots. She felt the arriving impacts as vibrations in the air and she spun her body to switch between managing the left and right sides. The wind swept the sweat from her brow.

"Wretched businesses...do you truly not understand?"

"Are you referring to Taiyōko or Neighbors!?"

When Sekai roared his question on the tablet, Yoshiko bent her body and her back swelled out.

A sound like footsteps walking forward could be heard.

That was when he had appeared.

"Ha ha!"

She laughed. And after that human laugh, she leaned back, split her crescent moon of a mouth as if to devour the sky, and released a series of delighted "keh" sounds while she waved the attack fans with her entire body.

"Keh hah!"

She raised her voice as he started firing his own shots into the enemy's arriving attacks.

Bakuto Denji grinned from next to the laughing woman.

He did chose not to join in her dance and instead focused on firing his own trion shots how he saw fit.

"Is that all you have, Hikigane Sekai!? And you want to name yourself the one to decorate Kurosaki with a nice name!?"

"Damn you!"

As Yoshiko attempted to devour the sky, Denji responded to Sekai's open window with his eyes. They bent in a smile and twisted over toward Sekai.

He looked down at Sekai with a gaze that seemed to swallow one up more than see through them.

"Like ma'am said, how wretched, Hikigane Sekai. ...Can you wait no longer as you blame others for your failure to keep your promise? If so..."

Yoshiaki narrowed her eyes further and formed a small smile on her lips.

She was aware of what he would say next.

"If so, you have set foot on my superficial path down to hell."

Suddenly, a shadow passed by overhead.

It was a Rise falcon Neighbor.

.

 _Oh?_ thought Yoshiko as she spun her body.

One Rise passed by overhead and two Bado were following in the distance.

The Rise near the Shiraishi group had left to attack Border, but they must have decided this was the more immediate threat.

_...I'm betting that was the user's decision, but they must know all too well that this was a bad choice._

But the Rise falcon Neighbor was clearly on a firing trajectory. A glow began to form in front of the core on its face and was aimed straight ahead and it flew in.

This was no mere warning, so it was an attack that had power behind it. This was most likely simple instructions it had been given.

"Did it stray from its instructions in order to attack us who can defend against them right now? Ha ha! Those who rush make mistakes, but it does make for a nice example of temporary power!"

Yoshiko threw both fans high into the air and faced the approaching Rise falcon Neighbor as the light of the trion attacks washed over her from either side.

"Denji, I believe I can leave this one to you."

"Right, right. This one's on me."

He pulled a sword from its holster on his left side. It was an ordinary sword known as Kōgetsu with no decorations.

However, he placed it across his left side while bending his knees. His upper body started to lower.

"Senkū Kōgetsu."

Something was immediately released from Kōgetsu's blades: light.

* * *

A distance of 12 meters would only take just over three seconds for a Rise falcon Neighbor, so the lead attacker knew it had won.

It would fire on Yoshiko.

The Wanderers had forbidden such a thing, but that programming had been overwritten.

After all, the Wanderers knew who to attack and how to attack, so someone like Yoshiko should not have ever been attacked no matter how she went about attacking it. It was a way to prevent unnecessary fighting when greeting others.

But that had been overwritten, so if it could attack here it had to do it. It had been written in to not attack anyone without a Trigger and she now become someone who possessed one for a moment, but even if that was the case...

"It'll only mean its own defeat."

Futoyuki watched from within the Yagura Branch as his group's former Trion Soldier was used once again to attack Border.

_Admittedly, we use some simple programming given our small group. It wouldn't be a stretch for someone else to overwrite them given a bit of time._

He glared at the Rise that no longer belonged to him.

As soon as it arrived within five meters, he felt like it was receiving attacks from either side and flew alone along the Kobayashi area. It readied its trion attack and aimed an auto-tracking attacking at the representative.

"...Eh?"

He suddenly felt something even while watching from a safe distance.

It almost felt like...

_...Who is that?_

Like someone who should not have been there was moving around.

Then he saw something in front of the Rise.

_...Is that...?_

It was a single man, but he did not seem to be looking at the Rise and was positioned a bit to the side.

Rise was moving right into him.

The man rapidly moved his eyes from side to side, up to down and he slowed down when more Bado came from behind Rise.

 _Wait,_ he thought. _What is this?_

Each time a Bado moved forward, the man relaxed his position, straightened himself, and lowered his blade. He seemed to be thoroughly checking over each enemy.

"Is he searching for something!?"

Then he heard a voice.

"I should be enough."

A moment later, the former leader heard a noise.

_...Eh?_

It was a noise of both destruction and piercing, but it was not alone.

It came from the low level soldiers. It came from all of the new Trion Soldiers on the battlefield - including the two following behind it.

"—!?"

As their noises arrived via transmission, flowers blossomed in various parts of the sky.

The fellow Trion Soldiers flying toward Border or with it were pierced through before colliding with the air. Green trion scattered as eight Bados exploded in exactly the same way.

The damage was fatal and the image of them colliding with the air before exploding told him just how much damage they had taken.

They would be far from working, but at the same time...

_...Why wasn't Rise hit!?_

As soon as he wondered that, his vision warned him of the danger he himself no longer faced. Yoshiko was only one meter away now. Next to her, Denji had returned the sword to his hips and she raised her arms.

The shot control fans fell into her hands and she turned to face Rise.

"Kaboom."

* * *

Chisato Shiraishi saw it happen.

When Yoshiko pointed her fan at it, the flying falcon Neighbor curled up in a ball. It looked like a crying baby, but it was an unthinkable action on the battlefield.

"She got us..."

But even as the Kobayashi group defended themselves and Shiraishi did not...

_...They aren't firing on that Neighbor._

The Neighbor that had fallen victim to Bakuto Denji decelerated in its curled up state. It passed through the valley of incoming and outgoing cannon fire and then entered a downward trajectory. It almost seemed to have fallen, but it was a slow and steady path to the ground.

The Neighbor had almost certainly been cut down. It likely had no way of moving now that it had been defeated by the hired Border member.

The Attacker seemed a bit curious and tilted his head.

"Do you get what just happened?"

"I think so. ...According to our information, that is the captain of an A-Rank team who has also been hired by Kobayashi via Mogami. He is at a high level above most of you, but he doesn't seem to be working with you all. As for what he did... It looked like he had been going after the ones in the back while preparing just in case they got close. His stance with the blade was an extra measure if they got close."

As for his strength...

"He shot them down...all of them without much effort. Instead of a direct hit, he used their movement to have them run into his attacks while lowering himself to drag them in."

That was why the falcon Neighbor had only a single slash mark.

_...Instead, he went for a clean win against the stronger one while playing with the weaker ones._

And that went beyond the other Neighbors who had been sent to attack Border. Most likely, there had been preparations to handle the other Neighbors who got too close to the Kobayashi group and their current representative - Mogami Yoshiko.

Her eldest sister had intentionally not hired anyone from Border like this. If they had done something like that, it would mean using someone not important to them. And it seemed that the only two who were hired were ones with a shady and uncertain background.

This was one of the reasons they never made any move against Kobayashi yet never stopped their cooperation either.

Chisato saw a few streams of green trion created by explosions and she saw the Neighbors falling like discarded stones. They had lost their weak force, so their fall would only end in a crash after flying for another few kilometers.

In an instant, many Neighbors who had flown passed Shiraishi had been lost. Also...

"Ōi-nee-san, are you okay?"

"A good amount were taken out. Add in the ones from before, and it's a total of even more."

Shiraishi Ōi's voice sounded unconcerned coming from the tablet. _She must be pissed,_ thought Chisato, but...

"Are you feeling a little down?"

"Yes. I'm completely unharmed..."

"It means you made the right choice, so you should celebrate."

"Right. ...Sorry, Chisa-chan. I was the one who vetoed hiring a member of Border."

"Keeping track of your grudges can only lead to losing your cool."

"Our family of a few people are only calm because we make sure to hold grudges when one is warranted," said Ōi. "But don't stop me. Even without someone as convenient as Hikigane-san and Bakuto-san, we can strike back using the right methods."

"Ōi-nee-san is going to keeping trusting me even when I haven't been able to show off like the others? How much do you want to stay back, eating sweets?"

"I don't think I can deal with that stuff, you see," she said. "But why did Kobayashi create a miniature fortress for themselves?"

"You know perfectly well, don't you? ...They are using Mogami here and she has hired Bakuto to work under her as an extension. The Kobayashi run a business based in building, so she must have wanted to build something. Also..."

Chisato looked to the Attacker and Border's representative who was covering his ears against the cacophony of trion attacks.

"Kobayashi via Mogami has decided to side with Border."

* * *

 _This has gotten tricky,_ thought Hiura.

"Well, setting aside their emotional issues, it's our job to stop any unnecessary conflicts coming from their history."

Hiura was eating some snacks on the flat of the Kobayashi group's platform.

She was sitting on a cushion in front of a small table below a parasol. A sign reading "Arranged by the Lord of the Castle" stood on the mat.

"Wow, I can see why Kobayashi is considered really nice. The rice cakes in this red bean soup are extra soft."

She grabbed two rice cakes in her chopsticks and found they stretched differently. The Kobayashi girl acting as a waitress narrowed her eyes and explained.

"The Kobayashi family is very hospitable, so they buy some Grade A products to avoid have a bad manners. There is a difference between the products they get, but since Yoshiko-san says they are all cute, we serve them all without discrimination."

"I see."

Hiura was honestly impressed and she sensed something similar to Kako's love of fried rice, but then she faced forward.

"What's the matter, Minoru-senpai? You aren't eating much."

"Um, Akane-chan..."

Akane looked around where the platform was shaking and vibrating from the trion attacks and impacts. The scattering light even arrived overhead, but...

"This is a lot better than getting cut by a Scorpion blade when I am hiding. Besides, being protected by someone else is a rare experience."

 _This must be how relieved everyone feels when they know we are around,_ realized Hiura while feeling this place really was different from Border.

"Is that how you view it?" asked the Hatohara captain. "Even if the attacks are being defended against, I can't stand just sitting here without doing anything to help. Especially when Denji is the one fighting over there..."

Hiura wondered if she really understood what that meant.

_...It must mean he's an offensive character._

She felt like people's attitudes toward things were coming into focus more than back at the Border base.

"But what is going on?'

While eating some of the azuki bean soup that had a hint of sweetness, Hiura looked up at Yoshiko dancing atop the bridge.

A sudden transmission had arrived from the smiling vixen earlier.

"She said she will prioritize their values in order to keep a sort of promise."

* * *

"Does that mean Kobayashi was thinking the same thing we were?" asked Suzaku. "But why did they change their standing so suddenly?"

Kimura nodded on the roof, but...

"...?"

When she heard an explosion in the sky, she and the puppy in her arms crossed their arms and tilted their heads.

_...Why did they?_

"Hmm," she groaned, but then the Kotowari Sniper turned toward her after drinking the tea sitting on the roof's table.

_Wait, when did she get here!? And where did Kunichika-san go?_

"Heh heh. It would seem not even you honestly know everything, flat-chested wannabe-politician. I like that uncertainty. A woman with some mystery to her is a wonderful thing. Secrets are the flowers of life. And if you honestly show someone a flower garden, they have no choice but to do some gardening. Everyone should hold at least one flower that one would want to take to bed, and doesn't the hint of a secret make you want to find the answer?"

"Misaki, Izanagi turned back when he found the truth of Izanami's secret in the underworld. And when did you get here?"

"And my foolish former captain pursued Mei-san and even honestly rushed out to her."

"And are you going to answer me now?"

"Kuni-chan was tired from having to do commentary and then dealing with yesterday. ...I honestly came here because I had been asked a question and need an answer myself."

"I see, I see."

The Kotowari Sniper smiled bitterly at Suzaku's dismissive tone, but then she turned back to Kimura.

"Perhaps this means we can build up a mutual relationship."

"What do you mean?"

"You know, the old Far Eastern saying _sashitsu sasaretsu_. In English, they honestly call that 'in-in put-put'!"

"Misaki, that word doesn't mean 'input'. It means 'penetra-..."

Suzaku trailed off and quickly waved his arms back and forth.

"Forget that! Forget I said that! The saying you want is _mochitsu motaretsu_ , right!? And that means 'give and take' in English, right!?"

"I think someone is having trouble dealing with that meter, so do something about it."

But...

"I know I shouldn't be saying this as the one in charge in charge if these kinds of things, but I have no idea what this means. As you said, we were thinking of making the same suggestion to Kobayashi. I was going to ask them why they are involved with this when they have a child on Hatohara Squad. After all, they are suppose to be decent people, according to my captain. I thought they couldn't possibly ignore it if I put it like that. But..."

But...

"I never expected them to do it on their own."

"Maybe something that was building up within Kobayashi just now reached its limit for some reason? Oh, but haven't Hikigane-san and Shiraishi-san been referring to this as a choice by Mogami-san? So much so that she went out of her way to hire Bakuto-san."

Kimura agreed with that assessment.

_...But what was it?_

What has caused good natured people and this Mogami Yoshiko to rush things? Based on a few transmissions they had heard...

"Do you remember hearing about a promise, Kimura?"

"Right. I don't know what that's about, but it's probably the key to all of this."

"Well done." The Kotowari Sniper nodded and asked Kimura a question. "You know how to honestly end this, don't you? When a man causes some trouble, a proper woman knows how to gently convince him to leave, you know? That way some nice memories await them when they next meet."

"Yes, I know. But there's something we have to do first."

Kimura had Krümel open a window and then she sent out some instructions.

"Representatives, the conflict between Kobayashi, or at least Mogami-san, and Shiraishi predates these conflicts, so do not get involved. But if the two companies wish for a peaceful resolution, assist them there. On the other hand, Shiraishi made not obvious resistance toward Kobayashi. The one using these Neighbors may be using them as a way to represent these companies. If that is the case, we can view this as going too far with that Rise Wanderer Neighbor."

So...

"The representatives sent to Shiraishi are to stop the Neighbors closest to them from attacking Kobayashi."

* * *

"Right. According to Kimura, your current try at a fight against the Neighbors is an acceptable part of things. But..."

The Suzunari-1 Operator spoke in the artificial festival ground on the western end of the attacks

"We believe it is about time we started for your building."

The red-haired man raised his eyebrows and gave the Operator a sharp look.

"Suzunari's Kuruma Squad Operator, are you telling Kurosaki to fall back?"

"No, I am telling you to go, Hikigane-san. Go to Kurosaki's workplace."

The naked yukata boy raised is head next to the Operator.

"How about you just tell him, Yuka?"

"Okay."

Kon looked the red-haired man in the eye and pointed to the southeast.

"Go!"

"Why do you have to twist everything I say!?" complained the idiot. "You don't play fair these days!"

"But isn't it cute? It's like speaking to a dog."

"I-I am not a dog. And I thought that joke was just for Toby," cut in Murakami. "And Kon? I know you were pointing in a random direction just now, but that was right toward the base!"

Then the red-haired man asked a question while glaring at the Operator.

"Why?"

Kon nodded and gently tapped on the idiot's chest with the back of her hand.

"Now, answer him."

"Y-you're forcing this stuff on me again!? Are you trying to pick a fight!? Are you!?"

"Um, Jinsei? You are technically Border's representative."

"Fine then," said the idiot. "Hey, Seikai-chan, I'm not sure why you're helping out Kurosaki, but I'll play along. It'll be a story to tell Dai-chan later. Anyway, there was talk of a promise earlier, right? I don't know what that is, but can you keep that promise like this?"

"—"

Sekai stopped moving and the idiot looked up into the sky as if he saw that as his answer.

"What's stopping you? It isn't that fox lady, is it? She's another one stressing out over not being able to keep it. So is it Shirashi?"

"No!"

Sekai's shout shook the festival air, but Kon responded expressionlessly.

"That settles it then." She pointed to the southeast. "That is what is preventing all of you from keeping your promise, isn't it?"

They all looked in the direction she was pointing and spoke the name of what they saw there.

"Border?"

As they exchanged a puzzled look, Murakami silently grabbed Kon's waist and slowly turned her so she pointed south. Then he looked in the new direction Kon was pointing.

"O-oh, my! Kon! You were pointing at those new Neighbors, weren't you!?"

"Is it just me or is Kō becoming a pretty awful person...?"

"Just roll with it!"

As the black wolf bared his fangs, the B-Rank captain stepped forward.

"What will you do?"

Kuruma spoke with a smile, but he was not really pressing Sekai for an answer. He simply wished to confirm what option the red-haired man had chosen.

There was a short pause and Murakami used it to step forward.

Rather than protect those behind them, the two of them only stood there and filled their lungs with air.

Then...

"A shot almost go us that time! The damage reached the barricade!"

With that area-wide announcement, another Neighbor shot hit nearby. All shadows were erased by the light that appeared a few dozen meters into the courtyard's eastern sky.

The impact whipped about as wind and the festival stands shook, but the ninja-like boy stepped forward.

"Sekai-san. You have already showed what you wanted and sent out your transport truck. Wouldn't that be enough to satisfy others? If fact, exposing yourself to any more of these kinds of attacks could qualify as as the creating of a bigger conflict with others that should come after everything is settled, which would be inconvenient for whoever is attacking. If you do not want to worsen your position with others and such a decision would be difficult to make for the supervisor on the scene, I would think the best option would be to put some distance between yourself and everything else to maintain the current lack of conflict."

"Does Border presume to lecture Kurosaki on its policies?"

"Not at all. I merely thought Kurosaki would have already taken that much into account."

"Why are these visitors so meddlesome?"

"Because." Kuruma smiled. "People place a lot of weight in the word 'promise'."

"Unneeded people also place a lot of importance on the word 'promise'."

When Sekai heard the two Kuruma Squad members, he raised his eyebrows a little, but...

"I shouldn't have let you hear that word."

He lowered his eyebrows, looked away, and turned his back. He then walked toward the festival with casual but uninterrupted movements. He raised his right hand along the way.

"All personnel and all areas, the primary mission of our group is to welcome and entertain our important guests. To continue with that mission, we must all provide a warm welcome. A Kurosaki group will not view such a trivial obstacle as an attack. If we are to cross the iron-splitting cold, we must welcome a wind such as this like the spring wind."

"Yeah!"

"Now." Sekai looked back over his shoulder and spoke to the Border group. "Festivities are short to Kurosaki. This is a special place meant to provide that ultimate luxury, so enjoy yourselves. Once that is over, we will travel to the workplace...our constantly cold workplace. And..."

He opened a tablet window which displayed Shiraishi's group and the Neighbors near them.

"I will be watching how Border responds to Shiraishi and what they are going through. I'd like to know just how much resolve you have. Kobayashi and Shiraishi are both major players here, so uncertain strength will not be enough to stand up to them."

* * *

The Sniper was invited to the Kobayashi's platform as the trion attacks continued.

She sat on a cushion as a large form danced before her.

It was a woman with a foxlike body.

She was taller than the Sniper and she waved fans and danced with large sweeping motions. With each motion, attacks would roar, lights would roar, and noise would shatter. Upside-down torii-style lights would appear and shatter in the sky on the left and right, either allowing the noise in or cutting it off.

Nevertheless, the fox danced calmly and the Sniper spoke behind her.

"You really do have great rice here."

She was nibbling on a rice cracker large enough to hold in both hands. A sound of destruction stickier than the roar of attacks came from her mouth and the fox asked a question.

"Would you like more?"

"Yes!"

"Good, good."

The fox tossed her fans into the air as she danced. While they danced on their own as Denji fried attacks, she pulled a paper bag from her side.

"What would you like?"

"Something like that wafer! It was great!"

"Then let us save that for last. How about this instead?"

"Ohhh, that rice cracker smells like azuki! It has honey inside, doesn't it!?"

"Good, good."

The fox rubbed the Sniper's head, caught the falling fans, and crossed her arms to the opposite sides to signal Denji to fire even more. But...

"So Hikigane has fallen back, has he? The boy is growing up."

"Do you know my uncle?"

"Oh? He is your uncle? That is news to me. Well, to tell you the truth, he is my uncle's mother's son's grandmother's sister's daughter's grandchild's child's friend."

"Oh, so he's a friend of your child."

"I was only kidding."

"Eh?" said the Sniper with a tilt of the head.

"You seem quite gullible."

The fox gave the Sniper a rice cracker wrapped in seaweed, rubbed her head, and then waved her fans around.

She danced. Sounds of attacks and sparks passed through the sky in tune with her playful dance. She made a great spin as if passing through the sky and the wind filled her sleeves.

"My mother and father were both taken down by Neighbors long ago. I had no family. That is why I hired Denji."

"Is that so?"

"I was only kidding."

"Is that so?"

The Sniper nibbled at the rice cracker and the fox rubbed her head with a smile.

"I was only kidding about that."

The fox made a "ko ko" laugh in her throat and turned her back on the Sniper, Denji being seen sighing from the side.

"Oh, a deer."

"Please don't call me a deer. I know someone who already goes through that treatment."

The response came from the lower platform below the fox and the Sniper. Denji was firing and fighting the Neighbors in the stead of Mogami and stood there with...

"How are you anything but a deer with that expression? I wonder that every time I see a picture of you."

"Huh? You two know each other?"

"I have not met her personally until now, but I have heard about her from Kobayashi-san...both the mother and the father. Soka sometimes tells me about her and sometimes she chooses not to say anything."

The deer used the bare minimum of motion to give a good smack to Denji, but it was still more than enough for the man to get back to his fight.

"So do you plan to stop this?"

"Are you not going to stop us with those amazing fighting abilities?"

"Kobayashi's use of Denji here against those Neighbors are apparently fine. It's necessary for this to be a display for both Kobayashi as well as Border, so there is no issue as long as you don't cause too much damage."

"Is this an attempt to make me feel indebted to you?"

"It is."

The Sniper asked a question while still nibbling on the rice cracker.

"Indebted?"

"Ko ko." laughed the fox. "Shiraishi and Kurosaki had several skirmishes with Kobayashi in small attempts to expand. But with Neighbors always moving around Mikado City, we cannot carelessly create anything too important and thus we cannot advance ourselves. So..."

"Border will approve Kobayashi's actions as part of Bakuto-san's protection? In other words, Kobayashi will have the stamp of approval from Border, the organization that will be protecting Mikado City from Neighbors?"

"You're a clever one."

The fox rubbed the Sniper's head and gave her some three-colored rakugan.

"For a while..."

The fox waved her fans around once more.

"For a while, we shall keep things the way they are."

"Why?"

"The same reason as you. ...The higher grade ones never let their prey escape, even if it means being cursed."

The fox continued her dance.

"Now."

She asked a question of the rumbling sky.

"What will the bothersome ones do?"


	66. Chisato Shiraishi: Part 2

"Then I have to stop you."

The girl in a dress reacted to the Attacker boy's words.

Ignoring the wind now, she spread her limbs a little to stand in the boy's way. He tilted his head in response.

"You're stoppin' my work. Move."

"This is my work. I'm supposed to stop any idiots."

The overlapping trion attacks combined with the shattering of the defense barriers, but they could still hear each other.

"Are you sure _I'm_ the idiot here?" he asked.

After a moment, she smiled bitterly.

"It is true that Shiraishi has fallen into a fairly idiotic situation. But..."

"Just to be clear, we have one hell of an idiot at Border, so you don't stand a chance if it comes to an idiot-off."

"You mean that nudist?"

"Close but no cigar. He's both a nudist and a crossdresser."

"How awful..."

"You're wrong, so move."

"It would seem you are unfamiliar with the three-mistake rule."

A mechanical noise of something being drawn taut come from somewhere behind her. It was another attack coming from their general direction.

A Neighbor was about to be sent out near them.

"I can stop that."

"How?"

"Standin' in the way. ...Just as you're doin' now."

"That is a Neighbors. And one that looks bigger than the ones sent before."

"Have you already forgotten what you yourself said? You said you're stoppin' any idiots."

"That's true." She took a step back. "And that means I can prove you are an idiot by stopping you."

"Why the hesitation? ...Do you prove who someone is to know 'em?"

"That is the kind of business this is. It holds a history of resistance, betrayal, and grudges."

"That makes it a business of decoration.

The girl took a deep breath, lowered her raised eyebrows, leaned back, raised the corners of her mouth a little, and gave him a downward look.

"What do you know!?"

"I know that you understand nothin' of my essential genre."

She did not respond. She simply swung her body back while taking another step.

"We have our own ways of doing things!"

.

Chisato realized the situation from the previous night had returned.

Back then, the Attacker had said something odd and caused a malfunction in her car's starting up, but that did not happen this time.

She was surrounded by the tension of battle this time, plus...

_...He mocked us!_

He had called the business her family built a business of mere decoration.

What was he calling a decoration?

In order to resist, they had won battles with the people around them, they had fought to maintain themselves in Mikado City, and they were now figuring out how to deal with the Neighbors that Border could not get to.

_...All of it was a desperate struggle!_

She sensed the noise and pressure of the air being pushed out of the way behind her and a bed-like sensation opened up there.

It was what her family had personally been working on. The armor opened from waist to chest as if to embrace her from behind.

Each piece was red in color and filtered in similar to a centipede crawling over. It was not armor known by anyone else and had been designed for Chisato and Chisato alone.

"...Eh?"

The colors red and black arrived in front of her.

It was the Attacker.

_...That was fast!?_

_That's strange,_ she thought.

Based on the night a few days before, having about a step's worth of distance from him should have allowed her to make some sort of quick escape before the Attacker could accelerate to full speed. That was why she had given herself two steps.

She had intended for that to be enough to equip the device and make a counterattack.

But the Attacker was faster. Her armor had yet to cover the area below her chest as he charged in below her gaze.

The reason for his speed was obvious.

_...He turned to the side!_

He had likely been building up energy inside him while they talked. Once he had expelled that from his body for incredible speed, he had turned to the side to reduce air resistance. The speed had only increased when he turned on his Trigger.

He was like a knife stabbing into the air.

The turned stance and the reduced air resistance gave him the speed and reach he needed. As for Chisato...

"Evade!"

She moved back and to the left and she twisted her body to protect her heart. If she made it even a single step back, she could finish covering herself up with the armor before the clash. So more than take a powerful step back, she used a quick and nimble step back as the incomplete portion of ten armor rang loudly.

She rushed herself.

The colors red and black arrived a moment later. While turned sideways, the Attacker had swung his arm to the side to pursue her diagonal retreat.

"If you're gonna strike one cheek, go ahead and strike the other for the hell of it! Here I go!"

His cry and the crash of a collision occurred concurrently.

.

Ikoma felt his blow land.

He had hit.

After a grazing blow to the left and right, he got a solid hit on the right.

He felt the impact and the creaking of armor through his right arm and the sound shook his surroundings.

The colliding air had nowhere to go and moved out from between him and Chisato. He had a thought as he listened to that harmonic vibration.

_...I broke it! Crap! I also attacked someone using my Trigger!_

He could see Chisato's face ahead and to the right.

She had not covered herself in her armor quickly enough.

The result of his strike could be seen beyond his right arm.

He looked to that arm was covered by a sleeve and a glove, but...

"Mh?"

He thought he had broken it, but he was wrong.

His arm had simply been caught inside the automatic body covering of the armor. Several armor panels had caught and bitten at his arm like jaws.

_...Then the damage would've been distributed throughout. And is that...Trion?_

Normal armor would have certain broken apart against an attack from a Trigger. Even if he had not used a powered up lunch like Mei or the blade at his waist, a simple attack using his body would have been enough to break that armor. The only way to be unaffected by such an attack would be to use the same type of attack.

A few pieces of expanded armor on the side were being rearranged. The armor was working to allow the damage to escape safely.

Ikom then noticed the sensation in the five fingers of his right hand.

That hand had a solid enough grip on something to dig into it. It was soft, but it had a firm core and was somewhat warm and damp.

"—"

He had forgotten about his thoughts concerning the armor.

He looked to Chisato's face. She was blushing, her mouth was spread horizontally and bent like a wave, and her widened eyes were staring down at her own chest.

To sum up the situation...

"You should really wear a bra in battle. This's just being careless."

"...U-um, Ikoma...-sama...? ...Sh-she was holding...her skirt...s-so she is probably...wearing a dress... ...And, um..." said Shobu. "...M-maybe it's...th-the kind of dress...where you can't...wear one...?"

_I see. Now that you mention it, that's right._

_...That explains it. And in that case..._

"Right. Then this is what you call a special moment. ...A moment for my right hand that's special. An unwelcome moment since you're not one of the older sisters, but still."

A moment later, Ikoma was knocked into the air by a full-power kick. Next, Chisato gave a shout while holding her chest.

"Have you no shame!?"

.

Chisato was on the move.

She could not allow herself to think. She could not allow herself to think about anything right now.

She focused entirely on suppressing her target and had to act accordingly. But...

_...Ahh._

A tremor or a shaking was wreaking havoc in her heart. She forced it down, telling herself she could not allow herself to realize what it meant. If she did realize that, she was certain something would go horribly wrong.

But...

_...You..._

It leaked out.

_...You idiot._

_Why is my vision so shaky? Isn't the sight device data supposed to be directly projected into my eyes? Then is it due to the speed? Yes. That must be it. It definitely isn't due to tears. My mouth is trembling, my cheeks are so warm and tense, and my pulse is racing because... because... Don't think about it. But this means... No, don't think about it. It can't...it can't be that. That could never happen to Shiraishi's third daughter. So this isn't that. It's the high-speed mobility._

"Uuh..."

She audibly groaned to slow her thoughts and then she began an attack on the Attacker.

.

Ikoma realized the crucial moment had arrived.

He told himself that whatever result he produced here would determine what happened later.

The strange armor arrived from directly ahead. The dark red armor resembled a female warrior and had no unusable parts.

The weapon had been specially designed to be a combination of human and Neighbors technology.

The metal felt like anything found on Earth, but it had been able to defend against Ikoma's body attack. It had to have some for of trion to do such a thing. That trion became apparent in the form of a semi-circle behind the armor.

_...Here she comes!_

The strange armor made his thought a reality.

He could see her. He could feel a weight over his eyes because he had lowered his goggles down to cover his eyes. To others, his eyes would be covered.

_...I'm so cool!_

But he instantly lost sight of the armor.

She had not vanished and she had not escaped to the side. She was twirling on the ground.

She had leaned forward. The blades of the armor were only two centimeters away from the platform. Her back could not be seen due to the semi-circle that had appeared behind her.

The armor charged toward him as if running up the horizontal axis. Even the line of acceleration light extending from the back was horizontal. It was not pointed upwards. That meant the armor was relying entirely on her sense of balance to run and all of her movements were directed forward.

Ikoma responded by reaching for his blade at his side.

.

The semi-circle vanished, as did the armor.

Everything in the small area lost its strength and fell.

The armor panels, semi-circle, and blades seemed to decay and crumble away before the two attackers could collide.

But as they fall, they were swallowed up by light and vanished.

That left only three figures.

One was Shirashi Chisato standing on the edge of the platform with arms spread, one was the Attacker in front of her, and the last...

"If I hadn't stopped, you would have been torn to shreds, Ōi-nee-san."

A girl with long golden hair decorating her shoulders stood between the two of them.

She was pale and had her eyes closed. She had a stern expression and she held both arms out toward Chisato. There were traces of the armor's blades having sliced into her arms.

But on the high-level platform, the eldest Shirashi sister lowered her shoulders instead of sighing.

"Don't get so worked up, Chisato. The battle should have not started."

.

_...The battle should not have started?_

Only after repeating her sister in her heart did she realize the sounds of attacks had ceased.

She could only hear the wind.

"Why?"

She then realized Ōi was looking toward the ground. Her inattention was casual, but unthinkable on the battlefield. She quickly followed her gaze.

_...Is that...?_

Border's representative stood at the base of the platform.

 _When did that happen?_ she wondered before realizing the Attacker had created a flashy show of power when he had initially gone for his blade. That took her eyes off of the smaller boy, meaning...

"Chisato. That is the true representative."

She had gotten all worked up over a diversion. But...

"Didn't Border's representative come here on the assumption that we would not be holding any sort negotiations?"

"There were two reasons for this. One is over there."

Ōi pointed into the area behind her. A large form was visible in the sky between them and the Border base.

It was a Border owned truck, most likely belonging to the Yagura Branch or the base.

However, one part of the truck was different from normal. The windshield attached to the front of the truck had a pole attacked to it and a large flag on the front read "Automatic Driving".

It was apparently being automatically driven toward the Shiraishi group. The reason why was obvious.

To show they understood what had happened.

That Shiraishi had done something with their items.

The usage of the trion and metal armor would have been a dead give away for anyone else, but the Attacker had probably sent the data as soon as he got it. Border must have known as soon as the data came in. A closer look showed the name "Border" written on the side of the truck.

"They are almost too kind to not send out a director or A-Rank agent with that truck."

"True," agreed Chisato as she viewed the truck moving toward them. She also saw a red uniform vanishing into the building's roof beyond the transport truck.

The Sniper was using his Trigger to take out the flying Neighbors closest to them and he had likely been the one to notice what was going on.

"That's going a bit far to score some points."

"It's only an annoyance for me. Now I have more people I have to scold."

Chisato responded to Ōi's comment with a bitter laugh and then a sigh.

_...I'm really off my game here._

She agreed that the battle should not have started, so she looked up to face the Attacker beyond Ōi.

She suddenly wondered whether she should say something like normal or say something different from normal. Not that she knew what either of those things would be.

But...

"Yes."

There was no point in being reluctant when it came to someone who had kept up with her well enough that she had to show her true skill, even if just for a moment. More importantly, she was belatedly impressed that he had been able to face her like that.

In Shiraishi's business, no one could keep up with her normally in a spar when they did such things. Musashi was the only one with the necessary reaction speed, but he could not make the necessary movements. People who fought Neighbors were a bit of an unknown for Shiraishi, even though they prepared to fight them.

_...But it seems their combat skills are solid._

She sighed in her heart as she decided not to be careless or to look down on him. She opened her mouth again to say something to the Attacker, but...

_...Eh?_

She realized he was looking down at the ground.

.

Chisato looked back.

The Attacker's eyes were turned toward Border's representative, but she recalled what Ōi had said earlier.

_...There were two reasons the battle should not have started._

The first was Border understanding what they were using. Then what was the other?

"Ruri!"

Chisato saw the figure in the center of her vision.

The skinny girl's long black hair was blowing in the wind. She was smiling as she spoke with Border's representative, but then she noticed Chisato.

"—"

The girl waved and Chisato could read the greeting on her lips.

"I see," said the Attacker. "Good job! Shobu, did ya make us look good by showin' her my battle and my great moves!?"

 _This Attacker is one of them!_ thought Chisato as her jaw dropped, but something else required her attention more.

"Ōi-nee-san! Why did you bring Ruri here!? Na-..."

She forcibly swallowed the name she nearly spoke, but she spat out another a moment later.

"Neighbors are out here!"

A sound seemed to cut off her shouted question.

It was the sound of an attack from the western sky.

_...A physical attack from the Kobayashi platform!?_

Kobayashi's current representative Mogami Yoshiko had fired a sniper-like shot from a distance.

Using a trion attack would use less energy and have more stability right now, so there was only one reason to use a physical attack: detection. With no trion being out into the attack, there would be no way of a Neighbor detecting it since it would do no damage.

This would be the same. The sound of its flight followed after the attack, but Chisato knew its target.

A Neighbor floated in the sky near the Border base after having hit been shot down.

"The falcon Neighbor!"

The attack revealed its power in the sky.

Mogami's attack struck the flying Neighbor, a combat type Neighbor, which was defenselessly observing the battle.

* * *

Minoru looked back from atop the platform to follow the path of the shot.

It was a high-speed attack using what looked to be normal junk that would provide destruction for anything made on Earth. Based on the sound, it had been launched by using something akin to Grasshopper throwing it out. There was no shockwave or movement when it was thrown, so...

_...Is that why this group left its defenses up even after the Neighbors began decreasing or moving toward the base again!?_

No, Kobayashi's representative had been in control of the attacks this entire time, so this shot had not been made on a whim.

"Was all of this leading up to this one shot, Mogami Yoshiko-san!?"

Minoru faced forward again to see the fox on the Kobayashi platform rooftop.

The vixen was making the final motion of her dance. She swung the right of her two fans up in front of her and then spread it out. She reversed her wrist to point the front of the fan toward the sky, then she raised and closed it.

A moment later, a sort of explosion burst from the Blaze waiting in the sky.

The shockwave created by the force of impact had pushed the air out of the way on a large scale.

* * *

Pyrínas - formally Rhinoceros Beetle 07 - landed on the Yagura Branch's clear front steps with his fingers scraping across the surface, but before his slide had finished, his stance crumbled.

"Pyrínas!?"

Futoyuki noticed something from the Trion Soldier's side as he fell to his knees and slid to the floor.

_...There's thrust pushing at Pyrínas' back!_

He looked back and saw a small black orb. It was a perfect sphere with small tendrils of electricity surrounding it. It was a small Gate that Pyrínas could make as one of the Wanderers' Trion Soldiers.

"Is something calling you!?"

Pyrínas' body began reverting back to that of a rhinoceros beetle, but the transformation stopped once a safety activated. The countless shifts to the Trion Soldier's body told Futoyuki something.

"This is just like when one of our falcons malfunctioned..."

During a certain test run with his team, a falcon Trion Soldier had changed its form and core structure based on one abandoned in a battle. Most likely, that had been because of an action done by the Pyrínas System.

In that case, what would be causing the same reaction now?

"Is one of the stronger falcons here!?"

More than just fall to his knees, the sliding Pyrínas was about to topple forward. The flesh looking parts on his legs tore and the intertwining joints of the knees contacted the floor. Sparks and sounds of bending spilled out, but the small connection to the Pyrínas System forcibly maintained his balance. However...

_...Oh?_

Futoyuki realized Pyrínas' arm was swinging over toward him.

Of course, he had no recollection of ordering him to do so. Was he simply misinterpreting an action caused by the loss of balance? Or was this being controlled by Pyrínas' thoughts?

He did not know.

However, he decided it may have changed a little amid the small Gates that were starting to vanish faster than they appeared.

"But the real problem is that."

As Pyrínas' arching curve along the Yagura Branch's floor came to a stop, he looked into the sky.

The explosion was clearing up, revealing the constantly flying Blaze.

When he had seen it earlier, Blaze had been the kind that the Wanderers had made for their own purposes, but...

"So it stopped that attack after all. That means one thing."

As the explosion cleared, a giant form came into view. It was the red colored Trion Soldier resembling a falcon. Several barriers had opened around it and occasional static ran through it.

"Is it going to open a short distance Gate!?"

* * *

_...Eh?_

Someone had a thought within the wind.

It was Hiura.

The red flying Neighbor was too far from the Kobayashi group to see properly, so a large screen on the platform displayed a magnified view.

But...

"...?"

Hiura removed her hat and checked on the distance under the shade it provided.

However, she concluded there was nothing wrong with her sight and narrowed her eyes toward the image on the screen.

"Huh?"

Something was not right.

It were transparent.

The Neighbor with the color red on it was strange, so it shone oddly in the sunlight. She understood how that worked well enough, but...

"Now it looks kind of see-through..."

The flying Neighbor had held its right wing forward to block the high-speed attack, but its form would occasionally grow fuzzy, like static running through it.

 **Kura-uchi:** "Was it trying to use some camouflage like we do with Chameleon, but something went wrong?"

 **Isa:** "Or maybe it was trying to escape using a Gate or something, but it messed up? ...New guy!"

 **Kaze:** "Oh, this is Futoyuki, yes! A little guy here is letting me use his account for this! Anyways. Ah! It's kind of hard to tell from where I currently am. Still, I doubt it was optical. If it was, it should have immediately gone back up after getting hit by a simple physical attack and whatever trion-based attack was on it. Besides that, Blaze just doesn't have that kind of thing in it."

 **Ōji:** "So was its defenses not set up right? But it did stop the attack, didn't it? What's going on?"

The answer was they did not know.

_...But really though. What is going on here?_

Hiura leaned forward and heard Yoshiko speak quietly while finishing her dance and maintaining her final pose.

"Poor Ruri."

"Eh?"

Hiura looked over and noticed that Yoshiko's shoulders looked a little slumped.

Then the fox noticed the girl.

"Do you need something?"

As soon as she asked that, the red colored Neighbor vanished from the large screen in front of them.

The giant flying Neighbor utterly vanished before Hiura could ask anything.

And before she could react...

 **Zoe:** "Whaaaaat!? The flying Neighbor just up and disappeared!?"

 **SenSen:** "We can tell that, so you don't have to say it."

 **Suzaku:** "B-but what was that just now!? Ah! Misaki! Please don't cover your ears and hide when this is all that happened! W-wait. Not between my legs..."

 **Honest Sister:** "Heh heh. What are you saying, Suzaku!? A kiddy-looking flacon Neighbor just pulled off an illusion! This has to be the falcon god's curse against those who cheated the falcon! If you don't believe it, you can face the falcon's wrath all on your own! Like the Toilet God's Ultimate Electricity Technique: Bathroom Sandal (Shared)!"

_...Oh, that's an original divine spell from Final Overthrowing III which has a lot of fun class changing, according to Sayoko._

As Hiura recalled that, lightning struck.

"Eh!? The sandal?"

Hiura saw the light of the lightning strike that suddenly occurred in the clear afternoon sky.

However, it did not fall. It was emitted in every direction from a single point in the sky.

That point was to the west, at the center of the Shiraishi group.

* * *

The light raced across the sky, but its source continued to create more without end.

This occurred on the lower platform, the Shiraishi group's vehicle parking lot near the Border car.

The lightning produced a tearing sound and it spread in every direction like ivy.

Whip-like blasts of lightning struck and scorched the ground. Blowing wind and impacts assaulted the bridge.

The light did not stop.

The light was so bright it seemed to dye everything white rather than just illuminate things and a few silhouettes were visible inside it.

The largest one was Ikoma the Attacker in a defensive stance.

He saw something at the center of the white light. Ruri stood there, but behind her...

_...A strange as hell Neighbor!?_

He could see the falcon-like silhouette backlit by the lightning and he saw it tearing at its throat as if to rip something apart.

 _What is this?_ he wondered.

It had occurred as he descended to the platform after ending his almost-battle with Chisato.

Ruri had suddenly held her mouth and bent over.

"Ah...!"

A tearful voice had burst from her mouth. He had thought something had attacked her, but then she had wrinkled her brow and bent as far back as possible as a great pressure appeared behind her.

It took the form of wind, but Ikoma had determined its true form was pressure. He had seen the mist that was actually scattering trion.

That was why he had thought something quite large was being brought behind her.

As he had wondered what it could be, the bright lightning had appeared as an answer. More accurately, it was an explosion of trion light.

Then it came. The flying Neighbor had appeared behind Ruri, either copying her movements or controlling her movements depending on how one looked at it.

It was the Falcon Neighbor. It was the one that had been so close to the Border base a moment before, but...

_...It isn't transparent!?_

It was solid. As its definite weight shook the platform, Ruri took the same actions as the falcon-designed Neighbor.

The hands on her throat powerfully and definitely dug down into her flesh.

"...!"

A moment later, Ikoma heard a crash.

It was Ōi. An armored woman in the sky behind them crashed knee-first into the falcon flying Neighbor.

.

The two bodies collided with each other, one standing and the other accelerating through the air.

A metallic sound was followed by repeated sounds of armor panels crashing together and raining down.

But it was meaningless.

With its wings on its throat, the falcon Neighbor blocked Ōi knee with its right wind edge.

"—!"

It roared and extended its right wing to knock the armored girl to the deck.

Rather than the sound of heavy steel crashing together, it was the sound of armor sliding across the polished platform. However, Ōi's slid her legs around to correct his stance.

"I'm not done yet!"

She gave a shout and a roar, but it was already too late.

The falcon Neighbor flew from the center of the light. It pulled back its right wing and raised its head like a cobra before making a great dash. It sent its right wing toward Ōi as she stood up.

The stance and everything else about the strike were a complete mess.

However, lightning surrounded its wing and the wrist onward glowed white.

"...!"

Its wing tore through the air. A ring of water vapor spread and scattered through the air, but...

"Ruri!"

Chisato's mobile armor rushed. In the long shadows of the vanishing light, her strange armor pulled long spears of green light from the empty air. There were eight in all and her target was the falcon Neighbor's right wing.

The green jaws bit down with enough force to sever that limb.

They hit.

However, they were broken. The first, second, and third shattered and the fourth broke into pieces. The fifth and sixth split at the joints and the seventh broke in two. The eighth vibrated until it was destroyed.

By that time, sixty-four of them had been added and they drew a large arc.

This was no longer a slash or any other kind of lance technique . The dozens of meters of spears were going to crush their target. But the crimson falcon spread its wings this time and light burst from all six of them.

"—"

Its cry became forward motion and it changed direction.

It faced Chisato instead of the armored older sister.

Chisato chose to face the red speed head-on. She held herself steady and controlled the thirty-two pairs of spears as they raced through the sky.

But the Blaze was faster. It leaped in a straight line between the spears sent by Chisato.

The green blades were too slow. The Blaze's outstretched claws were going to hit. However...

"Honestly!"

Chisato hurriedly raised a hand in the air behind her.

"If you have a grudge against me, just say so, Ruri.

The strange armor grabbed the poles ejected into its hands and prepared to use them as a counterattack.

But a sudden voice rang out. It came from the Border representative.

"...You can't...!"

.

Ōi did not understand what had happened.

"Mh..."

She was looking forward.

He was on the platform of the Shiraishi group's vehicle parking lot. That was where she had originally been, but the scene had changed.

The Blaze Neighbor had vanished and the moderate Gate above it had been entirely annihilated.

Not much time had passed. According to her machine's memory records, only a few seconds has passed since she had stood up and this silence had filled her surroundings.

It was enough time to die, but still not a particularly long span of time.

However, they were alive. She could see the platform with the mark she had left while sliding along it. The sky was blue and the black sphere was nowhere to be seen.

The flying Neighbor shaped like a crimson falcon was nowhere to be found. It had disappeared.

The only movement was the wind.

She looked up into the sky as if seeking the wind blowing down from there, but Chisato was not there.

"Chisa. ...Did she die?"

"I'm alive. I'm behind you. ...But don't turn around."

"Don't ask the impossible. The cameras have a wide range of vision."

"And I'm in Thrúd's small blind spot right now."

"I see."

The strange armor's artificial sensation processing handled the sigh she could not express as just a machine.

_...But..._

A single thought came to mind.

_...Ruri triggered that, didn't she?_

She looked straight ahead and found Ruri collapsed below the platform. Border's representative sat on the platform, supporting slender Ruri and holding the Shiraishi VIP's hand between both of his own. His extreme nervousness was plainly visible.

That bangs boy, while trying to deal with his nervousness, simply embraced Ruri and gently shook her in an attempt to wake her.

Then he called out to the unconscious girl.

"...A-are you...okay...? ...Are you...?"

.

When the Blaze had appeared, Shobu had not known what was happening.

He had sensed a sudden sound, a sudden wind, a sudden shaking, and all sorts of danger. Plus...

_...Shiraishi's...VI...P..._

He thought her name was Ruri. The girl had seemed to be suffering. She had bent back, bent forward, squeezed her own body tightly, and cried out.

Shobu would be lying if he said it had not scared him. But another thought had come to mind too.

_...So much pain..._

That thought was not about himself. It was about something inside Ruri.

He could not sense it and it may have been something he would have easily understood if he chose to look passed his hair, but he had simply felt like the girl was suffering from something inside her.

Like something was being taken out.

It could have also been something else.

That was why people struggled and gave up. There were times when people could struggle and times when they could not keep up the fight to the end. There were also times when people could give up and times when they could not.

Whatever was with this girl – whatever its shape, whatever its size, and whatever its temperature – did it hurt? Shobu did not know, but he knew there was something he could do.

He knew what he could do for someone who was worried and who could not see their surroundings.

_...Jist like...Yuki-san and...Uncle did for me..._

"...Um..."

No. That quiet voice would not get through with all the noise around him. So...

"...U...um!"

He spoke loudly, or at least as loudly as when singing for someone. He raised his voice because he wanted to do something about the girl's cries and pain.

"You can't!"

He called to her and for a brief time that girl turned to face him.

 _...Good..._ thought Shobu. ... _She noticed me..._

But then the girl went limp and collapsed. That was why Shobu quickly supported her, but...

"...It's...going to be...all right...okay...?"

By the time he questioned the girl, sat down with her in his arms, and held her hand, Shobu noticed the change to his surroundings.

The area had quieted down and heat had returned to the sky.

.

Ikoma sensed the color blue and the normal wind. He had a single thought as he spread his arms in the air and prepared a difficult movement with his legs.

_...When Shobu calmed Ruri down, the Neighbor disappeared?_

He did not really understand, but the Neighbor had vanished after Shobu's shout of "you can't". No, it would be more accurate to say it fell back into the Gate. And...

"Could you...let go of me?"

The object in his right arm spoke to him. It was the strange trion armor used by Chisato. The strange armor had released its right leg and right arm and it twisted its body around.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"You can't tell?" he asked. "I saved yer life."

"I didn't ask you to do that."

"Then," he said. "You intended to die."

"—"

"Well, anyway..."

He looked to a collapsed form. It was the person who had been standing with Shobu by the platform.

"Ruri!" shouted Chisato.

"Pipe down. First you want death and then you try to save someone. How can I trust you?"

"Then what about you? You tried to fight me and then saved me..."

"My actions are perfectly consistent. ...They always go to the best way to get to a cute girl by the end of it."

The one-legged strange armor kneed him with a "Why you...!" for good measure.

"You are the worst!" said Chisato. "So you only tried to fight me and saved me to show off to Ruri?"

"Heh. ...If you wanna think of it as scorin' points, I won't stop you. The fact remains that I'm makin' gradual progress."

The strange armor resisted, but she barely did any damage since he had adjusted his grip on her waist. Meanwhile, he looked to Ruri collapsed on the platform.

However, his thoughts were not focused on her.

_...What's with that Neighbor?_

It had resembled a falcon and it had been identical to another one: the one far, far from here he had only been able to see using his Trigger's enhanced vision.

"That's the same one that was hangin' around the base, wasn't it?"

* * *

Out of the corner of her eye, Hiura saw Yoshiko lower her fans.

Her eyes were focused on the screen displaying right in front of them.

It displayed the area around the Border base after the staticky crimson Neighbor had vanished. Rather, after it had left.

There was movement there.

The Bados that had been flying were no longer there, instead either falling to the ground or already there. However, a small Neighbor seemed to barely be flying.

It was a small Rise, so the Neighbor had been hit yet continued to fly in the sky.

It was nothing compared to the other ones. It seemed as if it had no attack power and was only managing to glide with the wind.

"...It's trying to fly."

Hiura recalled what Kimura had said about the Trion Soldiers that had come from the Wanderers the day prior.

This one had a name of Rise, but...

_...Why is it not doing anything?_

Its sight was clearly focused on the Kobayashi group. It was "looking" at Mogami Yoshiko. And...

"—"

The Rise tilted forward as if giving a deep bow.

"Ah."

The footage on the screen filled with the green light from the body.

It was trion. It was spraying trion out from where the Rise had been shot previously as well as by a new shot. The core had been destroyed by a sniper shot from the Border base and was now simply falling ungratefully to the ground.

 **Ōji:** "The Neighbors are all taken care of now. Everyone seems pretty calm about it."

The trion and parts scattered as the trion began to glow faintly with the fall. The wings folded in and the head ducked toward what could be its chest, so it just have decided it would not be attacked again.

A small explosion went off. It was not large enough to even take note of.

And that was why Yoshiko raised one of her fans and closed it.

The large screen turned off, leaving only the monitor and its stand, the base, and the Forbidden Zone in view.

However, no one was moving any longer.

"You fool." Yoshiko hid her face behind her spread fan. "Even after being taken away from me, you went to make what you wanted to show me? Show some independence, boy."

"Eh?"

Yoshiko froze in place when she heard Hiura's voice.

"What do you mean 'eh'?"

"Well, I had kind of figured as much...but you really do know what that Neighbor was, right?"

Finally, a tremor ran through Yoshiko's shoulders. After a few breaths, she took one final deep breath, and removed the fan from her face. The smiling fox wiped tears from her eyes.

"Honestly...I laughed myself to tears."

There was nothing Hiura could say. Yoshiko simply smiled at her with damp eyes.

"Is there anything you want? Snacks, a proper meal, water, or juice? Anything at all? For example..."

She paused before continuing.

"How about a meeting to set in motion the future of not just us sponsors and not just Border, but of how everything will get done?"


	67. Interlude: Part 2

The cars driving around Mikado City began moving in different directions.

The three groups involved in Border at the moment, which consisted of Shirashi, Kobayashi, and Kurosaki, began slowly moving back to their workplace.

They were spreading themselves out to act as anchors for the representatives.

But Awdry's own personal car did something else. They ignored everything gone on around them. They were distancing themselves from the Forbidden Zone and everything that had happened there with everyone.

"Emily, send a transmission out to Border and Arashiyama Squad personally. Tell them our group us not equipped with any sort of defense against Neighbors, so we cannot get close at all to the others. Something else, inform them that we will still observe the goings on with their members. You may use my name if you wish. That would probably convince them more quickly."

The Awdry personal car was a top model. It was a spacious angular car and a woman with narrow eyes and a stern expression spoke in the back seat. She's owls looked up into the sky outside.

A tremor ran through the clouds there.

Then a girl's voice reached her from the side.

"That would be the last sighted Gate, madam."

"I know that perfectly well. Besides having basic information, my useless older child tells my youngest child the minimum of what he can. I can't image why they would allow such a deviant into their ranks. Not to mention how much they must spend to make up for him."

Molly did not sound discouraged and she turned to look at the suit girl assistant sitting to her side.

"We must eventually make up our minds on the matter...or rather, make a simple choice."

"Can we really do that?"

"We will do just fine if you work at it hard enough, Emily."

"I can't do anything... I was only taken in by you."

"Not true." Molly rejected Emily's words. "You picked up that footage from Border to inform us on the subject called Taiyōko."

"If you get down to it, that was someone else's accomplishment..."

"You are the one that did it and I was the one that asked for it. You always respond to my trust in you and I have received exactly the results I wanted from you. Where is the problem in that?"

"Madam, sometimes you can be more logic-obsessed than an assistant like me."

"An honor student like you is made up of far more logic than me."

"I suppose so." Emily sighed with a bitter smile in her voice. "But..."

She displayed a few windows and displayed the leaders' various opinions on the map of their course.

"Why isn't Border moving to take those Neighbors? Those were significant explosions, but they aren't moving and their alarms aren't ringing. Even their fighters are only saying to keep things as-is."

"Of course. Keeping things as-is is a safe decision, so there is no problem there. That must mean they predicted something like this."

"They predicted that every business there would have some kind of defense against Neighbors?"

"And that is why they are not reacting. But..." Molly held her closed eyes. "I can imagine they have their own thoughts on some of these happenings."

"Like with Shiraishi? Or from their members that were hired?"

"Yes." Molly nodded but gently tilted her head. "They have full rights to question Shiraishi on how they managed what they did and why that Neighbor appeared near them. That disturbing man and that shady man will also be receiving consequences for siding with the enemy here."

At that point, she suddenly looked over to the Border base.

"And then there is the one who opposes all of them."

* * *

Three silhouettes parted ways outside if the Forbidden Zone.

The main groups of Kurosaki, Kobayashi, and Shiraishi were retuning to their homes or the buildings where their work was.

Shiraishi moved to one side, Kobayashi another, Kurosaki straight ahead, and...

"We saw Awdry's car going their own way."

Kimura looked in all four directions and then into the sky directly overhead.

She saw the messages sent to her by the directors telling her what she needed to do and return to the inside of the base.

"We need to get ourselves ready over here. This situation is urgent."

"Heh heh. We've already been honestly rushing things plenty. What good will rushing things even further do?"

Unfortunately, Kimura could not deny they had been rushing things. But Awdry had arrived to monitor things for themselves and Kobayashi had shown a refusal to obey an agreement.

"There is something really wrong here. Even with Awdry moving around, something might just collapse here."

"Hm? What makes you say that, Kimura?"

"I'll explain later. If possible, I want to gain a consensus on that and some other things with the representatives we sent out to the three businesses."

She had a lot to think about. Or rather, the number of things to think about had just grown significantly.

And that included a lot to worry about.

The coming negotiations with the three representatives would be a major enough event to erase the smallest incidents from people's minds. So...

"The question is how to handle the negotiations with the three businesses."

"In your opinion, Kimura, when will that be?"

Kimura responded to Suzaku's question by looking up into the sky where the strange Neighbors had been flying moments ago.

Even if they returned to their headquarters, they would still need to regroup themselves after the day's events.

"A lot happened, so I doubt they will finish that today. I have to preface this with 'most likely', but I doubt the three businesses will want any other business getting ahead of them. It will almost certainly be tomorrow night."

"I see. Then should I secure a line to use in case we need to do a real-time broadcast tomorrow night? ...Huh?"

Suzaku looked at the tablet by his hand and tilted his head.

"I just got a message from my mom. It says 'spend the night over there'."

"Heh heh heh. Way to go, Suzaku mom! Is she honestly handing over her son's hand before he's even married!? Or is it a test to see if he'll fit in one of my mob character slots!? If so, we'll get the following stat increases: Spiritual+5 Shooting+99 Impurity+66. So we'll honestly need to shove Shobu-kun in there too to bring down the impurity levels! Let's get testing!"

"Stop deciding things for me! Is this how Satori feels when around you!?"

Suzaku blushed with his eyebrows raised and pointed toward the Kotowari Sniper and the base.

"My mom only said to stay there! Besides, a simple techie has nothing to do with impurity! ...Hm? What is it? What's that new meter?"

A program that had been running quickly closed a few windows displaying meters.

When Suzaku noticed, he eventually tapped the screen, but the program continued working and did not stop. There were simply too many of them to close.

"What a hardworking program."

"I feel like it's gotten especially hardworking lately..."

Meanwhile, a wind blew in. It was the group of Snipers moving out. Kimura breathed a sigh of relief that they were leaving as a sign of everything really being done. At the very least, she felt they had what they needed to get things moving.

"Hey!"

Someone walked over to the three standing there. It was Tōma.

 _He is mad "Yuki's" group is having fun?_ wondered Kimura, but Ōji in his squad uniform jumped up from the side of the building. Kimura tilted her head as the B-Rank captain managed to get to the top if the building.

"What is it? You guys don't look like you're here for a friendly chat right now."

"We've got some trouble. The older sister has taken action."

Ōji shrugged as he explained and he held his palms upwards as if it were raining.

"You can guess the reason for that."

* * *

Two people stood on a clear hill.

Lined up in the evening sky were a tall man with scuffle on his chin wearing a long coat and a boy in matching black outfit with light hair.

They were Tachikawa Kei and Izumi Kōhei.

The few cars of citizens and people quickly setting up blankets and baskets were below the hill behind them and both of them had a display open.

The display from their Triggers were for work and other matters, but they were both hitting the "approved" without even really looking at them. Occasionally, Tachikawa would speak up.

"Hey, Izumi, take this work more seriously. I feel sorry for the people who made this data."

"Tachikawa-san, the idiot next to me isn't even hitting 'approved'; he's just closing the display. I think the odds are pretty good he has no idea how mail conversations work. Yes, as the upperclassman, could you say something to that idiot?"

Tachikawa looked to Izumi's other side, the side he was not standing on.

"Hmm, Izumi? There's no one there. Are you hallucinating? Hmm, you okay there? If you've gone crazy, should I knock some sense back into you? Hmm?"

"D-damn you..."

 **GM Aide:** "You two love that act, don't you?"

"Oh, hi, Sawamura-san. What do you need?"

 **GM Aide:** "Did you read the mail I sent you?"

"Yeah," replied Tachikawa as he showed his teeth to the others. "Sawamura, things are getting interesting all over the city, aren't they? First it looks like we're going for a meeting with the three sponsors, but now we have some extra baggage going on because of our favorite ninja boy? It's just one event after another from the brats going all around here! I bet they'll have festival stands out, so I kinda want to stop by with some others!"

"Oh, then why not just go?"

A dirt ball hit the side of Izumi's face.

"Damn you!"

They both crushed dirt with enough force to form dirt balls and threw them back and forth at full strength, but they eventually took a break. As they did, Tachikawa breathed a deep sigh.

"Well, I guess we can think of this as Border peeling back the mask a little."

"Really?"

"Izumi."

When Tachikawa called his name, Izumi pushed up his hair and looked his way.

"Whaddya want?"

"Wowww! What was that 'whaddya want'!? You push up your hair like this and then...'whaddya want'!? Really!? 'Whaddya want'!? This kid must think he's _so_ cool!"

"Shut up, you son of a bitch! You're the one that got all lovey-dovey while chowing down on the fruit tempura that new girl made as an apology! What was that 'these strawberries are so good' nonsense!? They had grated radish on them!"

"What!? I felt sorry for Arisa-chan after everything, so if she grates it, a radish is a fruit! You didn't know that, kid!?"

"Sawamura-san, can you do something about this guy? He's a giant pain in the ass."

 **GM Aide:** "Yeah, Ari-chan's over here too. So Izumi, you should probably just give up and play with Yoneya and Midorikawa."

"No, those two are all obsessed with what Shor sent over on accident. They can get pretty excited, so I can't keep up with them at times. Difference in positions and all that."

 **GM Aide:** "Why not find a hobby?"

"I used to have one."

Tachikawa's eyes widened and he pointed over saying "Eh? What was it?", but Izumi ignored him.

"I'm not telling you. Anyway, Tachikawa-san, you seem pretty cautious about what's going on. Is there a reason for that?"

"Yeah. It's simple, you fool. What haven't you done since coming to Border?"

"Lived a trouble-free life under a superior who isn't an idiot."

 **GM Aide:** "To be blunt, you have been pretty blessed by your surroundings, Izumi. You haven't dealt with any long term infighting since coming to Border, right?"

"I do throw rocks at my stupid upperclassman at times."

A dirt ball with a rock inside hit him in the face, so their "dirt ball" fight heated up for a while.

"And isn't it better to not have infighting? It's a pain in the ass. Just look what happened with Jin before."

 **GM Aide:** "But there have been some small stuff due to different views on matters, but that is usually inevitable."

Inside the display Sawamura crossed her legs in her seat in the Border base.

 **GM Aide:** "Some people worked to combine two opposing forces together, but pushed a little too hard in that and had to retire to make up for it.

"Yeah." Tachikawa nodded. "Just look at the factions right now over the views of Neighbors. Interestingly, there are a few amount of people who remain so neutral that either side can ask them for help."

"Are you lecturing me like an old man? Please spare me."

Izumi sighed, shrugged, and turned his back on Tachikawa.

"Could you upperclassmen stop expecting those of who came in later to do the things you all ended up doing? Isn't it your duty to make sure we don't have to do that kind of thing?"

 **GM Aide:** "You sure take this seriously, Izumi."

"Stop teasing-..."

He raised his voice, but stopped himself, sighed, looked back, and lowered his head.

"Sorry."

Tachikawa brought his hand down in a karate chop onto Izumi's lowered head and it clearly produced a dull sound.

"What was that for, you idiot!? You have no idea how to control your strength, do you!?"

"Then use that weak head of yours to think. If you're going to follow things here...then keep firing those shots of yours."

"But before I do that and after dealing with you, I could end up with a different team since something may happen. You could even add someone new to the team by then."

"That's the whole point," said Tachikawa. "Your super excellent upperclassmen were telling you that it's okay if you end up like us, no matter how it turns out that way. Oh, but I do want to note that I do have my eyes on a certain someone who can work with us."

"What? Who are you calling excellent?"

"Don't forget the 'super'. Do you want me to create a human-shaped stamp in the ground with you? Do you?"

Tachikawa laughed quietly.

"But something like that isn't for a while. For now, we need to enjoy the situation we've got."

"Right. You don't have to tell me that. I was always planning to go all out here."

The two of them looked to the side from the hill.

They were looking at an area several dozen kilometers away, past a large city area in the distance.

"That's the interesting edge of Mikado City's Forbidden Zone. There's not even four kilometers from that area to the city beyond it. So someone can use that."

He nodded.

"Yuki-san's sister, hm? She still looks down on everyone, but she can lead someone to the right direction."

.

Tachikawa gave a nasal laugh.

"Well, she is a topic that brings issues. Isn't it more interesting that Akasora-san pulled some strings to get those kids a private area? Even as his family is going out of their way to annoy the businesses over here, Toby's too busy being himself to even notice. Noah looks like he's also helping out. Sounds good to me. Especially since that pup is showing promise."

He pointed his chin toward some shapes in the area. They were small and distant, but they were clearly there.

 **GM Aide:** "Given the time, I assume that's our representatives and Hikigane Sekai's moving festival. I've recorded their current route, so should I send that over?"

"No," replied Tachikawa. "It wouldn't get to him soon enough, and it wouldn't matter for what he's trying to do."

 **GM Aide:** "He? Oh, you mean Awdry."

"Yeah," responded Izumi as he too looked to the Kurosaki's moving festival. "Given the time, he would need to jump down to catch up."

As he spoke, a wind blew through the sky.

Multiple shapes suddenly appeared in front of Hikigane Sekai's moving festival.

It was a large group of what could only be described as party crashes. They each looked ready for the festival getting closer.

 **GM Aide:** "Oh!? I'm seeing where they all are. So the festival will be extended forward and backward from where Awdry is."

"Even if he wants to join in on the festival, I'm sure Yuki would give some complaint because of what the festival is for. Still, let's see what happens here. From the looks of things, people outside of this issue are setting up booths after hearing about the festival. But..." Tachikawa tilted his head and groaned. "I think that there may be a bit too much focus on emotions, strength, and connections between people. Well, that might be just right for such a cold business."

Meanwhile, the group of people moved toward the Kurosaki group with preparations for an extended festival.

They were going to celebrate.

* * *

"Now, this won't be the usual method, but how about we begin sparring?"

Some of the twilight color remained in the sky as Noah's voice joined the festival drums and flutes echoing through the air.

He and Toby had come to the same place.

"It feels weird to be up here because of Mr. Akasora's help. Using an actual outdoor pool... But this is the closest thing to the footing during that game of tag Minoru told me about, isn't it?"

They stood on the pool surface.

A floating duckboard had been set up across the pool so they had a surface to stand out.

They both worse swimsuits with their respective uniforms on top, but...

"Noah... Is there any real reason for this battlefield and footing?"

"Yeah. You will understand soon enough."

Noah rotated his weapon in his right hand.

That weapon was Kōgetsu.

The single green trion blade was used in combination with its holder when it came to Noah, but...

"I have partially reduced the initial power for ease-of-use this time. And since we are only sparring, all of the attacks will be blunt impacts so we don't Bail Out, your Scorpions will do the same, right?"

"Right. How will we determine the winner?"

"How about we keep going until we are both satisfied?"

"Until you are, No...?"

Noah smiled a little at that question.

He fixed the rimmed goggles remaining on his neck.

"I want to fix things before I have to return this. But..."

He lightly shook his body using some rotating momentum.

"Facing the strong will likely be your job, Tobio."

With that, Noah moved forward.

And a moment later...

_...Eh?_

He suddenly saw the color brown before him.

That brown jumped up like a spring as it rose in front of him. It was the color of hair and its movement was Toby's strands moving with him.

The distance between them was reduced to zero in an instant. And just as he realized that...

"—"

Toby silently launched his attack.


	68. Shokubutsu Tenryū

Toby viewed the sky.

He saw only a few clouds in that night sky, but what shapes were floating there were illuminated from below by the festival being held in Mikado City and by the lights in it.

The clouds were moving slowly. But...

_...Huh?_

Toby felt the cold. And it came from behind. The back of his head, neck, back, arms, hips, butt, legs, and heels all sank into the cold like they had been grabbed.

He heard a quiet splash.

And just as he heard that sound and the water reached his ears...

"...!?"

He sat up while surrounding by spray.

_...Umm._

He looked around.

He was in the pool. He could see the rows of festival lanterns along the pool horizon and he saw the roofs of the festival stands below those.

Someone stood there with the scene and lights as his background.

It was Noah.

The held the single blade Kōgetsu in its holder in his right hand and he was smiling.

"Tobio, you are wide open."

"Oh, um, uh."

Toby scrambled to his feet.

_...When did that happen?_

He had no idea what had caused his current situation.

He only remembered leaping in to make an attack.

But at some point, he had collapsed.

He had not been hit and bailed out.

_...Then what...?_

He did not know.

He did not understand what had happened to him. But Noah took a breath.

"I can do this as many times as it takes."

"Do what you just did?"

Toby took a crouching position on the duckboard.

"Awdry! Shor! You started without me!"

Just then, Mikumo arrived from the stairs up to the pool area.

He quickly activated his Trigger to switch out his body. He had the Trigger trace and record their movements while being connected to the Tamakoma Branch.

Someone else also climbed the stairs.

"Huh? You're training even after completing your daily quota?"

It was Kitora. She wore a jacket over a simple school swimsuit.

"Well, I don't mind. In fact, it's good to watch."

"Yeah. We will be working hard."

With that, Toby moved forward. He did not understand how Noah had knocked him down, but the recorder had arrived and his spirit had not broken. So...

_...Will I find an answer to why I failed during that day!?_

He asked himself that as he charged toward Noah.

And a splashing reached his ears.

* * *

Shobu was in an unknown place.

_...This feels strange..._

The place was apparently known as White Rock's guest residence building.

It was a sealed room with several frames called icons on the walls in place of windows.

The Yagura Branch had some similar styling too. He was used to these sealed places because his own home was similar, but this place lacked the strong smells of cooking using fish, soy sauce, and sake that filled the home. The blankets smelled strongly of soap and felt stiff.

He doubted this was because the space was placed in such a strange area. The normal residences likely allowed for the same lifestyle as anywhere else.

The somehow distant aspect of it all was because they were guests.

_...Then I guess...it's fine..._

They were being separated from the normal "lifestyle" because it was the proper way to treat them. In that case, he wanted to understand what he could while receiving that treatment.

"Right."

He perceived his surroundings. He knew the room's structure and the location of the bed. He of course knew where the door was too. The neighboring room was Ikoma's and he had said he was preparing his heart by playing a game with a cute girl character that used the forceful language. He did not really understand, but he knew it was safest to ignore it. That left...

_...The left end of the hallway...has the bath...the bathroom...the vending machines, and...a garden...?_

The person who had showed him around had called it the main garden and said he was free to visit it as he wished. So...

"...Right..."

He decided to go there.

He opened the door. He expected the air to be chilly, but it was actually a little warmer. The sounds reverberated through the passageway and told him it was rectangular in shape. The guard standing next to the door faced him, so he bowed.

"...Can I...go to the garden...?"

"Of course. Go right ahead. There is a checkpoint if you try to enter a different section, so please be careful. Try to stay within the main garden."

The guard was a boy. Shobu made a mental note of what he said, nodded, and then said he was going.

A small feeling of self pride bubbled up once he realized what he was doing.

_...I am...talking to others...more...!_

It was likely that the events that had occurred a day ago left an impact on him.

With that thought, he began walking.

He heard a voice through the neighboring room's door.

"What!? Kiyoshi! Ya mean ya didn't buy this week's FamiMar Tsushin!? And ya call yerself a marriage Japanese gamer!? ...Wait, ya don't? Who was I thinkin' 'bout then? Whatever! Now I won't know which choices to make and I won't be able to clear the cute girl character on the first try! ...What? The distribution to Kurosaki's slow anyway!? Two days late!? Ya mean Jinsei can't get a copy either!? Kh, but I can't bow my head to Jin! ...Oh, to hell with it!"

 _...Will this really help...Ikoma-sama prepare himself...?_ wondered Shobu as he walked past his door. The guard was preoccupied with the door and quickly bowed once he noticed him.

"Are you visiting the main garden? Go right ahead."

He nodded and continued walking. Had that guard known he was going to the main garden because it was just that incredible a place for guests? But...

_...I guess you wouldn't normally...ask if someone is on their way...to the bathroom or the vending machines..._

_...Kaze-kun, Kirikari-sama, and Suzumebachi-sama would probably ask... ...And that's in order of how...serious they would be..._

But how was there a garden here when it was in a strange area?

"...Eh...?"

Suddenly, a premonition of something incredible filled his heart. It was still far off, but something had escaped the garden and reached him here. It felt like something thick that could not be contained inside and was forced out.

_...It's so dense...?_

There was no door dividing the spaces. He simply felt a rectangle of heat. That was the entrance. What lay beyond there? He did not know but he wanted to find out, so he continued forward.

It did not feel like he was entering the garden.

"Nn..."

It felt like he was passing through a wave of heat that created a thick surface.

.

Shobu's breath was immediately taken away.

He stepped into the main garden and walked down the wooden slope to the earthen ground.

_...It's so dense...!_

Several abnormally dense sensations reached his senses: heat, noise, smell, humidity, and air movement. They all arrived so thickly from the ground and seemed to weigh down on him shoulders.

"...Wah..."

He took a step back onto the wooden slope and took a breath.

But even that breath was dense.

_...It is like...a bath with plenty of additives..._

Mikado City was unheated bathwater just placed in the bath.

The surface was heated bathwater.

This place was bathwater full of additives.

There was a reason this place had a presence so much denser than the surface.

"...It's sealed...near the ceiling..."

That was probably why. Mikado City had parks placed in certain areas, but they were mostly used to let air circulate between the spaces of buildings and thus were well off in the winds that blew. That was why they lacked this kind of presence.

_...But this place...is incredible..._

There was minimal air circulation. The flowers were packed densely together on the ground rather than in beds and there were also vegetables growing in a similarly dense arrangement. There were occasional trees, but the branches that reached the ceiling were cut away so they would not spread too far and they did not cut off the heat coming from the ceiling.

The soil was the perfect dampness and warm air reached up to above his knees.

An earthy scent mixed with the flowers and vegetables.

_...It reminds me of our...special lesson during the...previous year..._

They had dug for potatoes. Uncle Akasora had chosen it because he had wanted to make some chips to eat with his sake. Everyone had desperately dug around with their shovels, but for some reason Kirisame had dug up potato after potato without difficulty. According to him, "I put in so much work that I need to be repaid some how after all", so the karma was apparently biased towards his friend's interests.

Shobu gradually grew accustomed to this and he felt like he knew why this place was the way it was.

There were people here. For example, there were some sleeping below the trees.

He could tell from their breathing that they had fallen asleep due to exhaustion.

_...That's right..._

This was not Border. They did not have multiple branches like Border. Nor was it a small area like any of the branch offices.

This was White Rock.

It was a base filled with ideas, policies, and the technology needed to live in this Neighbor city.

When he cleared his ears and body, he could sense the vibrations of things leaving or arriving at White Rock's parking zone.

With that kind of tension a constant presence, they would have little time to rest. So...

_...Maybe they need this...dense and powerful place..._

While Mikado City's nature areas provided a sense of nature as one casually passed through them, this place provided the exhausted people with a sense of nature that they could soak in rather than just feel. Shobu thought about what that meant.

"...Yes..."

He placed his feet back on the resilient dirt and began to walk.

It was a large place. It was about the size of four wide blocks placed side by side. The ceiling was about half as high as on one of Border's main training rooms. The small stream stood out because the heat was thinner there.

Shobu decided to make a circuit of the garden and began clockwise along a path through the densely growing flowers.

Kimura had told him get as much information on White Rock and the Shiraishi family as he could. But she had said something else too:

"Don't force it or do anything dangerous."

So Shobu wanted to check over everything in the areas he was allowed.

_...I need to do...my job..._

Another feeling came up. This time it was the feeling of knowing that there were people counting on him.

_...I don't have...Shikifuku, but... ...I have to have...willpower..._

After a while, the path crossed the small stream.

He turned to face the person tending to the vegetables to the side.

He knew them. He realized they had not been from Shiraishi, so perhaps they had transferred businesses.

Curious, he called out to the person who had their back turned to tend to the crops.

"...Um...Seikai...Kiyoshi-sama...?"

.

Seikai shuddered.

He had infiltrated White Rock the night before and had been planning to contact the Border group and find out what they knew. However...

_...That was Yagura's bangs nephew, wasn't it!?_

He had known he had excellent senses due to something or other from what he had been told, but...

_...I'm straight up using a Trigger to disguise myself here!_

He was currently supposed to be a reserve special worker from the mountains and he was using the completely original name of Seekai Closeshi. _That might be a little more English than anything else, but whatever._

Regardless, he should look like a foreigner right now.

With the ability to change a body using a Trigger, some of his shoulder bones had been reduced to change his structure. The same for his jaw. The color of his hair and everything else had been changed too. While he was not the best disguiser around, this Trigger body change had been enough to pass through many different areas.

For that reason, he assumed there would be no problem here either and chose to ignore the boy. Nakagami was nearby, hiding herself using Chameleon, but she spoke to him using the limited telepathy provided by their Triggers.

"What's going on here?"

_This poor girl got tricked into this..._

"Don't ask me. I don't remember getting marked anywhere."

"Then are you getting old all of a sudden?"

"You're the same age as me!"

"Then have you just lost your touch? Sigh, I guess I'll have to be the breadwinner from now on..."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves here!"

"...Um..."

He heard a voice.

"...Seikai...-sama...?"

He ignored him, but...

"...Are you looking after...the vegetables...with Nakagami-sama...?"

.

Nakagami shuddered.

_...I'm invisible right now!_

She would occasionally give herself a visible form to investigate something, but during that time, she claimed to be a newbie worker from the mountains. She went by the strange name of Kilika Kretoshizon. Seikai said claiming to be a newbie was a little much, but he did not know what he was talking about.

At any rate, she was invisible at the moment. She was nothing more than a chameleon.

_This is bad! What if he tells the boss! It'll go behind not being able to annoy him anymore!_

She even drank matcha and chewed on deodorizing leaves every day to erase her scent.

For that reason, she assumed there would be no problem here and chose to ignore the boy. Seikai was right in front of her in his mountain resident disguise and he spoke to her through the limited telepathy provided by their Triggers.

"Hey, what's going on here?"

"Don't ask me. I don't remember him activist his Trigger."

"Then are you getting old all of a sudden?"

"Y-you're the same age as me!"

"Then have you just lost your touch? Sigh, I guess I'll have to be the breadwinner from now on..."

"Well, that's actually fine with me. It's easier."

"...Um..."

She heard a voice.

"...Are you...working...? ...Seikai-sama...?"

"C'mon, tell him that's what you're doing!"

"Don't ask the impossible!"

"...Are you...? ...Nakagami-sama...?"

"C'mon, tell him that's what we're doing!"

"Don't ask the impossible!"

But Yagura's bangs nephew only tilted his head.

"...You...look different, but...you're the same...aren't you...? ...The swaying...is the same as when...you were at Yagura..."

.

Seikai shuddered again.

_...The swaying of our bodies!?_

He understood how this boy had seen through to their identities.

The swaying of one's body came from more than just the balance created by the skeleton and distribution of muscle. It came from one's pulse, blood pressure, hydration level, and the footing they were used to in their everyday life.

One could not change their pulse so easily.

Their blood pressure was not something they could just change at will.

Even using a Trigger would not change such a thing since they were always set to closely match the user's real body. And...

_...The swaying, huh?_

People who lived on the surface always had solid ground beneath their feet. The ground provided an immense reactive force, so they only had to think of their own balance.

But the Yagura Branch and other branch offices were different. Their footing was constantly shifting. It could shift and it could kick back at them when dealing with the different floors set up in the building.

Some time after leaving the branch office, that habit should have left, but...

"We thought about that..."

Yes. Along with others who had gone to the branch office, they had readied themselves. They had become costumed and then...

_...We continued moving while thinking about those loose floorboards._

If those movements were still noticeable, it may have been because this place was built in a strange way. Even the slightest swaying of his body would stand out more in this solid place.

Nakagami was were off. She was constantly in that branch office due to working for them as their Operator and she had made sure she would fit in nicely to not cause a commotion, so...

_...This is bad._

Seikai was glad that bangs nephew had come here. If he had stayed at the Yagura Branch, he would have definitely detected anything else off. In that case...

"We have a chance to get away."

Seikai stood up. He looked back with a smile and spoke to him while gesturing as if explaining the vegetable garden.

"It's been a while, kiddo. Do you need something?"

.

Shobu was glad.

He was glad they had not forgotten him, he was glad they were smiling at him, and he was glad he was not in the way. And with that in mind, another thought came to him.

Seikai and especially Nakagami had different forms from before, but he did not mind since there were a few people like that. Pyrínas had changed forms within a day, so when he had first perceived him, he had thought he was some kind of artifact that had placed something inside bathwater.

He breathed a sigh of relief.

"...Seikai-sama...and Nakagami-sama... ...Are you...working...?"

He was glad he had found someone he knew in this unfamiliar place. He had not spoken with them much back at Yagura, but he had noticed them help clean the inside of the building and work as waiters outside of Border, so...

"...Are you...working again...Seikai-sama...? ...Nakagami-sama...I am assuming...Uncle sent you...for fun...?"

.

Seikai mentally held his head in his hands.

_...Um, when he says "working"...?_

"Well, kiddo, we are working in our own way."

"Sabotage?"

_...This boy's voice carries surprisingly well!_

"Hey! Hey!" shouted Nakagami in their limited telepathy. I think this might be the biggest crisis of our lives!"

"It must be nice being invisible!"

But the boy clasped his hands.

"..Do your...best."

Could he really agree to that? Did he think this was some kind of sport? In fact, who had taught him the word sabotage? This seemed like their fault.

_First he says he "assumes" and then does something like that! When did this boy become such a badass when compared to before!?_

* * *

Kuruma smiled bitterly while waking forward and looked over toward the person who had sneezed quietly.

"Yuki? Is someone talking about you? You usually cough instead of sneeze."

They were moving through the Kurosaki festival ahead of others since they would were the representatives and Kuruma saw Yuki hold his palm out toward him. It was a signal to wait.

Yuki then brought his hands to his ears and twisted them.

"Phew. That suppressed it."

"Ehh!? Yuki! Is that a new ninja technique!? That's so cool!"

"What are you talking about? Snot suppression is a standard thing I needed to learn. It's the default, Jinsei."

Murakami hung his head to hide his expression and waved his hands back and forth, but what did that mean? Kuruma spoke up while lending his back to Kon who was sound asleep on his back.

"We will be getting there soon, too. ...Perhaps some of the other representatives are speaking about us."

* * *

Nakagami listened to the explanation given by Yagura's youngest member.

It mostly only supported the information they already had, but seeing the links with Kobayashi, more specifically Mogami, and Kurosaki was helpful. And...

"...So the business with those Neighbors yesterday infects today," she said so only Seikai could hear.

"That might be boss lady's doing since she had been out that same night, but even should have a hard time with Neighbor tech since she ignore what others say."

They had also heard that Awdry and their group had started to monitor others. The problem was that there was even less data in the Wanderers and their technology than the normal Bambster or Mormod.

"Border is stopping Futoyuki from saying anything right now because of trust issues... This isn't good."

"But there aren't many people who can just throw out information..."

This meant there was no safe ground left for them.

Of course, Nakagami knew that was true of themselves as well and then Seikai asked a question of Yagura's youngest member.

"Anyway, kiddo, let's make a deal. ...If you'll agree not to tell anyone that we're here, we'll do something for you. What will it be?"

"You...!" shouted Nakagami.

"It's fine, Naka. People like this always keep their promises. Fulfilling a boy's request isn't a bad deal if it will protect our activities here."

"...You never say that kind of thing about me."

"You keep your promises, but you keep them a little too much."

"What does that even mean?"

"See? You forget all about it, which is what makes it so frightening."

She did not know what he meant, but there must have been something in the past that she had not thought of as a promise but he had. She was a little disappointed she did not know what he meant, but...

"Was it something bad?"

"No."

 _Well, as long as I didn't guide him to bad luck as a person,_ she decided. They could both cause each other trouble at times.

Then Yagura's youngest member opened his mouth.

"...Th-then...can I ask something...of you?"

"Sure. What is it?"

Nakagami and Seikai listened to the boy's request.

"...Help...Yuki-san...!"

.

Seikai realized he could not immediately reply.

That was partially because he did not understand what he meant by that, but it was also because he did not have a clear view of their own future.

According to what he had learned from others, this "Yuki" had once been known as "Kiyoshi", same as him yet with a different kanji use. As someone who let grudges go rather easily, he did not care much for the beating in the past. But the sister of that same "Kiyoshi" was not something he could look passed.

_...So I don't really know what will happen._

Kushikage was not someone weak and was indeed powerful. Her power over him remained the same: a fear if that power.

People like him were simply swept along by that power.

But even if he did not know about themselves, there was one thing he did know.

"Kiddo, why do you want us to help that guy?"

"...Because..." The boy lowered his eyebrows a little. "...Yuki-san is helping everyone...but he isn't...helping himself..."

So...

"...I want a lot of people...to help...him..."

 _That's all the more reason,_ thought Seikai. _All the more reason I can't help him. He's my current boss's brother, meaning an enemy, and I can't let someone like that escape if I know how important he is._

But...

"I'll take care of that request."

The chameleon answered by his side. It was Nakagami. She spoke to Yagura's youngest member without showing herself.

"I just have to help your mentor by any means within reach, correct?"

"...Yes... ...Please do..."

"That's how it will be," said Nakagami in telepathy. "So if the a time to fight him comes, do it on your own."

"Thanks."

He replied to her and then faced Yagura's youngest member again.

"Well, you heard her. And don't worry about me either."

He saw some slight tenseness leave the boy's face and he asked a question on a whim.

"Is Yagura's rep that important to you?"

"Yeah."

He answered immediately and Nakagami spoke to him in a tone that made it clear she was swinging her arms around.

"Nice! How innocent! No wonder the other Border guys and girls like him!"

"This is why people call you old."

"I just feel the winds of maturity blowing into me when I see someone a little younger than me!"

"Is that so?"

Seikai sighed and the boy in front of him spoke.

"...But I still...don't know...about myself..."

"What don't you know about yourself?"

"...M-Mei-san is...who he loves... ...Kō-san is...his best friend... ...Kotowari Squad are...his family... ...Kimura-sama is...h-his supporter... ...Uncle is..."

After that last name, he tilted his head a little but continued on.

"Everyone's the best...to Yuki-san...in something..."

"That's how he divides up his connections to people. I do that too."

In this age, everyone with a certain level of achievement had a group of people that had helped them accomplish that. It would be friends, teachers, or a group, but...

_...It all comes down to connections to individuals._

Love and family were nothing more than one of those connections.

In that division of relationships, anyone who had reached the highest level of trust would become "the best" of their division.

For example, romance could be part of the process toward obtaining a family and it was very important. But in terms of maintaining a family line, matters of children were important. That was why families had arranged marriages so they could have a guaranteed way of producing children.

_...What a troublesome age. Although that kind if thing is not really seen, is it? Maybe. Maybe?_

It looked like the goal and the means mattered more than anything else, but...

"That's why it's important to gain trust and become 'the best' in something..

People did not even treat others as people at times. There would always be betrayal, resignation, and giving up on not just others but on oneself.

But in some cases, what if someone had the same goal as you and showed trust in some means you were capable of?

What if that person was more or less the leader of a group and was setting something in motion?

Couldn't you live your life to its fullest and leave your mark?

If so...

"I can't believe this," Seikai said to Nakagami.

"What is it?"

"This made me think of the past. ...When we were wondering what to do now that we were free to choose."

"That isn't like you. Don't worry. After all, you aren't 'the best' where you are now."

"That's true," agreed Seikai.

Was the boy in front of them thinking the same things they had in the past?

_...No, he isn't._

He had realized the people around him had their worries and that they were using those worries to build some large connections. So...

"Don't rush things, kiddo."

He had just one thing to say now.

"It sounds like your mentor has a lot of 'bests' supporting him. And remember this: it's someone with a lot of 'best' people that can become a great person."

"What about you?" asked Nakagami.

"I've got someone behind me who's the best at two or three different things."

"That isn't cooking, bathing, and sleeping, is it?"

"You don't trust me very much, do you!?"

He took a breath and spoke to the boy again.

"Keep trying at whatever you can. You might find an unexpected 'best' of your own. And even if you don't, those that aren't the best can still gain and understand a lot."

"...Is that true...of you two...?"

He heard a bitter smile behind him.

"You could say we're still on our way."

"That's true." Seikai smiled but did not stop gesturing as if telling him about the vegetables. "Now, how about a bonus? Your request might be a little difficult, so I'll give you one more thing for free."

"...What is it...?"

"Right." Seikai held up a large radish as he answered. "I'll make sure you come across the Shiraishi family's main problem without actually directly coming into contact with it. ...We plan to visit Kobayashi and Kurosaki too, so this is a parting gift."

"...A-are you sure...?"

"We'll make sure it works out for you. I'm not interested in making anyone else so indebted. And if you cause some trouble here, that's only a plus for us."

So...

"Come here tonight...yes, at eleven."

"At eleven?"

"Yes. I'll keep the guard from monitoring you so you can get here undetected. And then..."

He smiled.

"Yes, you should see something interesting. It'll be the best thing you could find as a representative."

* * *

"That's 17 times."

Mikumo heard Kitora's announcement and another sound: a splash.

_...Wow._

He had seen this pool before when asked to view this sparing by Noah, but it now had a duckboard laid over the surface, creating a simple water-top stage.

The duckboard sank down a bit, so the people on it had their toes sinking into the water.

But one of those people was not standing in the water at the moment.

That person was Toby.

He had fallen over and been soaked with the splash he had created.

The other person on the water had remained standing throughout.

"Shor..."

He was facing away from Mikumo, so he could see his black hair dry and blowing in the wind.

He had yet to make an obvious swing of Kōgetsu. And yet...

"Why can't Awdry stand up to him at all?"

"Are you asking me?" Kitora crossed her arms and tilted her head. "I don't know what Shor is doing, but he's definitely keeping To-... Ahem. Awdry from doing much of anything."

_She corrected herself there..._

"So it's affecting the start of his techniques?"

"Look into it yourself."

That told Mikumo that his fears were grounded in reality.

_...Kitora is surprisingly nice._

She was probably trying to be strict, but it actually made her easy to read.

She was probably aware of it, but she likely thought going further would be too much work and she must not have seen a need to make herself any more of a villain.

Mikumo knew she was watching the other two train as her way of showing concern.

_...Yes, Kitora is a good person. Or at least not a bad person._

After all, she had gone to help him during the Aftokrator invasion. She did also kept things straight with him and spoke her mind without restraint.

Of course, he had gotten a feeling of anger from her at times.

 _But,_ thought Mikumo. _I have the feeling she gets like that with a lot of people._

"Mikumo-kun, keep your eyes on the pool."

"Oh, s-sorry!"

What did it mean if he was being scolded by such a girl?

But he heard the same sound again.

Toby had attempted an attack on Noah and had been sent flying.

"18 times. If he doesn't catch on soon, then he has it really bad."


	69. Toby Awdry: Part 3

Below the night sky, the festival lights lit the pool from below.

Mikumo asked Kitora a question while watching the spray rising and Toby rolling along the duckboard.

"What do you mean he has it really bad?"

"Did you think this was a slump?"

"It isn't? Sorry, but I don't know as much about Awdry as you and Shor."

Kitora did not respond and that in itself was an answer to his question.

_...If this isn't a slump, then what is it?_

Even Mikumo could tell Toby had lost his luster. He had seen the previous matches of Kotowari Squad and his combat result had been missing something since their match against Tsukiko and Shor squads.

What would happen if he was still like this during the next B-Rank War match?

Mikumo had thought he knew the purpose of the training Noah was leading here.

_...It's to remove that "cloud" from above Awdry's head..._

However...

"If this isn't meant to get him out of a slump, then what are they trying to accomplish here?"

"You don't know?" Kitora sighed with her arms still crossed. "It's absurd. ...Just how much does Shor trust Toby?"

_She didn't correct herself there?_

"What do you-...?"

"I won't tell you until we've seen the result. There's no point in getting your hopes up prematurely."

There was another splash.

Toby fell next to Noah and water splashed behind him.

But what happened next was somewhat different.

Toby hopped up from his fallen position.

On the first roll after falling, he thrust his hands against the duckboard to launch his body up.

He was in midair with his chest pointed down. He landed feet-first with Scorpion in his right hand.

He moved forward to target Noah's back.

Noah, however, did not look back.

And Toby continued forward to strike Noah on the left side of his back.

He charged.

.

Toby saw the sky.

It was the night sky.

_...Huh?_

That was strange. He had attacked Noah from behind. And yet...

_...Why?_

Just he realized something.

He realized an obvious fact about these repeated results.

But.

"—"

He felt something like a dark and harsh shove.

And he produced a 20th splash.

.

Noah saw Toby rolling to his left.

The other boy was now about 7 meters in front of him.

There was a large splash, but the shallow waves were stronger. That would be because he had been collapsed on his side and bounced along the duckboard.

The boy was breathing heavily while lying collapsed on the duckboard.

_Oh, I had forgotten we set our Trigger to make things more realistic. We actually will "run out of breath" here._

The ends of his sleeves had fallen through the gaps in the duckboard.

_...But._

_Did he notice it?_ wondered Noah.

Toby's movement had been different from before. Before, he had been attacking from the front as a form of "training", but attacking from behind like this meant something else entirely. Even as a form of training, that attack had been in preparation for a real battle and not just to learn some technique.

However...

"You still didn't notice your failure when you made your attack, Tobio. So I hope you noticed it after your attack..."

"Yeah. ...I more or less understand it now."

Noah heard Toby's voice.

He rose from the water as if crawling and then stood up.

His wet brown hair looked more like fur and Noah felt apologetic. But...

_...I would be spoiling him if I didn't let him figure it out on his own._

He lacked the strength needed to help his opponent realize how dangerous his mistake was. Especially with Toby who was even more skilled than him.

_This might be why Yuki asked for my help. Not just because of my balance._

Minoru was a good person, and could be a good teacher, but this matter was not something that would have come easy. After all, unlike the A-Rank Minoru, Noah was a B-Rank agent who was the same age as Toby and viewed him in a great light.

That was why Noah decided to handle this with speed and accuracy. At the moment, he asked a question.

"So what will you do?"

"Right. I'll be fine."

Toby stood with water dripping from him and with Scorpion in his right hand.

"You are saying my actions have become too patterned, aren't you, you jerk?"

.

 _It's a simple matter,_ thought Mikumo.

Doing anything required an action and actions began with a movement which continued on to completion.

Mastering an action meant to find the most accurate and optimal flow of movement.

But Toby had worked himself too far.

"I don't know much about how Attackers do things, but it looks like his movements have become too fixed... Even with his Side Effect."

Safety was a top priority on the battlefield. Mistakes could mean loss, so to avoid pushing himself unnecessarily, he had focused on his own moves.

But what happened when someone knew what those were?

Then the optimal moves would become a pitfall to failure.

"Do you see why it was important to reproduce whatever happened the other day?"

Kitora asked that while viewing the feet of the two boys in the pool.

"The splashing."

"...Huh?"

"Just watch and learn."

Toby lowered his body as if to agree with Kitora.

He was preparing to move forward, toward Noah's right side.

He held Scorpion out front on his right while changing the shape to prevent Noah from using Kōgetsu in his right hand. Toby held the weapon with his left hand at the blade end of the now extended blade and his right hand on the blade's butt.

His left hand controlled Scorpion's tip, guiding it toward Kōgetsu.

If Noah attempted to swing Kōgetsu forward, he would use Scorpion to interfere.

But that was not his attack.

A moment later, Mikumo realized what Toby was doing.

He used his right hand to swing the butt end toward Noah, it was the reason he had changed the shape to extend.

It only took an instant.

The left-hand tip was a feint meant to disguise the right-hand attack and it also supplied the initial movement for swinging the butt.

The motion swung the butt and blade horizontally.

However...

"A horizontal swing of a straight line is difficult to dodge. ...You can tell he really wants to hit Shor after failing so many times already."

But what happened next was strange.

It happened just as the horizontally-swung butt was about to reach Noah.

"...Eh?"

All of a sudden, Mikumo saw Toby rise up and pitch forward.

_...Why?_

He did not know, but his Trigger connected to the Tamakoma branch office was still recording.

Toby bent his body and tried to endure.

"...!?"

But he was blown away.

.

The duckboard had soaked up the water and sunk a bit.

Toby landed on his right shoulder and rolled along it.

He asked a question while the water sprayed up and his body caught on the water, making him bounce.

_...Why!?_

It was not that he was underestimating Noah's skill.

But this was strange.

That action had been a rare one for him.

Scorpion could block and take an enemy's attack by shattering, so he generally used it for both attack and defense. He never made a horizontal swing using an extended Scorpion.

He had never even demonstrated that movement during training. What was more was that his Side Effect should have also moved him to the most optimal position.

So how had Noah seen through it?

_...What is..._

He could not finish the question in his mind.

A black flash had reached his collapsed vision.

It was Kōgetsu.

"Looks like I can start moving now."

With that, Noah attacked with his sheathed blade like an actual sword.

.

Noah saw Toby take evasive action.

_...He's as sharp as ever. Must be his animalistic instincts. Or, you know, his Side Effect._

Not his reaction. His movement.

His hair hopped up as he jumped backwards while doubled over.

He had chosen not to stand up because he was fearful of a further attack and was thinking of a counterattack. By leaning forward, he reduced the area open to attack and made the first step of his next action in advance.

It was a good movement. But...

"Now, then."

Noah pursued. He closed the gap between him and Toby's movement.

That evasive jump after falling created a distance of two steps, but Noah put on airs and forcibly covered it in a single step.

He caught up. And...

"What will you do?"

As soon as he asked that, Scorpion's tip arrived as a counterattack.

It was perfectly timed for when Noah completed his forced step.

There was no room for criticism in the movement, power, or idea.

_...Good job._

With that thought, Noah took action.

.

Mikumo saw Toby fly through the air.

He had been facing Noah, but he flew backwards in the opposite direction.

He was thrown into the water in something of a side flip, but Mikumo did not initially understand what had happened.

_...What was that!?_

Toby had just launched a counterattack to the front.

So why had he been sent backwards?

Something had been done to match his counterattack.

"What was he hit with?"

When Mikumo asked Kitora, that girl next to him watched the pool as she answered.

"...It's nothing like that."

Kitora scratched her head.

"He really does have it bad."

"Have what?"

"He is going to need to be broken down a fair bit."

Meanwhile, Noah was moving. He slowly walked forward and toward Toby.

But not to pursue. He was approaching his opponent. That was all.

Some water splashed up at Noah's feet, but the gap between him and Toby closed.

"—"

With a single splash, Toby made a jump.

.

Toby took a position that allowed him to confront Noah.

He was to Noah's right, so Kōgetsu would block him from view.

He was about 5 meters away. He had made it so Scorpion's reach was just under 3 meters, so he would be in attack range after only a short approach.

But he did not simply charge in.

Noah knew how to use his Kōgetsu. He would be constantly on the lookout for someone taking this position and he would have trained in how to respond.

And Toby had chosen to jump there.

That was a feint against Noah. Noah would have to question whether he should attack there or not.

And that spot allowed Toby to jump behind him.

"—"

He did so.

It was a low jump and he landed in an instant. The duckboard was below the water's surface, so he did not slip when he landed behind Noah with his knees bent and ready to spring.

He could make an attack, so he stuck his right knee out toward Noah and balanced his body.

He would send his knee out and then his blade. And Toby realized something after taking that stance and moving.

At some point, he had ended up in front of Noah.

_...Huh?_

This was strange.

Why was he in front of him after circling behind him?

He had not jumped or circled around to that spot.

So Noah must have turned to face him.

He had done so in an instant.

_...He predicted this?_

That had to be the case and Toby understood how he had predicted it.

That flow of movement was one Noah had often experienced in training.

 _But,_ thought Toby. _How did he also predict that I would move behind him?_

That was strange.

He had moved behind Kōgetsu countless times in training. At Noah's request, he had thought up ways to attack him and discussed possible countermeasures.

But moving behind him afterwards was just one of many options.

How had he predicted that choice?

"..."

Noah moved toward him.

 _This isn't good,_ thought Toby.

He found himself in an inexplicable situation. He could not explain how his actions had been so perfectly predicted.

However, he also did not understand why it was inexplicable, so he could not come up with any kind of countermeasure.

At this rate, Noah would attack him and he would lose.

No, he had already lost several times. The number of losses had just passed 20.

There was only one possibility:

_...My actions are being seen and predicted._

Toby had a sudden thought: _Is_ that _the trick?_

_._

_For now, I will assume that my actions are being seen, thought Toby._

_...In that case, my actions are being_ predicted _because they are being_ seen.

And with that...

"..."

He realized something.

He realized how his actions were being seen.

.

_...Ah._

Mikumo realized that Toby's movement had changed.

When he stood up and moved away from Noah's approach, the way he walked had changed.

Before, he had been in a hurry to approach and attack his opponent, so he had leaned forward like he was running. He had leaned forward and raised his hips in a stance that allowed him to kick his legs backwards.

But that had changed.

He was more upright and his legs were arranged side to side instead of front to back. He also kept his hips low.

Mikumo thought it made him look like a dog.

But this dog moved quickly.

He did not run along the water like before.

He did not jump toward his destination.

He first sent one or the other of his legs forward.

He sent out a knee and then placed his toes on the duckboard at his destination. Then his body caught up with his leg.

Instead of kicking himself forward, he pulled himself forward.

It was a lot like crawling or climbing with just one's arms.

_...Is that...?_

"One of our Border agents, who have since left for their own reasons, moved a lot like that," said Kitora. "You can use your leg and knee as a deterrent and you can also immediately pull it back. It makes quick direction changes difficult, but Toby can overcome that with his mobility."

 _I see,_ thought Mikumo before opening his mouth.

He had realized something about the way Toby placed his toes on the water's surface.

"He didn't make a splash."

And...

"Shor will have a hard time seeing Awdry's back leg. That means he can't read Awdry's movements."

"Why is that?"

"There are no more splashes to reveal his footsteps and the movement of his leg is hidden."

"Yes." Kitora sounded unimpressed. "She's reached the point that he needs to follow a silly plan when moving around."

.

Toby moved forward.

But he did not simply advance. He circled around to Noah's left side.

He was turned so his right side faced forward. He stuck out his right leg and pulled his body in with his right knee.

He turned using the left leg behind him.

His left leg was up on its toes and it turned his body as a rear rudder.

He predicted the best time to move forward and back as he continued on.

_...This is it...!_

His left leg was hidden by his right knee and his body.

He held Scorpion in front of his body as if showing it off to Noah.

It was difficult to use a blade in that position.

_...It actually looks more like a spear when I change the shape like this._

When holding a spear in both arms, his own body and the shaft would be in the way.

When holding a spear in front of you, you generally held it so it extended to the side.

But then he could not thrust the Scorpion to the front.

That was a poor position for circling to Noah's left side.

Noah stood directly across from him as he prepared his Scorpion.

He had to think about his own body's interference when swinging the Scorpion.

And he needed to push it forward, not to pull it back to gather strength.

This was not an easy situation for controlling the Scorpion. But...

"—"

.

 _That is fine,_ concluded Toby. He had never before done anything so reckless while training with Noah.

_...Now he won't be able to "predict" my action._

With that, he charged forward and launched an attack while passing by Noah.

"...!?"

He was filled with instantaneous confusion. Noah had raised his left hand while Toby charged in with Scorpion.

He had reacted.

.

Toby had a thought in that moment.

_...How...!?_

The angle and movement of Noah's raised left hand told Toby what he was trying to do.

He was trying to grab the tip of Scorpion.

The spaced tip meant it could be grabbed as long as you did not grab the blade.

So Noah was trying to do just that. He was going to calmly grab Toby's weapon, and...

_...Knock me to the ground!?_

It was the same as before.

Throughout all of this, Noah had not made a single attack.

He would predict Toby's actions and send him flying in some way or another: sweep his legs out from under him, pull down on the arm swinging the weapon, or place a hand on his waist and spin him.

That counterattack should not have happened.

When Toby had charged forward, Noah had swept his feet out from under him and rotated him sideways through the air.

It had only taken an instant.

Toby had been placed on top of his swinging leg and forced into a flip. There had been no hesitation in the action and it had not eliminated any of Toby's momentum.

"—"

This was the same.

Just like before, he would be sent flying.

The Scorpion tip would be grabbed and pulled back and that was sure to send him forward.

That was devastating with his legs separated to the front and back. He could not endure a pull to the side and down.

Imagining his imminent loss, Toby felt his reflexes try to pull back.

But it was too late. He had already passed the point of no return for that future. So...

_...Kh._

Even after more than 20 losses, he could not figure out why he was losing.

He had thought it was because Noah knew his movements from training, but that was not it.

He had thought it was because the splashes were allowing Noah to predict his actions, but that was not it.

Then what was it?

Why was he losing here?

_...I need to think...!_

He had no time.

There were only two things he could do: think and move as a reflexive response to that.

So he did so.

.

 _Well done,_ thought Noah.

He saw a certain action in front of him.

As he tried to grab Scorpion's tip, it suddenly shattered.

The entire blade from top to base shattered to sent green light around them.

Toby had shattered the blade so it could not be grabbed.

The blade moved back and shattered so Noah could not grab it, but it also seemed to be a threat to him.

 _This is a bluff,_ thought Noah.

But his eyes felt his opponent's actions.

He did not see them. There was not enough time to see and understand.

So he felt the movements entering his vision and predicted them.

Toby was not there.

More accurately, only his bouncing hair was there.

The wet hair was circling behind him.

Toby moved quickly.

The speed came from shattering Scorpion, but this was not movement of his legs. There was only one way he could cover that distance in an instant with his legs spread front to back like that.

"Teleport."

No, that was not right.

Teleport was an almost instant transport. There was no way he would miss the clues to its activation.

_But he doesn't like using Grasshopper._

So...

_This is the Trigger Minoru told me about._

Kiyome.

Toby whipped up the wind.

The wind circled behind Noah.

_...Amazing._

Toby swiftly shifted between one action and another in the middle of battle.

He likely had not noticed it himself, but how many people in the current Border could think up and pull off that kind of thing?

In battle, this boy could produce and respond to any movement he could think of. Whatever he could not cover, his Side Effect would fix.

And due to a certain factor, he no longer recognized that ability of his.

Noah had to correct that.

He had to do so in every way he could.

"Yes."

After reminding himself of that, Noah breathed in.

_...Now, then._

He had to make sure Noah realized why he could predict and respond to Toby's actions.

_...Are you coming?_

Toby's wind danced behind him.

He was coming.

.

Toby leaped.

When he landed from the leap behind Noah, he kicked strongly at the water.

That would tell the other boy exactly where he was.

He made the duckboard creak to draw attention to his location.

And then he took another leap.

But not to the front: up above.

He had to launch himself above Noah's head. That was the only option. Any horizontal movement could be "predicted".

And a simple leap above the other boy would also be "predicted".

So he had created a foothold by splashing the water upon landing.

Kiyome could provide acceleration based on any foothold.

He only had to step on a quickly former Scorpion.

He could use "ideal movements" for that. For that technique, he controlled his body and moved it exactly as he wanted, a trick he had learned from Yuki, yet found difficult due to his Side Effect. He could do that to step on the repeatedly shattering Scorpions and use it as footholds.

Of course, he had lost during the match against his friends despite possessing this technique.

He had not wanted to try it against them since it would either create a high advantage or a devastating disadvantage. It was high risk, high reward, but...

"—"

 _No,_ realized Toby.

His enemy's movements had been what supported them.

That was all there was to it. And...

_...Ah._

_I have no weapon,_ he realized.

His weapon was there.

When leaping with Noah earlier, his Scorpion blades had continuously shattered.

The first one that had shattered had been reformed just as quickly, so it had been tossed up, leaving him with only one other Trigger usage.

So Toby did what he could. He kicked the shattered Trigger and used his falling acceleration to arrive above Noah's head.

He arrived.

He achieved an unbelievable height and distance in the span of a breath, but his path was more important than his position.

Instead of simply leaping, he took a complex path using the shattering Trigger footholds. If anything, he attempted to fall over Noah's head from the sky in front of him.

Scorpion reached his outstretched right hand.

It was there.

He grabbed it and pulled it in.

It was Kōgetsu.

.

Mikumo saw a strange sight.

Toby was hit by an attack in midair and slammed into the water.

But that was only the result. It was the process leading up to that which was strange.

_...What...?_

Noah had sent Kōgetsu flying through the air to match Toby's leap.

At the same time, he had grabbed Toby's not shattered Scorpion and dropped it down. He had not let Scorpion escape after its tip had shattered to escape his grasp and then was abandoned.

He eliminated the enemy's weapon. Next, he had tossed Kōgetsu's actual blade to Toby in the air and circled around above him.

He had used Grasshopper to leap above Toby in an instant.

From there, he had only needed to make his attack.

 _But,_ thought Mikumo.

_...What was that?_

Noah had jumped from directly below Toby, so Toby should have seen it.

But from Mikumo's perspective Toby had looked like a clown that could not see what was right in front of him.

"Shor sure is thorough."

Kitora spoke quietly.

"Was it familiarity from training? —No.

"Was it his footsteps splashing in the water? —No.

"Then was it simply that he's cleverer than Toby? —No.

"Those are all wrong. But they are all things that amateurs and somewhat skilled people will notice and take advantage of. Against an expert or a monster, they are more than just openings. They lead directly to loss."

"Then that wasn't why Shor set this up?"

"No, this wasn't some fancy stage meant to point out the splashing or the training. ...It was to point out that it isn't any of those."

Meaning...

"It was to show Toby that his failure is something more fundamental."

.

_...Why...!?_

Toby questioned everything while kneeling on the duckboard.

Why was he losing?

It was not just Noah's familiarity with his training and it was not just that his movements were being predicted. Even his clever ideas were being cut off.

What was he supposed to do?

Noah picked up Kōgetsu's fallen blade. Water dripped from it as he used just his right hand to place it back in the holder he already held.

Then he used his left hand to lightly spin around what he had already collected: Scorpion.

The blade sliced through the water and reflected the vermillion festival lights, but he did not so much as glance at it.

He simply aimed Kōgetsu's tip at Toby.

"Toby. ...What do you have to say about this situation?"

Toby thought about how to answer that question.

But he already knew the answer.

Ever since Kotowari Squad had been fixed, he had completely lost his luster. It felt like the thread he used to grasp victory had snapped.

Until then, he had been able to pull off the ideal movements of an expert.

But now he was not even confident he could do that.

No, he felt like his "ideal movements" were different from those of the experts.

They would spin and dance as if they were swimming through the flow of battle, but he was simply moving and finding places to attack.

He felt like a real animal.

He felt pathetic for being weaker because he had been helped.

But during that terrible period, he felt...

"Complete and utter defeat."

This was the same. No, this was far worse.

"I can't win."

"Okay. Is that so? Then..."

Noah swung his right hand.

He purposefully drove Kōgetsu through Toby's face.

.

 _He's really smashed him now,_ thought Kitora when she saw the attack.

_...Shor isn't holding back._

Was that how much he cared for Toby, his friend at the top?

But that attack had contained no mercy whatsoever. The snap of his wrist had looked light, but that was what gave it such great speed. And a blade like Kōgetsu would cause Bail Out if it simply hit you.

A direct blow to the face could easily smash the skull for a regular body, so in this case it would be Bail Out.

This was Mikado City's main area. It was a great distance from Border. A Bail Out from here would mean a great amount of time before coming back.

It would take that time to return, but there was also time to reform his body.

Of course, the battles would be over by then.

That was the meaning held behind the attack Noah so casually sent Toby's way.

It would do greater harm to his future than his physical body.

And...

"Awdry!"

_Shut up, Mikumo-kun. Why are your hands on your cheeks like a girl? Although using me as a baseline, the girly reaction is to keep your arms crossed._

_But what happened to Toby?_ wondered Kitora.

She looked up and saw something other than fatigue or a lack of motivation. Their dog was captured by something else.

"...Fear."

Anxiety also described it.

He was afraid of losing.

If he lost some important battle, his companions would have to bear the weight of his loss along with him.

And more importantly...

_...He will remain a failure in the eyes of his parents._

But if he let that fear consume him, it was all over.

"Figure it out," said Kitora.

Her eyes were on Noah, who had a grim look his her face as he finished swinging Kōgetsu.

He had guts if he could do something _like that_ without an _even worse_ look on his face.

Toby, meanwhile...

"He lost."

Or he should have.

"Heh." Kitora laughed quietly. "Why can't you lose, Toby?"

.

Toby felt something cold on his right cheek.

What was touching him there? He slowly moved his gaze to the right and saw it.

His face...his eyes could see it there: Kōgetsu's holder.

If the thick holder was next to his face and touching his right cheek, then he had not been smashed.

Noah had missed. Then...

_...Was that just a threat?_

Had he come within millimeters of hitting him in order to open his eyes?

But his view of himself suddenly distorted.

Kōgetsu was pulled back toward Noah.

And Noah spoke.

"Even with your Side Effect, please don't dodge."

.

_...Huh!?_

Toby questioned what Noah had said.

He had not tried to dodge. He had seen the sudden attack and prepared himself for what was to come: _I really am a lost cause if I have made No go this far._

So he had resigned himself to taking this attack as a rebuke.

He had not dodged.

_...I swear it..._

He tried to promise he had not dodged.

But then the holder arrived again. He saw its color in front of him.

"—"

 _Yes,_ he said in his heart.

He had lost and had no hope of recovering, but he had a companion who would end it for him.

So he leaned forward to accept that ending. Still seated, he moved to let the holder hit him as a way of taking responsibility for his friend and companion's effort.

.

Mikumo realized something had ended.

Noah's second attack sliced through the air.

_...He is serious._

He sent Kōgetsu forward with his wrist, yet it heavily pierced the air.

And along the covered blade's path...

"Why...?"

He could see Kōgetsu's holder.

It was next to Toby's face. It had seemed to graze his left cheek and passed behind his shoulder.

It had not hit him.

Mikumo commented on the Attacker Trigger's failure.

"Why...is he dodging?"

"Training," said Kitora with a quick laugh. "I recognize that movement."

And...

"It's a survival instinct that functions at a subconscious level. That's what's dodging all of these. I guess his Side Effect could also be an option, but he seems like he doesn't really want to move his body."

"But." Mikumo frowned. "Isn't that what guided him to failure before?"

"Figure it out."

Kitora said that to him, but then...

"Ahh."

She must have decided he was the type who could not figure it out.

With a look that could only be disgust in her eyebrows and mouth, she opened her mouth.

He felt extremely apologetic as she explained.

"Balance."

That was all.

Then he saw movement in front of them. Noah had made his third attack.

It was a deep jab with his elbow behind it.

.

 _I dodged it,_ realized Toby.

The first time, he had not even noticed.

The second time, he had been unable to believe it.

The third time, he had understood what he had done.

And the next jab was coming.

"—"

Noah stepped forward for the fourth one.

_...Kh._

_Will I move?_ thought Toby about his own body. He had reacted subconsciously to dodge the previous three, but what about when he was conscious of it?

"..."

He dodged it.

It carved across his right cheek and it felt like having a bug crawling along his skin. His trion skin was sliced one after another. Trion spilled from where he felt the bug's legs.

But he had dodged it. He had dodged with his own conscious will and his own actions.

But he still had questions.

What good was dodging?

It was not like he would lose his life if he did not dodge.

Was he afraid of the pain?

That was not it. Normally, an attack like that would knock him unconscious. In fact, a scrape like this would have left him with more pain than that. But none of that mattered when he was in a trion body. There would be no actual feeling to it.

Then had his pride not allowed him to give up here?

That was not it either. He was more afraid of being unable to continue fighting. If he was concerned about the trouble he would cause his companions...

_...Giving up here would be easier for everyone._

So why had he dodged it?

He did not know. But...

"—"

A fifth and sixth attack arrived.

Toby dodged the blade tip atop the water.

His stance had crumbled.

He quickly crawled, rolled, kicked water up at Noah, and attempted to stand up.

He could not manage it.

Toby kicked at the duckboard and his footing collapsed.

He simply produced a splash, fell to his knees, and tried desperately to move away.

_...Kh._

If he was hit, it was all over.

And that would make everything so much easier.

He fought as his team's ace, his position pitted him against the strongest of opponents, he had taken his title of an animal since it gave off some power, and most importantly...

_...I have my duty as Kotowari Squad's ace!_

_My friends will get rid of that pressure._

_That will be the end of it._

_Yeah, Noah is more suited for the better position than me._

_After all, he has managed to overpower me when I am supposed to be reaching for him. For Yuki._

_So I can pass that kind of thing to others and use my loss as the proof._

_That is for the best._

_So why?_

"—"

He had to have dodged more than 20 attacks already.

Why?

Why did he continue to dodge when none of his attacks could get through and he had given up?

The answer was obvious.

Because if he was defeated here, he would never know why he had dodged earlier.

If he gave up, he would never solve the mystery of that moment.

_...Why?_

Why had he chosen not to sink?

And just as he isolated that question inside himself...

"You leave me no choice."

Noah began to pull out Kōgetsu.

Toby looked back atop the duckboard and saw a different stance from before.

Noah held the sheathed Kōgetsu at his side and he spoke.

"Senkū...Kōgetsu."

.

Toby reflexively took action.

He grabbed the duckboard section floating to the right of the one he was kneeling on.

"..."

He swung his entire body around and used the momentum to throw it at Noah.

The collection of boards flew up from low in the air. The duckboard section was the size of a tatami mat and it strained under its water-laden weight, but...

"Kh...!"

Instead of throwing it at Noah, it was more like releasing it as a horizontal, axe-like swing.

.

Noah predicted that action.

But the look Toby gave him was far more painful than seeing the right arm reaching for the neighboring duckboard section.

He saw Toby desperately trying to think up something to do and he felt a sense of self-loathing.

But there was a good reason to push Toby this far.

However, his action had been poorly timed.

Kōgetsu was already prepared to slash and dodging the duckboard had shifted its aim.

"..."

He had intended to hit Toby with a somewhat horizontal blow.

But now the tip was aimed somewhat downwards.

_...Not good...!_

The impact tore into the pool.

It crushed and shook the water while smashing the dozen or so duckboard sections in an instant.

"—"

The pool exploded.

.

The ruptured water was dumped on Mikumo.

Kōgetsu's attack had not hit Toby.

For one thing, it had not released its normal form of attack. The sparring settings had fired an impact instead.

And then Kōgetsu's impact had hit the water at Toby's feet.

It had not dug through it.

It had compressed it with an impact.

But after it was pushed down, it had to return to its original shape.

The compression heated the pool water until steam rose from it.

But that was as far as the water lasted.

The compressed water exploded from the center of the attack.

The impact would have diffused in the air, but in the water it functioned properly and reflected back.

The water sent itself scattering through the air and carried the duckboard sections with it. And then...

_...Wah!_

The impact that had struck the pool was launched upwards.

It was an explosion.

The waves burst and Mikumo saw Noah leap back as if pushed by the mountain of water.

A moment later, the airborne water fell back down as rain.

The splinters of the duckboard also fell while Mikumo realized Toby was nowhere to be seen.

"Awdry...!"

The falling water threatened to drown out his voice.

Next to him, Kitora spoke while equally soaked.

"He fell."

She gestured toward the sky to the edge.

"Let's see how this turns out."

.

Toby thought, _I have seen the sky a lot recently._

In recent match, he had looked up into the sky as Takeshi had fired his laser like beams for their advantage.

At midday that same day, he had looked up into the sky from Minoru's lap after his battle with Seikai Kiyoshi.

At the current night, he had looked up into the sky after being blown away by Noah's Kōgetsu.

 _It mostly had to do with a good person,_ he thought, but now was not the time.

After all, he had fallen from the building's roof.

They were on the top floor. Up to the end of of the area were others lined up.

Someone was holding a festival in Mikado City and building up people's spirits before something big happened.

He had fallen from there.

That was a drop of about 50 meters. He would not survive a fall of that height in his normal body.

But he had no way of saving himself either.

He could not find it in himself to counteract this fall, but even so, he was wearing a swimsuit. And he was sure that something happening after lightly dressing himself.

He had thought anything extra would cause him to overlook what he was doing wrong.

_...Such an incompetent mistake. Oh, that is what my parents would always say about me, isn't it?_

He could blame no one but himself if he caused a major scene here.

And a thought occurred to him only now.

_...Won't this leave some mental scars with me here?_

He must have been a lost cause from the moment he had failed to understand what he was doing wrong.

He thought he was fairly strong for his age of only 15, but it had not been enough. Worse, he had lacked the power to even understand what he lacked.

So he had lost to someone who never had a chance to make a comeback: himself.

That boy had always been off his game when he fought, so anything that counted as a "win" had been a mistake. After seeking more fights and impatiently demanding more, the true value of his strength had become all too clear.

Toby sighed and spoke to himself as he fell through empty air.

"I..."

If possible...

"I want to redo all of those fights..."

He wanted a direct clash with his former self to see just how much of a mess up he had always been.

_...If only I could do that..._

That was when Toby realized something.

_...I still have something I have left undone._

Of course he did.

He was stepping down from the stage early, so nothing was complete.

But now a voice escaped his lips.

"Kh..."

How many times had his vision been blurred by tears now? Even in this trion body, he felt it too unrealistic if he could not do so much as cry.

Even as he realized how weak he had always been, he converted his groan into a voice.

"I hate this."

.

Toby was aware he lacked strength.

But the result of that mistaken battle had twisted something inside him.

He had become unable to accept it.

He had not properly learned how much strength he did have. He had experienced incomplete victories and defeats, but then powerful enemies had appeared before him.

"Yes..."

He was not strong enough.

But it was his own naiveté that had grown distorted.

So he would end it here.

He would fall and hand over his Trigger after.

And yet...

"Why?"

 _Why?_ thought Toby.

Why had he not closed his eyes?

Why had he not stopped shifting?

Why had he not given up on himself?

Why?

"Why...!? Why, my stupid body!?"

Why was he reaching his hand out into the empty air?

The answer was obvious.

A single straightforward shape was falling toward him.

"Scorpion...!"

.

Noah said nothing.

He simply hurried to the edge of the deck and tossed a blade down.

The blade could not stop the fall.

Scorpion, while being light, lacked a fall reduction protection.

 _But,_ thought Noah. _Toby can't wake up without his fangs._

That trion weapon had always been his attack power and his fangs. No matter how many were destroyed and shattered, he would create new ones.

A bite much worse than any bark.

If seeing that was not enough to wake him...

"He will be as good as dead even when he survives."

"You sure are nice, Shor."

Kitora's voice reached him from behind.

"You can judge this based on life."

"Yeah." Noah felt a smile inside himself as he answered. "That must be because I judge myself based on simple things."

.

Toby grabbed Scorpion in his right hand.

The word "why" was ringing in his heart.

No, the power in his hand had been thrown to him by Noah.

Noah was telling him to come back.

Throwing down Scorpion instead of a protection or defense was proof of that.

He was telling him to come back up himself. But...

"—"

Toby wondered if he was really allowed to not give up.

Even though he was weak.

"Kh."

His companion was telling him to use the power in his hand.

He was aware of his weakness. There was no point in looking away from it now.

And his companion was attempting to clear away the distortion within him.

So the rest was up to him.

_...Right._

With that word of understanding and of a contract, Toby began to think.

Why was he desperately searching for a reason to continue on when he had been working so hard to let himself end just a moment ago?

The answer to that question was the question itself.

Because he did not want to end. That was all there was to it.

He truly did not want to end, but he had thought it might be better to end and had tried to obey that thought.

He had simply been trying to look good.

But that had all been turned around by nothing more than Noah's message of "don't lose".

So had he just wanted that boy's concern?

Pathetic. But...

"...Right!"

Would the others forgive him for trying to end it all until now? And...

_...Honestly._

Toby wished for it with no hesitation now.

_...I can't just appear up there. That is because I'm not "me". "I" would just teleport up there as a way to imitate Yuki._

He wished to not end.

_"I" have only wanted to be like him. Like the person who took me in. But that's wrong... There was never "right" in what "I" was doing._

He shook the tears from his eyes, shattered Scorpion himself, and raised his voice.

_This will be who "I" am now!_

"...Headfirst Fall!"

.

Noah saw an arcing form fly up into the night sky.

It was Toby.

He had pulled himself up from the fall and used that momentum to jump even higher than the others.

It was all a series of forcible actions.

When looking down earlier, Noah had seen no footholds for Toby to use Kiyome on.

Activating Kiyome in the empty air would only lead to falling.

Even if he could supply the proper direction and shift his position, he could not escape the falling motion.

Teleport had been his only option.

But that was only without a foothold.

Toby had created a foothold for Kiyome.

He had kicked off the countless pieces of Scorpion that he had shattered.

"—"

And he fell.

He directed his fall toward the side of the building and slammed into it.

The rest was simple.

He repeatedly "fell toward" the building's walls and used that momentum to jump.

"So he made it back."

His brown hair formed an arc as he fell from the night sky.

He fell toward the edge of the pool that had lost most of its water.

Their training was not yet over. So...

"...Here I go."

Noah held Kōgetsu and its holder in both hands and moved forward.

He had to clear away and straighten out his companion's distortion.

"Here I go...!"

He made a high-speed charge.


	70. Toby Awdry: Part 4

The exchange of attack and defense drew a circle.

The pool on top of the building's flat roof had lost its water.

That was why Toby and Noah used the circular poolside as their battlefield.

They swung their blades to send out and deflect attacks.

"—"

Lights flew and they changed positions to move around that circle.

The clashing of trion was joined by the footsteps of approach and retreat.

The high-speed exchange was not solely reliant on repeated attacks from the left and right. They would also approach and deter their opponent from the knee or slash from the shoulder in a motion resembling a tackle.

They strung together their techniques to continue the fight and two people watched them after leaving the poolside.

They were Kitora and Mikumo.

Their eyes followed Toby and Noah's movements.

At times, Mikumo's eyes could not keep up. That was due to focusing on the movement of the blade tips instead of the boys' positions.

But he did ask a question while viewing their exchange.

"Why?" he asked. "Why are Toby's movements working now?"

.

_Has he become a "fan"?_

Words that had been told to her by others came to mind.

It could have also been a result of watching the fight.

_That was how I came into the habit of calling him by his first name._

Sighing at the memory, Kitora clicked her tongue.

"Figure it out," Kitora said to Mikumo.

But she knew that was the wrong way to look at this.

_...To be more accurate..._

"There's no need to figure it out."

She understood.

There was a simple reason why Toby's attacks were working on Noah.

_...He's defending now._

At first, Toby had only been focused on hitting Noah with his attacks.

He had been impatient.

But on the battlefield, you had to do more than just defeat your opponent; you also had to survive.

Attack and defense. Any who fought on the battlefield needed to wield both those elements at once.

It could be a pain, but it was important.

If you were prepared to block a counterattack when making a simple attack, the defender would have a much harder time striking back.

Conversely, if you were prepared to counterattack when making a simple defense, the attacker would have a much harder time attacking.

Attack and defense were not separate concepts. Combining them would give them both greater variety.

But what happened when you were missing one or the other?

_...With no interceptions or counterattacks, you become a lot easier to predict._

No matter how difficult the action, if there was nothing hidden behind it, it was easy to respond to. You only had to focus on that one action.

That was the trick behind Noah's "predictions".

Toby would understand that now. So...

"He's sharp."

Toby's actions were quickly working out how to combine attack and defense.

.

_...I'm so sorry! No...!_

Toby felt hair starting to stick to his skin as he sent Scorpion toward Noah.

This was more than just an attack. He was thinking about what to do after it was deflected, so he was prepared to spin his body.

It was an attack that could be immediately transformed into defense. It was difficult to do so with his hips solidly behind it instead of acting out of hesitant uncertainty.

But this would be how he fought forevermore.

He could not forget what he was doing now.

Attack and defense.

If he had been true to the fundamentals, he never would have forgotten this.

But he had forgotten.

When faced with a strong opponent, he had grown impatient, prioritized defeating them, and forgotten to protect himself. Leaving it to his Side Effect had caused some stalling in previous matches.

The problem had been harsher by facing people like Noah himself and Tsukiko Squad's Shana which rendered defense meaningless.

He thought it was that battle which had messed up his sense of defense against strong opponents. He had gained a habit of only avoiding the lethal attacks.

And that was how Seikai had predicted his actions.

He had been in such a hurry to defeat him that the splashing of the water was enough to read his actions.

_...But..._

He had a companion who had pulled him back from that.

That was the point of the previous training.

When Toby had been ready to let it end, Noah had sent an attack toward his face.

Toby had intended to let it hit him, but he had dodged it.

His training and experience had given him a sense for avoiding danger.

And it had activated despite his intentions.

The balance of defense had still existed inside him.

Noah was probably the most relieved. And Toby would be the second most relieved after remembering what was inside him.

 _But_ , thought Toby while exchanging attacks with Noah.

_...Couldn't No have just told me?_

Would it have been meaningless if he had simply been told it?

Or had Noah trusted that he would realize it on his own?

Toby did not know.

But there was one thing he could say now.

"How about it...!?"

He had regained enough of himself to ask this question.

He was weak.

He was quick to lose his confidence and show off his weakness to gather concern when comparing himself to others.

But now he was here.

"Am I getting through to you...!?"

He did not fear how he would be judged.

He could stand to remain focused on himself. And…

"...!"

He sent an attack to Noah.

Noah would swing both his blade and its holder, sometimes join them together, and receive Noah's attacks, but now...

"Yeah. ...You still have a long way to go."

That was harsh, but that was definitely what the smiling voice said.

"Let's go somewhere with more space."

Because...

"This is too small for you now, Tobio."

When he heard that, Toby blocked Noah's attack.

And just as he caught Kōgetsu's tip on Scorpion's blade...

_...Oh?_

Noah continued toward him.

He was pushing, but he was prepared to take another action. So Toby jumped. And Noah used Grasshopper's acceleration to push further.

Toby's body floated up.

It hovered.

And Noah leaped after him.

He arrived to his right in midair.

The two of them had left the roof on which the pool was located and were now in the air above the city.

Toby looked back and saw Noah's black hair floating out in the night sky.

At the same time, he also saw the expanse of festival lights appear below them.

_Did he want to join them?_

.

People were moving here and there throughout the festival space. Those in the large building heard something in the sky.

It was a strange noise.

The loud sound caused some people to exchange a glance, caused others to suspect an attack, and caused yet others to...

"Hey...!"

...find the source and point at it.

Up in the night sky, two swimsuited Border members were illuminated by the festival lights.

Toby and Noah both held their primary weapons.

"...!"

And they unleashed several clashes in midair.

"Oh," everyone cried as they looked up to see the two of them land on the roofs of the two rows of festival stands that formed the central row.

However, they did not stop there.

Above the hustle and bustle of the people producing the festival music, Toby and Noah maintained their landing momentum to run forward. They accelerated along the festival stand roofs with Toby to the base and Noah to the city.

"—!"

They sent out and returned attacks and defense as they ran.

The two agents scattered light and ran above the festival without fearing the attention on them.

.

"Tobio! Let's have a race!"

"A race!? What kind of race!?"

"Right!" Noah smiled. "A race to the Forbidden Zone. Whoever gets there first wins!"

 _That is simple enough,_ thought Toby.

He was covered in water and showing signs of ware. His body had grown accustomed to the tension from the previous training and the fall off the building, but he was still mentally worn out.

But he nodded all the same.

"Yeah!"

With that, he accelerated along the festival stands below his feet. But...

"...Oh."

Noah sent an attack from the right.

This was more than just a race. It was training too. _In that case,_ thought Toby as he raised his weapon.

That weapon was Scorpion.

It was his Trigger. It had been reformed with a slightly different design and its strength had been solidified, but he only used it as a blade here.

And he began an exchange of blows.

He seriously targeted his opponent's body and legs to slow him down.

Of course, his opponent was doing the same, so he also had to defend and strike back.

Shattering lights flew and solid sounds split the air.

"...?"

Suddenly, he felt like the surrounding music had synced up with their movements.

But he was not just imagining it.

A dozen or so people were running along the stands on the outer edges to their left and right. He saw those boys and girls were carrying speakers.

"Dog boy! Goggles boy! We will accompany you!"

It was a band. That concert band played during their free time and it was mostly made up of C-Rank Border agents from what Toby could see. They normally asked Suzume, Shashin or Shana for help and had received some odd training by those three.

They were currently dancing and singing at good speed while running alongside the two boys. And...

"Ah...!"

A three-girl aria filled the air.

And that was not all.

People were lined up and running along the pathways below them and the roofs parallel to them.

Those boys and girls were C-Ranks and a boy in the lead looked up at them.

"Awdry! Shor! What are you doing!?"

Some from behind called up to the boy.

"Hey, his name changed remember!? We are free to call him Lobo now!"

"Oh, right! Hey, Lobo! Shor! My question is the same!"

.

"We are training!" answered Noah.

He deflected every one of Toby's attacks as he did so.

"We are training with a race to the end of the city!"

"Then...do you mind if we join in?"

Toby aimed his blade tip while also exchanging a glance with Noah.

Noah nodded. As did Toby. So...

"You guys can come along!"

"Great! ...Okay! Boys, girls, the festival's really getting started now!"

Messages popped up all over the festival. They all relayed information about the race.

"Anyone can join in once Lobo (Awdry) and Shor passes your position! If you then pass them and reach the Forbidden Zone, you win! (Note: This will only be for Border agents who have a Trigger due to the nature of the race. C-Ranks and above are allowed.)"

"Hey! What's the prize for winning!?"

"I'd love to pet their heads since they always look so fluffy!"

 _Eh?_ thought Toby.

New messages appeared all over.

"Being able to pat both of their head if you win would be wonderful! Even the 6th Ranked Attacker hasn't managed that kind of thing yet!"

"Being able to pat both of their heads if you win sounds wonderful! Even the 3rd Ranked Attacker hasn't managed that kind of thing yet!"

"You get to pat both of their heads? Wonderful! Even the 1st Ranked Attacker hasn't managed that yet!

A game of telephone had begun and a stir ran through this part of the city and the areas ahead of it.

_...How did this end up happening?_

As Toby wondered that, Noah smiled at him from beyond the shattering light.

_I must really have changed if it doesn't even phase me anymore. Yeah, you're all free to call me Lobo now!_

He showed his full set of teeth with a smile.

"Now we have to win."

"Yeah."

They took off running and several figures ran alongside them.

The ones carrying weapons were the agents down below. Toby realized they were already starting to fight each other as they ran. They were yelling at each other without a hint of sarcasm.

"You idiot! I'm not about to let someone like you take that wonderful victory...!"

"We will protect their masculinity! So don't even think about looking up there, girls!"

"Outta the way! Keeping up is hard enough as it is!"

They were making a lot of noise. And the agents on the other roofs lightly raised their hands toward the two boys.

"Please spar with us too! No points are need for this!"

_Are you sure you want that?_

Toby gasped at this unexpected request, but Noah responded quietly.

"I am nowhere near the best, but I won't hold back."

That settled it. Toby continued sparring with Noah, but at the same time...

"Bring it on!"

"Yeah!"

He approached the enemy.

* * *

Sekai let out a sigh once the commotion reached his ears.

Behind him there were multiple noises with the most prominent one being...

"Hahaha! Damn! I wish I could join them! I wanna pet Lobo-chan and Noah-chan! Instead I'm stuck with my captain who thinks he's cool when in reality he's really cool!"

"Kirikari, I think you should slow down a bit there. Hikigane is cool, but he is trying to remain professional here. See? He even tried to hide his sigh just now."

Sekai raised an eyebrow at the comment. He never remembered trying to hide his sighs.

Moving his eyes away from the nudist and the team captain, he looked to the black wolf and the white fox who seemed to be busy with something else. Their voices were not kept low, but it did seem like they were trying not to disturb anyone else.

When he listened in on the conversation...

"Those C-Ranks aren't suppose to be using their Triggers for a race. But I guess I can't blame them since Toby tends to get people to just go wild and Noah is showing off a bit."

"Yeah. While I am happy to see him in such good spirits, that boy is making a bit of a mess. We can play this off as more of these festivities, but that might not go over so well with the directors. I guess I'll take responsibility for this. Toby is technically under my care, so that is my fault. Kō, can you at least take responsibility for Noah?"

Feeling a small amount of pity for the two, Sekai cleared his thought. His eyes turned upward as he began speaking into the open air.

"That is interesting. I knew people were starting to join our festival, but I never imaged they would start a rooftop race for some extra fun. I guess they want to get their energy going before we put the festival tower up."

Sekai let out another sigh as he saw the race go on from the distance.

He had not seen the messages going around, but Jinsei was providing enough commentary fir him to figure it out.

Yet another sigh came out. This time with a smile following it.

"I guess the people of the city want to show off that they can still live life to the fullest even when Neighbors are an issue."

He looked back at the black wolf and the white fox. He tried to hide his expression, but they were quick to catch on.

"From the looks of things, Border was planning to put on a show for the people of Mikado City. Some extra training for their C-Rank agents perhaps? I can at least hand it to you guys... You have pride in showing your want to protect us."

It looked like both the black wolf and the white fox wanted to say something, but held it in for consideration of his position. He was grateful for that, but would not say so.

Instead, a different voice filled the space.

It was the Kuruma Squad captain.

"It looks like everyone is enjoying this festival. Kurosaki sure is nice."

_I would hold my tongue on that if I were you._

"As long as you don't underestimate Shin, you should be fine."

* * *

The festival stage was a long but intermittent path.

The festival was held in the middle of the city onward. The reimagining area made a distance of about 1500 meters with many more to come and a wild wave was racing along it. More lights seemed to appear with their arrive coming up.

There were four rows of festival stands and Toby and Noah ran along the two positioned back-to-back in the center.

They were supported from the outside by the music unit that sang and danced while running after them. The rushed movement did not disturb their music and the nimbler of the non-participating agents ran along behind them to watch.

The real trouble was along the left and right pathways and atop the central roofs.

The pathways were already flooded with agents trying to participate in the festival and the roofs had become a large battlefield.

Some of them had already been drinking and others must have been feeling gloomy with such still being low ranking. They all ran along the roofs, attempted to attack Toby and Noah, were sent flying, got into fights with their fellow runners, and tried to knock them away.

But they were all laughing.

"Ohhh...!"

One group rushed at Toby.

They made a simultaneous attack. They charged in with perfect unity. Instead of just arriving as a horizontal group, some of them climbed over the others to attack from above.

Toby responded with a brief glance toward Noah.

He sent the end of an extended Scorpion blade flying toward the repeated attacks from Noah's Kōgetsu.

"...Oh."

He used the knockback from Kōgetsu attacks to repeatedly attack the charging group with Scorpion.

He did not waste a single attack.

He judged who would reach him soonest and where an attack would be most effective and then he accurately sent the attack there.

Each attack hit and carried out its role.

There were as many audible blows as there were people and the simultaneous charge was sent flying back with the same intensity with which it had approached.

The crowd scattered behind Toby like a blooming flower.

"Wow," cried the boys running on the road. "Lobo! Do that more!"

"Right! ...Who will be my next prey!?"

He knocked away everyone who accepted the challenge, he dodged every attack, and he kept moving forward.

The area came to an end.

So he jumped.

He did not have a descent path, but there was nothing to fear now.

The people following behind him, the people running alongside him, and Noah had no issue with jumping the gap.

A few of them did not quite make the distance.

"Oh, no!?"

They fell, but they only had to get up due to the nature of Triggers.

Then Toby landed on the next area's ground. Noah landed next and used the momentum to launch a heavy attack, so Toby caught it on Scorpion's blade.

The music followed them. The other agents and spectators also kept up with them.

After confirming that, Toby once more took off running with Noah.

He made attacks and dodged, but when their eyes met...

"—"

There was a smile in Noah's eyes.

_...Honestly._

Just how much had Toby worried and concerned that boy?

If he tried to apologize, Noah would only tell him not to worry about it, so Toby said something else as he ran.

"I'm sorry, everyone."

He carried the clashing swords, music, and general noise with him as he ran.

"I haven't been putting on that great of a show in these recent BRW matches. But..."

But...

"I intend to kept going until I win. I would appreciate some support."

He said it.

That was how he felt now.

_...I want a great match._

He did not know when it would happen, but he wanted a true fight to take away his previous distortion.

There were many great Attackers in Border and Toby intended to catch up to each of them.

But what did everyone think of him now?

_...What if they say I am relying on them too much...? I mean, half of them barely know me and are just around for Suzume._

Just as some dark thoughts threatened to settle in, he heard a sound.

"—"

He heard musical instruments. It was the brass instruments of the concert band with their speakers in hand for music using the outer edges to run with them.

That was it.

What was it they had said before?

_...We will accompany you._

They were not supporting or assisting him. They were simply accompanying him down that path.

The powerful music arrived from either side to support him and it seemed to tell him not to worry about anything.

And none of it ended there. The agents below raised their voices.

"Are you done with all that depressing stuff!?"

That bright tone of voice shook Toby's heart.

_...That's right._

This was a festival. It was a time for purification where anything was allowed. So...

"Right. ...I'm don't with that crap now!"

The number of fellow runners on the roof had grown. They were on the next area and people had been waiting here after hearing the commotion from the last area.

Every part of the festival was filled with fellow runners and the race continued.

Toby accelerated as he knocked away a would-be attacker with a roundhouse kick.

He fell forward, toward the goal of this race.

* * *

"Wow, just look at them go. Keeping the festival going using others was the right decision."

The voice from the top of the middle of the city's tall building belonged to Yoneya. He rested his elbow on the railing at the edge and spoke to Mikumo and Kitora who were alongside him.

"Why don't the two of you go?"

"There's no way I could keep up..."

"I wish I had wires set up on the last area.

Yoneya smiled bitterly at Kitora's comment.

"Kitora, you say that, but you've never done anything like that."

"That's right. Kitora wouldn't be that mean."

Kitora glanced over at Mikumo's smiling face.

"Kitora- _san._ I'm not a child. ...Are you dumb?"

"This girl...!" mumbled Mikumo while stepping back, so Yoneya rubbed his head.

"Don't push yourself, Megane-kun."

"Wh-why are you treating me like a child...?"

"Just calm down," said Yoneya while facing forward again.

The battling group was arriving on the next area, so the wave of people and its music were growing more distant.

_...Ohh, they keep knocking people through the air._

Given the position, that had to have been Toby's doing.

"I'm glad Toby... No, I guess now it's Lobo. Either way, I'm glad he could recover."

"Yes. So am I. He seems like a good person," said Mikumo. "But will this change the strategy for Kotowari Squad?"

"It'll change it a fair bit."

"...Then why didn't you help with To-... Awdry's training? Don't tell me you just didn't want to have your thoughts if their team fall apart."

"Nah, it isn't anything like that. Suzume-chan makes great music and I hear Koto-chan is making some progress. After hearing what Kōchō and Kurauchi had to say about them, I just figured that I would join in as one of their 'fans'. But I'm still just a normal guy and not a trainer..."

"Sorry..."

"No, no." Yoneya smiled bitterly. "But I am glad that Toby recovered."

He viewed the music and commotion that was fading into the distance and he rested his chin directly on the railing. He stuck his hips up behind him and he thought he heard his clothes straining, but he decided to blame that on too much pointless work. He was still young.

"Anyway," he said. "To earn a high return, you need a margin of high damage."

"Um... Are you saying you are going to put Awdry and the others in danger?"

"Winning is something that matters in this world."

"But," said Mikumo, which Yoneya thought showed how seriously he took this.

_...I don't take things seriously enough..._

But just thinking that was not enough. Fortunately, Kitora helped out.

"We just have to slip past the high damage."

And...

"I really am glad that Toby recovered."

"I know what you mean.'

"Yeah. Earlier, I was pigging out at the buffet and was eating pizza, but it turned out to be too much for me. And when I opened up a window to vomit, Toby was running by outside using Kiyome. I was surprised since he always used Teleport instead of Grasshopper. ...I was right not to rush the vomiting. I would've been hit by a counterattack."

"L-let's not copy old video games like that!"

"Oh, yeah. There was one where you climb a wall and people open the window to ero ero on you, wasn't there?"

But when he looked out ahead.

"Oh, they're moving to the last area where the edge of the city is."

It seemed the people here were not calling it quits just yet. The festival had shifted to where Toby was.

When the people running the stands realized those stands had been broken and all the customers had left, they gave up making repairs or calling for customers.

"Dammit! I'm going to charge them for this...!"

"Yeah! Let's charge the adults for this...!"

It was reassuring how they took off running with knives and rolling pins in hand. The defeated agents were still trying to recover, but when they noticed those cooks, they quickly started running again.

 _They sure have lots of energy,_ thought Yoneya. And...

_...Oh._

The commotion at the head of the group had grown even larger.

They had arrived at the final stage.

* * *

Toby was in the lead.

The final area group was doing a good job of fighting back. They were all waiting at the edge with weapons at the ready. Some held Kōgetsu while others were ready with guns or cubes of trion.

They were only allowed to attack Toby and Noah after the boys had passed them. So a message opened at the moment when Toby landed.

"Mark the line...!"

With a shout from the C-Rank in command, a mark floated above Toby's head for only them to see.

A red line extended to one side. That was the offside line. And once that line passed someone...

"Commence attack...!"

Swords produced a high-speed rush of attacks and accelerating Toby spun around backwards.

He struck.

A series of solid sounds rang out and their number increased each time he accelerated. But the C-Ranks pursuing him were also numerous.

He jumped to the festival stand roofs and began running while a crashing wave of B-Ranks raced after him.

They were all using Grasshopper and some even had shields ready.

"Please spar with us...!"

And just as they caught up, a figure leaped between them and Toby.

It was Noah. He turned toward the charging B-Ranks, and...

"Well then."

He counterattacked with Kōgetsu as if he had only just noticed them.

"—!?"

The group leading the charge crumbled and those behind them were caught in the collapsing pile.

The recoil of the strike pushed Noah forward, but agents rushed toward him as well.

"Please spar with us!"

There were girls as well as boys. And there was plenty of infighting, so a lot of them were knocked away during their approach. However, they did manage to catch up to Noah.

"Special Technique: Quantity Over Quality!"

"This isn't some anime, you idiots!"

Noah was hit by the word "overwhelming".

But just as he was going to be overrun, someone pulled forward on his arm.

It was Toby. And...

"...Headfirst Fall."

With that quiet statement, he blatantly jumped a distance of several steps with Noah.

"Ah," said the C-Ranks left without a target. "You can work together!?"

"This is just a race!"

Toby pulled on Noah's arm and partially held him in him arm, but then he tossed him away.

Noah smiled in the air.

"Tobio!"

They were now side by side atop the central festival stands. The din of pursuers approached behind them and Noah smiled while water flew from him.

"You wanted to spar, didn't you!?"

With that, the two of them ran back to back. When the charging agents caught up in greater and greater number, the two boys began fighting back while occasionally swapping positions.

.

Noah smiled as he ran and attacked their pursuers.

_...Thank goodness._

This was the one person who was always out ahead of him and he was glad that person had returned.

But that was not because he did not want to stand in the lead. He would do his duty and he knew what was possible and impossible for him. That had been the reason as to why he joined the Suzunari Branch.

If he knew what the result would be, nothing would faze him. He was prepared for that.

But Toby was different.

His possibilities and impossibilities were less certain and could waver. And like they had seen here, there were times when he fell below and times when he rose above.

 _What about now?_ Noah wondered about Toby.

So he ended this time in which they ran back to back and fought back together.

_...I can find out with a single attack._

He had seen this during that day.

Toby had subconsciously taken a certain action.

Noah forcibly accelerated his step to reproduce that. He moved out ahead of Toby.

"...Here goes!"

He made his attack.

.

Toby realized the race was ending.

They were already on the final area and they had passed the halfway point on its radius.

Noah had moved out ahead and struck with Kōgetsu.

The first attack was a stab to the right.

He held the blade out horizontally and targeted Toby's neck with the blade more than the tip.

But Toby dodged it. He sank down and shifted into an acceleration prep stance to do so. A few second later he realized he had done that with his reflexes.

He looked up to see Noah already preparing for a second attack.

That was the true attack. He was making a diagonal swing down at Toby's ducking body.

So Toby moved forward.

_...If I can dodge this to the left or right..._

Then he could attack Noah on the way past him.

But just as he considered that, he saw Noah move.

He let go of his second attack to the left.

"..."

His left hand grabbed the wrist that had made the right stab.

It was a forceful action, but if he pulled his right hand down...

_...The horizontal attack will be pulled down to my level!?_

That was exactly what happened.

Toby's ducking vision saw the trion blade dropping down toward him.

It was going to hit.

It happened just as he ducked down. His center of gravity was lowered and he could not swing his body to either side.

Moving forward would be the best plan, but that would send him right into the trion blade.

 _But,_ thought Toby.

_...It will not hit me._

For some reason, that was what he thought.

 _Yes,_ he thought as he realized why he felt that way.

His actions and the flow of battle fit together.

So if he moved forward, obeyed his forward-stepping leg, and moved his body down and up...

"—"

It would not hit.

.

Noah saw it.

It was the same as what he had been told by Minoru that day. Toby passed right through something that clearly should have hit him. Or it looked that way to Noah.

During that day, it had been a metal beam.

Now, it was Kōgetsu.

Toby passed through the forcibly-lowered blade and approached Noah.

But Noah understood that Toby had not passed through the object either time, even while only seeing it this one time.

_...He is using the "ideal movements" of an expert...!_

Those movements were created by the speed and decision control of A-Rank level fighters like Minoru or Murakami Kō.

By using extremely precise movement control with nothing going to waste, they could evade anything and everything while still moving in to attack.

Toby had been capable of that before, but his "ideal movements" had been based on his position control and had essentially comprised of creating a launch pad for his acceleration.

This "ideal movement" was different.

Instead of just involving movement or attitude control, he charged forward while evading.

_...This is it..._

This had to be the territory the other experts had reached.

With this high level "ideal movement", the movement of attack and the evasion or positioning of defense were combined.

Minoru had done it with his speed and balance.

Murakami Kō had done it with his attack and defense control.

Toby did it with his great strength and reflexes.

Each optimization possessed the idiosyncrasies of the method used, but...

"Tobio...!"

 _He has it,_ realized Noah.

Toby had the power needed to face the opponents awaiting him at the top tier.

Noah was prepared to fight his own battles and he knew the others would be too.

But Toby had only just now reached that point. He had regained his original "ideal movement" and grasped something even better.

Of course, it was not perfect. Most likely, he was only vaguely aware of it and would be unable to use it as he wanted.

_...But...!_

Sensing hope inside him, Noah leaped back.

Pushing down the Kōgetsu blade had also been a way to prepare to jump.

While forcibly pulling back his right arm, he made a powerful jump backwards.

His left hand grabbed Kōgetsu's holder from where he had let it go into the air before.

"Let's do this!"

With Toby in front of him and the goal behind him, Noah made an attack.

He swung both Kōgetsu and its holder toward the center and spoke with strength in his voice.

"Let's finish this!"

.

Toby jumped.

He ran along the top of the festival stands.

_...Make it...!_

He repeatedly accelerated with Kiyome to pull away from the pursuers. And...

"Ohh...!"

Kōgetsu was closing in from the right and left.

He passed through the center.

_...I can make it...!_

He launched his body forward. And he fell toward...

"...Huh?"

He must have miscounted the number of steps. He had meant to make a decisive attack on Noah, but he had taken a half-step too far.

"Ah."

He fell headfirst into Noah's chest.

_This is the second time this has happened... It's a good thing Suzume isn't around._

_._

Noah understood what had happened, but he did not understand what was going on.

Toby had miscounted his steps because of his movement optimization. The step he would normally have used on defense had instead been used on approaching Kōgetsu and that had caused a discrepancy.

But as a result, Toby had pressed his face into Noah's chest and Noah had caught her.

"Whoa...!"

The problem was how he was swinging Kōgetsu closed.

That movement caused him to embrace Toby.

"Ah."

The attack from the Senkū Kōgetsu beyond Toby.

The unleashed slash flew toward the group approaching them from behind. And as a result...

"Eh?"

The power launched them all horizontally toward the end of the area.

_Oh... Kinda forgot we made it so they became impacts..._

.

Everyone saw it happen.

A wave of people was blasted above the festival being held in Mikado City.

They were just high enough to skim along the festival stand roofs, so the festival itself was not damaged.

And as those people flew through the air...

"Dammiiiiiiit!"

"I should've gone in from the side!"

"But this way we got to see his face pressing into his chest! Great material!"

They sounded satisfied and those who were not hit saw who reached the Forbidden Zone before anyone else.

It was Toby.

Earlier, that boy with the bouncing hair had been held in Noah's arms along with the Kōgetsu blade and the holder

But when he landed softly on the ground, he set down Noah who he held in his arms.

They realized everyone had come to a stop.

The group playing music from their speakers stood unmoving on the left and right festival stands and the dancers remained motionless while up on one leg or doing a handstand.

How would they end this?

As everyone watched expectantly, Toby moved.

He placed Noah in front of him and relaxed his shoulders. And...

"You arrived first, No."

Because...

"It was you who brought me here."

"Then, uh..."

Noah observed their surroundings.

Despite his attention, everyone remained entirely motionless and simply watched. So...

"...I feel like this was supposed to be the other way around."

He placed his hand on Toby's head.

After only a few seconds, he rubbed his head before moving back and looked to everyone else.

"Everyone," he said. "Let's enjoy ourselves tonight."

Everyone responded to those words and the current situation.

They raised their voices and stomped their feet as one.

"—!"

A roaring cheer shook the night.

* * *

"What!? Jin! This cute girl character is a busty blonde! I went out of my way to let you have her first but you haven't finished her route yet!? Are you sayin' I can have her!? ...You want me to wait!? Fuji is more important, but you can't let me have her!? Are you a monster!? Or are you taking your faith too lightly!? As divine punishment, I'll send you an e-mail with all the endin' dialogue copied into it! What? I just have to choose 'yes' for all the choices with that company's games!? You idiot! I've been stuck in an infinite loop of 'Let's become one → Yes → It would be a shame to do that now!' What!? Calm down and choose 'no' to continue!? You aren't really suggestin' I choose to reject a something so damn good... What? How'd I get this far with that attitude? You think I should be playin' games rated 'kids only' instead of 'adults only'? Hmph, the only option left is to check the Internet!"

 _...Ikoma-sama only gets more...worked up as times goes on..._ thought Shobu.

It was currently eleven at night, which was the time Seikai had mentioned. The hallway was only filled with a faint heat and the main garden only sent a damp chill toward him in the air.

_...Wh-where are...the guards...?_

They were not there. The management sign should have displayed a person called Rusu, but Shobu did not know if his and the guards' absence was normal or if Seikai had done something.

But without them there, he could not figure that out.

_...I-isn't this...a bit like cheating...? ...Or a lot...like it...?_

He walked to the main garden as he thought.

Even with all the cheating ways Yuki had told him about, it still felt a bit wrong to be doing something like this.

Part of it was simple curiosity about the garden at night. It had been so dense during the day, so what would it be like at night?

During elementary and early middle school, his class had camped out at a city farm district for a field trip. The air had changed at night back then. It had been an artificial arrangement, but he remembered hearing the sounds of nature.

Would this be the same?

This main garden had much more dense vegetation than Mikado City's usual one.

He walked excitedly on and took each step by the wall while trying to keep his footsteps as quiet as possible.

"...Wow..."

He quickly realized this had to be amazing.

The sensory information arriving from the main garden was chilly and effervescent. It was like countless small, freshly-washed fruits were floating in the air and dripping water.

He was aware a smile had formed on his lips as he continued with a quickened pace.

"Yes."

He entered the main garden.


	71. Border: Part 6

It was a windowless room with an area of around the size you would see in a motel. Bunk beds were attached to the wall and there was a desk for two, but people could currently only be found in the passageway down the center of the room.

A single chair barely filled that passageway. It was almost entirely reclined and a girl lay on it with a blanket pulled up to her neck. She faced forward with a somewhat weak look.

"Sorry it suddenly got so bad, Futoyuki-san. My stomach doesn't usually act up like this..."

"Yes, well, there's no helping it, Arisa. Don't worry about it and get some rest. I think this is to make up for how well you were doing during the day."

Futoyuki stood in front of the room's door and he held a small boy's hand.

That boy being the younger Awdry brother.

He had wanted to drop by the Yagura Branch office for a moment to see how his new friend was doing, but that had not been possible once Futoyuki told him that something was happening.

So instead, the two older ones began to watch over him for the time being.

"I heard tomorrow will be an eventful day because of whatever is going on. ...Border's library and cafeteria are running twenty-four hours for the day for the directors and anyone else involved with whatever is going on. So we can probably go get a bite to eat because of that."

"Are you okay, Ms. Arisa?"

Hearing that question, Arisa raised her head and smiled.

"I'm fine. I just feel like my insides are being twisted upwards, like my stomach is caving in, and like the blood vessels in my head are about to burst. Oh, and I'm getting constant waves of intense chills and nausea, so...ohhhh, there it is, there it is, there it is."

"What did that mean, Mr. Futoyuki?"

"That midenkind gained a great many ways to express themselves with the invention of language. Oh, but..."

"Hm? What?"

"Well." Futoyuki nodded. "The people in the building before told me there's a way to avoid this suffering. And it works especially well when a girl has monthly problems."

"Eh? What is it? A drug?"

"No. It's apparently something the two of us can do together. Do you know what is?"

"Oh, so they are taking this in that direction, are they?"

"Huh? Did I say something weird?"

"I will scold you plenty later. I do not have it in me now, but consider yourself warned."

"Hmm. I don't really get it, but would it not work?"

"W-well, it is not that it wouldn't work..."

"What do you mean?"

"Hmm." Arisa thought for a moment, but she soon lifted the blanket up to her forehead. "I can't do this. I'm too weak now, so I'll let it slide. Just know that right now it is just a very painful stomachs from some bad food."

"Then I guess it'll have to wait until later." Futoyuki spoke to her with a bitter smile. "You seem to know what they meant, so tell me if you feel like it."

"Get out!"

"Okay, okay."

He pulled on the boy's hand and started to leave, but...

"Futoyuki-san."

"Eh? What? Should I buy you something?"

"Please don't try to make a joke about all of this right now. Anyway, um..."

"?"

Futoyuki tilted his head, but Arisa could not see with the blanket over her head. However...

"Did you want to visit the city today? You had a chance today, didn't you?"

"Well, I'm still a Neighbor, so I'd have trouble not messing around with those tangerine things."

"You need to bow down and apologize to the people of Mikado City..."

"Hm? I don't really get it, but since some of us are banned from leaving or entering the Border base, I might have been able to come back if I had gone. ...Still, it seems Kimura and the others are going to be busy because of my own mistake."

"Hm? ...A mistake?"

"Yes. There was a notice over Border's transmission earlier that they were having problems with a Trion Soldier the Wanderers made."

Futoyuki tilted his head as he explained.

"According to the directors, I still can't say much because they are uncertain if I am messing with them. Akasora-sensei has told me about some guy in Mikado City that can tell if I am lying or not, but I wouldn't lie anyway. ...It's strange that they will not take my help yet. Especially since that Blaze seems to have gone and attached itself to that girl."

* * *

 **White Fox:** "Okay, someone tell me why we aren't just asking Futoyuki for some help here?"

The group had arrived at the Kurosaki building for their own guests. Inside the visitors quarters at one end of the surprisingly cold building, Yuki conversed over Border's transmission while checking on the door.

_...This means the directors want to wait things out a bit. Boy, I wonder who is being stubborn over there._

**White Fox:** "Even if the directors are being pigheaded about this, can you do something, Kimura? You must have seen some issues come up when this three business meeting began in the first place."

 **Manager:** "Yeah. If the three businesses gather together, something of course would come up because of it. If they want to earn some gratitude by 'assisting' Border by sending out those Neighbors, they have to act now. Then again, they must have had something else in mind to not even reveal themselves and use something from the Neighbors who had 'greeted' us this week. We need to give some thought to the fact that they chose now."

 **Ōji:** "If you end up going to war with them after this, I'll give you a standing ovation."

 **Manager:** "Dammit. After three times of doing that, you people just expect that from me! Just you watch! Things will be settled peacefully!"

 **White Fox:** "I wish I didn't know what that is about, but do you know who we are dealing with here?"

 **Manager:** "Eh? O-oh, yes. I did some more research... The shows everyone put on earlier was not something any of us could look over. Especially after what Ikoma-san had told us."

 **Black Wolf:** "I heard some rumors about what Shiraishi works on, but I never look too deep into rumors like those. Kurosaki was easier to get data on while Kobayashi was easy due to them having someone in Minoru's squad. But...you know the, um, connection between Denji, Sekai, and some of us here, right?"

"They know the bare minimum," Yuki confirmed.

 _This place doesn't have a great hall further in,_ he guessed from the structure of the ventilation and ceiling.

 **White Fox:** "Right. Some more knowledge should be helpful. If we are up against Denji and Sekai-san then just know that they are actually not slouches when it comes to these things. Even if they are working for someone, they are both great at using whatever they can."

But Yuki was confident in his own words.

 **White Fox:** "Sekai-san does not pull his punches when he is serious...and he can definitely be overwhelming for anyone not prepared for it. Most of you have seen him in the BRW or have fought against him. Think of him being the mid-boss for those things. When it comes to this kind of thing, think of him as the higher-than-mid-boss."

 **Manager:** "Thanks for filling in for Akashi-san there. But please remember not to show your fanboy side when talking about him. Anyway, with all that in mind, I plan to do something without letting my guard down."

"But," cut in Kurauchi.

 **Kura-uchi:** "Denji is no joke either, right? Senshi has told me only a little of what he knows, and that is still coming from either the wolf or the fox. How much trouble are the ones at Kobayashi in? Most of us stay away from that man, so we know less than we want."

 **Manager:** "Don't worry about that. ...Bakuto-san's information has come in from Yamamoto-san earlier when he made his first appearance for Kobayashi. I am not saying to overlook him, but remember that he is a hired hand of a worker and not the bosses."

Kimura paused for a moment and to choose her next words.

 **Manager:** "He has the least amount of power out of the ones we have to worry about. Shiraishi can do something abnormal for anyone not a part of Border and Hikigane-san has been given a direct source of power. Bakuto-san is there for insurance. That being said, it is a bad thing that he is where Minoru-san and Hiura-san are."

 _Those two are the worst options to deal with him,_ silently agreed Yuki. Denji was a man who messed with words in a way Yuki never tries. To have someone like Minoru with him was dangerous while Hiura was simply too inexperienced to deal with him.

 **White Fox:** "I would like to think he would at least go easy on Akane since she is Sekai-san's niece, but I'm not really holding my breath there."

"I see," replied Kurauchi and Yuki nodded as well.

 **White Fox:** "I doubt it will be easy, but I'm sure Kimura can figure something out. She's quite good at adlibbing...and I'm not talking about gags, just to be clear. Now, anyway, I hate that I know what you guys were talking about before, but ending this by going to war would be par for the course, so feel free to do that if you have too."

 **Manager:** "You people are getting a little carried away since leaving Border! It even rubbed off on that boy you took in!"

 **White Fox:** "He was having fun tonight, so leave him alone."

 **Kura-uchi:** "Right. So how are things going for you, Yuki? Where is Kon? In bed?"

Yuki looked behind him.

They were inside the visitors quarters at one end of the Kurosaki building for guests. Even the walls were covered in carpet and the bed was a twin size with a canopy.

The rooms were made so they had to sleep two to a bed.

And right now, a nude black-hair lay on the bed, beckoning him over with a smile.

But this was not Kon. It was a crossdresser and a nudist. So...

 **White Fox:** "Kazuki, I am in the non-Suzunari room."

 **Ōji:** "What!? You're pathetic!"

 **White Fox:** "Th-that was sudden!"

 **Ōji:** "You really are stupid! If you had a Ninja Room and a Nudist Room and stuck Kō in the latter, then that material could be sold to Misaki then those two doujins would buy me a new house! You understand, don't you!? I am talking about something that would have even Prince Shotoku flipping tearfully through the pages shouting 'More! More! Ah, you could call this the seventeen articles of sex!' And what have you given me instead? A Shudo Room!? Misaki has too much of that already!

 **White Fox:** "I don't want to deal with all that, so I'll just respond to that last part: I never said this was a Shudo Room! And don't go selling crap like that to Suzu! I'll drag you down with me otherwise!"

 **Ōji:** "I won't apologize to some idiot fox. Besides, I know a good amount of her Shipping Squad and I already told them it was. Looking forward to next month."

 **White Fox:** "N-now you've done it! You've really done it now, haven't you!?"

 **Kura-uchi:** "But Yu...ki. Sorry, I am still not completely use to that. Anyway, aren't you disappointed Takato-san is not with you? Especially after getting together with her?"

 _Well,_ he thought while crossing his arms and pondering the situation.

_...Hmm..._

**White Fox:** "To tell you the truth, even before that, I always stay in the same room as Mei, but since I'm always on the floor, I get nervous just thinking about being in the same bed as her, even when she thinks it is her being nice for saying that there is nothing wrong with us staying in the same bed. After all, she takes off all her clothes when she goes to bed. I can just imagine her hiding behind the curtain on the other side of the bed as she strips, but then noticing me, blushing, and going into her crazy blushing mode. Oh, you assholes coined Rampage Dress for that, didn't you? Stop that, by the way. I really will beat the crap out of anyone who brings that up. Anyways. If she frantically pulled the blanket over her after stripping, that would be really cute, you know, instead of trying to beat me up. Then I would stand at the edge of the bed and ask 'Can I get in?' and she would nod while hiding half her face below the blanket. Once I got under the blanket too, it would go something like this: 'Murakami has reminded me, and I am really holding back from crushing you here, but being given a child is joining together in bed.' 'Ehh? (←Me)' 'S-so, if we do this..." And then we hold hands! Yes, Mei knows about docking methods, but knows that she will not mentally last! That's important! So we end up falling asleep hand-in-hand, but since she has a habit of hugging in her sleep, she'll grab at my arm. And then, ahh, if she pushes up my sleeve... Kh! Oh, god... Anyway, the next morning, Mei would be a little sad and disappointed when she notices we aren't still 'joined together' when she wakes up, so I can gently embrace her to comfort her. 'That can wait until we get a bit older and I get more mature. I like embracing you like this just as much.' 'Yuki...!' And then comes the kiss! Just like this! ...This is a chair! It tastes like varnish! ...Anyway, I think it would be something like that. Especially since I know I her so well."

 **Kura-uchi:** "Um, sorry, that was my fault. Yeah, sorry. I am really sorry. I will personally perform a dogeza for everyone."

 **Ōji:** "That will kill your sanity level, so I recommend just skimming through it, Kurauchi. It's downright toxic."

 **White Fox:** "H-how can you say that when you were the ones that asked me, you awful people!?"

A notification in the tabs indicated someone had joined the chat.

 **Wisteria:** "Hm. ...You look like you're having fun, but tell me what this is about, Yuki."

 **Kura-uchi:** "Hmm, now what should we do with this chat log? I am curious as to how Takato-san managed to get in, but that can wait until later. ...What are Kurosaki's specialties?"

 **White Fox:** "Kh! I didn't know you were like this! Sensen and Tetsuji never mentioned this! Uh, um, ah! This isn't some other nation, but I'll bring you back some Koshi-no-Ume jam and Snow Rice Cakes."

 **Wisteria:** "I see now. So you were discussing souvenirs. Anyway, Yuki. ...I want to talk about the events of the day and any general plans for tomorrow before going to sleep."

 **Mi-Kon:** "Oh, I was going to suggest that for everyone, but you two are free to go ahead and do that before us."

 **Umi:** "I'll be nice and set you up a chat limited to just the two of you."

 **White Fox:** "Thank you...wait, aren't you supposed to be cleaning up!? Were you listening to all that!?"

 **Black Wolf:** "Speaking of which, Yagura Branch Representative, I noticed you referenced me in that bizarre speech of yours, so we need to have a chat later."

 _This isn't looking good,_ he thought while pulling up a list of the photos he had taken of Mei at different times. They were doing this over the Border chat this time, so what look was he supposed to have on his face while showing her these? Then again, they were in different locations, so it all came down to his imagination which was fine in its own way. But...

 **White Fox:** "Does this mean Border is ready for everything going on?"

* * *

Shobu came to a new understanding of the main garden.

He could sense all the way to the far wall of the approximately hundred meter space, but that was not because there was less information than during the day.

The density had cleared out. During the day, there had been heat, smells, humidity, and more rising from the ground and wavering as they went for his attention, but that was different now. It all rose straight up, joined together when they came into contact, and were more organized.

If the daytime air had been rough waves, then this was several skinny waterfalls rising from earth to heaven.

Those upside-down cascades rose from the entire range of the vegetation. He could reach his hand out and feel a chilly ticklishness that was not really a smell and not really transpiration.

_...Wow..._

He spread his arms to either side and grasped the flowers, plants, ground, and flowing water of this place. The air and humidity reached his skin from the cuffs and collar of the jacket with both the Border emblem and the Yagura emblem he wore for representative purposes, so he felt like he was floating in this place.

And he wondered something. If the differences between the many waterfalls were the differences between the flowers and plants...

"...Are they...colors...?"

There was one thing Shobu did not understand at all: colors.

It was different from the way Takeshi had once misunderstood them. Everything to Shobu was based on things unseen over things seen. Takeshi had simply not understood other colors, but now realized what he had missed.

He understood temperature, humidity, and wind. Thanks to touch, heat, and sound reflection rates, he could generally distinguish between the sky and clouds, water and earth, and clothing and paper. But...

_...The "blue" sky...and "blue" clothing...are different..._

His senses saw a great difference between the sky and dyes, so...

_...What is similar enough...to the sky, air, rain, and earth...to be used as materials for dyes and paints...?_

The answer was flowers and plants.

So if he used his perception of those as his basis for "colors", could he perhaps speak about them with others and understand them himself more smoothly? So on occasion, he would visit the flower bed that Suzume had in an area clear of anything that could harm them, listen to Suzume there, and increase the material he could use to judge colors. But...

"...Suzumebachi-sama...knows a lot of...weird things..."

She would play a Gagaku song she was working on or perform a dance she was working on.

_...And sometimes she lets me...try the fruit wine she's making in secret... ...Yeah..._

She also knew the flower language meanings of the flowers Shobu was trying to use as a basis for colors.

For example, when Shobu was trying to decide what "red" was...

"If you use that flower for 'red', then red inside you will probably be 'shy embarrassment'. Or I suppose it could honestly mean 'I am perfect for you'."

That latter option had seemed like too much, so he had chosen another. But when he had chosen a different one, Suzume had asked "Are you sure?" while sounding fairly worried. That was how he had created colors within himself, but...

_...What kind of colors are there here...?_

He noticed some flowers with familiar colors here and there. Walking between those was a lot like walking through a chilly ankle-height current moving between the small waterfalls. So he spread his arms to better feel the slight scent and heat of flowers as he walked out into the main garden.

He did not notice anyone there. ... _Is that Seikai-sama and Nakagami-sama's doing...?_ He wondered. ... _If so...what am I going to find here...?_

He walked between flower beds, fields, and the many waterfalls and he crossed a stream. He spun around a bit on the bridge to perceive his full surroundings.

_...Ah..._

There were fireflies. They were glowing bugs. He saw the flow from them, even when there was no heat, but he knew that they were really beautiful from the sign alone.

"...Wow..."

Those beautiful spots flew around him amid the many reverse cascades.

 _...Amazing..._ he thought. _...It's a shame the others...can't see this... ...Maybe I should go call Ikoma-sama..._ But...

"Hey! Jin! I did what you said and it put me on a different route! And a wife!? Are you telling someone like me to break a major rule!? What? The wife'ss an cute girl too! You got a problem with that!? That's right! You just need to apologize... Since you apologized for your sin, I'll let you off easy and only work with Jinsei to flood the Internet with spoilers for your character's route."

 _...He sounds pretty excited...so I probably shouldn't interrupt him..._ decided Shobu.

Then a new thought came to mind. One that would not have been there if not for the "greeting" done to Mikado City.

_...Would...Ema-sa-..._

He corrected himself with a smile.

_...Ema... ...Would Ema...enjoy this place...?_

Before the "greeting", Shobu would never have though to say a name without some kind of honorifics. It would go against his own rules and invite unwanted thoughts into his mind, but now...

_...Ema...allowed it... ...He said that...I can just...call him that..._

A connection had been established by the two that continued with an exchange of messages. Unlike their first meeting, they were no longer strangers.

It felt nice.

_...He said...he wanted to...introduce me to some...others... ...Could I also speak properly...to them...?_

He had likely been talking about some friends instead of his team since, at the time, his shoulders had been more relaxed and his expression was a different one. Although it had been a bit difficult to tell.

Shobu smiled once more to himself as he thought about the possibilities.

Then he arrived at the main garden's central clearing. There was a large tree in the center and the beautiful spots flew around below it. Below the tree was something that rose to chest height on him.

_...A stone...?_

He was skeptical because it had a falcon sitting on it.

But he also thought ... _A falcon...?_ because the sitting falcon had multiple eyes. Or rather, it had one eye and multiple dots resembling eyes. And so he concluded that this was neither a stone nor a falcon.

As he wondered what it was, he called a name aloud.

"...Ruri...-sama...?"

.

Ruri trembled when someone called her name without warning.

_...Eh?_

Her confusion was not just from the fact that someone had called out to her. She had been meditating in order to become one with her surroundings and calm herself. During that training, she should have been hard to spot. And yet...

"How?"

She could only assume it was due to her own inexperience, but she was still puzzled.

She faced forward while sitting.

"You...?"

.

Shobu sensed Ruri taking more definite form in front of him. Rather, she became more noticeable even with hair in his eyes.

The girl stood up and faced him.

So Shobu bowed and prepared to say "...It is nice...to see you again..."

But the girl spoke first.

"It's nice to meet you. You're...Border's representative I assume. I've heard all about you. I am Abe Ruri."

_...Eh?_

Shobu did not understand why Ruri had said "it's nice to meet you".

After all, he had already met her during the day. She had passed out during the commotion due to the trion attacks and the Neighbor shaped like a falcon, but they had definitely greeted each other and exchanged words.

_...What does this mean...?_

Did she have some reason to pretend she had forgotten? But...

"—?"

The previous falcon with strange eyes had vanished at some point. Shobu did not know what that meant, but Ruri faced him and asked a question.

"Um, so was I right? Are you Border's representative?"

 _...She really doesn't...remember me,_ realized Shobu. He did not understand what this meant, but...

"...Y-yes... ...Correct... ...I am Tenryū Sh-Shokubutsu..."

"So you are Tenryū-san. Well, you are a lovely dragon."

"...U-um... ...P-people tend to...say that I...am a plant..."

Ruri let a smile onto her lips. She also gave a sigh of relief, so she too must not have known what to do about this situation.

But for some reason, Ruri did not remember Shobu. As he wondered why, Shobu decided asking was unlikely to help. Whether it was an act or not, they had just exchanged greetings.

Confident that they now "knew each other", he asked a question while pointing to his own shoulder.

"...Was there...a falcon...?"

"A falcon?"

Ruri looked to her shoulder while standing up, but there was nothing like that there. But then she spoke up in apparent understanding.

"Oh. My mother likes to joke around and say that there is something like that as my divine protection. ...You can ignore her if she starts that up. But if you think you saw that, maybe there is some truth to that."

"...No... ...It was...my imagination... ...Sorry..."

_...It was solid... ...It reminds me of...the ones the Wanderers use..._

Shobu shook his head, but he honestly gave voice to his follow up thoughts.

"...It surprised me..."

"It surprised you, did it?" Ruri sounded amused. "Tenryū-san, how about I show you around?"

"...Eh...? ...R-really...?"

"The person who should handle that is unfortunately absent at the moment. Do you want to call the Border Attacker that's with you?"

Shobu glanced back toward the corridor to their rooms. He heard Ikoma have a fulfilling time, so he slowly faced Ruri and shook his bangs back and forth.

"...N-no... ...He sounds...serious..."

"I'm not sure what you mean, but I guess it'll just be you."

With that, Ruri grabbed Shobu's hand without warning.

That was a common action, but for Shobu...

"...Nn..."

He felt it was wrong and trembled at being treated differently from normal.

And it was a tremor of rejection.

.

Ruri realized she had acted too hastily.

A tense strength ran through the representative's hand.

_...Oops._

This boy had excellent senses, but that meant being touched so suddenly only filled him with fear. So...

"Sorry."

She quickly moved to let go, but...

"—"

The representative firmly held her hand back. And with a rushed strength.

Had he felt bad for giving a reaction of rejection? He quickly shook his head.

"...It's..."

Was he starting to say "it's okay"? But he stopped and simply shook his head while a rough breath swallowed the rest of his words.

Ruri wondered what to do with the tension that had taken over after the tremor. The representative would not allow her to let go, but...

_...In that case..._

Just as she thought that, Border's representative raised his head. He had realized something and Ruri followed by looking up overhead as well.

"Ohh."

The tree branches up above were glowing.

It was the fireflies.

The fireflies grew in the stream and flew from there and they had gathered on the tree branches.

"It looks like the tree is blossoming."

"...The color..."

The representative calmed his breathing and asked a question while looking up.

"...What color...is it...?"

When Ruri looked again, she realized it was not white. Nor was it yellow. If anything...

"It's a pale glow of light green."

"...Is that...the color of fireflies...to you...?"

When she replied with "yes", the boy nodded.

He was no longer trembling and he felt no fear. He almost looked like a child after having a box of toys dumped out in front of them. But...

_...What about me?_

Ruri spoke while wondering that.

"Representative."

"...Wh-what...?"

"I'd like to show you around, so is that okay?"

The boy nodded. There was nothing there, but he looked up and tilted his head around as if viewing behind and between things.

"...The colors..."

He made a request with a smile.

"...Can you...tell me the colors...?"

* * *

There was a night sky there.

It was a tall sky. It was clear, the moon was out, and the moonlight dyed the white ground a pale blue.

A floor was on a level height with that ground, but it was separated from that surrounding surface. A giant platform was contained inside a giant pit in the ground.

The platform had a banister above it that said Mogami in white with words under it stating it belonged to the Kobayashi family.

That platform sat in front of a tall building that seemed lot it either sunk into the ground or grew up from it instead. However, the areas from each floor of the building and from the surface connected to the platform to make it seem much more like a sort of large home, yet also made it seem like a hotel. Many people and machines were quickly carrying supplies and equipment across.

The equipment to repair or replace building panels, the general necessities for buildings and anything that could be reused without having it break apart, and the food and fuel storages were given priority, but...

"I take it you resupply and perform maintenance by nighttime so that everything is ready for the daytime, Mogami-san."

On the Mogami rooftop, Minoru looked down into the seeming hole between the platform and building. He then looked to the land that was at nearly even level with the rooftop.

_...It looks like it would be hard to send anything out from down here, but it leaves almost no risk of being hit on from afar. And Neighbor would miss it since I didn't even know this existed near Mikado City._

They would have trouble with an invasion from the surface, but he doubted any land Neighbors could make it this far without being destroyed by Border.

As she watched the A-Rank agent, Yoshiko wore a foreign-style uniform modified into a light yellow kariginu, lay on the rooftop's tatami mats, and snacked on some dango. She would occasionally drink sake from a bottle, but...

"Yoshiko. You're drinking pace is kinda high today, so it's a bit worrying, jeez."

A black-haired man was moving back and forth in his spot and making a surprisingly small amount of noise. Border's Sniper was also snacking on dango by Yoshiko's feet, but...

"Um, about that man..."

"Oh, this is Bakuto Denji, my treasured aide and gambler. Come on over here."

"Yoshiko. What is it, jeez?"

When the gambler came over, Yoshiko grabbed him with a smile and stretched him side to side. As a normal man, his arms stretched out far to make it seem as if he was spreading himself out.

"See, Sniper-chan, Minoru? ...This is _Denjiha_."

"Hmmmm, Yoshiko! That kind of forceful introduction leaves me kinda at a loss for words, jeez."

"Ho ho ho. Denji, you are such a strange creature to take such joy from being bullied."

Minoru nearly said "You're drunk, aren't you?", but he held his tongue and watched Yoshiko release Denji and gently get up.

It was strange to see the older man so subdued when compared to his usual attitude.

_Even if I can only see that rotten gambler everyone knows about, it's hard to dismiss the lack of hostility he usually has..._

What exactly was the connection between this Kobayashi hired woman and the fowl gambler? He wanted to ask, but it felt like there was no time for that either.

"Now... You more or less understand our general situation, don't you?"

"If you're suggesting we have a meeting, I believe that is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon."

"After Border figure some things out, you mean? Well, that's fine, but don't you think there are some things it would be best to know about each other before that?"

Minoru updated his judgment of this woman. She had supposedly called the two of them here so their rooms could be prepared and to keep them out of the way of the work below, but...

_...She really was focused more on the three business meeting tomorrow. Even if her bosses are the ones meant to show up._

Yoshiko had shown no sign of arranging any resupplying down below since coming to the rooftop. Either it had all been finished beforehand or each group was trained well enough to make the best decisions on their own.

That suggested a certain meaning to the dango and sake she held.

_...Did she really just want to snack and drink!?_

The Sniper had been right to go with the flow and eat what was provided. Minoru had thought there was more to this and decided to be more cautious.

At the moment, the Sniper took a teacup from the tray on Denji's palm.

"This is Kyou tea we received via Kurosaki."

"Oh, so you're still trading even as you fight?"

"Did I just leak some classified information? But I won't lose. The power of a gambler is to give you the energy you need in dire situations, jeez. Natto!? I'll hear nothing of it, jeez. If you want eggs, eat salmon roe, jeez."

"Oh, I get it now. Do you say 'jeez' cause you are getting old? But isn't that English?"

"But in Japanese it's mattaku and saying 'ttaku' isn't cool, jeez."

"I didn't want to say anything, but is this a wild man by any chance?"

"That's right. I'm wild! I was born Izumo and, to make me more realistic, I was sent on a Come Back Gambler mission, but I got fed up with the world while swimming in the ocean and returned to nature!"

"Why did you get fed up with the world?"

"How should I put it? The adults? All the discipline from the adults, I guess..."

"Everyone has times when they want to act tough for no real reason," added Yoshiko.

"Ahhhh, Yoshiko. Don't put it so bluntly, jeez! A meaninglessly rebellious heart is the symbol of youth."

 **Life:** "Yeah, sometimes your youth displays a meaninglessly rebellious heart in the mornings. Right, Yuki? And it's hard to restrain it. Right, Yuki? Don't you think, Yuki?"

 **White Fox:** "Why did you send that my way three times!? And I have Mei with me, so it isn't meaningless!"

 **Umi:** "Um, you mean...you were facing the wall and feeling yourself for a reason...?"

 **Ōji:** "You are the worst... A truly terrible fox."

 **White Fox:** "Huh, huh? What's this about feeling myself? This took a weird turn."

 **Hero:** "Um, Onii-san? The next time you feel that way in the morning, I'm willing to help."

 **Almost Everyone:** "Helping him feel himself..."

 **White Fox:** "Don't add that '...'! Just don't! It gives me a bad feeling about all this! And how did Shiro get into this chat!? Umi, are you really doing your job here!?"

 _They like to listen in until they can use something they heard,_ thought Minoru as he looked to Yoshiko once more.

"There's something I would like to ask about. It's about the Falcon. Or rather, as we had heard from a source... Blaze."

Yoshiko reacted to that name.

A small smile remained on her lips, but she closed her eyes.

"I had a feeling you would..."

"Of course... I am not entirely ignorant of those Neighbors. We have had a recent encounter with them not so long ago."

That was true.

Border has fought the Wanderers and was thus aware of them, but that meant they understood only the basics and the stuff they had been told by them. And for Mikado City, that entire day may not have happened due to not actually seeing any of those Neighbors.

But...

"Mogami-san, I know that Soka would not give away secrets like that. ...So please tell me. I understand that not everyone could have been kept from the events that happened and that sightings will always be a thing not matter what," said Minoru. "But why did you directly attack it? And why are you the one to represent Kobayashi when Soka's parents should be doing that?"

That question received a question in response. It came from the Sniper who was tilting her head.

"By the parents...do you mean _those_ parents? The Kobayashi ones?"

"Yes, he means Kobayashi Akio-san and Kobayashi Naoko-san." Yoshiko laughed quietly. "The parents who understood my position as a parent."

* * *

 _What does that mean?_ wondered Kimura as she tilted her head inside the cafeteria in the main Border base.

Krümel mistook it for rubbing her cheek against it, so the dog pressed against her face. Kimura responded in kind, and...

"Akashi-san, give me a history of Mogami Yoshiko and-..."

She belatedly realized Akashi was not here. Earlier, Hitomi had sent word that he would be coming back soon enough, but...

"It's a pain having to look everything up myself."

"Wan?"

 _I can think of it as teaching Krümel,_ she decided with an optimistic sigh.

_...I need to look up a history of Mogami Yoshiko and her current treatment. Along with any connections she has publicly._

She is one of the workers under Kobayashi. So why was she now representing them instead of the bosses? And why was she attacking the Neighbors?

This had to be top secret. Probably on a level that prevented her father and the others from revealing it even if they knew on a personal level. And now it had suddenly come to the surface.

 _This is bait,_ realized Kimura while smiling bitterly at Mogami Yoshiko's strategy here.

"Let's hurry up and look this up, Krümel. Remember that it's about doing everything in the best way you can, not in the 'proper' order."

And...

 **Manager:** "Minoru-san, can you get any information out of Mogami Yoshiko?"

 **Deer Prince:** "There's one keyword that comes to mind. I'll try asking about that."

Kimura prepared to say "please do", but...

 **Deer Prince:** "You have already accomplished one thing, so I'll do the same."

Kimura froze in place when she heard that.

_...I see._

She had thought her earlier discussion with others had mostly been important to Border, but...

"Have I given you the motivation you need, Minoru-san?"

She spoke that aloud rather than via the transmission, so she received no reply. But everyone around her exchanged a glance and either nodded or smiled. So Kimura smiled a little herself and said something other than "please do".

 **Manager:** "It's up to you then."

* * *

When he saw the Hogo Squad Operator's reply, Minoru thought, _Don't leave these things to me so casually._

But at the same time, he asked Yoshiko a question.

"Can I ask you something? Why do you know about the Falcon Neighbor? And why are you really here? Also..."

"No one likes a child who asks too many questions."

"And everyone hates an adult that refuses to listen."

With that, Minoru asked a new question. It gathered together all the names that had come up recently.

"There's a word I've heard several times during today's fighting."

It was most likely connected to all of them. The one word tied them all together.

"What is the 'promise'? What exactly is the 'promise' that includes that falcon, you, and most likely Abe Ruri and Sekai as well?"


	72. Border: Part 7

"He wants to ask about the 'promise', does he? Minoru is taking this pretty far."

Murakami faced Hikigane Sekai in a red carpeted hallway.

Sekai roughly wore a Kurosaki uniform and the bandages around his arms and neck had special prints woven in. The way he leaned against the wall and crossed his arms told Murakami something.

_...He's telling us he wants an unofficial conversation..._

That was the point of this hallway situation. They were "passing by" in the hallway and Murakami "just so happened to overhear Sekai talking to himself". So Murakami looked away from Sekai.

"It's very strange... This 'promise' that Minoru asked Mogami about happens to have meaning here at Kurosaki as well."

He was pretending to speak to himself, but he had a feeling he was going too far. However, Kuruma had too little experience with this sort of thing, given that his parents took care of most things, and sending out Kon would be too dangerous. Sending out the nudist would also be dangerous. Same with the crossdresser. So...

 **White Fox:** "Yeah. That shouldn't be a problem, Kō. Keep at it like that."

As the Yagura Branch representative provided Murakami with assistance, Sekai spoke in front of him.

"The 'promise'. ...That was a small vow made to maintain peace in Mikado City and between businesses." Sekai quietly spoke into the empty air. "Let's go over the basics. Since before the first invasion, people of the city and the rest of the world have settled most of the fighting through their own earthly means since everything we made effects everything we made. It still remains that way even now, nations fighting each other and whatnot. But..."

"But the first invasion happened and everything made on earth had no effect."

Murakami felt he was going too far with that, but Sekai looked out the window and did not question it. He narrowed his eyes in the window reflection.

"Of course...there was still some conflict: between different forces within nations or to secure technology that would otherwise be unavailable due to the strangeness of it to begin with. The difference is that Border members, the original ones, were the ones who knew how to use such technology against the Neighbors."

After all...

"After the invasion started, many things were lost and is seemed like a rapid decline would happen and everything seemed to be a step away from having everything taken."

* * *

 _In other words,_ thought Kimura as she stopped her search inside the cafeteria in the Border base.

She straightened her bent back and used a finger to mark the entry on the Falcon. She then reached for the screen displaying Murakami's words and she opened her mouth to speak.

"Does Kobayashi via Mogami want to side with us now so they can gain as much as possible before it looks like another decline is coming?"

 **Background Noise:** "The 'promise' has grown somewhat unclear, so a thought occurred to Yoshiko."

Murakami's Trigger picked up Sekai's words as "Background Noise".

 **Background Noise:** "If Kobayashi via Mogami sees things looking toward a decline while Border is around, then she needs to side with Border sooner rather than later, gain as much for her bosses as possible, and use that as a bargaining chip in negotiations with Border and other businesses. ...This also redirects the attention of everyone else away from where it could hurt to where it can only hinder. But this will still be supported by our discussion system."

"Oh, I get it."

 **Mi-Kon:** "What is it, Kimura?"

Well.

"Hiura-san mentioned earlier that Mogami Yoshiko was eating dango, but that must have been a way of hinting at this discussion system."

* * *

 **Ōji:** "Looks like we have another criminal... No, this one is a felon..."

 **White Fox:** "Ohhh, sorry. Kimura has trouble controlling herself when she's working."

 **Haru:** "Has anyone around here ever been able to control themselves?"

 **Manager:** "And that one doesn't count! Krümel may have picked it up, but it wasn't my material! I firmly protest these false accusations!"

 **Life:** "You're making this sound complicated, but are you actually weak against this sort of thing?"

.

Yoshiko watched Minoru swipe his hand in the air as if swapping something away while sighing at it.

 _Border must be a lively place,_ she thought. _But so is Kobayashi,_ she added. Then she turned to the Sniper who was finishing off the dango.

"You can have these."

She pulled a paper bag from her sleeve and handed it to the Sniper who shook it next to her ear.

"I can tell from the sound: these are karinto, aren't they!? Such high-class sweets! Could it be...are these made from rice too?"

"That's right. They are one of my specialties."

They were quite sweet, so Yoshiko expected the girl's pace would drop.

However, her pace only picked up.

"Wow, the way they melt on your tongue is so different from wheat-based ones! The sesame in them is so good and I can't stop eating them! Ohh, and the occasional clump is like hitting the jackpot!"

"Ahhhh. Yoshiko, this starving girl intends to devour anything and everything while talking about it. Jeeeeeeeeez."

"Minoru...what kind of life does this girl live while in Border?"

"I'm not sure, but I know she eats ice cream with a fox a lot."

"Poor thing... Does she use pets to distract herself from her empty stomach?"

Yoshiko placed a hand on the Sniper's shoulder.

"Eat as much as you want while you are with Kobayashi."

"I don't really understand, but thank you very much."

"Good, good." Yoshiko nodded twice but then took a breath. "That boy didn't, but Sekai and that group ate quite a lot."

"Hm? ...You know Hikigane Sekai?"

"I said we held discussions, didn't I?"

She produced a "ko ko" laugh from her throat as she recalled that nostalgic time. It had only been a few years before, but...

"Shiraishi, Kobayashi, and Kurosaki held many discussions to face the coming age of Neighbors and Border."

And to do that...

"Do you know what kind of preparations we made?"

* * *

"Most likely," said Murakami as he pressed his left shoulder against the hallway wall. "The three businesses made sure there would be close relationships spreading out for them. From what I have heard, Kobayashi was kind and quick in how they responded. This is only my speculation...but Shiraishi probably sent Abe and likely someone else, Kobayashi via Mogami probably sent her child, and Kurosaki probably sent Hikigane Sekai."

The muti-business relationship had begun from a moment after the first invasion.

Murakami had been moved as well after being found. His family had moved to Mikado City some time after Border had formed and he had joined due to what he had learned was his Side Effect.

 **TetsuG:** "Wait a minute... Yeah, hold on! That makes absolutely no sense!

 **Shōgi Boy:** "Oh, nice noticin' that. It took me a minute to see it too."

 **Mad Hatter:** "Huh? What's wrong?"

 **TetsuG:** "Going over that list of people..."

"Oh." Murakami saw it too once he looked over the list.

Some of the names seemed fine considering who they were, but...

 **TetsuG:** "Why would Kobayashi send someone else's child to something so important when they have two children?"

 **Zoe:** "Couldn't it have been because of the circumstances? Like, if something _did happen_ , it wouldn't be their own children? Besides, doesn't the daughter not want to be involved with the business?"

_That still wouldn't make sense. Sending the son would have been fine enough. For those kinds of things, using someone more personal would be the best choice after all._

"So why send Mogami-san's son?"

He continued speaking to himself in hopes of a response.

So response came, but Sekai continued to talk to himself as well. His words were prefaced with a sigh.

"That's right. I forgot that, even if it was between businesses, it was only considered that after the fact. Our meeting up was before Yoshiko even joined Kobayashi. Once she did join, that promise became a part of Kobayashi."

Murakami also recalled something from the festival that afternoon.

_...A name had been mentioned._

_In that case,_ he decided while expanding his thoughts.

"Kurosaki Shin was likely part of that as well. Most likely as an upperclassman."

 **Artist:** "Yes... I should have drawn more upperclassmen material before we became third years. I guess I never thought about it due to not knowing Suzume-chan too well."

 **Shōgi Boy:** "Didn't you draw so much of that that our upperclassmen were afraid of you? Like the nirvana genre."

 **Artist:** "One told me 'I didn't ascend to heaven like that!', so I drew a new one where she started from scratch and worked her way up to the Archaic Drive that took her to the Final Nirvana. Afterwards, I got an e-mail saying, 'Thanks to you, I'm having a great time in nirvana every day!'."

 **Demon Child:** "Honestly...they really needed to learn the difference between reality and fiction."

 **Umi:** "Um, and do you think reality or fiction are more valuable?"

 _That's quite a conceptual question,_ thought Murakami as Sekai suddenly turned toward him.

Sekai was smiling with the ends of his eyebrows somewhat raised.

"What a coincidence running into you here."

They had passed by each other by coincidence, so they had only heard each other by coincidence. That was how they had set up this exchange of information, so Murakami nodded and asked a question with a smile.

"Yeah. What a coincidence. ...Where are you headed?"

"I'm out on patrol. ...We've upped security after the incident this afternoon with a dog and his friend running on the festival stands."

"I understand. Toby and his playmate were both a lot of trouble. ...So what do you want?"

"Right. Where are you headed?"

_...What? Where am I headed?_

Sekai was out on patrol. Murakami had known he would be by here, so he had stepped out into the hall to "happen across him". That meant he had no real destination.

 **Manager:** "This is probably going to develop into a deeper discussion, so if you don't give him an excuse, you can't explain this if someone asks about it."

 **Black Wolf:** "Um, uh? Excuse me? Why am I out here in the hall?"

 **Kuni:** "Heh heh. To mark your territory, right!? Say that's it! You'll turn any part of any business into your turf! Anywhere and everywhere is your turf! In this time, we can say there are emergencies and still don't have bathrooms, so you could mark your territory all you wanted, right!? Tell him you were having fun using the history of your native land! Tell him it's because you're Kō-operative!"

 **Black Wolf:** "I was not doing that and I will not tell him that!"

 **2.7 Maime:** "Well now. Now, now, Kō. Have you forgotten all about your upperclassmen's efforts!? It's fun watching some people's faces covered in shame, so - long story short - I'm going to record them while we watch it!"

 **Black Wolf:** "Jin, I prefer results over the effort that goes into achieving them, so I haven't just forgotten; I have no idea what you are talking about. And I probably should have asked this long ago, but do my other upperclassmen not have any say in the matter?"

 **2.7 Maime:** "You seem mistaken about something, so let me be clear: your upperclassmen has plenty of say in the matter. Under my supervision. And of course, I am under their supervision."

 **Demon Child:** "This may be someone else's problem, but things are getting pretty passionate!"

 **Artist:** "Y-yes, I didn't expect this kind of long-distance heat to reach us from an icy building! Just like with Kuruma-san, I think kind people must have extra warm hearts!"

Murakami was afraid he would be infected if he said anything more and he realized that it was night at the moment, so he ignored part of that and thought about the task at hand.

_...Where am I supposed to be headed?_

A door opened a few meters to the side and Kon poked her head out with a bowl and chopsticks in her hands.

"Now, Kō-kun, take these and – to use my best English vocabulary – place it 'in' the 'toilet' show some 'guts', 'put' the 'treasure' inside, and strike a 'pose'."

"Do you usually strike a pose afterwards?"

"I only ever heard someone clench their fist and shout...'Get!' Guess who that is. They sometimes receive applause from the next stall over."

 **Iko:** "Oh, sometimes I do that. Celebrating other people's success's the best way to achieve success yourself."

Murakami noticed a look of horror on Sekai's face.

"Y-you guys carries around bowls and chopsticks for that...?"

"N-no! Why are you looking at us like we scare you!?"

 **Shōgi Boy:** "Does this mean your destination's the bathroom?"

"W-wait a second! I could always say I was going to the bath or to get something to drink!"

"Our bath is Far Eastern style, so it's already closed. And all we have to drink is vodka. Is that okay with you?"

 **Demon Child:** "Sounds like you've only got one choice. ...That's too bad. Tell me all about it later."

 **Black Wolf:** "You're going to use this for a doujin, aren't you!? You're going to send it right off to Suzume! That's what this is for, isn't it!?"

**Kuru-ma-sama has reconnected.**

**Kuru-ma:** "Oh, sorry. I was speaking with my parents and it put my mind at ease about a number of things, so I fell asleep. Um, what is going on now?"

 **Artist:** "Right. Murakami-kun is stubbornly refusing to go to the bathroom. You can blame the natto."

 **Kuru-ma:** "Eh? ...I don't really understand, but if you're afraid, I can go with you, Kō."

 **Black Wolf:** "Why are all of you treating me like a child now!? And is it just me or did you slip something weird into that explanation!?"

As he shouted via the Border network, the door next to him opened and the crossdresser poked his head out.

"Oh, Kō, Kō. I have a request."

"Eh? Wh-what is it?"

 _Finally, some help!_ thought Murakami as Sekai looked over at the crossdresser. Murakami realized Sekai was wrinkling his brow a little.

"Um...do you find something about our colleague to be strange?"

_...Wait...isn't he..._

"Eh? ...No... I work with a man just as stupid as this one for my other job."

_Come to think of it, they are teammates. Oops. I've gotten too used to this._

Kon commented from the side.

"This is no longer meant as a joke. It is entirely normal. ...Heh. This is the problem with entertainers."

"D-damn you! Are you trying to provoke my entertainer's spirit!?"

"More importantly, Jinsei, what is your request?"

"Well." The crossdresser nodded. "I'm playing a horror porn game right now, y'see. I was at the side of the canal when a voice said 'drop it and leave'. Then a crotch gravity attack hit me and black mana erupted from my crotch at Mach speed inside the marsh. Anyway, I'm too afraid to move, so can you go the bathroom for-... Why are you raising your fist? That's not what I meant. Huh? And why do you have a bowl and chopsticks, Yuka? That's not what I meant either."

_Um..._

"I'm scared, so could you stay out there to protect me until the horror wears off?"

"Okay!"

"I'm counting on you," said the crossdresser as Kon handed him the bowl and chopsticks before he ducked back into his room. Murakami stood next to his door, crossed his arms, and looked to Sekai.

"We won this time!"

"S-sure..."

Murakami was worried about the way Sekai hung his head and let out the most depressing sigh he has ever heard, but he took a breath all the same.

"Now, then. ...I think it's time I gathered my thoughts. Yes, I have a habit of speaking to myself, so I can't help it if I say some of it out loud."

He knew what he had to think about now: the questions they had come across thus far.

"Why do I not remember ever even hearing about Mogami's child and why are both they and the Neighbor important to her? And what is their 'promise!?"

 **Manager:** "Wait!"

_...Eh?_

**Black Wolf:** "What is it, Kimura? Do you have another lame joke to tell? Did what I said trigger this?"

 **Manager:** "You people are too harsh lately! ...Anyway, listen up, Murakami-san and Minoru-san. I want you to ask Hikigane-san and Mogami-san something."

 **Deer Prince:** "Ask them what?"

After a short pause, Kimura's words arrived.

Murakami moved his lips to confirm the question written out in text.

"How long was Mogami's child...still around?"

He ended up copying Kimura's tone of voice, but he also saw a change in Sekai's face as he leaned against the wall with his arms crossed.

His eyes widened but finally relaxed and then his eyebrows rose in a smile.

_...Eh?_

Murakami heard Sekai's laughter. Sekai hid half his face behind a hand, so only his shaking shoulders were visible.

"It seems someone there has figured out most of what is happening in Mikado City and what the current situation is. So you've finally seen the truth, you fighters of empty promises. Sigh. So damn irritating..."

Sekai raised his head, re-crossed his arms, and spoke with his eyebrows still raised.

"I'll start with Mogami's child. He was taken four years ago. And..."

And...

"He wanted to make a system. Ruri was a base for it."

* * *

"A base...?"

Hiura had a decent grasp of what was going on. She had learned in class and learned some more on the radio and television. Her knowledge of Kobayashi and the Shiraishi family's business came from a preliminary information show on the television.

_...According to that, anyone with a high position in Shiraishi starts teaching their children how to take their place, but allows them to choose if that is what they want to do later on in life..._

There had been a lot more information shows on Shiraishi, Kobayashi, and Kurosaki ever since they had arrived at a conclusion. According to an afternoon gossip show called Disastrous You...

"This information is unconfirmed, but I've heard that that Shiraishi's worker's former delinquent of a daughter punished their second daughter who wasn't doing any work and this had a profound effect on their parents who were very fond of the second daughter. Is that true?"

The question was directed toward Yoshiko who thought for a moment and then nodded.

"Well, I don't know if this leaked out or if it's just a coincidence, but...it is true that happened. But, there is one discrepancy in that it was not the second daughter but my son. And it was Ruri's mother that was worried about him."

"Oh. ...I saw it on the TV."

According to every discpriction, Abe Ruri, who would become the boss of a division in the Shiraishi's company, was viewed as important to him.

He grew attached to Ruri and they were good friends to each other, but the Abe mother dotted on the boy.

_...Abe's relationship with her mother could be due to her decisive personality and due to losing something to illness, but I think she decided to get to Mogami-san's son because that mother was thinking more about a child other than her own._

It was said a certain incident dealt a decisive blow to the quarrel between mother and daughter. In that incident, Ruri's father decided to leave, but Ruri focused on protecting the Shiraishi family and left her father to leave.

For everything thought of as history, there had been much discussion about how to handle that before it got too wild, but before any of that could get out, Ruri's mother had needed to explain the situation.

_...So Ruri's mother, Narumi-san, went out in public to address this inside the and explained what happened._

She had gone out in a hurry at night, so instead of the meeting venue, she had accidentally visited a fundraising even where people were not paying attention. The next day, she had frantically begged, "Cancel! Guys, cancel my incident from last night!", but due to her excellent compatibility with people, she ended up having her story twisted.

"It just have been one big game of telephone to reach that kind of story, but I think that was also when Mikado City made some good distinctions for their buildings."

"That's right," said Yoshiko. "I can imagine how panicked she must have been... Narumi was always a friend of mine and like a little sister to me, but she could never get over her carelessness."

Yoshiko laughed quietly, but her expression suddenly sank. The ends of her eyebrows and the corners of her eyes lowered and only her mouth retained a bit of a smile.

"Things were so much fun back then. But now my son has also-..."

"Don't say it," said the Hatohara captain.

Hiura looked up and saw the boy standing with the moon in the background. Minoru spoke below the moon that could approach but never touch.

"What are you planning to blame by saying that now, Mogami-san?"

"Then will you say it for me, Minoru?"

The Hatohara captain's mouth twisted and Hiura thought she heard the boy clench his teeth.

_...Oh._

Hiura suddenly realized the two were being considerate of each other.

She wondered what to do as she munched on a karinto. It was sweet, so she spoke the truth in her heart before the other two could.

"Your son...got taken by a Neighbor at the same time, didn't he?"

Yoshiko and the Hatohara captain looked over at her in surprise, but Hiura lowered her head a little while aware she had a bitter smile on her lips.

"Sorry. But...this is Border's problem too. After all..."

As she said that, a message arrived via Suzaku. It was a summary Kimura had made from network information and it was a patchwork of the scraps of data they had desperately gathered.

The sizes were mismatched, but the data was laid out with a focus on readability and it told Hiura that what she had realized was the truth.

She opened her mouth and looked to Yoshiko. She knew what she had to say.

"Your son's fate has to do with Border, doesn't it? If it happened four years ago, that means..."

That means...

"He had been taken during the first invasion and probably before anyone came, right? You could do nothing at the time but confirm whether you intended to fight them or not."

* * *

"—"

Kimura placed a hand on Krümel who hung on her shoulder and she collapsed backwards.

She was glad this was inside a building. There was nothing she could do about these difficult matters, but she sometimes wanted to let her frustrations show to reduce some of the stress. However, the messages through her low Trigger was fixed to the location of her gaze, so it moved with the tilting of her body.

And she saw some words there.

 **Kage:** "What the hell? ...That's like a damn challenge to us! We can't go back to the first invasion, but it sounds like they wanna put some damn blame over here!"

"Kage."

She heard a voice from another area behind her. And finally...

"Yeah." Kageura agreed user his voice rather than the text. "I know that, but the way they decide these things really pisses me off!"

"Yeah," agreed Kimura while lying down. She placed Krümel more on her forehead than her head and placed a finger on her throat to pick up her voice.

There was something she understood as a someone looking to politics in the future. Any blame was kind in a way, but it was also cruel in a way.

_...I wonder how others felt about doing that?_

She first thought of a question that went beyond the conclusion. If she did not do that, she felt she would forget all about the conclusion.

She carved that into her mind to ensure she did not forget and then she spoke.

 **Manager:** "I oh aey ehested...pey, pey, pey, Krümel, ut are oo ooing?"

 **Kuni:** "You've turned into an idiot girl again, haven't you!? I don't know why you switch over every so often, but it's oh so lovely! Is there something wrong with you!?"

 **Umi:** "Ohh, if a program isn't used to it, this tends to happen when you have it read your vocal cords in an unusual position. I'll change the settings a little from here."

**Method Change: Program TSUBAKI Settings: Reading Flexibility→High: Confirmed**

**Manager:** "Is this better?"

It seemed so, so Kimura patted Krümel and spoke.

 **Manager:** "I know the blame from four years ago was a sign of want from Shiraishi and Mogami-san, but I believe I know what exactly was going through their heads."

First...

 **Manager:** "Mogami-san would have been thinking about why Border, or at that time a simple group, was not there sooner to help them."

And second...

 **Manager:** "Shiraishi would have been thinking about their three children and the children of their workers in accordance with what happened. But they probably thought someone else. ...Since Mogami-san's son was taken away in that first invasion, they wanted a way to defend themselves."

 **Mi-Kon:** "They took some Triggers from that group?"

 **White Fox:** "No, it wouldn't have been that simple. After all..."

Yuki spoke up to assist Kimura.

 **White Fox:** "Before that wretched family was hated by these companies, they were on good terms due to the invasion and how they helped out."

 **Kuru-ma:** "Yuki. Then..."

"Yeah," posted Yuki, but he said no more than that.

The silence brought by his lack of further comment meant it was Kimura's turn to speak as a future politician, so she got up and breathed in.

 **Manager:** "Children from people were taken by Neighbors during that invasion, so I'm betting the Taiyōko family recommended that Triggers be more mass produced than they are currently and handed out as protection, even if wars would start by using them. In their own way, it may have been a method of minimizing the number of deaths."

 **White Fox:** "Yeah, I remember it now. Those assholes were to busy wanting to fight that they said they themselves would put in the money for it and test anything themselves. That way if something did happen, they would be the ones who were effected by it instead of someone else."

As for the son's kidnapping, he may have left something behind in advance when he noticed Gates start opening up around the city. _We need to look into the details there and give it more thought,_ decided Kimura.

"...?"

Then she heard a sound.

It reminded her of city sirens. And as that low rumbling reached her...

 **Shōgi Boy:** "A single Gate is openin'!?"

.

Kimura could hear exactly what Mizukami had suggested. The noise was coming from the hall as a way to inform them that a Gate was opening.

"Ah!?"

The alarm going off was the normal one for when a Gate opened, but that seemed like no reason for such a reactions. And as soon as he moved toward the area's windows...

"Come here, future politician. You'll see something interesting."

It was the Kotowari Squad Sniper. The alarm was still going off, but as the girl moved to the window and reached out a hand, she easily kept a rhythm with her waist and grabbed Kimura's hand.

It seemed strange because all the girl had done was pull Kimura forward.

_...But what is that step she's doing?_

The Kotowari Squad Sniper seemed to be dancing as she guided Kimura to the window. As Kimura looked outside, lights illuminated the nighttime Forbidden Zone and people (all agents) ran here and there.

Then Kimura heard a rumbling passing through the sky from south to north.

She could not see the source of the noise, but something else showed what it was: lightning.

Twin bolts of lightning struck on the left and right at set intervals, showing its path.

"Is that what I think it is?"

"Yeah, it's the falcon Neighbor we saw today," said Mizukami as he walked over from a table in his normal clothes. "It's most likely the Blaze made by the Wanderers."

The Border alarm came to a sudden stop, so Suzaku tripped just as he moved through tables and ended up trapped between some tables like a sandwich.

_...It's been a while since I saw the sandwich joke._

"W-wait, I'm completely trapped in here! Please help me."

"Heh heh heh. Later, later! The crime of destroying Moon Goddess Diane Misaki's home for the busty is as heavy as two giant breasts! Um, that means you take two πs and multiply them by the diameter..."

"I don't know what you're trying to do there, but I think you have the equation a little wrong, Kotowari Sniper."

At any rate, the Kotowari Sniper only had to pull gently on Kimura's hand to prevent the rumbling of the building from affecting her.

It may have been a dancer's technique. Regardless, Kimura's steady eyes could see the scene in the night sky. An especially large flash of lightning lit up the sky at the edge of the Forbidden Zone.

_...What is that...?_

Mizukami clicked his tongue and answered Kimura's unspoken question.

"I've heard that the sky was shiny for a while after the Wanderers had left. There were some streaks in the air and lights would sometimes strike at night."

But...

"What is that? That isn't just a light show at all! It's the Neighbor made by those freaks that appeared earlier! ...Why does that appear near the base and Abe Ruri!? And now..."

Colors scattered through the distant sky. They were explosions of light and there were three in all.

_...Is that a part of the Neighbor!?_

Something had come from the Blaze at the same time something had been thrown up.

Ōji commented on that fact as he moved over to a table.

"Those explosions are from Meteora shots. That being said, we have no one over there who could do that and Shiraishi seemed to only have that strange armor panels and no long-range attacks. Otherwise, they would have used that against someone like Iko-san."

But...

"What is this? That Blaze was appearing near the base and behind Abe, so why is it on a rampage and fighting something else while heading toward Shiraishi?"

* * *

Shiraishi Chisato realized the situation was even worse than expected.

_...The Neighbor is growing even stronger?_

When the report had reached her in her bedroom that doubled as a living room, she had been at a loss as to what to wear at the ball being held before the next day's meeting. She had lined up clothing all across her room, she had fallen to her knees, and she had been holding a mental survey as to what she should curse for this, but the blaring alarm had blasted all that from her mind.

"A flying object is rapidly approaching the White Rock from the western Forbidden Zone, hm?"

There was no one who could leave the area due to the risk of getting struck by something, but they had received a report that something had been fired at the Neighbor to try and stop it. She was unsure if it was Border or another force. Changing clothes would have been a pain, so she ran down the alarm-filled corridor in just her inner suit shirt.

She knew exactly where she had to go.

_...The main garden._

As she ran, the alarm sounded and an announcement played over it.

"Another attack has struck the Neighbor, but does not seem to have that great of an effect on it! The attack looks like those of Border's Meteora, but we have gotten word that no Border agent is around to fire them! The target's output has increased by 37% and its thrust has increased by 21% compared to last time! It seems to have undergone some new transformation and increased its parameters!"

"It continued to grow when we aren't looking, so this seemingly exaggerated response must be appropriate..."

But the estimated increases in output and thrust were awful. Ōi had tried to fight at an even level during their previous clash, so if this was based on the data from then, it would have far surpassed her.

_...Have we really not reached the level of Border yet?_

She did not know the answer, but...

"Rusu-san, are you there?"

"Yes. What is it?"

"What is the status of the Neighbor's appearance?"

An image in a nearby screen appeared to answer her question, but it had not been set to correct the screen transition to her running. She instantly left it five meters behind her, so it vanished and a new one appeared nearby. This time it switched screens with her and it displayed an elderly figure with gray hair.

"The Neighbor appeared in the sky above the western part of the Forbidden Zone. That position was...well, to put it simply, it was between the two of them. But..."

"It focused in quickly and without hesitation, you mean?"

"Correct. The connection is growing. So..."

"You don't have to say it. I'm on my way there."

Chisato faced forward as she ran and spread her arms to the sides

"Ortlinde, only reinforce my limbs."

**Protection: Limbs Reinforcement: Confirmed**

The air split and the wind blew out as a lid had been removed from the space behind her. Only the crimson armor panels for the arms and legs of Ortlinde appeared.

"Link."

Once they fit into place, her body nearly crashed into the air and each step naturally took her further, but...

"General Affairs Committee, I need to reach the main garden ASAP, so give me the shortest route."

"Head straight down in three...four and a half steps! You won't have to pass through the conduction system there!"

"Right. Thanks."

With that, Chisato took a step and reached a hand into the empty space behind her.

With her second step, she created a trion-made lance in the air.

With her third step, she twisted her body, took a stronger than normal fourth step that sounded loudly on the floor, and added an extra half step. She lowered her knee and stabbed the trion lance deep into the floor.

"Now, then."

She instantly recreated the lance thirty or so times. The stabbing polearm vibrated like a saw and her surroundings spun around. Solid noises and sparks burst out and the rapidly vibrating blade drew a circle on the floor.

A moment later, Chisato dropped down a story along with the hole she had cut in the stone floor.

But she saw a certain color in the instant she fell.

_...This is..._

It was a green light. It was trion light. It could also be called the light of rapid trion strikes.

"The main garden!"

Again and again, that trion swept across a space that should have been filled with darkness.


	73. Chisato Shiraishi: Part 3

Shobu stood in front of a power.

_...Eh...!?_

It had all begun without warning.

Until then, Ruri had been showing him around the main garden. Rui had pulled on his hand with a faint tension in her grasp as she told Shobu the colors of the flowers and why certain trees had been planted.

The main garden had apparently been made by Ruri's mother and it had been made to recreate the summer in Japan. She had very slowly told Shobu all of that as if thinking back on all her memories.

"With a name like Mogami, she seems really full of herself to me. Oh, but the people who have hired her are very nice."

Despite what she said, Ruri sounded almost fond of them. Shobu guessed she loved her mother, but...

"I used to play with my friends here."

A hint of regret entered her voice when she said that, so...

"...What about...Shiraishi...Chisato-sama and...the others...?"

Ruri gripped Shobu's hand a little tighter at that.

"We're not making this easy for Chisato."

"...Not making this...easy...?

"According to the rules set at this company, Chisato can leave the business whenever she wants and for however long."

"...Leave...?"

 _...I can't just keep asking questions..._ he told himself, but Kimura had told him it was important to show no shame about asking about anything he did not know. ... _Does that mean Ikoma-sama is being...diplomatic when he shows no shame in...loudly asking Jin-sama and the others about how to...complete different routes...? ...Maybe not... ...And he did seem...to be making a threat earlier..._

Regardless, Ruri pulled on his hand and answered.

"There are some strange rules here that are in the footnotes, but Chisato herself says she wants to see the world to get a proper view of how things are. At the very least, she wants to properly be free in Mikado City."

"...Is that...so...?"

"Yes. She's trained for a long time to be able to protect herself, so she's spent all her time on training and hardly leaves any of the company buildings. And she's only a first year. She can continue on the common side of things, but if she's going to act as Shiraishi Chisato, the third daughter, she needs to prepare herself."

You saw it, didn't you?

"Her clothes and such are all things she's ordered from different countries for a long trip away or that everyone else has sent her."

"...Is that...why...?"

Chisato had not known how to hold down her skirt and this explained why she was so unaccustomed to wearing one.

But Shobu felt a little happy. Shiraishi's third daughter was a skilled combat-type, but...

_...She's like...me..._

_...Um...Is that...fine to think...?_

When Shobu had been given his role as representative, he had been hesitant while also thinking it would be fun. And the reactions from Yuki, Jinsei, Murakami, and the others when they saw him in his representative outfit had been enough on its own to make the whole thing worthwhile.

Shiraishi's third daughter was probably hoping for something that similarly made it all worthwhile.

"...That's...right..."

Ruri had to understand as well. Not allowing Chisato to leave would not reward her for patiently waiting for so long. But...

"...Chisato-sama...v-visited Border...before...didn't she...?"

Ruri's eyes widened a little and she looked up.

"Did that happen? ...Well, it was probably a top secret assignment."

She did not remember. Or had she never known? Shobu could not tell, but there was a smile on Ruri's lips.

"But if she was allowed out, Rusu-san or Kotowari must have determined it was okay. I think it's a good thing."

Her grip on Shobu's hand relaxed a little, which put Shobu at ease, as well as making him look over the mentioned name. Shobu squeezed the girl's hand and she squeezed back.

They were telling each other everything was okay. But...

_...Why doesn't...Ruri-sama have her...memories anymore...? And..._

Why could they not let Chisato leave?

_...Is it because of what happened...during the day...?_

Was it related to that falcon Neighbor with explosive levels of power?

"...?"

Shobu suddenly felt that _something was not right_. Something had suddenly gone wrong.

After all, all strength vanished from Ruri's hand.

"...Ru...ri...sama...!"

Just as Shobu thought about turning back, a power that seemed to blow everything away appeared behind Ruri as she fell to her knees.

.

Chisato was pushed back by a sudden pressure in the main garden.

The explosive pressure was both wind and sound. It was also a trion-warping strength, a light, and...

_...Heat!?_

It was not hot. It was even refreshingly cool. But each time the low wave of heat washed across her machine's metal skin...

"It's pushing me back!?"

Chisato had jumped down into the main garden from a corridor, but this explosive pressure had immediately struck her.

It was powerful and she had trouble moving forward even after she hurriedly fixed herself. She slowly but surely gained ground and moved to the space between the entrance and the center of the main garden, but...

_...I can't go any further!?_

She could see it in the center. Ruri had fallen to her knees on the bridge crossing a stream. She was hanging her head, her arms hung limply at her sides, and something appeared near her back.

"The Neighbor gate!"

A green energy leaked from a black sphere there. Like a pulse, like a physical blow, or like something was trying to break through from the other side, the air current creating the great pressure would occasionally gush out.

Chisato knew the Neighbor lurked beyond that gate.

The falcon was a Neighbor who could open Gates around the Forbidden Zone without a command.

It was currently appearing in an out-of-control state, so someone was battling it. Meanwhile, the Gate that allowed its appearance was trying to open on its own.

While they drove back the falcon that had appeared outside, calmed it down, and got it to retreat back into the Gate, they also had to close up the Neighbor Gate that appeared behind Ruri.

If they failed to do both, the Neighbor would appear behind Ruri in its out-of-control state.

That was why the Neighbor had suddenly appeared behind her during the day.

They had to avoid that. If it happened now...

_...The rampaging Neighbor will appear inside White Rock!_

That would mean more than just the destruction of White Rock from within. The Border representatives and the personnel inside would be in danger. But...

"—!"

A noise reached Chisato's ears. The eruption of green pressure sounded like a screech.

The powerful wind and screech shook her body as she continued forward. She repeatedly and rapidly recreated Ortlinde's semi-circle and took a definite step forward.

_Dammit! We have no way of knowing how to close a Gate! ...We will need Border for this!_

On the other side, she saw members of the company rushing out from the corridor leading to the HQ.

"Chisato-sama! Are you okay!?"

"I'd stay back if I were you! You'll be blown away at best! Wait... What is that in your hand!? Did you take that from the Border representative's room!?"

"M-my apologizes! Once the alarm went off, I went to check on the representative and found that he was not there! Then I noticed he had left his Trigger there! I intended to return it to him so that he could help, but..."

"Right, fine! Hand it over!"

She did not have time to brush back her hair as it danced in the wind. Holding a trion lace forward to slice apart the pressure was the most she could manage at the moment. But the others...

"What, is this all!? This isn't enough to stop the workers of Shi- gwaaah!"

"Ahh, are you okay!? Okay, that just means I have to break through for the both of- gwaaah!"

"What are you two doing? And when the youngest daughter rushed in so quickly she's only wearing a shir- kyaaah!"

 _Are they unable to learn?_ wondered Chisato in a fairly harsh assessment of her family's employees.

Using the time she had, she activated the Trigger belonging to the Border representative. The strange armor of Ortlinde peeled off her skin as her body was changed out. Unexpectedly, her clothes had not changed to that of a Border uniform and stayed as they were.

_Had he set it like this to make it seem like he would not be using a Trigger?_

Even if that was the case, Chisato knew that she was no longer using her actual body for this. With that thought in mind, she began commanding Ortlinde once more. This time something unexpected happened.

**Unidentified Trion Source: Connected. Limited Usage: Trigger slots currently unusable.**

_So I'm block out from using any of Border's Triggers. Probably as a safety procedure. Fine. Ortlinde is what I'm best at anyway._

Nodding to herself, she readied her body and braced her feet with this unfamiliar body. Then she noticed someone fallen onto their butt in the stream behind where Ruri had fallen to her knees on the bridge.

It was Border's representative.

Chisato had no idea what that boy was doing there, but he was directly below the Gate that had appeared behind Ruri.

And as soon as Chisato realized how dangerous that spot was, the Neighbor Gate grew in size and the pressure grew.

.

"It's getting even more powerful!?"

Chisato felt herself slipping backwards.

Her legs were strengthened by a Trigger as well as Ortlinde, so they had not given into the pressure. Instead, the wind pressure was pushing her entire body back.

_...Oh, no!_

It was more like a powerful force than a gust of wind.

The thick force pushed her body back like a massive surge of water pressing against her all at once. The falcon's screech rang loudly beyond the Gate in the distance.

_...Not good!_

Border's representative seemed to have come to after falling onto his butt in the stream. He shook his head back and forth to perceive his position down in the shallow stream. But the Gate above his head was growing larger.

The Gate continued to grow and the current of pressure began spilling out and spreading even further.

Border's representative noticed this and looked up toward the pressure that had to be building up and pressing down on him, but...

"—!"

Chisato heard a shout. Or she thought she did. And that shout had said...

_...Ruri...-sama...?_

Border's representative was calling to her. That was how it sounded to Chisato.

Even in this situation, Border's representative was more worried about the child of an employee than about himself. That told Chisato something as the daughter of the bosses.

"I had no choice but to come here."

Ruri was like a little sister to Chisato. Their positions in the company were different and she was to take over a division while Chisato was just a daughter, but Chisato had given her a lot of advice in the past and had managed her training. So she could not abandon her. So...

"Forward!"

Chisato thrust her trion lance out ahead.

She felt the difference in power while using the Trigger.

She broke through the pressure to reach Ruri and Border's representative as quickly as she could.

But the falcon easily foiled her plan. The noise it produced was no longer a screech and seemed like an infinite amount of sound.

_...It's melting?_

The dirt below her feet burst up like ocean spray. The ground sank down below her feet and her feet reached the gravel crust below, but even that gravel trembled and flowed.

"Kh...!"

Ortlinde sank down into the earth up to the ankles.

The surrounding flower beds and water were all blasted into the air where they were hit by an attack.

A mist formed, but that was likely due to the stream's water scattering from the vibration. Meanwhile, Chisato was slowly pushed backwards.

The ground below her feet vibrated, shook, and flowed, so she could not hold her ground. Planting her feet more firmly would only cause her to sink down. She tried to move forward nonetheless, but...

"There's more coming!?"

New pressure arrived. It became a great wave of light and it came all at once.

The black Gate was trying to open up as if it were being torn apart.

Meanwhile, Chisato was carried backwards along with the trion lances she hurriedly tried to hold at the ready.

As she was blown back, she had to wonder what was happening to the person as they fought the Neighbor outside.

* * *

Several veins of light ran through the night sky.

They were trion strikes.

The moon was out and the sky was full of moonlight, but green trion struck in every direction. The blasts of light did not all start from a single point; they ran in every direction within the vast space and the intense light was constantly approaching one strip of the sky.

The trion airspace covered several kilometers and it contained a falcon-like yet upright Neighbor known as the Blaze, and...

"-!"

Pyrínas, the Wanderers' former trion soldier, was also there.

The one who helped to create him stood below them from a distance.

"Self Modification!"

The trion soldier he had been with had rid himself of his body's extra space to change himself so that he could keep up with the falcon in the air. If the connection to the Pyrínas System had been strong, then there would not have been a need to move his body's extra space and he would have just needed to create what he needed using the trion.

Several small pods were ejected from the falcon that drew out paths of light in advance. The color of them had changed from the crimson color to a pure white one, but the power had been upped compared to last time it had appeared.

As Pyrínas dodged the attack, he fired constantly.

Futoyuki watched from the ground with his small new friend being sent inside of the Yagura Branch once more. He had realized the situation going on the moment the color of Blaze had changed and its body morphed along with it. It was no longer a simple falcon colored a great crimson.

It was a falcon meant for the stars.

_I think the people on Miden would call it "Satellite"._

The overlapping sounds of attacks defied the screech of the pods.

After flying a few kilometers, the rapid-fire homing shots would grow a tail of fog, but the homing protection would kick in the instant they arrived within a kilometer of the Satellite. Hundreds of shots blossomed around the Satellite like a storm of blowing cherry blossoms and pursued it from every direction.

Some of their trajectories were gentle, some moved toward the flying target like a nail, and some shot sharply in along a shallow arc.

The Satellite moved quickly and generally tried to shake them from its tail.

The falcon seemed to swing around the airspace surrounding it as it took large but calm movements to break free of the pursuing homing lights. It did not open its wings all the way and the homing light trailed behind it like hair.

They could not reach it.

As they were swung around by the Satellite's evasive maneuvers, a few of the shots collided with each other and detonated.

"—"

The storm of blowing cherry blossoms expanded in light.

A chain of explosions combined into a single muffled noise and a shockwave warped the sky.

The group of homing shots was instantly lost, but...

"-!"

A great form clashed with the Satellite.

It was Pyrínas. The Wanderers' greatest trion soldier crossed paths with the Satellite with his body reformed into that of a rhinoceros beetle.

* * *

"Oh, not bad."

The light far in the sky was visible from Mogami's rooftop.

Minoru saw Yoshiko's eyes sharpen, so he looked in the same direction.

"So this is what we could have fought before?"

"It appears so. Although it seems to have lost control and gone into some kind of overdrive."

"Oh," said the Sniper as she folded up the bag of karinto. "So it's like one of those RPG characters that can use a really powerful move but gets weakened when they join your party?"

"Well, based on what Mogami-san said before, it has a connection with Abe Ruri..."

"Ko ko," laughed Yoshiko. "As far as any of us know, it is using her as a power source and posses the basic traits of attacks. But that being fighting it seems to have experience here, so I'm sure they have put together a countermeasure. And Shiraishi's Kotowari will not be overlooking any of this."

So...

"So however this turns out, the thing is the one doing 'not bad' for the moment. ...Just watch."

"Wait a moment... Can you repeat that name you just said?"

Minoru narrowed his eyes and watched the lights in the distant sky.

Just as the airspace seemed dyed in the colors of light, they were dyed in another color and they split apart.

"Oh, you mean Kotowari? I figured you would have known by now that someone like that worked for Shiraishi. Of course, Sekai and Denji here just have already known about him and withheld it. After all..."

Red, the color of explosions, could be seen in the distant sky.

"After all, he is the brother of one of you, right?"

* * *

The space contained nothing but destruction.

The light-filled air shone in the night, the two figures in the air continued to move, and the attacks made of trion that seemed to weave through the gaps scratched at the air like an act of rage more than another else.

Sounds of crashing and bowing mixed together as the wind and pressure collided as if everything had been swapped around.

But Pyrínas had not escaped the airspace. He had activated a shield to block the attacks that were fired at him as his wings came from under his shell.

"...The Satellite!?"

The Satellite's entire body was wavering. The explosion had disturbed the light enveloping it.

If he were going to attack, now was the time.

This opportunity had reached him because they had chosen not to escape even if it meant being destroyed by their his attack.

"...I'm going!"

The explosive blast passed him by and Pyrínas ascended from directly below the Satellite.

Futoyuki continued to watch from below. Pyrínas has used a good amount of trion in order to attack earlier, so his only weapon was the large horn on his head he had created after changing into a rhinoceros beetle.

But as he flew in, the Satellite made a forceful counterattack. Even as it was shaken by the explosion, it flaps its six rod-like wings and fired trion from its cores. While flying upright, it fired seven blasts at a time.

An instant later, the seven blasts tore through the sky and the night as they each split into dozens of pillars which took both weaving and straight paths toward the single rhinoceros beetle. The single rhinoceros beetle activated shields by its body as it flew.

As he watched the fight go on, Futoyuki thought about what he was holding back.

He could not speak about what he was seeing even when the falcon flying about had attached itself to someone from Miden.

He had realized quickly that this falcon had not been created by Sanshū and it had not been made by either him or Hatomi. The creation of it had been by someone else and had been sent out by someone else.

The Pyrínas System could not connect or interfere with it due to it have predate the system altogether. That meant there was no way anyone from the Wanderers could stop it internally. It also meant that they knew who had made it to begin with.

"Shuryō."

The Wanderers' former leader.

Immediately afterwards, a staticky but definite voice appeared behind him from the Yagura Branch. A screen displayed a fuzzy and distorted image of someone.

"Oh, I'm just not sure whether I should thank you or complain that you disturbed the airspace here! Vice President Kotowari Musashi-kun speaking! I hope you'll cry tears of joy that I brought you under my attention in such high spirits! Are any of you girls!? No!? Then screw it! I don't have to worry about what you think of me, so just listen to me!"

Musashi gave his instructions.

"Time to use my high spirits to help out!"

* * *

White Rock shook.

This was due to the battle between Pyrínas and the Satellite near the main garden. But in the air control room at the center of the building, Musashi used the large stepped room to spin his entire body around.

The control room was entirely filled with a group of screens scattered around the room in an unorganized mess. They hid the room's walls, ceiling, and even floor as they illuminated Musashi from every direction.

As he stood in the center of the light, he swung both arms to open new windows.

 **Musashi:** "Hello, hello!"

The text instantly appeared for his record of the conversation.

 **Musashi:** "Okay, Yagura! Are you still alive!? You are, aren't you?"

The following words were directly linked to his voice, so they arrived far too quickly to just be called "fast".

 **Musashi:** "Okay, so you're alive! Good job! You really are a part of Border, aren't you!? But oh, now you're dead! Don't stay focused and you're dead! So give up on trying to go out- oh, you're dead again! But before you die, how about raising that right arm just a little!? Let's see that beautiful armpit! And with that beautiful armpit-...that's not enough! You suck at this! Raise it like you mean it! Okay, that's one of you with a beautiful armpit! Now someone tell me what you want to tell everyone, no holding back since it will be known all over! Hold on! Make sure no one else around can hear you so that people not related to all of this will be spooked! Ah!? One of you is a girl!? ...Might I ask your hand in marriage, miss? What!? The others are waiting behind you!? Oh, shut up, all of you. I'll listen to what you have to say so that Border doesn't get mad at you spilling all if the green, black, and orange beans!"

After shouting, Musashi flicked the screen providing information on the fight going on outside, but he immediately began shouting some more.

 **Musashi:** "Okaaaaaaay! You also look to be having some issues with that Neighbor! You are, right!? Well, if you are you're dead! Spin right around! Like this: zwoosh! Write it out as a letter and it's δ! Hey! Who just said that wasn't a zwoosh!? I was thinking the same thing, so I'll have to have Narumi-sama, age 42, wear the Spanish summer uniform I've started to think is pretty nice and make a ton of profit for the Shiraishi family! But for now, spin! Spin right now! Ah? What is it, Boss Narumi!? Age 12? I would expect nothing less from you! Okay, you there! Tell me aaaaaallllll about what's going on! And how we are connected to you!"

Musashi nodded.

 **Musashi:** "This is a pain, but let's get all of us through this together!"

* * *

The pressure of the raging wind and light grew within the main garden.

The battle outside was likely intensifying. Chisato could tell the explosive pressure grew whenever the Neighbor felt it was in danger. But...

"Kh!"

Chisato stabbed her trion lance into the ground to hold her position when she was almost blown off her feet. She shifted the lance and her arms again and again to force her position further forward, but the falcon's screech rang out as if to ignore all that. Its attack pressure was loud enough to blow away the main garden's flowers and send clumps of dirt dancing through the air.

The river's stream became an even thicker mist and...

_...Is my body going to give out? No, it would have done so already. Triggers truly are amazing._

The ground was shaking beneath her. Both the crust and the pallet below that were beginning to break apart from the shaking. At this rate, the main garden's floor would break through and it would all fall to the story below.

That would mean Ruri fell too, but the Gate's opening was a spatial issue and the Neighbor was in control at the moment. When the floor broke through, the screech would continue and the destruction from attacks would swallow up even Ruri as it propagated out from the main garden like threads and reached each floor's frame.

In the worst case, White Rock itself would collapse.

So Chisato moved forward. She moved forward as much as she had been forced back. She raised her thighs and used her one means of continuing ahead. She rapidly recreated her semi-circle and used her lance as a cane. That was the only option.

But the screech continued, and...

"—!"

The explosive pressure became a cry powerful enough to distort the surrounding scenery.

The Neighbor knew it was cornered. It had sensed danger. But...

_...It's crumbling!?_

She suddenly felt nothing from the ground below her feet. Either the foundation pallet supporting the main garden had shifted out of place or the frame had fallen away. The ground was undulating more than tilting.

_...Oh, no!_

Even so, Chisato tried to continue forward. She sharply narrowed her eyes and worked to not lose sight of her goal.

"Honestly!"

 _This isn't like me,_ she thought as the second blast arrived.

It was an attack of explosive pressure just like before.

Her hair trembled first and then grew faintly electrified. She ignored the crumbling ground and held her lance out toward the following shockwave. She knew she would be caught in the collapse like this, but...

"I can't give up, can I?"

A different cry seemed to answer her question.

It came from the corridor behind her that led to the guest quarters. First, she heard a door behind kicked down, and then...

"What's the meanin' of this noise!? I just got to the confession scene, so how 'bout some peace 'n quiet!?"

Someone charged in with that loud complaint.

It was Border's #6 Attacker.

.

Chisato saw something strange.

The space was being pushed back by explosive pressure, light, and trion, but the Attacker broke right through the wind and everything else.

This position in Border was said to mostly be offensive-types who relied on their blades more than defenses. Over at Border, they had ranked their Attackers like any other position, so they had a set value to their fighters.

_...Such as..._

Tachikawa Kei being the #1 Attacker, an extremely offensive-type of personality that manages his spot at the top by viewing the battlefield and shifting to how it works. If the top ten Attacker were like that then it would mean so was this #6, but it seemed all that was true.

The front of his jacket was open and he breathed in the raging wind with his goggles on his forehead. And once he reached Chisato...

"Is that what's causin' all this noise!?"

He released a slash from his blade at his hip, parting the explosive pressure approaching from ahead. As for the crumbling footing...

"Easy there!"

He used a defensive Trigger. It was a simple Shield that a lot of Border agents used to defend against attacks. For several meters around them, the ground instantly solidified due to the shield and everyone in the opposite passageway cried out in surprise.

"The hell is that!? Cheats!?"

"It's...y'know! That weird Attacker! The really weird one!"

"Oh, you mean the source of all that weird shouting about loving cute girls!? The one who doesn't know how to use walkthroughs!?"

 _I can't really argue with that,_ thought Chisato as she looked up at the Attacker standing in front of her.

"Thanks. You saved me."

"I'm a reliable Attacker. It's the least I could-..."

The Attacker looked back but then gave a snort.

"Not that I want a non-cutie like you relyin' on me."

"I think you should pay more attention to the situation before you speak. ...Look."

Chisato and the Attacker both sent attacks to the center of the main garden. She used a lance and he used the same slash attack as before. The double attack shattered the trion attack flying toward them as pressure.

"You can do more than I thought."

"Ho ho? Meanwhile, I was thinkin' 'Is that all you can do?'"

"Right. I forgot to add 'not that that's saying much'."

"Why do you insist on pickin' fights with me? I'm pretty scary when I'm angry. I'm a real fighter, after all."

 _Please spare me this,_ she thought from the bottom of her heart. So...

"Let's go. I feel like getting this over with and drinking some nice juice."

The pressure had weakened a little, but she did not know if that was confusion over the previous destruction or if the one fighting outside was having some success. Regardless, Border's representative looked up while hiding down in the stream.

"—!"

Chisato could not hear him over the wind and pressure, but the Attacker nodded.

"'Onee-san', huh? Good job, Shobu..."

"How strange... I never knew someone could leave me at such a loss for a reaction..."

When Chisato said that, the Attacker handed her something. _What?_ she wondered while grabbing it so it was not blown away in the wind. It turned out to be a cloth separated into a few different parts.

"That's a thong. The wind's been leavin' you rather exposed and I thought that might not be appropriate for a lady."

"...You just charge right on in with everything, don't you?"

"You don't get it? This's a bonus that came with the porn game I'm currently playin'. Oh, but don't worry. It belongs to Jinsei, so I didn't pay anythin' for it. Direct your thanks to the makers and put it on while sayin' nothin' else."

A number of thoughts came to mind, but she decided to put it on since it might help increase her defenses.

_...Eh? Why is the fabric so nice?_

_Our brand is supposed to be pretty good, so is this just a good match for me?_

At any rate, the Attacker swayed a bit and started forward.

"Let's go. Afterwards, you'll get to explain why you have Shobu's Trigger and what that armor's all 'bout."

"Wait. ...I want to check something first."

"What is it?" he asked. "My birthday's April 29 and my favorite food's eggplant curry."

"That wasn't what I wanted to know. ...This Trigger is used for defense, isn't it?"

If so...

"Aren't you using it incorrectly by just using it like the ground?"

"Don't worry 'bout it. I'm usin' it like any normal person would. After all, you haven't seen what Kiyoshi does with a single Shield. 'n 'bout the ground, I just wanted a place to stand. That's all."

"Then," said Chisato as she thrust her lance out toward the Attacker. "Hurry up and release any restraints on this Trigger so that it can fight Neighbors. ...Then I'll help you, Attacker. And I'll have you help me, Ikoma Squad Captain. Help me retrieve one of our employees' daughter and next boss."

"I'm not good with complicated things, so sum it up in five words."

"Just do what I say."

"Right."

The Attacker grabbed her wrist with his left hand. An automatic voice came up for them to hear.

**Temporary Trigger Link Established. Usage of Trigger Allowed by Authority of Ikoma Tatsuhito.**

She felt as if a small weight had been lifted as she moved her arm for a moment. Thinking of the same Trigger the Attacker used, a shield appeared in front of her before disappearing.

Then he moved forward. She followed and as if in response...

"—

Light expanded in the center of the main garden.

The Gate for the Neighbor was clearly opening. And something arrived from the void within.

"The Neighbor...!"

.

The upper body of a Neighbor appeared in the main garden.

Shobu saw that form while cowering down and using the edge of the stream like an umbrella.

The Neighbor was shaking and wrapped in heat. Its metal-like body clattered together with itself like a musical instrument. But Shobu noticed something odd.

_...Why...?_

He noticed something like anger or rage coming from the Neighbor via the devices around his neck as well as his own instincts. Its cry was shaking and the heat came from within rather than without. Also...

_...You can't...restrain it...?_

The answer came as a powerful cry.

The Falcon screeched as if to say all it had was strength and that stopping would mean its destruction.

"...!"

Unable to bear its own power, it shook and released a scream-like cry. It seemed to be saying it had no choice but to be driven on by its power even if it did not know where that power was headed.

_...Why...?_

Shobu did not understand. But as the Falcon continued going even as it cried out in pain, he noticed something other than anger and rage in its screech.

_...Why are you...apologizing...?_

Shobu realized something: ... _This Neighbor is...sad..._

That kind of thought would not have came if not for some recent encounters. A Neighbor, a trion soldier to be exact, with free will, an ego, and feelings was now something he could imagine due to seeing one himself. One that had defied everything to become himself.

So to him, it seemed that something sad must have happened and it wanted to do something about it but it did not know what to do. However, it had power, so it was simply trying to do something with that power.

Shobu understood.

A long time ago, something sad had happened and someone had wanted to do something but they had not known what to do. However, they had not had any power, so they had tried to get rid of themselves.

Back then, Shobu too had not known what to do and been unable to do anything, but that person had finally learned to take everything, something had changed, and something had returned. Now he was not longer on Earth, but Shobu knew that was fine.

This was the same. It had to be the same. This falcon was the same.

Something sad had happened.

But because it had power, it had trusted in and clung to that with the same determination that had once made someone try to get rid of themselves.

And in Shobu's opinion, this falcon's screech was not a sorrowful wail.

_...It's saying it has to...save someone..._

With that thought, Shobu began to move. He had been knocked over by the pressure coming from the Falcon and even the deepest part of the stream's water splashed up onto him, but he still moved. He crawled along the artificial stream bed and spoke to the falcon's keeper.

"...Ruri...-sama..."

Immediately, the Falcon leaned forward overhead.

The heat raced through Shobu's senses and even more air was blown away as it arched back and screeched.

"...!"

Shobu was knocked below the small bridge over the stream. Ruri still sat atop it, unmoving and with her head hanging limply down, but Shobu rolled out the other side and perceived something there.

_...What is...that...?_

Two figures were breaking through the explosive pressure and approaching her. They used brute force to approach at high speed.

They were Ikoma and Shiraishi Chisato.

.

Chisato weighed the danger against the result as she ran.

She was no longer moving along the crumbling ground. She instead used anything her feet could catch on like fallen trees and garden stones that seemed to float there.

The loosened ground should have sunk down with each step she took, but she followed after the Attacker by controlling her strength with rapid adjustments made by repeatedly shifting Ortlinde. Meanwhile, she thought to herself.

_...I didn't think the Neighbor would actually appear._

It had only been the Gate during the day, so they had only needed to destroy that.

_Even if we don't know how to do that ourselves, we have a member of Border here. And a top Attacker at that..._

Since the Neighbor had come out this time, it must have gained much more power. That was why they had to force the Neighbor back through the Gate.

She knew that would not be easy, but they had a chance.

Someone had to have done quite well against the Neighbor. The current of trion that surrounded it was almost entirely gone. Its upper body was exposed, but it could not move much while fixing itself. So...

"Where should I aim!?"

The Attacker's question was sharp. No, perhaps it was only natural for an attacker. Even though he could not see her, Chisato brought her empty hand to her neck as she spoke.

"Shouldn't you know the answer to that? Those cores look like a good spots but... Cutting off the head would be easy, I think. At least running it through the neck should hit it hard."

That was just the option of someone not in Border, but the situation left her with no other choice. Plus, that spot seemed to be a good target as opposed to the small cores imbedded in the head.

"With the way it's tilting it's head and moving its wings... Are you confident you can hit it?"

"I could hit that with incredible ease, but I'll leave it to you. So..."

The Attacker suddenly lowered his speed. There was no point in wondering why. To obtain acceleration power, he had began building up strength and started taking in the air.

"This place's pretty nice. It's not as good as the training rooms, but everything here makes it cool."

With that, the Attacker took a light step forward. He placed his foot on the loose earth of the crumbling ground for an impossible step. But he took it all the same and moved forward.

"Can you keep up with me?"

"Do you think I can't?"

"I see."

He nodded and did something unexpected.

He turned to the right and grabbed her empty hand with the five fingered hand on his left.

"...Eh?"

As soon as she raised her voice in confusion, the Attacker launched himself powerfully forward while still turned to the side and holding her hand.

He used all of this strength and movement for a great acceleration which was void of hesitation.

.

Chisato was certain they would be blown away.

She was currently hanging in midair. While holding her hand, the Attacker thrust his right front leg forward and accelerated as if preparing to knee someone.

The Neighbor was up ahead. So was the stream, the bridge over it, and Ruri on that.

The Neighbor noticed them at a distance of twenty meters and faced them.

"...!"

Its screech was a beam attack. The attack pressure of its trion flew toward them as a visible green light.

The Attacker did not care. He pulled his right arm back just a little.

"Ohhh! That doesn't have crap on Take-chan's lasers!"

And he made full use of the accelerator on his right elbow. Acceleration light gave greater speed to the Attacker, his attack, and Chisato.

_...He's breaking through!?_

He smashed the attack with brute force alone.

The sound split, several lines of trion raced out, and those tore shallowly into Chisato and the Attacker's false skin.

But the Attacker's acceleration was not stopped.

A stable acceleration with adequate weight pulled on Chisato who was already accustomed to keeping her balance.

The Attacker in front of her kept his back to her, broke through the obstacles up ahead, and unilaterally accelerated.

And he was on a collision course. As he moved in a straight line ahead, he asked her a question through the blowing wind.

"I have one question! ...Is that Neighbor related to Abe!?"

"As far as I know!"

She did not know how he reacted to her answer. But after a short pause, he gave her instructions.

"I'll pull that Neighbor's body forward. You circle below it and poke its weak point."

At the same time, he let go of her hand.

_He doesn't look like that type to come up with strategies, but-..._

Her thoughts were cut off from the messages coming in right before her eyes. In a Border chat, someone named "Wisteria" seemed to be giving him guidance.

_I take back everything I just thought about him!_

He was going in without any doubt. They had a chance at victory, so he leaned his upper body forward while implicitly telling her he was counting on her. He finally thrust both arms forward.

"I! Blast! Off!"

He achieved even greater speeds for the remaining distance of less than ten meters.

* * *

Musashi observed the video and audio arriving at the control room. It was filled with static, but...

_...So that's how he's doing it!_

The Attacker had placed his sights on Ruri.

It seemed as if the Neighbor was connected to Ruri even if they were unsure. The Neighbor was influenced by and receiving power from Ruri, so it was trying to "obtain" her rather than protect her.

To the falcon, was its very source of life nothing more than a meal? Musashi did not know, but the Neighbor - the Satellite, as he was told - would be forced to focus on the Attacker's charge if he targeted Ruri herself.

"So he's trying to snatch her up to move the Satellite."

It was unclear whether the Satellite was aware of it or not, but Ruri was its master. Even in the trion supply to the Satellite, she was treated as the master.

If Ruri was moved away, the Satellite likely would try to follow. Since only its upper body stuck out from the Gate, that would mean leaning far forward.

That was the Attacker's aim.

He would move Ruri, which would move the Satellite, and Chisato would charge into the gap.

Chisato was accelerating forward as well. She stepped along the stakes driven into the stream's bank at even intervals, she held her lance down and to the left, and she charged in from the Satellite's right.

Then the Attacker accelerated straight in toward Ruri.

"That cute girl character's mine!"

He smashed through the bridge's railing and reached both arms toward Ruri who was down on her knees.

His aim was accurate, _just as expected._ So Musahi gave a cry.

"Ah, you fool!"

The Satellite had perfectly predicted the Attacker's move and hit him with a casually backhand blow.

* * *

_...You idioooot!_

Chisato just about tripped as she ran along the stakes.

She heard an impact like metal objects colliding and she saw the Attacker spin five times through the air.

The plan had failed.

The Neighbor had not moved its upper body in the slightest. It had only swung its middle right wing outwards.

 _This means I have to do it on my own,_ decided Chisato. And...

"—"

The Neighbor turned toward her as she charged in.

It pulled back a little in preparation to screech. The explosive pressure of an attack would be launched just a moment later.

She could break through the attack by charging in with her trion lances. Then she would have to target the weak point.

_...Can I do it...?_

However, she was not the one to answer her own question.

It was the Attacker. Even after he was sent flying back, he forced his body around to right himself.

"Shobu!"

.

Shobu moved. He got out from under the bridge that the pressure had knocked him below.

_...Ikoma-sama...did that...for me...!_

Ikoma had destroyed the bridge's railing in his charge, so he just had to reach out his arms.

"...Ru...ri...-sama...!"

He grabbed Ruri hand, so he pulled. He pulled not with his arms, but with his back and his entire body.

"Nnn!"

The girl left the bridge. He suddenly felt all weight vanish from Ruri, but that meant the girl's limp body fell toward him. That was a success. Shobu tried to catch Ruri but had trouble and was knocked to the ground below her. However, Shobu thought he had to be tough, so he tried to roll on top of Ruri to protect her.

That was when pressure reached them from overhead.

It was the falcon Neighbor. It leaned far out to pursue Ruri, but Shobu breathed in. It did not matter that the falcon was trying to send its attack their way.

"...Shiraishi...-s-sama...!"

His cry received a definite response.

Someone flew in from the side. They swung a giant lance upwards while rotating their body for the strength of momentum.

"Right."

It was Shiraishi Chisato.

Her attack slid through the air and struck the top of the falcon's throat.

* * *

A moment later, Musashi saw the Satellite leaning far back on the staticky screen.

"...!"

It destroyed the ceiling with a great screech and attack, but it was also falling down to the depths of the Gate.

There was an explosion of light and the screen shattered. Musashi clenched his fist just once, but...

"Oh, right. I'm in low spirits right now," he muttered while listening to everyone cheering in the control room. "Honestly, we haven't actually defeated it, you know? ...What do we do now?"

But as he sighed toward the floor, he walked toward the exit while returning the guys' requests for high fives.

"General Affairs Committee, call the Administrative Committee's construction team and have them get on those internal repairs ASAP! And other divisons, pass news of this onto the team looking at the area where the original fighter was and the others! ...We're going to be busy starting tomorrow!"

They all nodded at that, but...

"Starting tomorrow? Don't you mean starting today?"

An unexpected voice reached Musashi from directly ahead.

Both the people in the control room and the people in the hallway came to a stop.

"Boss Narumi!"

"Yes," confirmed a woman with a single beauty mark and a red western-style summer uniform in the dimly lit hallway.

This was Abe Narumi. She was Ruri's mother and she gestured Musashi over with her chin, so he pushed up his sleeves and spoke.

"What do you need, Narumi, Age 12?"

"I'm glad to hear you remembered. Let's head to the main garden to pick up Ruri. And...how about we tell the Border group a number of things?"

"Are you sure?" asked Musashi as a representative of the silence surrounding them. "That will mean getting into the issues surrounding Ruri and Ortlinde...as well as Mogami's Shurō and Kurosaki's Hikigane."

"And what's wrong with that? Trying to hide it is pointless. ...Also, a wonderful woman from a flower shop just sent me a request."

Namely...

"She said Border is most likely unbelievably good-natured, so we should look after them."


	74. Sponsors

"Is it over?"

Minoru took a breath after confirming that the lights in the sky had vanished.

He suddenly realized the atmosphere had changed.

The temperature was beginning to drop. As the night wore on, the lingering chill of night set in.

A voice could be heard next to him.

"That looked like a rhinoceros beetle fighting a falcon from here. I didn't drink anything, but damn, maybe I'm going crazy. Hahaha! That would be fun! A crazy me might just be the most sane me ever!"

It was followed by a self-deprecating "jeez".

Minoru was unsure what exactly he had heard and so ignored it for the moment.

But when he looked back, Mogami Yoshiko continued staring up into the sky. She did, however, set down her pitcher of sake.

"Would you like a drink?"

"...No thank you."

Minoru was aware how it would look if he accepted alcohol; like he was a drinker. He had learned his lesson back at Kageura's place and he swore he would eventually pay Arafune back for that humiliation. _Yes, I'll show you how not to look like a drinker,_ he thought with a mental clench of the fist. Meanwhile, the Sniper sniffed at the sake.

"Is that amazake? I'll have some! That's nonalcoholic, right!?"

 _I screwed up!_ thought Minoru as Yoshiko smiled bitterly toward him and the Sniper who held out a cup. Yoshiko took the cup from the Sniper and handed her a spare bowl.

"This sake rice helps keep out the cold."

"Ohhh, it's full of sake lees! How luxurious, how classy, how genuine."

"Mogami-san, about what we were discussing before..."

"Yes, I'm feeling a little drunk now, so I suppose I can tell you a little."

Yoshiko poured a new cup of amazake, clinked it together with the Sniper's, and drank it.

After a while, she suddenly continued speaking.

"You mean the 'promise', right? I was part of that."

And...

"They dreamed of a large community stretching from here to there and back. Without realizing that was what they wanted, the children wished to remain like family. ...It was the kind of dream only children can have."

* * *

Kon sat at a table inside the Suzunari room.

She nodded at Kuruma who was wearing pajamas and serving everyone tea to help wake them up.

 **Mi-Kon:** "A community? Is that like the system her son wanted to make?"

That sounded like an easy thing to create, but she wondered if that was only due to her ignorance of the world. So...

 **Mi-Kon:** "What do you think, Kimura?"

 **Manager:** "First that comment about a system. I think we may have already seen it... As for a community, it depends on how far they were planning on taking it. Was it simply a promise of mutual assistance or was it some kind of alliance?

Kimura added an "of course" as she continued.

 **Manager:** "Mogami-san can also be speaking for her bosses in this case. From what I have been told, Kobayashi came to Mikado City in order to help us out after the first invasion. They were kind enough to build back up homes and universities that had been destroyed. But I guess that is a rough thought if she was not a part of Kobayashi at the time. And the further you go, the harder it is to construct a community, so they may have decided to build up the one already made. To share things means to quit the old way of doing things and to prepare new ones, so it comes with a cost and the people must go through an update as well."

Kuruma viewed a message while pouring tea into two more teacups.

"If you don't have a specific plan for the community, then you don't have to go through all that. In general, I know someone who is trying to get others to work together."

"Are you sure you don't mean they are 'having trouble' doing that?"

Kon asked about a possible correction and Kuruma smiled.

"If you say that, someone will get angry and work even harder to prove you wrong."

 **Kura-uchi:** "Takato really did put that class representative through a lot of trouble, didn't she?"

 **Ōji:** "I can see why she decided to kill that fox..."

 **White Fox:** "I was not killed! I was not!"

 **Kuru-ma:** "Right. ...Takato and Yuki live together now."

 **Girls:** "Wow..."

Kon did not entirely understand, but she did feel an intense power in that.

 **Mi-Kon:** "Jinsei, I suppose I'll ask while I'm at it: what are your thoughts on a community?"

Kon asked as Kuruma nodded and carried the two teacups out into the hall.

 **Mi-Kon:** "Do you have any thoughts on the dream that Mogami-san mentioned?"

 **Life:** "What Yoshihikari was mentioning isn't a dream."

 **Mi-Kon:** "Do you honestly think that misreading of her name is amusing? As for the rest of that... What? Why would you say that?"

"This girl..." he said before actually answering.

 **Life:** "Well? Are you listening? If we're gonna look at this community stuff from a porn game perspective, you have to start with mind-sharing material, and... Ah! Why is everyone canceling my posts!?"

 **Mi-Kon:** "Not to worry. I will view your posts right up until the end of the world. 5, 4, 3, 2..."

 **Life:** "Is that countdown supposed to be to the end of the world!?"

She ignored him and took a sip of tea. It was herbal tea. She pulled some biscotti from the plate next to her which complimented the tea nicely. Going with the peanut rice cake flavor for variation had been the right choice.

At any rate, she more or less understood what the idiot was trying to say.

 **Mi-Kon:** "You are saying it was only a 'dream' because the adults said it was, aren't you?

 **Life:** "Pretty much, yeah. ...The only people who would get all excited about calling it a community or whatever are the adults and people like Akashi. So little Ruri and the others must have seen it differently."

Just as Kon prepared to ask what he meant, a voice reached her from the door. It was Kuruma's.

"Follow you always."

Kon looked over and saw Kuruma smiling with the tray of teacups in his right hand and his left hand on the door.

"They probably didn't use those words, but they must have said something similar. For example...yes, they may have made a promise to be friends forever. I have heard something similar from a fox and wisteria before."

"A promise, you say?"

"Yes." Kuruma nodded with a smile and opened the door. "People keep the promises they make as children. That's what I believe."

.

When Kuruma stepped out into the hall, Murakami and Sekai each took a teacup from him. Sekai hung his head as he did so.

"This was supposed to be unofficial..."

"Refusing an offer from someone with status would be a problem, you know?" pointed out Murakami.

Of course, he could always say he was refusing the offer specifically due to reasons, but the situation had not deteriorated that far yet. Kuruma bowed with the tray in both hands and glanced over toward the non-Suzunari room on the left.

Murakami wondered why.

_...Oh._

He realized why, so he quickly moved to call the Yagura Branch representative, but...

"Wah!"

The door flew open like someone had kicked it and the fox came rolling out. The nudist's voice and the sounds of someone rapidly tapping a button came from within.

"Hey, Kuruma, Yuki was getting all spoiled wishing he could have some tea too, so could you make some for him?"

Murakami did not even need to look back to know how Kuruma would react.

"Of course! Um, what about you?"

 **Mi-Kon:** "You leave me no choice. I will serve him with the personal items I brought from the branch office. Oh, dear. I brought coffee beans but not a grinder. ...Well, live and learn."

 **Life:** "Wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it. What in the world are you planning now?"

After a while, Kuruma carried out a cup of tea and a container of coffee beans topped with green onion soy sauce. After Kuruma returned to the Suzunari room with a smile, Sekai spoke up straight across from Murakami.

"Is that good?"

"I'm sure one of them is. The other one probably tastes like coffee beans and green onion soy sauce."

Murakami then asked a question.

"Now, I understand what kind of 'promise' you made. ...The adult employees were worried about the future, so they brought together ones who hold different values when they were young and successfully built up relationships of friendship between them. Is that right?"

"Yeah. ...For Shiraishi's Narumi it was Ruri. For Mogami, who had connected with Kurosaki and Shiraishi before being hired, it was Shuryō. And for Kurosaki, it was me since I had found myself as completely unneeded. Kurosaki apparently wanted to get some acquaintances like Awdry and Taiyōko involved too if possible, but Awdry only had a single small child and Taiyōko were too embroiled in infighting with their child to build any major connections."

He took a breath.

"For guardians, Shiraishi sent Narumi as Ruri's mother, Yoshiko went for herself, and Kurosaki sent Shin, who had inherited the business. ...We were taught and trained quite a bit by our mothers and future bosses."

 **Manager:** "Can you ask something for me?"

 _What is it?_ wondered Murakami as Kimura asked her question.

 **Manager:** "I understand Hikigane-san being there, what with stuff we don't know about his history. Abe-san makes sense too. But...why Mog... No, he has a name now. Why Shuryō-san?"

Murakami showed Sekai the question on his phone. Sekai took a sip of tea and a breath.

"That's right," he said to preface his thoughts. "According to the news and tabloids, it was discovered that Narumi cared much more for a child that was not her own, so it caused an incident with Ruri. ...And after Shuryō was taken by Neighbors as part of an attack on Mikado City, the two Abes were so distraught that something happened."

They were doomed from that moment.

"We knew we would eventually lose people, but these were still our 'family'. So we made a promise... We promised to protect each other. We promised to find ways to overcome this kind of thing and then let everyone be free."

* * *

Kimura breathed a heavy sigh in the Border base's cafeteria while still facing the window.

She thought about Sekai's use of the word "family" and what that had meant to them.

_...Is this the spirit of connections that Tai-... Our former team had been missing?_

They had a powerful will of resistance and a sense of fellowship that surpassed business or family.

"In a way...you might be able to say their will to protect each other and keep them from being lost only served to strengthen their bonds."

 _No, you probably need to be old enough to understand the meaning of loss to think that way,_ reconsidered Kimura. _As kids, they probably just didn't want to lose each other and saw no further meaning in it._

At the elementary school Kimura taught at part-time, some of the children would transfer to another school in Mikado Coty due to a parent's job. Some of the children would cry when they had to leave, even though they knew they could still see their friends if they wanted to.

_...Why is that?_

The emotion of sorrow may have come from viewing a "change" as a "loss".

 _But,_ she thought.

"They failed to keep that promise..."

"That's right," said the Kotowari Sniper.

She had already let go of Kimura's hand and was gently spinning around atop a chair by the tables. Her hair was swept up in the wind and she smiled while briefly pointing Kimura's way with her swinging hand.

"You honestly know why that happened, don't you?"

"I know all too well."

Without a way to defend, they could not escape Shuryō's capture and any downfall. And in the downfall's case it had been especially bad as it had involved Border.

If Mogami was to find the missing child that had been taken long ago, what would have to happen? The answer was obvious.

"Border has to get to where they are. That was absolutely crucial, yet we clearly have not."

"Talk about spoiled. ...Couldn't these guys have shown some backbone? They are just employees."

There was no harshness in Ōji's words. It was obvious he knew they had not had a choice. So Kimura too walked over to the edge of the table and answered.

"We do not have the resources for multiple trips through Gates in succession even with sponsors. Border also has to protect Earth and the Neighbors won't stop. They had no choice but to wait."

Even as she said that, Kimura asked a silent question.

_...Is that really true?_

Her question concerned Mogami.

Mogami Shuryō was just the son and Yoshiko was no the leader. So Kobayashi's side would...

_...View things based as parents instead of bosses._

Something about that felt odd to Kimura.

"Why did Shuryō-san create such an impact?"

She had her doubts.

"Mogami Yoshiko – who carried the spirit of this, knew the meaning of family, and had managed to convince her bosses – accepted Shuryō's capture without fighting it? Yet years later, she starts firing and showing a rebellious spirit?"

* * *

"She's a sharp one."

Hiura heard Yoshiko speak while looking up at the moon.

When she noticed Hiura's gaze, she smiled with the ends of her eyebrows lowered and looked the other way. Then the vixen's hair moved as she looked up to the moon again.

"Shuryō was a good boy. Clever too. ...As I lived in this city and, as someone who climbed up, gained some power in this city, he was born from connection stemming from that, so he is both my child and a child of this city."

So...

"Even as the invasion came, he knew very well I would resist and try to save him when the Neighbors arrived with their attack."

"You don't mean..."

"I do. ...He played decoy while I was not watching."

Yoshiko forced out a "ko ko" of laughter.

"That one hurt... It meant he did not trust that I could protect him."

Her shoulders fell and she sighed toward the floor.

"Of course, it was the same for Shiraishi."

* * *

Repairs and measurements were underway in the crumbled and partially caved-in main garden of White Rock, but a conversation was also underway.

It occurred below the large tree in the center with leaves stripped and branches broken by the Satellite's attack.

"Yes, something happened for us as well."

Narumi was speaking. She sat on the earthen ground and Ruri's head rested on her lap. Ruri's eyes were closed in peaceful sleep and Narumi's hand held a warm pad to her forehead.

"Ruri was quite active. It wasn't easy giving birth to her."

Narumi smiled bitterly. Border's representative sat nearby with a blanket over his shoulders and the Attacker sat cross-legged next to him.

"After all, she came out kicking and screaming then. It hurt unbelievably bad on the way out. I just wanted to shout, 'This hurts like hell!' Yoshiko was there to help as a midwife and she was the one to tell me Ruri was almost out. I asked if it could wait another day, but that wasn't possible."

 **Mad Hatter:** "Why are these employees so strange?"

"If I had looked into it ahead of time, we would have known I had an active one, but – just like someone else I will not mention – I had no experience with men and didn't want to let on that I was pregnant. So when I felt all the movement inside me during the pregnancy, I thought I was going to give birth to something with a whole bunch of arms and legs. I thought I was going to have to change my tastes."

"...Would you have...been fine with...that..."

Narumi nodded at the question from Border's representative.

"Whatever they looked like, they would have been my child. They would have inherited a portion of me. At the very least, I wasn't going to reject them until they had grown up. Besides, they would be a child born in this city."

"...That is...nice..."

"You seem like a troubled child, pardon my saying. But the look you have now makes you seem more like your surname instead of your given name."

Narumi continued as Border's representative tilted his head. She looked to the third daughter and the one had fought who stood around them to protect them and she looked to Rusu inside her tablet. Trigger no longer active and now on the lap of Border's representative.

"That Neighbor is not a normal one. It was something that Shuryō had thought of and drawn many pictures of. But that was not all. ...He created many pictures of different animals. Falcons seemed to be his favorite, so he made many that he showed off to Ruri when they were young. After seeing something like that recently we realized something. What exactly happened to that boy and what he had been doing. Thanks to Kotowari, we have gotten the final pieces to this puzzle. We know that this Neighbor is suppose to be a protector after the group using it came to Earth. A connection was made to use her trion so that she could control it herself."

"But," interjected the Attacker. "The child that Neighbor's s'ppose to protect turned out to be incapable of handlin' it, right?"

.

Ikoma understood a few things now.

_...If this Neighbor tried to get to this world by using someone else's trion..._

"It's need a constant source of energy. ...Neighbors takes humans for their source of trion and sometimes they are kept as power sources. ...Well, that's what Fuji told me just now. Oh, she seemed kinda mad when I woke her up. Anyway, this one went and attached itself to Ruri as a program, didn't it?"

That would be why Ruri would lose consciousness. No one knew what happened when trion was directly taken from a body. But...

"Someone else got taken, didn't they?"

"No, not actually."

Ikoma noticed Musashi looking to Chisato. Chisato responded by shaking her head a little and turning toward Ikoma.

"None of us know how to act right now. You Border people should know how to close Gates and know if Ruri's memory loss is due to this connection."

"Then..."

"Right," confirmed Chisato. "If you don't know anything, we are far into the dark concerning this matter. Don't forget, we are still just citizens of Mikado City."

And...

"We can only managed what we can as normal people, even if we try to show otherwise to you guys. This is proof of that seeing as how I could tell the difference between using Ortlinde by itself and using a Trigger. You guys are far stronger than us, but even you don't know what this is about."

"It's become quite a problem." Narumi brushed up Ruri's bangs. "We had been thinking that we could use this Neighbor to help you Border people out...no, the bosses had hoped not to use anything like that if possible, but with the recent invasion, they are not sure. What's more, apparently this Neighbor is unstable in the current state, it has become a mad falcon that is trying to decide what to do right now. It must not know whether to go to Ruri or find another way of continuing on."

After all...

"This Neighbor was built to live with and protect Ruri, but the one who made it had been changed due to becoming a Neighbor themselves. Something like this has never happened before, so we don't know how to handle it."

* * *

 _That isn't good,_ thought Kimura.

_...So those are the circumstances of the three businesses. Wait, that isn't quite right... This goes beyond just sponsorships and businesses. This is involving those who have been effected by Neighbors._

They had hoped to be a community and that dream had been destroyed, but the spirit of that dream still affected them all and tied them all together. Also...

"What the hell's this?"

Mizukami placed a hand on his forehead but sighed in apparent disinterest. He was viewing a few documents sent over by Shiraishi's third daughter and they revealed something about Ortlinde, not the Falcon.

"They'd been makin' it for that long?"

It had been a work in progress to handle the Neighbors without the use of Border's Triggers and the fact that it existed had been disguised.

And it had been thought up by...

"Tenryū Seidō!?"

 **Shobu:** "...M-my father was...helping to make...something like that...?"

 **Red Sky:** "Seriously!?"

 **Shinoda:** "Shit!"

**"Shinoda" has deleted a message.**

**Shinoda:** "My bad. I didn't realize it would get that."

Was replying to him a virtue? Or was that unknowable? At any rate, Kimura had a sudden thought about Ortlinde.

_...From what I know, Border has tried making machines that run on trion. The idea is good in theory, but the cost of that kind of thing was a major put off._

Comparing Border's standard Triggers with regular machines, it was clear that Trigger were the only things best suited to use trion for at the moment. Everything had been set already and it was far easier than mixing trion with already made machines. But...

_...If the cost for such things were the problem, that means it is likely the trion usage was a part of that issue. So if something even close to that was made, wouldn't the user need a large amount of trion?_

Triggers used a person's trion to make everything from the weapons to the trion bodies used. There were small adjustments that could be made, but they were also something that could simply be "set". From the looks of things, Ortlinde was not something that could be "set".

Something similar had appeared for the oldest Shiraishi sister, but that was likely just the youngest allowing the oldest to use Ortlinde. Thinking about it, this was a full violation of Border's rules yet it worked at a basic level.

"For something like to exist is amazing."

She did not know why Tenryū Seidō had helped in creating that, but the Yagura director and the general affairs director would have more to think about as the ones who allowed him to go with the Wanderers. As for Kimura herself...

"...What am I supposed to do about all this?"

She had to find out even more tomorrow and the three business meeting once she made it through that.

_...How am I supposed to bring this all together?_

How could she join together the three businesses, rather, their hurt employees, whose dreams of a community had already been crushed, with Border, who had caused that? How could she prompt them to continue their sponsorship? She wondered if there was a way and she decided to try whatever she could come up with.

This had originally been something for Yuki to do, something for him to solve, but she had been asked for help and brought herself into this situation. Everyone else had been brought in due to Yuki's trust in her.

_I tend to fail him a lot, don't I?_

Letting out a self-deprecating sigh, she looked to her phone.

 **Manager:** "Kitazoe-san, I'm concerned about something, so give me all the information on food history. Things like the transition to population growth mentioned in history."

 **Zoe:** "Oh? I don't mind, but are you sure? It's possible you could get told off for asking for something like that now."

 **Manager:** "That's fine. You can't become a politician if you're afraid of having your words exposed."

This time it was a laugh.

_...I'm not even a politician yet. Stop raising yourself up like that._

She received a reply after a short delay.

 **Zoe:** "Kimuran-chan."

 **Manager:** "What kind of name is that?"

But when she looked, his post contained some of that history data.

 **Zoe:** "I am not a kind enough person to show off to strangers, Kimuran-chan. ...I think you take some of these things too seriously. No, maybe I should say you take too much responsibility onto yourself."

 _This isn't someone you get lectured by every day,_ she thought. But...

 **Manager:** "That's just what a politician does."

Then she realized something.

 **Manager:** "Sorry."

_...Kitazoe-san was being considerate specifically because that's what a politician does._

She was the one that did not understand. But then a response appeared on her phone.

 **Zoe:** "No, no. If I was at all useful...yes, then spread my praises among some shop owners!"

 _I'm glad to see he hasn't changed,_ she thought with a noticeably weak laugh.

 _I need to rethink some things,_ she decided. She felt she was taking too many things onto herself and making it all too complicated.

It was true she had a lot of information, but she could not just accept it all. How was she supposed to go through it all and process it?

 **Life:** "Hey."

"What?"

 **Life:** "I hope you can start grinning before long."

_...Idiot._

_Don't worry about me at times like this. Honestly._

"I need to cool my head a little."

She moved over and swiped a Trigger from a nearby agent and tossed Krümel to the Kotowari Sniper. "Oh, dear," said the girl as she caught the dog. "Ah," said Suzaku and the other, but Kimura ignored them and turned the Trigger on.

"Oh, to hell with it."

 _The most troublesome thing of all might be me,_ she thought as she collapsed back after opening a window.

She heard voices above her, but that was also ignored. Taking the Trigger was just a way for her to make sure she survived.

She felt the air and tenseness of the wind's pressure on her back, a chill soaked into her hair and clothes, and the sound came last of all.

There was a moon in the sky. Once it set and the sun rose, she had to look for information again.

She would be busy tomorrow.

* * *

"Rhino... Pyrínas, are you okay? Even giving my trion might not be enough."

Two people sat in the general area of the Yagura Branch in the pale shadows of the night, neither one wanting to touch a light switch in case they got in trouble.

It was Futoyuki and Pyrínas. Pyrínas had his hand held out, Futoyuki held that hand tightly as if it would disappear otherwise.

Pyrínas looked at their hands.

"...You are really worried, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am."

Futoyuki added a "hey" and looked around the room.

"Is this place fine enough to stay in? You are free to do whatever."

The Yagura Branch was still being fixed up by the ones who would be using it. A broken floorboard could be seen off to the side along with a mat big enough to cover the missing spot.

Pyrínas looked to the former leader and blinked.

"...I did what I wanted. ...You had told me that Stepney was with you, meanwhile Mitsubachi and Michelle are still in this city. ...The people they care about are also here. ...Fighting against Satellite is not something I will regret. ...I am nowhere near the level I was at when using the Pyrínas System, but that is fine. ...My body is expend-..."

"You figured it out really quickly. As someone who helped to make you, I am very happy. ...But apparently I didn't do as much as I thought."

"...Hatomi managed the mechanical side of things. ...Shuryō managed the 'humanity' that would be implemented. ...You managed the reasoning for the Pyrínas System's continued existence."

"I see."

Futoyuki nodded, said "hey" again, and took back his hand. They had reached the limit of trion that Pyrínas could take in his current state. With that being done, he looked over to the refrigerator in the connected kitchen through the door.

"...Would you like something to drink, sir? ...I can get it."

"You did that on purpose. But no need. I can get something myself. ...Have you had any 'coffee', Pyrínas?"

"...Futoyuki, I hear that drink is bitter."

"Pyrínas, is that why you went with the kids to get 'milk'?"

With a small smile, Futoyuki moved over to the large machine. He said "hey" yet again and started to say more, but Pyrínas cut him off.

"...What is it you really want to say after saying 'hey', Futoyuki?"

"...That's the great thing about 'you', _Pyrínas_."

He open the refrigerator door, pulled out a cup he ad put in, and filled it up. He pulled it back from the dispenser inside of it, put on a lid, and repeated the process for a second drink.

"Here. I decided to just get some water."

"Futoyuki."

"I know," said Futoyuki. "Do you think this world would have been fine if we did not come here?"

"...It would likely change from the natural law of progression they follow. ...But if they do not improve or decline, then it will not change. ...You could say our arrival was just a turning point on their course."

"Do you remember what our leader said?"

"...I was made as a latest model of Rhinoceros Beetle by 'Pyrínas'. ...I would like to remind you of that."

Futoyuki was about to reply when he was cut off again.

"...But yes. ...I do remember," said Pyrínas. "...Everything changes whether someone wants it to or not and trying to resist that is something that will cause unfortunate events. ...Even so, going too far into change will cause just as much unfortunate events."

"Did we...cause an unfortunate event?"

"...Tomorrow, everyone will-..." Pyrínas shook his head just as a clock showed inside the Yagura Branch. "...No, but now, it's today."

The calm tone of a bell rang twelve times. The soft snoring of the girl left behind and the child sleeping over tonight were drowned out by the light sounds of work being done in a different room. It was different from the previous night.

Pyrínas held his cup in both hands and took a sip.

"...Water really is a bland drink."

"You're a harsh critic, Pyrínas."

"...Let us believe, sir. ...If we can do that, then we will be involved with a fortune event. ...And rather than viewing the first former leader in a bad light, let's view him as a caring person who gave himself for everyone else."

Pyrínas placed a hand on the paper bag Futoyuki had placed on a nearby table.

"...From what I heard...you bought a lot of hotdogs and caused a small uproar there."

"I thought it would be best not to hold back."

"...If you want to cause a fortune event, shouldn't you try to do more things for others?"

"I just thought what I wanted to do and what everything thought I would do happened to match up there. Although it's possible I just wanted to think that."

"...Then," said Pyrínas with a nod and a glance to the distance city outside of the window. "...Have you finished taking a break now, sir?"

"Can I maybe continue taking a break until morning?"

Futoyuki held up cup.

"Water really is bland."

"...I think you started out right, sir. ...It's the middle of the night after all."

Pyrínas lowered his head as he continued.

"...Right. ...Tomorrow, do your best to help whoever you can create a fortune event, sir."


	75. Interlude: Part 3

_Everyone is honestly working hard today. I can't be falling behind._

A sniper girl hid inside of a large building while scouting the area. The dog and laser that would usually be there to help her were nowhere to be found.

The Bagworm that covered her body swayed with her rhythmic movements as she lifted the heavyweight Sniper-type Trigger known as Ibis. It was different from the normal Lightning she would prefer to use agains others.

While her use of Lightning had always been a fast acting way to attack, it held no power and a large amount of instability in it. The weight of it felt as if she would have it pushed away by the wind and end up without a weapon to attack with.

Ibis was different. It weighted her down, it made it harder for her to move without much thought and created more lag to her movements than she wanted. But it was always stable.

In this sniper training for stealth and target finding, each sniper had to hide themselves well while also being on the lookout for anyone else they could fire at for points. Everyone was a target and everyone was an attacker. The use of Bagworm had been allowed, but the use of Radar had been rejected.

Lifting her Ibis to the edge of an opening in the building, she scouted out the area for anyone who she could fire at without taking a chance of getting shot at herself.

With her body firmly planted and the Ibis pressing down on the edges of the opening, she felt as if she would hit. Each attack fired with Ibis had managed to hit today while every attack fired by Lightning in previous training sessions had a low chance of hitting.

_Damn that Narasaka. I hate that he honestly knows me to this extent!_

She fired.

"...!"

A hit.

_He wouldn't even let me use Egret! Noooooooooooo! I honestly have to use Ibis for this training! What a damn jerk! Next time I see him-_

Another shot managed to land.

_I'll honestly get his measurements and put him in a mob doujinshi! Yeah! Take that-_

The third hit had missed by a small margin.

Not letting that get to her, she fired again. This time the attack hit the unsuspecting agent.

_Barasaka! Yeah! I'll honestly enjoy you drowning in a wave of muscles, Barasaka!_

Seeing the tail end of a Miwa Squad uniform, she had found out her latest shot had hit Kodera on the cheek.

She giggled to herself while moved back and to the side. Her body remained facing the opening, but her sides began to twist for a turn.

_A lovely kiss from a girl should make you pretty happy, Shōhei-kun. But don't honestly look into it. You're just a cute brother to me._

With no muzzle flash or sound put in for this training, she had complete missed what came during her thoughts.

There was no impact and the only way she noticed was because of the small noise of something like a sticker attacking itself to her left breast. A shit had managed to hit her with the number 315 on it to indicate who had managed to hit her.

Using the swinging motion she had created by moving back and twisting, she began to twirl around the location while moving to the nearby stairs she had come in front.

_The old me would have viewed this differently. She would have honestly just made a dive for the stair, thinking if this as simple training. But now..._

She smiled to herself.

_I know to treat these kind of things as both playtime as well as an honest fight._

An attack had just missed her.

A number appeared on the floor as she continued her twirl.

_Now then..._

She began to slow down her pace. Her feet continued to move to keep a small amount of momentum going without fully coming to a stop.

That same momentum was used to fling her Ibis into the air.

She pulled the trigger while the Ibis remained in the air for a few second.

Another five points had been added to her score.

_That one was Fubuki-chan._

She was pleased with herself. That had been another five points to her after having lost a few at the start of the training.

"Heh-"

To counter her five points gained, two points had been lost.

A mark appeared on her right cheek with the number 246 on it.

_Damn. I honestly got too into my dance here and forgot about the training..._

All that was left to do was sigh and continue to make her escape.

* * *

Suzume giggled to herself once she saw it all.

Training had finished and the sniper had gotten together to talk casually and see which ones had managed to shoot them. The sight ranged from ones like Taichi and Natsume who were covered in marks, her own mark being seen on them, to the ones like Narasaka and Tōma who had a single mark or no mark.

She herself had gotten two more marks after the one she had gotten for taking out Shirogane. It had been saddening, but she was glad that she had not been placed low compared to others.

"Heh heh heh. This is a lovely sight. It is also giving me some honestly good material here."

"Oh? And what can you get from this exactly? I think you own me that much for dodging my attack and hitting me back, my queen."

"Think if that as payback for getting that hit on me! You actively went for my head!"

"That's because I wanted to give this lovely sunshine a sweet kiss from a prince."

Suzume wasted no time in laughing at all the marks that had been placed on Shirogane. The amount had grown from when she had hit the princely girl. The girl next to her had less mark than Shirogane, but two more than what Suzume had on her.

"Oh Nikko-chan! My sunshine! Which one of these filthy thieves managed to hit you!? Just keep your Suzu-nee know and she will gladly get revenge for you! Would a double spread of them spreading be enough?"

"Hahaha! It's fine, it's fine! No need to humiliate someone that much! This is just training after all. Oh, but it looks like you and I managed to get hit by some of the same people."

"I guess I can't really say anything since I got hit by quite a few people as well. I let my guard down and got shot by Natsumine over there. I gladly returned the shot though."

"Speaking of which..."

Voice from the other sniper could be heard close by.

This was the chance she had been looking for the entire time.

A few feet away from them was a trio of younger agents conversing with each other.

Hearing a rhythm in their tone and expressions had been more than enough for her to begin swaying from one side to the other. Her arms lifted up until they were above her navel and crossed over her chest.

This seemed to be enough for others to figure out what was going on and reacted accordingly.

The two girl closest to her took two steps back when they saw the smile on her face.

The bigger group consisting of Hanzaki, Kodera, Satori, and Taichi took a step away from each other when they saw her arms start to rise.

The duo of eighteen year olds from Arafune Squad stealthily looked for the exit point when they saw her body begin to sway.

Beyond them all, Narasaka glared fiercely at the girl.

It was not her style to eavesdrop on other, so the excuse she had made up for herself was that she wanted to congratulate the trio for their hard work today.

She had been well aware of the meetings going on and that being the reason Hiura was currently absent from the group. This was a way to receive any stress she had toward the idea of that hat girl going out for Border to the businesses.

"Chika-chan~ Honestly help this big sister out by relaxing on her naughty pillow!"

With no hesitation at all, she wrapped her arms around the small Tamakoma girl's shoulders and pulled her back while leaning on her. There was no escape with the way Suzume continued her swaying from side to side.

That did not seem to be a problem as the Tamakoma girl and her friend both looked to her with smiles.

"Misaki-senpai, is everything alright?"

"Hey Misa-senpai, you got hit pretty hard, didn't you?"

"Just a way with words. But if you honestly need to know, I decided that it would be fun to get hit some so that I have these on me for a bit. Some of the people who hit me I would honestly rather smack right about now, but I will leave them alone since they chose such interesting locations to mark me."

"Mark you?"

Suzume smiled as a loud coughing sound was heard. It had come from the group of boys her age.

"Yes. You see these? And this one here?" she asked while pointing to her cheek and breast. "These are special places. So if someone honestly marks them, it means they were taking special care to hit those spots."

"Really!? But I got shot all over the place!"

"Heh heh heh. You are a good girl, Izuho-chan. Please never let Tōma-san honestly corrupt you."

"What do you mean?"

"I wonder."

The Tamakoma girl seemed to take in the vibrations from her laughter and mixed it with the swaying that was going on.

Having the body moved in such a way and having that kind of vibration be felt gave the impression of a mother taking care of her child. A feeling that there was someone there who would watch out no matter what.

It was not like the song of passage that Hoshi had overhead or the Scorching Shrine that she had practiced a longed Mikumo. This was a melody meant to soothe the smaller girl after the training session they had had.

_And then there are you all..._

The melody of vibration and swaying had been done for more than just the Tamakoma girl. It had also been a way to distract her.

She knew that she would need a distraction from the three boys who had gathered together while looking at their phones. As well as the small boy who had done the same while slowly moving closer to her.

"...Misaki-senpai."

She held nothing back as she let out another vibration through her throat.

Ema had walked forward with his phone carefully in his hand.

"You know Tenryū, right?"

"Heh heh heh. And if I do? Are you honestly friends with that little plant now, Yuzuru-kun? If so, feel safe in knowing that I will not be making a doujinshi out of you."

"I see..."

"Tenryū? Who is that? Has to be somebody important with a name like that."

"Izuho-chan, you can't really base that on a name."

Suzume loosened her arms while bracing her body.

_What a good girl. She understand that well. But in a way, he honestly is important. After all, he is Border's very own plant who can easily change into a dragon._

The next vibration that she let out had not come from her voice or throat. It had come from the slight tapping of her foot against the floor.

"'Tenryū' is 'Tenryū Shokubutsu'. A small boy who honestly does not stand out. He is the same age as you three, as well as Yuki-san's only student. The irony in that is that Yuki-san's teacher is honestly Akasora Chishi-san, who is Shobu-kun's uncle. A nice little cycle of taking care of each other."

"Oh! So that why you are happy that Ema is his friend! Because of Tsukiko-senpai."

"Heh heh. Of course. That boy is quite precious to a lot of us."

Suzume stopped her tapping and began to unwrap her arms from around Amatori's next.

The smaller girl began to lean back until she caught herself, gaining another laugh from Suzume.

"So what did you honestly need, Yuzuru-kun?"

"Do you know what is going on right now?"

"Hm..."

She looked back and...

"Eh!? Seriously!? Can't that idiot just stop his crap already! How the hell does he expect them to have a serious conversation when he's ready to have his dick hanging out!?"

"You have to admit though... His rate of getting undressed has increased way more than at the start of the year."

"Yeah. At the start if the year we had time to bring out the God Mosaic to cover him up. Now it takes Yuki's Side Effect for us to figure out what's happening."

A disgusting conversation full of material could be heard.

Deciding that she would find out about that later on, she turned back to the three in front of her.

"I do. Shobu-kun is with Iko-san I believe."

"Right. Well he is asking me about something, but he also wants to check if-..."

"Yes? What is it?"

"N-nothing... That part can be left to me..."

"You know it is not good to lie, Yuzuru-kun. You never know what will happen to naughty boys who keep things from their big sisters."

"Then it's a good thing you aren't my big sister..."

"How rude! And after I honestly got you that doujinshi last year! I even managed to smuggle a porn game from Iko-san to help you prepare for adulthood!"

"Those were all unnecessary! I destroyed that porn game before my parents found out about it and that doujinshi was a yaoi one with Kage-san and Tsukiko-san that you had made! I burned that one myself...!"

"It wasn't my best work, so I will forgive that one. I would go into the details, but Chika-chan is here."

"What about me, Misa-senpai!?"

"You are a dependable girl, Izuho-chan. I can gladly give you a copy of it later, if you want."

"...No, thanks you. I'll pass."

Between the boy not knowing what to say and the Tamakoma girl look away, it had become extremely hard to hold back from pulled out a tablet and drawing those expressions.

Yet Suzume had managed it. She managed to hold her impulses back so as not to receive an arrow to the back.

Instead of finding ways to hold herself back even more, she looked back to Ema with only one question to ask.

"What did he ask you about?"

"About someone who is surrounded by difficult circumstances."

* * *

Shobu listened to the messages between him and Ema as sound.

His devices around his neck allowed him to convert text data into voices. Suzaku had arranged to have the devices reproduce the speaker's tone based on the collected tone data.

_...So it feels like...they're speaking for me...even from a distance...?_

It may have been like it was echoing down a tube. But he appreciated how well it reproduced Ema's careful tone. It had to read out the speaker's name at the start, but that was unavoidable.

 **Yuzu:** "Hey Tenryū, I hope you don't mind. I had to ask someone else for some help about your question."

 **Shobu:** "...Not at...all..."

**Honest Sister has entered the chat**

**Honest Sister:** "Hello, Shobu-kun."

 **Shobu:** "...Um..."

 **Honest Sister:** "Yes. That is the response I had expected to get. I honestly told Yuzuru-kun that it was better to ask someone else. Not that I don't honestly want to help you. It's just that your view of me is still slightly...slanted. Isn't it?"

He was afraid of saying anything back since it could have all become a wrong answer.

 **Honest Sister:** "That's honestly what I thought. In that case..."

**Honest Sister has left the chat.**

**Amatori and Natsume have entered the chat.**

**Yuzu:** "...This is unexpected. I'm sorry. ...To the three of you."

 **Amatori:** "Are you the 'Tenryū-kun' Misaki-senpai and Ema-kun were talking about?"

 **Natsume:** "It has to be! He's the only other one here!"

 _...Those are the girls...Ema has mentioned..._ thought Shobu while tensing up. ... _They do not have...specialized names..._

 **Seen Everything:** "Got it! Now it's Chikako's turn!"

_...Oh... ...Natsume-sama has gotten to...it..._

**Seen Everything:** "So what's the problem? We only know about someone having 'difficult circumstances'."

Could he answer back with what he knew?

It seemed extremely rude to say anything about what he had learned concerning Ruri the night before.

So instead...

 **Shobu:** "...How do you...get through to...someone who can't...take back what they have...lost...?"

 **Seen Everything:** "Hm~ Like car keys that were accidentally thrown out?"

It was not the same, but he was still unsure about these two girls.

The loud girl seemed to just go with what came to mind, but Ema and the other girl seemed to be thinking this over.

 **Tamakoma's Cannon:** "You can try reaching out..."

_...But people have...tried that with...Ruri-sama..._

Just as Shobu thought that, one of the "voices" filled the transmission.

 **Yuzu:** "Reaching out isn't enough if that person doesn't reach out."

 **Seen Everything:** "Who are we even talking about? A freind of yours, Tenryū?"

What was Ruri to him at this point?

The girl could not remember much and her memories had been mixed up. It was likely that she had forgotten about him again, yet he wanted to know how to help her.

 **Shobu:** "...Someone who has...a difficult life... ...I want to...help them..."

 **Seen Everything:** "Then just do that. If you want to help them, then help them. If their circumstances are that difficult that you can't tell us, then that's kind of on you to figure out."

 **Tamakoma's Cannon:** "Izuho-chan..."

 **Shobu** : "...Um... ...N-names... ...Tenryū Shokubutsu..."

It was becoming harder and harder for him to message these people when he did not even know their names. Ema had been one thing, and the one labeled "Cannon" seemed sensible, but the loud girl was a different matter.

It was hard to deal with those kinds of people.

 **Seen Everything:** "Oh, right! I'm Natsume Izuho."

 **Tamakoma's Cannon:** "I am Amatori Chika. Hello, Tenryū-kun."

He nodded without thinking.

 **Tamakoma's Cannon:** "About what I had said earlier..."

About reaching out...

 **Tamakoma's Cannon:** "This person we are talking about seems like they need help with these difficult circumstances. Is that right?"

 **Shobu:** "...No... ...They have...a lot of help..."

 **Tamakoma's Cannon:** "Then the help they need is not the help they are getting... That is how I see it at least. Tenryū-kun, if they can't take something back... Can you help them take it back?"

 **Shobu:** "...But-"

But what if she has really lost it all?

She has her family and the support from the Shiraishi family, but that was not enough.

He wanted to rely on Ikoma, but...

"Whaddya mean that route's locked behind the glasses girl!? Jiiiiiiiiin! I trusted you! The next time I need for this kinda stuff, I'm goin' to Fuji! She'll beat me up, but then she'll help me out! Not like how you're messin' with me by sayin' I need to complete the glasses girl's route before getting to the cutie!"

Was it really okay to believe in that? After all, Shobu had been the one who designated as Border's representative.

It was his responsibility to handle the events happening at White Rock. People were counting on him and relying on him.

But...

 **Shobu:** "...What if I fail...?"

 **Yuzu:** "You can stay by their side."

The response had been amazingly fast.

 **Seen Everything:** "They can't blame you for trying to help out. If you fail the first time, just stay with them to try again later!"

"...I wish...it was that easy..."

He could not say that they were being inconsiderate or foolish, after all, they knew nothing about what was going on right now. They did not know about Ruri or the Falcon.

This had been a big mistake.

_...I...I should not have...said anything..._

**Shobu:** "...Right... ...Thank you..."

Ending this conversation was his only choice. The only way he could stop placing this kind of question on someone else.

"..."

Lifting his knees up, he began to feel how heavy his mistake had been.

These people, the ones who were the same age as him, had no reason to answer a question like that. They had their own problems and worries, they had their own lives they had to think about. Bringing this up had forced something into that.

Due to his own inability to know what to do and have the emotions to act on that, he had forced this kind of thing someone else.

He never wanted that.

.

After he had left Shobu and his uncle behind, left Border and his friends behind, that man had come back looking for something. That something had not been the things he left behind.

There had been no reason to think about it.

He had come back for something he wanted, not something left had been why Shobu thought he had not lost something but that something had left him.

Any burden from that had been his to hold.

After all, what reason would there be in having that selfish burden placed on someone else?

Ruri had her own burdens to bear, but she could not chose to keep those burdens to herself or not. All of her burdens had been forced by those around her since she could not even remember what those burdens were.

_...I want to...help her with...those burdens...but that requires-..._

**Yuzu:** "You have courage, don't you? The willpower to do this."

He did not.

His courage and willpower with we're all linked to Shikifuku. It was his reminder that such things exist.

 **Yuzu:** "You do."

But he was being told otherwise.

 **Yuzu:** "You have to have some."

He didn't want to hear any more.

Her curled up in on himself more as the "voice" continued to come through the transmission.

That could not be right. He did not have any courage or willpower.

It was far beyond him.

 **Yuzu:** "After all...you learned about these 'difficult circumstances'. You made it to your location. And I saw it firsthand."

 **Seen Everything:** "What happened?"

 **Yuzu:** "That isn't really for me to say. But he did help Shinoda-san and his uncle recently. It was without anyone asking him to do it."

_...Oh...I did do that...?_

He had not lost anything, but that man had lost something important.

The burden that Shobu should had taken had been put on that man. Everything that happened had been placed on that man's shoulders until Shobu had intervened with his willpower to prevent something else form being lost.

He had helped in getting back something that had been lost.

He had moved forward after that and had gotten to know Ema more, accept that he would be representating Border, and forced his way to Ruri's side the night before. None of it he had done on his own.

Ema had gone to him after the day had finished so that they could exchanged numbers.

Yuki had tried to convince that he could decline his position if he wanted.

Ikoma and Chisato had pushed back the Falcon so that he could reach Ruri. The former even destroying the railing so he did not have to climb over it.

"..."

A thought came up.

What if he could start small again?

If he could manage a small amount of courage and willpower then it might snowball enough for him to continue growing it. But for that to be the case, there was something he had to do first.

_...Would it be...alright...to stay by...everyone's side...?_

If that could be the case then he could force his way once again to Ruri's side.

 **Shobu:** "...Thank you...for helping me... ...And, um...Amatori-sama, Natsume-sama...?"

 **Seen Everything:** "What's with that!? Bleh! Don't go adding '-sama' like it's nothing!"

 **Shobu:** "...Natsume...-san...?"

 **Seen Everything:** "Good enough."

 **Tamakoma's Cannon:** "Yes, Tenryū-kun?"

This was where he could start again.

 **Shobu:** "...Wh-when I get back...c-c-can I...meet you two...in person...? ...To thank you properly..."

 **Seen Everything:** "Sure."

 **Tamakoma's Cannon:** "That would be nice..."

_...And maybe...Ruri-san can join...us..._

* * *

"Oh? Looks like things will end up fine enough for your little plant."

Mei glared from behind the cup that was halfway to her mouth.

"I decided to take a break since the meetings haven't started and this is what you do. To take advantage of me like that... I should tell someone about this."

"I thought I would take a chance. But don't worry, I didn't look into the meetings. It was just something specific to Shobu-san."

"I guess there were still things needed to be worked out after he got to see his father again after so long."

Within the Tamakoma Branch were the two who could see multiple possibilities that came before them. One used his ability of future sight while the other used high speed calculations that damaged her if used for too long.

They had just seen off the younger members of the branch and were now sitting in relative silence.

"Now then..."

But that did not mean they were relaxing.

"You look to be ready for this. I hope you aren't going to rely on me too much. Yuki would get mad at the both of us and I don't like being the one scolded."

"It wouldn't be nice of me if we left things to your calculations, would it? Besides, we need each other as stoppers in case we go too far. Looking into possible futures is nice and all, but we both know I can get lost in them."

"Your record against Tachikawa is proof of that."

"I seem to remember you losing some round to him before. And me, as a matter of fact."

"It would be in poor taste if I didn't let you guys win at least a few times. But ever since I gave up fighting on the front lines, you guys have gotten bigger egos than I expected."

"...Please don't grab the table like that."

"I was actually planning on using the sofa this time."

Both of them had been wrong in their assumptions of her when they saw that her hand was not going for the table between them or the sofa she sat on. Instead, her hand had moved to the pillows on either side of her.

After noticing this, they both laughed.

The girl's calculations had made the seeable future become incorrect.

The boy's seeable had made the calculations become incorrect.

The two Side Effect were powerful when used by the two, but could easily counter each other with a single focus point. But when used in tandem with each other, it became something else entirely.

It was a definite result.

"So you looked at something else. I know you did. But this time it's fine since it's more important than these sponsors."

"Don't let them hear you say that."

"You want to give me the information."

"Can't you ask for that at least?"

"No. I want to ask questions, but you know that I can't. ...I'm not allowed to ask questions."

"Mei..."

"That's why I am forcing you to give me that information instead. It is easier this way, and I don't need to bother with asking for anything. From there, we can look to the future and determine what it is we want."

As if to claim this to be the only solution Mei crossed her arms with a challenging look. It was a dare for Jin to make a move against her.

But nothing happened.

The only response to her words was the information she wanted.

It took all of thirty seconds for her to go over the first part and another twenty for the second part.

Once she was done with her reading, she looked directly to Jin.

"Explain."

* * *

During that time...

"Distance left from contact with Miden borders is 800."

In a ship headed straight for Border, multiple people waited.

"In the end, Rhodochroun didn't join us," a voice said as the body it belonged to came down a latter. "We were looked down upon."

"It's probably because they don't have the spare manpower to send. But they will be sending out Trion Soldiers in their place."

"In the end, it's still just some Dogs. This compensation is way too cheap."

"No. Apparently they'll send some Idras over as well. We also have the new Triggers, so it should be fine."

"I don't like those new types... We should have just asked those Wanderers to help us out. I'm sure they'd love to do one of their 'tests'."

The two entered an open, but small, space that had six others in it. In total, including the two that just came in, there were four girls and four guys.

The ones who came down greeted their captain by reporting that they had finished what needed to he done for their ship.

"Good work." The one who spoke was a large man, and the only one standing. "Alright. Let's review our mission objectives one last time."

The two that just came in too their seats as their captain started the review.

.

"Here's what I've decided about this mission."

Gatlin looked to the gathered people in the ship.

They were his team.

They all wore the same dark outfits, but one had a headset on as a 3D image of a large building appeared in the middle of them all.

The headset Yomi must have been the one controlling the image with a control in her hand.

Gatlin initially looked across the ship in which he stood.

And he explained the plans that they were to follow.

"Aftokrator's orders are to stall Miden. Our job is to deliver a blow so they cannot go after Afto. Out methods are left to our discretion. So for this mission..."

The 3D model of the building began to solidify to show that the structure was that of Miden's base known as Border.

"...I've decided to attack the Miden base."

The response was instantaneous.

"By ourselves? Not the city?"

"Does that mean we're going after their Trigger users?"

"No. _Just their base_. We will be leaving their people alone."

"We're not capturing their baby bird either?"

Gatling turned his attention from Ratarikov and Reghindetz to Wen Sō, one if the girls who had spoken up to ask him about their mission.

A third girl next to Wen Sō seems to agree with the question as she crossed her arms.

Kirigisa used one if her crossed arms to fiddle with the seven buttons that could be seen on the extended latch near her shoulder.

"That's right."

"Why, Captain Gatlin?" Koskero moved his hand along with his words while looking to their captain. "Capturing Trigger users would deliver a serious blow to Miden... It'll stall them just like the God Nation wants."

"Yeah. Afto captured twenty one or thirty of them, didn't they? Let's just go for it."

"You fools don't get it..."

Kigisa responded to the two boys from next to Wen Sō.

"That would be a big target on us. Just look at Afto. That's why we they're making us do this. Tch. We should've just made those Wandering guys do this in our stead."

"There's nothing we can do about those guys. They work in strange way and we aren't allied with them because of Aftokrator. But I understand why you would want to use them. They are free to do as they like while Galopoula is closer to Miden orbit wise compared to others."

"Is Afto's true intent to divert Miden's attention toward us?"

"That's what I think."

"Those horned punks...!"

No one bothered to correct Reghindetz in who he addressed the God Nation.

"Miden fought off Aftokrator's nest, including four Black Trigger users. They had the home base tactical advantage, but it was still quite a feat. We don't need to do whatever they tell us and deliberately incur Miden's wrath here."

"Not that we would care if Miden attacked us."

"Reghi, think if the future. Miden has developed exponentially as of late."

"..."

"Our nation is small," Wen Sō said, wanting to add more to what they already knew. "We can't make more enemies."

Ratarikov took a small step forward while still addressing their captain.

He used this conversation to confirm his own thoughts here.

"We don't want another enemy, but we have to fulfill our mission to stall them. That's why we're only going to sabotage their base?"

"That's right. Make a focused strike on their military installations and slow down Miden's forces."

A sigh came from the fourth girl Shi Muon. She twirled what looked like a microphone between her fingers while examining the base set out before them.

Her spot next to Yomi was closer than the others were, but not close enough for her to be in the way of the number six girl.

She looked away from the 3D model of the base to Kigisa, then to their captain.

"This is fine and all, I really have no complaints about doing this, but... Why were Kigisa and I sent along with you all? Unlike you all, we aren't really battle oriented. We are just used as last ditch efforts for others to escape."

"Shi, we need to help however we can! Even if...we can only allow everyone to get away safety, we need to do that much!"

"We can both only use what we were given. Remember that mine is rather hard to move while you are not meant for offensive attacks and are used for defensive styles of fighting. Don't think that we're special just because we are viewed as pawns here."

"You hate moving anyway! And I... I just don't like fighting, but this Trigger is the only one I am good at using."

Tensions grew as the atmosphere continued to weight down from the argument.

Reghindetz and Ratarikov chose to turn away from the argument after seeing where it would be leading to. This was not the first time they had seen this kind of fight and getting involved was never good for them.

The ones to calm the two girls down were the two remaining girls. Wen Sō placed a hand on Kigisa's shoulder with a shake of her head while Yomi slightly turned to Shi Muon as a sign of support.

"You two aren't going to be used like that." While the two girls comforted the argument, it had been Gatlin to speak up to them. "You will have the same amount of importance as the rest of us here. Do you two understand that? You will not be sacrifices for any of us."

"Of course. I apologize, Commander."

"Got it... Sorry."

Gatlin nodded at their responses before looking down to the girl next to Shi Muon.

"Good. Yomi."

The 3D model of the base sunk down until it was no longer visible. In its place were two new visuals with the first one being taller and showing multiple dots on it. The second one was half the size of the first with images on it.

Yomi focused on the two while allowing Shi Muon to get a few inches closer.

"According to the data Afto sent us, Miden has forty to fifty confirmed active soldiers. The total should be two to three times that. There are quite a few baby birds beneath them. But they shouldn't count. And they have anywhere from...one to four Black Triggers."

"C'mon, there's a big difference between one and four. What kind of data is this?"

"Go complain to Afto if you're not happy."

"Yeah, no need to get on Yomi because you can't handle much."

"What was that!?"

Seeing a new argument coming on, Koskero placed a hand on his chin while looking at the new models.

"There are eight of us and with the Trion Soldiers we have in stock... Without cooperation from Rhodokrhoun, this might be a tough mission."

"Yeah! Why was Rhodo allowed to skip!?"

"They weren't."

"!?"

The smaller model that had displayed their number of Trion Soldier began to grow until it was over the first model. The number of images increased as the model grew.

"Rhodokrhoun said they would send 200 Dogs and 95 Idras. Now we can't complain about _that_."

"That'll be 300 total...!?"

"They're small, but they went all out."

"With that many pawns, we'll have more freedom to move."

"We'll figure out the details and choose our best option. Once we get to Miden, we'll investigate to confirm the data we have. Then, once Rhodokrhoun's Trion Soldiers arrive..."

This was where they would be begin.

They were under the command of a larger nation, but this would be where they showed their worth.

"We will execute the plan."


	76. Takeshi Kotowari: Part 3

Takeshi stared blankly at the screen in front of him.

A single line of text was typed out for him to answer to, yet he found that there were no words for him to use.

 **Manager:** "Hey Kotowari, can you tell us about your oldest brother?"

The day had gone well enough with him managing to figure out how they would fight during the next B-Rank War match. That had been followed up by some solo training where he had managed to not destroy everything and instead hit his targets.

He was aware of the meetings that would be taking place later on today n the day and into the night, but nothing more than that.

For Kimura to bring this up meant that his oldest brother had something to do with everything that was happening.

Even so, he was unsure as to what to say, so he wanted to confirm something first.

 **Colors:** "Why would you need to know about him, Kimura-san?"

 **Manager:** "Uh, well..."

 **Life:** "Go on, Kawa! Tell Take-chan eeeeeeeverything! Tell him everything from the weirdo who spoke with Yagura to the way you went bungee jumping without a bungee!"

_...Should I be worried about that last part?_

Kimura seemed safe enough if she was talking to him, so he found no reason to worry right now.

 **Manager:** "'Yuki'! You tell him! You know him better than the rest of us!"

 **Umi:** "Um, Kimura, Yucchi left before you even contacted Kotowari. I don't think he's coming back for awhile either."

 **Manager:** "Damn him!"

 **Colors:** "Can someone tell me what's going on?"

There was an uncomfortable pause as he watched the screen saw that multiple people were typing at the same time.

The numbers began to dwindle under a single name appeared.

 **Manager:** "Kotowari... Uh..."

**White Fox has joined the chat**

**Manager:** "Oh thank goodness..."

 **White Fox:** "Blame Jinsei for that. He was being an idiot again and I needed to make sure he didn't... Well, that's not important right now."

 **Almost Everyone:** "It is! It really is right now!"

Was this what was considered important to those people?

Takeshi never understood how the eighteen year old group had not managed to destroy each other by this point with the way they were.

 **White Fox:** "Hey Take, remember that you've changed from before. You can handle this, so I'm relying on you to take this information and at least not start firing."

 **Colors:** "...Okay."

 **White Fox:** "Right then. You had told me that your oldest brother's name was Musashi, right?"

 **Colors:** "Yes..."

Where was this going?

Yuki was clearly being careful, but this seemed as if a new revelation concerning his brother came to light.

 **White Fox:** "He is alive and working for Shiraishi. We need information on him."

* * *

"Hey, can I ask something?"

A crossdresser spoke up in the Suzunari room.

This was the Kurosaki waiting room for the Suzunari members. Light reflected off the windows, so the room was bright white. Inside, Kon, Murakami, Kuruma, and the crossdresser sat around the tea table. Yuki stuck his head inside from the half-opened sliding door.

"Um, Jinsei, this is the Suzunari room..."

"What? But I'm a girl right now! And since I'm a representative, you've gotta call me Repko! Don't forget it! I'm here for some girl talk! If you want to join us in here, you've gotta become a girl too. Since your name's Yuki, we'll call you Kiko!"

"Wh-why go for a name that works regardless!? That's not an uncommon name!"

"Heh heh. If you go with Yuko then you would be similar to Kumagai," said Kuruma with a kind smile.

Next to Kuruma, Kon drank all her tea at once and held her cup out toward Kuruma to ask for more. Then she glanced over at the idiot.

"Kō-kun, prepare those golden chains. ...Now, ask your question."

"Y-you just had to set up your defenses like crazy before asking, didn't you?"

But the crossdresser scratched his head in thought and asked his question.

"What did Yuki mean when he wa mumbling something like, 'I'd hope wittle Taki-chan's okay if we tell him about his big bwother'?"

"I didn't say that! I didn't!"

"Heh heh. It's nice how you sometimes misspeak like that, Yuki."

"I did say that! I did!"

Murakami was a little concerned by how things were going, but then the crossdresser asked another question.

"Did Kawa mess up?"

"What makes you think that?"

"Well." He nodded and tilted his head. "No one really seems very excited. And while I'm the representative, I don't really get a lot of this."

Yeah.

"If I understood more of it, I'd be able to say something or tease her."

.

 _Well then,_ thought Murakami.

_...Jinsei is doing this in his own way..._

He was still relying on Kimura, but he was wondering what he could do as someone who hates losing things. Of course, the greatest help someone like that could provide was his support, but...

"You're worried as an individual who holds the position of knowing things, aren't you?"

"Hmm, maybe that's it," said the crossdresser. "I'm worried about all of you: Kō, Yuka, Kuni, Umi, and everyone else. ...Oh, and Yuki, you're here too, aren't you?"

"Wh-why was I just tacked onto the end there!?"

Murakami thought to himself as he helped Kuruma calm down the fox.

_...What brought on this change?_

No, he knew the answer: losing that battle. Before that, he must have spoken with her mother about what it meant to knowing other things. And during some off time, he had spoken with Kon about future plans.

"Jinsei."

He had a lot on his mind, but he had a feeling that everything was fine for the time being. So he spoke to help his friend relax.

"Kimura has not messed up. This is just a touchy subject to bring up lightly."

"What do you mean? I mean, from a backside view, a tucked in turtle boy does sound pretty easy to get to."

Kon snapped her fingers, so Murakami pulled him over with the golden chains, smiled, and spoke.

"Listen."

"Oh!? Oh!? You wanna try this!? Just so you know, I'm not wearing a supporter or any underwear below this! Listen up, golden chain! Get close and you'll be wrapping around my lack of a supporter! Are you sure you want that!?"

"Y-you are the worst!"

The golden chain rose up in disgust and turned the tight arm toward Murakami. He stroked it to calm it while Kon glared at the crossdresser to quiet him down.

"Now, Kō-kun, go ahead. If need be, you can only coil it around his neck."

"Right. ...Listen. Things here can be out in a negative light since it was thought that Takeshi no longer had any blood relatives. This makes things difficult because it can mean Takeshi is in a similar situation to Yuki since he is with Border but Kotowari Musashi is on Shiraishi's side."

"But if you don't know if it'll work out like that, wouldn't it be better not to mention it?"

The Yagura Branch Representative raised his hand from over by the door and answered the crossdresser's question.

"Listen, Jinsei. Think of it like this: Can a bakery that never introduces any new products ever expand?"

"So it's like a porn game maker that only produces remakes?"

The Yagura Branch Representative nearly answered but then decided against it. He slowly looked over at Kuruma and confirmed that he had not understood the idiot's question and was tilting his head.

"Hm... I have no idea what you mean, Jinsei."

"There's a lot I want to say about that, but setting aside remakes, it's true you got yourself a girlfriend without broadening your horizons beyond the one genre... Aren't you going to be in trouble without some more variations in genre, like neglect, honey, in the bath, or two sisters at the same time?"

"Hm? Are you two talking about a kind of game, Yuki?"

"Eh!? ...Y-yes, a game! It's a kind of game! A fun kind of game!"

"Oh, my. Even if I don't understand, I'll do what I can to help when you're researching the topic. It is the least I can do for someone who helps out so much."

The Yagura Branch Representative said nothing and simply gave the idiot a trembling thumbs up.

"Yes, yes." Kon nodded twice and turned toward Murakami. "As people, it is true you will not develop if you keep everything the same."

"Really?" asked the crossdresser. "Just so you know, there are standard things that every bakery needs to have."

"Yes, but the Red Lightning serves light meals, pickled vegetables, and snacks as well."

Even Kon likely had a vague understanding that the Red Lightning's position as a bakery/café was somewhat iffy.

"Listen, Jinsei. ...Things might seem stable while you always make the same bread and it's true that will provide a steady income."

It would have been easier to have a treasurer explain this, but Murakami was working to expand his general knowledge as a third year, so he used his knowledge from that.

"But, Jinsei? ...Even if you don't change, everyone else will. If you don't follow those changes, you won't fit in with them and you will become outdated."

"What's wrong with that?"

"If other places are making bread according to the current trends, do you really think an outdated bakery will sell any bread? ...Even if you lower your prices to draw in some customers, your income will shrink and even that might not be enough to keep people from leaving for the other bakeries."

"Oh, I get it," said the crossdresser.

"Neither Red Lightning has been making things exactly the same forever," added Kon. "After all, you search out the cheapest and best tasting flour and other ingredients from the distributor, you buy a new oven when need be, update the one you have, or even change manufacturer. The final product looks the same, but it is constantly changing."

"Then...this is because Takeshi has changed from before, but he can still go back? His development can either move back or never change, right? So why would you consider telling him?"

"Jinsei."

Kon brought the teacup to her mouth, took a sip of tea, and set it down.

"Sorry. That is a little too hot. Heh. It's about the temperature of Yuki-kun and Kuruma-san."

"D-dammit! You got me!" shouted the crossdresser. "I don't know how, but that had to be at my expense!"

Kon gave a triumphant thumbs up, but Murakami steered them back on topic.

"It is true that others would want to see Takeshi stay the same or go back to how he was before any development. Isn't that right, Kon?"

"Right. It is a simple matter. Before, Jinsei asked why old things are bad, didn't he? This is the same. ...Most people prefer what is old and stable. Although in this case, that old Kotowari had been unstable. Even if the new things are better, they wonder why we have to change because they will miss the old way of doing things."

"Of course," added Murakami. "That isn't all there is to it. The people who would want Takeshi like he was could also just want that so that they can not be proven wrong about how they felt towards him. They would feel like they would have been wrong if they saw that he no longer goes on rampages."

* * *

_What is there to say...?_

Takeshi let out a sigh as he began walking again.

 **Colors:** "Is it okay if I get back to you on this? ...So I can remember everything you would need to know."

 **Manager:** "That's fine. Whatever you can give us by the end of the day is fine enough."

It was fine enough to hold off saying anything.

He had not thought about his family in such a long time that it was rather hard to remember anything specific about them. They had done nothing special for him and he had done nothing special for them.

Musashi had been the most active one, but even he had not been around enough for Takeshi to remember much about him.

His whole family had been presumed dead on the account of finding most of the bodies after the first invasion on Mikado City. The fact that someone other than Takeshi was alive had brought up some questions.

Why had Musashi joined Shiraishi? And when had that been considering the company arrived at Mikado City after the invasion?

How much was he against Border right now?

Would he used Takeshi as a bargaining chip against Border?

_Why has he not done anything...?_

Takeshi lifted his scarf as his eyelids began to close before stopping half way. His gaze was toward the floor, his mouth was covered up, and a single orb of trion came into existence next to him.

The orb of trion began floating lazily around him, not gaining any attention from Takeshi.

"I know why already..."

There was a simple reason that had always hing over Takeshi. It was the reason why Musashi had likely not gone to him and the reason why, even now, most people chose to stay away from him.

"I really am just-..."

"I'm really wondering if you do this subconsciously at this point."

The orb of trion vanished by fizzling out.

Takeshi looked up before he could notice the orb and saw Kakizaki looking down at him with a surprised look.

.

Kakizaki had not expected to see Takeshi walking towards them, eyes down and scarf above his mouth. The orb of trion that was lazily floating around him and the way he was not paying attention to it made him a bit curious.

He had began to walk toward the boy, but stopped for a moment when remembering the last time a situation like this had come up.

It had been when Takeshi was ready to fire.

This time was different with multiple people around them. Kako and Kageura stood out as great fight, but a small crowd had gathered due to the two having just finished a game of tug-of-war with one of Tamakoma's members.

Said member was still here even after stating that he was getting called up by his captain.

It seems that he had been a bit curious since he had not left yet.

"And yet a new 'K' joins... Hm. An interesting turn of events."

A certain phrase came to Kakizaki's mind as everyone turned to look their way.

_...I've got my back to the wall now!_

_Calm down, Kakizaki Kuniharu. Panic now and you will be devoured. With both Kage and Kako-san here, this is undeniably a colosseum of cannibalism and the enemy might as well be wild animals starved for over a month._

He started by taking a deep breath. Then he looked down and to the side without using any more strength than was necessary to maintain a natural stance.

Takeshi was standing there with small orbs of trion appearing and disappearing from around him.

He looked like a cute child with the flashing orbs decorating him and with his fingers shifting the scarf around his neck. _And the way his feet keep shifting from side to side really does make him look innocent._

_...Kotowari is gradually gaining more variety in his reactions._

When compared to before, he was losing that odd tension that seemed cautious about something. The bursts of embarrassment were intense, but the main issue there was the difference that had developed between who he had been and who he was now.

At any rate, he kept an eye on his surroundings while slowly relaxing next to him.

He spoke to him with him hands on his scarf.

"S-sorry, Kakizaki-san. But I'm really not trying to make them..."

"No, don't apologize. ...If I could make flashes like this, they would have been everywhere by now."

"...Eh?"

"You said you wanted to change and you accepted my help, so this is a good thing."

He poked one of the trion orbs and watched it pop like a balloon.

"So it's like returning the favor for still letting me help you out whenever, Kotowari."

"R-returning the favor, Kakizaki...-san?"

Kako covered her mouth as small giggles came out.

She finally exhaled a large breath from her nose and a giant message sent directly to him opened up in front of his eyes with "keep going" being written.

_...Curse this surveillance society!_

Still, there was something he had to say to Takeshi.

"Yes, returning the favor."

"Then...I'll do the same."

He removed his hand from his scarf and moved closer. Like a bird resting its wings, he did not quite look straight at him, but...

_...Now is the time to pat him on the head!_

This was a rare thing even in the previous circumstances.

 _But,_ he thought. _We might be surrounded by awful people and Kako-san is definitely preparing something on the network, but if I don't show that he's improving here, um, well, what would happen? I'm not really sure, but I'm doing it anyway._

 **Kage:** "Hey, come on out of your own little world there."

Takeshi quickly straightened up.

This reminded him of their circumstances too, so he raised his right hand toward Kageura who was glaring his way.

Then they all heard the same question from the small boy who seemed ready to leave.

"Was Kotowari asked to join Kako Squad before?"

.

Takeshi titled his head at the question.

It was a strange one he had not expected to hear. It seemed others understood though since Kakizaki looked up as if trying to find something and Kako moved her hand to her chin with a grin.

He was aware that Kako often worked with Suzume in gather material for doujinshi, so the sharp look she was giving him made him wiggle around inside.

"I never thought of doing that. Kotowari-kun has always been...an interesting person. His Laser Shooter is something Shooters are curious about, but that is all. His personality was never one I thought could fit anywhere besides Tsukiko Squad."

The murmuring from the crowd was torture as he heard remark after remark about how he had been. Attacking his teammates, not caring what he destroyed, how he never listened to anyone but his captain, and much more.

They spoke about Tsukiko Squad and how that team had been overly reliant on the captain.

Each word hurt and made him instinctively reach for his scarf to cover his face again.

But one sentence cut through all of that.

"You really like stalling things out, Phantom Hag."

Everyone went quiet.

"Heh heh. I'm just having some fun here, Kageura-kun," Kako said. She looked from him back to Takeshi. "I still don't know about the current Kotowari-kun, but it's easy to see that he can fit in more than just with a squad that doesn't exist now."

"Kiyoshi messed up big time, but if these guys can't get over that crap by this point then I would've geared them apart by now."

"Oh, so now you can consider it?"

"It's more of a possibility. If Kotowari-kun continues to go down his current path... I would need to apologize to Mei and Suzu-chan for stealing their Shooter."

Her words were just for show. They had to be or else it would give the idea that she would continue to follow his actions to see where he ends up.

"Kakizaki-kun, make sure to keep helping him out."

"I never planned on stopping."

Takeshi realized two things once it seemed the topic of discussion had come to an end.

The murmurs coming from the small crowd had drastically changed. They no longer spoke about what he had done, instead they were comments about what could happen. His future with Kakizaki's help and what could happen if he joined Kako Squad.

It was strange to have those kinds of things being said about him.

None of it seemed to be a joke either. Both Kakizaki and Kako seemed serious about their words. Even Kageura looked like he was interested in this, although he hid it extremely well.

The second thing he noticed was a hand on his back.

"They aren't lying. You should be on guard for when Kako-san tried to steal you."

Kuga patted him on the back while giving a strange face.

"If Kako-san, Kakizaki-senpai, and Kageura-senpai are vouching for you then I'll be rooting for you too." His expression changed from the strange face to a confident grin. It was a far cry from what he had just shown. "But we won't hold back of our teams face each other in the B-Rank Wars."

He wanted to give a response. To say something to both Kuga and the others around them.

But all words died on his mouth.

He could not deny them, but agreeing with them made him feel like that was being arrogant.

All he could do now was cover his face with his scarf to hide the uncertain look he knew he was giving.

"Well I need to really he going now."

He saw Kuga give a wave to them all before taking his leave.

Following his example, the small crowd began to disperse with Kageura going to the left and Kako the the right.

There was still one person who stayed put though.

Kakizaki had not moved from his position next to Takeshi.

.

With the crowd now gone and both Kageura and Kako having left, the air around them seemed to lighten up a bit.

Kakizaki took the change to lift his hand up before lightly placing it on Takeshi's head.

The Shooter moved his eyes up to look at Kakizaki.

"Um... Kakizaki-san...?"

"Yeah, what's up?"

"Do you know about what's going on right now? With Border and the sponsors?"

"Only what everyone else does. Ikoma's involved, but those guys have been doing a good job from having him spill anything. He just keeps talking about some porn game with Jin on the network. It's actually distracting at times..."

Distracting seemed like too light of a word for what he had gone through during this whole time.

"Why do you bring it up?"

* * *

"You still can't forgive him?"

That question came from an elevated location. Light bulbs inside plastic coverings the ceiling created a light source and that the room it lit up was the Hatohara Squad operating room inside of the main Border base.

Lukas stood there with his glasses reflecting the light off of them and he was speaking into his phone in his hand, but it was only text that answered him.

While looking at her own phone in front of her, Hisoka supplemented the words from the I speaking responder.

"Lukas-kun, I have confirmed that Ninomiya Squad will be joining us for a viewing if the meetings tonight. They will be coming here since there is more room than their room, but we don't know if others are viewing this as a way to keep me from going to Yoshiko-san's side."

"It's probably being viewed in a multitude of ways right now."

"So about the first question."

Hisoka looked over and Lukas nodded back before crossing his arms.

"He messed up. I was not going to stick around to see an end result the moment he brought out his weapon."

"I see. So it was because he brought out his weapon when their was no fight to be had. That is more of a betrayal."

"That's right," agreed Lukas.

He faced forward.

From the front of the screen, he could see from some if the cameras Border was allowed to use. People and vehicles were worming all over the city and the Forbidden Zone began being filled with the agents on duty.

"For now..."

He then spoke to no one in particular.

"Hey. There has to be consequences for not thinking things through."

"You have had moment like that if you are capable of saying something like that yourself. Of course, that does not apply to those who only make a show of saying that and unquestionably believe they are right."

"True enough." Lukas smiled bitterly and shut his eyes. "Even Kakizaki hasn't forgiven him, so it's less likely that I will because of only some small changes."

.

 _Even in that case,_ thought Lukas _. I wouldn't just accept any regular apology from him and he knows it. Asking someone else to do it would just make me mad too._

He would only stand a losing chance if he could not at least try to beg for forgiveness. It was difficult to earn something like that back, but...

_...If he manages it, I don't think he will lose it a second time._

Lukas spoke his next thought aloud.

"I suppose the first time wasn't really anything, so a second time would be consider a friendship."

"Lukas-kun."

"Yes?"

"Right." Hisoka nodded and spoke calmly. "I define friendship as something people create and creating something like that made Shino-kun and Shiro-kun happy. Saying that friendship can be destroyed so easily and take two tries would affect my thoughts on those two."

"Hisoka."

Lukas turned toward her and swung his left hand upwards.

The ruler he had grabbed at some point whipped up the wind, flipping up Hisoka's jacket. Hisoka quickly pushed the jacket back down with her left hand, but she still slightly furrowed her brows.

"...Lukas-kun?"

Her tone was asking for the meaning of that and Lukas reacted with a gentle movement.

Lukas sighed.

"Well? You you say we aren't friends anymore?"

"No."

Hisoka was correct. She shook her head and corrected her posture.

"I would say we are still friends. Something like that is consider 'playing around'."

"I'm the same. I would be annoyed if a friend did that, but it would still mean little in the long run."

Lukas said something he had said to Hisoka many times before.

"Friends can 'play around' all they want, but they should know when they are taking things too far by both standards and they can't act without thinking a both the consequences. And what happened goes beyond 'taking things too far' and was made without thinking of any consequences."

Hey.

"Know that I won't ever stay friends with someone who is nothing but toxic."

Lukas looked over at the screen beside him. The meeting would be starting soon and Minoru would be facing off against a vixen and one of Border's worst.

He wanted to prepare for what they would be listening in on.

But suddenly...

"Is this what you did!?"

Both Lukas and Hisoka had the sides and backs of their jackets flipped up at once.

.

It had happened without warning, but...

_...Eh?_

There was a reason for Lukas's confusion. He and Hisoka were facing each other. To flip up both their jackets, someone would have needed to instantly circle behind both him and Hisoka. And do it fast enough that they did not notice.

One of the few people who could do that appeared.

"Sumi-senpai!?"

.

Hisoka was curious about the Gunner in casual wear.

Inukai was suppose to come by with his squad and Hogo Squad, but he seemed to be a,one right now instead of with others. It was strange given his affection to Oshiro. But...

_...He is friends with a good amount of people taking part in these meetings and likely wants to be ready._

Most people used free time before meetings to gather information to use however they could for themselves or others, but Hisoka had determined that Inukai had done no such thing due o the pictures sent to her from Oshiro's phone that had been taken by Inukai himself.

_...They have also refrained from asking me anything due to Yoshiko-san being in charge here instead if my parents._

In other words, the boy who had little reason to show up early stood before them.

That was why Hisoka stood next to Inukai and Lukas. Holding her hands together in front of her waist would be the standard pose, but she let them dangle at her sides this time.

She then gave a quick bow without taking her eyes off the boy and asked a question.

"Why did you come here early? Do you have some extra business with us?"

"Sort of." Inukai out a hand in his chin and faced Hisoka. "About the business meetings later on tonight. I was really hoping to cuddle with Shiro-chan during that whole time, so I wanted to find the best spot to sit. But then I came to an interesting conversation, so I wanted to say a small something."

"What is that?"

"Take-chan's older brother is apparently on Shiraishi's side. I know it doesn't mean anything personally, but it's kind of a pain."

"A pain?"

Inukai's eyes and eyebrows bent in a smile and he beckoned her over.

Hisoka looked to the side and made eye contact with Lukas before facing Inukai again.

"...Do you need something?"

Inukai moved his face in close and pointed out.

Hisoka was confused, but the boy's expression changed to a glare.

"They are having the time of their lives over at those companies, but it feels like they're having too much fun without the rest of us. What am I supposed to do about this? Could I maybe crash their party? I really want to tell them that I want to have that kind of time with Shiro-chan."

"Judging from the situation, are you furious?"

"Maybe two steps away from it. But not in a malicious way, I just haven't had too much fun with Shiro-chan recently..."

"In the interest of self-preservation, I will nod and say that is truly unfortunate, but since it is currently getting late, isn't it up to the representatives to decide what to do?,

"So I can't do it, huh?" sighed Inukai. "And I was ready to bring Prez and Arafune along for the ride. Maybe even SenSen for some extra fun."

Then someone spoke from behind Hisoka. It was Lukas.

"You seem awfully calm, Sumi-senpai. Do you trust those kind of people?"

"Eh? I really don't trust them to not take each other's bentos or attack each other randomly, but I trust them in everything that matters. A poor person is made by a poor friend. I'm their friend, so of course I trust them. What about you? I know there are some issues with some of them because if the nature."

Inukai smiled a little and Hisoka recalled something. Lukas was a boy who know what he wanted and how, but he had said something when he had had an incident with Takeshi in the hall with Kakizaki around.

_..."It is beyond hope."_

What had he meant? It was conceptually unclear. After all, the ability to hope was not something that just anyone could throw away.

That may have been why Hisoka asked a question without thinking.

"Inukai-senpai, do you think there is anyone in the world who is beyond hope? Or do you think there are some people who can be no more than-... That sounds a lot like something Akashi-san would say. I am very sorry. What I mean is-..."

"Hey, Hisoka? Lukas?"

Inukai straightened up again and gave them a small smile.

"I don't really know about that. Humans are so weird, after all. But there is one thing even I can tell you."

"Which is?"

"Right." Inukai nodded. "Have you ever had someone give up everything for you to set your world in motion?"

Hisoka sensed Lukas tensing up best to her.

That may have been enough for Inukai.

"Good." He put his hands on his hips. "Looks like you aren't just trying to believe in some selfish little world you created in your imagination."

He had one more thing to say.

"Then some people are really going to have to try and earn back what they have lost."


	77. Shiraishi

Kimura and Suzaku stood atop the evening roof.

They were at the top of the Border base overlooking the city. Looking down from there, they saw people and the lights of the busy city in the plazas and streets, just like a normal day in Mikado City.

The people began to flow into their daily routines as well.

But there were buildings off limits.

"We need to prepare for the meeting..."

The three business meeting would begin in another hour. Some of them would already be participating in the pre-meeting parties.

The meeting itself had begun with those parties. Just like in other case, a gathering before the traditional "meetings" began was not just an event to enjoy dancing and food. Each of the important players would work to include or exclude their areas of responsibility from the upcoming topic of discussion. Normally, they would hint at their priorities during conversation and "lay the groundwork" as it were, but...

_...No one out there now is a specialized diplomat or specific member, so things will play out differently._

Instead of making any decisions on the groundwork laid by the other businesses, everyone would send that information back to some special agents and the directors. The directors had to show that they would not leave everything to their agents, so they knew what they had to do quite well. They could make their own decision and consult with the others before sending an answer back to the representatives.

Tenryū was doing an especially good job. He looked like a child, so a kind person would be considerate and those who underestimated him would try to bluff. When the directors sent back a response for him, the gap between the two was apparently pretty awful, so Tenryū's reports were growing more and more valuable.

_...Who would have thought how Tenryū-san is accepted would coincide with Akasora-san and the others' job?_

He was a strict teacher, so he was probably making a rational decision for the greatest effect based on an understanding of Tenryū and who he was speaking with.

* * *

"Whaaaat!? What the hell did you just say!? Didn't I tell you _I_ would be handling all of Shokubutsu's responses!? Meet with the directors!? Why would I do that!? I will be handling it all myself! And lanky PR director! Only a select group may call him Shobu! Even calling him Tenryū-san is too much! You are limited to two letters! Call him Sh-sama! ...Ah! Shokubutsu just sent me a thank you mail! And it is really divine because it contains a comment from Kimura as well! If you want to see it, you'd better start offering up some money and privileges!"

"Chi-chan! Chi-chan! What about Kirikari's responses!?"

"You can do them, Taku... Think of it as a reward for your hard work lately..."

"Um! Akasora-san! What about the e-mail here from the fox?"

"Who caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaares? He's am iiiiiiiiiiddddiiiioooooot!"

"Hahaha! Chi-chan! I admire how quickly you can switch it on and off!"

* * *

_Branch directors and the others must be busy,_ thought Kimura as she continued her mail exchange _. I need to pull it together myself._ But it was her job to decide what to do next based on those matters.

**Manager:** "Representatives, do you have any questions about the upcoming three business meeting?"

**Deer Prince:** "What kind of discussion do you think it will end up being?"

It was a vague question, but she could already see its intention. So...

**Manager:** "What is our goal? Keep that in mind and look at this again."

**Life:** "Was it a fight?"

**Mi-Kon:** "Yes. It was a great fight of aggression so we can protect Mikado City by conquering it."

**Manager:** "Hold it, you two."

**Kuni:** "Heh heh heh. But that special student general assembly you took part in awhile ago had a fight ending, didn't it? You had fanned the flames! You just fanned them and fanned them! And our odds of victory were up again! Now they are again right now! All the other organizations should tremble in fear of us Operators!"

**TetsuG:** "Yeah. She even said we could go out there ourselves."

**Shobu:** "...D-don't worry... ...I-I-I'm ready for...that..."

**Manager:** "Wait, wait, wait, all of you. That isn't what I was trying to say! I'm trying to take this seriously!"

**Haru:** "So you're saying it's time to take going to fights seriously?"

**Artist:** "It's pretty impressive we made it this far if we were only treating fights like a game. Then again, we do have the B-Rank Wars going on."

**Kuru-ma:** "Um, everyone, it was Kimura's liking for fights that solved your school issues, so what happens to you guys who go to the same school if you reject that...?"

**Demon Child:** "I would love it if the end of this line↑was said with his hands on his blushing cheeks."

**White Fox:** "You're watching! You're watching us, aren't you!? But from where!?"

**Mad Hatter:** "Some people who are in a relationship have been really open about thing apparently. Is it the impatience brought by fights?"

**White Fox:** "As far as I know, Minoru, Haru and I are the only ones currently in a relationship! Shiro puts up with Haru, so I overlook that. And I don't even want to think about Minoru's right now! No offense."

**Haru:** "He doesn't 'put up with' me! Shiro-chan looooooooooooooves me! He loves me so much that he overlooks when I try to take candid photos of him!"

**White Fox:** "Someone throw something at him."

**Deer Prince:** "I understand."

Was that just his way of saying the fox should stop while he was ahead?

**Black Wolf:** "What are all of you talking about!? The meeting is going to start soon!"

Murakami paused long enough to take a breath.

**Black Wolf:** "Listen, everyone. We have no time. Things are already on the move! We need to focus. Okay, Kimura. I agree we need to take this seriously, so how are you going to bring this to a fight?"

**Almost Everyone:** "You're the worst one of us all!"

**Manager:** "Dammit... You all must see me as a someone that uses jokes to lure people into a false sense of security before declaring war."

**Umi:** "There's...there's something off about that view of us! Are you okay, Kimura!?"

They were all cruel, but a sudden thought came to mind.

_...Are we gradually returning to a truly normal state of things?_

She felt like the recent actions acted as a dividing line.

She had no intention of tooting her own horn, but...

**Manager:** "I haven't felt this mood in a while."

They could see what they had to do and they had some leeway in doing it, so things were back to normal. She did not like being the butt of the jokes, but their aim would eventually drift to Yuki or Suzaku. _Yes, that's right. It has to. I'll make sure it does._ But...

**Mi-Kon:** "Yes. It has been a while...since we had a good fight."

**Manager:** "Not what I meant!"

After saying that and looking at the quizzical tilt of Krümel's head, Kimura said more.

**Manager:** "This is business. ...If we can suggest what I'm currently thinking about, I think we can get the three organizations on our side. And it should influence the other businesses afterwards. That is the way I'm looking at it now."

**Deer Prince:** "In other words, leave it to you?"

**Manager:** "No, not really. ...You're the ones who will handle the local negotiations. I will provide you with a goal, a policy, and an approach to use, but it's you who will clinch it.

Listen.

**Manager:** "Do whatever it takes, representatives. Just make sure to fulfill your goals in a way that does not harm Border or the branches. Business here will determine the future of not just Border but Mikado City as a whole. We're going to win here and then keep defending from Neighbors."

**Demon Child:** "You mean...business here is a form of fighting?"

Kimura just about said "yeah" before realizing that agreeing meant that this would lead to fighting.

_...I just about fell for it!_

She hurriedly tried to find something else to say, but could not come up with anything. So...

**Manager:** "No, u-um, that's not it. That's definitely not it. Yes. Ha ha ha. That sure isn't it."

**Almost Everyone:** "Don't force yourself!"

She wondered what that meant, but she guessed it meant they had understood her.

**Manager:** "I'll have a plan put together by the time the meeting starts. I'll probably discuss our policies with you in the meantime, but have a good time on the scene."

She expected them to ask "A plan for fighting?", but...

**Life:** "Okay. We left that with you, so leave this with us."

Her words caught in her throat when he accepted it so readily, so she finally managed a single word.

"...Right."

She simply agreed for the time being.

**White Fox:** "Hey, I have something else here. Well, not over here, but you all know what I mean."

**TetsuG:** "What do you want?"

**White Fox:** "I see someone is ticked off I got a girlfriend before him. This just goes along with me getting my motorcycle license before you too."

**Kage:** "Hey idiot, stop your dick measuring contest and tell us what the hell you want now!"

**White Fox:** "I feel so attacked... Anyways. I was wondering about Abe Ruri. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't she the same age as Shobu, Ema, and the rest of them?"

**Manager:** "She is. And I think I know what you're getting at here."

**Black Wolf:** "Yeah. Why is someone that young a part of the meeting? Even with her position, the Shiraishi parents or the daughters or Abe's mother herself should be doing this. ...It doesn't feel right to have her be the one to do this."

**Kuru-ma:** "I can answer that. While my family doesn't have that great of a connection with them, we at least know their system a bit. The reason for this is because her mother is in charge of negotiations and PR jobs. With Abe Ruri being the one to follow after her, should she want to do so, she is being put to the test here. If it gets really bad, there is likely backup."

**Demon Child:** "That's probably why Shiraishi Chisato and Kotowari are there. They are to prevent anything too bad. Besides, we can't really talk about that since Tenryū himself went for this. He has arguably the least amount of influence and we still sent him."

**Kage:** "Hey, Ema can look at the chat too. The top squads are allowed to see this thing. Anyway, he said not to say anything bad about Kiyoshi's kid. Guess he thought that last comment was an insult."

**Demon Child:** "It wasn't. But tell him I apologize anyway."

**Shobu:** "...!"

**Haru:** "Yuki, you suddenly got quiet there. Is that because of Takeshi?"

**White Fox:** "...I want to know who that guy that says his name is Kotowari is, that's all. If he's messing around with that name, I'm going to beat the crap out of him. If he really is 'Kotowari' then..."

**Haru:** "Then...?"

**White Fox:** "Then he is a dead man."

**Everyone:** "You need to calm down right now!"

**Manager:** "No killing a business' employees!"

Kimura let out a sigh as Suzaku stood next to her with a wary smile.

Then the Ōji duo approached from the stairs a few feet away. They both held their Triggers.

"Ōji Kazuaki and Kurauchi Kazuki reporting for today's duty."

The Ōji Shooter stopped at the top of the stairs.

"The party should be starting soon."

* * *

Shobu danced.

He did not know much about dancing, so he had asked Suzume about it in the general Border chat:

**Honest Sister:** "It depends on the music, but when dancing with someone, you should honestly be fine following your partner's lead. If you mess up, it just means your partner did a bad job. Minubuki is pretty incredible as far as that is concerned. ...She honestly finds so many chances to step on your feet or crush you. I honestly can't carelessly sing a duet with her in our band, so I have her sing with Shana."

**Yuzu:** "This girl is talking on a more intuitive level, so I'll send you a beginner's step assistance tutorial from the Internet, okay?"

The multiple devices around his neck would tell him in advance what step was coming via an earpiece he usually carried. It used a recorded adult's voice.

"Okay! Move your left foot forward and then spin to the lef-...no, the righ-...oh, wait, it's the left. Le-le-le-lef-lef-left? No, it was right! Okay! Okay! And next is the ri-...left! Just a bit further now."

He had figured out he generally needed to do the opposite of what it said.

He had his left arm forward and his right arm around his partner's left arm. It was a gentle dance that took into account the two pouches on his partner's left hip.

"...Ruri...-sama...?"

"So formally informal. It is fine to drop the '-sama' if you are going to use my given name."

"...Um..."

"But what is it, Tenryū-san?"

It was a feeble voice with just enough of a waver to know she had to work to maintain it. Of course, that was something only those close to her or those with hearing on Kikuchihara's level would notice. To others...

_...She should...sound the same as always..._

The night before when Chisato and Narumi had told him about Ruri, they had said he would be near Ruri before the meeting began and that they wanted him to support Ruri.

The various employees in Shiraishi's business were far from fully settled in and this meeting would likely determine the future of Mikado City, so they did not want to show any weakness. It was weird for them to ask Shobu for help, but he did want to speak with Ruri before the meeting.

But a tremor had run through his body when Ruri had greeted her.

"Nice to meet you, Border Representative," Ruri had said. "My friend Shuryō seems to be somewhere else at the moment, but I'll introduce you once he shows up."

This was their third time meeting, but it was their first official meeting in a public space. And the capture of Ruri's friend Shuryō was being kept secret.

In that sense, nothing she said was a lie. But...

_...She sounds like...she really thinks that..._

From the information Futoyuki had sent them, Ruri's memories were a byproduct of having her trion directly taken.

_...But...he said...it was mostly a...psychological thing..._

Shobu did not know if meeting him and the capture of Shuryō had been erased from Ruri or pushed away inside her.

But Ikoma spoke quietly.

"A defense to the cute girl character? ...I'm left with no choice. I've already laid the groundwork, so it's time I got serious."

Shobu did not know what he meant, but he felt provoking him would be a bad idea and simply acknowledged it.

However, his words and will seemed to get through to Ruri, so he spoke. He simply talked.

"...Um..."

He was not a good speaker.

He felt like people who could do this without issue must be able to see the meaning and form of his words between the time they left his mouth and the time they reached the listener. Murakami and Mei had smiled and said he was mistaken, but he felt like their words had a way of encouraging him or bringing a visual scene to mind even when they were simply reading a book.

_...Mei-san can be confusing sometimes... ...She always goes...into a lot...of detail or...starts going without stopping..._

_...I wonder how...Ema or Sasamori...-sama do things..._

But in general, his point was valid. So...

"...A lot...happened..."

"Yes, I have heard it began with an invasion."

"...Right..." agreed Shobu.

He talked about the Aftokrator invasion: How the Gates opened, how everyone had been fighting hard, how different strategies came out to push back the Neighbors, how Tachikawa had cut down an Illgar...

"Oh, how brave of him."

Ruri seemed to enjoy that part a lot. Shobu felt bad for Tachikawa, though. But as he talked about it and remembered it all, he realized he may have been less than useful during the attack since he had only been a C-Rank.

That was a while ago at this point.

And occasionally he would get so lost in the story that Ruri would stop walking to follow the conversation.

He knew the girl was resting and that she did not want Shobu to notice. He also noticed Musashi, Chisato, and the others breathing sighs of relief behind them. So he decided to keep talking.

"...Um..."

He felt something like anxiety. It was about Ruri but also about the guess at Shiraishi's policy that Kimura had sent over just before the dance.

_...The Shiraishi family most likely wants...to advance relations without Ruri..._

_._

Shobu had a thought.

_...Will that mean...deceiving Ruri-san...?_

Ruri was more or less under the Satellite's control. If she did hold relations like that, it could easily lead to issues with her decisions and they would have to be more mindful of the other businesses in their territory. If that increased the odds of a good deal for Border, Shiraishi would likely find it safer to leave Ruri out of the relations. That was Kimura's conclusion.

Shobu did not know what, but Kimura could apparently _see_ a great many things.

Which left only one thing for Shobu to do.

_...Right... ...I need to do my best...in every way I can..._

After giving himself some silent encouragement, something occurred to him.

Did the current Ruri have any enjoyable experiences or memories to share?

Shobu felt it would be a shame if there had been things like that in the memories he no longer had.

_...What does...Ikoma-sama think...?_

He had mentioned a cute girl character, so was he worried about Ruri?

But Ikoma was speaking with Chisato.

"You fool! That is not what I meant! Why do you want to touch my leg so badly!?"

"What're you talking about? You're the one that stepped right into my path."

They were spinning and weaving through the hall in what was clearly "high speed movement".

_...Yes..._

The two of them seemed to get along quite well.

.

Chisato was definitely engaged in a battle.

She was glad she had chosen a red dress that gave her the leeway to move if need be. She would not have been able to move like this in the tight skirts the others were wearing.

She was engaged in a fight in which they tried to take each other's hand and place their feet in each other's spot.

To win, she was using quick footwork and striking with both arms.

Her opponent was striking with the edge of his forearms and his knees.

She generally deflected his blows outwards from within and he generally struck inwards from without. She had the superior movements, but he had the superior speed.

She attempted to take his hand.

This was a dance, after all. By taking his hand and pulling him in, she could seize the initiative.

As the representative of the Shiraishi family, she could not afford to lose to Border's 6th Ranked Attacker. But...

_...What a pain..._

When she thought about it, she realized that victory in this dance meant to embrace the Attacker in front of her.

It was extremely irritating.

_...But._

They gently spun around, made a strike, swept each other's blows away, and kept up their footwork. When one placed their hand on the other's wrist, the other would make a snap reversal to grab at them instead. They would grab up to the elbow and use their other hand to keep their opponent's movements in check.

They would sometimes sway their bodies, their hands would cross paths, they would attempt to grab their opponent's fingers while blocking their vision, and they would be forcibly deflected.

_That's right,_ thought Chisato within the wind created by their actions. _Doesn't this Attacker play guitar? In that case he should be skilled in this sort of thing to pluck something and secure them._

One was a business daughter skilled in combat over business and the other was a 6th Ranked Attacker. In situations that called for their specialized skills, how much of a difference would arise between them? While Chisato thought about that, they exchanged blows and traded positions in a slow push and pull.

"..."

Chisato had a sudden thought. As the two of them attempted to take each other's hand, she suddenly realized the two of them might be able to stop the Satellite if they worked together.

"—"

She lowered her gaze to his feet which slowly pursued hers and then pulled back. As she watched that, a clear thought came to her: _If only I had a fighter like this on my side._

He was about the same size as her using Ortlinde and he had the same level of mobility. There was no room for complaint in his strength and toughness. He had a definite eye for fighting and he could understand and fulfill his role while working with her.

He was the ideal partner. But...

_...I would blatantly be using him, wouldn't I?_

Their relationship would exist solely to defeat the Satellite. And Shiraishi did not want to be indebted to Border. They were indebted enough already after the night before. That had been fine because it had left no records, but if they made definite plans to destroy the Satellite, she would have to separate his presence from Border's authorization.

She had considered hiring him as a mercenary, but at the normal Border agent level, he could not make an individual contract. The two organizations would need to approve it.

That left only one option.

_...Have him join Shiraishi..._

But how?

No, the method was simple. He only had to transfer organizations and change his job.

But what would draw him to them?

"...?"

Chisato suddenly thought of Ruri.

Ruri was a cute girl character.

But she was off limits. Truly off limits. Ruri was being to the test to see if she could take over for her mother. She was also younger than him by five years. Besides that, Chisato did not want to leave with that kind of thing hanging over her.

_...Eh?_

Another option occurred to Chisato: _What about me?_

_._

Shobu saw a sudden movement.

Ruri also seemed to notice while dancing with Shobu. The two of them looked to the center of the hall. A high-speed battle was still underway there, but...

"...Ah..."

The movements of the two combatants' legs and bodies had changed.

Instead of using all their strength and speed to move front and back or left and right, some slower and more hesitant movements had appeared between Ikoma and Chisato. And they seemed to be coming more from Chisato than Ikoma.

_...Is she conflicted...?_

But the way she was moving was reminiscent of something.

"She seems to be dancing."

Ruri sounded relieved as she said that.

.

Chisato thought while intercepting and attacking.

Could she sacrifice herself to help the business?

This Attacker was hopeless, but he was an excellent fighter and would make the perfect partner in a battle against the Satellite. Her judgment as a fighter told her that.

But she could only describe his personality as "unfortunate".

The first time they had met was on the edge of the Forbidden Zone. He had immediately asked if she liked guys who could play guitar and started to leave when she said no.

The second time they had met was on the platform near the Forbidden Zone. He had simply watched as the wind blew her skirt around and then he had groped her breast.

The third time they had met was the night before. It had been an emergency, but he had handed her panties.

_...Huh?_

Chisato realized he had never actually done anything that harmed Shiraishi.

That was right.

On their first meeting, he had expressed his understanding of Shiraishi's difficult position before leaving. On their second meeting, he had only groped her breast on accident and he had saved her life when the Satellite - at the time Blaze - attacked.

On their third meeting, he had arrived with the intention to help her defeat the Satellite.

He had been helping them all along.

From the very beginning to now, he had at least tried to understand them and to not harm them. And he had even helped them.

And so far, Border had not demanded anything in exchange for what he had done. His help had been on an individual level and had not been on orders from anyone.

_In that case,_ wondered Chisato. _Why?_

Why had she seen her relationship with the Attacker in such a hostile light?

_...Because I am the youngest and lack experience._

She had to protect Ruri as well as her family and she had to maintain her pride as the representative of Shiraishi's ability to fight.

So she had misread someone like him.

If she had made a direct attack on the Satellite the day before, she would not have survived.

The night before had been little different. Even if they had resolved the problem, White Rock would have been badly damaged.

But if she bowed down to him now and asked for assistance, would he help?

He likely would.

So why was she doing this? Why was she being so hostile to someone who would help them?

"You're mine!"

Chisato trembled at the sudden voice.

Lowering her head had been a mistake. Instead of stepping forward, the Attacker reached his forearm around her body from the side.

.

Shobu noticed Ikoma making a major move.

He thought that his arm had grabbed, forcibly lifted, and embraced Chisato's conflicted body and soul. But...

"...Eh...?"

Her lifted body was lowered once more.

After capturing Chisato, Ikoma set her back down so she stood upright and then he bowed down on one knee.

"I screwed up and didn't match the serene tempo of your dance, Shiraishi fighter. Sorry for messing with your movements."

Noticing a new message in one of the devices around his neck, Shobu took a glance down at his own chest.

**Honest Sister:** "That's the way, Iko-san! Keep at it!"

.

Restraining her racing pulse was the most Chisato could do.

The sudden embrace reminded her of the day before. He had grabbed her from the side and saved her life then.

And he had done it again now.

She realized her movements had to have grown disturbed and indecisive.

That was due to her conflicting thoughts, but anyone watching would think she had simply fallen behind in their exchange of attacks. It had become something of a dance, but the Attacker would have won.

That was why he had brought a premature end to the contest himself.

As he stood up and breathed a sigh in front of her, she asked a question.

"...Why?"

She felt it was unfair of her to ask so quietly, but her heart pounded in her chest as she waited for the answer.

Not even she knew what she wanted him to say, but there was one thing she did know.

This Attacker was an idiot, but...

_...He always tries to understand and help those in distress._

She did not know if that was due to his stance as a man or if it was just a part of his personality. But because of that...

"Why did you save me?"

"To finish the cute girl character route...or that's what I wanna say."

She was slightly out of breath as his gaze moved from her neck to her feet.

"Looks like you chose somethin' you wanted to wear this time. It'd be messed up to not let you dance and show it off to Abe and everyone else, y'know."

"Where-...?"

She tried and failed to ask where that had come from so suddenly, but he turned his back and walked to the break area by the wall as he said one last thing.

"It looks way better than what you wore yesterday. I like it, Shiraishi Chisato."

* * *

"So there's a party at the White Rock and a festival in the Small Forest, huh?"

When the crossdresser made his comment, the Suzunari Operator lowered her shoulders while walking down the hall next to him.

"...Sigh."

"Th-this girl has learned how to sigh while looking down on me!"

"Calm down," said Yuki as he walked without leaving footprints on the red carpet. "We are about to have a meeting with Kurosaki boss and overall CEO Kurosaki 'have to hire Sekai' Shin, so listen up. ...Jinsei, this is Kurosaki's work site. It says Shin looks after the botanical garden and animals, but I believe that is to soften his image as a CEO."

Everyone looked at the screen where a tall man silhouette was backlit by lightning. There were rabbits at his feet, but...

"Doesn't this just make it look like a business of terror?" asked Murakami.

"The shadow over his face does give that impression..." agreed Yuki.

Sekai spoke to them from a half step away.

"You people have quite a gap between your serious and casual moments. ...And I thought you did a decent job greeting our committee heads earlier. Well, all of you but the crossdresser."

"Hey, WorTri, my crossdressing is the real deal! I tricked your negotiators, didn't I!?"

"And that's why our employees are feeling so depressed, which I feel like gave you an advantage!"

Sekai bared his teeth and glared at him, something they all figured he did regularly with the crossdresser, so Yuki held out a hand to calm him. He then raised his right index finger and spoke.

"Well, we will have him change before we move from the negotiation site, so he will be dressed as a boy. Don't worry. In a way, I doubt anything weirder could happen."

"You do know that I am on a team with him..." He looked back at them over his shoulder. "Anyway, don't get careless. Kurosaki CEO Kurosaki Shin is a high-level man. To use someone you know, he is comparable to the Akasora Chishi."

"Wouldn't he be far more powerful as far as strength is concerned?" asked Murakami.

Sekai smiled bitterly.

"I am talking about another organization. If he is stronger in pure technique, let me put it another way. They are both grown men, but one is one of people who have strengthened and established themselves using Neighbors and the other is one of the normal people who have reached their current life after branching from normality. Their strong points are different."

Sekai then turned his back on them.

He reached his hand out toward the large door with red decorations that stood in their way and he spoke to the heavily-equipped guard protecting the door.

"I have brought the visitors from Border. ...Open the way."

"Right."

The door opened and Sekai stepped into the dim light beyond. The Border representatives followed.

"—"

They walked straight in.


	78. Shin Kurosaki

Something seemed off to Yuki as soon as he stepped inside.

_...Mh?_

Thanks to his skills he learned from his parents, he did not even need to enter a room. The heat, vibrations, and air current coming from a door told him the situation inside and whether or not there were people inside. The door was open in this case, so he could immediately grasp the situation within. But...

"...?"

He could see a dimly lit space beyond the door, but that was all. There was no heat or vibrations coming from the air inside. It was like walking through a wall.

 _Is this,_ he wondered, _the a specialized room?_

He realized Kuruma was moving closer to him and Murakami. He could have seen this setup before. This was a public space, so he did not pat their shoulders or push their backs, but approaching them just have been his way of reassuring them as someone who knew what this was.

So they took his hand. Not to hold it but to pull him forward.

"Can we escort you?"

When they asked, Kuruma gave a brief look of surprise but then smiled.

"Please do."

After that, Yuki did not hesitate to head in. He endured the feeling of running into a wall and stepped inside.

After a sensation much like passing through a curtain, the view grew brighter.

_...Oh._

He found himself in a large stone hall.

And he immediately heard the heavy sound of a pipe organ. It came from directly ahead, behind, and above.

"...!"

.

Murakami felt sound wash over him.

But even as loud as it was, it was not mere noise. As proof, small bodies that came by began dancing around Kuruma.

Those were insects. Butterflies to be exact.

Drawn out by the music, butterflies around them were growing active. They seemed to think a person like Kuruma would look after them. And when he simply smiled, the joyous butterflies fluttered their wings.

It was the same around Murakami.

Murakami, like another certain Attacker, had been compared to a wolf. His demeanor could feel scarily calm at times. That may have been why the butterflies flew gently while keeping their distance from him or trying to obey him.

_Animals are really instinctual..._

He realized they surrounded the crossdresser as well. In his case, they were reacting to the sweet smell of the Red Lightning and forming several lines that floated in the air around him.

Kon stood on his other side and her gaze met Murakami's as they both looked at his back. Kon must have been bothered by the lines because she tried to sweep them away with a hand, but they would not go away.

No one could tell where those lines led.

 _That's right,_ thought Murakami. _We joined Border, fought our battles, and endured an invasion, but now we have come to a new place._

"—"

Murakami took a step forward. Standing out front was a his duty.

_...Yes. We can't hesitate to visit those who are watching us._

The committee representatives they had negotiated with and some other employees stood along the left and right walls.

And someone sat in a large chair located atop a red carpeted dais up ahead.

_...That's Kurosaki Shin._

He was a slender 180cm. He had left and right tattoos, pale skin, black eyes, and black hair.

He was the CEO who ruled this cold business.

But Murakami did not fear him. He did not flinch within the sound washing over him. He was the Yagura Branch Director's student, the ace of the Suzunari Branch, and a friend of some of Border's best agents.

"As the guard of Border's best representatives and agents and as the ace if the Suzunari Branch Office, I will greet you first."

After confirming that those behind him had come to a stop, he placed a hand on his chest and lowered his upper body at a perfect 90 degree angle,.

His bow was answered with silence. The pipe organ had stopped playing.

Then Kurosaki moved. He looked to the employee standing next to him and to Sekai who stood diagonally in front of Murakami. Then he nodded.

"Yes. Very well."

It was a deep voice that seemed born of the air itself. Then a flood of monitors and screens appeared around him.

Awash with the light of the screens, he grabbed his iron staff with his right hand, lightly tapped his own shoulder, and spoke.

"At ease, Border representatives. Kurosaki CEO Kurosaki Shin will speak with you directly..."

* * *

"Oh? Oh? So the meeting has begun at Kurosaki, has it?" asked Yoshiko. "Since Shiraishi is cleaning up their party hall, we should probably get started soon too."

Hiura stood below the there with Yoshiko, Minoru, and...

"Denji here! If you would like something to eat, I will take your order!"

"Umm, I'll have the white round rice bread slices, the caesar salad, the pork shoulder, and...oh, this mayon sauce is mayonnaise, right? If you can make it Far Eastern style, that would be great. Oh, and a chicken stew too."

"That's too much to remember, jeez!"

Hiura had no choice but to write her order on a pad and hand it to Denji. Then she looked around.

Her surroundings were light and dark.

It was a location between the cities Mikado and Hasunobe yet away from the middle school between the two cities.

 _This place was always just plain, wasn't it?_ thought Hiura. But now it had other colors for the festival.

Most of the nearby Mikado City population was there and that city near the Mogami estate was not the only one in attendance. People from Hasunobe City had come by and circled halfway around the area. They had lit fires, their dancing silhouettes could be seen around the fires, and they were eating and singing.

Hiura and the others were on top of a platform built up a level higher than everything else. A single diplomatic car was positioned below them and they looked out to the festival's from the insulating carpet laid out from there.

"Their dancing is forming circles around the wooden festival towers, but they aren't moving around them. It's more like they are moving in and out from the center of the circle."

"You noticed? Well, you should be able to tell what that is about."

"What? It's a building dance, isn't it?" asked Minoru while viewing the festival stands and the people moving through the gathering places. "Don't the towers represent Mikado City's original eastern location and their dance represents the people going there and returning? But..."

Minoru pointed to a few parts of the hole. There were some pits in the pale shadows of the dirt.

"Do the largescale tunnels still exist, but now you're using them to produce materials?"

"We will use whatever we can. Even ruins of ill fortune."

"...Of ill fortune?"

The vixen smiled when Hiura asked that.

 **SenSen:** "That does not sit right with me. Exploiting tunnels and tearing through them like that is just not right."

 **Life:** "Is that suppose to be sexual? It sounds really sexual!"

 **Kura-uchi:** "Senshi, if you are mad, just say so. It saves us the trouble of having to deal with that guy."

_Poor SenSen-san._

"Do you know why Kobayashi and Shiraishi, the families with access to these tunnels, were able to build up larger reputations in Mikado City? And why Kobayashi was able to build these sturdy homes and universities?"

"So..." Hiura tilted her head. "Was it thanks to the ability to produce lots of food and access to materials here."

"I suppose a Bkrder member wouldn't have noticed since you have the powerful support of Triggers."

Yoshiko laughed, but there was nothing Hiura could say since it was true. _We are still pretty sheltered,_ she realized.

Then Minoru placed a hand on his chin and looked to eastern Mikado's original location. The current Forbidden Zone.

"So it wasn't just materials... Was it pathways you found in this area?"

"Yes, that's right. But I suppose that is another extension of my being involved with Kobayashi. Shiraishi does the same, so combining thoughts and processes makes us rather well off, you know?"

"I see," said Hiura. "A ravaged land will be more likely to need to know the location. Even if it is still a part of Mikado City, it's hard to get there out of fear of Gates underground. So that's how much the businesses have-..."

At that point, Hiura realized something.

_...Huh?_

Something seemed odd to her. Curious, she looked to Yoshiko who covered her mouth with her fan and narrowed her eyes.

"Minoru-senpai..."

When he looked to Yoshiko, the boy brought a hand to his mouth and glanced over at Yoshiko. The look in his eyes was a powerful one.

Minoru had realized something too. Was that something the same as Hiura's something? Hiura did not know, but she still asked.

"Um, can I ask you something? This original site of East Mikado is...pretty different now, isn't it? And you said you were busy _before_ joining Kobayashi, right?"

Then...

"How come you mine so much materials if the invasion and subsequent attacks were fought above ground? ...I could understand if it was near the surface, but you're going through the tunnel system. It's almost like something was done using the materials even further down than the tunnels."

"I think it would be more accurate to say something was 'dealt with' there."

 **Deer Prince:** "Magnet, do you know anything about that tunnel system?"

 **SenSen:** "Sadly, I don't. I have never once been allowed down there. Even my boss, uh, for the other one, not Border. Well, even they tried to get down there but weren't allowed. I feel like I am missing out on something big whenever the topic is brought up."

Yoshiko laughed and waved her fan to turn on several screens. And...

"Well, just wait a little longer. Do that and you should see the mystery for yourself.

"Mystery?"

"Yes. What happened during that invasion four years ago and where did it lead? Afterwards, I will show you what could be called this city's hidden festival."

Now.

"Until then, let us eat and hold our meeting. ...Representatives and Border, are you listening? Shiraishi and Kurosaki will be the same. And Kurosaki will likely have the most trouble of all."

* * *

A chilly air filled Kurosaki's meeting room and CEO's chamber.

Near the center, Sekai felt a cold sweat after bringing the Border group in.

_...I hope this will turn out all right._

He more or less stood between the Border group and Shin. He opened a tab in his tablet, tilted it so only he could see, and turned to face Shin.

Shin took a deep, white breath and looked back at him, so he used his body as a shield to keep the Border group from noticing the gesture he made with his left hand.

He gestured back his way.

He was telling him to pass the conversation this way. When he saw it, he opened his mouth.

"Would you like to say something, Sekai?"

"Yes. CEO, I believe it would be faster to start by asking them for their suggestions."

"Hm... You have a point... V-very well. What are your demands...?"

 _Don't stutter!_ thought Sekai with a mental sigh, but there was no helping that. The other leaders and committee heads tensed somewhat, but the Border group did not react. They did not seem to have noticed anything out of the ordinary. Which meant...

_...Is it going well?_

Yes, it was going well. The room's atmosphere and Shin's speaking likely matched their impression of Kurosaki Shin as "CEO".

This was working. It was working. After all, their CEO, Kurosaki Shin, was...

_...A rare sort of businessman who wouldn't hurt a fly!_

_._

Shin desperately worked to restrain his racing heart.

_...Wh-what am I supposed to do!? What am I supposed to do!?_

He had never wanted to be Kurosaki's boss or their CEO. He had come from a good family, he had known the next CEOs of the other families, his name had been the same as a future Kurosaki CEO, he had had the necessary abilities, and he had gotten along well with people. But...

_...Why did they have to nominate me for CEO just because of that!? My brothers would have been just as fine!_

No, it had not been so bad back when he had been nominated. Mikado City businesses had generally settled all issues through discussions. They had built a generally peaceful relationship with foreign businesses and everything had been going well.

So by inheriting the title of CEO, he had intended to live a human life of tranquility. He had intended to provide leadership, work for the citizens who lived life without Border, and maintain stability through discussions with the other businesses. As hobbies, he had intended to continue his education, cook, and grow a garden. If possible, he had wanted to happily fall in love, get married, and have around three children. He had also wanted as many friends as possible. His dream was to manage a farm after growing old.

However, those plans had changed after the recent invasion...no, once Mogami had heard of a fatal tragedy years ago. It had been told by some strange people and he felt bad for her, but it seemed that she wanted certain things to change.

The next thing he had known, he could no longer step down from his position. So...

_...I-if! If everyone helps me out, I-I'll do my very best!_

He was aware he had the ability. He simply disliked conflict and lacked courage, so...

"...Hm."

He spoke with a deep voice. He desperately hoped the Border group would fear him as he opened a window on one if the screens and spoke to those who were ready for the meeting.

"Now, state your demands..."

.

The Border group was holding a lively conversation with their Triggers.

 **White Fox:** "H-he seems to be in a good mood, but I get the feeling the slightest thing could set him off! Damn! No wonder those shitty parents were constantly fighting with this group!"

 **Umi:** "By the way, I'm detecting an incredible reaction from there. Is Kuruma-san going all out!"

 **Kuru-ma:** "Hee hee. You mean like when Yuki confirmed his friendship with Kō?"

 **Victim:** "Hmm. I'll report to his family that he's perfectly happy."

 **Secretary:** "W-wait! Those decisions in business could put Tsukiko-kun's life at risk!"

 **Black Wolf:** "Anyway, he's asked for our demands, so what should we tell him?"

 **Manager:** "Ohh, sorry! I have my hands a little full with all these preparations!"

 **Life:** "Huh? What? You're taking a bathroom break now!?"

 **Artist:** "Eh? ...Oh, you're still at the top of the base. And I was hoping to make a quick sketch."

 **Almost Everyone:** "What did you think was happening!?"

 **Mi-Kon:** "Well, that leaves us with no choice. As Border's representative, I have determined I should take the lead. Now, Jinsei, get down on one knee."

 **Life:** "You aren't plotting some way of going over my head, are you? ...Huh?"

.

Murakami sensed a smell.

_...Blood?_

It was the smell of human blood. And it came from the hallway behind the line of committee heads to their right. And...

"Shin-kuuun!"

A tall man ran in from the hallway. He had modified a Kurosaki uniform into a T-short, shorts, socks, and athletic shoes. The emblem on his chest and helmet formed the word "love".

_Oh. ...Why does he remind me so much of someone?_

He was also covered in blood. But...

"Hello! Border! Nice to meet you! I am Kurosaki Secretary and Personal Security Nagao Kanetsugu! I am known as the energetic 'Man of Love and Attachment'! In Far Eastern, 'Love and Attachment' is Aizen, which sounds just like iron in German! But this might as well be Russia, so that's entirely irrelevant!"

 **White Fox:** "Ding ding ding! Good job, Suzunari! I think we found a friend for Taichi."

 **Oops:** "Yeah! I feel an atmosphere I could get along with quite well!"

 **SenSen:** "Kh. Maybe we should have gone to Kurosaki after all."

 _Wouldn't you freeze?_ wondered Murakami, but he held his tongue. He knew who this bloody pulp reminded him of.

However, the refreshing bloody pulp gave a carefree smile as he spun out in front of the committee heads and made a flip. Then he spread his arms.

"I was pursuing the citizens who were unsure about what to do! I thought we might be able to settle this through discussions, but they made a serious attack and gave me a very bad day! I was making short work of them with my love attacks, but when you're pinning one of them down on the battlefield in the north-south position, isn't it just awful when some of the others surround you and refuse to read the atmosphere!?" said the bloody pulp of love. "Anyway, Shin-kuuun!? I lost and came running back, so you're going to scold me, aren't you!?"

"You...bastaaaaaaaaaaaard!"

The CEO stood up with his iron staff in hand.

"Why would you appear before me so badly injured...!? Don't think I can just overlook this...!"

.

Shin sensed his own desperation.

... _Kanetsugu-kun!_

That man was a rare person in Kurosaki who was human yet had strength rivalling an animal. He also had a wonderful personality, understood Shin's timidity, and helped assist him.

So Shim could not overlook the man's injuries. He should have received treatment from the Health Committee before coming here, but he had likely wanted to personally report on the battle as soon as possible.

Shin had to heal him and healing were one of his greatest specialties. After all, he had learned all about how to help a human body.

"You bastard...!"

 _Everyone thinks bastard is such a dirty word,_ thought Shin. _But it merely refers to the marital status of one's parents and shows my understanding of his past._

"Kanetsugu, you bastard...!"

He raised his metal staff while place anesthetics inside.

He used pressure. Specifically, pinpoint pressure.

At Kurosaki, all fatigue and lain had long been blamed on tense bodies. So...

"Ohhhh...!"

The anesthetic-filled iron of healing caught Kanetsugu on the side of the face.

It was a solid blow. The pressure had definitely reached the core of his body.

The anesthetics were an excellent tool. It numbed the recipient before the healing blow landed, so there was no pain and the pressure spread the loosening around their body. The pressure loosened their muscles and showed what he was doing.

After receiving the pressure attack, Kanetsugu bounced along the stone floor, but the strike would have numbed his entire body and provided first aid. However...

_...This isn't enough!_

Shin had to drive the "tenseness" of the injuries out of his entire body. That was Kurosaki-style healing.

 _Begone, tension!_ willed Shin as he struck Kanetsugu.

"You are..."

These injuries were serious to him, so he had to use even filthier words to insult them and drive them out. So...

"...nothing more than a dung beetle...!"

Shin delivered one pressure strike after another.

"So take this...!"

_Be healed!_

"Is this still not enough to kill you...!?"

_I need to rid him of this pain as soon as possible!_

"No one wants the likes of you around...!"

.

The hall was filled with reflecting light and a deep rumbling after each pressure blow. Kanetsugu had lost consciousness as he bounced again and again only to be struck by a new blow each time.

Light reflected off on the metal cane, so the entire hall became a place of moving light and impacts.

 **Artist:** "Ehh!? W-wait, shouldn't you stop him!?"

 **White Fox:** "Th-this truly is a business that can rival those shitty parents! He doesn't allow even the slightest failure!"

 **Black Wolf:** "And, um, can we really hold a meeting after this?"

 **Mi-Kon:** "Oh. I am learning a lot."

Everyone had to ask "About what?" as Kon was handed a teacup from somewhere and took a breath. But in the meantime, Shin stopped moving.

The staff struck, the final pressure strike burst, and the reflective light vanished into the air.

It was over.

Shin placed his staff on Kanetsugu's limp form and worked to catch his breath.

"I will leave it at that for now... Health Committee Head, you must carry him out of here immediately. Heh heh... And treat him with care. Yes, do not misinterpret me here. I want you to treat him with the utmost care..."

And...

"Yes, treat him with great care to express my...happiness that he returned alive after such a devastating loss. Heh heh heh... And make sure to give him the best of food to eat. I'm sure you know what I mean. Hah hah...!"

 **Zoe:** "Th-the hidden implications there are pretty amazing! He's one hell of a businessman!"

 **Secretary:** "Dammit! I should have gone there instead of becoming a wallflower recently! Kurosaki-san is so cool! He's the ideal businessman!"

 **Umi:** "Not again... If you love him so much, why not become one of his employees? It would save our team some trouble."

Meanwhile, Shine returned to his chair and looked to Sekai.

"Well? How was that, Sekai...?"

.

Shin saw Sekai nod.

"I believe that was a most suitable treatment for someone returning from a defeat..."

 **WorTri:** "Don't ask me that! You caught me off guard! Why are you always like this, Boss!?"

 **Kuro-Shi:** "Eh!? Ehh? B-but if I don't ask...I-I don't know if I screwed up. Um, but, uh, Seki-kun? Wh-what, um, do you mean by 'like this'?"

 **WorTri:** "Just get this meeting over with before you let anything slip!"

 **Tonbo:** "Um, Sekai-kun? I don't think you should be so rude."

Sekai glanced at an elderly human who stood down the hallway. He was the direct second-in-command Saitou Tonbo and he lowered his head when he looked his way.

 **Tonbo:** "We will give Kanetsugu a special dining hall coupon and some top quality sake and vodka. He was investigating other businesses as well as pacifying civilians, after all. Um, and when should we let him take a bath?"

 **Kuro-Shi:** "Eh? Can't you do that tonight? All of his injuries and pain should be gone. Oh, but he must be exhausted, so make sure he doesn't fall asleep in the bath. And give him three days' worth of medicine just in case..."

Also...

 **Kuro-Shi:** "This may not be the best time, but is there any way we can make the expansions to the botanical garden and zoo like I mentioned before...? We should be prepared soon, right? So, um, it may not be the time, but I'm sure the children in our territory will be worried. If we can put out information on a daily basis about how that kind of enjoyable places are being built, that can help support them and it should really help their parents too... So can't we do it? Or would it be going too soft?"

 **Notani:** "No, I think it is an excellent idea that can also lessen our employees' concerns for their children."

The committee heads also nodded and spoke in unison.

"Such superb judgment!"

 _Good,_ thought Shin while feeling himself grow timid.

And he knew it was childish, but he still instructed them to announce this decision in a public forum right away.

It only took a few seconds for this decision he was so fond of to be uploaded to a Kurosaki site as a real promise. This was his authority as Kurosaki CEO. So...

_...I'm glad._

_I love this side of things._

_We are currently worried about Neighbor and I am considerately telling others to hold out, but my heart can't seem to focus on that side of things. I enjoy training in combat and it delights me when my skills can help them in some way, but I can't help but love "these things" so much. And it makes me grow timid when my heart isn't in the same place as theirs._

_The more I help them, the more I realize my desires are different and the more timid I grow._ But...

"Hm..."

Shin asked a question so he could respond to everyone's efforts.

"Allow me to ask again: What are your demands, members of Border...?"


	79. Yoshiko Mogami

_...Our demands, hm?_

Kimura responded to Shin's statement by moving her three main tabs out in front and taking a breath.

_...I guess this means we're starting with Kurosaki._

**Manager:** "Representatives of Shiraishi, Kobayashi, Kurosaki, and the minor businesses, thank you for holding these three simultaneous meetings with us. I am the Operator of one of Border's B-Rank squad and former Operator of Tsukiko Yuki's first former squad, Kimura Kawaguchi. Currently, Border is trying to maintain the peace in Mikado City once more by acquiring the cooperation of the other organizations. I would like for us to continue based on that assumption. And..."

She inhaled, raised a hand in her heart, and spoke from her throat.

 **Manager:** "Shiraishi, Kobayashi, Kurosaki, and the minor businesses... Border would like your cooperation. I would like to start by discussing that."

* * *

"Wait."

Murakami heard a deep voice cut in.

He saw an old man standing in front of the committee heads on the right. He was fairly certain his name was Saitou Tonbo. He walked toward them with folded rectangular panels on his back and he stroked his beard.

"I understand you would like our cooperation. I understand that quite well after you expressed your policies during an earlier conversation I had with your directors. But that is what you want. What we want is something else."

Saitou called out to Shin.

"Boss, tell them what it is that Kurosaki wants."

.

 **Kuro-Shi:** "Eh!? Wh-what we want? Wh-why do you have to ask the impossible!? No one ever told me about this! What is going on here!? You can't do this!"

 **WorTri:** "Um, wait! What _are_ you doing, Saitou-san!? Please stop showing up late just to say things we didn't discuss in advance! What are we supposed to do!?"

 **Tonbo:** "Ehh!? Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm so, sooooo sorry! Umm, PR Committee Head! Send all the information to the CEO right away!"

* * *

Kimura saw Kurosaki's response.

 **CEO:** "Heh heh heh. Members of Border... My business is currently preparing for another battle against Taiyōko. And on a different front, Sekai there is enduring scrutinization from Kobayashi. No, I will say from Mogami only... Do you know why that is?"

 _Yes,_ thought Kimura.

_...I do know._

**Manager:** "Kurosaki has realized that even with the parents no longer alive, there is someone who will continue to fight, so you are including their affairs with your own."

"That's right," added Akashi.

 **Secretary:** "After the Taiyōko parents death, the older sister began to do as she pleased since was aware of certain situations. There was a hard ban on using Triggers against anything not a Neighbor or in a secure location, but was fine since she would do things a 'normal' way, Shiraishi got involved, and it led to a business battle."

But...

 **Secretary:** "Even though that ban only meant something for Taiyōko, she continued onward since it would lead to more fighting and gained influence in those businesses. And during her punishment by different things, their issues had lessened. The same is true for others, so multiple business gained plenty of approval there."

Perhaps that meant the businesses were simply good at dodging blame. Or perhaps Taiyōko's influence had been unable to fully reach too deep into these companies. But...

"That is bad news for the current three businesses."

If the three nations sided with Border now, they risked having to face something similar to then or having restrictions placed on them when Neighbors invade again. Also...

 **Secretary:** "The Kurosaki family fought against the Taiyōko family in different locations other than Mikado City. After those battles, they were ordered to move to other areas and their influence reduced. And of course, those order came from the victors: Taiyōko."

Kimura knew that.

Their influence was settled once during the parent's generation and again by Kushikage after their deaths. Those were two different versions of Kurosaki's influence.

Kurosaki was doomed to have their influence reduced as long as someone from that family continued to be around. So they could not afford to back down even now.

_...If they did that, they might get their influence reduced twice._

**Demon Child:** "Don't worry. ...We can solve all of this through fighting."

 **Manager:** "Dammit! This time! This time I won't do it...!"

 **Haru:** "Is it just me or is Kawa-chan getting more and more hopeless?"

She unfortunately had to agree. But Kurosaki was not the only problem.

 **Manager:** "You mentioned scrutinization from Mogami. Mogami-san, don't you have something to say about this?"

* * *

"That's right," said Yoshiko as she listened to the festival music in the light of the sun. "Kobayashi and Shiraishi don't care too much about Taiyōko's decision. After all, we do thing necessary to everyday living, so our influence is assured. But..."

Yoshiko raised her cup and Denji poured sake into it.

"After everything, Yoshiko was a part of a different company. Yoshiko has to get back at them for Sōichi, jeez. That's right, I said it!"

"I can live such a stress-free life with you around, Denji."

"You're making me blush, jeez!"

"Ah," said the Sniper before quickly inputting herself into the chat.

 **Mad Hatter:** "Um, Kimura-san, you can't say anything about _Denji_ getting a _denki_ anma!"

 **Manager:** "Please, Hiura-san. Stop making me laugh while I'm trying to think."

 _She has a low boiling point,_ thought Yoshiko, but she continued speaking. She took a sip of her drink and enjoyed the heat of the sake on her throat more than the flavor.

"I guess that cat is out of the bag as well. The last secret I withheld was my standing with Mogami Sōichi and how that factors into things. Then again, it was something I had to announce to secure my position here today. I am just glad Akio-san and Naoko-san are so understanding," explained Yoshiko. "However, that brings me to what we are talking about here...that being my second loss because of Border. Do you know what that means, Minoru?"

"Yes. After your losses, Border has opened up freedom from Neighbors and companies are left to sponsor it. But..."

Yoshiko responded to Minoru's look with a smile.

"Mogami-san, how far out are you looking?"

"Eh?" said the Sniper with a tilt of the head.

Minoru started to say something.

"—"

But he closed his mouth and looked away, so Yoshiko smiled.

"Minoru, you have thoughts of your own as higher ups, don't you? In that case, you can say it then. I generally enjoy seeing people struggle."

"Um, what are you talking about? ...Will something happen to Mogami-san or Kobayashi's future?"

When the Sniper asked her question, Minoru glanced over at Yoshiko and Denji twisted around with a troubled look.

Yoshiko smiled bitterly, sighed, and told them to calm down.

"The thing about Kobayashi is...I will be leaving them rather soon, so any grudges will be taken with me and they will happily join your side once more. ...My selfishness here was granted by them, so I will not be causing more trouble for them."

"Even though you worked so hard to find your child and gained so much influence!? Wait a minute!"

The Sniper inputted her thoughts in the chat.

* * *

 **Mad Hatter:** "Um, Kimura-san! Isn't there anything we can do about that!?"

 _I know what you mean,_ thought Kimura. Kobayashi had a decent foundation, but they had allowed someone like Yoshiko to show her selfish desires and confront Border while also representing them as a business. That was due to Yoshiko's political skill and decision-making ability, but the issue of what had been loss had been unavoidable.

 **White Fox:** "This becomes a bigger issues when considering what the names means to some people... She is connected to a big named person as well as a former leader of the ones who 'greeted' us recently."

 **Manager:** "To add to that, Kobayashi seems to care about and place some importance on Mogami. According to what we know, Mogami personally helped out the Tamakoma branch before as well."

 **Black Wolf:** "That's right. After Border split itself to create the Tamakoma Branch, they had received a nice sum of support. ...And according to a footnote, the one who vouched for them the most was anonymous."

"But," said Kurauchi from down the stairs. He was likely monitoring their surroundings for security purposes because his patrolling footsteps could be heard with his voice. "Mogami still lost so much and holds something against Border."

When he added "she failed to stick the landing", the Ōji Captain looked up from the top of the stairs.

"Kurauchi."

"Yes, I know. ...That is the way of people who have lost something opportunity to something they do not understand."

"No, I was going to mention how kind you are to worry about someone other than Border members."

Kimura trembled.

_...What is this atmosphere!? Is it true teamwork!? And Suzaku-san and I are in between you two! Should you really be doing this now!?_

But no one else seemed to notice and the screen displayed a comment from Mizukami.

 **Shōgi Boy:** "Shuryō died and's a Black Trigger now, right? If he's technically on the Wanderers' side now, that means Mogami doesn't have any relatives left..."

 _That's right,_ sighed Kimura.

 **Manager:** "But that is why Mogami-san is free to act. She has no reason to stay and look for him, so she can do whatever she wants. ...That's what it means."

 **Black Wolf:** "Then when Mogami-san started firing yesterday before you called out to them, was that a change in her mental state?"

 _It isn't just that,_ thought Kimura.

 **Manager:** "It was Jin-san and the Falcon."

 **2.7 Maime:** "..."

This was going to be a cruel thing to say, but she could not get this started without saying it. It had to have been the same for Yoshiko, so Kimura relaxed her shoulders and continued.

 **Manager:** "Shuryō defended you before being taken. ...But that wasn't because he knew he would survive getting taken. Isn't that right, Mogami Yoshiko?"

* * *

At seeing that line in the chat, Jin gave a bitter smile toward the screen on his phone.

"Jin..."

The voice that came from his side grew closer until it was right next to him.

He looked over to see Konami giving him a soft glare from right next to him.

"Don't think about things that have already happened and don't look at things that haven't happened yet."

"You don't need to worry about that. Every time I even try to look into the future right now, it's gone in an instant. ...You know what the means, don't you?"

"Shitokei is too kind on you. Preventing you from looking into the future is the bare minimum she is doing right now."

The two looked over at Kizaki, the one who had spoken up. Next to him was Director Rindō, who seemed to be very busy with the way he was typing on a laptop with his tie undone and glasses slightly leaning to the side.

With the three business meeting going on he was left with little time. As far as Jin knew, the branch directors were having a harder time with this than the ones at the main Border base.

_Yagura and Suzunari had sent out their members while Hiyama is getting some questioning because of Sekai-san. Everyone else just seems to be busy clearing up that the branches are on the side of Border._

Jin had wanted to ask Konami about the reason why Sekai had shown up on the side of Kurosaki, but she kept her mouth shut the entire time. Without his ability to see into the future, he was left trying to figure things out normally.

The issue with that was Konami herself. She had not given an inch about Sekai's reasoning, even her gullible nature had not gotten her to say anything about it.

Realizing he would be getting nowhere with the girl, he instead turned back to the meeting.

Then a hand came over his phone. He looked up to see that Konami had not stopped glaring at him.

"Um, Konami-san, Jin-san kind of needs to keep up with what is going on. Can you please move your hand?"

"No. You haven't agreed to not think about the past or the future. When you do that, I'll move my hand."

"I can't really help what I see with my Side Effect or what comes back to mind."

"...That's not what I'm saying, you idiot. I'm telling you not to _keeping thinking_ about those things. Mei-san has you locked down from the future, so you are on,y hurting yourself by trying to look." Konami softened up to a single sigh. "But if you stay on the past for too long then..."

Then what?

He noticed the way she had looked up to where Kizaki was stationed before looking back down at him. She had moved her hand, allowing him to see a new message in a completely separate chat.

What that message said made him want to run. But...

"You aren't going anywhere."

A pair of strong arms wrapped around his neck while a pair of slender arm quickly grabbed his two wrists.

 **Wisteria:** "Secret Technique: TaKiKo Hammer Hold Lockdown. Jin Stupidity Version."

Something smashed through the nearby window, breaking the glass and scattering it everywhere. With his Side Effect shut down due to Mei's calculations, he had been unable to see the attack coming and could only watch as it came.

What looked to be a toy hammer had burst through the window with a frightening amount of accuracy as it continued its forward momentum. The target was now locked in and could not escape. The only place it could directly hit without crashing into the two people ho,ding him down would be his face.

Knowing he had very little time to react, he struggled as much as he could.

_If I can just get a bit to the side...!_

Moving his arms was difficult, but manageable. His legs had also been trapped from the knees down with Konami having her own knees on them.

As he began his movement starting with his arms, he noticed something strange.

_There's no pressure on my head and neck now!?_

Kizaki had seemed to release his hold at the same time Konami jumped back from where she had been placed.

The reason for that was clear.

"Crap...!"

He could not escape the toy hammer anymore.

.

 **Wisteria:** "I am expecting a clear hit."

 **Tamakoma's Muscle:** "A perfect hit."

Konami smiled on the inside when she saw Jin fly off the chair he was in after getting hit by the toy hammer.

It was only after the sound of a body hitting the floor did Director Rindō look up from his laptop to see what was going on. His immediate response was...

"...TaKiKo combo attack?"

Both Konami and Kizaki nodded in response.

Director Rindō let out a tired sigh and head shake before turning back to his screen.

"Just make sure to clean up the glass."

 **Wisteria:** "Tell Rindō-san I will pay for a new window and that I am sorry for interrupting him."

Doing as told, Konami relayed the message. This time Director Rindō only gave a thumbs up.

_With that settled..._

She looked down to the ground. The sight of Jin twitching on the floor with a large red mark on the right side of his face was indeed a sight to see, but she knew she had to do something else right now.

At times like these, there was only one thing to do for him.

"Just because you couldn't go see Mogami doesn't mean you should not trust Minoru with this. If anything, he is more qualified than you are. He can understand the situation without having something dragging him down because he understands it. ...Now get up. You look like a cockroach and it kind of makes me want to crush you."

Seeing that he was not going to get up, she began to lift her leg.

She ignored the fact that this could give him a view up her skirt in favor of crushing him like she promised.

Just as she was going to bring her foot down with her entire strength, a hand came up from the floor to catch her.

"You really shouldn't show someone what's up your skirt like that."

"I don't want to hear that from a skirt flipper."

She looked down to him now instead of at him.

"Are you done now? Can you keep up with this meeting or will I need to ask Mei-san to personally come over?"

"Alright, alright. We don't want to wake up that sleeping lion, right? I'm getting up. And I promise that I won't dwell on those kind of things anymore."

Konami could feel a smile come to her face as she placed her foot on the floor.

Now that this was settled, she was sure that she would not have to clean up any more glass.

And...

"You really should show someone this kind of thing~ I didn't think you could have such pink underwear."

She knew she could gladly kick his face.

* * *

"That is correct."

Hiura saw Yoshiko smile with her eyebrows raised. But...

_...That wasn't why?_

She knew Yoshiko did not have a simple personality. Looking at her history and yesterday's battle, it was obvious she could do harsh things, but she seemed endlessly kind to her own.

 _She's a mother,_ was how Hiura viewed it. But Shuryō and Sōichi were the greatest of Yoshiko's own, the older one had been before she could find someone to equal that, but why had the younger one defended her?

"You mean it wasn't because he didn't want to see you hurt or taken away and lose you to the enemy?"

"Akane...that is most likely correct, but you have it in reverse." Minoru sighed next to her. "Shuryō was as stubborn as they come, wasn't he? ...If he did get taken away, he assumed you would be unable to let go, didn't he?"

"Then...?"

"Shuryō understood and believed that Border would ultimately solve things due to Sōichi-san. He knew people had to side with Border, at the time just some group, and everything would be handled through civilized manners. And so he felt someone else needed to oppose Neighbors."

"That would mean..." muttered Hiura as she realized the meaning of Falcon's first appearance. "Shuryō-san really cares for Yoshiko-san, didn't he? If he was worried what would happen to everything after he was gone, he was essentially worrying for Yoshiko-san. That's why he defend you and did even more, isn't it? With him dead now, he had to tell you to oppose Neighbors..."

 _Oh,_ thought Hiura. _So that's why that Falcon stayed stationary during the attacks yesterday. That was a message he wanted to leave before the Falcon had to go to Abe Ruri._ As for why...

"Shuryō-san wanted you to remain just as strong and cool as you had always been, didn't he?"

"Sniper, you enjoy romance, don't you?"

Yoshiko smiled, but slowly covered her face with her fan.

She then took a deep breath and released a trembling breath. After that, Kobayashi's representative filled her lungs once more.

"Even as a boy, Shuryō also loved that sort of story. He was always begging me or Sōichi to tell them."

She laughed.

"Let me tell you a story now that Shuryō and Sōichi are gone. It is the story of Mogami Yoshiko. I will show you how the one who lost so much acts. That is the way of 'Mogami'. ...What about the rest of you?"

* * *

"We of the White Rock Corporation..."

Shobu heard a voice. The dance time had ended and they were now in White Rock's great hall which contained a stepped platform.

About ten meters in front of her, Ruri sat in a chair atop the platform. A pouch for necessities sat in her lap and she held it in both hands.

"...naturally hope to establish an amicable relationship with Border."

It was a short statement, but it held great meaning.

_...That means...they will side with...Border..._

Just like Kobayashi, Shiraishi had become a great company of Mikado City and was choosing their long-term benefit. They were looking at the rules established by Border more than the influence established by Taiyōko. But...

 **Secretary:** "That phrasing does not mention when they hope to establish that amicable relationship. And 'hope to' implies some conditions must be met first.

"But," added Akashi and Shobu understood why.

No one around her had reacted to Ruri's statement.

The members of the minor businesses had been sent from the hall earlier.

Only Musashi, Chisato, and the committee heads were here. They were all the Shiraishi family's inner circle. They were all here for the meeting, but none of them was tense in the slightest.

There was only one explanation.

And Ruri gave that explanation.

"As you know, the Shiraishi family will soon be quite busy. ...Including our cooperation with other companies, we must go through the process to take care of my friend Shuryō in Mogami's place. Once that is complete, we can begin focusing on working with Border."

_...I knew it..._

Ikoma spoke quietly while standing behind him on the right so he could protect him at a moment's notice.

"So her memories are being mixed up."

 **Manager:** "But, well, this was expected."

Kimura spoke.

 **Manager:** "In the previous negotiations with my father and the others, they had concluded that they did not need to take into consideration anything unrealistic that Abe Ruri-san said."

 _...I see..._ thought Shobu with a mental smile of relief.

_...That may be true..._

The "reality" that Ruri saw was not the same as the one everyone else saw. She did not remember Shobu even after meeting him twice before.

Negotiations could never progress if they took her statements at face value. So Shobu could only think one thing: ... _Sorry..._

_...Mogami Shuryō-sama must have been...important to her..._

They were discussing things with the knowledge that Shuryō had been taken and was now dead. Shobu had to avoid thinking they were deceiving Ruri, but it was true they were leaving her behind for their own convenience.

Was he too soft if he felt guilty? But...

 **Manager:** "Sorry, Tenryū-san. This business with Abe Ruri-san is placing a real burden on you."

 **Shobu:** "...Um, no, I-I don't...mind... ...Ru...ri-san...will speak with me...whenever I see her..."

And...

_...This reminds me...of my mother..._

He had not been told about what happened to his mother until he had asked. Everyone had been thinking they were being nice, but it hurt to once that he had to force it out.

So it would be sad if she stopped speaking with him, but that was not the point. Even after losing her memories, Ruri would still speak with him each time they met, so he did not mind.

The burden was on Ruri. She had lost her memories and the person she most wished to speak with was no longer on Earth. Or even alive. So...

_...Is there anything we can do...for her...?_

As soon as he wondered that, a message appeared around his neck.

**Shiraishi Family Network: Transmission from Kotowari Musashi**

They intended to hold a second meeting without Ruri. As the representative, he had to accept, so he quietly did so and the line connected.

 **Musashi:** "Looks like you've connected. I'm so grateful I might just cry. Anyway, we'll be holding the real meeting here. Got that?"

Shobu nodded and Kimura's words appeared on this chat as well.

 **Manager:** "Right. We will leave this decision up to you, Shiraishi."

That signaled the beginning. They were looking to the three businesses and Border's futures, and Kurosaki and Mogami had already given their opinions. And now that Shiraishi was giving theirs without Ruri...

_...It's really beginning..._

With that thought, Shobu quieted his breathing as Musashi's voice gave the opening statement.

 **Musashi:** "Now, allow me to give Shiraishi's view."

An emotionless voice spoke beyond his held breath.

 **Musashi:** "The Shiraishi family's division will obey Ruri as our future boss. All of our decisions will be based on what she hopes for. They come from a time when Shuryō still around, yet after this recent invasion, and not from the current environment. In other words, it is all based on the way things were awhile ago. That is all."

For a moment, Shobu did not understand what Musashi meant.

_...That means..._

They would view Shiraishi and the other businesses as they were from two different times mixed into one.

That meant they were viewing Border from two different times put into a single time.

"Then..."

Their decision was one of rejection.


	80. Border: Part 8

"I get what it means...but are they serious!?"

Minoru voiced his opinion of Shiraishi's decision relayed to him by Border.

The Shiraishi family was matching Ruri's mixed and lost memories by rewinding their view of Border to just before Shuryō's capture while also viewing it at a more modern time. But...

_...Does Shiraishi really understand what that means!?_

"Anyone with half a brain could tell what kind of trouble and grudges that will create!"

The Sniper lowered the ends of her eyebrows and raised her right hand.

"Um, sorry, Minoru-senpai, but I can't tell. Could you maybe explain...?"

Minoru groaned and fell silent as the gambler whispered into the Sniper's ear.

"You must not become a short-tempered girl like that, jeez. You have nothing to feel bad about."

"See how stress-free life is with Denji around?" added Yoshiko.

 _Dammit, am I the bad guy here!?_ thought Minoru with a clenched fist in his heart, but Yoshiko looked toward the distant festival instead of him.

Yoshiko was apparently leaving the explanation to Minoru, so Minoru turned to the puzzled Sniper.

"Um... Well, there's nothing wrong with a normal person not getting it. It's a political issue."

"R-really?"

"He's lying. He is merely trying to smooth things over, jeez."

 _I'm going to beat you,_ he thought while glaring at the gambler who promptly pretended to hide behind the Sniper.

 _Well, as long as I can't see his face,_ he concluded while scratching his head.

"Mogami Shuryō was taken four years ago, but an incident happened rather recently. What happens if Border's state is rewound to a combination of both?"

"I don't know about four years ago, but that other one was when he had just gotten done with the invasion on Mikado City, right?"

"Yes. Border had won, but there were still casualties. So it would be easy for someone with her circumstances to mix the two together and assume that Shuryō had been taken as a part of those casualties. What's more, remember the type of backlash Border received due to things that happened due to that invasion? There is a lot going on there."

Meaning...

"We have to go through the process we did concerning Megane-kun and everything else. It may even be worse since the Yagura Branch is technically not even something that exist in this state."

* * *

_...This isn't good._

Yuki felt a cold sweat. Border had planned to reassure everyone about Neighbors. But if they were viewed as they had been awhile ago...

_...They might reject everything by saying they doubt we could protect everyone next time._

That would be troublesome. They would have to offer a great number of privileges to overturn all of those rejections and Shiraishi might make substitute demands. Also...

 **Pokari:** "This is bad. I mean, this won't just be Shiraishi..."

That was right. Yuki looked to Saitou and the Kurosaki Committee Heads.

"Excuse us," said Saitou before beginning a discussion around Shin. Yuki could read their lips, so he could pick up on some of what they were saying.

_...As I thought, they're trying to apply Shiraishi's conditions to themselves because this is a three business meeting..._

If just one company had an advantage, it would create a gap between them and the other two. So...

 **Still Young Girl:** "That sounds like fun, so we will be doing it as well."

 _That was fast!_ thought Yuki as his cold sweat grew.

What would happen at this rate?

_...None if the companies will fully admit to Border's true value against Neighbors, but we will have to negotiate on the assumption that we want their assistance in properly fortifying ourselves._

He clicked his tongue under his breath.

_This also makes my position even worse. The Yagura Branch will basically be a nonexist thing and my name as "Tsukiko" drops in favorite of "Taiyōko". As a personal thing that hurts, but... Yeah. I will be viewed as an enemy in that case._

The others may have realized that as well since Murakami seemed to move closer to him while Kuruma looked down at him in worry.

If it was only Shiraishi, it might be possible to get through it by offering privileges and accepting substitute demands, but Mogami had already requested to use the same conditions as Shiraishi and Kurosaki would likely follow.

_...This is..._

But then he heard a voice.

It was Kon. She relaxed her standing pose and once more was handed a teacup from somewhere.

"So Shiraishi had laid a trap. They pretended to be cooperative while laying the groundwork, but they chose conditions advantageous to their own company during the meeting proper. Normally, this would be the time to leave the negotiation table...but to Border, the cooperation of citizens and businesses is something we would like if at all possible. No, make that three somethings. I have determined we are being given the polar opposite of a good deal."

She nodded and took a sip of tea.

_...Wow. Dealing with Taichi for so long really has an effect, doesn't it?_

"Yes, this has been an excellent lesson."

* * *

 **Musashi:** "I appreciate hearing Suzunari's Operator say that."

Shobu listened to Musashi's voice over the transmission.

_...He sounds...pained...?_

There was a somewhat guilty tone to his voice that was almost reminiscent of anger. It was low and still, but...

 **Musashi:** "Our policy is to match everything to Ruri and her lost/mixed memories. But don't pity us or see it as a farce. This is a gamble on Shiraishi's part. After all, we have to side with Border in the end. But...the question is when we start doing that. Ruri's initial memories stop when Shuryō was taken four years ago and clips of the time after are pieced on her mind. That means at about the time after that last invasion being mixed together with the original one. So please think about this."

Think about...

 **Musashi:** "You have just fought back an invasion, but there were casualties and questions that need answers, so how are you going to get Ruri on your side? We informed her of the previous conference by telling her Border was creating a new branch, so she understands your motivation and intent. But the situation around her as an individual has not changed and there is no one recognizable as 'Tsukiko' involved. Keep that in mind during these talks."

Shobu felt that was a very difficult thing to do. After all...

 **Shōgi Boy:** "If we can't use Border's victory in that invasion while negotiatin', how're we s'pposed to talk 'bout a future where we defend everyone?"

 **White Fox:** "It's more than that, Satoshi. Remember what was said at the first conference. Director Netsuki has said the recent invasion had 1/40th the amount of casualties as the first one. But if the two invasion are mixed together in this case..."

Exactly. Furthermore, this meeting was with three companies at once, but those companies were in a position to share their benefits and losses. So...

 **Kura-uchi:** "Right. ...Here it is. Kurosaki just sent a message to Kimura via their committees. It says they would like the same conditions as Shiraishi and Kobayashi. It's even signed by someone named Saitou."

That settled it.

From here on, they could not use the Border's victory in battle as a bargaining chip.

_...That means..._

The three companies would not trust them to be able to fight Neighbors without casualties always happening.

_...And after we all worked so hard..._

A lot of agents had spend time staying out in the Forbidden Zone for extra protection, to ward off any unwanted people, he'll look for something, or just to make sure everything was fine. Some had longer shifts, but they had been working really hard.

It was made even more strenuous with the idea of the Yagura Branch. Money had come straight out of some of the director's pockets as well as some agents who wanted to help more.

They had all spoken to each other during those times and Shobu had head a lot of what everyone has to say. It saddened him that he could not use all of that here, but...

_...Ah..._

Shobu realized Border lacking the true victory to the fight created a certain change to the negotiations.

 **Shobu:** "...Border can't...get into fights..."

* * *

 **Kuni:** "Yeah! Even Shobu has caught on to the deepest secrets of Border's decision making process! Excellent! I'll make sure Suzume-chan can give you a nice groping later to celebrate! With an Ootsubaki spell, it'll probably grow quite a bit!"

 **Umi:** "What do you mean probably? But it is true this restricts Kimura from going to fighting. I know that has to be a disappointment, but let's do our best here, Kimura."

 **Guest:** "This is the organization I wanted to join...?"

 **Manager:** "Dammit! Is anyone on my side!? Anyone at all!?"

.

Kimura sighed in her heart.

_...So Shiraishi set us up._

She had known about Ruri's situation, but during their previous exchanges of information and laying of groundwork...

_...They never said anything about returning everything to the time of Shuryō's capture and the recent invasion!_

There was no point in complaining now. When performing their checks, her father and the rest of the directors had used the people most familiar with the respective companies. To have that suddenly overturned meant the trap had been targeted at someone who knew them well.

She understood all too well what Shiraishi was trying to do.

"They're putting up a greedy resistance to ensure their future stability."

For them, this would almost entirely settle the influence issues that came from being an outside party to Mikado City. These were the people who had never succumbed to the powerful and always continued resisting, so it was Border's failure for not understanding what that unknown past would lead them to do.

They had likely gone for as big a victory as possible.

Also...

 **Secretary:** "We can't force Shiraishi to discuss their Falcon problem here."

 **Manager:** "Right. They have set up this three business meeting so it's impossible for the three businesses to lose. Even if Shiraishi wanted to nullify the meeting, they could not back out on their own. All three companies would have to back out at once...so the best move for them is to get us to back out instead."

It was a matter of pride.

Kurosaki, Kobayashi, and Shiraishi were companies who were looking for solutions. If the negotiation was nullified due to any one of them, that one would be placed in an inferior position among the three.

They were taking advantage of Border's position, but they made no attempt to hide it and had gone all out with it.

_...So they won't accept Border's victory in the invasion, hm?_

Then how was she supposed to gain the cooperation of the three companies?

Backing out of the negotiations would only push them toward Taiyōko. At best, Mogami and Kobayashi would stay with them, but Mogami herself would most certain do something afterwards.

Kobayashi's backing would only be viewed as a shaky thing.

_...So..._

Kimura thought about what to do.

.

The three business meeting should have been about the power to win on Border's side and cooperation. That was why Kimura had corrected all of the problems and confirmed that they could do so much more with the continued support.

But their opponents had rejected all power Border had.

And unless she accepted that rejection, the meeting could not continue.

_...Dammit._

They refused to accept anything Border had done or was doing. No matter what she said, that refusal was their condition for discussing this in the first place.

She wished she was ignorant enough of politics to call this unfair. After all, her opponents had their own profits and losses and had their own ways of benefitting and finding relief.

She knew that perfectly well, but...

_...I...have a choice._

She could give the three businesses every possible privilege and serve them in every way possible to gain their cooperation.

That would mean lowering the possibilities for Border and what they could accomplish with the other sponsors, but it would save Mikado City and stop the Neighbors. But...

"...No."

She could not sacrifice anyone to save something.

Yes. That was what they had decided. And it was the lesson they had learned after everything.

They had to save everyone while smiling.

_...Then..._

Kimura thought about what they had to do here if they were to save everyone while smiling.

She was unsure whether or not she could just ask the idiot who had been left with that wish.

And then...

 **Life:** "Hey. Can I say something real quick?"

The idiot spoke to her.

.

 **Life:** "Can you all listen for a moment? I just asked Yuki and it sounds like we're in a bit of a tricky situation."

 **Manager:** "Sorry. I made a bit of a mistake. I'll fix it."

 **Life:** "Eh? Oh, that's not what I meant. That doesn't matter."

Hey...

 **Life:** "Why do we do this?"

And...

 **Life:** "I thought about this a bit back during the invasion and I thought I had an idea of the answer. I thought about it more after the invasion, we met the Wanderers, I asked the older members about it...and a lot happened because of joining. Oh, and a lot's still happening now."

So...

* * *

 **Life:** **"** Kawa."

 **Manager:** "What?"

 **Life:** "You're there, aren't you? You haven't gone away?"

 **Manager:** "Yes, I'm here."

 **Life:** "Then Kanzaki?"

 **Kiyome:** "Sorry. I fell asleep for a bit there."

 **Life:** "Oh, so you're there. Okay. Yuki...is here I guess... Yeah, he's here..."

 **White Fox:** "Wh-why are you trailing off like that!?"

 **Life:** "Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. ...I guess there's not much point, especially since there are some who are older and younger than us, but Kuruma."

 **Kuru-ma:** "Yes. Thank you for all the help you provide."

 **Life:** "Wow... I'm not sure what to say when someone takes things so seriously... Okay, Iko."

 **Iko:** "Yeah. I'm doin' fine."

 **Life:** "I'm not gonna lose to you! ...So are you there, Demon Girl?"

 **Demon Child:** "Hm? You need something? I'm watching something right now."

 **Life:** "Oh, don't spoil a movie for us. ...What about Rin-chin?"

 **Artist:** "Yes. ...I am here."

 **Life:** "Sure. Smuggle me some more doujinshi sometime, okay? ...Are you there, Sato?"

 **Shōgi Boy:** "I'm trying to work on somethin'. ...But I'm here."

 **Life:** "You can act like a real old man sometimes and it's scary. ...What about Sumimi and Shiro-chan?"

 **Haru:** "We are. Shiro-chan and me both. And it's all thanks to you."

 **Life:** "A Gunner's thanks is a scary thing. ...Ichiya?"

 **Secretary:** "What is it? Oh, we haven't spoken since I was a wallflower, have we? It's good to be back."

 **Life:** "Sure. And lend me some porn once I'm back, okay? ...Um, Shobu-san."

 **Shobu:** "...Eh...!? ...Oh, y-yes... ...I am...here...?"

 **Life:** "Yeah, sorry, sorry. Didn't mean to scare you. Take care of things there. ...Is SenSen there?"

 **SenSen:** "You know I am, so you don't need to ask."

 **Life:** "Yeah, but you know I'm gonna ask anyway... Okay, Akane-kun."

 **Mad Hatter:** "Oh, yes, yes. Yeah. What is it?"

 **Life:** "Well, now that your team is going places, show off for me sometime. ...Minoru."

 **Deer Prince:** "Hm? What do you want?"

 **Life:** "This will probably be a pain, but take care of things okay? ...Prince Boy."

 **Ōji:** "Oh, yes. Kurauchi is here too. He says good luck."

 **Life:** "Your shtick sure has changed... Okay, Zoe."

 **Zoe:** "Right. Leave things here to me!"

 **Life:** "You aren't at some dangerous spot, are you? ...Kage?"

 **Kage:** "What? You want an order now?"

 **Life:** "Deliver some to my house. I'll make something out of it. ...Now Tetsu."

 **TetsuG:** "Yeah, yeah. Good to hear from you too. It hasn't been long enough."

 **Life:** "So rude! But I think it has been too long, so I'll pay you a crossdresser visit. You there too, Pokari?"

 **Pokari:** "Yeah. You guys have been doing a lot recently, haven't you? That's fine, we've gotten together in a single call."

 **Life:** "You still talk funny, Pokari. ...Now Isacchi."

 **Isa:** "... "

 **Almost Everyone:** "Stop being lazy just because it's text!"

 **Life:** "I don't think my heart could take it if he just started talking on and on. ...You there, Kuni?"

 **Kuni:** "Yup, yup. I am, material man. But you won't get anything from me just for calling me up for no reason!"

 **Life:** "At least give me a snack. ...Okay, Kō. Even if you are right in front of me."

 **Black Wolf:** "Right. ...No matter the reason, we know the same things and can't let that down."

 **Life:** "Good to see you haven't changed. And don't you ever change. ...Are you there, Umi?"

 **Umi:** "Eh!? Wh-what do you want all of a sudden!?"

 **Life:** "Well, you always help us out so much and we don't say it as much as we should, so...we all look forward to the help you will give in the future!"

 **Umi:** "That's where you would normally say thank you! And don't speak for everyone!"

 **Life:** "Now this crazy Sniper is making demands... Oh, but, um, Yuka."

 **Mi-Kon:** "This whole thing sounds an awful lot like one long death flag to me."

 **Life:** "She said it! She just said what I was thinking but had enough sense not to say!"

 **Mi-Kon:** "Anyway, what do you want? Why are you hogging the network like this?"

* * *

"Well," said Jinsei.

 **Life:** "This is a troublesome situation, right? A really troublesome one."

No, he had feeling their situation had been troublesome for a while now. But...

 **Life:** "Now that I think about it, things have been trouble for everyone since the invasion."

 **Black Wolf:** "Um, Jinsei? It has not been that much trouble for us..."

 **Life:** "Yeah, yeah. That's because you all can handle it. But...you have spent a lot of time lost in thought, haven't you? When you're coming up with strategies for the BRW, when you're in class, when you're eating, you're always lost in thought of discussing things with each other at length. It's been a while now. Ever since that invasion."

Hey.

 **Life:** "Is that really necessary?"

 **Umi:** "Well..."

 **Life:** "If anything, it's necessary to protect the city. You're doing it for what was started during the first invasion and are being brought along."

Then...

 **Life:** "What am I doing now? No...I've been thinking that ever invasion. What does it mean for me to continue being a part of Border? People like Denji say it is to do whatever you want, Shinoda Faction shows through their actions that it's to guide and protect everything, and some branches are more the Denji type but while putting up as much resistance as they can. My nameless captain chooses a method I don't like so he can tell us not to be like him. And he tells us to smile. And Akasora-sensei told me that, if I wanted to protect everyone, I had to protect myself as much as possible."

But...

 **Life:** "I feel like it's fine as long as all of are protected. I still don't really know why I stay with them, but there is one thing I can say."

That was...

 **Life:** "If you're getting all depressed and find you can't act on Border's behalf, you're getting it all backwards. That kind of foundation is there to make sure that doesn't happen. The people there will support you to make sure you can make Mikado City a safe place from Neighbors and to make sure no one is defeated before that haplens. So...how should I put this? Things are getting pretty tough and you might be feeling down. But don't you forget. Don't you ever forget, okay?"

He said it.

 **Life:** "We carry each other's impossibilities. Don't forget that. We can take charge of each other's impossibilities, so don't you ever give up. Don't you ever let it get to you. If things are looking bad, just tell yourself you can leave it with someone else and pay them a visit. ...That's the kind of organization we can be right now."

So...

 **Life:** "Since I can definitely do that, I'm higher up right now. I've been a new type of person since the invasion."

Listen.

 **Life:** "Kō."

 **Black Wolf:** "Yes!"

 **Life:** "You're the closest person to Yuki, so you know what to leave with him, right? Even if everyone's starting to look down, tell them things aren't bad. Yuki, you take care of that too, Unneeded-san."

 **White Fox:** "Tch. What a hopeless guy."

 **Life:** "Yeah, I can be pretty careless. ...Um, Umi, with that, well, keep looking out for me. My contract with Border is important for staying there, but I'm as frail as a rabbit, so protect me and make sure I don't die before it's up."

 **Umi:** "..."

 **Umi:** "You don't make it easy to respond to you, Jinsei. ...Understood. I will protect you as much as I can. Even if my sis gets angry and that idiotic secretary throws a fit."

 **Life:** "That'll be a huge help. And if anything's impossible for you, leave it with someone. I feel like that's setting up a bit of a feedback loop, but thanks. ...And Yuka."

 **Mi-Kon:** "What is the meaning of this liquidation sale on death flags?"

 **Life:** "Well, it might only be this way in my head, but this feels like as big a moment as the invasion. So Yuka, I'll prove it to you. I'll prove that you don't need to worry anymore and hold out. I'll make sure you are out on the same level as everyone while I catch up."

 **Mi-Kon:** "If I'm put on the level of everyone, you will catch up?"

 **Life:** "Yeah. Then I can stand alongside you all and everything will begin. At the very least, we can't get anywhere without doing that much."

So...

 **Life:** "The identity of my reasoning must lie beyond that."

Listen.

 **Life:** "Kawa, everyone, this is probably getting to be a lot of trouble, but I'll be moving out ahead of you a little this time. So you get to following me and surpassing me. If you don't, I'll die pretty quickly. ...Got that?"

 **Everyone:** "Right!"

 **Life:** "Oh. That's good."

Then...

 **Life:** "Sorry, everyone. I'll be going on ahead. And I'll have something to say afterwards."

.

"Hey, I know we're in the middle of a meeting here, but could you listen for a second?"

Yuki heard a voice within the icy atmosphere.

It was Jinsei. He crossed his arms and looked to Shin.

"Hey, you seem like a cool guy. Will you listen to what I have to say?"

Shin did not respond. He simply looked to his screen. Instead, Saitou blatantly wrinkled his brow and took a step forward.

And just as Saitou prepared to speak, the screen must have finished gathering the necessary information. Shin nodded and held out a hand to stop Saitou.

"Wait... We have gathered here for a meeting. Preventing him from speaking would be folly..."

"But Boss!"

"Do you intend to make me look a coward...? You must be as exhausted as Nagao after heading out to battle... If necessary, I can provide you with plenty of my pressure attacks. How about it...?"

Saitou immediately bowed and stepped back. Shin laughed and looked toward the Border group again.

"Now, what do you wish to say, Border representative...?"

"Oh, right, right. Looks like you're surrounded by trouble too. I've been thinking lately, and being someone who keeps things running really is tough. For Border, Kawa and the others do a lot of the work, but with you, it looks like a lot of the burden falls on you."

Yuki mentally nodded at Jinsei's comment.

This companies leader Shin had also inherited the title of CEO, who was viewed as a sort of tyrant leader due to his predecessors. They did not hesitate to carry out corporate takeover, they had their own personal connections under everything, they would ruin powerful people they did not like, and they had taken a lot of private land as "business land".

When the employees had betrayed the former boss, he had been temporarily driven from the company, but everything had gone poorly afterwards.

_...So with the support of the people who only wanted a stable income, he had been put in charge._

This company required a powerful person. Even as a harsh leader, everyone obeyed and followed a boss who had forced them along to ensure their business was not destroyed.

It was nearly the opposite of Border. The one at the top made all decisions and corrected everything.

Yuki did not know whether or not Jinsei knew this, but the boy could likely guess what kind of boss Kurosaki had based on the interactions with Nagao and Saitou. So...

"I have one thing to say. And I want the people who went to the other companies to listen up too." Jinsei gave his usual smile as he opened his mouth. "I can't do anything. But my friends can do anything. They'll do anything for Border. And they will protect what can be protected from Neighbors. ...Kawa confirmed that earlier, right? So..."

So...

"We won't use Border's previous victory for these negotiations. After all, we're always gonna win. If our victory is already assured, why use that for negotiations? Right? We won't lose. We've already decided that, so we don't need to worry about any enemies."

Listen.

"Kawa made her point pretty clearly, so I'll make my point pretty clearly too."

"And what is that?" asked Shin.

Border's representative answered clearly.

"We won't lose to anyone."

He gestured toward Yuki and Murakami who stood in front of him.

"They won't let us lose and we won't let them lose. So Border will always be like that. No matter what might happen, Border will remain, Border will resist, and Border won't give up. So what we're about to do isn't resisting. After all, you are regular organizations built on Earth."

It was what came after resisting.

"We're making ourselves completely known to you guys who want to give up on us."

.

Murakami listened to someone else who knew.

"Listen. ...Let's base all our upcoming talks on that assumption. If we don't, I won't understand what we're talking about. Just like I trust myself..."

He turned toward him and the others.

"You all do the same."

_...Right._

Murakami nodded at his fellow knower's words. He felt this in his heart, so he nodded in his heart.

_...Good._

How long had it been? How long had it been since this knower had so clearly relied on and trusted in others? He knew what he would say if he asked him:

"It's always been like that."

And that was true. Otherwise, he would not have influenced others so much since middle school. But that had just been him telling them everything was fine.

That was why he had taken the lead alone when it mattered.

He had relied on and trusted everyone, but he had gone ahead when going out.

As if to say he did not want to get anyone else involved in something so dangerous...

_...He did not call out to anyone._

He had almost certainly not understood what he was doing. He had known it was "doable" because Kimura had told him so, but he had almost certainly not understood why he could do that. But...

"..."

 _Yes,_ realized Murakami. _That really was the beginning._

He still remembered it.

He remembered the moment of going after him everyone else.

He remembered the instant when they had gathered together because he had shown concern for others.

And he remembered the situation in which even he had cared so much for his companions that he tried to keep his distance.

_...But he never said anything._

He knew of the promise that Kon made with him in middle school, but her decision to go help as well as his own had been unrelated to that.

His fellow knower could not do anything, so they had all decided to do everything they could to help him.

So when they had all decided they could not leave that boy alone, he had likely understood that he would not be left alone and there was no need to be alone.

And now, he was finally aware of it.

After suffering defeats and seeing the gloom hanging over everyone, he had grown aware of everything he had learned by moving out ahead.

There were probably all sorts of things he still did not understand about being a member of Border, but that understanding had definitely begun.

When it came to helping people, fighting, and everything else, he had started down his own path as a member of Border. Murakami felt he had just heard that first footstep.

As long as the people closest to them remained unneeded, he would be his helper. So...

"Right."

Murakami listened to his fellow knower speak the words that would once more pull everyone after him.

"Listen carefully, everyone."

He listened.

.

"Let's go protect the world. Come at us, everyone. We won't be losing to the Neighbors, so we won't be losing to you. Keep that in mind when you face us."

The idiot spoke to everyone from this closed space.

"Let's go make everything safe, everyone."

* * *

Kimura realized her lips had loosened into a smile. ... _Oops._

The situation surrounding her had just undergone a radical change.

She felt like the people and things behind them and next to them had all been bound together.

It was support.

Someone was supporting them. Someone would always trust in and support them no matter what happened.

After the invasion, after a teammate had abandoned them, she had let that support control her a little. He had said it was not like her. He had told her to enjoy it like normal.

She now realized just how right he had been. She wondered why she had been so worried back then.

The idiot supporting her was willing to smile at any world as he made them his enemy. He showed no fear even when facing people with far too much authority, might, and personal ability.

What did she have to fear or worry about with that kind of idiot supporting her?

"...That's right."

That idiot was no longer worried about her. Not even with an idiotic sort of worry. And just like during and after the invasion...

"We will pave the way no matter what might happen."

 _This is what they call a royal road. Did you know that, idiot? And we will leave it for Border. The place we could gather at._ So...

 **Manager:** "Out of the way there. ...I'm moving out front."

 **Life:** "Oh, Kawa, are you feeling it now? ...Are you smiling?"

 **Manager:** "Let's just say my expression is exactly what you are imagining. And..."

Kimura spoke.

 **Manager:** "Let's resume the meeting."

.

"As Border's director's representative, I have something to tell the three companies."

Kimura inhaled and made a clear statement.

"We will accept the Shiraishi family's suggested basis for judging Border. We agree to not consider Border's recent victory in the coming negotiations."

.

In White Rock's great hall, Musashi stood with the Committee Heads along the wall as he listened to Border's representative speak.

He frequently paused to breathe and spoke slowly, but what he said was clear.

"...Sh-she says...we will not...consider Border's...most recent...victory..."

He straightened up before continuing.

"It's...a promise."

Border had said they would not accept their own value in victory as a topic for negotiation.

 _They've destroyed themselves,_ thought Musashi. _You made the wrong choice again, Takeshi. Just like always. ...Don't worry, I'll go get you to fix your mistake._

The ability to protect one's own territory was a necessary part of being that kind of organization. If they could not use that in this negotiation, they could not even be accepted as a proper fighting force.

They would be nothing more than a pacifist building.

Then was there something else Border could do?

_...It can't be..._

Once a possibility occurred to him, he looked to Border's representative.

"—"

He was smiling.

He was smiling toward Ruri as if telling her to look forward to what was coming.

A moment later, a tab opened. It was from Border and it contained the words of their director's representative.

 **Manager:** "Border has a proposal."

She showed how they would negotiate without relying on their ability to win.

 **Manager:** "Shiraishi, Kobayashi, Kurosaki, and the minor companies of Mikado City and elsewhere. We will send you direct information for when a Gate has opened and the agents who would best be able to deal with them and who would be closest to them.

And...

 **Manager:** "To earn friendship and cooperation of Shiraishi, Kobayashi, and Kurosaki, Border will create a network using the branch offices to keep up information trade between those involved. He organizations will be showed what their money is going to and you will have a secure route in case something happens. If something major were to come up, Border will have Takato Mei of Border HQ and Jin Yūichi of the Tamakoma Branch will inform you ahead of time so proper precautions can be taken. Border will not be demanding money and will not be forcing anyone to give any, as a way of kindness to those who wish to continue sponsoring us. Meaning..."

Meaning...

 **Manager:** "Mikado City can become even closer so that a 1/40th reduction from a previous event can be cut down even more. We propose a peaceful community that can be brought about by information sharing. And this is unrelated to anyone's own abilities, so it can be implemented quickly. After all, this would be impossible without the cooperation of all three big companies and it just be acted in immediately if it is a reaction to any upcoming actions."

* * *

"...So this is why Kimura-san had suddenly asked me about my late family."

Kakizaki watched the younger boy scroll through the text that came up on his screen.

He himself could not tell what was being said, but Takeshi had been allowed special permission to read what was going on. It was due to a certain name coming up before and his thoughts on the matter.

_He can't join in and this has to be erased right after their meeting. But..._

Kakizaki raised his hand to pat the boy's head.

He did not kind the questioning look her was receiving as a response.

"You seem to be taking this well enough. ...Kotowari Musashi is your brother, right? Kimura had asked you about him because they had found out he was alive and so wanted to know about his personality."

"He is a...good person... At least when it comes to casual things. ...A bit strange, but he was loved by people and would always come back to praise from our parents. My other brothers would look up to him while looking down on me. At the time, it was fine..."

But now...

"Now I see the issues that were there. Musashi himself was nice to me, tried to help me, but... I can see what he meant each time he spoke to me."

Kakizaki could feel his blood start to boil a bit from this.

After getting to know the boy a little bit more he had come to an understanding that everything before the time he decided to get some assistance had been a blank area for him. He could remember it all, but it never had felt real to him.

Kakizaki could remember when the younger boy had said such a thing to him. It was strange so he tried not to bring it up again. Not because it was strange, but rather because the younger boy seemed to still be besting himself up for not knowing that he was in the wrong.

But from what he was saying it sounded very different from what he thought originally.

_Is almost sounds like... No, I shou do conform it first._

"What did he say?"

He was surprised when Takeshi looked up from his phone to give him a sad smile.

The younger boy still found it hard to smile at others, yet this sad and self-depreciating smile seemed to come far too naturally to him. It hurt to look at, but he did not back down. He was determined to help this boy now that he had learned about the older brother.

He would not let Takeshi go back. Not after the steps he took to go forward.

"I was wrong... I am always wrong... I make the wrong choices... It would look like help to everyone, it was his kindness and consideration for his youngest brother that drove him to help no matter what. But from the perspective of that youngest brother..."

A small orb of trion came to life between the two before popping.

The looks that came after that made Kakizaki hurt again. He pushed that aside for the moment to continue listening to the Shooter.

"He was trying to fix something that was always wrong and would never be right."

A bitter laugh came from the younger boy as he looked back down at his screen.

"But he may have thought he was being a good brother... So I guess he was in the right that whole time. And I am in the wrong for thinking otherwise."

_I was right..._

Kakizaki could feel his fists start to clench.

Those words were exactly what he had expected to hear. Everything Takeshi had done had been wrong in the eyes of everyone. To his family; he was wrong. To people who knew him and his family; he was wrong. To anyone who looked towards his actions; he was wrong. To Takeshi himself; _he was absolutely wrong and would never be right._

_So that was why..._

That had been the reason Yuki had taken in this boy.

That had been the reason Takeshi had taken to following that boy.

_He saw Yuki has "right" and strived to get to that point. Meanwhile, Yuki could not see what was "wrong" with Kotowari, so he tried to bring out the "right" for him._

Now that he understood what was going on, Kakizaki began to open his mouth to speak against those words. To erase them from the boy's mind and stop them from coming again. But before he could, the younger boy continued.

"But..."

But.

"Would it be wrong for me to want Kimura-san and the others to win here?"

* * *

"I see..."

Yoshiko covered her mouth with her fan as she spoke.

"So Border HQ's representative is telling us we are not to give up on them, but we need not believe in Border either. ...We are to side with our own futures and act on it now.

 _Interesting,_ thought Yoshiko. One common factor shared by everyone not involved with Border was information. That was partially due to their belief of safety, but it was also due to no one extending a hand out to them.

All three companies had open connections, but they would often need to pay for information that did not come their own employees. Due to the nature of of their jobs, some would get away without that, but instead have to pay for something else.

But Border was different.

They also had to pay for what they needed and undergo inspections, but they could get far more. And due to the threat of Neighbors, their own buildings were less strictly inspected in order to avoid trouble with other organizations.

"But...if you share information like that...what are you planning to do next?"

Hearing that question, Minoru opened a tab, typed on the touch screen, and responded after a few seconds.

"According to Netsuki-san, get information on more hidden places of Mikado City and - if possible - slightly expand the Forbidden Zone. What do you think about that?"

"They are focusing a lot on territory here. But it is not a bad idea. After all, allowing for more room to move when fighting those Neighbors provides you with a better change if keeping the main city safe. The information for those hidden slit also prevents any unwanted Gates from opening without anyone knowing."

Meaning...

"Border is offering us information trade that can spread out. They will build a network themselves do urge us to take part as a single community. The entire city will profit as long as Border remain active, but even if we do not cooperate, Border will likely bring this same deal to other companies. If that happens, we will fall behind the rest of the city on the preparation front..."

Their lack of fighting power did not matter here.

 _This is a politician's idea,_ thought Yoshiko as she considered the Border HQ's representative's plan. _A PR director would not come up with this plan based on their own calculations._

After all, developing the information network would require an investment of money, personnel, and time.

But it was well worth that investment.

"Border has members who are from other sponsors like the one at Kurosaki right now and even my bosses' child, so they will always have a means of trading information with the companies and the other ones. ...They will make back their initial investment in no time at all. And they can likely add to their plan by using any extra recovery money as collateral..."

This plan had been built up by the Border HQ Representative, but something else had built the foundation.

_...Their conferences with the reporters..._

They were explaining a retrieval of the citizens who had gone missing during the two invasions. The second had been for the new branch as a way to show that they would still be looking out for Mikado City. But if Border built a network that relied on a large amount of cooperation, it would not longer be a community of just the businesses.

_...Her name is Kimura Kawaguchi, I believe..._

After accepting the conflict that came from people who did not understand, was she still attempting to create something great that encompassed the entire city?

And had she chosen to begin with the ones that had once wanted resisted and never let go of that resistance?

"Heh..."

"Is she being naïve?"

Minoru had hit the bulls-eye, so Yoshiko could only nod.

"That idealistic vision is so very naïve, but that is exactly what makes it so attractive."

"Eh? That mean it's actually a bad idea, doesn't it?"

Hearing the Sniper's question, Denji tilted his entire body.

"Is it a bad idea? Would it never work? Sometimes I feel like swimming in another river, jeez. But is that a bad idea?"

"I end up being far too kind with you around, Denji."

But there was something Yoshiko had to say.

"That plan will not last long. It is a pipe dream. ...Minoru, you understand, don't you?"

"Do you mean you leaving and losing status? Or Kurosaki's influence reduction by Taiyōkos from two generations?"

"I mean both. Talk all you want about a city-wide network to be created here, but by the time that happens, I will have already dropped everything and Kurosaki will have lost a good portion of their influence. Only Shirashi will survive by preserving enough strength to be called high level, so only they will benefit from this network. Even if I leave and it continues on with the true Kobayashi family, it will just become a cycle of wondering when they will need to rebuild Mikado City."

So...

"I cannot agree to this network idea. The same will go for Kurosaki. And Kurosaki should make a much more obvious display of their opposition."

"Eh? A much more obvious display of their opposition? What do you mean?"

This Sniper was a nice person, so Yoshiko decided to answer her kindly. She pulled a rice snack from her sleeve, handed it to the Sniper, and waited until the girl had started munching on it.

"Are you listening? Kurosaki is facing your troublesome group."

So Kurosaki would adopt a certain method.

"En – em – ies."

* * *

"Don't think too badly of us. This is only the natural response for a negotiation between organizations."

Murakami took a defensive stance and saw Sekai activate his Trigger before placing a hand on the sword at his hip.

Kurosaki had not true warriors, but Sekai alone acted like one by having the other surround them. It was a triple ring of human walls.

Something had been set up as they were targeted from the vents near the hall's ceiling.

The non-fighter warriors would fire some initial shots from above, they would face up to defend against it, and the rest of the workers would use that opening to rush in from the sides. It was an obvious but effective strategy.

Truly a group that had gone to fight against the ones with the name Taiyōko.

"Border group," said Sekai. "This space has limited entrances. You will find nothing even if you break through the walls. We hold the exits, so you have nowhere to run. So..."

"So we should stop holding a meeting that won't benefit Kurosaki?"

"Yes. That is correct. ...The network your HQ Representative suggested holds no future benefit for us. Border is simply holding some delicious-looking bait just out of reach in order to gain our immediate cooperation. ...Am I wrong?"

Someone nodded. It was Saitou who stood at the front of the dais to protect Shin. His arms hung relaxed at his side and he held his hands somewhat opened.

"Border's nudist and crossdresser who brought their spirits up as well as the Suzunari Operstor should make excellent hostages, it will also give us influence over the other two companies."

"Don't you find this to be underhanded? Especially for such a major company?"

"The victors write history and decide what is justified. That is exactly what nations did during the past."

Sekai responded to Saitou's words by lowering his body. He was not targeting Murakami; he was targeting the boy behind Murakami.

So Murakami took a step forward. If he was going to treat his own teammate rudely, it was another knower's duty to be a shield and sword. The surrounding people deepened their combat stances, but Murakami felt no fear in his heart. After all...

"Hey, you guys surrounding us? You need to be careful."

He heard the knower's voice behind him.

"Our buddy here is Border's #4 Attacker and a lone wolf type who can tear things up."

"J-Jinsei, do you have to compliment me in such weird ways...?"

"I do. And when he is treated kindly, he gets real excited, starts rubbing into an upperclassman who pats him and does some crazy stuff."

"That really is weird and it isn't even a compliment!"

_...Ah, the people look a little disturbed!_

_In a way, this may have been the right thing to do,_ he realized.

"I really think you should stop this," said someone else. "...But what do you think?"

It was Kuruma.

.

Kuruma finally understood why Kimura had placed him in this group.

"I am Kuruma Tatsuya, currently my family sponsors Border via the Suzunari Branch and where I am captain of Suzunari-1."

He inhaled and gently tensed his chest.

"According to the record in our library, Kurosaki viewed Kuruma as a possible group if they had to go into hiding and the two family engaged in pleasantries. The families around Kurosaki even sent Kuruma a letter asking us to cease these things with Kurosaki, and one of your bosses once asked to marry an employee but was rejected because the leader 'could not bear to send her somewhere so cold'. ...That is apparently the relationship between our two companies."

His meaning had to have gotten through to them.

And Saitou proved it as he stood in front of the dais.

"So you are the son of the Kuruma family..."

"Yes. ...A good friend is here too."

Just in case, he did not restrict his movements by taking his hand. Instead he held his hand out toward him but not enough to reach him.

_...Nh._

But he reached out and lowered his hand anyway.

"—"

He sensed why in his stringer than normal grip and he wondered if it was wrong that that made him feel happy. But instead of swatting the hand away, he gently lowered it so as not to seem rude.

"Well done," he said so only he could hear. "I hate that family so much and will never forgive them, but it helped me meet a great captain. And since you are able to use that properly..."

He lowered his hand even more.

"I can feel proud that you are with Kō and are preventing me from regretting my actions later, Kuruma-san."

"...Thank you very much."

That was true. Just a few months earlier, Kuruma never would have thought of "using" his name. But now he felt no aversion to doing so if it meant preventing Yuki from using his own name as a reason to fight, something he would come to regret otherwise. This was due to how he felt about seeing the friendship between his squad's ace and Yuki, experiencing a bit of what he hid under his white fox mask, and being thanked for it with only honesty.

_...I appreciate all of that._

Nothing made him happier than being able to witness the people he cared about be happy and have people speak to him honestly instead of falsely for his name.

So he wanted to protect the people who did so and the place they wanted to be. And...

"Please remember that Kuruma is watching Kurosaki."

"Then..."

Saitou moved. He raised his right hand to have the surrounding people move back, but then he spoke.

"Stand back, future of Kuruma and friend to that future. Do so and we will not touch you. I would also like for you to not assist them with your own Triggers. ...This is Kurosaki's way of showing our friendship with Kuruma."

After saying that, he audibly descended a step.

At that moment, a burst of motion exploded in front of him. Sekai kicked off the dais's bottom step to accelerate forward while holding his sword low - the sword known as Kōgetsu.


	81. Kurosaki

Murakami did not panic when Sekai approached with the speed of a true fighter. He simply took a step forward while speaking.

"Jinsei. ...Feel free to move forward."

"Right. ...I'm counting on you."

The knower cheerfully walked forward and Murakami moved as the wind to guide him.

He saw Sekai's Kōgetsu pointed straight down in front of him. Sekai was preparing to swing the sword up to slice his Border teammate from the crotch to the top of his head. It also allowed him to use the Kōgetsu as a shield. And if Murakami carelessly charged in, he would get cut himself. So...

"—"

Murakami did not hesitate to move right in.

.

Sekai saw the black wolf's speed.

The boy was fast but too straightforward. He was right in the center of Sekai's vision.

He was coming.

Instead of keeping his body low, the wolf used a high-speed leap that was much like a light step.

He raised his left knee, so he likely intended to slip the knee past Sekai's raised Kōgetsu and either knee or kick him.

"...That won't work!"

Sekai turned to the side to hide his body behind the Kōgetsu and took a stance that allowed him to push the blade forward with his entire body.

He placed the downward-pointing blade in front of the wolf and prepared to push it forward.

"Take this...!"

He shoved it forward. And in that instant, a certain color spread out before his eyes.

_...Gray!?_

By the time he realized it was hair, something else had joined the scene.

It was the wolf's speed.

From the very first movement, he understood what had happened. The black wolf had dropped down his raised knee, shin, and foot to kick off the floor and then swung his other leg behind him with blinding speed.

"A front flip leading into a heel kick!?"

.

Murakami's flipping heel kick had the double acceleration of the left leg he had dropped down from above and the right leg he had swung up behind him.

Sekai had expected him to make a high-speed approach, so his eyes could not keep up with the wolf's motion as he flew high into the air. The swinging and swaying hair did not help matters there.

But Sekai did not hesitate. He had to fulfill his duty no matter what attack he was exposed to.

"Ohhh..."

He raised and pushed his blade straight forward.

That settled it.

After the swift flip, the black wolf's right heel accurately struck something.

It was the pommel of the hilt Sekai held high. The shoe heel that dropped down like an axe slammed the pommel down with a loud clang.

As a result, the tip of Sekai's blade stabbed deep into the floor.

The blade pierced about twenty centimeters into the floor below the red carpet.

The black wolf landed with one foot on the pommel. His other leg retained the momentum of his flip, so he took the stance of someone preparing to kick a ball.

"Now, then!"

A moment later, Sekai fell back. No, he was forced to fall back.

After stomping the sword down with his right leg, the black wolf brought back the left leg that had swung behind him and kicked Sekai in the center of the gut.

The blow audibly landed and Sekai doubled over and flew backwards. He held his stomach with his right hand, bared his fangs, and took a deep breath.

The wolf used the force of the kick to make a midair backflip.

When the wolf landed, Sekai took a defensive stance.

Another burst of gray speed soon followed. The wolf swung his body to the left and right while instantly filling the gap between him and Sekai. He must have noticed Sekai's defensive stance because...

"...!"

The wolf kicked at the sword stabbed in the ground to swiftly change his angle of attack. He leaped toward Sekai's right side.

The black wolf raised his right leg to settle this with a kick. He did not use a blade. This space was meant for their meeting, not for damaging.

"That is my pride as the ace of the Suzunari Branch!"

.

At that moment, the black wolf saw something beyond the arm on Sekai's stomach.

"A shield!?"

A small trion shield protected Sekai from within his disturbed clothing.

The black wolf's previous kick had done no damage to Sekai. Doubling over and taking a deep breath had been a bluff. He was willing to do whatever it took to win and he thrust his right arm forward as if to prove it.

"Shield...!"

Three layers of large shields over three meters tall slammed into the black wolf from the front of the fighter's mid-level punch.

.

Murakami switched to a new way of thinking.

This was not a place for damaging, but he needed to eliminate the barrier before him.

_...A blade!_

He quickly swung his left arm behind him and the activation of the yellow band around his wrist was met. Before anyone could blink, multiple links began forming and connecting with solid sounds to create a single form. The long line of links that created a shaken began forming three times more to creat a total of four chains that began to move.

It was a weapon that could prioritize both offense as well as defense.

And Murakami grabbed something with those golden chains.

It was the Kōgetsu stabbed into the floor. He pulled it out with his golden chains. He was lucky he had loosened it by kicking it to change direction earlier. It pulled out and flew to his hand, but...

"Fly!"

He did not hold onto it. He grabbed it and the chain with his fingers, swung it like a metal ring, and let go with a snap of the wrist.

The tip of the Kōgetsu shot through the air. In the blink of an eye, he could hear it tearing through the air and colliding with the shield.

One layer shattered and he stepped forward as it reached the second.

"...!"

That too shattered, but the blade broke along with it. In an instant, the trion blade swelled out like a pea pod, the plain light inside split, and cracks ran through the blade.

"—"

_Both are made from his own trion, so I see just how much he is putting in here._

Followed by the sound of splitting air, the blade shattered, starting from the tip.

The trion shards turned to light and scattered through the air. But one shield remained and it had been thrown toward Murakami.

"...I will be passing through."

He gathered a bit of strength in his right leg and made a full-body dash forward.

His counterattacked with a piercing heel kick which shattered the trion shield down the center. He had jabbed with a heel pick he created by using the unique nature of the defensive portion of the Black Trigger Shikifuku. The pick instantly shot out at the exact moment of his kick and pierced the large shield.

Sekai stood beyond the destroyed trion light.

He no longer had a weapon and it was unlikely he could prepare another Shield so quickly. So Murakami swung his right foot down and to the left while spinning and bending his body like a whip.

_...A left leg savate technique!_

He spun around.

His left leg quickly passed behind him and he aimed for Sekai's chest with the heel.

At that moment, a shadow arrived from above. More accurately, it arrived from beyond Sekai. As Sekai took a protective stance, someone made a low and heavy leap over her head.

"Saitou Tonbo...!"

.

Sekai had sensed the optimal opportunity.

His three-layer Shield had not just been for defense. It had also been to hide Saitou's attack from behind him.

He had forced the sword to break, but he had not expected the wolf to break the third shield. The plan had been for the black wolf to collide with the second or third shield, lose his balance, and be hit by Saitou's attack.

However, the wolf had broken even the third shield and his kick was about to reach Sekai.

But that was all. It was true he had noticed Saitou earlier than he should have, but there was nothing he could do while performing his savate rotation.

Or so Sekai thought.

"...Black!?"

A color charged his way from the left.

It was located at the end of the golden chain being swung by the spinning black wolf. Something flew in an arc from behind her. It was mostly black, but it had a green ball at the end of it.

"The Yagura Branch Trigger – Idōgetsu...!"

Beyond the wolf's swaying hair, Sekai saw Suzunari's Operator sipping at a teacup she had been handed from somewhere.

_...This is..._

There was no point in asking when they had set this up. Why had the wolf rushed straight in? Why had he used a heel kick that swung him around? Why had he used a feint that swung his body to the left and right? And why had he repeatedly kicked straight ahead, forcing Sekai to fall back?

It had all been to hide what was behind him and keep Sekai's eyes on him.

He had set this up, but he would not have used it had it not been necessary. But Saitou's appearance had made it necessary.

The giant wrecking ball flew in from the right as a chain hammer. It was on a direct course for Saitou in the air, so Sekai released his left arm's defensive position and thrust that palm into the air on his left.

"Shield...!"

.

Murakami pulled on his golden chain to accelerate. Idōgetsu swung forward and collided with the new Shield.

This one also had three layers, but the wrecking ball mode had plenty of speed and easily shattered all three solid barriers of light.

The shattering sound had the color of light. But that altered Idōgetsu's trajectory. The black and green wrecking ball-rod bounced and spun as it flew over Sekai's head.

Then Murakami looked to Sekai's face.

The fighter was smiling. His eyebrows were raised and he forced a smile while glaring at Murakami.

"Saitou...!"

He had chosen to take the kick Murakami was sending his way. He would protect Saitou and give him a chance to attack. That was what his smile meant. But...

_...Too bad!_

Murakami swung his arm and pulled back on the golden chain swinging Idōgetsu through the air.

"Forward!"

Murakami was hanging in the air while still in his savate stance. By pulling on the golden chain while airborne, he pulled his body forward rather than pulling Idōgetsu back.

So he used that.

He threw himself forward and toward Idōgetsu.

He slipped below Saitou's falling path and approached Sekai's chest. Idōgetsu passed between him and Saitou as he passed by overhead. All that remained was Sekai beyond the scattering trion light and Murakami as he made his kick.

Murakami accelerated his entire body while making his kick. But...

"...!?"

Sekai suddenly grew more distant.

All of a sudden, he was outside the reach of Murakami's kick.

It was obvious why: Saitou had changed his position in midair.

"We can't have that."

When he should have been passing by over Murakami's head, he forcibly stretched out. This extended his legs down where he kicked at Sekai's shoulders.

That allowed him to jump forward and it pushed Sekai away from Murakami's attack.

.

Murakami held Idōgetsu, now in its original rod form, in his arms as his attack missed and he landed. At about the same time, Sekai lowered his hips in a defensive stance and Saitou landed while gently lowering his own stance.

None of them questioned the series of events.

After all, they either looked back or looked up toward the dais containing Shin's chair.

"Hey, I'll be interrupting for a moment. That okay?"

Border's idiot stood in front of Shin.

He had arrived. Everything was in place for Border's representative to speak directly with Kurosaki's representative.

.

Sekai watched Saitou's shoulders tense beyond the black wolf.

"Saitou...why? Your whole body is crying!"

"Yes. I apologize, but to be honest, I am quite old. Even if a I can read several steps ahead..." Saitou smiled bitterly. "I am afraid to 'read' the coming future if Border is missing you."

Sekai saw the black wolf move after hearing that. He quickly moved Idōgetsu from his left hand to his right, faced the dais behind Sekai, and got lowered his stance.

Saitou also faced the dais and lowered his stance.

Sekai did not even need to see what was happening on the dais behind him.

_...Shin..._

When he did look back and to the top of the dais, he sensed danger.

Shin stood up as Border's representative arrived in front of his chair.

They faced each other from less than a meter away.

One was known as "Sekai's teammate" and the other was known as "CEO".

_...I hope he'll be okay._

Shin was a businessman who was not cut out to be a CEO.

.

In his heart, Shin was about to cry.

What was he supposed to do?

He had to speak with Border's representative with no one else nearby.

He did not want to. He wanted to run away and leave this place. If he did that, no one would call him here ever again and perhaps he would even lose his titles.

He felt more fear than pain.

... _Why?_

Why was it?

_...Why was I left in charge of such an important part of the city?_

Many people depended on him. Why had something so dangerous been left with a single person?

He knew the answer: his family and his ability. The trends at the time when he had inherited his titles were also a factor. But...

"Border's representative..."

What about the boy standing before him? His question suddenly escaped his lips.

"Why are you here...?"

Border's representative immediately answered that question he wanted answered.

"I'm not here." The boy smiled cheerfully. "This is just a point along the way. Right?"

He slapped Shin's shoulder. He showed no fear and put no real strength into it. The audible slap was the same kind exchanged between old friends.

"It's the same for you, right? You stood up instead of staying seated. There's somewhere you want to go, isn't there? If you can't go there, just tell me. I'll take on that responsibility too and stop by there. Where do you want to go? What do you want to do? What do you want to think? I don't know my own answers yet, but if you know yours, then tell me."

Also...

"Tell me what it is you like."

.

Shin was unsure whether or not he should say anything.

_...What I like...?_

He knew the answer was not fights, conflict between organizations, or some plotting. He had the power to alter other people's lives, but he was hesitant to wield that power.

But there was one thing he wanted to ask because he had that power.

"Do you not fear me...?"

He was a CEO known as a "tyrant". He was the embodiment of the power known as CEO. He had all the abilities of those who worked for him.

"Do you not fear the view of me you hold inside yourself...?"

"I've been fighting Neighbors for awhile, no one would let me die against them, so the same goes to you," the boy answered with a smile. "It's the same for you, right? There are times when things are just too much of a pain in the ass and you want to just give up, right? Right? Please tell me you have times like that. ...But, well, the people around you won't let you do that."

After all...

"If something is a real pain in the ass, that means it's a problem but also something you can't just ignore. So someone like you who really understands his own power would be the ideal person to handle it."

"...The ideal person!?"

Shin accidentally raised his voice. It was enough to reverberate through the hall and make everyone flinch. It was enough for even Saitou to look up toward him.

_...This is not good._

That roar had been fear and anger directed at himself.

He had wanted to run away from all this, but now this boy said he was the ideal person for it.

_...It almost sounds like he is trying to trick me into taking on the role..._

He was afraid he would have his escape route cut off by some clever words. And to avoid that...

"A mere fighters thinks he can judge a Kurosaki CEO's power...!?"

He felt the hall brighten. He emitted heat from his entire body as lights.

_...Yes._

_This should return everything to normal once again,_ thought Shin.

_He asked if I had something I wanted to do._

_But there is much I cannot do as a CEO and I quite like that._

_And I have my own restrictions. I have long been restricted by my path as "Kurosaki"._

"Border Representative..."

_I may have been able to join you if I had more courage, selfishness, optimism, callousness, or whatever else. But..._

"I am the CEO of Kurosaki...!"

"But you seem to like botanical gardens and zoos."

With a smile, the boy looked to the screen next to him. It displayed a Kurosaki site.

"What's wrong with using your power in little ways like this?"

.

Yuki felt like the hall had grown dark.

Except it had not. Kurosaki Shin's heat and light had settled down. The bluish-white light which had shot out like a hook instead gently surrounded him. Almost like...

"A saint's halo..."

Yuki nodded at Kuruma's comment.

_...Kind of playing it up, isn't he?_

He did not know. But ever since Murakami had begun his explosion of destruction, he had gathered all the latest Kurosaki information about Shin, arranged it so even the idiot could understand, and then sent it out.

The very latest information had been uploaded to the Kurosaki site they had been shown before the meeting.

The CEO had decided to add to the botanical garden and zoo as a form of welfare for the children.

It did seem very unlike someone known as "terrible", but...

 **Secretary:** "According to some record descriptions, the Kurosaki family was a terrible one who ran their business with an iron fist and regularly fired people they didn't beat to death an heir who earned their wrath and that brought a period of instability to their entire business. However, one of the latest members was devoutly religious, so he protected activities of any religion and made sure to pray to shrines constantly. In his later years, he repented for his entire family and apologized for all the lives they ruined. There are a lot of interpretations of that, but my love of romance leads me to one interpretation in particular."

That being...

 **Secretary:** He was quick to anger, but he repented and prayed...because he understood that his family was bad."

 **Shōgi Boy:** "That sounds like it'd drive you insane. ...He's in a frigid business that required a powerful state and he's aware he let his family get the better of him, but he continued on as CEO."

 **Secretary:** "He prayed to any god and repented in the hopes that the lives ruined by them would lead to the development of something great. ...Personally, I think that way of thinking is a lot like Shinto idea of purification. This might be naïve of me, but my romantic side asks who Kurosaki Shin really is. ...If he is not truly a boss, then he is a short-tempered but stubborn believer. He had to have prayed for the people while trying to figure out how to restrain his family and improve his surroundings."

.

"You say a lot of cool things, but you like to take a break for gardening and to look after the animals, don't you?"

Shin's heart pounded in his chest when the truth was suddenly presented to him like this. To secure his position here, he opened his mouth before his employees could.

"Do not be ridiculous...! That is standard welfare! I am merely displaying the CEO's kindness to earn the people's support...!"

"Nah, I bet you're always thinking, 'Oh, bunny! You're so cute, bunny~ Ah, don't" run away, fluffy bunny!'"

Border's representative made some gestures to match, but Shin could only respond in one way.

_...I do think that! I'm sorryyyyyyy!_

"Also." The boy acted like he could see something on the floor. "'Wow, the flowers are finally starting to bud! This bed is going to look amazing once they all bloom. But it would be a shame to thin them out, so I'll share some with the children.' ...You think that too, don't you?"

 _It's true,_ he thought just before hearing a voice from below the dais. It was Saitou. The man was low and bowing his head, so spoke loudly toward the floor.

"You dare make a mockery of a companies boss, Member of Border!?"

"That's not what I'm doing, you moron. I'm important to Sekai too, so I'm just chatting. If this counted as mocking, Border would be in some real trouble. Besides...this is gonna be the city standard in the future."

"Ho ho? In that case, I shall stop holding back when I speak."

"Wait, Yuka. You mean you were holding back before...?"

Border's representative briefly lost focus, but he soon took a breath and slapped Shin's shoulder again.

"This means that's your responsibility. You want to play in the garden and frolic with the animals, but it would hurt your reputation as a...see-eye-oh?"

Sekai quietly corrected him from below the dais with a sigh. It was clear that he was glad Jinsei was here, but chose to hide it.

"CEO. Get it right, idiot."

_Sekai let his true feeling show here!_

There had been a message earlier directed toward the fighter once the fighting had ended. Shin had taken the chance to look since it was not hidden in the slightest.

 **Red Sky:** "Hey Sekai-kun, thanks for sparring with my student! I did the paperwork, so you're fine!"

_Thank goodness. ...I was afraid Sekai would get in trouble for fighting a member of Border here. It looks like he has people looking out for him over there too._

It was good that his friend would not get in trouble.

Knowing that, he focused back on the boy in front of him.

"Yeah, that's what I meant. That. You do a lot of firing and stuff, right? And you pray to god, right? If that's keeping you from doing what you want, then...yeah, I'll go apologize with you. And once the whole CEO thing is gone, you can go mess around in the garden and raise a rabbit."

_...Utter nonsense..._

He would love more than anything to do that, but it was no longer possible.

"I cannot do that. ...I cannot escape the title of CEO."

"Huh? Why's that?"

"Right." Shin nodded. "Taiyōko."

.

Shin spoke.

"I am Kurosaki Shin. According to our records...the family beloved as soldiers of Japan were growing more impatient and attempted to create connections to approve of their ideas. To try and prevent them from attacking Border, we declared that we would support this new organization."

He sighed.

"They did not take too kindly to that and went against us like it always ended up. Still, for me personally, I wanted it all to just end so that everyone could be on the same side. Especially when I heard that they had just disowned their second oldest child and that had created a problem for me. When looking more into it, I realized that the incident that brought about that disownment had been due to interpretation. Do you understand?" Shin's eyes looked at Jinsei, but the question had been directed to Yuki down below. "Kaseki-san and Kesshō-san would not have ever let someone like their oldest son go, no matter how he acted. So they told me to leave it all to them. In our discussion, it was decided they would relax a little on their fight against Border while checking on that interpretation. That should have been all it was. But..."

But...

"When word reached me, it turned out the lives of both the mother and the father were gone."

.

Shin remembered it well.

He had received a report saying that both Taiyōko parents had almost their entire bodies smashed up.

All the people of Japan had been horrified and the blame had fallen on Neighbors.

They had brought guard with them yet those guard proved to be less than the ones who they were guarding. Most of them seemed to put up less of a fight than the two parents who were well known for their military might and personal ability.

_...But they were still humans..._

Even while they were together, Kaseki and Kesshō had effectively been alone. There had been a lot of lingering regret that would be brought up, but that was nothing more than replaying the past and no enough for other to speak about.

He did not know why they had died.

But he knew that his family had taken everything from them and left them all alone.

And it was more than just them. They had erased everything around them.

The day he had received that report was the day he had decided everything.

He had feigned illness in his bed, he had been unable to sleep, and he had simply thought.

_...I must become the boss._

He did not know why he had become the boss, but he had known then that he could not become the good boss he had wanted to be. So...

"I am...the bastard who took everything from that family."

"I see."

The boy nodded in front of him and then forcefully slapped his shoulder.

"That settles it then. Tell me when you've got some free time. ...Let's go to cemetery together and apologize. Yuki will even tag along with this knowledge."

.

"Why!?"

The businessman roared and the agent answered.

"Because we need your power."

"You need a bastard's power!?"

"You're really strong and cool, aren't you? So let's go sweep away the sad part of that. If you have to be a bastard, then you can only cry in your heart like when you adore the flowers or bunnies."

"—"

"Listen," the idiot said to the businessman. "If you've taken something from someone, we'll take it back for them. It's the same for everyone else. We'll take back everything that's been lost, that's gone away, or that's been forgotten. It might take a long time and it might not be in the same form it was originally..."

He smiled.

"But, well, we don't have that much power, I guess? Yeah, that's it. So lend us some power. What's wrong with being a bastard? Isn't that just a way to refer to the marital status of one's parents and shows your understanding of your own past. With you helping out, we can get things done way quicker!"

.

Shin was at a loss for words as he was slapped on the shoulder again and again.

_...This boy..._

He had cheerfully rejected and cheerfully accepted every part of Shin.

_...Will he actually trust in me?_

No matter how much he rejected Shin's power and desires, he would trust him.

He was willing to go with him. So Shin wanted to say something. But he could not form the words.

"..."

Border's representative gave an extra powerful slap of his shoulder. And...

"Return to your position, Border Representative...!"

Shin was unable to speak his heart, yet he had to hold down the raging feelings threatening to escape from his mouth.

"If you are willing to support my company to that extent, I am willing to hear you out. Let us discuss how you intend to include Kurosaki – and its future reduction of influence – in your information network...!"

* * *

"I too am interested in that." Yoshiko got up and spoke into her phone. "Let us hear it. ...Kobayashi will continue to support Border while Mogami leaves the stage with any grudges, but takes with her a good amount of knowledge. So how will you include Kobayashi in your information network? Depending on your answer, I might just declare it inadequate and turn against Border myself."

She glanced toward the Sniper and the Hatohara captain before lifting the corners of her mouth. She smoothly held her fan out forward.

"Can you see this?"

The festival was approaching its climax. The festival music primarily played by large drums, the in and out movements of the dancing circles of people, and the voices from the festival stands were all growing.

Yoshiko waved the fan to indicate it all, including the original site of the first invasion - the Forbidden Zone."

"How do you intend to treat all these people?"

Her question received an immediate answer.

 **Manager:** "I know exactly what we will do about Kurosaki's reduced influence and Mogami's loss of family. As well as Kobayashi's questioning view on Border."

Border HQ's representative stated her conclusion.

 **Manager:** "We will accurately go along with those outcomes. ...Obeying the laws on normality remains Border's standard policy."

* * *

"Then...!" shouted Saitou from the hall acting as Kurosaki's meeting room. "You intend to take everything from Kurosaki!?"

 **Manager:** "Tell me why you think that."

"The development of the world!"

Saitou swung his right hand to bring out a two meter screen. Instead of Mikado City, it displayed a map of the entire world.

"Border claims it will be taking its first trip to a Neighbor World! Even if the company over here loses its influence, Kurosaki should be able to run a business and into other countries when it seems fine enough! But if you begin developing based on something seen in the other world, we will be forced to abandon our stable lifestyles and instead follow your lead!"

 _That is their scheme,_ thought Saitou. _Everything could be divided up due to not knowing what is going on to give Border more control of everything. And this will also involve Mogami who is with Kobayashi._

"You will find a reason fo get more money or even territory to gradually take up an entire city's worth and increase Border's power! How can we assume anything else!?"

 **Manager:** "I agree that removing restraints that would hinder Border would help in the long run."

"So," said the Border HQ Representative.

 **Manager:** "I have a suggestion here. Kurosaki, Kobayashi, and Shiraishi...is there any chance you could bind even stronger bonds with Border?"

"Even stronger...?"

Saitou questioned that and the Border HQ Representative responded with the word "correct".

 **Manager:** "After a trip to the other side of the Gate, we will indeed find something interesting based on what we see coming over to our world. That path to something new and undiscovered which was used by nations before can apply here. But Border is a stationary organization and so cannot account for everything when leaving to a completely different world. So..."

After pausing for a breath, she continued with the next breath.

 **Manager:** "We will place Mogami, Shiraishi, and Kurosaki in charge of managing Border's general information. Kobayashi can then work based on that as well but be viewed as a more physical aspect with their ability to build."

* * *

Kimura stood on the nighttime bridge and viewed the city below.

"That money that will be sent to Border will not be misused and will not be a fixated keep variable amount that we come up with. You will have the same amount of freedom to give as much money as you wish. Your managed network, the extent of your privileges, the money given, and other detail will be set through discussions with Border after traveling to the Neighbor worlds, but let us treat your previous amounts as the standard for that."

 **Tonbo:** "And if we do not develop alongside Border...?"

"In that cases, any advancements you would have known about will be taken by others. ...Border can only make decisions for Mikado City, not the entire world. And if the others make progress in developing alongside us while you do not..."

Kimura took a breath.

"You will surly he stripped of your status as a business."

 **Tonbo:** "Oh...?"

_Don't let that surprise you. There's more to come._

"Listen. This will be implemented after traveling. Please understand that Border's influence will have grown considerably by then."

 **Tonbo:** "In other words, if we build our strength and rebel...we will be attacked by others?"

"If you do so at the time, yes. After all, Border will have more to them."

Kimura inhaled.

"But the entire world is another matter. So if you want to pick a fight with Border, do so from a larger standpoint. If such things will effect something on such a large scale, then we will respond appropriately. ...We will take you on whenever you want."

* * *

"I see..."

Saitou thought about the Border HQ Representative's proposition.

_...Could Kurosaki remain large enough to stand up?_

Currently, Kurosaki had stable domestic productivity, threat of Neighbors prevented them from using that productivity to the fullest. That was a standard problem for businesses near the Forbidden Zone.

What would happen if they could solve that all at once?

"Is it just me or does the phrase 'big success' seem really dirty since it sounds a lot like 'big suck-sex'!?"

_Be quiet, Sekai's idiot._

Regardless, Saitou thought this was a good opportunity to make a dramatic change in their business throughout Mikado City. They would never get another chance to fulfill their wants and needs together with the rest of the three businesses.

Of course, that change would require developing alongside everyone.

It would not bring total peace. And...

 **Kuro-Shi:** "Our constant funding would be based on discussions after your travel? ...That is an interesting idea."

Saitou mentally nodded at what Shin had realized.

 **Tonbo:** "Border is telling us to ignore the Taiyōko daughter and betrayal of Awdry and see their travel through with the greatest influence we can manage. ...And of course, that is not entirely dependent on competition. We must quickly produce what people need and what they want. If Shiraishi does the same and Kobayashi continues their building, we will end up with corespondent productivity. But that is another type of cooperation. The type named prosperity."

 **Kuro-Shi:** "Yes, that is nice. I like the sound of that."

Shin continued speaking.

 **Kuro-Shi:** "That is cooperation I could love. I could stand in the lead and the people could follow like they were making a pilgrimage. We could create what is needed, control the distribution, bring out new products, produce value, calm the anxiousness of people, and call in favors without worry."

And...

 **Kuro-Shi:** "Around that kind of great place I could see, we could plant flowers to show off Kurosaki's prosperity to the others."

"—"

Saitou gasped.

This was likely the first time he had heard this from the business leader they had lifted up as their CEO. No, it was definitely the first time that CEO had described the business he wanted instead of the business he felt others wanted.

It had taken until Kurosaki was losing its shape and beginning to change, but...

 **Tonbo:** "...We made it in time."

 **Kuro-Shi:** "Made what in time?"

Saitou could not immediately answer. Their job was to make this CEO even more boss-like in the future. That mindset had only just begun to set in, so Saitou did not want to carelessly alter it or prematurely fix it in place.

There was only one thing he had to say now.

 **Tonbo:** "Boss Kurosaki Shin...your employees, Committee Heads, and their families are here to support your desires."

 **WorTri:** "I will be taking my leave once more and for the last time once this is over. But... Sigh. I'll be supporting you guys too. But as a member of Border who looks out for you civilians instead of a lost idiot who can't even fight."

"Right," said Shin with a nod.

That settled it. There were still some problems left and they would have to solve them quickly, but this settled it.

Kurosaki had decided where it was going. After all, their CEO had seen the business he wanted. So there was no meaning for them to oppose their boss.

 **Tonbo:** "Council Heads, use every means available to find methods of securing as much influence as possible before Border travels. If any can be immediately implemented, submit them for approval."

Also.

 **Tonbo:** "We will make sure to give Sekai a big send off for all of his hard work for us. Remember that he is no longer someone who does everything he can to survive. He is now someone who does everything to make sure others can survive. His unneeded happiness will be our prosperity and happiness."

After a series of "yes" responses, a few of the Council Heads bowed and left the meeting room.

It had begun.

They had made their decision and gotten started. They could not step back or come to a stop anymore. But...

 **Still Young Girl:** "You seem to be having fun, Kurosaki. ...Is that Shin boy in the best mood he's been in for years?"

It was Mogami. Mogami Yoshiko. She laughed through the text of her transmission.

 **Still Young Girl:** "As an information network, the three businesses will manage Border's knowledge. As long as we contribute, we are effectively free to do whatever we wish and we will even receive initial damage support. Those are som enticing conditions. But..."

The vixen asked a question.

 **Still Young Girl:** "It's too bad. ...I already lost what's important. Kobayashi will be stuck in a cycle. Currently, nothing remains for us as a business and we will simply be used by Border, won't we? ...Did you really think I would agree to something that renders our efforts entirely meaningless?"


	82. Kobayashi

Minoru listened to Yoshiko's words and watched her face.

"Kurosaki might accept this. They can avoid losing their influence, after all. And Shin is still young for a business. But...Kobayashi is different."

All emotion had vanished from Yoshiko's face, but a tremor filled her voice.

"Shuryō and Sōichi are already gone. Bringing them back is not an option. Kobayashi's own money and material, continued contruction, and presence as a business that originated outside of Mikado City are all meaningless. After all, everything can be destroyed again. Border, you wish to create a new value and manage where Kobayashi can work? Isn't that just a nice way of describing restrictions?"

No, it isn't, thought Minoru.

Yoshiaki was trying to say Border was controlling Kobayashi by constructing the information network.

But Minoru felt that was inaccurate. He did not think it; he felt it.

Yoshiko was not talking about the Kobayashi family being beholden to someone else.

...You are just mad that you lost those two, aren't you?

Sōichi had used himself for the sake of Border and Shuryō left a message behind to them. In their desire for what they cared about to be safe, they had gone to every length as an example and they had both met the same fate of giving their lives.

They had eventually disappeared. And they knew they had done so before Yoshiko. It was their understanding of that which led Yoshiko to say this. She understood it all too well, but that pain was driving her to this.

"—"

Yes, thought Minoru.

I know some people who would probably think something similar.

They had used their fleeting lives. Sōichi and Shuryō had seen meaning in that and saved what they could, but things were different for those who were left behind. That was why they had been told to smile.

Yoshiko remained expressionless. She was always smiling, but she was hiding her expression now.

...That's the same as crying.

She only had tears of regret for the people who had found meaning in moving out ahead and being lost.

What about me? If I'm the same as Mogami-san when it comes to those people...

"...Mogami-san."

Minoru spoke without thinking.

The vixen turned to face him, but he felt no fear in his heart.

He was the same. He and this vixen held something similar inside. And...

...So that's it.

Minoru finally realized why he had been placed in charge of the Kobayashi negotiations.

No, he had already understood most of it. It had not been because a teammate was a part of that family. Kimura would have already seen through what they had planned. So...

"Mogami-san, as the captain of Hatohara Squad, I would like to make a proposal to both you and Border."

"...What might that be?"

Manager: "To us too?"

A separate chat opened up on the tablet Minoru held. Three names appeared at the same time.

2.7 Maime: "Sorry to put this kind of thing on you, Minoru."

?: "Futoyuki here. I apologize on behalf of the Wanderers as well for not being able to protect our own leader."

Shinoda: "I will leave this to you. Anything you do here, I will do the paperwork for later."

You guys were able to see things ahead of us, weren't you?

Minoru made no action to express how he felt. Instead, he continued to look at Yoshiko.

"Yes, that's right. I am making this proposal as a squad captain and A-Rank agent of the Shinoda Faction, not as a representative for Border."

The Sniper next to him and the gambler seemed to feel out of place and looked back and forth between Minoru and Yoshiko, but Minoru ignored them.

"Could we establish a joint relationship between Hatohara Squad and Kobayashi?"

"Hisoka-san..."

"..."

"O-oh, no, that's not what I meant at all. Um, I was just..."

"He just wants to know if you are fine with this conversation."

Inukai smiled at the interaction happening a bit away from him.

He currently sat in Hatohara Squad's operating room with some others. Besides his whole team, the rest of Hatohara Squad as well as Hogo Squad was there.

The entire time the meeting had been going on he could see Ninomiya tense up before being forced to relax by someone else. Teikō and Svantje had seemed to take up the position of forcing the older Shooter to relax in Minoru's stead.

Lukas, Hiyami and Maki had taken to quietly sitting there during the meeting. They were not holding back at all and showed their reactions to anything particular that came up.

But the last group had been what continued to gather everyone's attention.

"Minoru-senpai sure is giving this a lot of thought. ...To suggest that Hatohara Squad have a closer relationship with Kobayashi does take courage and trust, doesn't it?"

Inukai looked over to see Oshiro with worry coming off of him like sweat. His two friends nearby did not seem as distraught, but it was clear that they were also feeling anxious about this entire situation.

He wanted to go over and grab the boy before he started freaking out, but knew it was far better to leave him in the hands of Tsuji and Hisoka for the time being. This was not a time for him.

It was for someone else.

"...I don't really get it, but this seems to be more important than what he is saying."

"Hisoka-san, it has more to do with the fact he is speaking as a member of the Shinoda Faction and Hatohara Squad. Since he is using that to state his standing for the moment, he is giving a direct proposition from someone who holds a level of authority in Border."

Inukai raised an eyebrow and grinned at the comment.

It sounds like Tsuji gets it. But there is more to it than just that. Think about it some more and you will see it. Although... He looked over to see Ninomiya tensing up again and Lukas furrowing his brows. I guess some of the others understand it too.

The ones who understood what was really going on did not like it.

Inukai felt a knot start to form in his stomach when he thought about the meaning of Minoru's words here. The same knot most likely formed in the others as well.

After all...

Minoru is taking on the responsibility of people who can't speak for themselves now.

He let out a bitter laugh that quickly drew the attention of Oshiro.

Feeling bad for making the younger boy worry, Inukai waved with a smile. That did not seem to quell the boy's thoughts though as he stood up from the floor to walk over to him.

Oh no, I made Shiro-chan worry! I'm terrible!

As much as he worried about the boy, Inukai was more than well aware that he was quick to catch on to things and understood people rather well.

It had been due to this understanding that he managed to befriend both Tsuji and Hisoka as well as he did. It could also have been that same understanding that he had been hurt by others before.

But if not for those incidents happening he would have likely not gotten to know him at all.

That kind of thought made Inukai feel even worse than he already did.

So once the boy was standing in front of him, Inukai increased the power of his smile while speaking up.

"Sorry about that, Shiro-chan. I was just thinking of something unpleasant."

"Haru-san..."

He shook his head and lowered his eyebrows.

"Sumiharu."

A pulse ran through Inukai's entire body at hearing his name being said by the boy.

From the floor up ahead he could hear comments from the other two who were sitting there while the eyes of others moved to them.

"Oh? He must be mad."

"The opposite. He is showing that he cares for Inukai-senpai by not letting him escape this. If anything, he is showing that he cares for both Inukai-senpai and Minoru-senpai."

If you know that, please stop talking, Tsuji-chan! Shiro-chan is showing his sexy side to me right now!

He wanted nothing more than to grab the boy in front of him and squeeze him with all his might.

He instead held back to smile up at Oshiro.

"Yes, Oshiro?"

The boy tensed up for a moment.

Oh? I can use that later.

But now was not the time for such thoughts.

"Sumiharu-"

Another pulse.

"You are thinking too hard. That also goes for Ninomiya-san and Wagner-san. ...At least that's what I see."

"Hogo, you understand our standings with Minoru, so be careful about what you say. Even if you are with Inukai, we will not be taking your words lightly."

"I am aware of that, Ninomiya-san. And I realize that I should not be speaking up about Minoru-senpai when you all surely know him far better than I do."

Shiro...

"But..."

But.

"It may be because I know less about him that I can tell you are thinking too much about the meaning of his words. I... I am not experienced like Kawa-chan at these kind of things. I also don't know Minoru-senpai as well as you do. But I do know what his kindness looks like. Right, Svantje-san?"

The girl trying to get Ninomiya to relax a bit smiled in their direction after having her name being called out.

Inukai was well aware of how great of a detective the girl was from seeing it firsthand as well as hearing about it on multiple occasions. For Oshiro to call out to her means that there was someone else who knew what his standpoint was.

That seemed to be just it from her smile.

Discussions and meeting like these could also be a form of mystery that needed to be solved. Picking apart the meanings and interpretation of people's words and actions was no different from finding clues or gather information.

This is something she has probably been focused on from the start.

"I can vouch for Shishi. You guys are viewing this as people who know so much instead of people who know enough."

The sunshine girl let out a small laugh that was shared with Oshiro's smile.

If not for the current thought if what she meant going through his head, Inukai would have savored the scene by taking multiple pictures.

For the moment he had to think about what he was being told.

The look he was getting from the floor showed that his previous thought had also been wrong.

So Tsuji also saw it the same way they did instead of how we see it. That's why he chose to say it that way. In that case...

They would need to be the ones to continue focusing on the meeting and think about it less than the others.

At first, Yoshiko did not understand what she had been told.

Her thoughts were currently on Sōichi, Shuryō, and Kobayashi's future. And the discussion should have led to what would happen if Kobayashi joined their proposed information network.

And yet...

"A joint relationship...between Hatohara Squad and Kobayashi...?"

"I will say 'correct' for the moment. I am not talking about anything official; this would be purely functional in nature. And beyond just Kobayashi, I would also like for you - Mogami Yoshiko - to take a look Border... At Hatohara Squad as a fighting force. And I would like to learn from Mogami Yoshiko's actions."

Meaning...

"Hatohara Squad would take responsibility for any Kobayashi loss of life."

Ridiculous, thought Yoshiko. Because...

...I don't understand.

"Aren't you just trying to make it up to us now that we have lost people?"

She knew Minoru was not that shrewd, but someone could have put him up to it. So Yoshiko made sure to be as suspicious as possible.

"Mogami Yoshiko has already lose so much. What could you learn from my actions?"

"Border has dealt with similar situations. And just like Mogami-san, we have lost important people." Minoru spoke quietly. "I have lost parts of my family, gone through human hardships, and continue to struggle. ...But that is fine."

"Then do you regret that?"

Yoshiko moved on reflex and Denji drew Kōgetsu.

...You say that is fine, do you!?

If that was true, Kōgetsu would cut nothing. But if that was a lie or simple sweet words meant to earn sympathy...

"You will lose it all, Minoru!"

In the very instant he drew the sword, Denji cut Minoru in Yoshiko's stead.

The blade cut what it attacked. It cut anything using trion or inanimate objects, but could not cut a flesh and blood body.

Border had stated that their weaponry would not destroy a human.

.

Hiura opened her eyes after squeezing them shut.

When Denji had sent out his slash for Yoshiko, Hiura had been unable to even protect her face. That was half due to her proximity and half due to the speed of the strike.

But there was not even a scratch on her hat.

"Um..."

Hiura touched her own body while looking at Denji who had swung Kōgetsu in a horizontal line.

...Head: check. Stomach: check. Hips: check. Chest: ...Oh, wait. I never compared to Kumagai-senpai, did I?

She groaned as she checked over her body, but she found not even a hair on her head had been harmed. And...

"Minoru-senpai..."

Minoru simply stood there. The distant festival music washed over his back as he stared at Denji who had swung Kōgetsu at him, then Yoshiko who had reflexively order the swing.

"Mogami-san, you are mistaken about something."

"And what is that?"

"Border and I will not back down when faced with danger when we know there are people to protect. Even as inexperienced as I am, they allow me to continue fighting for them even as I struggle. ...They are the ones who set a standard to how we would fight against Neighbors and protect people. They know what hard they can do with these kinds of weapons. They are more than just a group of people who face a single directions and - even if they face some setbacks - fight the unease while never giving up on looking out for others."

And...

"That in and of itself is important to me because I feel the need to stand alongside them as one of their agents."

.

Demon Child: "Sounds like a group of foolhardy people who are one wrong step away from wondering why they want anything to do with each other!"

TetsuG: "What are you talking about? I know exactly what I gain from these relationships. We can't forget about that."

Kuni: "Gain!? I'm pretty sure I lose a lot more than I gain!"

.

Those people, sighed Minoru when he saw the ruckus on his tablet screen, but he was somehow relieved to see that lively activity.

It had indeed been nice to have that noise drawing his focus after he had lost something.

Then he saw Denji returning Kōgetsu to its scabbard after Yoshiko glanced his way. The woman smiled bitterly.

"So rather than true protectors, you see them as people you hope will someday hold that position. ...That is why you remained unguarded and do not even come here in a trion body."

"Yes," replied Minoru. "Please think of what I said as a suggestion. After all, I intended to volunteer for that away trip to the Neighbor world as well to find what others have lost."

He indicated the Trigger in his pocket and Yoshiko's bitter smile grew. She then looked at Minoru.

"In that case, we might indeed need a joint relationship." She relaxed her shoulders. "But... Denji, bring the sniper some sweet juice."

"Right away."

The gambler moved through the air while expressing his joy over receiving instructions from his employer. And Yoshiko asked a question as she watched him leave.

"Why did you choose me?"

"I would like to borrow the ability that brought Mogami Yoshiko this far. And j would like to learn from it."

"Why? Once you take back what was lost, Mikado City will be more at peace with Border's protection. ...It would be best to find a teacher within Border. Why aren't you doing that?"

"Right." Minoru nodded. "To be blunt, I can hardly tell what they're going to do."

.

Demon Child: "Wow, who here would stoop to plotting behind people's backs?"

Zoe: "Evil must not go unpunished! Especially in the city, land of the tangerines!"

Mad Hatter: "Um, sorry, but could you not say things that make me want to comment out loud..."

.

He had given them material to work with. I need to be more careful, thought Minoru.

"I would like to have Border make a quick recovery if something happens again. As I said before, Border members have also lose people important to them."

He knew that perfectly well. In the time he had been a part of Border, he had spoken to multiple people who expressed their sorrow at loss and their anger at Neighbors.

"Before that happens again, I would like to help people recover to ensure the happiness of the people gathered there and to benefit the future. So I abandoned the pretense that everything will be resolved quickly. I want to make sure Border can recover quickly to show everyone that we can make a comeback at any time."

"Then let me ask you this, Hatohara Captain. What do you intend to do after that?"

"Well," said Minoru. "Even after Border brings back the lost ones, we will remain in Mikado City. For example, many of our members only know lifestyles her on Earth. Yes, on a world where we get attacked by Neighbors. Do you understand what that means?" he asked. "Border is no longer a small organization. It will not disappear so quickly. So we have long discussed at our base how to keep going as long as possible. And I make my suggestion as a modification of that plan. I will establish a join relationship with Kobayashi - with Mogami Yoshiko - and you teach us your way of moving far beyond the loss that cannot be taken back. I will watch you as you help Border and I will learn from it, but you can also watch me and..."

He hesitated, but he said it.

"If I become a suitable person in your eyes, then please continue your support of Border based on my actions."

"—"

"You understand, don't you?"

Mogami Yoshiko's actions would lead to a certain thing...

"That would lead to a creation of a different type of family, wouldn't it? ...That would be the perfect solution for people who have lost others."

So that is what Hogo was talking about.

Ninomiya relaxed his tense shoulders as he watched the meeting continue on.

He had done as he was told by thinking less about what he personally knew about Minoru and instead what everyone generally knew about him. From there he connected his personal knowledge with that and came to the same conclusion that Minoru had just stated.

A different type of family.

In this case the term "family" was used to refer to a gathering of people who had something in common and could stick together due to that.

This is not a way for him to say that he is giving up on his foolish sister but is instead building up something she can come back to when she is found.

"That really is like him."

He looked over to see Inukai smiling down at his screen with Oshiro looking up at him. Their eyes connected and Ninomiya felt like he should apologize to the boy, but that seemed like it would hurt the boy's ego.

Oshiro had smiled in his direction. It was not an arrogant smile that showed he was right, rather it was a smile that showed he was glad that he was not wrong.

"Inukai, you chose a good partner."

"I did, didn't I? Heh heh heh. Oh, but your partner is also something else, Ninomiya-san." Inukai also looked to him now. "But I wonder if I can be a part of that too? I really haven't lost too much, so they have me best there."

"Haru-san-"

"Aw~ C'mon, Shiro-chan! Call me by my name again! That made me feel so good!"

Ninomiya felt the need to throw something at the boy for his choice of words, but he held back due to how it would seem to the others.

Instead, Oshiro filled the space with a rare sigh and a common smile as he sat next to Inukai.

"Right. Sumiharu."

He gave in, huh.

"I think Minoru-senpai would find no reason to leave you out. Besides, even if you have not lost too much, you helped me gain something back. That kind of thing is exactly what he is talking about. If you are not there, I am sure he would feel more lonely, even with others around."

"Is that how you feel, Oshiro?"

Ninomiya felt the edge of his lips quirk up when the color of Oshiro's face went from its usual pale to a burning red. The words and sounds that came from him after that were all incoherent, but they all seemed to understand it well enough.

Allowing the two to get back to their lovey-dovey routine, Ninomiya turned his attention back to the meeting.

With a better understanding of what was going on, he felt like Kimura had made a good choice in having Minoru go for Border.

Even so, the image of a grinning fox came to mind.

That faker had nothing to do with this. He was busy dealing with his name issues. Yeah, it was Kimura. Kimura and Minoru made this happen. That fox had nothing to do with this at all, whatsoever.

Letting out his own sigh, he realized that he was starting to miss Minoru.

Even though the meetings would conclude by the end of the night, he still wanted to go to the younger boy and tell him that he had done a good job. The meeting was not over, yet he felt like do such things as soon as possible.

"Oshiro! Oshiro! Oshiro! My great, strong castle! Please correct and scold me whenever I mess up!"

"S-S-Sumi-... Haru-san! Please l-let go, Haru-san!"

"Eeeeeehhhhh!? Don't go back to that! You'll make me cry, Oshiro!"

"Heh heh heh. Hey, hey, anyone else want to be like that? Oh, but I guess Shinno wouldn't have anyone here to go to since Soka and Aki are the only girls he can be around! Don't worry! I'm sure you can find someone, someday!"

Was he starting to act like that with Minoru?

The thought made him shudder violently.

He quickly reminded himself that anyone in the "eighteen years old" category was prone to have some issues or start scratching at someone else. Even the more sane looking ones like Kimura, Suzaku and Arafune held nothing back when it came to fighting each other.

I should really make sure that Minoru is okay after dealing with them...

You fool, thought Yoshiko.

She had never expected the word of that kind of relationship to come up here.

...He really is a fool.

Yoshiko knew that Kobayashi's daughter, Kobayashi Hisoka, had been out in Hatohara Squad.

And due to the lifestyle and possibilities of business, Hisoka did not want to be involved and take over for her parents as heir and so continued to be a part of Border.

The things she had said showed they had gotten along well after she had joined. And after the Kobayashi parents had learned that their daughter was doing well, they gladly welcomed the members of that Border squad.

That series of events was why Yoshiko had held off speaking up until now. She had felt like she should not betray the kind people who hired her or their children, but she did not realize just how close that true family was to these Border people.

"Do you know who the kind people were who brought some happiness back between Bakuto Denji and me?"

"Denji...? You mean Kobayashi did that, don't you?"

When the boy answered with a bitter smile, Yoshiko could only say, "Correct."

Minoru now knew a bit more about her and Denji yet he still wished for this. If he did get this, he intended to handle it with everyone else.

...Yes...

Yoshiko had considered it before. What would she have done if she built up another family and it had been taken away again?

There was only one answer: she would have done whatever it took to protect them. So...

"If I do consider you worthy, I could indeed view things in that kind of relationship."

"Then..."

Yoshiko continued with a bitter smile.

"No. ...That's right, Minoru. And Border HQ Representative. I will not go along with your proposal. After all, that trail to the other world is still in view. There are still too many uncertainties about the future of the world. So Kobayashi will..."

This was her answer.

"Kobayashi will...put off this decision and do as we wish until you return safely."

Kimura breathed in and then out.

"You have my thanks...Mogami Yoshiko."

Kobayashi's decision was essentially the same as accepting their proposal. She was holding off on answering because nothing would be clear until after their next away mission. So Kobayashi would...

Still Young Girl: "We will do as we wish. Yes, we will aim for expanding our influence just like Kurosaki. And...Hatohara Captain, you do as you wish as well. If you wish to take me as your teacher and model yourself after me, then aim for a resolute relationship if you like. That future is also a possibility."

But...

Still Young Girl: "Not today."

However...

Still Young Girl: "When I wish to look even further into the future, I will remember this information network and Hatohara Captain's request. And that may be the kind of future they wanted..."

Those words reminded Kimura of her mother.

She recalled her past before Mikado City.

...That's right.

Her mother had always cooked for her, did the laundry, and did other housework without saying anything about it. She had stayed by Kimura's side when she had a cold, she had worried about Kimura's father, and she had stayed by his side as well.

How much time had she spent with her mother? And how much of her mother's time had been spent on her?

Whether that was good or bad was not a question she could answer, but...

"Mogami-san."

She had something to say.

"Border can promise you one thing about the coming mission through the Gate. ...If we are within reach of someone, we will take them back. We will not allow anyone to be lost. That is Border's policy and what we swore at that conference. So..."

So...

Shinoda: "Kimura-kun, you are fine. Your words are telling them what we could not say at the time."

That made her feel better, but she pushed that down to remain professional.

"I don't know what will happen, but you can wait and see how well we do before making your decision."

Still Young Girl: "You're raising my expectations too high. But..."

Yoshiko paused for about three breaths.

Still Young Girl: "I will at least remember your consideration."

They had their answer from Kobayashi.

In the meeting hall, Yuki saw Kimura's "right" on the tablet he shared with Kuruma.

As the HQ Representative and leader of the discussion, Kimura's acknowledgement indicated the end of that topic. Which meant...

...Kurosaki and Mogami have both decided to expand their influence. In Mogami's case it is to leave something with Kobayashi for when she leave with all those grudges.

Their actions were correct in terms of the general thought process. But there was a difference from before.

"They intend to do so without worrying what others think..."

Kurosaki and Mogami would both "expand their influence" in accordance with how business worked. But they would not worry about his older sister or warning even though she was making her way around Mikado City."

Both companies would set their sights on Border establishing their own great influence after their away mission and on the future information network.

They were not cooperating in any obvious way in the present, but Border knew that the two companies would not fear Kushikage and would ultimately fall in line with Border.

It was a pseudo-cooperation that looked to the future.

There were of course plenty of problems and one of those was especially large.

"The fight against future invasions."

Kurosaki was in the process of discussing that.

The Border group had been given chairs and waiters had lined up tea and snacks on a side table. When they looked around, they saw the Committee Heads, Saitou, Sekai, and even Shin standing in a circle and holding a quick meeting.

Yuki could read their lips to grasp some of what they were saying.

...Invasions.

Kurosaki would no longer focus on Kushikage and would continue on to the away mission while expanding their influence and settling things through discussions as they had before. But that implied continued backing of Border even when another invasion was always possible from Neighbors.

Neighbors were a powerful force. They had technology that Earth did not, they had large armies of trion soldiers, they had Black Triggers, and they were served by many skilled fighters.

Currently, any of them could hold a large army in their hands.

That was who Kurosaki and Mogami would be seeing attack their city.

That could only be called reckless, but they had a reason for doing so.

"They're going to use their money as a shield, aren't they? This continued sponsorship means the more money they give, the better our own weaponry will be. Using everything we said, they can claim to have aided in defense."

"Yuki, will that really be fine enough with everyone else?"

"It has to be. But as things are, they will use the greatest interpretations they can manage."

Yuki stuck out his tongue for a moment whole grimacing.

"That word is now leaving a bad taste in my mouth... I hate to think it's because I am actually starting to forgive those assholes."

"Your forgiveness is not that cheap, I know firsthand. That bad taste is probably because that word was used against someone who relies on things like interpretations to get through life."

This time Yuki clicked his tongue as he showed Kuruma a screen. It displayed a map of Mikado City in its entirety. Kong arrows started in the center of the city and extended to the west, north, and east. A few smaller arrows appeared as if to fill in the gaps.

"These are the best routes the companies can take. They extend nearly to the next cities, but they would still need time. ...Pushing back an invasion is possible, we proved that. Holding back an invasion is tricky, but manageable. Stalling an invasion so that other can escape without losing someone would take our full usage of equipment, meaning we would show off more than we would like."

The idiot turned Yuki's way while he, Murakami, and Kon ate a castella with a layer of adzuki beans.

"But aren't things going pretty bad for Animal Guy and Aftokrator?"

"If they are used as the basis for this, it is likely we would have time to prepare for any sort of invasion. Granted, that's if we start with our full usage by having Jin and Mei synch up."

Yuki zoomed in separately on some of the outer regions.

"For example, getting the lead in even a few areas means that we can focus more on the others who are less prepared."

"Then why don't we just start by creating more open paths?"

"Because that takes more than we have or are given at the moment."

.

"Listen," said Yuki to the idiot. "Let us say, Jinsei, that we tried something like that right now with minimal resources."

"Yes, what happens then, Kiyoshi?"

...Why does that piss me off so much!?

Then the idiot turned toward Kuruma and he smiled toward Yuki.

"What happens then, Kiyoshi?"

...Why does that warm my heart so much!?

"Jinsei, I have the heart of a saint right now, so it would take a lot to get under my skin. Give it your best shot."

"Oh, that's good to hear. To make sure Sekai didn't find out about the porn games I bought, I had them sent to your shored house with Mei and Shiro-chan in your name, so can you hold onto those for me?"

"You are the worst! People might consider those things, but no one ever actually does them!"

Yuki took a breath

"Anyway, if we try something without the proper amount of material or backing, it would at least give others a justification to say that we are stepping over the bounds. Extending our reach isn't worth exposing ourselves to retaliation like we have seen here, right? It is the same for everyone else. They cannot force things through too much."

Yuki took another breath.

"Also, everyone must be very careful about their own bounds. After all, it is about time they must face a turning point. ...And no turning point is greater than deciding how to have a city remain functioning. But for now, let us focus on something else."

After all...

"This three business meeting isn't over."

Manager: "Tenryū-san and Ikoma-san, we're counting on you."


	83. Shiraishi: Part 2

The first thing Pyrínas noticed when "activating" for the day was that his supply of trion had increased.

Due to the way the Pyrínas System had been created, it was possible for any model that had been created through that system to take trion from another source and add it to their own, expanding it indefinitely. That trion could also be circulated through the system and build up over time as a way of "extended use and trion expansion".

As a model built by that same system, he had been able to do that as well when he had been known as simply Rhinoceros Beetle 07. Now that he had his own ego and existed outside of the domain of the Pyrínas System, he could no longer cycle through that large amount of gather trion.

He twisted his arm a few times before confirming that his partial destruction the night before was now gone due to a self-recovery method of using his personal gathered trion to reform the lost parts.

_...We were unsure when I had left the Pyrínas System, but this has confirmed it._

He did another check by rotating his neck.

_...I retained the ability to cycle through the trion and increase my capacity. ...Although I seem to have a slower rate of doing so and required Futoyuki to assist me last night with started the cycle back up._

_...Now then, let us try something else._

Lifting his arm, Pyrínas noticed something strange.

His arm began morphing starting from the fingertips. Each part of it began splitting and twisting alas if trying to reform. Once it began to twist and shift, it felt like much more was needed to morph it into something other than an arm.

Feeling what could only be described as "pain" for a Trion Soldier, Pyrínas ceased his action and formed the ends of his hand back to how they had been before.

_...So that is how it is._

He could not use his Self Modification at the moment.

_...Let us try it a different way._

Feeling around his body for his cycling trion supply, he forcibly shut off the cycling system. A feeling of "flatness" quickly replaced it while his body felt as if it became lighter.

Lifting his arm back up, he bagan the metamorphosis once more.

Unlike the time before, his entire arm, wrist and hand had started to twist and shift. It began with the fingertips once more, but this time they were quick to twist and reform with his palm quickly doing the same. His wrist followed as the third section and it ended with his arm up to his elbow.

He nodded at the achievement before beginning the modification once more. His entire arm starting from the elbow began twisting and shifting back into the shape of a human hand.

"...So by shutting off the cycle I am able to use my Self Modification quickly. ...It is not as fast as when I was Rhinoceros Beetle 07, but I will not be complaining about that. ...I much prefer lifting those children on my shoulder than between my wings."

"Well that sounds nice. Why don't you every treat me like that? I helped to create the Pyrínas System after all."

There had been no reason to be startled by the voice that came from behind. Even the arms that wrapped around his neck did not seem to bother the Autonomous Trion Soldier as he continued to sit there.

"...That would be because it would seem strange if a 'person' like me were to carry you on my shoulders."

Pyrínas chose not to turn his head so that he could not see Futoyuki start pouting.

He had quickly learned what was generally acceptable in this society after finding out about the Internet from the Yagura Branch director. It was reassuring to know that he would be able to get information quickly and efficiently.

"Fine, fine. But is there a reason you were speaking out loud like that? 'You' usually keep thoughts to 'yourself', so it's a bit weird to hear you think out loud."

Futoyuki had already started moving when the words came from his mouth.

Since coming to the building, Pyrínas had noticed that the boy had quickly found a spot in the building that he very much enjoyed. That had been the sofa that currently sat across from him.

"...I was thinking out loud because I knew you were there. ...I thought you would like to know my finding before I go out."

"Oh? And where are you going? Akasora-sensei didn't say we are free to go yet."

"...Actually, he has told me that I am fine to leave whenever I like. ...With that acknowledgment I thought I should be leaving soon so that I can get ready for what is to come."

"And what is that?"

"...I would like a rematch with Satellite. ...No... ...At this point it is beyond Satellite and is at Ultimate."

"You know, I was kinda sad when it skipped over Revolution after Blaze and went right to Satellite."

"...That just shows how it views the situation."

Futoyuki responded with a "that's right" while nodding toward Pyrínas.

"So? Is that the only reason? Has your ego decided that it wants this rematch because the last match didn't go so well?"

"..."

Could that have really been the reason?

Pyrínas knew that he was rather "young" by any standard, having only been "born" two days prior. That would not have given him enough time to determine what his actions meant to himself.

If he were to ask someone else, what would they say?

Would they say what Futoyuki had or would they say something else?

Would those children find a completely different answer like they had when they had saved him?

All of this was not something he was accustomed to as the newly made "Pyrínas".

Even so...

"...I do know something."

"And what would that be?"

"...I wish to help Border. ...I also wish to fight something that the original leader had made himself. ...And lastly, I wish..."

An image of three smiling faces flashed in his head. The drawing left on his core felt very much tangible to him.

"...I wish to impress this children so that I can continue to stay with them."

Futoyuki responded by chuckling.

He stood up and moved over to Pyrínas while still chuckling.

From what he and learned, this kind of chuckling was different from laughing at his wishes. This was a noise that was meant to say that he was hopeless, but that it was a good thing.

"Fine. If that's what _you wish_ , I'll support you in that. After all, you're like my own child."

But he had been made by a system that had been created by three people.

"I can see it on your face. What I mean by that is that you gained an ego because of my choice to come here. You decided to stay here on Miden with me, even if it was for those children. And..."

Pyrínas knew what he was meant.

"You are the one I allowed to keep the name 'Pyrínas' without the 'System'. So I'll always support my own 'child' like that Mogami wanted to support her child..."

A smile that meant he was cherished.

* * *

Shobu faced someone.

They were five meters apart and the other person wore a dress over her arms and legs.

"...Chisato...-sama..."

"What is it, Border Representative?"

 _...Good..._ thought Shobu. ... _She let me use her name... ..My 'willpower' can...get through..._ But...

"...Can you...still not side with...Border...?"

"Right. That's a good question. To be honest, I didn't expect for you to solve our impossible problem like that. ...Who would have thought you could paint a picture of our future without relying on your recent victory?"

"That's right," said Musashi while moving to the right end of the hall. "That had nothing to do with using Border's recent victory to accomplish something. You showed us an image of the future and had us decide what we would do and what we wanted to do. I'm jealous. That style of negotiation is only possible for an organization who can let in the externally wrong."

Musashi laughed quietly by the wall.

"Of course, if Border is going to be the victor, you'll have to show us something at least that nice if we're to negotiate. I think you did an excellent job. And your nudist was serious about that, which is what makes him so damned hard to deal with. Only an idiot could be so confident you'll win just because you have the ability to fight back."

"...Is that...a compliment...?"

_...Don't let...your 'willpower' down...Shoku-... Shobu!_

Shobu tilted his head and Musashi nodded.

"It is. I'm certain now that Border will attempt to take the path of a great defender. Instead of just following everyone else down the path they're taking, you intend to catch up to and overtake them."

"But you can't do that now," said Chisato. "You understand why, don't you?"

Shobu nodded.

He did understand why Border could not pursue outside at the moment.

_...Now I use...'knowledge'..._

"Ruri..-san...?"

Ruri's head hung down as she sat in the throne-like chair at the far end of the hall. She was limp, unmoving, and almost seemed to be sleeping, but she was not.

There was a line of electricity above and behind her.

It was the Falcon's exit.

With a pulsing tempo, the electricity and thickness of air flowed out. It gradually grew and Chisato opened her mouth as the moving air washed over her back.

"Let me be honest: looking at our own way of thinking, the Shiraishi family cannot survive without Border. ...No, to be more accurate, perhaps I should say we cannot achieve our greatest victory without Border."

"Then...!"

"Please understand. ...The closer the relationship, the more important the initial construction of that relationship becomes. We can't have Border looking down on us from the beginning. We must be on equal footing so we can walk together. So please understand. ...Shiraishi does not want sympathy, privilege, fame, or stability. As the people of this world, a world of resistance and the home of many historic warriors, the Shiraishi family wishes to stand side by side with Mikado City's protectors. That is all we need to be satisfied."

Chisato smiled bitterly and turned away from Shobu.

"But that doesn't look possible. You are sure to move out ahead of us and overtake everyone else."

The pressure grew behind her.

_...Chisato-sama...is a pink color... ...A color of 'emotions'..._

"The people who were with Shuryō came and went. Since he cared for this world's people yet had those other ones, the Falcon's bonds to them will be removed and it will arrive here. And it will likely be in a different form. As long as the Falcon is here, Shiraishi can't negotiate properly."

"...You really...can't...?"

"No, we can't," confirmed Chisato. "Unfortunately, Shiraishi currently lacks the definite fighting force needed to defeat the Falcon. At best, we can endure its attack and then fade away due to only having one form of defense. So let me be very clear: leave this place at once. And hurry back to the Border. Return so you can tell them that Shiraishi can't go with Border and so they can find these remains."

Once she said that, the air swelled out behind Chisato and something appeared as if rising up on its own.

"...Ort...lin...de..."

"Now go. ...I don't want you to see us fail. When you can accomplish this."

Chisato was saying they could not stop the Falcon and that Shiraishi could not go with Border.

And Shobu did not like the sound of that. So...

 **Shobu:** "Yuki-san...!"

 **Life:** "Eh? You need something?"

 **White Fox:** "Yes, I do! Don't answer for someone else! Oh, you go ahead, Shobu!"

 **Shobu:** "...R-right! ...U-um...right now...Sh-Shiraishi...not looking good...um...!"

Shobu gave a shout.

 **Shobu:** "...We can't let it...end like this...!"

 **Life:** "Okay, okay. Hey, Iko, you need to finish up the cute girl character's route, right? You have my permission, so go a little nuts there."

 _...Eh...?_ thought Shobu as he turned around. There was a wall there. A wall unshaken by the falcon's wind.

It was Ikoma.

He slowly walked forward while raising one of his forearms. He patted him on the back and then took another step forward, but...

"He may be an idiot, but I have our boss's permission. I wanted to avoid doin' this 'cuz a bodyguard isn't s'pposed to step out front and solve all the problems, but Shobu, whattda you say as the local commander? Explain the situation to me."

"...R-right... Of course," said Shobu. "...Can you...persuade them?"

"Hm. Unlike Kimira, I'm a pacifist, so I might just be able to do that."

 **Manager:** "I didn't start a fight earlier, did I!? Weren't you watching!? And since when the hell were you a pacifist, Mr. Always-looking-for-a-solo-match!?"

 **Demon Child:** "But wasn't it your suggestion that started the 'spar' with Hikigane and Murakami?"

Perhaps so, but Ikoma scratched his head. And...

"Now, then."

He faced Chisato and he spoke.

"You're very pathetic, Shiraishi Chisato. What happened to the willpower I saw the other day?"

.

Chisato stood in front of the Attacker and felt the falcon's wind spilling out behind her.

The Falcom had yet to come out, but there was effectively nothing she could do.

The Falcon had been worn down. It would not yet have recovered from the damage it took the night before. But...

_...It's no use._

The Falcom would go all out in order to recover and to protect Ruri with its wounded body.

All of this information had come from someone who had a connection with Border and fought the day before yesterday.

"Incredible, isn't it?"

The trion light and electricity escaping the Gate were far greater than the night before. The gentle start was all the proof Chisato needed. The Falcon likely knew that it would harm Ruri if it appeared all at once.

But Chisato understood. After her few encounters with the Falcom, she understood all too well. Even with Ortlinde, stopping this version of the Falcon would be difficult.

The armor on its throat had been shattered. It had retreated like that last night, so there was only one way to fully stop the Falcon.

_...Use that opening to stab deep into its throat and to its cores._

Even with a large weapon, accomplishing that in the midst of battle would be impossible.

The only upside was that it would come down to a single blow instead of a protracted exchange of blows. Shiraishi's plan was for her to pierce its throat with Ortlinde.

_...But it won't work._

Its power was greater than the night before. Once it appeared, even approaching would be difficult. It was even possible the interference would cause Ortlinde and her body to break apart. So...

"Pathetic, hm? You don't hold back, do you?"

She wanted to tell him he did not understand her. But that would only be a complaint. She was the third daughter trained in combat and the last person they could afford to have break. So...

"I am not pathetic. I am merely being pessimistic. ...I will do what I can."

"The wind's blowin' up your skirt."

"I'm used to it."

"Are you sayin' you feel no embarrassment?"

"I'm used to putting up with it."

"There you go."

"Don't pray toward it."

"Heh. You've gotten a lot stronger in this short time..."

"Try to remember who it was who grabbed my breast."

Once she said that, a sudden smile came to Chisato's face. It surprised even her. After all...

_...I won't have to deal with this stupid attacker anymore._

She did not hide it.

Their exchanges involved ridiculous things that would never happen normally. She could never predict what would happen, the concept of hierarchy seemed to vanish, and his silly responses contained no unneeded concern. Most important of all, he was about as powerful as her and would clash with her without hesitation. No one within the established order of the White Rock would do that, so the presence of someone like that...

_...That's right._

It made her happy.

It seemed to tell her that she was not the only person like this.

As the third daughter who had little to do with the business and a desire for battle, she had never felt that anyone could be with her. She had figured that no one could keep up with her body. Even if they were kind to her, she always maintained her doubts.

What about him?

She did not know.

And she felt that knowing would not be enough.

So she tried to turn her back on him. Just like when he would say crucial things to her, she averted her gaze.

"Hurry up and leave. This is Shiraishi's battlefield before it becomes Border's."

"Don't go, Chisato."

She heard a voice.

"You cannot win on your own."

.

What he said shamed her as one of the daughters. He was essentially saying she was weak.

But even she thought he was right. So...

"I'll help you."

When he said that, Chisato replied half on reflex.

"D-..."

She turned back toward him.

"Don't be ridiculous."

Why was her initial reason that it would put him in danger?

Why did she only later remember that this was Shiraishi's problem?

"The Falcon issue has to do with Shiraishi's future division leader! If we allow Border to interfere during our meeting, it will create a debt we owe Border!"

"You idiot. What the hell do you think Border's here for? We beat down those kinds of things. ...Yeah, that'd be easily resolved if you let us work. But I doubt you'd accept that answer."

"Of course not. I'm not going to gamble on some convenient timing."

Before she had even finished speaking, he shifted his body into standby mode. The position of his body created a sense of relaxed pressure. Even so, he took another step toward her.

"I want a solo, single match, Shiraishi Idiot Daughter. ...This's comin' from Border's 3rd Ranked B-Rank Captain and #6 Attack, so you wouldn't wanna back down."

"Wha-...!? Do you realize the situation here!?"

"This's a problem between the two of us," replied the Attacker. "If I lose, I'll leave. If I win, you'll hear me out."

_...This idiot._

She did not know what he was thinking, but she had her position as part of the family to think about. If he would leave if he lost, then that would be the best solution.

After all, she had Ortlinde, just like on the platform the day before. Unfortunately for him, he could not defeat Ortlinde. His acceleration and body may have been superior, but his normal human body could not handle the continual re-casting of defenses or the independent power of her legs and arms. But...

"Why?"

"You don't understand? This's to complete the cute girl character route."

_...I see... Hmm, so that's it..._

Her heart grew oddly cold.

_Guys really do like those genre classifications, don't you? Hmm... I see..._

"Fine then. It looks like I have a good enough reason myself. Namely, to protect Ruri."

She was perfectly willing to settle this with her full strength.

"Here I go."

"Come."

She equipped Ortlinde before he even got the word out. She had some trouble preventing her red dress from being caught, but...

_...Yes._

Chisato set her entire body in motion.

And she knew this would be the last time she danced with him.

* * *

"Heh. Looks like that lil' girl's underestimatin' Iko-san."

Mizukami could not help the lazy grin that came to his face as he went over everything that was being sent to them

Around him were some of the others of the same age group as him. They had all gathered to confirm what was going on.

"Is she really going to be fighting him only using those armor panels? He's using a Trigger, so he's way more safe then she is. He also doesn't know how to hold back, does he?"

Someone who hardly stayed near them for her own reason worried about what she was being told by the others. Fuyushi Kaori had been a bit disturbed when viewing the chat long she had been allowed to see but not interact with.

_I thought it was just my classmates, but it looks like they are all crazy! Even Kimura seems to be infected by them at this point._

Yuki and Kageura had always been troublesome classmates, starting pointless fights and competitions with each other. They would sometimes get Hokari to join them while dragging Murakami in when he tried to stop them.

She always felt bad for the poor #4 Attacker.

But this was different.

Mizukami spoke as if there was nothing wrong with their #6 Attacker fighting against a civilian who only had some armor panels to defend with.

"Kurauchi-san, please tell me that at least you understand what's wrong here!"

She looked over with a pleading look.

But the Shooter seemed busy with something else.

"Oh, Betsuyaki isn't around. Do you want me to go with you, Senshi? It would be easy in case your bad luck kicks in."

"Hm? You're going to get a snack? Can I make a request?"

"It depends if you want to run the risk of getting it all over yourself."

"That's true. Alright. Hey SenSen, do you mind being carried by Kurauchi so that it's less likely something will happen?"

"I am not sure my bad luck works like that. Sorry."

"In that case..."

 **TetsuG:** "Mino, can you snag some snacks from Kobayashi to bring back?"

 **Pokari:** "Yuki, Kō, bring me something back."

 **Artist:** "Oh, oh, over here too! Kon, please! Relying on Kirikari-kun will just have us end up getting a porn game that can't decide if it wants to a furry game or a bar a game."

 **Life:** "I make perfect life choices, thank you!"

 **Haru:** "I don't really care who, but can someone please contact a local shrine so that Oshiro and I can get married now! I'm too busy loving this lovely castle!"

 **Almost Everyone:** "That poor castle!"

_What is wrong with everyone!?_

Kaori could not keep up with what was going on in the chat or right in front of her.

Each time one of them spoke up it felt like someone else had the perfect tsukkomi ready to retort.

There was no hope for any of them if this continued on.

"Hey, Fuyushi. You doin' okay over there? You look pale."

With nothing left for her to say, she turned her head to the source of the voice.

It had been the first boy to speak up about what was happening in the meeting.

Even as everything was going on around me, even as everything was going on at the meeting, even as everything was going on inside if her Brock a nod shattered heart, he had the audacity to look at her with worry while still being laid back.

But she had not been brought up to be rude when someone showed worry for her, so she answered back.

"I... I am not too sure..."

"Yeah. These guys can get pretty rabid when they feel like it. Don't worry though, they all mean well enough. ...Except probably Kimura. She just wants to pick fights."

She found that she could not deny that after today.

Finally finding a way to calm herself down, Kaori looked to Mizukami. Everyone began moving around her, but she thought it was best to ignore them.

"Mizukami-san..."

"Hm? You don't need to call me out like that. Kage, Kō, Pokari and that fox like you a good amount, so you're good with calling me anything. Just don't go overboard."

"Oh. Right. Would Mizukami-kun be fine?"

"Now you sound like a schoolgirl. Don't worry, I won't tell those guys."

Questioning his statement, she looked around to see that an agreement had been made and it had not just been Senshi and Kurauchi who left. Hokari, Hitomi, Arafune, and Tōma had left to go get snacks for everyone.

_Maybe I should have asked for something specific... Oh, but Hokari knows what I like, so that should be fine._

She now understood what the Shooter had meant by not telling them. With Murakami and Yuki at Kurosaki, Kageura with his team, and Hokari getting the snacks, there was no one in her class who could find out that she was being nice to Mizukami.

That felt like a bit of relief. She did not want to be teased by the boys who seemed to be the most sensible as well as the most cannibalistic of them all.

 **Kuni:** "Hey 3-C boys, Fuyuyu-chan is acting like a schoolgirl with Mizukami-kun! She called him 'Sato-kyun' right in front of us! Right!? Right!?"

 **Ōji:** "That's what I heard. She had her hands on her cheeks and everything."

 **Artist:** "It gave me some inspiration for my next piece!"

Kaori quickly turned from the three snickering people to a shrugging Mizukami.

"I didn't say anythin'. Those guys just like harassing people."

She found that she could not defend herself before new messages came up.

 **Kage:** "What the hell, Class rep!?"

 **Pokari:** "I leave for a minute..."

 **Black Wolf:** "We're still at Kurosaki, so all I will say is, 'I am kind of sad.'"

 **White Fox:** "Don't think you're getting away with this, CR! No! Screw it! We're gonna call you Kao-chan from now on!"

"Don't just decide that on your own!"

 **Kage:** "Kao."

 **Black Wolf:** "Kao-san."

 **Pokari:** "Kaocchi."

"Kaocchi."

"Did you seriously run back here just to say that to my face!? Damn you!"

Feeling all energy suddenly leaving her body, Kaori tossed her upper body onto the table.

There was a feint feeling of a hand patting her back and she guessed whoever it was was smart enough to do with while the others were not looking since there were no messages about it.

.

Mizukami felt like everything had been his fault up until the boys from class 3-C started changing how they referred to Kaori.

Even so, he knew that she still had an important question that needed an answer. As the one who had brought about that question it was up to him to answer.

"There, there. You wanted to know why it's no problem that Iko-san's fightin' that Shiraishi daughter?"

That had gotten her attention from the way she stopped shaking.

So he continued.

"It's because Iko-san can't be stopped anyway. He already declared his want to fight, so he's gonna fight it out. Since she agreed, that means they're a good fit."

"And what about the fact that she does not have a Trigger?"

"I don't think there's anyone stupid enough to go against someone with a Trigger when they don't have something ready for it."

"I don't know... There are some idiots I know who would..."

_Oh, that's true. I know a whole age group who'd do that._

Laughing at everyone else's expense was all he could think of doing right now.

Once he got done with that, he smiled down at the girl. Not the same lazy one that had came before. This one was an guaranteed one that assured her everything would be fine. After all...

_Iko-san's taken a real likin' to this girl._


	84. Chisato Shiraishi: Part 4

The battle was at full speed from the very first strike.

Ortlinde and the Attacker both had great height and reach. The Attacker had greater acceleration, but the Valkyrie was more maneuverable. So when their attacks intersected...

"Ohhh!"

The Attacker generally pushed while the Valkyrie deflected, dodged, and...

"...!"

The Valkyrie used her weapons to push back with greater numbers.

As large as the hall was, it was still located within White Rock. In that 100 meter by 50 meter space, the Valkyrie could not make full use of her trion lances and instead repeatedly summoned them at high speed.

Meanwhile, the Attacker deflected the trion lances with his slashes, but...

"Border Power!"

He also used trion shields. He activated smallish handheld ones to respond to the Valkyrie's great numbers. Fragments of shields scattered as they blocked the continuous strikes.

"I'm takin' this for a second, Kanzaki! Two slashes!"

He pulled his blade out of its scabbard with what seemed to be a single movement. Instead of a single slash that he had shown multiple times, it had been two, almost simultaneous, slashes that moved forward, he had held the blade in the five fingers of his hand and snapped the blade forward with his enhanced strength. He slammed the dual slashes toward the Valkyrie.

He was fast, but hopelessly outnumbered compared to the Valkyrie's number of attacks. However, he had the greater strength.

The two slashes struck the armor panels the Valkyrie used for defense. And she of course repeatedly summoned new panels.

Trion light surrounded the Valkyrie's swinging panels and they seemed to shake. The Attacker's slashes were deflected with what sounded like a sawblade striking rock.

The Attacker did not stop. He let sheathed his blade after the failed slashes and moved to grab Ortlinde's armor panels. Then he grabbed the sheathed blade at his hip and spun it back around.

As the spinning blade swung up from his hand like a hook, the Attacker's other hand moved to grab Ortlinde's defense armor panels from above.

Ortlinde swung her arms down so they would not be caught. And before the Attacker's sword could finish its rotation and strike her arms, she caught it's blade on her own arms to steal it.

Then she spun the blade back around with her arms.

The blade had been rotating up from below, but it now spun around the Valkyrie's arms to swing a counterattack against the Attacker's arms.

The Attacker responded by pulling his arms back and once more scooping up the Kōgetsu's blade.

They did not grab it.

The sharp striking weapon that looked like moss continued to spin back and forth between them as they continued avoiding the attacks like that.

"Let's up the ante!"

She added two, then two more, and...

"A heel-stepping dance is the charm of bondage!"

"You took that from a porn game, didn't you!?"

A total of sixteen green spikes danced within their exchange of offense and defense.

.

Shobu sensed it.

He did not understand some things. He lived his life listening to sounds and sensing heat and the wind rather than watching things. And most importantly, he had lived by trusting in his own heart as it tried to sense the outside world. So...

_...Wow..._

He could detect and follow Ikoma and Chisato's actions, but he could not comprehend them.

He did not understand, but that did not frighten him.

He liked both Ikoma and Chisato. He had not known the latter for long, and admittedly Ikoma only slightly longer, but Chisato had helped him put on his tie before the dance. When Shobu had tried to perceive her expression as she performed the work with practiced hand...

"I have long been in charge of dressing Ruri."

Then Chisato had laughed.

It had been a quiet laugh. Shobu doubted it was something she did often. It seemed to have slipped out. But Shobu thought that was just as meaningful as always laughing.

He thought it had been a nice laugh.

And he liked people with a nice laugh.

Ikoma was the same. He would occasionally make a quiet nasal laugh. He did not know if he was usually in a bad mood, but when he was happy, he would do that.

He liked their exchange of offense and defense.

The two of them had to be moving around, throwing quick strikes and kicks, rotating around, performing feints, spinning into a kick to keep some distance between them, and otherwise attacking each other.

_...They're trying to...take each other's hand..._

Were they up to sixteen lances and a single Kōgetsu that were catching on and spinning around their bodies while passing between them? The lances and blade were rotating, passing back and forth, and intersecting so often that he had lost count.

As the lances and single blade spun around their arms, wrists, elbows, sides, shoulders, necks, and even legs, the combatants would occasionally catch one on the end of their kicking foot and throw it toward the other, or they would catch one on their neck and either swing their entire body to throw it back or throw it back from their thigh as their opponent tried to grab their wrist.

Again and again, they would throw them back when their opponent tried to grab their hand and they would brush their opponent's hand away while also pursuing that opponent. They would pull back the arm being pursued while also moving the other up in scooping motion to obstruct one of their opponent's hammers.

It was like several stars were whizzing around them to decorate their motion.

Shobu thought that everything decorating their spinning dance was wonderful.

He did not understand a lot of things. Nor did he understand simple or complex. He knew how those things were "beautiful", but he could not directly perceive that beauty.

So he believed. He believed that this high-speed exchange of rotation and revolution was beautiful. He simply believed that these two people in the outside world were beautiful, just like they were in their everyday lives.

This was beyond what he could perceive and he could not explain it in words.

He believed that what he could perceive was beautiful.

And then the two of them sped up even further. They would approach close enough that their toes nearly touched, the density of strikes grew, and...

"...!"

A sword and shields appeared.

No, they had already been there, but within the sixteen rotations...

"—"

The continuous exchange of sword strikes and defense resumed.

.

Ikoma did not hold back in the slightest.

His shields were no longer for defense. As soon as they opened, he hit them from behind for a shield attack. It was something he had learned from fighting Sekai multiple times.

Even if they were simple, these shields were meant for blocking strong attacks. Each one could endure around seven trion lance attacks, so he opened them on the left and right and repeatedly struck the trion lances with them.

A great noise rang out, but he did not stop moving. He tried to spin to Chisato's side as if checking on his footing. And he tried to grab her hand in both of his hands.

"...Oh."

A trion lance flew in to stop him, but he did not give up.

Yes, an attacker did not give up.

Ikoma believed that he was one of the strongest Attackers. There were Shooters, Gunners, Snipers, and Trappers, but the offensive Attackers could cut anything in their way and that was cool.

Yes, it was cool. And what was cool was strong. What could be more obvious?

And since he was strong, he did not need to give up. If he did happen to lose, it would only be a trivial mistake. He would never wholly lose, so he did not need to feel down about it. Attackers were strong. They were strong in body and mind. They were unbeatable.

That was why Ikoma had chosen to join Border. There was also a reason his team had continued to stay in the top tiers, a constant third ranked position. Because he was strong, he had once thought that he could give meaning to his strength by justly fighting others.

At the same time, he liked weaker people.

_Some say weaker people're s'pposed to be steppin' stones, but I'm not sure. People like Zaki do look like they'd make a good way to show off, but I don't wanna step over 'em. When I looked at him that way before, he blushed, so I need to send his ass to hell at some point._

"...Iko-sama...!?"

_Oops. A trion lance got this close while I was lost in thought. I'll hit it with my shield to spin it around and...there! A hit._

_Nice one, Shobu. But unfortunately, I "like" you in a different way too. But thanks to callin' me "Iko", that means I can treat you like Kiyoshi does now. Extra win._

_By my standards for what I like're kinda strict._

_It likely comes down to me bein' too strong. And my heart bein' too awesome. When I see someone weaker than me, I don't feel a desire to prey on them; I feel a desire to protect them. That might be a passed down memory of other Attackers bein' people who protected inexperienced people when we were gettin' attacked. A passed down memory. Now that's cool. I feel like I just got a strength boost._

_Simply put, Attackers are strong and I'm an awesome person, so I can handle the weak with ease._

_And that's why I love strong women. Which's why..._

"Yes."

_I love cute girls._

_._

The Valkyrie and the Attacker's movements were speed itself.

They deflected each other's arms, light scattered, lances became wind and shattered shields, and noise surged out. The paths of each element remained in the air, creating a giant flower blossoming around the two of them as they spun around.

But Ortlinde increased its number of attacks. She had attacked with great frequency already, but now that they had moved closer together...

"...!"

Her attacks changed. Before, she had struck with her trion lances from the left and right, but now she sent them straight ahead as well.

One appeared in front of her, then some appeared on either side, and finally another appeared in front.

"—"

She established a series of high-speed attacks from three directions.

She launched them like a rapid-fire cannon.

Front, right, right, front, right, left, front, right, and right. The repeated attacks rushed out and sliced through the wind.

But the Attacker fought back. He hit his shields out front as well as on the left and right for his own three-layers of attack.

Right, left, front, right, right, front, right, left, front, right, right, and front. He attacked faster than he breathed and forced his way ahead. However...

"...Iko...-sama...!"

Shobu's yell reached him.

"She's capturing...you...!"

.

Shobu sensed it. He sensed it clearly. He sensed the beauty come to a stop.

Unlike with the previous actions, he rapidly came to understand the shape and number of the beauty the two combatants had created.

He knew why without having to think about it. It was the same. After Chisato launched her lance through the center, she made a certain attack on Ikoma.

_...Front, right, right, front, right, left..._

There was a pattern. It was hard to notice because she would end the pattern after a bit and begin again from a different position, but Shobu thought there was a reason for the repetition. After all...

_...It makes Iko-sama...attack on the right a lot...!_

The pattern led Ikoma to swing his right arm a lot and there were two reasons for that.

A solid sound pointed to the first reason.

It was the sound of a shield attack pushed by his right arm powerfully deflecting Chisato's trion lance.

But that had been set up. The lance was blown away with no resistance and Ikoma's right arm thrust forward with the shield.

His right arm was wide open as it stretched forward. That was one of the reasons for this, and the other...

"...Kō...getsu...!"

By repeating the same actions, Chisato was able to predict the timing of the sixteen striking weapons. She instantly grabbed the sixteen weapons in her own arms. In the sixteen additional armor panels she brought, that is.

And then she grabbed Ikoma's right arm in her left arm.

Ikoma tried to pull back, but Chisato repeatedly brought out new panels to grab it.

She held it in place.

A moment later, sixteen lances and three trion blades slammed into Ikoma.

.

Chisato did not stop. This was an official duel. Holding back would be impolite, so this was expected of her.

And if she could completely crush this opponent, he would likely be able to find resolution and resignation over a number of things. And the same was true of her. So...

"This ends now!"

She sent out her spiked and bladed strikes with a time delay between them. And she knew her own left arm would be caught in the flurry of blows. She could not defeat this opponent otherwise.

The Attacker raised his left arm. He was not striking her. He made a shield attack on the trion sword. He had likely judged them more dangerous than the lances.

A moment later, the trion blade collided with the trion shield he held out.

The shield broke, shattered, and vanished. The green lights dropped down beyond the scattering light.

"This is over!"

But Chisato received an unexpected attack.

.

What she sensed in front of her was a definite explosion.

_...What!?_

She did not have time to dodge. The fog and impact of pressure exploded and struck her entire body.

.

Shobu sensed it.

_...He flew...?_

"Nice call there, Sho... Lil' Plant."

The sound of a moving mouth was heard.

"That doesn't fit right with me. I'll just call you Lil' Dragon. Yeah. That sounds cool as hell."

It was Ikoma. Had had fired on the shots at the front of his right side.

_...The Meteora...shots I asked him...to equip...!"_

"—!"

And he blasted his explosive power toward Chisato at extreme close range.

It was noise and power. That Trigger allowed a person to fire explosives. If he was a true Shooter, that explosive power would be realized from a distance. He had used up his trion and slammed it into his opponent."

It was true Ikoma had been moving closer and closer to his opponent.

All of his footwork and movements had likely been to fill the distance between the two.

Shobu also understood why he had not used his left side. That would have taken another Trigger for him to use while Kōgetsu was still in use, meaning it would not have been possible. What was more, he would have had nowhere to escape if both of his sides were filled with explosions. That sent its full power toward his opponent.

It was an explosion.

Chisato's left side panels detached from the shoulder, flew away, and stabbed into the ceiling. Her entire body bent as if from a blow to the right side, but...

"Kh...!"

Her right side panels and both leg panels were detached from their bases and new ones were brought out. She also reconstructed her left arm panels.

It only took an instant for her to land, but Ikoma used that time to charge forward.

"Here I go!"

He accelerated his powerful left arm.

.

Chisato's mind grew clear within the speed and decisions.

After the impact of the explosion, Ortlinde made an immediate adjustment. That was partially due to her mind clearing, but more than that...

_...I can't afford to lose!_

She was a daughter of Shiraishi. And she had Ruri as her closest friend.

Ruri was effectively imprisoned by the Falcon, but that led from her own decision.

It had happened four years ago.

When the Neighbors had arrived to destroy their world, Ruri's friend Shuryō had felt he was duty-bound to protect his mother while Sōichi was not there. He had not let it show, but the result had become apparent soon enough. A few moments later, Shuryō had attempted a fight in an unused area near White Rock.

Ruri and Chisato had been worried and gone to search for him, so they had been the first to discover him.

He had been terrified by what he saw. He had used top tier gun, but it had not been strong enough. So as they attempted to rescue him, he had made a request.

He had asked them to act on Shiraishi's behalf.

Ruri and Chisato were both children of influential people. What would happening if they died while trying to protect him there? And that was when the Neighbors had arrived on Earth to carry out their attack against them.

Ruri had been the one to act. The records say that they had not seen the boy that day, but the truth was that Ruri had taken a hold of Chisato before running away. And so she had allowed her best friend's capture.

Chisato still wondered if she should have done it instead.

She wondered if it was her failure to do so that had allowed Ruri to be imprisoned by the Falcon and to lose her memories.

If she had allowed such a capture, Ruri may have shunned her, but that would not have harmed Shiraishi with how they had told others and they could have cooperated with Border. So...

"Let me tell you something!"

Chisato moved and thought. She thought while sending out her right arm to block the Attacker's left thrust.

"Ortlinde was made when I was a child when Ruri accidentally called out to that Falcon! It was not recent, so that thing's been going for some time now! That is my truth! It was when we were training together and I made her cry..."

She said it.

"She was never able to call it out afterwards! But now she can call it out again! ...These are my bonds! This is the punishment I must accept!"

Chisato thought while creating a trion lance into her left arm.

_...What good did Shuryō's capture - at the time we thought death - do for Shiraishi?_

They had followed their instincts, so it had helped on a survival front, but in the resisting group of Shiraishi, everyone was like family and they all lived with no concern for status.

"Answer me...!"

_Border. Future voyagers of Mikado City._

_Have we failed? Will I only ever feel regret? And are Ruri and all the others nothing more than a lost cause now?_

_We don't know our destiny. We only view our business as something to use if it will benefit us. We all huddled together in the cold only wishing happiness for ourselves and our comrades._

_I want to leave this company, but can I retrieve everything for Shiraishi before then?_

_...I...!_

In search of an answer, Chisato slammed her opened right hand toward the end of the charging Attacker's forearm.

To settle things for herself once more, she defended with a rapid and repeated recreating of her armor panel.

.

Chisato repeatedly reconstruction her right wrist and hand armor panels. Her opened hand struck his hand. If it was deflected, she would immediately construct the next panel.

By repeating the process countless times in rapid succession, she could fully stop an opponent's attack.

This was not the same as before. She had used a finger before. This time, it was her palm. She could distribute his striking force more than before and she could grab onto him once she did stop him.

To turn that around, he would likely create an explosion with his left side.

But she would not fall for that a second time around. She only had to prepare for a repeated contruction and immediately form her armor afterwards. And once she endured his trion explosion, he would remain before her with no acceleration left.

Once she grabbed him, she could handle an opponent who was nothing but strength.

So Chisato stopped him. She did not hold back in reconstructing her hand armor panels to stop him. And...

"...?"

She suddenly felt something wrong about her right arm.

Wondering what it was, she visually checked within the high speed. She found her right arm panel was breaking.

_...Eh?_

She was letting it be deflected as she stopped him, but that was not the cause.

The armor palm was _being broken_. Then her wrist and forearm panels were also _being destroyed_ by his left arm.

Her continuous defense had not stopped him. As her armor shattered...

"Ohhhhhh!"

She did not understand. This should have stopped him. And yet he was approaching. So she took a half step back while constructing a whole new armor.

"Wha-...?"

While expressing her confusion, Chisato thrust her right arm toward him.

She continued her defense through continuous reconstruction while trying to block his approaching left arm.

"—"

But it was broken again. The continuous construction was occurring, and yet...

_...Why!?_

Her question was immediately answered through her vision.

A blue plates was being constantly created, but he had not used them all at once.

Each of them was producing an intermittent barrage of acceleration. It was...

_...Continuous acceleration!?_

Chisato realized what he was trying to do and what he had accomplished. When the Attacker had known she was going to use her continuous reconstruction defense, he had tasked himself with matching his acceleration to those contructions.

When his speed was blocked and reduced, he immediately reapplied it. And that rapid-fire acceleration was not just coming from his feet. It came from across his left half. His shoulder, side, hip, and leg pushed forward like a grasshopper.

His speed could not keep up with her continuous reconstruction.

But Chisato knew that his strength was greater.

The Attacker approached by making up for his inferior speed with his strength.

Chisato's right arm panels broke. The continuous construction defense was meaningless at this point. It would not work on this Attacker. But that continuous acceleration with his left side would have used up the trion inside him.

He could no longer use his attacks.

That meant he could no longer move. He was only rushing forward on inertia. But...

"Ortlinde's lance survived!"

Chisato held a trion lance in her left hand, so she swung it diagonally down toward him as he charged in.

A moment later, she heard his voice.

"Let's talk, Shiraishi Chisato."

Then something impossible came from his side as they reached hers.

A trion explosion burst out from his side.

.

Shobu sensed the end of the battle.

His first impression was that the noise was incredible. But...

_...That was..._

Ikoma had produced a second Meteora explosion. He had used both sides for it after having grabbed Kōgetsu and placed it back, which should have been impossible after using up his trion. That was why Chisato had been hit without even trying to defend. But...

"—"

Shobu heard it directly in his head.

There was a somewhat harsh but confident voice going to them.

It was an Operator.

The voice of an Operator was coming through to them from a place closer than Border.

That was what had supported Ikoma's second Meteora explosion. He had asked his Operator to monitor his trion usage to settle things.

The battle was over.

Dust was probably whirling through the center of the hall. Shobu noticed dust as a light bundle, but he knew it was hard to see through.

In that case, the others would be unable to see the two who currently stood in the center of the hall.

Shobu placed his hands on sides as he noticed the two of them.

_...Chisato-sama..._

Chisato had lost a lot of armor panels. They had been blown away by the explosive blast. And then Ikoma pushed her to the floor.

"Chisato."

He spoke quietly within the whirling wind.

"Open up. I wanna talk to you."

.

"You idiot..."

Chisato cried in the darkness.

Ortlinde was making adjustments after the extreme close-range blast, but she had not approved it. So it did not activate or open. And...

"You idioooot..."

She inhaled and could not wipe the tears from her cheeks, so she simply cried.

_It's over. It's over for me. I couldn't save Ruri and I couldn't act as a shield for Shiraishi as the pathetic daughter. I failed. I really failed. When was it I failed? It must have been back when we lost Shuryō._

"Ah...!"

 _I'm sorry,_ she apologized in her heart. She apologized to Ruri, Musashi, and everyone else for her inability to do anything. The tears spilled not just onto her cheeks but to her hair as well. She arched her back while lying on the floor.

"No..."

She felt regret. And she felt pathetic. That regret opened her mouth and brought out her voice. But...

"Chisato!"

A sudden impact reached her throat.

_...!?_

It was an unrestrained strike.

"Damn, doesn't this have a weakness on the throat?"

He was trying to open Ortlinde's armor. She could hear and feel his hard hands touching her chest, stomach, and neck.

"You..."

 _Idiot,_ she thought. She could not move at the moment.

Her face was likely red from crying.

She had lost. And he was trying to force her out instead of letting her wallow in defeat.

"You okay?"

Only once he asked that did she realize he was worried about her.

_...You idiot._

Hadn't they just been fighting? She was fine since she had Ortlinde, but he was different. He should have been worried about himself first and foremost, but...

"Kh..."

She had utterly lost. Countless thoughts mixed together in her head and she had no idea what she should do. She had to worry about Shiraishi and Ruri, but his concern stung the most because it seemed to take advantage of those weaknesses.

But then he grew more forceful. While she lay on her back, he lifted up her lower chest armor.

"I'm gonna open it."

And he did.

.

At the bottom of the thin darkness, the wind and wave passed by and the dust hid Ikoma as Chisato finally came into view through his goggles.

Inside the opened Ortlinde, a girl lay on her back, unable to move.

Tears wet her face, her hair was disheveled, and her red dress fluttered from her heavy breathing. But her teary eyes were looking up at him.

"Wh...what do you want?"

"Right. Chisato... I have something to tell you."

This situation finally allowed him to say what he had been thinking the entire time.

"Chisato. ...I love you."

So...

"Come to Border. Then we can protect the world together."

.

_...Eh?_

A giant blank filled Chisato's mind.

She did not understand what he meant. Even so, her tears stopped and heat gathered in her face.

"W-wait..."

Once she gulped. Her trembling voice gained a different sort of tremor. Instead of the weak strength brought by her tears, it was the tense strength of not knowing what was going to happen. She clicked her teeth together and all thought vanished from her mind.

"But, um, you were always talking about cute girls..."

"Don't worry. I looked you up on the net and found some pictures of you. The one with you're hood on or the one with those lil' 'wings' made out of your hair were nice."

"Wh-what good is seeing that?"

"You don't get it?" asked the Attacker. "I've been thinkin' of takin' up cookin' over guitar. ...If we got together and you stayed with me, I'd ask you to make me a bento. That means you'd wear an apron and look really damn cute in it."

.

Chisato had a thought and she put it to words.

"I'm pretty sure that means you're insane, but it doesn't surprise me at this point. ...But since when?"

"Since you arrived as a rep. But I knew a girl like you'd only fight back if I played this simply. Heh. So I used Ruri as bait and pretended to be a tsundere to get to you. But it all goes back to when I first saw you. Do you remember what I said then?"

She did. He had seen her and asked if she liked guys who could play guitar.

But it had likely already begun by that point. The fact that he even asked meant one thing.

_...If I had liked a guy who played guitar, that would have settled it for him?_

"Why?"

"I though you were beautiful."

"How!? I have all this baggage thanks to an old mistake and I was wearing this armor made because of it..."

"That's exactly why, Chisato. I don't really have any interest in overly weak people. I'd like someone who's strong, someone who's noble, and...if I'm gonna be greedy, someone who wears cool armor. ...Even though you'd have to toss that aside when joinin' Border. And if I'm gonna be even greedier...someone who inspires a desire with the softness inside that armor."

He reached for her dress.

"Nah. I'm no pervert. You're still sixteen and I don't go 'round rippin' a girl's dress."

She had lost, so she saw no meaning in opposing it. So...

"If you had said it was because you wanted to wait, it only would have angered me."

No words answered her. He simply fixed up her dress.

He covered her.

Chisato's honest opinion was that she felt cold, even with the dress.

Ortlinde was her bed, her dress was her bond, and what showed of her body was exposed enough to him. Not only did she not have a say how he fixed her dress, she even lacked energy to correct him and could not so much as twist her body around. Her mouth trembled, tears welled up in her eyes, and heat filled not just her cheeks but her neck and chest as well, but she still feigned strength

"Beautiful, aren't I...?"

How much easier would it be if he said no? She could settle on that view of herself and continue to act as she was. But...

"You're really beautiful and cute, Chisato. ...Even borin' stuff like these meetings do some good."

So...

"Come to Border, Chisato. I wouldn't want anyone else."

"D-don't be stupid! I'm Shiraishi's-...!"

"But you're the youngest one, aren't you?"

No. That was not the point. That was not enough for her.

"I have the Falcon and Ruri to deal with!"

"Right. I gotcha. Then," he said. "If we deal with that, you'd come with me. ...Fine. The two of us'll slay the Falcon."

Those were the words she had hoped to hear. And yet...

"You idiot. You're from Border, so if you don't send word right away..."

"What're you talkin' 'bout? If we beat up the Falcon, you'll be a member of Border, won't you? And with the Falcon gone, Shiraishi can work with Border. That's what matters. Isn't it?"

It was a forceful argument, but Chisato suddenly realized something.

Parts of his body were moving sporadically.

He was also anxious. So...

_...That's right._

She did not know what would happen, but...

"Can you see me as someone who hasn't failed yet?"

"Believe in me, Shiraishi Chisato," he said. "Nothin's begun between the two of us yet. ...I'll take you back to Border and back. You'll solve Shiraishi's problems. Everythin'll succeed from now on. And then it can begin. That's what this's."

"Then what am I supposed to do now?"

"Decide how you are going to say goodbye to your friends in Shiraishi and how you'll greet them when you become a Border agent. Also..."

He awkwardly tried to push her chest armor back together.

"The dust'll clear soon. It'd be a shame to let the others see, so tell me how to close this."

"...You idiot."

A bitter laugh escaped and the remaining tears fell from her eyes.

But there was no tremor in her lungs as she inhaled.

 _I failed,_ she thought. But...

_...Yes, please give me the chance to make up for it._

Someone befitting of that stood by her side. She felt relief in that fact and then she spoke.

"Ortlinde. Reactivate."

.

Shobu felt his own heat in the hands on his cheeks.

_...I-I heard all that...! ...I-Iko-sama...forgot to turn off...our communication...!_

_...That was incredible..._ he thought.

 **Kimura:** "Tenryū-san! What's going on there!?"

"...Right..." agreed Shobu. There was a lot he wanted to say: Thank goodness, it's okay, let's do our best, etc. All of those words filled his heart, but...

"—"

Shobu sensed something.

 **Shobu:** "...Ki...mu...ra...-sama...!"

 **Manager:** "What is it?"

He could tell the two people were slowly standing up.

One was an Attacker and the other was Ortlinde.

They got up side by side and faced the same direction.

They faced the source of the wind. Something had finally appeared on that end of the hall.

_...The Falcon...!_

An alarm sounded. It indicated danger within White Castle. It had sounded in the main garden the night before and Shobu could tell the level of danger had grown. But...

 **Shobu:** "...It's okay."

 **Manager:** "Is it?"

Kimura no longer asked what was going on. And...

 **2.7 Maime:** "Hey, Ikomacchi. You havin' a good time?"

 **Iko:** "Yeah. A very fulfillin' time. This world totally exists for Chisato and me right now. After all..."

He said it.

 **Iko:** "No matter what we do, it's our turn to act."

 **2.7 Maime:** "You can do something?"

 **Iko:** "Have you forgotten that I used one final spurt to guide us to the top during last time's Inter-Coty Porn Game Championship? Hm?"

 **2.7 Maime:** "That's just because you had let the non-cutie characters build up too far."

 **Zaki:** "I still don't know how you got me to go along with that trashy day..."

 **Wisteria:** "Don't worry. I made sure to properly smash up that entire championship after winning the entire event. I have to say, the porn games they used were really lackluster considering all routes lead to 'Lovey-Dovey Kyuu Kyuu Time!'"

 **#5 Mountain:** "Mei... I'm sorry. I am really sorry, so please don't stick anything up there again..."

 **Zaki:** "You guys got me in trouble for that too! My butt hurts every time I think about it! Ow, ow, ow! See!? It hurts right now!"

 **Polished Place:** "This is why I decided to just ignore an idiot's message that day."

 **2.7 Maime:** "Getting back on topic..."

 **Everyone:** "This coming from you!"

"But anyway," he said.

 **2.7 Maime:** "Take care of this one. Go save Shiraishi. Oh, and you keep up the good work too, Shobu-san."

 **Shobu:** "...Right...!"

As soon as Shobu nodded, several figures appeared around him.

They were all armed and they faced him.

 **Manager:** "What is it, Tenryū-san?"

 **Shobu:** "...It's okay..."

When he said that and nodded, the surrounding people lowered their heads in response. Then the man who stepped out front spoke.

"Border Representative. Last night, you must have perceived the Falcon's violent pressure from up close. Could you guide us?"

"...But you...have no...defense..."

"Not true. Besides Ortlinde, Shiraishi has been working on two more trion armor panel systems. They are nothing compared to your Triggers, but they should manage as good shields."

Two girls walked forward, one with golden hair that cascaded down her back like a waterfall and the other one with pink hair that seemed to bounce like cotton candy as she moved. The first one he had known as Shiraishi Ōi from the previous event at the platforms. The second girl on the other hand...

"Heya there, little guy! I'm Shiraishi Yoshie! Second daughter and the one who is tossing out this whole thing by letting you guys use Hildr! Make sure to break it up nicely so we can forget it was created!"

"I ask the same for Thrúd. We wish to erase these items as well as apologize to Border for trying to create something like this. The first part of this apology is assisting you here with them while the second apology is accepting the consequences for creating them. We will do anything you ask, within reason, to show our feelings on this matter."

"...Then...can we go...together...?"

Ōi and Yoshie blinked twice when hearing the question.

That could not be all, could it?

And yet they responded regardless.

"Of course."

Shobu sensed a slight tremor in the immediate response, but he shook his head. Going with them would hold them back in some ways, but...

"...I can guide you...more accurately that way...maybe..."

He could not help but lose his confidence at the end, but everyone around him exchanged a glance and finally nodded.

"We are honored to be guided by Border's Branch's acting director's nephew who has fought and protected such a great city ever since the invasion."

"...Eh...?"

He had not done anything so impressive.

 **Shobu:** "...Th-they mean _that_...right...? ...I-I was just...reading the movements of the...Neighbors and their fighters...reading, um...what they would do...and moving the civilians...around..."

 **GM Aide:** "To provide some supplementary information, Tenryū-kun's standard margin of error while guiding others' movements during important times of distress is around 10%. ...And embarrassingly enough, his allowance for that kind of fuzziness...well, without him, we would have been losing some more civilians during that invasion as well as during the Wanderers's 'greeting' from the next city over."

 **Shinoda:** "That is correct, Shokubutsu-kun. To be blunt, anyone except Akashi-kun and Kirikari-kun would increase our odds of survival, so having someone act in that role is meaningful. Plus, you have shown the results mentioned by Sawamura-kun, so it is impressive accomplishment."

 **Secretary:** "You pretty clearly rejected my very personality there, didn't you!? Shinoda-san, I thought you were a professional!"

 **Du-Sis:** "Don't pretend you're not happy. You just like it when people pay attention to you."

Shobu did not quite understand, but apparently what he always did was helpful. He decided he needed to continue doing it as best as he could.

Then Ikoma's voice reached her.

"Now, how 'bout we settle this?"

Ortlinde answered him as her sight devices lit their auxiliary lights.

"Yagura Branch Nephew, you secure Ruri. As for us..."

Shobu heard Chisato's voice.

"We will calm the Falcon."

.

Chisato's anti-Falcon plan was clear.

"We just have to beat it down."

"You mean teach it who's boss?"

"You can view it like that if you want. It had been calmed twice yesterday. Its damage is clear and its weakness on the throat has been destroyed. If we can show that its power has no effect and if we can weaken it," said Chisato, "we can destroy it for Border to take away."

"And if it continues to go against us?"

"Then we'll have to destroy it completely. And of course we have the perfect opportunity to do that since it's damaged," explained Chisato. "But this is essentially an injured beast we're dealing with."

"I haven't overlooked that, so don't worry. Our opponent is injured and I'm at the pinnacle of my life's happiness. ...It's obvious which one of us is stronger. Even if this Neighbor's tryin' to expand its power because of some kind of complex, we're the real winners here. This battle's already been decided!"

"That's some wonderful logic. ...Why not go out ahead and prove it?"

"Was already plannin' on it. Then follow me."

"...U-um... ...C-catch...!"

Chisato and Ikoma looked over in time for her to catch something thrown at them. It was...

"A Trigger...?"

She looked over to see Border's representative seeming to gather up courage within himself.

_It looks like he's trying to build up something more than just that. What word is best for this? Maybe..._

Willpower. His willpower to advance toward the limp Ruri.

Knowledge. His knowledge that he now had people backing him up.

Emotions. His emotions would explode out to reach out to Ruri.

Since that seemed to be the case, she only listened to what he had to say. It was a way for him to confirm and spread those things to everyone around him.

She had noticed that there was a certain feeling about this boy from the start. An unsure feeling of uncertainty. But once she looked over that part of him, she noticed that that feeling quickly became a feeling that made others want to get over their own uncertainties. That was why she heard his word.

"...Y-Y-Ya..."

The trouble he had for the moment seemed to quickly disappear once he looked toward Ruri again.

"The Yagura Branch...! ...The Yagura Branch will...t-test Shiraishi Ch-Chisato to see if...she can become a p-part of Border! So...I will a-allow her to...use my Trigger to...f-fight the Falcon!"

A pleasant feeling bloomed deep within her chest when she had heard that. Seeing the boy trying so hard for something like that cleared her mind as she activated the Trigger while re-equipping Ortlinde.

From the spot next to her, the Attacker's voice could be heard to go along with his nod of approval.

"Nice job there, Lil' Dragon. I'm pretty sure Kiyoshi's gushin' right 'bout now because of that."

He glanced in her direction with a glint in his eyes.

"Since he managed to get that out, we're gonna be headin' out now."

The Attacker took a step forward. Chisato smiled bitterly when she saw it.

_...Honestly._

The employees surrounding Border's representative gave them an "eh?" look.

None of them had expected him to actually "go" after that.

How naïve of them.

"Let's go, everyone."

She said that and came to understand something.

This Attacker's suddenness had to be a constant thing for him. After all, she had seen the words of Tamakoma's A-Rank Agent on the Trigger she was borrowing.

_..."Go save Shiraishi", hm?_

They were treating Shiraishi's problems as something someone could simply head out and deal with.

But at this point, she did not feel like telling him to take this seriously. And she recalled something else. When they had met on the platform the day before, the Attacker had said something on the platform.

He had commented on the Shiraishi family at the time.

"A business of decorations...hm?"

That was right.

They were trapped by so much, unable to do what they had to, and ultimately bound by themselves.

But he could ignore the decorations, look at the essence of the issues, and act without worrying about those bonds. So...

"He can just go save us, can he?"

That was not bad.

 _That's right,_ thought Chisato within the blowing wind.

She had to keep the mindset of someone intent to leave Shiraishi.

_...So instead of looking at Shiraishi's problems from within, I need to face them head on._

What did she need to do now? That was simple.

"Defeat the Falcon!"

As the alarm sounded, the Falcon's upper body appear behind Ruri and the chair. It's appearance had once again changed . Unlike the the pure white image from before, this new Falcon had its main body a dark blue with golden parts spread out. The main features they noticed were the four small wings behind the two large ones placed in the front that seemed to be held by two cores. A large golden ring could also be seen behind it. Yet oddly enough, even with this transformation, it's throat area was still damaged from the previous fight.

It would be dangerous for it to open the Gate and fly out. Based on Musashi's reasoning...

"The Falcon intends to secure Ruri. It may pull her back into the Gate and then they will never appear again."

"...Hey."

"What?"

"Right," nodded the Attacker. "Who was it that forced that dangerous Neighbor onto Ruri? ...Talk about a failed project."

* * *

"Huh? Yoshiko-san, I'm looking at the Shiraishi family's commentary and their Kotowari is going nuts, but why are you averting your gaze? ...Eh? Did I say something harsh?"

"Sniper, I don't think I can bear any more of your innocent questions...

* * *

"Just to be clear, Narumi-san would have probably agreed to it."

"If it's like a parental decision, then there's no helpin' it. ...Even Fuji says to face the issues in front of us," he said. "And now's the time to face an issue."

"Right," agreed Chisato.

They would defeat the rampaging falcon. They would defeat and calm the Ultimate Falcon.

She did not need to think about anything else.

The Ultimate Falcon was trying to move further forward into the hall.

It was likely trying to secure Ruri to receive a definite trion supply from her.

She needed to stop that. She needed to break and destroy the Falcon.

And of course, the Falcon would try to prevent that. So...

"—"

Green light began to trail through the sky. The Falcon's trion was beginning to show its effects. The hall would soon be filled with the violent pressure of rushing pressure. So...

"Let's go."

Border's representative seemed ready too. They were slower than Chisato and the Attacker, but the commander in the lead raised a hand toward her to say they were ready to go.

They were only about 70 meters away. A wind had already formed and the lightning was creating electrical discharges from the Gate. But...

"—!"

The two of them matched their breathing without speaking a word.

As the Attacker took the first step and ran straight ahead...

"..."

Chisato no longer hesitated to use her full strength in a warrior's charge.


	85. Shiraishi: Part 3

Shobu advanced through the raging wind. The Shiraishi employees raised armor panel shields around him.

"Border Representative!"

"...Right...!"

He answered their question by pointing his finger.

He indicated where the falcon's power was weakest. But...

_...Where they can reach...Ruri-san._

"...Do your...best!"

"Sure thing!"

They all held their armor panel shields forward to part the wind, but the wind had the force of water now and each step forward was like trudging through a bog.

It was bad enough for Shobu under all their protection, so how much greater was the pressure for them outside it? He mostly knew the answer thanks to the devices around his neck, but...

"Please...!"

They had to secure Ruri. If the Fakcon came out and took her away, it would all be over.

Chisato and Ikoma were also trying to grab Ruri if they saw an opening, but...

"...Watch out...!"

The Falcon would abandon its attacks in other areas in order to protect Ruri. Its current of trion pressure, its screech, and its trion attacks from the "flapping" of its wings which were taking form all mercilessly assaulted Ikoma and Chisato when they tried to get close.

That meant Shobu and the Shiraishi employees had to do it.

Their plan was to split into three groups once they were within twenty meters of Ruri. Chisato and Ikoma would support them, and...

_...W-we see who can...get there first...!_

They continued on.

"Hurry! Chisato-san is protecting us!"

That was exactly right. Ikoma and Chisato had already arrived near the Falcon and were dodging attacks. The Falcon used trion as a pressure, screeches, and trion attacks, while those two...

_...Cancel it out with their lances and slashes!_

They likely intended to secure some level of safety before Shobu's group arrived within the violent wind.

Ikoma's Senkū slashes and shields shattered the pressure and trion attacks and Chisato created several trion lances in quick succession to shatter and slice any that tried to circle around.

As for the Falcon...

"...!"

It pushed everything away with a screech and tried to move forward. But...

"A cool as hell voice! But you can screech louder than that, can't you!?"

Ikoma broke through the falcon's screech and trion formed pressure with a slash from his Kōgetsu. The pressure burst in every direction like a popping bubble and it tore into the ceiling, floor, and walls. But...

"Everybody, thank Sekai and Kiyoshi for this!"

Ikoma placed shields in the explosive trion pressure.

The shields were carried away by the wind, something that Ikoma must have commanded, but they were sturdy shields that included a good amount of trion which prevented them from being torn by the bursting trion. To Shobu's senses, they felt like pieces of wood that were not shaken by the wind.

By letting them ride the violent pressure and trion, they were placed to the walls, ceiling, and floor. And...

_...They're staying...?_

Their surroundings were indeed "set" in place without Ikoma having to pay attention to it. The crumbling joints were repaired and solid footing appeared.

Ikoma had used a similar countermeasure when the Falcon had destroyed the main garden the night before. Since the falcon would destroy its surroundings with its mere "flapping" wings, no one would be able to fight back unless they fought it away as soon as possible. But...

_...This puts a big burden...on Iko-sama...doesn't it...?_

Just as Shobu thought that, something rose up in front of him as he tried to advance through the great pressure.

It was one of Chisato's trion lances.

The three meter lance was not being used to attack. Several of them were stabbed into the floor and ceiling. And...

_...It's hardening...the floor...?_

That was the same as Ikoma's shields. Ikoma's was a Border method while Chisato's was a Shiraishi one. The trion lances revealed their power through spreading as more and more of them were stabbed into the hall like fasteners. They were primarily placed in front of Shobu, as if to create a path to the Falcon.

After the previous night's battle, Chisato had likely put together her own countermeasure against the Falcon. And...

_...They are similar..._

Shobu could not guess why Ikoma had prepared this when he was an outsider, nor could he guess why Chisato's was so similar to his.

But it did tell him that nothing that had happened had been for naught.

His group was about to reach the twenty meter mark.

And just as he was thinking they needed to prepare to split up...

"Get down!"

Chisato's shout reached them via a device that hung around Shobu's neck. And a moment later...

_...Wah...!_

Shobu's devices sensed a storm. It was thick and primarily made up of horizontal trion beams and raining shots, something that made him think of Takeshi's attacks mixed with a normal Shooter's attacks.

It rushed in.

.

More than gather together, the trion attacks created a multi-layer curtain as they swept across the hall.

As the Falcon's screech cascaded out, the vibrant green trion rushed out from above Ruri who sat unconscious in the chair.

It instantly formed several dozen side-by-side rows and collided one after another with anyone who approached Ruri.

The light never faded, the screeching never ceased, and countless light sources shook the hall as they burst endlessly. The shields the Attacker had placed in the gaps had already shattered away and the Valkyrie's lances were mostly broken.

As a result, the hall lost most of its fastener.

"—!"

The Falcon's voice shook the hall like a physical blow.

.

White Rock's hall was permeated with vibrations.

The stone walls shook and began to crumble.

"Stop that, stupid!"

After Musashi's shout, a straight line of armor panels stopped it. They were fine-tuned for the trion racing through the floor, ceiling, and air, so the distorting room snapped back into shape.

The distortion began anew due to the Falcon's screech, but...

"These panels are limited to 'Kotowari' and can stop half of it! So go!"

Defense panels, vibrations, and trion collided along every surface and in the air. It all burst into light, but they were all immediately replenished for another collision.

Every last part of the hall was filled with scattering light.

But two people were breaking through that light.

In the trion-filled air, Ortlinde and the Attacker were protected by multiple defense panels like they were heavy armor. The Valkyrie drew several trion lances and the Attacker continually pulled out the Kōgetsu blade that was meant to create slashes.

"How are you even pulling that out so fast?"

"I'm kinda just awesome like that. You didn't know that by now?"

The Attacker calmly answered the Valkyrie's question and raised the trion Kōgetsu blade with both arms. And...

"Lil' Dragon and the others've made it down below. Let's end this."

"As an offensive man, can't you ask your directors to lend us a hand?"

"I could, yeah. Listen up, everyone!" said the Attacker. "We're more than capable of handlin' this without doing that."

"—"

"Don't you have somethin' to say?"

He received a response from below.

"Right! We are more than capable of handling this!"

"True," agreed the Valkyrie. "I'll at least remember to thank my parents."

"Right, right. Your parents've helped us out a good amount too. ...Now, let's go."

The Attacker took a light step in midair using a shield.

He stepped to the right.

At the same time, Ortlinde stepped to the left.

They both lightly raised a hand.

"Okay."

With that, they used their second step to clash with the Falcon at full speed.

.

Shobu advanced.

He had been walking forward this entire time. His body had been wrapped in tension, his breaths had been deep, and he had focused on keeping his legs moving. But that was about to change. From here on, he was not following a path forward. He was following the path to approach Ruri.

"Oh," said someone nearby. "Ohh," replied someone else.

The Shiraishi employees had split into three groups and each one approached the chair along a different path.

But the Falcon was right in front of them. It was screeching. The falcon had likely been screeching in anger ever since it first became self-aware.

That did not matter.

It had nothing but power. It did not know what to do about its own existence. It thought it could overcome anything just by wielding its power and it screeched. But they only had to restore it all to Ruri by destroying it.

There was no need to sympathize with the falcon.

After all, that falcon had somewhere to go: Ruri.

The night before, Ruri had taken Shobu's hand and pulled on it.

She had looked up at the cherry trees surrounded by fireflies and told Shobu all about the colors she perceived.

So if the falcon could be restored to her, she would surely be able to look up at the falcon and tell Shobu all about the person who made it.

So Shobu advanced.

Two powers clashed with the Falcon up above. As Shobu and the employees worked to retrieve Ruri, Ikoma and Chisato prevented the Falcon from coming out into the hall. And they did it by...

_...Colliding with its wings...!_

Ortlinde and Ikoma each slammed their weapons into one of the Falcon's frontal wings.

Like blades locked together, sparks and a grinding sound scattered and the two attackers were knocked back several dozen meters.

"...!"

They also blocked the Falcon's frontal wings as it occasionally swung them like fists instead of just pushing. Each time, a sound filled the hall, but...

"Ohhhh!"

The two of them spread the Falcon's frontal wings to the side, leaving Ruri undefended in the center.

"Hurry...!"

Shobu moved forward. He moved forward along with the others. At the bottom of the wind, they charged into the center of the Falcon's power.

He arrived at the bottom of the dais. He was only a few more steps away from Ruri who sat slumped in the chair.

"—"

That was when Shobu sensed the Falcon's frontal wings spread to either side.

Ikoma and Chisato had definitely pushed them back, but the action was more like opening its chest and...

_...Charging...up...?_

It was the lead-in to an attack of explosive pressure. Shobu remembered when this had been fired again and again in the main garden the night before. Instead of a mere wave of trion, this trion attack was the Falcon's own trion laser beam.

And the one about to be released was most likely especially powerful.

"Get down...!"

Then it arrived. The Falcon was clearly focused on him and the others standing in front of it.

"—!"

The beam exploded.

.

The air in front of the Falcon dissipated in an instant. The elements in the air broke apart, electrical discharges and fog appeared due to the still open Gate, and that very moisture was entirely scattered by the shockwave.

All of the motion was controlled by trion. The Falcon's beam was a lot like a trion cannon and it spread a wave of impacting trion across a fan shape in front of the falcon. Everything that existed there was hit.

The Falcon's target was the people who had arrived at its tail.

They were too close.

They could not escape a direct hit. And that seemed to be why the Falcon flashed its core even more, as if to catch everything in the blast and erase it all.

"—"

It screeched and fired.

That firing collided with and destroyed everything.

At the same time, something stood in front of the Falcon. It was not a person. It was larger and only a head shorter than the Falcon.

But it was not a Trion Soldier.

"Hey...!"

It was a collection of defense armor panels. They were designed to block impacts rather than trion. They had also been remade to reflect those impacts, they were stacked thickly together, and they formed a giant humanoid shape.

Musashi had constructed this humanoid defense armor panel barrier.

.

The humanoid defense armor panel barrier slammed its right arm straight into the explosive beam. The defense armor panel barrier arm was shaped like a rectangular pillar and it shattered when it hit the explosive pressure, but...

"I'll block this...!"

"Musashi, you asshole! That's my Hildr you're using! Stop putting Ōi-nee's Thrúd under so much pressure!"

"It's fine, Yosh-chan, it's supposed to be destroyed anyway! ...But I prefer that we make it to Ruri before that happens!"

The beam split apart. The trion pressure burst as if devouring the humanoid defense armor panel barrier. Of course, the one arm was not enough to cover the entire blast, so it struck the surrounding floor and walls. But"

"Diiiive!"

Just as the arm fully shattered, the humanoid defense armor panel barrier jumped right into the explosive pressure.

There were as many sounds of impact as there were defense armor panel barriers and they grew into a downpour of blows. The great number of defense armor panel barriers burst into light and the explosive beam was scattered in every direction along with it. As a result...

"...!"

The core of the explosive beam was consumed and erased.

"Yes!" someone shouted. Now they could move forward. They could reach Ruri. But...

"...Watch...out!"

Right after Shobu's shout, the great blue and gold form pulled its tail out from the Gate.

The Gate closed behind it.

The Falcon had made up its mind. It would no longer run away and it would settle this here. It had decided to make Ruri its own.

With its mind made up, it shook the floor as it flew forward. It forced its way forward after being pushed back with its frontal wings spread outwards.

The falcon screeched and placed its tail on the air.

"...!"

The Falcon swung its frontal wings to knock the Valkyrie and Attacker away. Sparks flew and wind blew as those two bodies of resistance were torn away. And...

"—!"

This time, it took a true flight.

.

The Falcon saw its master down below.

That was the source of its power as well as the master meant to use its power. To acquire that person and complete itself, the Falcon thrust its wings forward.

Its movements were awkward as it sliced through the wind to forcibly grab Ruri, but it still tried to grab its master in an embrace as if that were the only way.

In that moment, the deflected Valkyrie raised her voice as she was slammed against the wall.

"Rusu-san!"

With that yell, the hall transformed.

The front wall of White Rock was torn away by an explosion.

The night sky came into view and Rusu, White Rock's control system manager, spoke.

"Emergency purge of external wall and internal armor complete!"

.

Ikoma thought the hall's air had exploded.

The falcon's beam and the influx of trion had increased the hall's internal pressure, but now the external wall had been removed. The difference in air pressure and trion density threw everything outside.

They had planned for this, so it was not a problem for them. They had wind-resistance shields and this much wind was well within what a member of Border could handle. Even if someone was blown outside, they had fall assistance in place.

The Falcon was no different. It was a massive Trion Soldier and it had the strength needed to resist the explosive pressure.

However, the Falcon had just leaned forward to grab Ruri.

The forceful torrent of air knocked the Falcon forward a step. And that caused it to fly over Ruri.

Ikoma decided this was an opening, so he raised his voice.

"Shobu! Go!"

.

Just before Ikoma urged him forward, Shobu had not understood his current situation.

He remembered that the Falcon had come out and there had been explosive pressure. But at the moment...

_...I'm...standing...?_

No, it was more accurate to say he was being supported while floating in midair. He felt something on his back.

"Are you okay, Border's representative shota? ...Oh, I-I-I-I-I am White Rock Corporation Secretary and S-S-Security Manager Kotowari Musashi! S-sorry, it's just so rare for me to talk with a boy who isn't always wrong that I'm getting really excited! B-b-but I'm not weird. Right? I'm not, right? I'm not weird at all?"

 _He seems pretty strange,_ he thought, but compared to everyone in Border...

"...I guess you're...pretty normal..."

"Eh!? Normal! Yes! I'm glad I confessed! Did you see that, guys!? Jealous, aren't you!? Border's representative just certified me as normal! Normal! I'm normal! That means I don't matter! Ha ha! I'm a worthless human being who doesn't matter... What are those pitying looks for!? ...Anyway shota, what a worthless guy says is worthless, but listen up!"

"...Wh-what is it...?"

"Well, can you see up ahead? Can you see Ruri up on the dais?"

He could not see it, but he could perceive it. Ruri was there. The Falcon had lost its balance and flew forward, but...

"...I...can..."

Shobu tried not to view things only with his eyes, but Ruri had pulled on his hand and freely talked to him.

He had been told the reason for the color Ruri's hair, clothing, and eyes. So with his senses...

"...I can...see her...!"

"Good, then let's do this! You should be able to see the wind. You can tell where the attacks are coming and everything else. So I'll tell you how to get through there. ...Shut up, all of you! I'm not gonna say a word about his lovely armpits! Not a word about that or how tight they could squeeze something!"

 _...Oh...that sounds like the things...they say during the executions when...Yuki-san invites me over..._ thought Shobu. That helped calm her a little.

"Nn."

So he took a step forward.

"...Thank...you..."

It was likely thanks to Musashi's instructions that he could remain safe. He instructed the people around him and they protected him. So as everyone collapsed and tried to get back up, he did his best to show them he was safe as he boldly walked forward as a representative.

"Please."

Shobu pleaded with Musashi.

"...Let me go...straight toward her..."

.

Shobu began to walk.

He walked forward as if across a windless and dustless plain.

There was a slight waver in his stance and in where he placed his feet, but each step allowed him to break through the occasional blast of trion attacks while only tilting his head a little.

His hair whipped above him. The falcon screeched as it tried to regain its position overhead. It produced more wind with its "flapping", but...

"...Nn."

Shobu broke through it. Musashi's instructions, his senses, and the devices he wore were all used to set everyone in motion as they walked straight ahead.

He placed a foot on the dais.

"Nn."

He climbed up onto the first step.

Then he continued directly on up to the next step.

.

Ikoma resumed fighting while confirming that Tenryū was making progress.

The Falcon was moving.

After its large flight forward, it had to recover its position. But allowing that would put Tenryū in danger. It would also let Ruri be taken. So...

"Chisato!"

He simply called her name and then collided with the Falcon.

As the Falcon tried to recover from its flight forward...

_...The side!_

He made a strike from the side to knock it off balance.

_This feels unfair as hell, but you gotta love these speed Triggers!_

His Grasshopper-powered collision targeted the Falcon's frontal wing on the right side. He raised his weapons as a shield, and...

"...!"

He hit.

Chisato hit at the same moment.

A moment later, the force passed through the Falcon and they felt a loosening sensation, so they put their hips into it.

"Time to carry you away!"

The Falcon lost its balance.

It leaned back and tilted to the left. If it collapsed, they would gain plenty of time.

_...And have the perfect openin' to hit it on the neck again!_

That was Chisato's job, so he had to do the heavy lifting here. But...

"...!?"

Ikoma saw something out of the corner of his eye. As the Falcon leaned back, it did two things.

First, it moved the wings on its back instead of its wings on the front to forcibly regain its balance.

Second, it used its backwards leaning position to throw an attack with its tail. And it was targeting the person behind its right frontal wing.

"Chisato!"

.

Chisato heard the impact.

Then she felt herself flying through the air.

_...I was hit!?_

The Falcon had used its right wing to hide the attack made with its left.

It had been too sudden for her to use her instantaneous and consecutive defenses. After a certain sound, her vision began to spin, but...

"...Eh?"

She was unhurt. She had spun once through the air, but she had also escaped the Falcon's attack range.

She was not even scratched. That fact was not because she was now in a trion body. Instead...

"—"

Someone had been slammed into the wall to the left, breaking the stone.

It was the Attacker.

Chisato knew what had happened. He had taken the Falcon's attack and knocked her out of the way.

That was all.

_...You idiot..._

She had a number of thoughts and several emotions filled her chest, but the Falcon was getting up.

In all this time she had been noticing a related stack of messages coming through from "Red Sky" that seemed to connect to the a Trigger she was us using as well as the devices around the Border representative's neck. The most prominent one was the latest one which said...

 **Red Sky:** "RB07 is on his way! Just hold out for a bit!"

She looked to the Falcon after that message came up and saw it was trying to fly back so it could capture Ruri. So...

"I'm counting on you! ...RB07!"

A moment later, a straight-line collision reached the Falcon from outside.

It was the heavily-armored rhinoceros beetle named Pyrínas.

.

The collision only lasted an instant.

As the Falcon tried to lean over Shobu and Ruri, a giant rhinoceros beetle had flown in through the hole in the wall behind it.

The rhinoceros beetle was unarmed and it simply collided with the Falcom to hold it back.

"...This will be my ego showing that younger models can fight as well! ...Be calmed, you obsolete model!"

The breaking and cracking armor sounded like a hit to a brass instrument.

Beyond that refreshing sound, the Autonomous Trion Soldier and the Falcon crashed into the back wall together.

But the falcon pushed through even that.

It tensed its body, lowered its tail, and then let its wings and sides shoot up to slam the beetle against the floor.

It screeched.

This screech's reverberation really did begin the collapse of the hall.

But as it screeched and turned around, something had been accomplished.

"Nn."

Shobu had arrived in front of Ruri.

He took Ruri's hand.

.

Shobu realized Ruri was regaining consciousness.

When he grabbed the girl's hand and held it tightly, Ruri reacted like she was plagued by nightmares. Her voice soon left her lips and her eyelids moved.

"Ah..."

"Ruri-san!"

The situation was approaching its conclusion. The Falcon's crazed actions were trying to settle this by force.

But Shonu did not fear the approaching Falcon.

Ruri faced him and asked a question.

"Who-...?"

Before she could say "are you", Shobu raised his voice.

"Don't!"

Shobu did not even find this odd.

"Don't lie...! Don't forget! You haven't...forgotten, have you...?"

"Forgotten what...?"

"The past! You haven't forgotten the sad things, the unpleasant things, and the...painful things, have you...?"

"What are you talking about!?"

Ruri raised her eyebrows. With the Falcon approaching behind her, she tried to pull Shobu's hand off of her own.

But..l

"No...!"

Shobu refused to let go. He grabbed on with both hands and held on tight.

"Ah..."

When Ruri felt that strength, her own grip loosened.

That was why Shobu tightened his grip further. He wanted to get through to her. He wanted to return what it was Ruri had told him through her own grip, so he held on tight.

He sent new strength back to the girl. And...

"You remember...don't you? Last night...in the main...garden...I was surprised when you...touched me without warning..."

"I-I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Don't lie! When we...danced before...you took my hand!"

Shobu remembered. He remembered it clearly.

"It was the...the same strength as when...you pulled on my hand! When you pulled on my hand...on the bridge yesterday...and told me the colors...of the fireflies, the flowers, the grass, and the trees...! Everything you want to see...!"

"—"

"Don't say you...forgot about that!"

He knew Ruri had a painful past. He could not blame the girl for wanting to forget about it.

 _...But..._ thought Shobu. ... _She can't forget it..._ After all...

"...If you forget...you really will...lose him..."

She had already lost someone important to her, so what would happen if she forgot that? Even if he could live on in her heart...

"You aren't in the present!" shouted Shobu.

Shobu knew someone who had never forgotten the precious person he had lost and continued to think about them even in the present. He had held great remorse, but he had looked to the present and...

_...I finally got to see him again!_

"What's wrong with...remorse?"

Because...

"It's the...proof that...you chose the present!"

"But...!"

Ruri's face twisted. Her voice did as well and a breath escaped her lips.

"That doesn't change the fact that I let Shuryō get taken!"

That did not matter. Shobu already knew the answer. He knew what to do about someone who was trying to quit indulging in the past and instead arrive at the starting point for living in the present.

That was...

"...Nn."

He pulled back her hand. Ruri was leaning toward him, so the boy lost his balance.

"Ah..."

It did not matter if him fell. None of it mattered.

There was someone to support him from behind. First, Musashi's voice spoke.

"Future Boss!"

Then the employees ran over. Shobu stood out in front of them all as they supported him.

"Don't...worry."

He caught and embraced Ruri with the others.

He did not let go. It was more than the hand now. He used his entire body and arms to awkwardly but definitely convey his strength and let the girl know he was here.

"If something...painful happened...then you just have to...make sure that lots...and lots more happy things happen..."

Just like they had.

"You need to...accumulate plenty of happiness...on top of the pain."

.

Chisato heard someone crying in the blowing wind.

It was Ruri's voice. The inheritor of the business divisons and connection to the falcon was bawling like a baby in the arms of a smaller fighter boy who was supported by the others.

"Ah...!"

 _It's over,_ thought Chisato. _My greatest reason to remain with the business is over,_ she realized in her warrior form.

The Attacker had yet to move from within the collapsed wall behind her, but she decided to trust that he was fine. She also decided to thank them. And on top of that...

"We will settle this soon."

Chisato understood that when she saw the Falcon approaching Ruri and the others.

She had to go at this with everything she had.

She would attack on the left side from her perspective. She could use either hand, but that was the safest position since she was mostly right-handed. So she held a trion lance in her right hand on the left side of the Falcon.

There was wind and there was a screech. Where there was pressure there was a current. But...

_...It's been disturbed._

The Falcon was attacking within that disturbance. However...

"Chisato-san!"

Her comrades resisted atop the collapsing floor. They hardened the floor with armor panels from Thrúd and fired projectile armor panel with Hildr toward the Falcon.

She had no idea how useful that would be, but this was the end.

This "ending" would determine Shiraishi's future.

"That's right..."

Chisato's heart grew clear.

Even the Border agents had made the correct decision.

Their 6th Ranked Attacker understood what was fair, so he had made the go,lowing judgement: Settling this was a job for the Shiraishi daughter.

So Chisato stared at the Falcon.

She had long since forgotten fear for Neighbors.

At first, she looked straight at it. And...

"I'll be going now."

She spoke to all of Shiraishi and then raced through the air.

.

Chisato accelerated.

The Falcon noticed her and leaned its head forward to hide its throat.

"...!"

It screeched and spread its wings.

_...It's going to produce its attacks here!?_

Ruri had already regained consciousness, so control should have mostly shifted back to her. But some power must have built up inside it. The falcon was attempting to retrieve Ruri with its own actions.

It was a lot like a child desperately trying to take back a confiscated toy.

But its power could not be denied.

"Ohh...!"

Chisato held a trion lance up toward the Falcon and used its shaft to smash the explosive pressure.

There was a steam explosion and several wispy clouds appeared in the air like white lines. As trion fired through those, Chisato charged in with a focus on evasion.

She approached the Falcon and prepared to make her attack as she flew around it and dodged the lightning like a dance.

She twisted her body and – as dozens of trion shots approached – she removed her arm armor panels and leg armor panels while creating a path of panels.

"Kh...!"

She searched for the best striking point, slipped between the trion shots, spun around, approached, and passed over attacks.

"...!"

She arrived. She was in front and a bit to the left. From there, she could accelerate and attack simultaneously.

She could do this.

She could pierce the falcon's throat.

But the Falcon turned its face toward her. It opened its mouth to snow another core, and...

"—!"

It released an explosive screech.

It was the greatest sound yet. It immediately passed the audible range and would soon sweep across the walls, ceiling, and floor as a shockwave that glowed with green trion light.

And its nearby right frontal wing had drawn and raised a trion "feather".

The explosive attack had stopped her and the right trion "feather" would act as a counterattack.

"In that case...!"

Chisato flew straight in, intending to break through the screeching attack as well as the throat.

A moment later, something changed before her eyes.

The explosive screech attack suddenly vanished.

No, it had not been annihilated. It concentrated, narrowed down, and left the falcon's core in a different form.

"A concentrated beam!?"

The trion-based concentrated beam was formed from the same explosive pressure and it fired in a straight line.

.

_All the sound in the air is gone, thought Shobu._

_...The Falcon changed...the attack coming from its core..._

_...Is that...?_

He understood. The Falcon was trying to protect Ruri. To take her back now that she was trying to leave the past behind, it knew that fighting as a single program would no longer work.

_...So it's fighting like the true...Autonomous Trion Soldier it's supposed to be...!?_

The attack was as sharp as a thrusting spear as it swept through the air.

* * *

Two pairs of eyes saw White Rock sliced through from the upper front to the center front. They belonged to Seikai and Nakagami who had just run out of the ramen shop where they were eating dinner.

It looked like a trion cannon had sliced through the night sky from a distance of about three kilometers. But...

"Have you ever seen a laser beam that can continue firing long enough to look like a solid sword!?"

"You mean other than the one right in front of me here...?"

The two of them walked out with the Kitakata ramen bowls in hand, so they had to nod back toward the manager as he shouted for them to bring back the bowls before baling at what he also saw now.

"Damn."

"What is it? ...Oh, you can have my pork. I'd just gain weight."

"Sure thing. It's just that...maybe we should have stayed in there longer."

"Yeah. ...I can feel my extremely cold blood burning. They're definitely making history in there."

"It's unbearable, isn't it?" Seikai smiled bitterly, drank the soup from the bowl, and looked away. "We need to make sure we eventually do that too."

* * *

Shobu could tell the explosive trion beam had bisected the top of the hall.

The power was essentially following the Falcon's gaze as it swung its head. And it was turning toward Ortlinde as she charged straight toward it.

The ceiling was beginning to fall, but Shobu ignored that to look up at Chisato.

"...Watch out...!"

Shobu sensed a stone piece of the ceiling falling along Chisato's path.

And the Falcon was swinging its head beyond that falling stone.

Normally, the Falcon would not have made it in time, but the falling stone was in the way. Whether Chisato avoided or broke the stone, the Falcon's attack would gain enough time to reach her.

Shobu did not know if the Falcon had predicted that when it released its attack.

But he noticed Ruri stirring in her arms.

"...Yes."

The girl spoke quietly.

"I caused you all a lot of trouble. So...I will begin writing some history that can accumulate happiness."

.

A girl stood up with tears in the corners of her eyes.

The wind was blowing, the falcon's pressure swept through, and the night sky was exposed in case she felt like stargazing. In that place, she slowly gathered strength in her legs and turned both her eyes toward that night sky. And...

"Thank you."

She spoke to the falcon behind her.

"You were created to protect and save me all the time. ...I'll show Shuryō my thanks by rejecting this too."

So...

"As a mutual vow, I'll acquire what it is we lack!"

With that, she pulled something out from her pouch.

It was an armor panel that was the size of both her hands.

"Take this as proof from your best friend!"

She threw it upward.

.

Ruri's action caused the Falcon's right sight device to be destroyed.

"...!"

The Falcon leaned back its head and its right trion "feather" stopped moving.

It was receiving something from Ruri's actions. That showed how much trust it had in her and it also revealed the weakness created on its throat.

"Here goes."

Ortlinde created 37 trion lances and jammed them all into the falcon's throat.

It was a direct hit.

This blocked up its throat and left the explosive trion cannon with nowhere to escape, so the Falcon's chest exploded.

The Falcon had lost.

.

_...I did it..._

As she fell, Chisato used her rear vision to see the Falcon breaking up starting with the "feathers" on the wings.

The Falcon had been annihilated. It no longer had cores to supply trion to it and the frame of it had cracks running all along it.

Things go would be very different now. Ruri would no longer be weakened and trapped in the past and the Falcon would no longer hold her down as a remnant of Shuryō.

And Chisato saw something else beyond the great quantity of scattering trion light.

_...Ruri._

She could only see the girl's back, but Ruri appeared to be crying.

However, she was actually roaring into the emptiness. Blood dripped to her clothing like tears as a scratch mark was seen on her head, likely due to some debris hitting her, and was swept away by the wind.

"I am Abe Ruri, a candidate for leadership in the Shiraishi family's business...!"

The girl spoke clearly and loudly.

"This ends my testing period as well as acts as my quitting!"

That announcement said something about Shiraishi's future.

_...After all of this, we've chosen a future with Border..._

With that thought, Chisato simply let herself fall. Ortlinde gauge had already reached the red danger zone and she could see her trion body breaking apart. She would hit the floor and be unable to move in a few seconds, but the crumbling Falcon and falling ceiling would hide her exit. So...

_...I want to get some rest. Maybe grab a cup of something or other and some grilled chicken..._

She felt a smile on her face.

_...Triggers really are amazing. Even after all that moving, I only feel mentally exhausted. My body feels nothing of the sort._

"...Eh?"

But then something odd happened.

Ortlinde's fall came to a premature stop.

.

_...Eh?_

Chisato quickly checked the status display and saw she was 1.53m from the floor. Also...

**Release: Confirmed**

**Trion supply: Empty**

"Eh!?"

She was positioned on her back, so if Ortlinde was released now, she would fall onto her back. It would be a nasty fall too given the fact her body broke apart, reverting her back to her flesh and blood body.

But she did not fall.

Someone held her by supporting her back and knees from below.

Within the great quantity of scattering trion light and the thick fog blowing through the air, someone held her in her torn dress.

"You..."

It was not an Attacker. It was a black-haired boy. He was slender but muscular and he had a solid face. The eyes staring bluntly down at her were hard and visible.

_...Eh?_

When she widened her eyes and looked him in the eye, she heard a sigh.

"Hm, I guess I took that attack too lightly earlier. I don't look nearly as cool as I usually do."

The manner of speech and the voice were just like him. Chisato had no idea what was going on.

"Eh!? W-wait just a second. ...Are you telling me there was real muscle inside there?"

"How rude. You're a fighter and you still don't get it? You should've been able to understand why I was able to keep up so well without Kōgetsu despite your using of Ortlinde," he said. "I'm no slouch when it comes to my body, even if girls don't always look for that. ...Your division boss says she was sad because of losin' Shuryō when she had Ruri, but that's a damn lie right there. It would've been because she knew that, as kids, they wouldn't be takin' care of their body like an adult would. Those kids would've never been that close otherwise."

"Then the reason you took off your upper clothes...?"

"That's an accident because of that attack...but I also felt like it's better not to keep any secrets between us. I mean, I did see you pretty naked earlier..."

So...

"Which do you think is cooler?"

Chisato laughed quietly at that. And...

"I'm pretty sure someone protected me when I made my charge earlier."

"Some guys can be really capricious. Idiots don't know how to mind their own business."

"I like the idiot Attacker."

"Then we'll go with that. Which' good since I like being in the top ten of Attackers and not someone like Jinsei."

He did. He returned to his flesh a and blood body with a single breath and the usual Attacker was holding her. The sensation on her back and on the back of her knees was harder and warmer than before, but...

_...I appreciate it._

That had been what informed her if the fact that he had not been standing on a shield to reach her but rather some armor panels left over.

"But...where are you going?"

"To say goodbye to the others."

"Wait... My dress is torn...and what do you mean say goodbye!?"

Ruri must have heard her voice because she turned around beyond the thinning light. A piece of cloth coming from the Border representative had been tied around her head, but she had also shifted the cloth around so that two emblems could be seen. The first was for Border and the second was for the Yagura Branch.

"Does it look-...?"

The small girl trailed off, looked at Chisato, and rephrased her sentence.

"Looks good, doesn't it?"

"Don't expect me to sympathize with you."

But Chisato felt a smile in her heart. She was certain Ruri did as well.

Then the hall's door opened, revealing everyone who had been waiting outside.

"...!"

They gave a joyous roar that was a different form of explosive.

* * *

"That settles it."

The inside of the Border base was beginning to light up more with the night growing on. But the roof of the base was lit by the pale light of the moon. Kimura spoke from the roof of that building.

"Everyone."

 **Life:** "Huh? What is it?"

"Right," said Kimura before slowly continuing. She looked to the city and people below. "The party is ending. So with 'Part E' over, we can get started on Part F."

 **Mi-Kon:** "Did Kimura just say something?"

 **Life:** "Yeah, I heard it too... Ah, my strength... It's...fading..."

 **White Fox:** "Jinsei! Jinsei! Pull yourself together! Here, I have a Kurosaki porn game!

 **Manager:** "Take this seriously!"

 **Almost Everyone:** "You first!"

_What do they mean by that? Well, who cares. Oh, Krümel is so cute. Um, what was I trying to say again?_

"Everyone. Give your final statement for Border. Our destination will be the Neighbor world. And our objective..."

Kimura raised her eyebrows somewhat.

"To support Mikado City and the world we know as humans as well as take back anything that has been lost to them. This will also be a travel, so it will all be 'experimental'."

 **Life:** "Oh? You're ready to do this, Kawa!? So it's fighting after all!"

"Correct. Yes, that's right."

She did not feel like denying it.

"It's fighting this time. That too is a way of resolving these kinds of problems."

She was not afraid to let the corners of her lips form a smile.

"With everyone knowing what will be happening, we can have this three business meeting come to and end! We will thank everyone for their time."


	86. Border: Part 9

There was a gaze.

This gaze looked to the light and sound that eventually resumed over Mikado City.

The gaze in question stared out from a window, which was placed in the Border base.

There stood a black-haired girl. Her hime-cut hair had been placed behind her ears, showing that it was growing out slowly.

She stared out towards Mikado City.

Though she remained silent and unmoving, things moved behind her. It was an armada of programs and numbers, all made up of data sent to her by others. Though no one was inputting the data, they continued on their own.

"Have you been doing that all day? That must have been hard work. Also, is it really alright if you aren't with your team?"

The Operator Mei did not so much as turn around to respond to the question. She continued to look in the city's direction.

"We have just managed to accomplish something great and I'm sure the Yagura Branch feels great right about now. The preparation for what Jin has seen concerning the other matter also also complete. My calculations have been holding off his 'sight' concerning the business, so I felt the need to go over all the data and rearrange them accordingly. However, as Border has managed to increase their image due to interpretation, that data is nothing more than insurance. To be blunt, I have free time.

"To supply additional information, my team is already prepared. Toby has managed to gain something back while Takeshi has already been getting some help from Kakizaki. Suzume and Hosni are already fine for the moment, so I have no problems with them. Any planning can be done and gone over before our match tomorrow. That should be right, Director Shinoda."

Saying "Right," the Border director, Shinoda, walked up to stand beside the Operator.

"Prepared, huh? ...As usual, I've got to go over that new data myself later on to make sure everything is in order. That would normally be taking my time that I need for tomorrow. But you know, these past few days have been rather eventful, haven't they...? From the Wanderers, to the Falcon's first appearance at the greetings and having that same Falcon attack the Shiraishi family's building last night, to the finishing meetings today and the destruction of the Falcon. Tomorrow will also continue that route with the fifth round of the B-Rank Wars as well as our preparations for a possible attack."

"Yes. Jin and I had synced up our Side Effects to find the best solution to that attack while fighting each other over these meetings. ...He really likes to be difficult. Even so, I'm glad that he continues to be difficult instead of give up."

"You are saying that for everyone else, aren't you? The way your underclassmen handled Kurosaki, the way your cousin handled Kobayashi, and the way your friend handled Shiraishi. You must be glad that they never gave up, that someone had been there to bring them up, and that they continued to do things their way to win this. But..."

"..."

She could not say "But...?" and so instead turned to him.

Mei thought for a small while. After the moment passed, she spoke again.

"I judged that I am still not at that level anymore. People can view me however they likel but I know that I am nowhere near them at the moment. My views ruin the things I can do, but they all managed something of this scale. And thanks to their efforts, we maintain our sponsorships with those groups and have gained some powerful allies. Also, due to the construction of new methods and the materials needed, we need to keep moving forward; and the city has figured that out as well. I remain stationary since Yuki has shown me what I look like, so that is a problem. But that problem can easily be overcome after witnessing everything happening tonight."

"Wow, now that's a thought, isn't it? Speaking if their accomplishments... How do you suppose we should go about dealing with Shiraishi? The other directors have already given their two cents on the matter, but a concrete decision has not come out of that."

"Right. Due to everything we have seen, I would like to go over what came from Shiraishi. In short, they had created those armor panels as their own ways to fight against Neighbors without using the technology we have that allows for safer measures to be taken... It seemed that those armor panels are strong enough to match our 6th ranked Attacker, but they also seem to use trion at a quicker rate than our Triggers do.

"As an apology to Border, they have stated they will be destroying those armor panels as well as any information about them. Backups will be sent to Border for usage, but form what Terashima has said, those are relatively useless since they appear to be a watered down version of our own away ship. To he,o them after all of this, we have kept that as ore secret. Then they had stated that they will do anything Border asks of them, as long as it is within reason. If we were to use something as an interpretation, we could say that Ikoma's taking of Shiraishi Chisato counted as that 'anything' Border is asking for. But that can also be viewed as them sending the third daughter as another form of apology. That means she would be able to get the same treatment as Yuiga and the two from Hatohara Squad. Then there is Abe Ruri, who has announced her position as someone no longer with that business and her want to join Border."

"Yeah, that's a pain," Shinoda muttered, scratching his hair.

In the distance, multiple glittering lights shone over everything else.

After a while, the light began to reach them. Shinoda rubbed his chin with his hand.

"Ah, then what do you think of them from your viewpoint, Mei?"

"Right. Speaking more expressively than I did at the start of all of this, I judge them to be flashy. Speaking in terms of physical qualities, the amount of destruction has increased. Even more than what I have been told about you, Director. Speaking from the people's point of view, both the degree of annoyance and entertainment value have increased."

"And speaking personally?"

"That would be hard for me to answer and you know that, so you are being rather difficult yourself, Director. Furthermore, as I am still far behind everyone, I can't carry out judgement from a personal point of view."

"Then," Shinoda said. He brought his elbow to the edge of the window. "As the human Mei, what do you think?"

"Right. Speaking from my records of these last few months, they are far better than they were before. Compared to the simplistic ways that started out...Border's more recent members, knowing only about the 'now' and with the exceptions knowing what they need to do to form correct paths for everyone else to follow..."

She thought a little.

"If I had to say this as an individual, I would judge them to be worth more."

Mei moved her gaze down from Mikado City.

Below her, from within the tape placed at a point an empty space contained no people in it.

An area of abandonment.

"This was suppose to be a scar left behind for us to remember what happened those four years ago. All the fools around us have managed to make it into a scar of hope that everything lost will be returned. It puts Border under some pressure, but this kind of pressure is not so bad."

Shinoda, nodding with a "Right" looked out to the city himself who seemed to have gotten even livelier.

"Instilling that hope and changing the view of these kinds of scars is the bare minimum I would expect from everyone... Some people here may be fighting for their own reasons, for some money, or even just because they view it as a pastime, but that does not change the fact they are fighting while protecting Mikado City..."

As they watched the city lights flicker constantly at different times and place, they could see the groupings of cars from a distance moving in the same direction from the nearby screen.

And far away, the sound of small explosions resounded away from Mikado City. Compared to what they had been told about from White Rock, this was a minor issue.

"It's so troublesome... Since all these wild ones joined Border, everything has been getting that much more wild. I remember when I got told off for accidentally cutting up the smallest of things. Now here we are, having some of our people fighting against companies, fighting for those companies, fighting Neighbors we thought we would not see, and even making up excuses for others to use Triggers. The event with the Wanderers and Seidō must have also put Shokubutsu near the level of everyone else.

"Admittedly, this is also happening because of our lenience toward them, which has given them strange ideas. It could be said that we are going too easy on our younger members."

A glance.

"No need to be so hard on yourself, Director. We both know that Commander Kidō can rein things in with the others if they wanted. If they were allowing you and some other to show this leniency then it means they view it as a necessity to continue moving forward. Take this from someone who is overly lenient... Likable fools and idiots tend to make people want to watch their story play out and see where it goes. Those people you sent out were only a fraction of the 'fools and idiots' we can see around here. If those companies have only caught a glimpse of that, they will want to see how everything plays out for the largest fool and idiot known as 'Border' who decided to fight back against Neighbors while not holding anything back against them.

"...In a way, you need to rein them back in without restraining them. I am not fit to try something like that with any Border member, so I'm afraid you can't ask for my help with this situation. Now that we have settled things for Mikado City, we can focus on what we really want. Director Shinoda, you and the other directors have allowed them to say what they wanted, to express what Border as a whole wants yet could not say yet, so as nothing more than a combination of calculations, I will say that you all need to really own up to that."

"However," Mei continued. A smile bloomed on her face as she did so. "As a humble human, I think it's time to prove that we have the ability to take it all back."

.

Mei continued to speak.

How were they suppose to take it all back now?

"Border has gone away missions before, but you could not tell people that. Even our own members below the top B-Ranks did not know that, so it just shows how secretive you wanted to make that. No one can blame you for making the decision.

"But now that it has been stated that we will be 'finally be going' due to Mikumo and Commander Kidō... Well, that means this one will be the most important for more than just Border. I apologize for telling someone like you this, but I feel like being reminded of these kinds of things are necessary. As a way to make sure that no one strays from the correct path."

"Yeah," Shinoda said again. He looked at the lights coming from Mikado City.

"Because of this, we need to try even harder so that we do not let people down. They will be looking to us as we leave and as we return, expecting everything to come back... Dammit, now I feel tired yet energized just thinking about that kind of work. It's coming up so soon, yet it feels like it's so far away.

"It's kind of funny how we had people glaring as us multiple times, yet we are still saying things like 'taking back everything lost'," Shinoda said to himself.

He changed his view from the city passed the Forbidden Zone to the single girl smiling at something in a different room.

"Right," Mei responded. She also looked over from the other room to Shinoda.

"If you get tired, you are free to rest for a bit. If you feel energized, don't go jumping out of windows. But no matter which one it is, we will also be looking to our directors to guide us along this path we have taken as Border."

She gave a final smile before heading for the door.

"I wonder how this story will play out now. Even my calculations don't seem to be able to get to the end."

* * *

As the light of the night washed over Mikado City, people were gathered in a relaxed business room in a rather small building. They were arranging things around the room and shelves while speaking with the others who had arrived to help.

The most movement came from the two Shiraishi parents whose bags allowed the, to carry things out of the windows. They also enjoyed deliveries, so they could chat while they carried things out and back in.

"Wasn't everyone just great out there?"

"And after the excitement over that Neighbor, I seem to recall something about Chisato taking an interest in a boy..."

"Do you want to find interest in a boy, Kōji-kun?"

"Why would I want that when I have you, Koma-chan?"

"That's right," agreed a woman. She lowered her eyebrows and sighed. "They went all out on this meeting, so it should be fine. You can look forward to some grandchildren."

She was Kobayashi Naoko.

"I'm a little afraid for Chisato though, considering what we have heard about that boy..."

"Maybe a trip would do you some good? After all, Ōi-chan and Yoshie-chan seemed fine with him," said a man. "No one from my branch office got to go, so some of them are felling a bit down. If you two end up like that, I'm not sure I can be your friend anymore."

The man was by the window. He had a cigarette hanging from his lips and he was grinning toward the married couple. He stopped to take a breath and cross his arms. As the branch director for the Tamakoma Branch, he found no need to help out at the moment.

"But this business room feels more like your regular school socialization room. ...Don't you guys think you're trying to make Chi-chan _a little_ too comfortable now? Should we be assuming things will be even livelier in here?"

"Heh heh. That is right. With Chisato-san going to Border, things will be getting more lively for Takumi-kun and Chishi-kun. That also means there will be more room over here for Kōjirō-kun and Komahime-chan."

Seihana smiled toward everyone near the white cloth curtain divider she was checking on.

But she suddenly followed Rindō's gaze. Kōjirō, Komahime, and Naoko also turned around to see a teacher in a tracksuit.

He had attached something to that tracksuit: a thin chain.

It was just the one, but he had made it by connecting a few shorter chains together.

No one asked him what it meant, but Rindō did nod and speak.

"Did you think immersing yourself in the past would make you look cool, Chi-chan?"

"Dammit! You had to point that out, didn't you!? You aren't going to let me take anything seriously, are you!? And after we both managed to get a break for a bit!"

The others worked to calm the teacher down and Rindō took a breath.

"A lot has happened, but if I were to sum it all up..."

He made sure to begin with "for now".

"We have finished resisting and have managed to recover. But does that assumption qualify as pride from a Border Branch Director?"

.

Naoko nodded at Rindō's words.

She held a letter from Yoshiko with a message asking both her and her husband whether or not they found her result acceptable. Naoko forwarded it to Akio and spoke to the others with a smile.

"I think our decision to leave it up to others worked well as a test for Border."

"Right. ...You got to get some laughers, didn't you? But laughing through a lot of that? Maybe you were bottling it up too much..."

"A-Akasora, don't describe my nervousness for Yoshiko like that."

As the others gave Naoko weird looks, Rindō raised a hand after checking a few things on a tablet.

"Hey, everyone. Border has started to confirm that the frozen assets have began to move again. We'll be back to normal in half a day. Chi-chan, don't forget that we'll have to go over things for our branches, correct any deficiencies found in the data we collected, and prepared for what happens next. Speaking of what happens next..."

"Right," said Akasora while remembering everything. "If we're going to be taking everything back, we'll be needing to up our game a bit. If not, we'll be preparing at a more fundamental level. I think we can use what my idiot students learned to advance Yagura and Suzunari a bit, maybe help out some others."

Everyone looked to Naoko when they heard the mention of others. Kōjirō stuck his head in through the window and began groping empty air with both hands.

"Will you guys be okay?" he asked Naoko.

"What are those hands for? Besides, Yoshiko did a fine job before her departure."

"As a teacher, I would like to help out Minoru and Sekai," said Akasora. "If I can get those two and their squads in the right position, both Kurosaki and Kobayashi will have an easier time. Even if Sekai is no longer with Kurosaki, they can still use his name since he will allow it."

"I see," replied everyone.

A new tab appeared on the tablet Rindō was holding as well as the one Akasora had placed on the table. It displayed Shinoda and Sawamura.

Shinoda reported on the results and various problems found during the meeting.

Sawamura displayed diagrams of their actions and of the battles that had occurred. And afterward...

"The biggest result was repairing the relationships between the three companies of Shiraishi, Kobayashi, and Kurosaki. And we have received an assurance of their cooperation, which addresses our biggest concern for the away mission we have promised. With this..." Shinoda cleared his throat as a way to remain professional. "Border has settled on confirming that we will put forth the effort to receive everything that has been lost. This away trip will be proof of our resolve and abilities. Border will continue to work to maintain order against Neighbors while preparing to face them directly."

Sawamura bowed and raised her head to reveal a smile. There was no tension in it and Naoko felt it was entirely unplanned.

_Good. Everything seems to have worked out well._

* * *

A strong scent entered the night breeze.

It was a nice breeze.

It began in the southern part of Mikado City and moved up onto the part of the city to the north.

That breezy wind swept across the city on the surface while also hitting the giant structure build within the city.

That structure was a large base. The waves of the air produced a dull sound as they struck the white sides printed with the emblem of Border.

That sound permeated the sky. It could be heard from atop the base.

However, the Border base was divided between two different activities.

One was the traveling of workers who could not fight occurring across Border. Those areas were filled with light and noise.

The other was the preparations for a coming battle. Those areas were cut off by sound-blocking panels to provide some rest on the way there.

The people who had managed to transmissions and other necessities for the bus ies meeting got some rest or worked on the data first. Later, those who had to organize that data got some rest.

They all hurried down the passageways and corridors.

"We need to get everything ready for daytime! Those of us operating the machines begin our shifts an hour ahead of time, so that only gives us 3 hours of rest! Keep that in mind!"

"I know those of you on the shift before that are tired, but it's not too much longer now! If you've eaten, then get back to your posts!"

"Has anyone forgotten to set their radio or TV to record!? I'm taking requests if you need something!"

"I just want to record the local OP for Mon-Mon Dragoon!"

"I'll put in a request saying it's research material, so get back to work!"

They met up and discussed various issues at the intersections and elevators. Some of the volunteers and fighters without any work to do used their phones to request a shift for assisting with the food distribution, but most of them went to get some rest.

And there was another group making their way somewhere they could rest.

The meeting with the businesses was over. After waiting for the arrival of the reports from each company and the reports of what they would do, the Border members returned to the base in a normal fashion.

They did not show off too much. Kurosaki, Kobayashi, and Shiraishi each sent an escort to protect them for a leg of the journey, so they returned as something like celebrated victors.

"Huh? Shobu, are you not bringing that girl here? Ruri was it?"

It was Yuki and the others.

.

Yuki's question was answered by Shobu who followed behind the others while they moved through the Border base. He scratched his head.

"...I will be...bringing her here...but Shiraishi still needs...her for a bit... ...Plus, we still need to...wait for the next...enlistment day... ...She will join us...once those things are...complete."

"Is that how you're doing things?" said the others while Ōji and Kurauchi moved ahead of the rest of the group.

Ōji skillfully shifted his feet before spinning around to face them.

"Well,it is true we're talking about a girl who has just been through a lot. There are probably some things those guys need to take care of. If they neglected a girl that young, you would have to wonder why things got so far."

"...R-right... ...A-and you never know...what will happen if she...has not confirmed...her desires properly..."

"That's a good point," said Kurauchi. He placed a hand on Ōji's shoulder and added another rotation to him so the other boy was facing forward once again.

"If they don't take care of things properly, other businesses might use that as a way to say Shiraishi is sucking up to Border by giving us both Shiraishi Chisato and Abe Ruri."

"...E-exactly..." Shobu messed around the with devices around his neck. "...Also...she says she...want to practice more...so she can keep up...with Yagura..."

"Ohhh," everyone replied before noticing a call appearing on one of his devices.

It was Ruri.

The others let those two exchange some words that could be seen as unimportant, as a greeting, or as a thoughtful report of their situations. Meanwhile, Kanzaki asked Kimura a question.

"Kimura, what is Abe Ruri going to do once everything has been settled?"

"Right. That is more on the part of the directors. But if I had to guess, she will want to transfer to the Yagura Branch quickly since that is also where Shirashi Chisato will be placed. After all, knowing some people like I do, Shirashi will be viewed favorably as the third daughter and someone who can hold her own."

After all...

"If she was not placed in a similar situation as Hatohara Squad's Kobayashi and Tachikawa Squad's Yuiga, it could be said that Border took everything that happened at White Rock as a personal offense and that they will be forcing Shirashi to start from the bottom because of that. Also, it was due to Tenryū allowing her to use his Trigger that they all managed to destroy the Falcon at White Rock. Her being put in the Yagura Branch is the only solution as it works as a sort of 'initiation' for her. If it had been someone else from HQ, she would have had to stay with HQ and that's it. If it was from another branch, she would have to go there. But that does not seem to be a major problem."

"So to prevent anything bad happening," said Murakami. "She will be taken in by Sensei and the Yagura Branch. That will bring an end to her responsibilities as the third daughter and place her in a state of being a member of Border. And it will also work to protect Yagura from Kushikage-san."

"That is the path those two will take. Also...check that out."

Kimura pointed back toward Shobu.

At some point, he had fallen a few steps behind the others, but he was speaking into one if his devices, entirely oblivious that the others had slowed down to wait for him.

"—"

He was smiling a little.

"I see," said Hitomi. "If Ruri comes to Border and joins the Yagura Branch, scenes like this will be a common occurrence. And he'll have a girlfriend at the ready. This will make for some excellent material. Tenryū-kun, thank you for this gift."

"Hey! Don't go shipping off Shobu like that! He is just happy that he got to make a new friend while he was there!"

"Some of your views are unhelpful, but it is true the both of them have chosen to assist Border and receive assistance from Border by moving out of White Rock. From now on, they will not be daughters of a company or bosses of others. They will simply be people with a new place. Whether or not that will change their personalities is still unknown, though." Kimura's shoulder drooped."But you can say they are far surpassing the rest of us in their private life."

"Oh? Kimura, do you want a family!?" asked Kanzaki. "Then you can join mine! We can build a big family together!"

"Wait!"

"Why wait?" asked Kanzaki while Ōji started spinning wildly up ahead. "Family is a wonderful thing, Kimura. And you can build a bigger one by taking in cats like my father would! They can be a pain, but they are so very cute. ...What is the matter, Kimura?"

"Well, um...you're even more pure than I thought you were."

Kanzaki tilted her head and everyone else's shoulders drooped. Then Shobu spoke up as he caught up from behind.

"...U-um... ...I will be...taking my leave...now... ...Tomorrow... ...Rather, later today...is the fifth round...and Ema wanted me to meet...some of his friends... ...I would also like to introduce him...to Ruri-san."

He said with with a faint red coloring to his cheeks, so they all turned back as one.

"You're free to go get some sleep!"

His smile grew a bit before nodding and began walking away.

They had all been aware that he was not going home and instead going to a certain room to get some sleep.

Yuki was the first to react once the boy left. He lowered his upper body with a long sigh.

"We should really get some sleep too. Like he said; Round 5 is starting later today. Most of you need to be ready for that while the rest of us have a bit more work to do.

Mizukami walked forward with his phone open in his hand and he looked around.

"By the way, where's Iko-san? Did he go home already?"

"Ikoma took Shirashi-san to the branch office so she can be set up," said Kuruma.

"Hmm," replied everyone.

* * *

"I'm sure you already know this, but I might be a higher rank than you so I will be bringing you with me. Even though those armor panels were destroy when fighting the Falcon, would it be fine for me to ask for a Trigger version of Ortlinde?"

"Dunno. I doubt those armor panels will be made, but I'm sure they can come up with something for those lances. If not, I'll just throw Kōgetsu at you so you can feel a bit more special.

"Is that supposed to be a joke?"

Chisato and Ikoma were walking through a wide block leading to the Yagura Branch. They had decided to go to the building since it was relatively close to White Rock, so they did not have to walk far.

They compared the map they saw to the buildings.

"Oh, we're here."

After entering the building and being greeted by no one, they continued in their way.

"But this building..."

"It was originally a building for a lot of materials," explained Ikoma. "That means the place is nice and big, so that's a good place if we wnna fight using their training room..."

Moving passed that, they came to a different room that they had been informed was for Chisato to use. They unlocked the door, opened it, and were met by the scent of flour.

The room was nearly 10 square meters. The floor was made of the same material as the rest of the building and the room was entirely empty without even a bed. However...

"Perhaps we should look at it as being able to make it however we like."

"I wanna nice sound room to help with practicing."

"As long as you'll respond when when you're over and I talk to you, that's fine with me."

"I really like your lack of tension..."

Chisato just about replied with an exasperated "of course you do", but caught herself and said "I'm glad" instead. Then she lightly grabbed the entrance column and checked its strength. It seemed solid enough. So...

_...I like this place._

She turned around to say that out loud, but she found the Attacker was already putting things up on a corner of the room. _He just does whatever he wants, doesn't he?_ she thought and she started to smile.

"—"

"What is it?"

She only managed to get an "eh?" out of her throat.

Then she breathed in and let her senses spread to her surroundings. They were the only ones in the vicinity. The members of the branch all seemed to be out except the rhinoceros beetle that had "gone to sleep" in a different room when they were not paying attention. So as far as they knew, no one would be watching them,

"How should I put it? When I was at White Rock, I wanted to leave."

But...

"When we destroyed the Falcon, I was resisting along with the others. And..."

"And?"

"Right," she replied. That was a casual person's response and so she continued as if to carve that into herself. "I feel like I shouldn't have been trying to escape that place alone. Everyone was desperately trying to preserve and lift up the Shirashi family, so I shouldn't have been thinking about fulfilling my role and then running away..."

"Your role was somethin' on,y you could've done, so you're fine."

"But...if I hadn't told her to do that, Ruri wouldn't have suffered so much."

"That's probably true."

He admitted that. But...

"That's why I'm sure Ruri's glad that she didn't have you do it instead."

"I can't just avoid facing the problem like that..."

"It all works out if you view it as Ruri choosin' to protect you there. You...no, Shiraishi, that Mogami lady, and Kurosaki all used your promise as an excuse to be afraid of who would be the most hurt and to try to keep anyone from worryin' 'bout you. If you're gonna resist that, you can't just deny it like nothin'. Both sides caused problems for the other and so you're both judged. Lookin' at it like that would be the best."

"You're really looking down on us with that judgment."

"Yeah. I'm a fighter for Border who enjoys fairness and my name means 'Master', so I'm pretty awesome when you look at me. Even my last name sounds pretty nice when it's put in one of Suzu-chan's doujinshi." He kept his back turned as he worked. "So if you have to make a choice that comes with annoyin' feelin's, you can listen to my choice. You probably won't agree, but you can force that onto me and lighten the burden on yourself. After all, I can shove things onto my squad when they get too troublesome."

"Won't that increase the burden on your squad?"

"I make up for it with my results. Those guys have their burdens, I have mind, and we all have something to get done. ...It's a mutual exchange. No single side is entirely unhappy or happy. You can't really emphasize emotions and results without allowin' a mutual exchange of the benefits and the burdens. So I'll make up for those guys' burden with the results I bring back to them."

He scratched his head.

"Yeah, and then we can smile together and slap each other's shoulders."

"That's how boys do things. What about the girls?"

"I'm not a girl, so I wouldn't know. Oh, but Fuji'll probably know. She knows everythin'."

"That is an impressive lack of reliability."

But...

"Chisato. ...I want you to trust me about one thing."

"...About what?"

"Let's say you had always lived in a world that's very convenient for you. Full of happiness and full of dreams. That kind of crazy world."

"Yeah. And?"

"Right. Even in that case, you'd still be here. I'd have taken you with me."

"—"

Chisato was at a loss for words. And after breathing for a few seconds...

"W-wait. I need to go buy some drinks."

She somehow managed to get her trembling mouth moving and held her lips with her hand as she stepped out into the corridor.

.

Chisato jogged over to the end of the wide block after leaving the Yagura Branch.

A few small shops were located there. She turned the corner to hide herself from where he was and finally came to a stop.

_...What am I supposed to do about this?_

She was not confident she could answer that feeling of his in kind. She was still dragging around her past and even if she did clean herself of that...

"How am I supposed to believe I would have come here no matter what?""

 _I'm really not used to this sort of thing,_ she realized. _This is pathetic, Shiraishi's third daughter,_ she told herself with a bitter laugh.

"But."

Would this solve itself with time? Everything was coming up before long. The next session of progress would begin after that and Shiraishi would be changing the rhythm of their lifestyle by then. By that point, would the traces of that have faded inside her and would these worries lose all meaning?

_...The next session of progress_

It seemed so far off yet so close. But the word "April" reminded her of him.

When he had given her some underwear in the main garden, he had told her his birthday was April 29.

No matter what date her birthday was, he would still be older than her by a good margin. That may have been why he had used a nonsensical reason to claim she would be perfect if they got together.

But once that day arrived and they were truly together, would her feelings and her connection to her family have changed?

 _I hope so,_ she thought as she looked up to see not the café but the small clothing store next to it.

It was selling men's underwear hanging from the wall. She considered giving him some for his birthday as a reversal of the main garden incident.

"Huh? Shiraishi? ...Oh, but Ikoma said its fine if we just call you Chisato, so I kind of want to know if that's fine with you."

A black-haired man in a red hoodie left the nearby café with a paper bag full of seafood. He wore the red hoodie which had an Arashiyama Squad emblem on it that she had seen advertised before and he looked to the shop Chisato was facing.

"Men's? Do you prefer that kind?"

"No, I don't. ...I was thinking of buying some as a birthday present for Tatsuhito. And yes, you're fine to call me Chisato."

"Ah ha ha. As a prank? But you're really going easy on him."

"Really? It doesn't seem that easy..."

"It doesn't? The things that have been passed around with him always seem to be something else."

"...Huh?"

The A-Rank tilted his head at Chisato's confusion.

"Did you have the wrong impression? Ikoma's pretty out there when it comes to certain things. Like his last birthday or for one of our birthdays. Since he's like that, we burned a bunch of scrap materials during his, cooked meat over it, and pretended to be barbaric."

.

Chisato laughed.

The boy looked confused, so she raised a hand to say "don't worry about me" and let out the laughter she could not hold back any longer.

_...That idiot!_

He really was an idiot. Cool guys were not supposed to lie. And it was a lie that would obviously come to light later on. He had brought the underwear to her in the main garden to seem as if he was as crazy as possible, but he may have made up that kind of lie on the spot.

How much had he wanted her? But...

"Thank you, Arashiyama. ...You've put my mind at ease."

"Sure thing. I don't know what I did, so I'll just leave it at 'of course'."

"Right," replied Chisato as she bowed and turned around.

_That's right. A casual response. It's perfect for a liar. So I need to use it myself from now on._

And she began to walk to her new home.

_...I..._

She thought about him. About that Attacker who was undoubtedly an idiot.

He was an idiot. He was a truly idiotic person who would readily lie.

_But I love that idiot._

_There's no point in fearing these feelings,_ she realized. _I don't need to worry or think negatively about the fact that he loves me or that I love him._

After all, he would accept any of her burdens.

She did not have to respond to his feelings in kind because they were already mutual. She just had to tell him how she felt. It was mutual. It was a cycle. The Ouroboros loop created by two dragons was a symbol of eternity. So it was not the quantity of their feelings that mattered; it was how much importance they placed on the feelings they sent out.

She would make sure to leave him with the burden of her love. And with that, the burden would accelerate them, would lighten them, and would lead them to real results. And for placing that burden on him...

_...I just have to make sure we're happy together._

There were probably also some "girly" ways for her to do that.

So she would cook. And sew and clean. There were a lot of girls in Border. She would probably enjoy talking with them. And so she would support their happiness to make up for burdening him with her love.

Their relationship with their other members was probably the same.

It had also been the same with the Shiraishi family, Ruri, and the others.

"That's right."

She loved her family, but she could not place that burden on them right now.

But she had someone here who would accept that burden in their stead. And he always would.

"Tatsuhito."

 _His birthday is April 29_ _,_ she told herself as she arrived at her new home and peered inside. She found him setting down a table he had carried in from somewhere. When he looked back at her...

"Did you buy the drinks? Then let's take a break."

"Eh? Oh..."

She had said she was going to buy drinks, but she had come back emptyhanded. He seemed to have noticed, but she spoke up before he could say anything.

"I don't know what you like."

So...

"Let's go together this time. We'll probably be busy with the fight against Neighbors and everything else, so I want to know more about Border and about your preferences."

"You're in quite a good mood."

She could only agree with a 'that's right'. When he walked up to her, she placed herself by his side.

"I put up a resistance and I recovered. ...So I've decided I'm going to go someplace new. And I'll let an idiot guide me there."


	87. Toby Awdry: Part 5

The night continued to drag on as vehicles belonging to three companies returned to those companies. With their jobs of escorting some Border members for a leg of the journey done, they no longer had a reason to stay there.

Someone watched those vehicles pass by with a content sigh as he felt the cold ground on his feet. His shoes remained in his hand while his phone wa silenced in front of him.

"Apparently something fun had been going on. That large light looked like it was an attack from a Neighbor, but it was so far into the city. There no way it could have been a Neighbor without Border telling us about it."

Toby Awdry laughed to himself as he made his way to the Forbidden Zone.

He had never understood why his former captain liked walking around without shoes so much. When asked about it, he had gotten a vague response of: "Huh? Oh... I guess I just like the way everything feels on my feet. Heh heh. People call you a dog, but they also call me a fox. So I guess you can say it's my 'animalistic instincts' that make it feel nice."

The boy always knew how to twist words however he wanted.

_But I think I understand a bit more now..._

His spar and subsequent race with Noah and some C-Rank agents had all been done without any shoes or protection for his feet. Each time he took a step forward, he could feel everything he was stepping on from the duckboards and the empty pool to the festival stands that were no longer around.

During that time he had not been able to appreciate the feeling because he had been so enthralled with the festival of runners.

But now...

"The ground is cold, but refreshing. The small rocks hurt when I step too hard on them, but they don't feel too bad if I keep my steps light."

He tilted his head.

"Light steps. Heh. I don't think I've ever thought of taking light steps. All my steps have been pretty heavy, now that I think about it."

All his engery had always been used to reach his target while smashing through everything. That included the ground.

He steps taken against others had always held power in them as a way to push off the ground. Each step was more like a hammer hitting the ground so that it could launch him forward.

"..."

As he lightly spun on one leg, he extended out his other leg.

The spinning foot lightly pushed off the ground instead of smashing into it. When it went into the air alongside the rest of his body it did not create a strong wind but a nice breeze.

Once his frontal foot began to touch the ground, he held back the urge to smash into it again.

Instead of landing starting with his toes and finish with his heel, he started with his heel and began to push forward. His body started a new motion that brought his body forward while his foot finished with his toes touching the ground.

In a sudden burst, he went forward fast enough to make him have to steady himself by smashing his foot that was behind his body on the ground.

A resounding vibration ran through his body.

He crouched down and held his leg as the pain continued to run through his body from his foot and leg.

"Ow, ow, ow! Ouch! That really hurt! How do Yuki and the others make it look so easy!?"

"Well what's this? A stray dog hurt itself."

There was an insane reaction.

"Hey, I'm not a dog!"

It was after looking up at the person who spoke to him did he realize exactly who was there.

A man with some hair on his chin and a grid-like pattern on his eyes stared down at him with a grin on his face.

"Kei!"

"Hey there, little doggy. You look like you're having some fun by yourself."

"Really? I was just trying something and messed up a bit. My foot still kind of hurts now..."

"Oh? What were you trying out exactly? Is it related to that race you had last night that you didn't invite me too?"

Toby scratched the back of his head while diverting his attention away from the top ranked Attacker. It would have been a lie for him to say that he was not that interested in what someone like that had to say about him.

Deciding that he could hold off the conversation by putting his hand up, he reached into his pocket to retrieve his phone.

It seemed to work well since Tachikawa gave a laugh.

He found it hard not to smile with the man. The smile only grew once he saw the new chat name displayed in his screen.

 **Lobo:** "Uh, hey, Kōhei? Yū?"

 **Kuni:** "I'm too tired for this right now. Izumi, you take care of this."

 **Bullet Idiot:** "What's up, Awdry? Or would Lobo be fine?"

 **Lobo:** "Lobo's fine. It's not like you guys will stop even if I said otherwise..."

 **Bullet Idiot:** "Welcome to Border!"

 **Me:** "Does that mean the rest of us can call you that?"

Toby gave a blank expression as he answered back.

"Oh, you're talking to Yuiga, aren't you? Yeah, that expression fits it."

 **Lobo:** "No. I prefer if you didn't even address me, thank you very much. Now please leave so I can continue my conversation with Kōhei."

 **Me:** "I'm your upperclassman! At least show me _some_ respect!"

 **Lobo:** "From what Osamu told me yesterday and what I know about you, I have no reason to think that. The most respect I'll give you is not training using you as a dummy."

 **Me:** "Someone help me! This wolf beast is going to attack meeeeeee!"

There was no helping the growl that came out.

Taking in a deep breath, Toby calmed his nerves enough to look back down at the chat.

 **Bullet Idiot:** "Hey, leave Lobo alone. He can kick your ass a hundred times by the time _you_ get a shot on him."

 **Me:** "I'm being picked on here!"

 **Lobo:** "Anyways... Kōhei, I just wanted to know how to deal with Kei. I'm with him right now, but I'm never sure around him. Especially since he has those grid-eyes."

 **Bullet Idiot:** "Grid-eyes! Hahaha! This is why I like you, Awdry!"

"Oh, you look pretty proud of yourself there," Tachikawa said. He had decided to check his own phone while waiting for Toby.

 **Bullet Idiot:** "But I would say to just ignore his stupidity and ignore his seriousness. ...So just ignore him. You're kind of too good of a match for him, so make sure not to get trapped by him. If you really need any help, call Jin-san or your Operator. Both should be able to deal with him, no problem."

 **Lobo:** "Got it! Thank you!"

Toby closed his phone with a snap.

"Oh? Are you done? What did you need to do?"

"..."

"Hm?"

Without any warning, Toby twisted his body around and began a full sprint away from Tachikawa.

"Hey!"

The chase was on.

.

Tachikawa had been surprised when the boy in front of him made a mad dash away from him. But it was not because he was running away. It was because of the speed he was using to run away.

_That's it. That's what I wanted to see._

_It's not as fast as Yuki, but there's so much there that I can't let him escape now._

Even if his legs were longer and his strides took less out of him, Tachikawa was well aware that he would not be able to keep up here.

The best option for catching up would be to use his Trigger. Even thought that was the best option, he knew that it would give reason for Toby to bring his own out. That situation would mean a complete escape for the boy.

The way he moved seemed to be a mix of two types of steps.

The first type of step was a hard smashing one that looked like it sent feedback vibrations to the boy. The sound it made against the ground made it seem as if it was his way of fighting while running. It likely told him the results of his run and was used to stop himself from going too far ahead or losing his balance.

The second type of step was a light one, as if he was leaping through the air. Each time his heel to touched the ground, his body would already be in its next movement. But by the time his toes reached the ground, his entire body had already moved ahead and his heel was in the air again. It was likely due to these light steps that the heavy steps were needed.

It was because of this combination of steps that Tachikawa found a strange running style with the boy.

_He can't seem to decide how he wants to run. From what I heard from others, he seems to have regained something during his race. But at the same time, it looks like that is mixing just a bit with how he did things before._

It was the same difference between the boy using his mind to fight and using his body to fight.

The nature of Toby's Side Effect prevented him from forcing his body to move a different way when his reflexes took action, Tachikawa knew that. This was a similar situation where it looked like the boy wanted to use the light steps but his body wanted to smash the ground.

It continued to grow apparent the more the two of them ran through the city.

With neither one using a Trigger, they could both see just what they were capable of without any sort of enhancement.

Even with that being the cases, there had been something that Tachikawa wanted to say.

_That just means I need to come out and say it before he can't hear me._

His own strides took less out of him and he could see Toby's back maintaining the same distance no matter how many steps he took.

Due to the time of night, there were not too many people around. That left Toby in a relatively clear view of Tachikawa as they ran.

He put his plan to action as soon as he closed the distance by an extra step.

"Hey Toby! ...No, I should call you by that appropriate name now. _Lobo!_ "

Another step disappeared between the two of them.

"I want to ask you something!"

A third step disappeared, but not because of Tachikawa increasing his speed. It had been because Toby decreased his speed.

"I want to know if you want to join Tachikawa Squad!"

The amount of steps had been reduced to zero in a single instant.

Tachikawa found that he could not stop in time to not crash.

_Crap!_

As he register his current situation, something dawned on him.

_...Eh?_

He was now in a different location than he had previously been in.

The night sky quickly became visible above him as he felt the wind move through his body.

He now laid on the ground.

_How did that happen?_

.

Toby noticed the confusion on Tachikawa's face and felt his own confusion flare up at seeing the older man on his back.

"Eh...? Kei? Why are you on your back?"

"That's what I want to know!"

If neither one if them understood this then what point would there be in continuing the conversation?

_I don't know what happened, but maybe I did that?_

Taking a look at the people around, he noticed that there were whispers going around.

Something else that was worth note was that he was now looking up at the Border base inside of directly toward it. His body also felt a bit lower to the ground than he remembered.

"Why did you just toss me like that!?"

_Toss him? Me?_

There had indeed been a moment of weight on him and he did remember seeing his vision turn to at least five different places before coming to the one he had now.

"Sorry about that. I guess I..."

_I what? Tossed him without meaning to do so? That wouldn't hold up at all!_

He helped Tachikawa up as he spoke.

The older man dusted himself off before running his back.

There did not seem to be any serious injury, but it was clear that Tachikawa would be feeling sore after this.

"It's fine. I should have been more careful, especially knowing your Side Effect. I'll say that one was on me."

_Was that it? It would make sense._

"But I was serious about my question. I guess I should have waited until I slowed down myself first."

That's right, he had asked something while chasing Toby through the street.

It had been due to that question that Toby had come to a sudden stop. It was a question that he had not ever expected to hear, but one he knew e had an answer to right away.

But it was best to confirm his hearing was correct before answering to a possibly unasked question.

"Uh, about that... What did you ask me?"

"If you wanted to join Tachikawa Squad."

"Oh. Then my answer is a rejection."

"You can boss around Yuiga."

"Tempting, but I'm good. I can just throw some Scorpions at him."

"You'll be on the best squad in Border. And get some extra perks because of it."

"My squad is great already, but I'll just pretend I heard some selfishness and not an insult. And I'm fine with the blades I have now."

"Then how about... You get some personal training from me!"

"Hello, Yūichi? There's a conceited ace here and Kōhei said to call you if he got too full of himself. ...Hm? Mei would be better for this? Okay, I'll give her a call then."

"Wait, wait, wait! Let's not make this into a bloodbath so quickly!"

It was amazing how quickly the best Attacker in Border fell to his knees at the mention of the Operator.

Feeling bad for the guy, Toby lowered his phone with a sigh.

Everything Tachikawa had been saying sounded great on paper, but Toby knew that it meant nothing to him. It was all some glamour and shine that he could put on by joining that squad, nothing he would have actually worked for or earned.

Kotowari Squad had more than enough for him.

_Take can be annoying at times, but he's getting better. Besides, he's still the only person around who holds nothing back when talking to me or training with me._

_Suzume's crazy, but I can usually keep up with that crazy. Besides, her dances are actually fun to watch and be a part of. It really gets me excited when she started laughing, increasing the pace, and tells me how good I'm doing._

_Hoshi's new to the squad, but I'm really glad she joined. She's always nice to me at school and now she can support the rest of us. No way in hell am I going back on something like that._

There was simply no reason to accept such a thing.

"Okay, then about we bet for you? You like having solo matches and so do I. Let's have some matches and, if you can win a single one, I'll take your rejection."

This was an obvious act of selfish desperation.

No matter how much people treated him like a dog, look down on him for his ways of doing things, it was a proven fact that Toby was not an idiot.

He was a genius.

Seeing through an obvious trick was easy, thinking through this obvious bait was easy, and coming up with a counter to it was the easiest thing of all.

After all...

_I can't win._

.

Tachikawa grinned as he watched Toby shifted his feat from side to side. His weight seemed to be teetering with his eyes that looked toward the night sky for an answer.

If anyone said that this boy did not look like a dog then Tachikawa was sure that there would be a riot.

That had been why he proposed this idea. He was aware that Toby got easily excited and would give a positive response.

When the dog boy opened his mouth to speak, Tachikawa was sure that he had won this round. A victory for him that could not be taken. After all...

"Sure. I'm fine with that. I just have to win a single match out of a thousand matches, right?"

How could he lose?

"Su-... Wait, what!? That isn't what I said!"

He had almost fallen for the counter.

"Huh? But you didn't say how many matches there were. Besides, we both like having solo matches. And I'm sure you of all people would enjoy showing off so much. Besides, beating me a thousand times should be easy for you, right?"

"Eh? Uh, oh... I wouldn't want to put you through that kind of thing."

"It's fine. It'll also help me prepare for the next few matches we have. Yeah, a thousand matches sounds nice. Besides, even if we don't do all those matches at once, I'll get to have some fun during the BRW and then end up on Border's top squad! What could be even better than that!?"

"No, no, no! That's-"

_He's playing dirty!_

Tachikawa knew that the crowd of people around them had left soon after he had gotten up, but some people who stuck around seemed to be a part of Border. Their gaze seemed fixed on the conversation going on.

_If I deny this, those guys will know I backed out when I had been the one to suggest this! If I do go through with this, word will spread to the more dangerous members! And the worst part is that I would get nothing out of this!_

It was a guarantee that Tachikawa would win the first few fights. It had been the reason he suggested such a thing in the first place.

The ones that came after those first few were not something he could see though.

Toby would not be staying at the same level during the whole times. He was the type to easily advance and climb up in a short amount of time. It would not mean he would win, but it would be impossible for him to lose a thousand times. Even to Tachikawa.

It was a well crafted trap.

_My best option would be to reject that and take back my words. It's less work for me and I would end up with the same result as if I did fight him a thousand times. I can take a small hit to my reputation since I would still be Border's best Attacker._

All that could be done was grit his teeth at his loss.

_It's a pity that he won't join, but I won't be stopping here. I'm fine with being a dog catcher for as long as I need._

These sort of thought would not have came to him when Yuki was still around as the boy's captain. The changes of harm to him were higher due to Toby's obsession with his captain.

After Yuki had stepped down from being captain, the dog boy's attitude had taken a nasty dive. It had been like watching a rabid beast fighting.

Even after Kotowari Squad has seemed to mend itself again, there had been no reason to go for the boy. He seemed unsure about something while holding himself back from the fights.

Everything had been set after the previous night.

The training he had done the Shor Squad captain had managed to help him overcome what he had been lacking and there would no longer be someone like Yuki for him to be overly attached to and stop him from making a move.

But that seemed to have been a failure.

The boy's attachment and loyalty to his current squad had kept him from accepting.

It was actually very admirable, but...

_This is the same case as with Nasu and Kō. Great agents sticking with people who can't keep up with them. Leaving them would be best, but they're choosing to stick around._

He had experience with these people already. To see Toby in the same situation was enough for him to pull his hand back a bit.

There was no reason to fully pull back his offer, but there was also no reason to extend his whole hand to someone who could not see how far ahead they were.

"Fine. I get it. But at least let me help you out a bit. You use Scorpion, but I can still teach you some stuff after fighting Jin so many times."

"I'm fine. Mino's my mentor and I can follow his kind of movements better than I could follow you or Yūichi."

"You really want to just reject everything I say, don't you? Is that what Izumi told you before?"

"Haha. Sorry about that."

Tachikawa felt himself start to laugh along with the boy.

It was his loss again.

"In that case-"

Before he could finish his sentence, a sound came rushing toward them.

They both turned once they realized that the sound had been someone running in their directions. As for who it was...

.

"P-please! Please, Border agents! Help!"

The first thing Toby noticed about the girl who had ran up to him and Tachikawa was the double-crest emblem on her clothes.

_What are those shitty parents trying to do now?_

Once she caught her breath, the girl looked up. Her eyes widened at the sight of Toby and he felt nothing more than the want to back away.

His parents had been harsh to him and tried to extend that to their workers. Each employee he had met had either chosen to ignore him or look down on him. There had been a few exceptions, but for the most part they had been just as rude.

That was why when she moved forward toward him, the want to leave grew.

"Y-you're... You are Toby, right? Madam's son! Please, she is in trouble right now and needs help! I can't find any other Border agents, but finding her son is the best outcome!"

Conflicting feels began forming as he thought about what this meant.

His largest would never look for his help. They had chosen to ignore his existence for the most part, so helping his mother felt wrong.

_But if she's looking for Border agents then it means that it involves a Neighbor. We haven't heard anything from the base though. And there's no real reason for that woman to go near the Forbidden Zone._

"Please follow me!"

Toby felt his body react on its own as the girl's hand reached out to his own.

He was unsure how his body would react so he tried to force it to do something else.

Due to the nature of his Side Effect, his body quickly stalled due to two different forces trying to move it.

This had given the girl enough time to reach his hand.

"Whoa there. I can't just have someone go taking our Lobo here. Mei and Yuki would kill me if he was kidnapped."

"But Madam!"

It was a rare time where he had been glad to have Tachikawa around.

"It looks like something's going on. Fine. You can take me there. I'm sure the first ranked Attacker of Border won't have any issues with a Neighbor."

It was true.

During the recent invasion, Toby had heard how Tachikawa had managed to take out an Illgar as well as manage to finish off some Rabbits that Murakami had been fighting.

Any normal Neighbor would be no match for him.

But that did not seek to be the case.

"No, you have it wrong! Madam is being attacked by someone using a Trigger!"

* * *

_...Not good._

Molly thought in that instant.

She had been wandering through Mikado City with her aide as a way to familiarize herself with it.

It had been during that time that someone had rushed at them.

If it had been a regular theif then he would have posed no threat. The real issue came when his body seemed to be swapped out for a new one.

He had used a Trigger.

How was she supposed to get out of this one? She had an idea, but...

"I guess that won't work."

No matter what she did, returning alive was not going to be easy. But she had never had too much of an attachment to life, so...

_...I guess this is fine._

She also decided to get a good view of the scenery in her final moments.

She was currently far from the Forbidden Zone and a park could be seen nearby.

There was a garden, fields beyond that, and a path through the field.

She stood on the path, but where was she to go now?

_...What's placed beyond here?_

_This is complete escapism,_ she thought with a bitter smile.

She turned toward the rows of fields and cast her gaze beyond them.

"—"

She saw someone there.

They were smaller than she was and they moved toward her with their front to her.

_...Is that...?_

Just as she thought that, she felt her vision grow dark.

She feared her life had truly ended, but it soon cleared up.

There was a straw hat on her head. And...

"They are gone."

The person she had seen had disappeared.

After confirming they were nowhere to be seen, she took a breath.

"Where can I meet you?"

And...

"It isn't over until I do."

.

Molly opened her eyes.

From the ground of Mikado City, her high-speed thoughts were still functioning.

She had little strength left in her legs while exposed to the night air. But...

"Ahh, you can cover up with this..."

"Madam! I brought some real Border agents!"

She stopped worrying about appearances.

She actually let the man nearby place his jacket over her shoulders.

.

On the road away from the Forbidden Zone, someone had fallen to their knees.

This figure who still appeared large even on their knees was Seikai.

Trion gas surrounded his arms as he pressed his hands against the ground and shook his head.

Someone was walking to his left and he looked up at them.

"The Awdry son..."

But he did not get the full name out.

That was because a crack started to form on his body starting from his mouth and the gas continued to escape.

He had suffered a blow worthy of being called fatal.

He had engaged Toby in combat and this was the result of the very first attack.

"Kiyoshi, right."

Toby looked ahead to the structure and light of Border's base as he spoke.

He viewed a former failure, something he had never been able to beat: his former self.

"I don't know why you're doing any of this... I don't like that woman, but you are insulting Border and I'm not fine with that. At the very least, I'll take you to the police."

But Seikai did not nod. The voice of a strong woman rang in his head as if in a response.

"Seikai! ...Do you really fucking think you're important enough to bring me trouble!?"

"No...!"

Seikai produced a gassious voice and stood up, albeit unsteadily.

And he took a deep breath.

If he did not at least cover his wounds then he would continue leaking trion.

He could move as much as the false body of someone who has taken damage allowed. So after gathering his strength like that...

"—!"

Seikai launched an attack on Toby's back.

.

Seikai realized he was no match for him.

_...When did he reach this level...!?_

He was nothing like the other day.

Even during the battle in that waterway, he would have been no match for him in a proper duel. But the battlefield was a factor and any person would use that in every way possible. They had not been dueling in a ring.

So he had thought this would be the same.

He thought back to when he had approached him just now.

_...I was..._

Careless.

.

Earlier, Seikai had charged at Molly. His target had changed once he noticed Toby rushing in his direction.

They were far from the Forbidden Zone and there were wheel tracks in the road, so he had rushed straight in and fired his Asteroid shots. And he used the 3-way version.

He had not wanted to hold back and had gone all out from the very beginning. Or he had meant to.

If his preemptive strike had been successful, someone else could have taken care of the rest. He had hoped an unworthy man like him could at least support his boss.

That was why he had gone straight in.

If his opponent had dodged, he could have circled around him with even greater movements.

There was a trick to that: the wheel tracks in the road.

The slopes created by wheels made for good footholds when moving left or right.

That was all it was, but knowing how to move around the battlefield meant a lot. Especially when his opponent had not been prepared for this kind of thing. He had already checked over the possible battlefields the day before, so he was more familiar with it. However...

"—"

Toby had dodged his Asteroid to the right.

It had looked like he only lightly swayed his body, but that was inaccurate.

Toby had slipped through the gaps between the rapid-fire trion bullets.

 _Impossible,_ Seikai had thought.

But he had gotten through the bullets as if simply walking.

Meanwhile, he had moved too far to his right. So he had swung his right hand while jumping. He had made a leap to circle around to Toby's left.

"Seikai!"

That was when he had heard the voice of his boss.

He had wondered what that was about and that was precisely when the attack had come from dead ahead.

It had been Scorpion.

_...How!?_

Toby had been passing him by, so why had the attack come from in front of him?

Only then had he noticed he had let go of the Scorpion.

And he created one that was more of a polearm before having placed the butt end against one of the wheel track slopes at an angle that would pierce his gut.

His gaze had followed Toby, so he had not seen the Scorpion stab into him like a pike.

No, it was not that he had not seen it. He could not see it because it was hidden behind his right arm's Asteroid shots.

_...This is..._

It had been almost the opposite of what he had done in the waterway the other day.

Then, he had made a feint shot hidden behind an arm.

This time, he had done it.

His leaping motion had shifted him from the Scorpion, but...

"—"

He had not lasted. He had tried to keep his legs firm, but the Scorpion had escaped his movement and spun through the air.

"So you have returned."

He had seen it fall right into Toby's hand while he kept his back turned.

_...Oh._

_What have I done?_ he had thought.

_I have undoubtedly helped this beast grow._

_._

"...!"

Seikai used trion bullets on both his arms.

If he could not reach him and he would dodge, he would have to drag him into it.

He took the remaining trion left in that false body, solidified it in his hands as cubes, and ran.

He jumped from the wheel track slopes to accelerate as if running up the road.

_...Here I go!_

There was Toby's back away from the Border base. His hair was blowing in the battlefield wind.

_...How fucking poetic!_

With that thought, he moved his arms as if to embrace him from behind and clasp his hands together.

If he had the trion bullets collide, they would burst and trigger an explosion. Even with his acceleration Trigger, he could not see how Toby could escape the blast.

For an instant, Seikai thought of his companion's faces.

_...Everyone...!_

But no matter how much he tried to remember, nothing appeared in his mind's eye.

He was focused on the moment right now. He had no time for his companions. And he wondered if they had accepted him specifically because he was so heartless.

A moment later, he did not so much stop as he did throw himself forward to embrace him. And...

"Kiyoshi."

He realized the scent of a beast had reached his chest.

It was Toby.

He took a light step into his closing arms.

.

_...What!?_

Seikai came to a stop without thinking.

He realized an impact had hit both his arms.

It was not that the trion bullets had come together and exploded. A horizontal rod had entered between the inside of his elbows.

It was a Scorpion.

The blade end pierced the inside of his left elbow and the butt end shattered the inside of his right elbow.

His first attack had also harnessed his initial strength so he would self-destruct.

"Kh," he groaned while Toby's voice reached him.

"Lesser Kiyoshi, how about we put it like this?"

This being...

"Your mistake was not being more thorough in your initial attacks."

In an instant, Toby grabbed the Scorpion from between his arms.

_...Oh._

The beast scent was on the move.

It was the scent of his hair.

He opened the Scorpion, slammed the blade against the trion bullets in his hands, and trapped them.

"Here I come."

He had turned around in his arms.

That put him at extreme close range, so he responded.

_...Ohh!_

His elbow was shattered even with a false body, his trion bullets had been taken, and he had received a fatal blow to the core of his body.

What more could he take from him?

_...If a Wilde animal would steal anything, would it tear out your heart? Or..._

Seikai sent his entire body forward. He swung his arms, head, and everything else down to strike Toby.

"—!?"

He saw a light below him.

It was a blade. Toby's Scorpiom was standing up from the ground with the blade open.

_...When did he do that!?_

He knew. He had done it in the timing you could call the instant of attack.

He could slip an attack into the gap between attack and defense.

 _He is dangerous,_ thought Seikai. But he also realized the meaning of the light being fired from below.

He had poured all of his remaining trion into those trion bullets and they were now being fired as a cannon. And it would not hit his jaw or face.

It would hit his entire head.

"...!"

A powerful impact blasted his head.

The trion light scattered, the impact destroyed his head, and his body was quickly swapped back out for his real one.

Seikai found his vision wavering. The blow to his his head, while not effecting his real body, had shaken his brain.

His vision was going dark as he lost consciousness.

But he understood one thing: he had tried to take a wild beast and instead had his freedom taken.

_...Guys, I'm sorry._

He thought while falling to his knees and collapsing.

_I lost to Border people again._

.

Toby took a breath after Seikai collapsed and shut his eyes.

He decided against having any thoughts about this enemy.

Seikai had made his decision when he came here.

"Honestly..."

Only now did he come to understand many things.

He muttered to himself while thinking back to his defeat and the path he had walked afterwards.

"If I had understood this earlier, this would have been a very different story."

He did not feel apologetic. What he had done had been the best option for who they had been back then.

That would never happen again.

And from here on, he could only count on the future.

So he turned to face his mother.

"Awdry boss."

"Giving me the 'status' treatment, are we?"

"Because you are still going to sponsor Border."

However...

"I will never see you as anything more than a terrible woman."

"And why is that?"

"Because you and that terrible man gave a hollow threat."

Hearing that, Molly's expression changed while backlit by the city.

"Heh...!"

She laughed. One of the two Awdry bosses covered her mouth while giving a bitter laugh.

"What exactly do you mean? You who is nothing more than a failed child who has become a beast."

"Right."

Toby nodded and stepped forward.

He was a challenger, so he continued forward.

"I know just how you two work. You said this and that about Border because I was a part of it, but you did not take your money back because you see the value of Border. The disappointment you feel for me is separate from your feelings of Border. No matter what I say or do to you two, you will not stop your sponsorship of Border."

"Very good. I suppose failure children do have their own days. With that being the case..."

She stood up while ignoring the tears in her clothes.

"Know that everything we do against you is only against you. You are the failure son we wish to forget and so we will deal with you like the parents who wish to forget." She turned around to begin a walk back into the main part of the city. "Border is not an organization we can turn our backs on. If something happens to our money, it will be Border who suffers from it."

"Madam..."

"Good job finding someone, Emily. Just next time...do not find a beast who can't control himself."

Toby watched as the two woman left.

There had been no need to worry about them since he was aware of the fighting capabilities needed to be a part of that company.

Feeling a hand on his back, he looked up to see Tachikawa looking down to him.

"You can leave carrying this guy to me. You did a good job there, Lobo. I'll tell Yuki all about it."


	88. Mukuro Taiyōko

The trees were moving below the night sky.

A vast city stood with the Forbidden Zone to the east and the end of the city to the west.

That spacious area was shaking near the end of the city where the lights of Mikado City could be seen. A few long shapes cast shadows in the starlight there.

They were machinery bearing Mikado Construction's emblem.

Eighteen machines were not many, but the emblems on them were new. And something else existed in the depths of the shaking building below those new machines.

A giant wreck sat on a large plot of land.

The machines' frontal and overhead lights shined shined on three distinct objects, each having varying sizes.

People were examining those objects. The students wore uniforms from both Border and general companies with stoles to keep out the night air.

One of them sighed below the lights while standing atop the central wreck.

"This place really took a beating. I guess it's fine since our members are viewed in a good light."

 **Red Sky:** "That just proves that the Falcon did not hold back, Mukuro."

"Of course," replied the boy while casting a short shadow on the wrecked frame.

He was a lanky boy with straight hair. He opened up his phone in his hand and began recording his surroundings.

The recording gave the name Taiyōko Mukuro. He looked down at the wrecked building he stood on.

"Kushi-nee can't be found, can she?"

 **Red Sky:** "You will be a suspect too after her."

 **Corpse:** "Can I say I would prefer I had not gotten my name until later?"

 **Red Sky:** "Do you know where Kushikage is?"

 **Corpse:** "I only saw her leave the office and walk outside. Nothing more than that."

 **Red Sky:** "Got it. Then that's enough."

 **Corpse:** "Why do you say that, Akassan?"

It took Akasora a few seconds to respond on the transmission.

But the teacher's words did finally reach Mukuro as if carried by the night breeze.

 **Red Sky:** "Kushikage had used some people."

 **Corpse:** "That just makes me more jealous of those people."

 **Red Sky:** "Younger brothers should not actively try to rely on the kindness of their siblings."

Akasora's comment came with a hint of a bitter smile.

"Anyway," he continued.

 **Red Sky:** "We have had a number of issues to deal with since you have your last name, so this was just how it worked out. And all kinds of people are plagued by lots of petty actions soon after getting their names. Did you have to go through anything interesting?"

"Hmm, I don't really know," said Mukuro before remembering he was speaking to an adult and his boss.

He briefly yawned before realizing his phone was not picking up his voice.

"Phew. I really should actually try to answer my boss's question."

 **Corpse:** "Um, do you mind if it's kind of silly?"

 **Red Sky:** "Not if I can go punch you if it irritates me too much."

 **Corpse:** "Oh, well, there was this one annoying thing I had to do. You see, I was late showing up this time because I burned my hand."

 **Red Sky:** "Was that burn in the daytime?"

"Just look," he said while holding up his currently unharmed hand.

 **Corpse:** "Bakuto Denji had been running by, you see. And he had decided to include a sort of test for me when we crossed paths."

Namely...

 **Corpse:** "It was this ridiculous trick where you place a cooked chestnut in your hand."

 **Red Sky:** "Did he test you like that?"

 **Corpse:** "Yes, but completely out of the blue. I was walking home after leaving the branch office and that idiot runs up, says 'catch!", and threw it at me. I caught it, but it was really hot."

The memory of the event led Mukuro to shake his hand, but the device in his hand copied the action.

"Oh, whoops," he said while stopping his hand.

 **Corpse:** "Now, on any other day, I would have peeled and ate the chestnut without saying a word."

 **Red Sky:** "Not reacting is certainly different."

 **Corpse:** "That's not the point, though. See, I thought he would attach me if I said anything at all, not that I couldn't defend myself but that's neither here nor there, so I held in my voice. But the reaction found another way of getting out. So there I am making the craziest faves that you could describe as 'sour' or 'scrunched' and that idiot films the whole thing with the biggest grin you ever saw. I only got through it by swearing to myself I would just uses my blades to cut him up."

 **Red Sku:** "Did you?"

 **Corpse:** "He ran away, so I was going to chase after him and give him some nice cuts. But I guess he got others mad since your guys' top B-Rank captain followed before I could and WA firing at him. I went along for the ride, that's why I was late coming here."

 **Red Sky:** "Sounds like you were both to blame. But..."

Akasora's voice came from Mukuro's phone.

 **Red Sky:** "Mukuro, you are part of the investigation this time. You know why, don't you?"

.

"Pretty much," confirmed Mukuro.

_...That's really all I could do. Or rather, I hadn't really thought about it that much._

"I mostly get it. Given the circumstances, I shouldn't be moving too freely or in secret because Kiyo-nii was at Kurosaki and Kushi-nee is doing her own thing. Once again, I was left behind to guard something that doesn't exist to them."

At this time, Taiyōko Mukuro was said to be involved with these incidents under Kushikage's command.

But unfortunately...

"Official records and witnesses say I was the last one to be seen with Kushi-nee, so I hurried here instead."

The events of the meetings had essentially passed him by since it was led by those older than him and fought at a moment's notice.

He wished he could have gotten here sooner, but it was what it was.

He had not come here so he could be involved in the meeting of the organizations or battle against the Wanderers's lost weapon.

He was not prepared to do that and his support came in a different form.

 **Red Sky:** "What are your plans now?"

 **Corpse:** "Let's see... I would really like to try and find a place to sleep, but the location is never important. I end up awake like usual. Also..."

Also...

 **Corpse:** "I need to keep up with the others. To me, most of them are idiots, so I guess I'll be assisting with their plans?"

 **Red Sky:** "Yes, some of the others who can stay ahead, right?"

It was kind of embarrassing that Akasora knew what he meant.

In the entirety of Border, there would be squads who were viewed as something special given their status and rankings, like the top A-Rank squad and top B-Rank Squads.

There were also the younger Tamakoma members, the newly formed Yagura Branch, the directors who worked to maintain Border, and solo agents who were better off without their squads. The other branches also had things like Hisama's members or the group he had vaguely figured out involved his brother.

He too was part of such a group.

_...We're apparently old enough to be asked by the directors for help._

They were people who had something unique to them. While squads and solo agents were the center of attention when it came to fighting, the ones who were asked by the directors were the center of attention when something needed to be done. They were as follows:

**Jin Yūichi**

**Takato Mei**

**Hikigane Sekai**

**Chisato Ayumu**

**Tsukiko Yuki**

**Amō Tsukihiko**

**Taiyōko Mukuro**

_...I just noticed it's either because of Side Effects or information gathering/finding. Is this a major discovery? No, I guess not._

Jin and the two Operators were people able to tell what has yet to come. And Amō Tsukihiko would also be viewed as special given his usage of a Black Trigger and outstanding abilities with it. His Side Effect was also something not to look passed.

That left three: Hikigane, Mukuro, and Yuki. He was one of those.

But in this case, the focus was on his older sister instead of his disowned brother.

 **Corpse:** "I don't have anything going for me so my job will just be to go over everything as a lesser person. I considered trying to help them out early so I could get some more sleep, but there was no energy or room to do that."

 **Red Sky:** "History moves quickly. And since you are still at the age of a first year, you had never experienced the rush of history moving just before a break."

 **Corpse:** "I had watched it from the outside before, but it really is a mess when you're on the inside."

He had recently come to realize how infrequently reality did what you wanted it to do.

 **Corpse:** "I had wanted Kiyo-nii to come here with Fuji-nee...do you know why? Anyway, it sounds like they want to get some sleep, so I need to have something ready for them."

 **Red Sky:** "You really want your brother to be with you while he still has Mei, don't you? I'm still not old enough to see this as 'unfortunate', but I do feel bad that my idiotic student is acting this way toward you."

 **Corpse:** "It's fine since I know how things are. We have our hands full just dealing with idiots who view our fam- aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh..."

 **Red Sky:** "What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing," said Mukuro as he let out a tired yawn.

The people below were looking up to see what the deal was and they were mostly older than him.

He wanted to be appropriately polite, but there was no reason to be too modest either. So he called down to them.

"I've found the Neighbor's core."

Excitement filled the people.

"For real!?"

"Is it the automaton thing!?"

"I hope it's a really cool looking one! Y'know, the kind that looks like a marble that's also a bomb!"

"No." Mukuro shook his head and pointed down where they were below him. "Oh, there it went."

"'Went'?"

"That's right."

Just as he said that, the wrecked frame shattered and a white rhinoceros beetle burst out. The rhinoceros beetle thrusted it's broken horn forward with a screeching noise.

"-..."

They all screamed and ran away. Mukuro looked down at the commotion while the lights swung about.

"Yeah, that's what I expected. According to what that new guy sent me. ...Oh wait, I feel a yawn coming." The yawn that came from him had been heard down below from the sounds of sighs and yawns from the others. "That would be Rhinoceros Bettle 07 who might have been really powerful or maybe not. He caused a lot of issues and stuff, so it came to ram the Falcon. A note sent in says he later became known as something else, broke off this part to get the core, and he's helping out... Neighbors, I guess we can say?"

"Wait, it rammed that Falcon Neighbor!? How do you just gloss over that!?"

"-..."

They all screamed and ran away again. And while he watched, Mukuro pulled out his Trigger from his pocket.

 **Red Sky:** "Mukuro, it sounds like you've run across some excitement. If necessary, I could fire an attack over there for you."

 **Corpse:** "No, destroying that would make finding things a lot harder. I'm going to try something while he's down there playing with the others."

Mukuro readied one of his hands.

 **Corpse:** "Nakagami, you're there, right? I might be borrowing some money, so link to my dowry. That should be enough for now."

He lowered his hand and moved his fingers one by one.

"All checks finished."

And he released his voice.

* * *

"Chi-chan, what's with that howling?"

Akasora heard a colleague's question with the night sky above and the night city around them.

It was Rindō Takumi.

He wore a a coat to block the night wind, but he kept his arm hand on the cigarette in his mouth just in case.

He must have come out because the noise had confused and worried him.

Akasora initially looked across the schoolyard on which he stood.

And he explained the noise audible from the inner city.

"That is Mukuro's Trigger in action. Of course, only a small number will be able to hear it."

"Mukuro? You mean Taiyōko Mukuro?"

"You know him?"

"Vaguely." Rindō walked to the center of the schoolyard with his gaze directed up into the sky. "He's a part of your branch, so k wanted to check him out. His sisters and brothers are also given, so I couldn't just let it slide."

"That family of insane people, right. We learned some more tonight because of Kurosaki and that group's hard work. Toby also recently fought and caught a suspicious man who we then had some people 'talk to' and found out her had a small connection to Kushikage."

"Apparently he didn't know anything about Mukuro though."

For that reason, Mukuro had little suspicion placed on him when it came to light that he had been at the Yagura Branch.

"He said he was trying to get some sleep and overheard some thing from Futoyuki and Pyrínas."

"The Yagura Branch really doesn't care much for secrecy. And even with Yuki around, you seem to let everything out without issue."

"You know how things are with that family. Shokubutsu is my nephew and his friends are around, so lying to them is prohibited, beyond that no one wants to know that there are extra secrets to that family. But..."

Rindō pulled out the cigarette from his mouth to blow smoke in the opposite direction as Akasora.

A quick wind came from the opposite and blew the smoke right back to him and around him to where Akasora stood.

Akasora smiled bitterly behind him.

"Why do you even pretend to try and be considerate when it comes to that?"

"Because I know you like to keep up your teacher image and I don't want to ruin that," explained Rindō. "Oh, and I've been thinking more about the ones under your care as I thought about the ones under mine. Those kids are fine enough, the new ones haven't officially joined, so we can't say much, so that just leaves those siblings. Have you figured out what you want to say about them?"

"Long ago. The easiest one would be my idiotic student while the next would be a tie between the brother and younger sister."

"I really wish you could just give it to me straight instead of trying to teach me."

"Yeah, that isn't going to happen. Not when we have a second Nagao Kagetora running around. Oh, but his one seems much more insane than that daimiyō of Echigo."

"I had a feeling," sighed Rindō. "Although it's interesting that you use that name instead of Uesugi Kenshin. It may have even gotten you in trouble during those times."

"Yeah, well, I like the name Kagetora way more than Kenshin. It reminds me of Masafumi. And if you can't find something as childish as that to remind you of a friend then what's the point of being longtime friends?"

"You really are learning some bad habits from your students."

He let out a puff of smoke while turning in a certain direction.

"What is that?"

Green light was rising from a point in the city.

That was the same point that Mukuro's voice and Trigger sound came from.

.

Akasora watched on the live feed from his phone.

Light was rising from the distant inner city.

It was trion light. It was colored green, but it was darker near his fingers.

The trion light came from his hands starting at his fingertips. They began coming out in small intervals like a blowtorch coming to life and the light began to grow on each finger until they were more like extensions.

The trion blades began to shrink down as they formed. The light gathered more as it started to fall with the movement of his hand, but no control over it had been lost.

Ultimately, the trion stabilized its length and...

 **Corpse:** "It'll be a hit."

Light that reflected off of the surfaces known as trion light was dropped from its suspended position.

The blades that formed like blowtorches were aimed at the moving rhinoceros beetle.

The reflected light blades cut through the air as they dropped down like towers falling down.

"Oh?"

Rindō's voice almost sounded like a sigh as a change occurred in the falling blades.

Parts of White Rock tore away and some of the rebar twisted and broke, but it all continued along a narrow path down.

Once it was complete, the trion light cut through the rhinoceros beetle and the core like a blowtorch going through metal.

The movement from the rhinoceros beetle ceased within the wreckage of White Rock.

The primary sound was of blowing wind. The occasional sound reminiscent of glass clinking together sounded refreshing to a man who worked in a class for so long.

The light soared and the noise danced in the distance sky. But while Akasora watched, a sudden voice reached his ears. It came from a boy who walked into the schoolyard.

"Oh? I just received a transmission saying that something was going on, but it's already started?"

"Karasawa."

Akasora looked back to see a brown-haired man. His hair was slicked back and he held a jacket over his shoulder.

"Yeah," replied the man named Karasawa Katsumi. "I thought I should let you know I'd arrived."

.

Karasawa opened his closed eyes and looked to the light in the sky.

What he saw there only looked like lights to him.

_...Ohh._

So he immediately opened up his own phone and began recording the scene on his screen.

For the first two seconds, the settings were automatically adjusted before settling on the best setup. He missed recording to the juicy beginning, but...

"Is it fine for me to record this?"

"We aren't exactly hiding it, but it's not really appropriate for one of our own to do it."

"Would that depend on my ethics?"

"It is based in the warrior regulations."

"Then I'll record it for Border. It makes for a nice excuse."

The teacher glared at him, but he did not mind. In fact, he took three snapshots of that expression.

"What do you think you are doing, Karasawa?"

"I won't treat you badly. And I'll make some money off of it."

Rindō slowly and nonchalantly tried to move away, but the filming had already locked onto him. Karasawa was not going to miss a thing.

"So what is...Mukuro, was it? What is he doing over there?"

"Staying in sight of everyone while checking over Shiraishi's building."

"Staying in sight? Isn't that a bit dull for someone like him?"

"He has the knowledge of what to do. It costs a lot of time and patience, but the results could at least help him survive the onslaught of people who hate him. This was originally just going to be for a bit, but that changed when Kushikage decided to not be as active. We still have her location, but she isn't doing much and the information we got from the man Toby captured was only a vague mention of her."

"How long with it take for him to be fine?"

"I heard that it would be best for him to be around someone until she comes back from a small trip she took."

"That sounds rough." Karasawa voiced the feeling in the very depths of his heart. "Having to stay in sight of everyone so that he has an alibi in case something happens or his family does something? Isn't that a bit much?"

"You do know how busy we are, don't you?"

"No, I don't. I do things differently. I leave branch members to the branch directors. Akasora, I know you like all that stuff while still trying to teach, but I hope you know it makes you lag behind the rest of us a bit."

"That is one downside of being a teacher,"

"If you understand, then I apologize."

With that, Karasawa puffed out some smoke from his own cigarette. He then pulled out a small device from his pocket.

It displayed a program that let him see what was going on in the same way Akasora was doing. Several of the shown images were changing, but...

"Looks like there's no room for me to intervene. Did you tell Mukuro how good at this stuff he is?"

Akasora responded by making a slight adjustment to his own phone.

 **Red Sky:** "Mukuro, Karasawa says you're good at what you do."

 **Corpse:** "Eh? Eh? Who did? Don't know him...oh, weird."

A point in the sky shined extra bright. Mukuro had apparently made a mistake.

"What a lively kid."

"That's not something I ever hear about him."

"Akasora, I heard you were always brimming with confidence in everything you did."

"That illusion is one advantage of being a teacher. What about you, Karasawa?"

"I was in rugby back then. My dad was fine with it, but it still helps me out even to this day and gives a good conversation starter."

Karasawa checked his phone again. The "compensation" view that he shared with others had no changes outside of the existing ones. Which meant...

"Well then. Looks like he's going to keep this pretty tame. He's good, but he's still under suspicion."

"No, I think he just knew where to draw the line, unlike his brother. Look."

Karasawa looked in the direction Akasora pointed with his chin.

"Oh?" was his reflexive response to what he saw there.

His live footage showed the road clear as any other day with only the small bits and leaves showing to the side.

The was the road around White Rock.

It was not the entire road, just the edges around the destroyed building and that connected other buildings to it, but it was indeed cleared of any part of the building.

"That is only the outer area," explained Akasora. "There is no one around. You could say he has only made a path. His Trigger can't be detailed, so others need to be sent over to perform a proper cleanup. But his Trigger still greatly reduces the cleanup time and also does that thing people might end up hating so much: shows restraint."

"From the looks of things, I'm betting he really can change his image in a few months."

"No, I bet he will do that even faster than a few months."

"Why?"

"You don't know?" asked Akasora. "When you were started playing rugby, did you not hurry to make yourself look good? Mukuro is a kid who only looks at the world his family has made. And he will continue to try and stabilize that world made by others. Having a good image will mean a lot to him, so I'm certain he will reduce the improvement time. Then he can make sure his family doesn't look bad."

"In that case," replied Karasawa while closing his phone to stop the viewing of the roadway cleaning. "The young blood is going to outdo the rest of us. You get that, don't you?"

* * *

"I'm exhaaaaaaaaaaaausted!"

Mukuro sprawled out on top of the White Rock wreckage.

Above him, he saw the remains of the room and upper levels that had been destroyed during the fight. It seemed as if the edges had been cut just right to where it would not fall apart even more.

When he raised his head, he saw the rubble on the road beyond the White Rock wreckage he lay on top of.

He had made way for others to move on the road.

It was about 50 meters long, which was miniscule compared to the full city's length that could only continue to grow.

_...And it being a test is no excuse._

That was the source of his exhaustion. Using his Trigger did not use his stamina as a power source, but he had to move around when he was used to laying around.

Trigger activations were based on vocal commands or mental one, so the existing bladed Triggers were formed the moment a person turned on their Triggers or by simply thinking up a blade in their hands.

But his was different.

Controlling the shape of the trion was a pain, so he had Engineers create a Trigger that creates a sort of "belt" that threw out his trion before sending it back on the or end of the "belt".

Once he decided on a length, it would shorten to that and then create the arc trion blades he used. And since the amount of trion put in and size of the blades can change faster than others, larger scale movements were possible.

He was aware he was a second-rate, if not third-rate, person overall. After all, he had decided to continue in the world his family had made because he had trouble keeping up with anyone.

What mattered was maintaining some good for his family and keeping things away that could harm them.

Only he could maintain that image now, so if he simply focused solely on the important things around him, the trivial things would catch up.

So he came over to help with the removal of the wreckage and the opening of the space for the Mikado City workers. However...

"I'm not used to so much movement and controlling the arc trion blades for so long."

_...I tried training with some dance, but I guess it wasn't enough. I guess that's what happens with insomnia._

At this rate, how long would it take him to improve his family's image?

That hint of disappointment and worry drained his body of energy. But just then...

 **2.7 Maime:** "Good evening! It's your ever-cheerful elite, Jin!"

.

 **Corpse:** "Oh, Tamakoma's future seer?"

 **2.7 Maime:** "Hey, Mukuro! How are you doing? I heard you were running a test!"

Mukuro received a transmission from one of life's trolls: a bonchi eating clairvoyant.

Mukuro had never actually met Jin Yūichi. Mikado City was a big place and he had only recently returned to it. And his branch was in a location farther away from Tamakoma than most other branches and more aligned with themselves, while Jin be,on he'd to the Neighbor vouching Tamakoma Branch. But the clairvoyant was quite well known, so he still felt like an acquaintance.

_...Even if most of my knowledge on him is based on what Kiyo-nii and Ho have told me. He also barely knows me._

Mukuro decided to keep that in mind as he spoke with Jin.

They discussed the work he had just completed.

 **2.7 Maime:** "How are things near my favorite part of the city? In those clean stores, the people are so polite and the night air is so cool that j can forget all about some of the annoying stuff and enjoy a peaceful life."

 **Corpse:** "Yes, of course, of course. The snacks served at the worker's quarters was fine enough. Rice with yams, mountain vegetables, a thick omelet, and some miso soup. ...I almost died when they tried to get me to eat more than the rice."

 **2.7 Maime:** "How much do you normally eat?"

If not for the view his older brother and younger sister had on this man, he was sure this conversation would have been over by now.

It was due to his family's connection with the man that he found nothing wrong with saying more.

 **Corpse:** "The process of eating and the feeling of being full tend to make me even more tired. I just drink milk most of the time and have some easy to swallow food. For anyone else, it wouldn't be an issue, but I end up staying awake no matter how tired that makes me."

 **2.7 Maime:** "You can sleep near Shobu-san, can't you? Yu-... Kiyoshi has told me that you have a few people you can go to sleep around."

_He used the correct name when talking to me. ...He is good._

**Corpse:** "Do you always eat that well, Tamakoma's future seer?"

 **2.7 Maime:** "...Lately I've been eating a good amount of junk during random times when I'm not paying attention and I keep getting boxes filled with bonchi. I'm not complaining about the latter one though."

Mukuro learned that even clairvoyants can lose track of things.

 **Corpse:** "Do you look after your health to keep your weight down?"

 **2.7 Maime:** "Yeah! I don't really feel like ending up with a large gut because I spend time in my trion body... Wait, Reiji-san, don't say losing weight makes me more sensitive!"

Jin was apparently with the other top members of the Tamakoma Branch.

_...I'm talking with some strange people here, aren't I?_

**2.7 Maime:** "So were you set up enough over there?"

 **Corpse:** "Yes. At least enough for a test. From here on, I think I'll have to prepare a different calculation and result. I have some other unimportant activities to do, so I'll ask the directors if I can use some resources for those since my arc trion blades aren't enough."

 **2.7 Maime:** "So you're saying it was a success? Congratulations!"

 _This future seer is a pretty okay guy,_ thought Mukuro.

 **Corpse:** "I did complete what I had planned to complete, so I guess that counts as a success. Although Mikado Construction says they want some data on my method so they can inspect it."

 **2.7 Maime:** "Why? Is the Mikado Construction main office thinking of switching over to your method?"

 **Corpse:** "No, I haven't heard anything about that. It just seems like the higher ups want to take this method of mine into consideration. How should I put it? Um..."

He remembered what it was they had told him.

 **Corpse:** "They said they might be able to 'reproduce and verify' my method."

 **2.7 Maime:** "I see... Well, good luck with everything else. I never did get to go in any of those buildings that were owned by Shiraishi, but they took good care of that area."

"Right," said Mukuro while learning just how skilled this company had been while using the destroyed building.

He had heard the result of the meetings that took place a few hours ago and how Shiraishi's workers managed themselves against the Falcon alongside two Border members.

The third daughter of the family had wanted to leave, so they all watched her leave with someone she cared for deeply.

_...It's incredible._

He was not sure what was incredible, but he still felt that way.

 **Corpse:** "For now, I'm going to finish the cleanup as quickly as I can and move on to my next job."

 **2.7 Maime:** "Your next job? Do you mind if I ask what that is?"

 **Corpse:** "Checking Kurosaki and Kobayashi. Or maybe I should say Mogami? There had been incidents there during the meeting as well, so I want to show some Taiyōko support and check on them.

So...

 **Corpse:** "I need a way to get through any negative thoughts they have on my family."

 **2.7 Maime:** "I see. Then feel free to use Tamakoma's members' names as much as you need. It will give you some credit and I'm sure no one will mind. You also have your own branch to fall back on. Yuki's name should be good at Kurosaki and mine might work with Yoshiko-san. Even if it will end up with my entire room filled with all types of crackers that aren't bonchi! Too many times..."

 _Being a future seer must be rough,_ thought Mukuro.

At any rate, he had confirmed his current position.

Based on his conversation with the directors, he would likely not be participating in the battle that is likely to occur later tonight, so he would only be borrowing some supplies from the Yagura Branch and any that were nearby while checking on things.

 **Corpse:** "Tamakoma's future seer, what are your plans? Are you coming here?"

 **2.7 Maime:** "No, no one from Tamakoma has a reason to go over there. And I think Akasora-san and Shinoda-san's groups are going to do their very best once they get started. The rest of us are headed there too, right?"

That made Mukuro tremble.

"—"

He got up and looked into the sky for no real reason.

He could only see the silhouettes of the buildings there.

But he knew what was beyond those buildings: the Border base and others who had important parts at all times.

When they wake up, they had to prepare to set up some areas around the Border base.

If they gone it done quickly, they would have a safe place to fight.

Of the members of Border, Tsukiko Yuki, Hikigane Sekai, Jin Yūichi, and Takato Mei would be among them. The other two, Chisato Ayumu and Amō Tsukihiko had different orders for the night.

"That means I'm the only one who isn't 'here'."

He had no real choice in the matter, but he still regretted it.

Of course, he was not big on fighting. He had improved his abilities for sitting out of the fighting.

 **2.7 Maime:** "We too have our own actions to take here. Mukuro, please work hard at your job."

"Also," said Jin.

 **Corpse:** "Hm? What is it?"

 **2.7 Maime:** "Try not to worry about your siblings too much, so remember to invite others over. Even if things get tricky because of how your family changed things. But there is something beyond the box you're in, so don't worry too much. Someone will definitely help you out of it."

 _I feel like you're exaggerating,_ thought Mukuro, but it still let him give a bitter smile.

 **Corpse:** "If someone like that does come forward, I'll make sure to push them away or never let go."

With that, he stood up.

The next battle for Border was beginning in another few hours, but he was facing a Jon that would take longer than that.

"How's this going to turn out?"

* * *

In the schoolyard, Rindō saw Akasora and Karasawa talking to each other about how they would go about dealing with the second brother.

He was doing a good job, but they wanted to be sure he would be fine.

He was worried about that family too, but the three younger ones seemed to be fine.

_...So we need to find-..._

Before he could think "her", a vibration came from his pocket.

_...Sawamura?_

The message seemed to be important since a second and third one followed.

He did not hesitate to see what it was and was a bit surprised at the content.

It seemed to be directed towards a few people, so he spoke up while messaging his branch members.

"Hey, we found out where Kushikage is!"


	89. Kushikage Taiyōko

Rindō's message reached the Tamakoma Branch in Mikado City, but they did not move.

"Hey, Reiji-san. Aren't we going?" asked Karasuma Kyōsuke while already in his trion body.

The night was filled with lights and it seemed that the sun was beginning to peak out from beyond the horizon. For their position at the branch office, they would be able to reach the wild woman without missing her.

Kizaki frowned and remained just as motionless as the other three.

He only stared at the Forbidden Zone and Karasuma bent his body to talk to him.

"Finding Taiyōko-san would help everyone out and earn us some points with Yagura. We don't really need them, but it would be nice-..."

"Let's head back inside," said Kizaki without turning toward the others.

Usami pushed up her glasses and tilted her head.

"Why? ...Hey, wait."

As she spoke, Kizaki began to walk toward the door leading to the inside of the branch office.

He said nothing, but he pointed to the sky. The others looked there and saw a white and hazy trail in the fading night sky.

"Cooking smoke?"

Konami tilted her head just before something resembling a spear flew from the same direction.

It shot straight toward her face. She was slow to react and only managed a quick back step.

"Watch out."

Karasuma reached in from the side and snatched it from the air, but that was when the four of them finally realized what it was.

_...A skewer of meat!?_

Pieces of meat were skewered by a whittled down piece of wood sixty centimeters long.

The meat was cooked, it spewed steam, and some salt had yet to dissolve into the grease.

"Ah."

Inertia pulled the meat from the skewer, the skewer acted as a rail, and the forty centimeters of meat flew toward Konami's face, piece after piece.

"You really need to watch out."

Karasuma grabbed the top and bottom of Konami's head and opened her mouth. After several sounds of striking meat and several groans of "ah" or "nn", all of the meat filled Konami's mouth.

Karasuma closed her mouth and lightly shook her head back and forth.

"Oh," said Usami with a nod. "A little slower and she would have burned her face."

"Ah...kh... You... Hot!"

"Make sure to chew, Senpai. ...And that skewer really was nothing but meat."

A moment after that comment, another skewer of meat appeared in front of Karasuma's face.

.

 _Eh?_ thought Karasuma.

Someone tall stood in front of him. Their current outfit could only be described as "extreme".

It was an adult woman.

Her flaming red hair stuck up and out all along her back almost like true flames.

Her dark eyes moved in an arc to look across their group.

"Here."

She offered the skewer of meat to them.

_...Wait._

But...

_...When did she get here!?_

"Kyōsuke!"

Kizaki turned around and his shout acted as a sign.

Karasuma trembled and adjusted himself. He took in a breath and lowered his head without looking at the woman.

"Thank you."

.

After taking in a long, cold breath, Karasuma took the proffered skewer.

"Nice," said the woman with a hint of a smile.

That smile only deepened in the corner of his vision.

It was a carnivorous and intense smile.

"I spotted a convenient boar over in that direction, so I cooked it up. ...Wild board meat is fucking amazing, isn't it?"

"I like it with miso flavoring."

Karasuma restrained the reaction that threatened to rise up within his heart.

He knew one thing for sure: he might be able to defeat this woman, but he would not escape unharmed.

If it did come to a fight, he would receive just as many – if not more – injuries.

"How about it?" she asked. "Your special Trigger provides some crazy ass boost for a limited time before Bail Out, doesn't it? I was told about it while lighting the fire earlier. ...So do you want to do this?"

She was tempting him and his heart just about gave in, so he took a deep breath.

_Calm down._

_This woman is an enemy. She knows it too._

But...

_...She is in a very good mood right now._

He knew why: she had just eaten. She had hunted down and eaten a large prey in the wild, so she was satisfied. Her battle instincts were currently wavering.

She was the target.

Border was looking for her due to the suspicion on her after the capture of Seikai. The higher ups wanted her to be found to question her.

Even so, to her, he was nothing but prey. Her stomach was full, so her instincts were straying toward play rather than fighting.

But if she did not enjoy that play, she might hunt him for fun and bury him so she could deal with him later.

She was a beast.

 _That's right,_ he thought. _If I don't provoke her, this won't end up in a conflict._

_...That is the way we can do this._

And so he restrained himself.

However, a sudden pressure moved to his right.

It was Konami.

.

_...Wait._

Konami moved in the right of Karasuma's vision. Her dual-wielding blades were already connected and the strike was already moving with force.

"This is thanks for the meat!"

.

Karasuma saw a few different results of the strike.

First, the woman turned her left palm toward Konami's connected Sōgetsu.

"No shit?"

There was a definite impact and sound of shaking, but the woman was not knocked away or cut in two and Konami was not pushed back.

Konami and her battle axe were lifted and held up in a single hand like a tree branch.

"...!?"

Before Konami could cry out in surprise, the woman casually tore into the trion weapon's blade with her other hand.

The trion blade chipped away like crackers and the woman gently placed it between her lips.

"Nm."

She bit off a piece like it was a rice cracker, moved her jaw up and down, and worked her throat.

_...Is she going to swallow it?_

Karasuma saw the woman bite off and swallow the blade before narrowing her eyes.

"I didn't know that trion was rough and had a bland flavor...not like true snacks. But I guess it isn't too bad."

She tossed Konami away to place her hands on her hips, but she soon reached again for Konami and the trion battle axe that rotated through the air.

"Oh, just a little more."

She casually tore off another piece of the blade and placed a hand on Karasuma's head.

The hand on his head was just as casual and she did nothing more than gently stroke his hair.

"You did fine enough to prepare some food for me. If you hadn't..."

She placed a hand on his ear and pinched it.

Before he could wonder what she was doing, she spoke with a smile.

"I was considering taking about this much as a palate-cleanser."

Following her words, the woman disappeared and Karasuma realized where she was headed based on the slight wind she left behind.

"The direction Jin-san is in!"

* * *

Jin took a breath as he walked through Mikado City.

"C'mon, how is everyone!? Are you feeling fine?"

 **#5 Mountain:** "Wow, I'm surprised! I didn't know it could take this long to look for her! And I didn't realize Jin not being able to find her with his Side Effect could be so winderful!"

 **Polished Place:** "In fact, that kind of thing you don't really get much of these days. I just hope it isn't a death flag."

 **Zaki:** "Wait, all of you. He's definitely got some ulterior motive here. Otherwise he would have found her by now."

"What!? C'mon, Kakizaki! I don't have anything like that! All I did was start taking my jacket off!"

Five shots flew in quick succession and Jin bent his body into a C and then an S to avoid them.

"Th-that was close! Mei's over here too, remember!? Even when I told her to sleep some more!"

The stomping of feet and a voice reached him from behind.

"Oh, is this where you are?"

Jin noticed Mei's usual perfume in the chilly dampness of the night going into morning. _It leaves a strong scent even with how little hair she has,_ he thought.

"Okay, I'll be a little rough with this crap, so that better be okay."

"Eh? Ah...ah! I'm getting wrapped in a chain without a jacket on! I've never felt anything like it!"

Meanwhile, a chain wrapped around and around the top half of his body.

With a light tug back, the chain tightened.

Mei's voice then came from the front and around the corner.

"Jin, you better be over there."

"Eh? That's not where you are. Aren't you back there?"

"Make sense," said Mei as she approached from the front.

Meanwhile, Jin was pulled backwards where he heard a boisterous laugh.

"You'll have more fun over here."

After being pulled back, he ran into the person standing there.

He recognized the scent coming from the person's hair and the subtlety of the tugging force.

_...That's Mei._

With that realization, he gave himself over to her.

However, he noticed something inarguably different from Mei. His back was pressed against her, but the back of his head sank deeply into something.

"These are on ultra easy! Wh-what happened to Mei! Did she get an expansion pack!?"

.

As Jin looked up in surprise, the wind blew.

The air cleared, so he could see in front of him now. He first saw Mei approaching with a gauntlet wrapped around a raised arm.

"Jin!"

She was smiling, but...

"...!?"

That smile instantly froze and began to tremble.

What was going on?

She was looking behind him.

He then realized she was looking at the expansion pack there.

Wondering what it was, he turned his head to look.

"Huh? Who?"

The woman looked like someone, but she had breasts. She was tall, but she had breasts. She had a mature face, but she had breasts. She had a lot of hair, but she had breasts. The breasts suggested she was a dangerous person, but she had breasts.

"W-wait, Jin! Stop looking back to her chest each time you look at another part of her body, dammit!"

"Hey, what is this!? If you've been hiding this, then bring it out sometimes! A change is nice every once in a while!"

"N-no! Look more carefully!"

He did as she asked and looked more carefully at the woman.

"So big..."

He was referring to her breasts and not her height. _A guy's gotta follow his instincts,_ he thought just before Mei spoke.

"That is Kushikage!"

"What?"

He was wrapped in a chain and his jacket was wrapped around his waist, so he made a bowlegged pose and bent backwards to express his surprise. He then viewed the woman's breasts from a distance with better perspective.

"She's Yuki's older sister!?"

Mei watched her enemy, who was unfazed.

"That's right," she replied with a quick bow toward Border in the night. "Thanks for taking care of my shit brother, his shitty girlfriend, and my great sister. I am the A-Rank agent Kushikage. Or maybe I should use the title I love as the Unmatched Valkyrie. I stand at the peak of the human race and will remain there."

_...Eh..._

Surprise filled Mei's thoughts.

_...Unmatched Valkyrie? But...um..._

This was the first she had heard of that and the rest was shocking as well.

She had no idea what was going on and she remained motionless as her enemy looked her way.

The mischievous smile she had seen so often in the past was turned in her direction.

On top of that, her enemy grabbed the chain-wrapped boy's shoulder to show him to her.

"Fuji?"

The woman's lipstick-covered lips bent like a bow.

"I'll be taking Tamakoma's Talented Elite agent who can see the future."

* * *

"Hold on. Now, that's what you call a genuine monster. What am I supposed to do about this?"

A voice filled the schoolyard within Mikado City. On the yard with an open-air viewing platform, a man in a tracksuit crossed his arms and look at his phone.

He was Akasora, director of the Yagura Branch, and he scratched his head in annoyance.

"It was an accepted fact that she was unaware of Jin and his Side Effect. ...I even believed Masafumi and the others about that."

He thought while speaking.

_...Although they didn't talk about it much since Mei and that Operator's Side Effect aren't really the same thing as his precognition._

"I wasted my time feeling bad for a bunch of fools."

"Right," said the bitterly smiling director next to him.

Karasawa opened up his phone to gather the official statements from Border and the branch offices.

"Due to Takato and her own Side Effect, we figured that Taiyōko would have no interest in Jin since she did not seem to care for Takato. But to be certain nothing came up, we made sure that the two of them would not meet and told Jin only the bare minimum about her to make sure her wouldn't accidentally see her around or in the futures. It became even less of an issue once we had heard that she was no longer in Mikado City. Her great return messed with us a bit, but we kept track of things."

"In that case," said Akasora. "When Kushikage returned and found out about Jin, she must have made preparation to get to him. We still can't fully confirm her involvement with the Falcon and other incidents, but this is adding to her suspicion."

There was likely more to it than that, but it was not worth worrying about any further when she was right there.

He guessed he would eventually hear about it in the form of rumors.

"Chi, just how powerful is Taiyōko Kushikage?"

That question came from Rindō with a cigarette in mouth and a slight look of worry on his face, but Akasora shook his head.

"She's trouble."

"Even more than you?"

"That's a good question," he said with a bitter smile.

He was unsure whether Rindō was trying to flatter him or analyze the woman's data.

"Listen. Both of us may be strong in our own right, but she is different from us who can viewed as 'victorious', especially since she is the oldest. Ones like us tend to do things out of the kindness of our hearts or because we see that we can make things better, but she views things as fights at all times.

"Do you understand?

"She enjoys fights of all kinds and will find whatever she can as a sort of fight. Going against her in any way can make her happy, so it's hard to say what gets her mad or annoyed. And..."

"And?"

"Just like that title she mentioned, she enjoys the stronger opponents. People who are strong so that she can try to destroy them. Do you understand? Don't let how she looks fool you. She is no different than the spirit of fighting with a human form. And continuous fighting draws out her true nature, making her seem monsterous. Even if she is still human, she will continue fighting to her death. After all, she is the oldest, meaning she was given the most amount of time with her parents."

Akasora asked "do you understand?" again.

_...She really is a lot of trouble._

* * *

In the city, the confrontation between Valkyrie and lion continued without the slightest movement.

However...

"Hey, Kushikage."

Mei suddenly spoke up and her enemy tilted her head.

"What is it, Fuji?"

"Right."

Mei nodded at her enemy's reaction, but...

_...What am I supposed to say?_

Her enemy was capricious and she had often been manipulated by her even when they first met.

Plus, there was one definite fact when it came to her enemy.

_...If you anger her, it's all over._

She knew that fact firsthand, so she took a slow breath and tried not to provoke her enemy.

Like always, even Mei felt as if she was far beneath this woman. So much so that she had to ask questions instead of saying statements.

"You are...a normal human being, aren't you? So...why would you suddenly joke about being an Unmatched Valkyrie?"

"The fuck?"

Her enemy backed away in surprise.

As always, she went overboard in expressing her emotions. The smile on her face was the same as the one Mei remembered.

And with the same expression, same smile, and same tone she remembered, her enemy spoke.

"Hey, idiot. Think about this carefully. A normal human woman would never pass something like those Triggers down to someone like you."

 **#5 Mountain:** "Is she implying anyone who didn't pick up on that is an idiot?"

 **Polished Place:** "So accepting what your enemy tells you at face value makes you an idiot? That's a pretty harsh rule."

_...Shut up._

She used shared voice settings when out like this, so she hoped it would not leave any unwanted records behind.

"Hm," she began. "Well, it is true you told me the details of Gauge, but...but I always thought that was because you were finally tired of them back then. I never thought..."

"Shit. This new revelation is kinda sudden, isn't it? Try to stay focused, Fuji."

 **Cloudy River:** "That's quite the amazing enemy you have there."

_...I agree with that. In fact, why hasn't she changed at all after so much time?_

However, her enemy brought a hand to one hip and sighed.

"To be honest, I was planning to have some fun on my deathbed by surprising you with something else. Yeah, just like my mother with me."

A heavy tension came over Mei at the mention of the Taiyōko mother.

Still restrained by the chains, the talented elite turned toward her enemy with a tilt of the head.

"Kushi-san, how surprised were you when you heard whatever you heard?"

"Right, right. I said I had never heard anything like it and that she had to be fucking joking, but she said that a normal family would never keep training their kids like that. She even lectured me on the verge of death."

The entire 19 years olds side reacted with comments about how similar the entire family was and Mei began to hum uncomfortably. The talented elite nodded a few times, but she had to wonder why he turned toward her with a curious look in his eyes.

At any rate, her enemy sighed again.

"But things got messed up all over the place, especially in this generation. Some of their military friends, the ones who knew them best because of war, told them they should say something. According to them, if something major like that came out to these fucking idiots we call citizens, it would lead to some political maneuvering. After all, those shitty parents were the ones that overturned the power balance in wars being had around the world. I mean I didn't give a fuck, but that's whatever."

"Then," asked the talented elite. "Why did you identify yourself as the Unmatched Valkyrie now?"

"Right. Because it was a fucking good name for someone like me. I want it to be known that I'm one of the strongest around."

.

Kushikage formed words while convinced she was explaining the obvious.

"The assholes over on this side have Border, people who would, fight for them, and shit to ensure some good times. With those, naming yourself somethings strong while holding up to that strength isn't any sort of maneuver _against anyone_ but a source of maneuvering _against any enemies._ That's just why a powerful name is needed."

_...This shit's only natural._

This world obeyed its own set of rules and laws set due to the people living on it. Since she had been born into this world and continued living here, she had no objections on that front.

_...But that means I'll use this to its fullest._

People gave their all when having fun and when eating.

"But," said her chain-wrapped prey with a tilt of his head. "Doesn't that mean there's been a collar put on you because if that?"

The meaning affected her more than the words themselves.

"..."

She felt her own blood throb.

Ahead in the fading night air, she heard the small girl gulp and could tell the girl's pulse was racing.

_...You understand, don't you?_

She was a fighting type of person, they would eat when hungry, and they would otherwise choose to eat or play on a whim.

She was a fighter. Kushikage would never stop fighting or be held back and treating her like a pet in a collar was a definite provocation.

Had that small girl realized that?

However...

"..."

That small girl remained motionless.

She held her breath, took a defensive stance, and did not move. She did nothing.

And so Kushikage had the same thought once more.

_...You do understand, don't you?_

Yes.

_...After so long, you fucking get it again that you can't do shit to me._

It was not even a question. The girl had dropped her hips down in a low stance, but that was no different than a beast curling up its tail in preparation to flee.

That meant the small girl was no obstacle.

Therefore, she looked away from the girl and faced her prey. That boy was the one who had defenselessly asked that provoking question.

 _How interesting,_ thought Kushikage while asking a question of her own.

"Listen. You just fucking accused me of wearing a collar."

But...

"But if that is a bad thing, then why'd you put a collar on that bitch? No, a better way to put it would be that you cut down that wisteria."

.

"Eh?"

Mei looked toward the talented elite and heard his questioning tone.

She saw him turn toward her.

The action was so quick that she lowered her head without thinking, but his gaze was on her head and the black hair that was cut short.

She had worn it like that for a long time now and had decided to always keep it like that from now on, but to her enemy...

"When I last saw you a year or so ago, you never thought about shit like that. From the looks of it, I take it you've been having it like that for almost that entire fucking time, Fuji."

"No, um, this wasn't because of Jin."

"Are you saying you cut yourself down like that?"

Her enemy did not even look at her and she could not help but think back over what the cut hair truly meant.

It was true someone else might see it that way.

_...But this is..._

She hesitated and lowered her head, but a sudden voice reached her from directly ahead.

"Wait a sec, Kushi-san. You can't just berate her like that while treating hair like something simple. Plus, cut hair doesn't immediately mean she wanted it either. Surely you know that."

"J-Jin...!"

"Sure," he said with a nod to her.

He then spoke speaking to her enemy while wrapped in chains and with his jacket around his waist.

"Some people are just into that kind of thing. Surely you know that."

.

Mei saw her enemy give her a look of disbelief. _Eh?_ she thought before grasping what he meant.

"Wh-what are you talking about!? I am not 'into' that kind of thing! Don't give me that look, Kushikage!"

"Oh, shit!? Even if I can't really get that kind of shit, I guess I'll just deal with it since it's for Kiyoshi. Fuck, didn't know he had that kind of kink."

"She's right," said the chain-roll next to her enemy. "Besides, just look at her, Kushi-san. Don't you think it's suspicious just how desperate she is to deny it?"

"Now that you mention it, you're fucking right. Maybe giving her Gauge was a mistake. Never thought the two would use it for some really rough as hell shit."

Her enemy and the chain-roll both looked back at her and nodded.

"I guess we can wait until you've calmed down, but try to explain it to me sometime. Not whatever the fuck your preferences are, but how the fuck you turned into a damn beast in the bed. ...The lecture comes after that. Oh yeah, and I want at least two kids. Don't care if they're boys or girls."

"N-no! You have it all wrong!"

"Yeah, that's right, Mei! It isn't a fetish for either one of you! You two just happen to like it like that!"

She wanted to hit him with something, but she could not provoke her enemy.

_...B-but isn't that guy turning against me here?_

Then something important came to mind. A reminder.

_Is he getting back at me for teaming up with Kizaki and Konami!?_

"Well, whatever," said her enemy with a shrug. "My current state isn't a collar."

She formed a small smile as she continued.

"I'm just doing shit my way."

.

"Yeah," said Kushikage with a smile. "I'm going to be doing whatever the fuck I want and won't be stopped unless I want to. And when I decided on that, I gave myself that name."

She turned to the small girl who was still looking back in a defensive stance.

"So Fuji, you have me to thank for helping you out. When I gave that Trigger to you, you were placed under my protection and it was my way of urging you to do so much."

She heard an impressed "oh?", but it did not come from the small girl.

It came from the chain-roll next to her. He faced her with a smile and spoke in a tone of understanding.

"So your situation now is in thanks for the fun and happiness from back then."

"Yeah. ...I'm an unmatched Valkyrie, so I can live a wild and enjoyable life on my own. But, there are a few shitheads who have made me want them and enjoy myself with something other than strength. There is my siblings, someone who was able to keep up with me, and..."

There was no need to say any more at the moment, so she nodded toward the chain-roll.

"It was a fun and happy time, and that's why..."

She nodded again, recalled many things about the past, remembered making it through those things, and spoke to her prey.

"Yes, this rebellious Valkyrie will use her strength to force those things back into place."

So...

"You decide when we aren't enemies. _Shitokei Fuji._ "

.

"Now then," said Kushikage. She grabbed the Tamakoma talented elite's shoulders and pointed him toward the small girl. "I'll be taking him, got it?"

"Eh? W-wait! Wait, Kushikage!"

What was she going to say now? A fight would be meaningless, so there was no reason to respond. And so Kushikage opened her mouth and spoke a single word.

"Fuji."

The small girl stopped, she heard the girl gasp, and she even detected the shots behind her back dissipate.

_...Damn right._

This was more than she had expected. _How cute,_ she thought.

"Listen, Fuji. Who the fuck said you could come inside my space?"

"Well..."

The small girl froze up even more and the prey in her left hand shook as he turned toward her.

"Wait, wait. 'Come inside'? You don't have to use such a lewd- gah!"

She held the boy's jaw in place, lightly twisted, and used her thumb to push two teeth inward. The small girl's face paled just before she gathered her strength.

"W-wait! Please wait, Kushikage!"

Her wording had grown more polite, so...

"Fine. I'll wait, Fuji. But I would prefer you call me Kushi."

Or...

"Would you prefer we _do things like we did back then_?"

She took a breath, smiled, and gestured to the other side of the city with her chin.

"Fuji, my shitty brother's home is right over there, isn't it? And that's where you once left his ass and-..."

"Please stop!"

The small girl cried out to reject the past.

.

Kushikage looked at the small girl.

She was a lovely child. Her two clenched fists trembled and her emotions were running full blast, something that she never thought possible, but the weak outer surface alone was still quite adorable. But did she understand that herself? Her head drooped and she transformed the motion into a bow.

"I'm sorry, Kushikage. ...I messed up and got ahead of myself both now as well as with Minoru."

"Since you apologized, I'll forgive you. Now, Fuji."

Kushikage gestured toward the area away from them with her chin and encouraged the small girl with a smile.

"Head home. There's an idiot who is worried about you."

"U-um, Kushikage?"

Kushikage gave her a puzzled look and the small girl pulled back a little and took a deep breath.

"Please return...my friend."

_...Well, shit._

She had to know that was impossible.

"I don't fucking think so."

Kushikage embraced the boy from above, smiled again, and faced the small girl.

"I'll be taking him for myself."

"For yourself? Um, uh...Kushikage?"

_You don't have to look so scared. And besides..._

_...You understand, don't you?_

"Yeah. It's been awhile since I've _fought_ someone like this. I've been holding back since I had to leave, but...yes, this is a chance. You all are trying to find me because of some stupid shit you all think I did."

"W-wait! Kushikage!"

"I don't need an excuse when I have the truth."

She was perfectly prepared for this, so it would all be okay. And with that thought, she embraced the boy again.

She pressed her body against his.

"After all, I didn't give that asshole a Trigger and I didn't tell him to do anything."

She was plenty confident in herself at the moment. As someone who had strength, she would not need to hide anything from them, so she also had no reason to lie.

_...It's been a while since I've been blamed this hard._

Long ago, some people had blamed her and her family for an incident and it was her who had resolved that issue. Violently.

Due to the nature of their family, she would not go out of her way to tell others to do something like fight when she could do it herself and enjoy every moment.

However, others looked down on them and assumed that they would do whatever they could to get ahead. Many of them had tried their best to resist against them and had been hunted down. As the first born to those parents, Kushikage had remained in this mindset she had learned from her parents, chosen to continue with it, and ultimately found herself where she was now.

_...It might be nice to remember old times again._

"Being used as a fighting partner will feel wonderful. Don't forget that I'm also a grown ass woman, so I can provide even more than that."

When she asked "okay?" the boy quickly shook his head.

"D-don't be ridiculous! Wonderful or not, if I stay with you, it's all over!"

"No, it isn't. But I guess you already looked into that future. You likely saw a bad one," she began. "If that is the case, maybe I should take those eyes out so you don't have to see anything horrible again. I guess it would fucking suck if you couldn't see while we fight or do other things, but that's what's great about trion bodies. What's more, stamina would mean shit because of them too. Wouldn't that be a better life than having to only see the shit Border wants to see?"

* * *

Kumokawa spoke while sipping at a cup of tea she had pulled from somewhere.

"Can someone explain how that woman is still allowed to be a part of Border?"

_"K-Kumokawa! Wait! You need to be more careful about what you say, even if you are surrounded by horrible people!"_

"Oh? Zaki, are you living in a fantasy world where these kinds of important questions don't matter? We can't have that. Mankind must face reality. Isn't that right, Yama?"

_"Why would you ask me!?"_

_"Maybe because of your relationship with the sewage we call Denji?"_

**Hate Lover:** "Sewage? Sewage? I heard someone call me!"

A response from the man who had worked with a sponsor earlier in the night answered back and Kumokawa glared at her screen before continuing.

"This is what you call an extreme carnivore culture."

* * *

"Things are getting fucking noisy in the distance, but whatever."

Kushikage asked her chain-wrapped prey a question.

"How about it? You want to come along with me and have aaaaallll the fun messing around?"

"Hold up."

The boy gave her a serious look and then lowered his gaze to her chest.

"Temping me with those will do little good, you know that? I am much more of a butt kind of guy, so those have little effect on me. Although I'm sure I know some other people who would enjoy that. Not to name names - coughZakicough.

 **Zaki:** "What the hell!?"

"Fine then. You need the ass to have real fun anyway."

Kushikage replied without even a shred of doubt.

"You can mess around with my ass all you want. ...Yes, those things are so fun too!"

"I see. ...Hey, Mei! This flaming woman is seriously dangerous!"

"Ehhh!? You barely noticed that!?"

"Heh hehn," said Kushikage as she embraced the boy and looked to the protesting small girl.

_...I've won!_

With confidence filling her heart, she placed her chin on her prey's head.

His hair felt nice as it tickled her throat, so she gave a quiet rumble in her throat and looked down at the small girl.

"He is mine now."

The small girl groaned.

She nodded along with the small girl's groan and then faced that small girl once more.

"Now, Fuji. Sorry, but you don't stand any fucking change against me right now."

She pulled the boy toward her again and the small girl's eyebrows rose a little, but the girl still spoke in a desperately persistent tone.

"Th-that isn't..."

_...Why don't you realize that you don't stand a fucking chance from the moment you have to say that?_

Kushikage sighed as a woman.

"Honestly," she began. "It's kinda unfortunate, but you really do have a sad life. ...Like with that flat chest."

"That has nothing to do with-... Jin? Why are you staring at my chest with a look of newfound discovery?"

"W-well, if what she says is true, then it means there aren't any huge boobs in your future for Yuki, Mei. And in that case, it's pretty sad how you sometimes read those odd articles in the women's magazines or gently massage your underarms and whatnot with such a serious look on your face. Those calculations of yours must really be a pain..."

He gave the girl a pitying look and she panicked. She began waving her hands toward the different directions.

"A-are people getting this through the transmission!? Cut it! Cut it now!"

* * *

"Takato's taking the cruel rules of our chat room too lightly. And Jin really does notice the small things doesn't he?"

 _Besides his Side Effect, he kind of has a good view of everyone due to how social he is,_ thought Kakizaki.

"Anyway," he said after a breath. "Takato is sacrificing herself to buy us some time, so what can we do?"

"Right," nodded Yamamoto. He narrowed his eyes to look at the sun that could be seen barley peaking over the horizon. "Ikoma went home after going to the Yagura Branch with Shiraishi. But at least we know that we can try to fight her. ...I'd like to fire on her using Hound, but I would have to make sure everything is fine and she could probably avoid it from this range. Still, it was good of Jin to plan ahead and put us near the Forbidden Zone."

Beyond the fading night air, Kushikage rested her chin on the talented elite's head.

Kakizaki then heard their woman's voice in the distance.

"Heh heh."

Her clear and delighted voice carried nothing but emotion.

"Tamakoma's S-Rank agent and future seer is fucking cute, too."

Kakizaki and everyone else began glaring into the distance.

"Now then," muttered Kakizaki as he turned to the others.

There, he saw Kanchō arrive with Nanamagari.

"You handle this one."

"Okay," agreed the Attacker. "Am I the only one that is thinking Yūichi-kun has a very heroine-like side to him right now?"

"Wow. Nana just came out and said what I've been wondering if I should say."

"Eh? What's that? You want me to get Suzume-chan draw out a storyboard like that? How about it Kanchō?"

Arashiayama turned to Kanchō but stopped. Confused, Kakizaki too looked to Kanchō and saw him staring into the distance with his arms crossed.

"..."

"K-Kanchō, stop silently glaring into the distance! It's kind of scary!"

"Eh? Oh, sorry." Kanchō slapped his cheeks to correct his expression and then faced the others. "Anyway, this is the first time I've seen the older Taiyōko sister, but what about the rest of you? Do you know her?"

 _Is that true?_ wondered Kakizaki just before he remembered.

He had seen the older Taiyōko sister before when Yuki and Mei went by different names, but at the time...

_...Motoharu Squad had something to deal with._

"That's right. You didn't meet...or rather, didn't see her."

"It's my first time seeing her too," added Nanamagari with a tilt of the head. "I'm not sure what's going on, but Takato-chan looks pretty scared."

"Yes," agreed Kanchō. "This woman is on an entirely different scale from her. I wonder if she'll end up like that in the future. But if her breasts grew like that, we might have to start calling her Boingto."

"That sounds like some kind of giant monster."

"I see," said Yuba with a few nods of his head and a glance into the distance. "Boing + To? Such a bad combination. I have determined Takato is surprisingly skilled."

 **Wisteria:** "I see what all of you are saying on here!"

They all responded to the protest from the distance by lowering their voices to a whisper.

Kakizaki and everyone else groaned, but Kanchō looked up first.

"That woman is certainly extremely confident. Not only is she taking someone like Yūichi hostage, she's wrapped him up for takeout. But if this is a crossroads in the battlefield, it is quite an extravagant one. She is holding back in order to lecture Takato right in front of the Forbidden Zone therefore Border."

Kanchō laughed.

"How prideful. But this means that what she had said about not doing anything concerning Seikai is true."

* * *

"Now then," said Kushikage again while using just her right arm to lift the chain-roll over her left shoulder. "I need to make some preparations, so you go and make friends with the others, Fuji. Make sure you don't inherit our last name by going at it with Kiyoshi and make sure you enjoy your youth."

She took a step to leave, but the small girl suddenly looked up.

"Kushikage!"

She heard something moving. It was a slow and heavy sound, but it was a definite sound of resistance.

No fighter would overlook that, so Kushikage faced the small girl.

"Hm. What the hell do you want? Are you disobeying me?"

She found it so cute how this small girl froze at that question. The girl knew very well she did not have the strength to oppose her enemy, but that was why her enemy wanted to forever protect her with her own strength.

"Fuji, in my current mood, I think I'll do as I please."

"Are you going to have your way with Jin?"

_...Oh, damn._

She found that funny and could not help but laugh a little.

"You can't do shit one way or the other, so why are you trying to fill yourself with despair?"

"Kh," groaned the small girl.

It was obvious she was desperately trying to resist and she might as well have been vainly struggling, but that only stimulated Kushikage's aggressive instincts as a fighter.

_...After all, I would be dragging her along and devouring her just the same if she wasn't someone I want to see later on. She would be in trouble if I didn't fucking protect her._

The small girl tried to move her arms, but...

"Huh?"

Her arms did not move too much and it was obvious why. It was a truly unfortunate thing.

"Those were mine before, Fuji. Do you really think you can use them against me?"

"..."

The small girl gasped and the sister's smile only grew.

_...She's so fucking adorable. There's so much to teach her and so much she doesn't know._

So...

"Fuji, if you are going to pick a fight with me, then come at me seriously. But..."

Kushikage took a breath and faced her.

"It doesn't look like you have reached that level of conviction yet. So hurry... Yeah, at the very least, move beyond where you were about a year ago. When you do that..."

How should she put this? Saying she would "lend you my power" was not quite right. Lending even a small fraction of it would destroy so much.

She then remembered a nice phrase that had recently become popular among judo practitioners.

"Yeah, I'll give you my chest."

"You really are just crushing on her, aren't you!?" shouted the people watching this happen.

.

"Eh?"

Mei saw her enemy hold back a laugh.

_...Wow._

For some reason, wonder filled her mind and then her enemy tilted her head toward the others.

"Hey fuckboys, I simply said I would lend my chest to assist with Fuji's training."

A stir ran through the group once again.

"It really is a crush," said someone.

"She said it again! She really said it again!"

"Strange families get along really well, don't they!?"

"That's what I call ultra easy!"

Mei did not entirely understand the last comment, but that seemed to be the case. This was certainly being sent out to the directors as well. She felt like she was not the one at fault this time, but she could not stop her awkward feeling.

_...Ah, I really am terrible at ad-libbing. Apparently. Even Murakami is better than me. It probably has to do with these damn calculations going on!_

The talented elite then spoke up from her enemy's shoulder.

"Hey, Kushi-san, could you hold me the other way? Have me face Mei."

Her enemy looked confused but complied. His legs had been facing Mei before, but her enemy quickly adjusted his position so she could see his face. Her enemy then pointed that face toward her.

"Do you want to give Fuji a final farewell?"

"Eh!?"

The talented elite looked utterly surprised by that and he thought for a moment before continuing.

"Eh? No, um, I just like this way better... Oh, could you point me down a little more. Yeah, and inward."

"Jin, don't tell me you only wanted to look down on her chest."

"What!?"

The talented elite looked up with a look of shock that she would even she suggest such a thing.

"Of course that's what I wanted! Even if I prefer butts, this is still nice!"

"Your expression and your words don't match!"

Mei lowered her head and looked away from the talented elite who began whistling to avoid the issue.

"Kushikage, I sometimes want to kill a certain person, but is that due to my human nature falling behind?"

"Nah, it is perfectly fine, Fuji. Only the worst guys will compare you to another woman. ...Look, Fuji doesn't have this kind of volume."

"Y-you are the worst woman!"

Her enemy laughed and suddenly narrowed her eyes.

"Stay perfectly still. This is for your own good," she said. "You still have some of my interest, so I won't beat the shit out of you. But next time, I will do more than crush you like I did last time. After all, it will be the second time."

Mei tried to say something back, but...

_...Eh?_

She detected a certain light.

_...This is Hound!_

_._

Kushikage heard and saw gunfire.

She saw thirty-six distinct lights and heard some extra noise.

It was a nostalgic sight. As the daughter of a military family, she had been trained in a vast amount of ways by her parents, but it had been disturbed by the appearance of the unwanted from the Gates.

_...And when I came to declare my will to fucking fight, I saw this kind of scene._

She had also seen it when warriors had tried to travel through the Neighborhood elsewhere or when they were defeated and scattered across the land.

She had not seen it in a long while and it was not a bad sight. After all, it always led to flesh and blood.

Her ears captured a sound.

Countless shots were fired from hidden positions. The trion bullets likely had a way to affect her directly.

She thought this was an excellent tactic because a human had lost the moment he showed himself to the Valkyrie.

A human was no match for a Valkyrie and this multiple sniper-style attack obeyed that rule.

However...

"This is a fucking diversion, isn't it!?"

She realized the enemy's true purpose. If the enemy was thorough enough to prepare a unit of thirty-six shots...

_...They will naturally send in an additional attack!_

That additional attack arrived from almost directly behind her. Sudden speed rushed in from back and to the left. That was her blind spot due to holding the Tamakoma talented elite over her left shoulder.

"-!"

.

Kanzaki saw the enemy's back in the center of her vision.

She did not hesitate to release multiple Senkū, but she did not stop her charge.

_...This enemy is dangerous!_

After all, she had detected Kanzaki's approach yet had not made any battle preparations. That meant she already had something prepared.

"...!?"

Kanzaki saw a group of green panels.

They expanded from Kushikage's hair like unfolding origami.

The panels formed countless boxes which created a structure of their own. The structure seemed to spread its arms and stand tall in an instant.

_...A giant blade!?_

The green blade was three meters tall and it stood before Kanzaki as if supporting Kushikage.

The air burst without warning and Senkū's cutting power was destroyed before reaching its target.

Kanzaki did not even have time to gulp.

Senkū Kōgetsu's cutting power had previously been defended against on multiple accounts from multiple agents. Some due to skill and others due to sheer luck, but this was different. Instead of defending against it...

"She destroyed the power!?"

"That's. Fucking. Right." Kushikage's smiling voice reached her from beyond the blade and the hair.

She would not be explaining what happened, but Kanzaki was sure she knew.

_When two powerful attacks are used against each other, their effects will collide. Just as my cutting affects an entire area..._

The parts of the blade glowed and a panel of green light quickly rotated in the central empty space. As the rotation accelerated, the blade's weight clearly increased.

_Those are the panel's used by Shiraishi! And this seems to be a striking weapon! Destroying everything in an area would take some effort, but it was able to destroy my cutting power with a diagonal counterattack._

Like breaking a blade.

She must have practiced hitting back attacks like that during her time in Border.

She gave a splendid backhand swing of the large blade with her right hand.

It was a swift attack and Kanzaki could not even hear it slicing through the wind. Its path was so fast and natural that it felt more like it had suddenly been placed in a new position instead of swung there. But...

... _Tch._

Kanzaki could not stop. Due to the speed of her charge, she could not immediately brake.

And so she tried to think of a Trigger that would help her jump over the blade being swung in from the right.

"Not there," said the girl.

Meanwhile, the trion blade arrived.

.

Kushikage heard a sound in the instant before the trion blade struck the samurai girl.

It was the sound of the Kōgetsu spear being thrown toward the back of her head.

Why would she throw away her weapon to attack?

"Is she going to take my attack so she can fucking hit me!?"

Had she compared the Kōgetsu and blunt strike and decided it was worth it?

_...No!_

Kushikage realized what the enemy was after.

The samurai girl was not targeting the back of her head. Her attack was directed at...

"Her ally!"

.

Kanzaki threw her Kōgetsu spear with enough force to kill any person. In this case it was to force his Bail Out.

She knew this enemy would not react otherwise.

The enemy was trying to take away that talented elite chain-roll, so Kanzaki had concluded he was an important hostage or prey. Whether she was going to use him or whatever else, someone known as the Unmatched Valkyrie would find it humiliating to have someone else kill her prey.

She was sure to avoid the strike to protect that prey.

_...And if she does not, too bad. I am not clever enough to cover for that as well. Besides, my boss are the directors._

"But...this should work!"

It did.

Kushikage bent forward and stepped away from Kanzaki to duck below the spear.

She moved a half step away and that half step kept the large blade's rotation that much further away, so Kanzaki took a step with her right foot.

"..."

She leaped toward the left of her enemy and ran around the woman.

The spear stalled in the air, but she grabbed it just as heavy gunfire from the her allies tore into the enemy.

Also...

"Shitokei-dono!"

Kanzaki shouted and spun toward Kushikage in midair with the spear at the ready.

_...I can stop the cutting power here!_

_._

Mei broke free of her motionlessness when Kanzaki called her name.

She heard the word that defined only her.

"..."

Her mind grew clear and the core of her body seemed to return.

_...Fight!_

She spoke in her heart and began to move, feeling like she was breaking and remaking her body.

She gathered breath in her gut, gathered strength in her knees, and had only one thing to do: pour strength into her weapons and strike her enemy from four directions at once.

Kushikage was an enemy. Having decided that, she did not hesitate to pour strength into her limbs once more and launch them.

But...

"Kh..."

Everything was heavy.

Her own movements felt slow and the limb movements appeared delayed.

She had noticed how much she was holding back quite a bit recently; but at the moment, she was filled with tension, impatience, and...

_...The fact that I'm defying her!_

That simple act placed even more pressure on her.

Even the flow of time felt heavy. Each instant seemed to stretch on and on without end. It felt like completing an unpleasant assignment, working on homework in one's worst subject, or being home alone with nothing to pass the time.

She was defying her enemy.

She had never once defeated this woman. No, that was long ago. It had been around a year since she had last defied her. She had only been around eighteen at the time, so she had thought things might be different now.

_...That's what I thought..._

But she had been wrong.

Something seemed different between them on a fundamental level.

She could not tear off and throw gigantic pieces of buildings because she felt like it and she was not a pure fighter anymore. She was an Operator who decided to support.

Long ago, she had tried to rival the woman all in a good nature and had cried for the first time when she had been unable.

What had this woman said to comfort her back then?

This was surely the same yet also different. She could not do the same things as that woman.

_...But she won't ever try to comfort me now._

They had parted ways around a year before.

The fading night sky on that day had been a lot like the one here.

She had been taught that she was different from this woman on that day. And now...

"Fuji," said her enemy with the talented elite over her left shoulder. "Watch this."

_...Eh?_

_Watch what?_ she wondered just as Kanzaki cried out from an upward striking pose to the right.

"Senkū!"

.

Mei saw it.

To the right, Kanzaki turned back toward Kushikage and fired Senkū's power.

The group of Border agents was to the left and lights rose from the gunfire of the attacks.

However...

_...What?_

Her enemy had supposedly been evading in front of her, but the woman was gone.

She was no longer there, but...

"Mei! To the left!"

She turned and saw her enemy's hair swaying to her left and a little behind her.

"...Eh?"

She did not understand what had happened.

She could guess that her enemy had moved there.

_...But when?_

She could guess that her enemy had moved with tremendous speed.

_...But how?_

She could not even guess what had just happened.

"Fuji."

Her enemy spoke to her after avoiding both the gunfire and the cutting power.

"You move so fucking slowly. ...Your teammate was talking shit about how slow he was, but you're even worse."

"...!?"

She shuddered.

Her enemy had done more than point out the weakness she had noticed recently.

_...She doesn't have this weakness!?_

The answer was obvious. After all...

"Evading like this is so fucking easy. Yeah, any half brain shit can do it."

 _Impossible,_ thought Mei. _I've never once done that. Even with Gauge._

In order to protest, she prepared to turn around, but she suddenly found her enemy right in front of her.

She did not know how her enemy had moved so quickly, but the woman had definitely avoided the shot, cutting power, and limbs with instantaneous movement.

"Now, then.'

She turned the trion blade toward Mei.

"Show yourself, Steadily Climbing Valkyrie."

A moment later, an impact struck everything.

.

Trion performed a powerful strike.

The source of the destruction was the blade in Kushikage's right hand.

That blade transformed.

First, the short arms on the end of hilt raced down the side of the long hilt.

The short arms were cocked much like a crossbow, they shot back at even greater speed, and the glowing panels rotating inside them lost their light.

However, the light inside the long blade grew. But instead of using the trion to rotate the glowing panels, it created a stake of light.

"Stab, Valkyrie Sfyrí - the one renamed Brynhildr."

Like a large crossbow, the bottom of the spear fired a stake of light into the air. The power of the impact covered one hundred and twenty degrees in front of Kushikage, an area that included Kanzaki and Mei.

The stake of light was worn away in about two meters as if it had hit something. Instead, it produced a great cutting sound, a vibration, a slight glow, and...

"..."

Everything within a fifteen meter radius was struck.

Kanzaki, Mei, and her gauntlets and boots were all affected equally.

.

"Kwah!"

Kanzaki was saved for a variety of reasons: she had sent herself into the air, she had faced her opponent, and she had held Kōgetsu Spear vertically in order to use its cutting power.

However, she saw something as she was instantly blown backwards.

"Shitokei-dono!"

The girl had received a direct hit.

The attack had smashed down the surface enough for it to sink down everywhere within five meters of Kushikage.

Mei's entire body had been knocked to the side and embedded in the ground.

"That is not a striking weapon! Is it a short-range cannon that seals a striking power inside!?"

"Are you fucking stupid?" replied the smiling Valkyrie beyond the gale of destruction. "It's a blade through-and-through, but it's made to deal with anything possible. All of you use those fancy Triggers to fight on the level of people stronger than you, but I am so much better. All I need is this one Trigger and my ability to see my own victory to show the power of an Unmatched Valkyrie. And anyone who tried to go against such a person will be fucking nailed to the ground, destroyed completely, and cut into as many pieces as I fucking want!"

Kanzaki rotated once in midair and entered her landing pose.

_...She's too far away._

She tore into the ground as she landed, but she had been sent twenty meters away.

Meanwhile, the enemy moved. With the trion blade in one hand, she approached Mei who was doubled over on the ground. The impact seemed to have affected her equilibrium because she only trembled and did not try to move even as the woman grabbed at her throat.

"Takato!"

Kanchō took action from the side.

.

Kanchō used Spider to wrap around Mei and pull her away.

_...This could be bad if this isn't strong enough to handle her!_

But the wire grew taut as he tugged. Realizing it was working, he picked up speed and prepared to drag the girl along.

However...

"This is the problem with leaving shit connected."

Kanchō saw Kushikage swing her trion blade downward. She struck the gauntlets on Mei's arms that had been attached to the Spider as if swinging a golf club.

"Take that."

The gauntlet and the end of the Spider wire came cleanly off and flew toward the Forbidden Zone with the wire trailing behind it.

"Eh?" said Kanchō; because he knew how heavy Mei's Triggers were, because it loudly stabbed into the Forbidden Zone ground, and because...

"Wah!"

The bending of the wire created sharp acceleration. Its tail end pulled wildly and affected the movements of the boy.

"—"

.

Mei saw the wire pull Kanchō and slam him into the Forbidden Zone's ground.

_...This is not good._

She knew she was tripping up the others.

She tried to get up, but the core of her being trembled and she could not gather her strength.

"..."

She tried to lift herself on her hands and arms, but she could only shake and crawl along the ground.

"It was probably to damn soon to give you this Trigger."

Every few words, she heard a metallic sound and felt herself shake.

She felt it again.

"Could you shut the fuck up for a bit?"

As she tried to get up, something pressed down on her. She knew what was happening.

_...Gauge!_

Her enemy was removing the gauntlets and boots. She felt the shaking of those objects being removed and heard the crashing and clanging of metal-like objects. The gauntlets and boots were being thrown into the Forbidden Zone.

She could not see it herself while being pushed face down into the ground, but the sound told her the items were stabbing into the area's ground. She knew her enemy was strong enough to do that.

Her senses somewhat returned to her and she realized her shaking had reached several centimeters.

"Kah..."

It almost seemed her tears were forced out. The phantom pain from the last time this happened, the impacts applied to this time, and a great variety of emotions forced them out; but before they had finished flowing, she heard a voice.

"Fuji."

Someone grabbed her leg.

"You're covered in dust from your life with weak pieces of shit."

She realized she had been lifted up, she saw the sky, and she saw her enemy's hair below her.

"I need to beat it off of you."

She slammed into the ground.

* * *

Kushikage's beating did not end with a single blow. As if striking dust from a piece of furniture, she slammed Mei into the ground again and again.

Kakizaki cried out when he heard and saw it beyond the buildings.

"We need to stop her!"

However, everyone in the immediate area shrank down and fell silent. All of them stared into the distance with their eyebrows raised and Kakizaki knew why they were so silent.

_...There's nothing we can do?_

Kanzaki could not stand up to her, Jin had been taken hostage, and even Mei, their close-quarters attack specialist, had been captured.

 _There really is nothing we can do,_ he thought.

"B-but!"

As soon as he said that, Kanchō arrived in front of him and shook his head.

"Calm down, Zaki. I didn't see it, but this is the same as around a year ago, isn't it?"

"B-but! This is very bad in a lot of different ways!"

 _We need to stop her,_ he thought again and prepared to say something.

"Calm down!"

Kanchō raised a hand and repeatedly slapped the orange squad captain, making him seem like a bobble head.

Everyone wanted to do something. And...

"I think we can manage this. ...We aren't the same people we were around a year ago."

Someone walked out from end of the road leading into the outer city.

It was Tsukimi Ren and she pointed at the others standing around.

"As long as Shizuka-chan is investigating the situation down below, I want to make another suggestion."

_...Another suggestion?_

Wondering what that was, Kakizaki and everyone else turned to Arashiyama.

Arashiyama realized and gave the answer.

"Negotiations and ransoms, right?"

.

Arashiyama opened a display that showed the appropriate information. It described a long-practice tradition.

"Even with the way she is, I'm sur even she can be bought with money. After all, she needs a way to get through this all with as much little issue as possible. Even with how she can play this out since Kanzaki attacked, it can still be seen as kidnapping because of Jin being taken like that."

"It would help if we knew exactly what Jin was planning, but he seems to want to keep that to himself," said Tsukimi.

"Right," agreed Arashiyama with a sigh. "He definitely made preparations for this. I have no doubt that he saw that he would get captured by Taiyōko-san, so he has to have something in mind. Even so...to let this happen to Mei is a bit much. But back to the topic at hand... We should be able to find something to satisfy her. But..."

How would it turn out?

"From what I've heard, it's hard to say whether that Taiyōko-san will obey the human rules, so..."

"We need to plan for the worst, Arashiyama-kun."

"Right."

Arashiyama nodded and looked to Kanchō and Kakizaki.

"In the worst case, Kanchō and my standing with Director Netsuki will have to be brought up in this. It's not the best we could do, but I'm sure even Tamakoma and Yagura will do something about this since it involves Taiyōko-san and Jin."

An especially loud sound came from outside. Mei had gone completely limp after being slammed against the ground countless times and Kushikage had just thrown her down even harder.

"I see your tears have finally stopped."

She held the small up by the neck.

* * *

Something filled Mei's entire body.

Even if she was using a trion body, the repeated impacts with the ground had completely confused her inner ears and her vision was shaky too. Even sounds seemed to stick and distort deep in her ears.

_...U-um..._

Her brain shook and she could not form thoughts properly. Her calculations tried to find a way out of this, but those had become jumbled and almost unresponsive. She did not know why exactly this was happening to her. No, she did know, but...

_...There's nothing I can do even if I do know._

Only helplessness filled her heart.

It did not matter what she did. Even if she struggled, fought, moved, or stayed still, she could not hope to oppose this enemy. Even ignoring it would only lead to being found and beaten.

But...

_...Ah._

Something different happened.

A glove-covered hand reached her clothes and her neck and it lifted her.

"Now, then."

Her enemy's voice seemed to stick in her ears.

"You understand, don't you?"

She was unable to ask what and she felt there would be no point in asking even if she could.

Her enemy was cruel. After all, there was no need for her to understand. Whether she did or not, she could not hope to oppose the woman.

And so she did not even try to understand. She simply obeyed and went along with it.

She could only leave all of the decisions to her enemy and others.

_...That is safest._

If she assumed she could never oppose her enemy and only her enemy, she could receive absolute peace of mind. As a more mechanical person, she had defenselessly followed this woman without knowing where they were going and she could receive that same absolute peace of mind here.

This woman must have understood that because her sticky voice spoke up once more.

"Fuji?"

Just as in the past, she admonished the small girl after calling her name.

"Fuji, you understand that you have to do as I fucking tell you, don't you? Then let me repeat something I once said: Fuji, do as you are told."

After all...

"You may fucking think you're acting as someone important when you help my shitty brother and this shithead boy in their game of protecting others, but I stand in the way of that goal. And I can easily crush what you and those regards you believe in are trying to do. I don't do anything like that only because I have no reason to do so."

_...That's right._

_I can't stand up to her,_ she thought.

And as long as an opponent like that stood in their way, they would eventually fail.

"See? You can't fucking stand up to me no matter what you do, Fuji. Isn't that why you spent a year or so without even trying to come into contact with me?"

This woman laughed, shook her with a comment of "right?", and held up the prey on her left shoulder.

"But, well..."

She sounded almost impressed as she shook the prey.

He had lost consciousness, so he limply followed her movements.

"Honestly, I can believe you doing shit for my shitty brother, but I can't believe an obedient child like you would come so far to save this fuckboy. ...I'm sure you thought I wouldn't notice or that it didn't count because it was just for a moment."

She bent her arm to grab his jaw in her hand and she casually pulled his face toward her.

"Fuji, you did almost nothing wrong. But most of the blame goes to these assholes who thought to calm you down. Most of them didn't know shit about how I am the only one who can properly stop Rampage Dress, so they probably went along with these kinds of people who wanted to see you fine. If only they had know that my Fuji is a good girl who can be a real beast."

So...

"If it wasn't for him, for the shithead, you wouldn't have to think of these ridiculous things."

.

Mei gasped when she heard the woman.

"...!"

Her mind did not clear and her body still refused to move, but...

_...No!_

A single thought did fill her mind and tears of denial spilled from her eyes. She tried to voice that denial, but the breath that escaped her lips was not even a voice.

Her attempted cry spilled weakly out just like her tears.

She could have always made it so that her trion body could do no such things, but that had been rejected long ago. It would have meant a small loss to her humanity, something she would never want.

It was backfiring for her now.

"Ah...hhh..."

However, this woman asked another question without nodding.

"Do you want to save this asshole's life?"

Mei's shaking body managed a trembling nod, but this woman did not nod in return.

"Then," she said. "Then leave Border, Fuji. I'll have you transferred to a nice paying place in Mikado City. You can bring an end to this all by staying where you won't be in the way. Then you can live somewhere nice and not deal with people who don't know their place. I'll even allow you to bring that cousin of yours who enjoys the worst parts of a man."

This woman moved her hand from his face to his throat.

"Now, if you understand, then say it. Say you will save this asshole's life by withdrawing from all of this. Oh, don't forget to get out of that body while you're at it."

"Ah..."

"Now," she urged again. "This is your last chance to save him."

Mei realized she had no questions inside her.

_...She may be right._

She did feel this was her last chance.

She could never stand up to this opponent and neither could anyone else. This boy, who was a nice hope for others as well as her own, had been captured and was about to be taken.

_...I..._

In the past, she had caused everyone a lot of trouble and worries.

If she had once brought trouble and was only a hindrance now...

"You will do anything for this boy since he reminds you of my shitty brother, won't you?"

This woman grabbed her clothes and shook her.

That was right. She had even started wearing different clothes after deciding to give all of herself to the two boys who had helped her the most. So...

"I..."

Once she finished speaking, she would have to endlessly apologize to them all.

Her lips trembled and she did not want to say these words, but...

"I will..."

"I will?"

"I will...save my..."

"Your friend."

"My...friend..."

 _No,_ she thought with tears in her eyes, but this woman shook her again.

"Just add 'by withdrawing' and you're done. That's all. Just say it."

If she did not say it, he would be lost. If she did, he would not be. And yet...

_...No..._

But when this woman shook him by the collar and showed her his limp form, her heart sunk. This woman gave a smile with the ends of her eyebrows lowered and spoke the inviting words. That had made her feel worse as she released her trion body to go back to her flesh and blood one.

The heat that came with it was painful.

"If you don't fucking say it soon, he will wake up. But wait..."

 _No,_ she immediately thought, ignoring the woman's now furrowed brows. She did not want him to see her like this, she did not want him to realize she had been unable to protect him, and she did not want him to hear what she was about to say.

 _I have no choice,_ she told herself and she opened her mouth while making countless silent apologies.

"By..."

Her body shook from her sobs.

"With...draw..."

Suddenly, a message came in from Border's transmission. It came from Kakizaki and displayed Tsukimi's face.

"Jin, why are you playing possum when there is something going on in front of you?"

"Whhhhhyyyyyy!?"

The talented elite woke.

.

Still dangling from that woman's hand, Mei opened her eyes wide and faced the chain-wrapped boy. Even with the pressure on his neck, he looked around and ultimately toward the two of them.

"Ohhhhh, it's true! And it's something amazing, too! Nice one, Tsukimi! ...Wait. I was supposed to see this coming, wasn't I? I didn't know that I didn't see my own torture in the future. That's a new one!"

Mei could not keep up with what he was saying, but was that because her mind had yet to clear or because she had poor conversational skills?

At any rate, the problem was still in progress. After all, this woman was far too healthy.

And to emphasize that this was her turn, the woman lightly squeezed the talented elite on her shoulder.

She nodded and looked between Mei and the talented elite who was flailing like a fish.

"He has infected you, hasn't he?"

"N-no, um, Kushikage? My symptoms are still much less severe than everyone else's."

 **Almost Everyone:** "Don't bring us into this!"

Mei ignored the complaint from everyone a good distance away.

_...They're all here._

She knew they would be doing more than just watch and that was enough. Meanwhile, the talented elite spoke in front of her.

"So what is this, Mei? A woman's meeting or something? But, y'know what? Don't just go along with what this woman says. You can be too nice sometimes. Besides..."

She listened.

"You're supposed to protect me and Yuki, not just let us keep going. ...You need to fight and protect us, after all, we are busy protecting others."

She felt like she could finally manage to breathe when she heard that, so she cooled her lungs and...

"Right!"

As soon as that word left her mouth, she was released from this woman's grasp.

She was thrown through the air to put some distance between them.

 _Ah,_ she thought in midair as this woman adjusted the talented elite's position.

"That is very interesting, but...you can't fucking have him back. He is mine."

"Kushikage!? What do you mean he's yours?"

He belonged to the Unmatched Valkyrie.

_...She isn't taking him for fun!?_

That meant they could not pay a ransom for his return. This was the worst possible case in which it was up to this woman's mood.

 **Seven Turns:** "Ohhh! Did she just confess to Yūichi-kun?"

 **Zaki:** "Hokd on! Hold on! We can't use Trigger to fire because of petty things!"

 **770:** "..."

 **#5 Mountain:** "Kanchō, you're really scary when you glare silently like that."

_...S-someone really has to do something about this!_

However, Mei could not move her trembling body; so her butt landed on the ground and she rolled.

She wanted to get up, run, and save her friend, but...

_...I'm too weak._

She recalled this woman's previous movements.

She could not move that quickly, but this woman could. She wished she could, but...

"—!"

Her body remained limp as she collapsed onto her side.

"Kh."

She felt pathetic and useless.

_...I have to do something._

As soon as she thought that, someone was dropped right in front of her.

.

In the fading night sky that was quickly becoming morning, Kushikage gently walked away from the fallen girl.

She had released her prey and dumped him on the ground, she had managed to enjoy a battle before that, and...

"Fuji."

She spoke to the girl who could only stare at her now. That small girl who continued to look smaller each time had been proven as weak here.

"I'm not so fucked up as to take a child's toy away from them. I guess this just means you're still a brat who needs help. If that's the case..."

The Unmatched Valkyrie continued to speak. The appropriate question about this small girl was what the girl was "going to do".

Would she pursue or not? Meanwhile, the Unmatched Valkyrie looked down at her discarded prey.

"I'll be leaving again. This time I'll be staying in Japan, but make sure that nothing happens to that brat and that you don't even try to get me again. Got it?"

To her, a commotion was not a bother. Instead, she was curious what would happen. That was why she had quieted him down for the time being, but...

_...Even if he does do something, I can most likely destroy him, leave him alone, or anything else._

The choice was hers. If she waited too long, the others in Border would try to have their say, so she wanted to enjoy this moment as much as she could as long as she could.

"Now, then."

From approximately a kilometer in distance, she took a step toward the edge of the city far away. It was a light, playful step like someone hopping over a puddle.

With that, she jumped away with some enjoyment in her.


	90. Yuki Tsukiko: Part 9

The hours until the morning began passed while the citizens of Mikado City prepared for the day.

Border was quickly going over the information they had gotten, informing the people who needed to know, and working with Sawamura to take a second look at the data.

Sawamura suddenly stated one piece of good news to Shinoda.

"I have completed the analysis of the power produced by Taiyōko Kushikage's unregistered Trigger that had damaged a part of the city."

"Oh, that's good, Sawamura-kun. Are you in a good mood this morning?"

The power scaling that had been extracted via process of elimination from Sawamura and the others at Border was highly accurate, but they did not know what any alterations or the initial power of a different Trigger looked like.

As such, they could not detect anything until the destructive power had already been used, but any defense could be instantly deployed if it was detected at close range. Overall, it was being viewed positively.

Sawamura's analysis had revealed two things.

First, Kushikage's attack on the city had indeed been in self-defense and was confirmed by Jin afterwards. She had been in the wrong with how she had handled the situation, but she had made no move to attack before Kanzaki had appeared and attacked. This meant not all of the blame could be placed on her since the circumstances called for her action.

Also, there had been a confirmation that the path she had taken to reach that spot had not gone near Kurosaki, Shiraishi, or Kobayashi. While it meant little for the events during the day, it was a note that they could not overlook. It provided proof that she had no contact with Seikai Kiyoshi before his capture at the hands of Toby earlier in the night. The details on her actions earlier than that were not yet known, so they predicted there was a slight chance she was involved with the sponsors.

After gathering all that information, Akasora and Rindō worked to put together a strategy.

"For some reason, I feel like I'm only coming up with defensive ideas and you're only coming up with offensive ones, Chi-chan."

"Do we subconsciously know what it is we lack?"

For that reason, the planning group became unofficially known as the "Lacking Branch". They simplified and standardized the information network and form of instructions in the early stages to have a groundwork to handle the increased numbers of instructions that were sure to come later.

At the same time, the other directors continued their work on the events that were likely to happen later in the night. There were still battles during the day to be had with the B-Rank Wars, but some of those people would also be participating in the possible night battle.

However, it became more difficult to place people around given what had happened.

"With the confrontation earlier, Motoharu Squad has said they will not participate and Hikigane Squad is on the fence about it," explained Rindō. "We also can't use Takato now. Jin says he's fine to go along and we confirmed it ourselves, but the same can't be said for that girl. From what I heard after we told Yuki and Kimura, he's asking Yagura's Operator to fill in for her during their match today."

Throughout the extra time, they had told Yuki and Kimura about what had happened between Kushikage and Mei. For some reason he had been silent at first before transforming into an uncharacteristically serious person that ended with him going over to see her. There had been no chance to stop him before he had returned stating that he would message one of the Kotowari Squad members to inform them of the situation. The two adults wanted to lecture him, but found that it was hard to do that when Mei had been involved.

Time passed as many others took a variety of actions, prepared, and trained.

While a large crowd was gathered for the closing ceremony held at the end of the morning on the last stretch of the Kobayashi/Mogami festival, word arrived that the issues with the sponsors had finished and Border would be getting its money back into circulation.

Any remaining destruction or festival locations were hurriedly cleaned up and most of Mikado City was back to the normalcy they had built up to this point. To avoid giving away too much information, the sponsors as well as Border had come to an agreement. Even so, there was a location where noises could be heard early in the morning.

.

A strong wind blew.

Within the city, the Yagura Branch prioritized itself while the members filtered around the city within the morning time.

The area around its building was cleared away by the beginning of business and others starting their day.

 **GM Aide:** "All branches: remain alert, shift to standby until tonight, and continue supporting Mikado City. Due to the activities of a certain individual, we will be remaining as we are for the current moment. Anyone who had taken part in the meetings yesterday, we will be relying on you to inform any sponsors about what is happening."

On Sawamura's instructions the Yagura Branch members began to settle themselves in. In front of that building's door, Akashi gave a rapid series of instructions regarding the changing situation.

He was primarily instructing others on the possibilities that could be coming now.

"Hogo Manager-kun, fifteen minutes have passed. Have the directors contacted anyone?"

"No."

Kimura's eyebrows rose but she nodded.

"Do what you have to do without worrying about that. And sorry."

After apologizing, Kimura sighed.

_...It's time, but nothing has happened. This is going to be a lot of trouble._

She did wonder if this was just a set up, but Akashi waved a hand her way while still giving instructions.

"Right. Don't worry about it. If we play up the fact that Tsukiko-kun's sister was working alone, we can probably get some sympathy as well as the usual hostility. Also, some of the more important civilians have given their interpretation of the lack of response."

"My father and the others have? What was it?"

"Right." Akashi nodded and opened something up on his phone for her and the others in the area to see. "Look at this: Akasora-kun is an honest and hardworking man who is also trustworthy; so now that a member of his branch has caused some damage to the city and another one had been helping the city all through the night, we are sure this was simply a test and the damage will be covered for. That's what their interpretation is, but someone might deny that if it is brought up."

"Sorry," apologized Kimura again. "Wait. My father and the others should be in a meeting at my place, but it looks like they attached a request for medicine. They must have sent it to the wrong people. ...And for blunt trauma and broken bones?"

"Those sound like injuries from a fistfight, but your father and the others wouldn't do that," commented Suzaku. "My guess is someone tripped during all the shaking. I'll send out someone who can properly handle this."

"Right," agreed Kimura while looking outside. "And of course this has to happen right after our meetings, before the next round of the B-Rank Wars start, and in the morning of an important night."

The morning mist trailed behind the wind and the city continued to wake itself up for another day.

Suddenly, someone appeared in front of her.

It was Yuki.

He looked over to the Border base and spoke.

"This means I also need to consider some things. Putting the issue of my sister aside for the moment, I was put in charge of an area for tonight. That means I need to set things up there. Kimura, Akashi, please continue to monitor anything concerning this issue."

.

Yuki looked over to the Border base which was a few kilometers away. A few complaints had already been sent to it.

_...But these meetings did help. Kobayashi and Shiraishi are trying to calm down the public._

_But about Kushi..._

She had already left and was apparently traveling south. Things had been moved away and people were spooked, but...

"At times it's best to give up on running. Some people are just attempting to hide because of the uncertainty. ...She is moving pretty fast too, so it's a bit frightening. Perhaps that is a leisurely walking pace for her though."

Akashi stepped up next to him and also measured Kushikage's movements.

"Can you catch up to her? Once she gets too far away, keeping up with her might just become too much to handle."

"I doubt she would bother hiding her tracks on the way out of the city."

That was why he would not go after her anymore.

She was capricious, so he could not predict what she would do next; but...

"Our issues aren't with her for the time being. She won't attack us as it is as long as we don't provoke her."

"Wait," said Kimura while raising a hand toward him. "I would prefer to deal with her using a political resolution. ...But would that be safe? What if someone gets to Taiyōko-san first?"

"Currently she is acting alone. We have Seikai Kiyoshi in custody, so it should be fine at the moment to leave her alone. She doesn't like relying on others for fun stuff."

The atmosphere stiffened at the phrase "fun stuff", but there was no point in hiding it.

Yuki used everyone's silence to continue.

"As I was saying, that is not our priority at the moment. The possibilities for tonight are what we need to focus on. You all got a summary of what might happen."

"I see," said Akashi as he opened an application and began recording. "That's. Tsukiko-kun, you can choose your team now."

"In that case, I choose...Sthénos and...Mei."

Hearing that, everyone turned to Senshi; but he only shrugged.

"I'd like to tell him to take Ikoma or Kanzaki instead; but the former is busy because of the meetings and Kanzaki just had an encounter with his sister. Also, Sthénos and Mei have the best odds if we are going to do something important, right?"

"That's right. They would more or less know what kind of instructions I would give. At the very least, I would not need to hold back when it comes to offense."

"But," said Suzaku with a tilt of his head. He tilted it even further before continuing. "Why Takato-san?"

"Well," he began.

Mei lay unconscious in the building they stood in front of.

She was terribly exhausted, but he was planning to take her with him instead of returning her to Border.

"For a variety of reasons, she is the one most likely to draw any special attention given everything we know. Both in conversation and combat, there will be people concerned about her. And to be honest, facing anything annoying would be much better with her around."

"You mean..."

"That's right," replied Yuki as he resolved himself. "The possibility of having her act as a 'shield' if Kushikage comes back was a part of my reasoning."

.

Relieved by everyone's silence, Yuki continued speaking.

"In other words, if Mei wakes up by the time it has all started I intend to fight against the annoyances and use her as a shield if Kushikage appears."

He sighed.

_...Could you call this being short handed?_

He also thought they were short on strength and short on firepower. They had earned some decent results during the Aftokrator Invasion and the sponsor meetings; but the invasion had been a home field advantage for them and the sponsors battle had used emotions as a base for them.

When they were up against someone who could be called a normal force...

_...My side has an unlikely possibility to be attacked, is that why they are limiting me here?_

If he was given small options, this enemy could reach the Border base or the city.

Some battles could prove that.

It had taken his entire team and a specially made Trigger for him to fight during the invasion. No, that may have been all that was needed to win in the first place; but it made him shudder when he thought about any more attempts to destroy Border or the city.

_...No._

Yuki realized other unknowns like that might still exist on the other side of the Gate, so...

"Hesitating here will get us nowhere."

"That's right."

He heard small footsteps to the side and saw Sthénos attaching her Trigger to a waist hard point.

"You wanted me to join you because of my abilities against Trion Soldiers! I can't do much with our Border's actual Triggers, but I can put together a means of dealing with Trion Soldiers and all that other stuff! In a short-term battle, it can be better to just deal with fodder! Let's see... Nothing to give us away, right!"

"Correct. It would be a night battle so we don't want to give ourselves away and use what we can to our advantage and their disadvantage is what I usually aim for at times like these. But in the worst case, you can escape easily and you have an extra boost for offensive capabilities; so your odds of survival should be quite high."

"Because I'm great," nodded Sthénos.

Suddenly, Kagami stepped up to her and pulled something wrapped from somewhere.

"Yuki-kun, this is something from us. Please make sure it gets to Mei-san when she wakes up."

"I get the feeling a lot has changed since a year ago."

Yuki took it and Senshi walked up next to Sthénos and held out a few small objects wrapped in cloth.

"Some added bonuses from your squad. We thought this might happen, so we made sure to prepare some extra clothes just in case."

"Why?" muttered everyone with a small step back, but Sthénos took the pack and realized there was more than one.

"Oh, is this one for Mei-tsan!? Not bad!"

"It might also come in handy in case Akasora-san gives you guys that Trigger to use. We had to judge her size by eye; but since we know she has no chest, we got elastic material. It isn't meant for combat, but it's better than something that's too tight."

"Got it!" nodded Sthénos before Senshi patted her head.

Sthénos then turned to Yuki with a smile.

"I'll go ahead and look around the area to make sure I know what's what! I'll remember it, Yukicchi, so have your own fun!"

She ran off to the Border base and vanished. Her steps were light, as if she did not want them to be heard.

If they were to gain attention when preparing for something important then it may end up badly.

"I should probably make some rounds over here to make sure no one notices anything."

He could make his way over by moving from building to building and he would not draw unwanted attention if he continued to act as the Yagura Branch second-in-command.

But just before he took the first step, someone grabbed his left arm.

It was Oshiro. He looked to the left and saw his eyebrows slightly raised.

"I will join you."

.

Kunichika was the first to react to Oshiro's words. She raised a hand and whispered to Kagami.

"It's time for some passionate love, Kagami. Make sure you don't get burned."

"Wh-what are you talking about, Kunichika? Hogo-kun is just so very worried about Yuki-kun that he's desperate to find some way he can- waaaaah! That is burning! Even explaining it is too much!"

"Oh, I need to tell Suzume-chan about this! With the way Hogo-kun always says, 'Onii-san! Onii-san!' This could lead to a good doujinshi! They aren't blood related, so it should be fine with her!"

"You can ignore the peanut gallery and say what you have to say, Shiro."

Oshiro gave a confused bow toward Kunichika and Kagami who had begun fanning each other. He then lightly held on to Yuki's hoodie, lowered his eyebrows, and opened his mouth to speak.

That was when Arafune raised a hand toward Hokari who stood next to Kagami.

"Statistically, this should be a moving scene; so broadcast it to the entirety of Border. And make sure Inukai gets every moment if it."

"Lovey-dovey roger."

Oblivious to what was happening behind him, Oshiro began speaking.

"Um," he began with his still awkward change to names. "Please, Yuki-san. Let me go with you."

* * *

"Um, Yuki-san, I have been thinking a lot lately and I have been holding back because I'm not sure I should do anything myself; but, uh, i-it felt like you had chosen to go and take Mei-san because I'm not skilled enough. B-but if, um, I have learned from your meetings and, uh, from seeing you and Mei-san at home, I think I can do something. So I guess what I'm saying is, I want to be of use to you."

Everyone listening to the broadcast prepared their weapons.

"I'm going to make that fake ninja regret this."

"Yeah, for some reason I was thinking the same thing."

"You're right. We should work together here!"

They heard Oshiro let out a warm sigh.

"May I go with you?"

The commander at the front of the group gestured for the others to come with him and they began moving silently yet swiftly along the wall.

They were followed by a loud shout of, "OOOOOOSSSHHHHIIIIIIIIIRRRROOOOOOO! DON'T LEAVE ME FOR THAT GUY!"

* * *

"Oh? For some reason, I hear some people with nothing better to do walking this way."

Arafune's comment brought an odd sense of unease to Yuki's chest, so he took a deep breath.

"U-um, please let go of my hoodie, Shiro."

Yuki's plan was as follows:

**1: When Shiro thinks he has been rejected, start by shaking my head. I of course have no intention of rejecting him.**

**2: "After all, you can't exactly grab my arm while we are surrounded by these kinds of people." ← I'm so cool!**

**3: Shiro will be incredibly moved! (Hopefully)**

With that plan in mind, he saw Oshiro let go of his hoodie in surprise.

"Eh? Oh, right. Sorry, Yuki-san."

"Nothing to worry about. After all..."

Just as he began step 2, Oshiro stepped in front of him, stood sideways, and crossed his arms.

 _Eh?_ he thought.

"Huh? Shiro? What is that pose for?"

Oshiro opened his eyes for a second and seemed to give a slight gesture.

_...Is he asking I use his full name!?_

His disbelief and that fact that his plans had been ruined threw him off.

"U-u-u-u-u-um, Sh-Shiro? Y-y-y-y-y-you, uh..."

He thought Oshiro was going to say something, but he only looked away.

"Nn."

And he gave him an urging look with a slight troubled movement of the eyebrows.

Currently, the monsters behind him were whispering.

"Wow, wow. He's asking to be properly called upon! This heat! The passion is like something from a Western romance!"

"Heh heh. I never thought I would get to see this in person. ...Record it, crappy secretary!"

"Oh, yeah. This would make some great material! Who would've thought we would see Mikado City's castle be this stubborn! This is a first!"

Even a small child poked out from the branch office.

"Called upon? Properly? The boy being properly used?"

"Please don't learn any more strange terms!"

"Wan."

Yuki had secretly named his horrible age group's rotation of malice "Unavoidable All-Out Dodgeball", but he soon heard the group stepping away. He considered using a smokescreen of sorts, but he was afraid of what would happen then and he would probably need the idea later.

"Oshiro."

As he nodded back, he patted his head at an angle where the recording would not reach them.

"I'd love for you to help me out. You really have grown a lot when I wasn't looking. Sorry about that. Now please prevent Inukai from coming at me or I will start strangling him with his own tie."

.

Yuki smiled as he watched the younger boy make his way over to the moving crowd led by an energetic idiot.

The smile fell once he was out of sight and replaced by a sigh.

"To fend off any anger from others, to create a team for tonight, and end it off with strengthening his bond with Hogo... As much as he is a troublesome person he is, you have to give Yuki credit for his work."

Hearing his name be mentioned by the group a bit away, he looked over to see that it had been Senshi who had spoken up about it.

Another sigh came out, this time it was followed by his hand going into the pockets of his hoodie.

"SenSen, it really isn't anything special. I understand people's anger, which is why I'll be taking the blame for Kushi should it come to that. Creating a team and forming a strategy...I need to do that much to even stay on Sensei's radar. And Oshiro really has grown a lot. He is reminding me of my former squad. What I'm trying to say is that there really is nothing to the stuff I do. It is nothing special and anyone else in Border can manage it far better than I even can."

Senshi seemed to question this as his head started to tilt to the side.

Arafune stepped up and placed a hand on his shoulder, seeming to understand that it was not all getting through to his friend.

"It's fine. If you could understand any of this guy's random babbling, we would have some issues. Just know that he has to keep this up for others."

"I see. But if he keeps this up, won't he start to make his condition worse?"

At the mention of his physical condition, Yuki froze for a split second. It would have been unnoticeable if not for everyone being so close together.

_With Kō and Kon off with Suzunari, I really don't have any backup here. ...That should be fine. I should be the one backing up the others anyways._

As three of the other people who had gone with him to Kurosaki, Suzunari-1, after having met up with Taichi the night before, had all gone back to the Suzunari Branch and seemed to have stayed there.

Yuki had followed their lead by going back to the Yagura Branch and doing the same thing, but that had been interrupted once he got word of what had been happening. The lack of sleep would have been evident by the bags under his eyes if not for the use of his trion body.

_There's no reason to worry anyone more than they already are. Compared to having Mei deal with Kushi...and what Mukuro goes through with his own insomnia...a little lack of sleep should be no problem. I can't even feel the effects of it while using this false body._

He let out a bitter laugh that caught the attention of those around him.

Having just barely escaped certain death with Oshiro, he was more cautious about the looks he was receiving from them all.

"Was there...something I could help you all with?"

They must have wanted to bring some irony into this as they all let out simultaneous sighs.

_...Why are they always in sync when it comes to the worst things?_

"If not for the fact we have people who hadn't known you before, we would really be tearing into you. I hope you know that."

"Why are you always like this, Pokari?"

"Maybe because we've been classmates for too long?"

"Kō and Kage have also been our classmates, you know!"

"But they are manageable. Even Kimura can't deal with you, and all she does is pick fights."

The mentioned girl was quick with her response.

"Don't drag me into this! Most of your class scares me, so I try not to be brought up in the same conversation as you guys!"

_Oh, that is actually a good idea. But..._

"Kimura...you're in the same class as Jinsei," they all said at once.

"Dammit!"

Taking pity on the girl and former teammate, Yuki turned back to Senshi. He made sure to make a mental note of how Kurauchi had taken a step closer to the boy.

It was true that there were still some people in their age group who did not know about his former lifestyle, something he makes sure to keep as is. The others also keep their mouths shut knowing full well what the consequences would be for bringing up too much about his past.

That was why he made sure to think about his next words.

"SenSen, thinking about my simple actions is not something you should really be focusing on, is it?"

"I guess you're right. Although I feel like saying that will bring me more bad luck than my own Side Effect."

"I'll overlook that comment for now... Yeah, after all, you guys made it to the top tier. It may just be barely, but you managed it."

"You sound like you were planning something with that..."

"Not really. I just wanted to see something be tested out."

More murmuring came from the others.

The noise from the crowd coming after Yuki seemed to have picked up their pace.

"Your next match...is against Ōji Squad, Yuba Squad, and...Kotowari Squad. Your Side Effect, along with Shingai's, will be playing a major part in that."

.

Sensei's confusion with that statement was not answered by Yuki, instead it had been by his schoolmate.

Arafune hummed with his chin placed between his thumb and index finger.

"That's true..."

This seemed to only confuse him even more.

"Ah. With the prez here, I really shouldn't say anything more than that. Besides...he isn't the only one who is hearing...or in this case seeing this conversation. Isn't that right, Yuki?"

"Guess I was caught."

"If you really wanted to hide it, I never would have noticed. Stop being dumb."

"I hear that is an impossibility. Isn't that right...Take?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am planning to split this story up into smaller ones and put it as a series. There will be a bit more added to those than what this story has. Mostly for the parts up to Aftokrator and the invasion itself. So feel free to wait for those or just read this story to know what will happen.


	91. Kotowari Squad: Part 6

Takeshi frowned at his phone screen.

Without any warning, he had started getting messages from the Border chat. The most prominent ones were from Yuki, Arafune, and Senshi.

"Is Yuki-san trying to get me in trouble...?"

The messages that came through made it seem that way. At the same time, he also seemed to be helping by trying to get information out for him and his squad.

 **Colors:** "Uh, Yuki-san sort of just started this without my knowledge. I have no idea what is going on."

 **TetsuG:** "It's fine, we know that he likes to drag other people into his messes when they don't want to be involved."

Was it truly a good thing that other people understood that?

Ever since he had gone to help them sort out their issues, Yuki had continuously messaged Kotowari Squad, even when he seemed to be busy. A good example of that was with the recent meetings concerning the sponsors.

He had been allowed special access to view the goings on with the meetings due to his older brother being involved with it. While not being able to add anything himself, he was able to see everything that was being said.

That included what Musashi had said.

_So he is alive... Before it would not matter or I just wouldn't care enough to pay attention to it, but now it's different. Knowing that he is alive and hiding himself from me. It's like..._

It was just like what he had heard from Hoshi.

.

There had been many times when Hoshi had expressed her feelings about one of her older brothers. How he had been disowned and then lost connection with them. There was nothing left on him that she could use to get in contact with him, making her presume that he was in a different country or, worst case, he had died.

both thoughts had been proven to be false when the person known as "Tsukiko Yuki" had come out and said his former name. While still being Tsukiko Yuki, his former name had been Taiyōko Kiyoshi - the older brother thought gone.

The feelings that were being forced up for him may have been similar to what Hoshi had felt at that time.

_I shouldn't compare myself to her. Her case is worse than mine._

Others would have disagreed if he had said it out loud, so he had kept it to himself.

_Someone who is always wrong really shouldn't compare himself to her. Besides that, she had faith in him the whole time. Toby would always go on about how there was no chance she was forgotten about. That must be because he is an older brother himself._

_How do the older brothers feel exactly?_

He could only view things as a younger brother with little experience.

Having little experience in this sort of thing may not have been too important, but it had meant that the bonds he had with his older brothers were weak and there was not much that could be done about it. Even if it was not important, that experience could not be had anymore. It could be done on the most basic of levels by others, but the true experience he would have from his family was no longer an option.

Musashi, as an always right person, had never bothered to go to Takeshi, an always wrong person. If that was the case then it meant that he also viewed this experience something that could not happen anymore. It was something he would not take upon himself to see through.

Feeling his mood go even further down, he started to lean back.

He had been sitting on a park bench, waiting for two other people to come back after they had said they wanted to get something. With no one else there it meant he would be able to lay down on the bench and try to clear his mind by looking at the sky.

It was a rather clear sky with only a few clouds here and there.

_A much better view than seeing those falcons flying in the sky._

They were not too much of a threat when he had shot them down at the mall, but it seemed that he had not fought the stronger ones from what he had heard and seen near Shiraishi's White Rock.

Just how much behind everyone was he for them to take something like that out while he had only managed enough during the actual "greeting"?

This sort of lack of ability could have been one of the reasons Musashi had not gone to find him.

"I guess this just means I should not hope in myself..."

He began to fall back, waiting for his back to the bench when...

"Don't go saying that. If you don't have hope in yourself then it brings down my resolve to help you fight."

His back never once touched the bench.

.

He felt his back touch something soft and turned his head to see what it had been.

Hoshi looked him in the eyes with a soft and sad expression.

Her arm had been what his back landed on. His head was on her shoulder and he could feel himself start to slide off.

Instead of letting him fall, Hoshi lifted her arm so that he could place his back on the bench. When his back had reached the bench, his head landed on something else that was equally as soft; her lap. From this angle he could see that she was holding two popsicles. The first one was in the hand away from him and the second one was now above his head, but far enough that it would not fall on him.

She had not been the one to speak to him, that much he was sure of, after all...

"Alright, we'll let you be comfortable for a bit. ...Oh, your legs are pretty cold aren't they?"

Takeshi felt his legs be forced up into the air before being placed on a more sturdy feeling lap. That had been followed by a hand lifting his pant legs up a bit so that his skin would be visible to the open air.

In response to the action, he had thrown his leg into the air, intending to kick the person who had done that.

"Whoa! Hahaha! Nice try, but you won't be able to hit me like that."

Knowing that it was the truth, that he would never have a chance to hit the boy, Takeshi clicked his tongue while thanking Hoshi as she handed him the popsicle.

Toby continued to laugh as he patted Takeshi's leg while chipping at his own treat.

"So, wanna tell us why you're being so down on yourself?"

"Is this any different from my usual self?"

"...That makes me feel even worse."

The howling of a dog usually meant nothing for Kotowari Squad, so neither did the whining.

"Hey, Take. I'll leave this be for now, but just know that I won't be leaving you alone with this. Even if I have to run the risk of being put in a doujinshi, I'm going to make you tell me everything that's bugging you."

"..."

"No, I won't be holding back. I'm really tired of all the crap our team keeps hiding from each other. It started with Yuki and Mei and now you are trying to hide this and keep it to yourself. I won't be letting that crap happen again, you hear me?"

The whining and howling of a dog usually meant nothing, but this was not just some howling from a dog. It was a wolf caring about a friend.

With Suzume not around the three were on the same level as each other in a true sense. They were classmates who had gotten to be friends with each other. Now it was more than that; they were teammates who would be looking out for each other with no reservations.

It was because of that fact that neither one of them wanted to point out the joint problem the three of them shared and instead allowed the moment of silence to take away the feeling that had come over them.

Toby was the first to break out of that moment of sweeping silence

"So, are we going to be going over our plans before our match today?"

"I wanna take a break for now. I know it's important and everything, but just thinking about who we are fighting makes me feel like not not thinking about it."

"If I may get a slight reminder...the squads we are fighting against today are usually in the top tier, correct?"

"That's right, I forgot you don't know these things."

Both boys were relatively new to Border when compared to some others, but they had been given the opportunity to meet and fight against many of the other agents. It may have been due to their former captain, but the fact that chance had been there to begin with meant they had a better understanding of what was going on.

"That's kinda right. Yuba and Ōji are pretty up there most times. Senzai Squad goes between top and mid pretty frequently, from what I've been told. I don't go to those guys too much, so even I can't say much."

"Have you not fought them before, Toby-kun?"

"I gave, but..." Toby responded at the same time he tried to scratch his head and take a piece of the popsicle. The end result was his hand jabbing his own ear and the popsicle hitting his cheek. "Eh? Crap, guess I missed there."

Hoshi gave a giggle to the actions while offering her handkerchief. It was denied and she placed it down where she had noticed that a piece had landed on Takeshi's cheek as he held back his own expression.

"Uh, anyway, like I was saying. I have fought Senshi before, but only once. Shingai usually doesn't want to fight against me and Sthénos is...well, there aren't many chances to really fight her. So yeah, I haven't fought them too much. Actually...that goes for the other squads too. Yukari is probably the one I have the most matches with since there have been times when she is with Shun and some others. Yutaka would be next, but he is usually eager to fight Take here."

"I still don't know why that is..."

"Not sure either. I didn't even know you two knew each other."

Takeshi simply shrugged his shoulders.

Every time that Kashio had tried to get a match from Takeshi, he had always been rejected. It was usually followed by the sudden appearance of the name "Kitora Ai" for seemingly no reason. Even now it was uncertain as to why that was.

"So what about the others? I don't keep track of who you have fought, so I'm also a bit in the dark on that."

"No one else that I can remember. They all try to stay clear of me when I'm around. Oh, but Kazuki has told me before that they don't mean anything by it. He seems like an honest guy, so I guess they just don't want to fight me."

"Considering how you are, that is a fair response..."

Toby retaliated to the comment by pushing up a pant leg again. This time it had no effect.

"Well, if we are going to be talking about our strategy here, we should probably get Senpai in here. And I hear that Mei-san won't be able to be our Operator for this round, so we should ask who will be taking that spot."

There was no questioning the looks being passed above by Hoshi and Toby. The thought that Mei would not be helping them as their Operator without them hearing anything about it until now seemed rather worrying.

Even so, Takeshi continued to type in a message to their upperclassman before pressing the send button.

It had taken a few seconds, but a response came to all of their phones.

 **Honest Sister:** "Sorry, I was going to let you guys know. Yuki-san honestly told me that Mei-san couldn't help us a bit earlier. I don't know much about the details, but apparently she had gotten involved in something and is now resting up. I honestly wanted to see her so I'm headed to the Yagura Branch right now. Don't worry, I'll make it in time for the match."

The trio nodded in understanding. She had not told them her plans they would have told her to check on the Operator.

The worry from the vague explanation could not be stopped, but it felt too much like something related to the shared past of Yuki and Mei. There was no room for them to get involved.

"That's fine... We can go check on her after our match. We also need to prepare for tonight like we were asked, but we won't just be leaving Mei-san like that."

 **Honest Sister:** "That's what I honestly wanted to hear."

They were all in agreement.

 **Honest Sister:** "Oh yeah, I honestly brought in the person who would be working as our Operator for our match."

**JK has entered the current chat.**

**JK:** "Hey there, Kotowari Squad. I'm Nakagami Suzuka, Yagura Branch's Operator. I was told by Boss and asked by Yuki-san to help you guys out, so that's what I'll be doing for today. Let's get along."

Toby and Takeshi turned to Hoshi at the mention of the Yagura Branch.

Said girl waved off their worries about Nakagami. While being a member of Kotowari Squad, Hoshi was still a member of the Yagura Branch, so she would have known if there was anything to worry about.

"Yes, we will be relying on you, Nakagami-san."

 **JK:** "You're fine to call me Suzuka or JK Operator."

This girl was not the type to hold back.

There was a chance that she could not keep up with what Kotowari Squad had built up to this point, but it was clear that she was the type to keep t it until she had managed to get through it all. It was a good enough fit for them as a team.

 **JK:** "So what have you guys planned so far? I've looked up our next match and see that there are some troublesome people there. Got anything for that?"

"I'm sorry Suzuka-san, we have not been able to come up with anything yet due to the happening around Mikado City recently. I am at fault for focusing on something personal and could not think about the match too much."

"I'm also to blame a bit," said Toby, watching as his words became text on their screens. "I was going through a weird funk and didn't do much to help with planning. I'm all good now and we were going over what to do."

 **Honest Sister:** "So it really was you making a commotion the other night. Nice gaining some attention for our squad. But don't think I won't honestly be using you and Noah-kun for a doujinshi. I hear you two were having fun running around half naked and barefoot."

The expression Toby got on his face was enough for both Takeshi and Hoshi to pity him.

The honest sister was true to her word, so there was no helping what was to come for the boy and his best friend.

All that could be done was be resigned to his fate and deal with it.

 **JK:** "How old are these guys again?"

"We are 15... Why?"

* * *

"Tch. Damn and here I was expecting something good to read."

 **Lobo:** "What the hell did you want to see!?"

 **Colors:** "Are we sure it's fine to have her helping us here...?"

 **Prototype Star:** "..."

_Crap! I didn't think it would catch that!_

Nakagami tried to erase the messages she had accidentally put in the chat but found that she could not do anything to them.

Trying everything she could, she came to a message that covered the entire screen that read:

**"Please stop trying to do unauthorized things or every former deleted message will be displayed, shared across your accounts, and maybe even certain images that came with them."**

_What the hell!? This is messed up! What kind of system is this that allows me to delete the pointless things but not the embarrassing ones!?_

Hearing some noise outside of the Yagura Branch, she was reminded that there were some people still discussing things there. Among those people was a boy who was a squad captain yet also helped the authority of some of Border's transmissions. That had included the chat they were using.

_Dammit! It was Suzaku, right? That's his name!? Damn you, Suzaku, go die and then be reborn so you can die again! Ah! Where is a demonic rain when you need it!?_

Resigning herself to this terrible first impression of her, she began typing as much as she could in the chat until her message was far above everything else and could not be seen.

Doing so seemed to have gotten the irritation of Kotowari Squad, but that did not matter anymore since her image in their eyes had already been ruined.

That was when another message came up.

**"Please stop spamming the chat or we will display the message you are trying to hide, share it across your accounts, and add in any deleted messages we happen to find."**

"What the hell is with thiiiiissss chaaaaaaat!?"

* * *

The trio of middle schoolers watched with straight expressions as the spam of messages came to an end with a loud one.

There was a temptation to feel bad for the girl, but then a reminder as to why she was putting so many messages came up.

"Dealing with Suzume is enough... Now we need to deal with this girl..."

"I, um... I have no excuse for this. I apologize."

"No need for that. We understand that that branch is not particularly a sane one."

They all let out simultaneous sighs as the messages finally came to an end.

There was no way to actually know, but it was a good guess that the JK girl who had sent so many messages to cover up herself was currently crying over whatever she had been using to send the messages.

 **Honest Sister:** "You kind of have to feel bad for her. She tried to make a good impression and ended up honestly showing herself as a lewd woman. Well I suppose we should be glad that she is not into the younger ones if she doesn't honestly want to read one with our dog and Noah-kun."

The wolf that sat under the Shooter's legs could be seen clenching his fists at the reminder of the inevitable doujinshi that would be coming.

"Can we get back to our planning now...? We only have a bit of time before we have to go to our match."

"Just let me apologize to No real quick..."

Takeshi nodded his head.

Anyone would come to that understanding after having to deal with the honest sister for so long.

.

With everything finally having settled down, Takeshi began lifting his body from the bench and two bodies he had been using for his head and legs.

He put his phone on his lap and changed the setting so that every voice that went through would be put into the chat properly. This had made Hoshi and Toby change their setting so that their own phones would not pick it up and create unwanted duplicates.

With his back against the bench and his feet touching the ground now, he looked to the sky again. The remaining clouds were clearing up and the shade from the nearby trees were starting to move away from them. Some people could be seen walking around, some with their children and others with their pets.

It felt rather peaceful all things considered.

"So let's get back to our planning. This time we are in a strange position since even Toby does not have much experience with them. Senpai, can you tell us some things about Shingai-san or Tonooka-senpai?"

 **Honest Sister:** "Not really. Shingai and I are usually in different areas during training. As for Tono-kun...well, that whole squad is like us in a way. Even if you haven't planned much, you have honestly seen some logs, right? They do things by themselves and don't really work together. In a way, it is likely I could end up going one-on-one with Tono-kun and both of us would be on pretty even ground."

"That's if we stick to our usual strategy and you are 'only being a Sniper', right?"

 **Honest Sister:** "Heh heh heh. That is honestly true. But due to me missing the last match, Bakasaka had told me that I need to use this match to show my skills as a Sniper, so I won't be moving like the rest of you."

"I see... That does make things a bit awkward in this case, but it should be fine."

 **JK:** "Hey, I have the information I dug up on the squads. Do you all have something that can support large files?"

The trio looked to each other before checking that their phones were able to work with the file.

Toby and Takeshi sighed when they saw that their phones were older models and would not be able to handle large files.

That had left Hoshi to share her phone (latest model) with her teammates.

 **JK:** "You know, I'm really wondering why we aren't doing this in your operating room. Isn't that what those are for? It would also make organizing these kinds of things easier."

The thought had crossed their minds before, but a silent agreement had come to them all; "We are comfortable where we are right now."

That was clearly the wrong answer so none of them said it. Instead, Takeshi took it upon himself to continue with their planning.

"About the information..."

 **JK:** "Yeah, yeah. I'm sending it now."

Once the files had been sent to Hoshi's phone she opened them. Her screen was filled with multiple pages that she had trouble controlling. Once each one was opened, she closed them all and opened the first one.

The files were in order of names. This meant the first one was Ōji Squad.

**Ōji Squad Strong Points**

**\- They are all pretty fast runners. Their mobility is pretty high and even their actions are quick.**

**\- They are certain when they make attacks or bring up defenses. Everything that can be calculated is calculated. (Annoying)**

**\- They all look pretty good, even given their outfits. This includes their Operator.**

**\- They have Attacker and Gunner Triggers to work with and use Triggers that compliment their mobility. (Also annoying, but smart)**

**Ōji Squad Weak Points**

**\- Take out their legs, you're good to go.**

**\- Since they aren't at Mei-san's level, sudden change to calculations can mess them up, if done right.**

**\- They have a kid on their team and their Shooter looks to uptight. (Major point deductions)**

There was silence between the trio.

Suzume seemed to have made no move to respond either, so they had decided to look at the next file.

It was on Senzai Squad.

**Senzai Squad Strong Points**

**\- Their Side Effects make things almost completely unpredictable.**

**\- Their captain has a good grasp on attack and mobility (even given those nice muscles) while their Sniper is high on mobility too. Their Shooter, while not one to fire from a great distance, is pretty good up close.**

**\- They also get high marks in the looks department.**

**\- Their known Trigger set up is strange, so it's harder to go around all of that.**

**Senzai Squad Weak Points**

**\- Their Side Effects are counters to each other and affect them as much as others.**

**\- Their captain doesn't have the best defense and their Shooter is rather low when it comes to attack. Their Sniper is the most balanced.**

**\- Admittedly, they looked like edgy people, so it messes with their looks a bit. The goggles are a nice touch though.**

"Um..."

The silence washed to break as they read through the second file.

The information was there, but...

"M-maybe the last one will be..."

Hoshi held her tongue and looked away at the looks she was getting from the two boys.

Doing what they knew they had to do, they opened the last file.

**Yuba Squad Strong Points**

**\- The captain is a quickdraw person and looks to be good at analyzing situations.**

**\- All the members are well off fighting by themselves, so one-on-one is not particularly advised.**

**\- They don't look too good, so you can attack them without holding back. (Does this count?)**

**\- Pretty good overall.**

**Yuba Squad Weak Points**

**\- Team up in the right setting and it should be fine to attack any of the members.**

**\- They have a kid with them and their captain looks rough as hell. Take him out first because of that.**

The silence was finally broken.

It was not by any one person and by no means was it a quiet breaking. It could only be described as a large dam giving way to a raging torrent that threatened to swallow an entire city. After all...

 **Everyone:** "Are you kidding me!?"

* * *

Nakagami tilted her head at the collective yell that had been directed her way.

She had just gotten done sending the general information on their opponents to Kotowari Squad so that they knew what they were up against. While it was not every detail, that would be saved for when they were in the operating room of Kotowari Squad and putting the finishing touches on their planning.

Now she was being yelled at by them all after having been nice enough to send them that information.

"What's your guys' problem?"

 **Colors:** "Suzuka-san...are you taking this seriously...?"

"Of course I am!"

 **Lobo:** "It doesn't look that way!"

"How so!?"

 **Prototype Star:** "Um..."

"Say something!"

There was only one hope left.

With the three youngest members acting this way, she had one more person to go to at a time like this.

"Hey, you get this, right Misaki? As one shirabyōshi to another."

The moment of truth.

 **Honest Sister:** "What I do honestly goes back far beyond that. And so, I can honestly say, you are strange."

A major hit.

To be called strange by one of the strangest people in Mikado City was a big hit for anyone. It did not matter who it was, it would have hit them hard and where it hurts the most.

Feeling the hit deep within her, Nakagami physically crashed to the ground with her chair following along.

The moment her body hit the floor, she prepared to get up. The moment she began lifting her body up the chair caught up, hitting her head with the armrest. This had caused her to smack into the ground for a second time with the chair being fully dropped on top of her.

From the nearby window she could hear the sounds of people talking.

"Hey Yuuchi, what was that noise?"

"I would really rather not know what goes on in this building when I'm not around... Um, yeah, just think of it as the attic ghost wanting to mimic Osakabehime but knows that it can't because it's not cool enough."

"I'd figure it'd be 'cuz we don't have Miyamoto Musashi here with us."

"Oh! Nice call there, Satoshi! Yeah! And we can't have Miyamoto Musashi here if Sasaki Kōjirō isn't here either! Wait...doesn't this mean we should exercise that attic ghost while we have the chance...?"

The feeling of being hit felt as if there was now a rain of shellfire hitting her everywhere it hurt.

_What's wrong with these people!? I'm over here being helpful and now I'm being attacked physically, mentally, and emotionally! I hate this! I seriously hate them! I hate them aaaaaalllll! Tate Eboshi-sama, please come and rescue me from this heeeeeeellllll!_

As the JK continued to cry on the floor, messages continued coming through to the computer that had been set up for her.

* * *

Among the many strange and unrefined people in Mikado City, there was a single person who found that she could not help but feel bad for anyone in a predicament.

Hoshi knew that her teammates were giving Nakagami a hard time while also sticking to their usual behavior. None of it was unfounded and none of it was anything they would give each other.

Trying to tame that kind behavior was well beyond her abilities. The best she could manage was trying to fix what has been done and move away for the sake of everyone involved.

"U-um... While they are certainly... _interesting_ points, Nakagami-san did go through the trouble of getting them for us. And if we look beyond the more... _interesting(?)_ ones, we do have the basics of what these squads are about. The indepth details can be done when we are in our operating room."

Toby and Takeshi immediately responded by placing their hands on their hearts and leaning back as if they had been hit.

 **Honest Sister:** "Hoshi-chan, you are too kind and sweet. I am honestly getting a toothache here and I have never been more happy about it."

Hoshi tilted her head at the message.

Trying to figure out how that made sense was also something beyond her abilities. At best she understood that Suzume was saying something good about her.

Her plan to get back on their main topic seemed to be working slowly.

The two boys on either end slowly lowered their hands while looking back at the information they had gotten. Both had taken pictures of her screen so they could see it for themselves.

They put their fingers to their own screens and began moving them along a line. Looking over at them showed that they were drawing lines over the "interesting" bits that had been sent.

"It does look fine enough when you see it like this."

"Yeah, it makes things look like they were at least semi-organized."

Sweat started to gather on her brow as she listened to her teammates.

_I believe that is for the best I can ask for._

With that thought of resignation in her mind, she followed their lead by crossing out the "interesting" parts. That had left them with the actual notes on the teams.

"Right. Now we can actually come up with a plan for our next match."

.

The information had been sent to them and laid out for them to see.

As per usual for Kotowari Squad, they took each thing one step at a time by viewing each team separately along with their members. The first would be...

"Let's focus on Ōji Squad for the moment."

Takeshi moved his finger across the screen to get to the picture he had taken.

"This would be what we have in a general sense."

**\- They are all pretty fast runners. Their mobility is pretty high and even their actions are quick.**

**\- They are certain when they make attacks or bring up defenses. Everything that can be calculated is calculated.**

**\- They have Attacker and Gunner Triggers to work with and use Triggers that compliment their mobility.**

**\- Take out their legs, you're good to go.**

**\- Since they aren't at Mei-san's level, sudden change to calculations can mess them up, if done right.**

"If we look at it like this, we can't say much about them individually, but as a team... Well, they should not be an issue. At least when it comes to keeping up with them."

 **JK:** "You jerks... Ow, ow, ow... Urg. Yeah, from your track track record, you guys are also mobility types."

Looking purely from a statistical view they had no one with a Mobility less than 6. That lowest had been because of Takeshi who fought from a distance most times, meaning there was no real reason for him to move as much.

"I should be able to keep up with them easily on a base level. If they start using Triggers then it won't be a problem for me either. As far as speed goes, I'll be able to catch them. If its the ability to move your body around, I should still be fine in that case."

 **JK:** "That's right, you guys are Teleport nuts like Yuki-san."

"We aren't that bad... But Toby wasn't referring to that. He was talking about pure speed. There are people faster than him, but he really isn't a pushover when it comes to that."

"That's right. Toby-kun always comes first during class and has taken first place in the last sports festival."

 **JK:** "Oh, looking at the stats Yuki-san gave me from Mei-san's computer, you all have something going for you. Okay, I got it. Yeah, you should be able to keep up with them, Lobo-kun."

Speed was not everything in fights like these, they were well aware of that fact.

Battles went well beyond physical ability and statistics. Preparation and practice was also something to take into account. Even so, the base level things could keep up with those things if pushed to the point.

 **Honest Sister:** "Toby can also deal with that second point and the weakness it leads into. While he doesn't look at it at all, he is honestly smart. His Side Effect also gives him time to think, so he should be fine when going to fight them. If we go with that plan of course. As an Attack, he also knows how to fight them while Shooters and Snipers have a relatively hard time dealing with him. Yes, there have honestly been many times when others have come to us complaining that he is unfair. An unfair dog who should honestly be on a leash... A leash... Oh, looks like I know what the next doujinshi is about!"

"Leave me out of that!"

The boy and girl duo next to him gave him a pitying look for the second time.

 **JK:** "Okay. So what about the rest of you?"

More text came from two sources.

 **Honest Sister:** "Honestly let him have his fun."

 **Colors:** "Let him have some fun."

Toby grinned at the responses.

 **JK:** " What kind of answers are those!? You can't just let him take an entire squad on his own!"

.

Takeshi fixed his scarf as he read over the next group of spam messages.

_I guess she wasn't told too much about us._

He looked over to see that Hoshi also seemed a bit confused by his statement with Suzume.

_That's right. I keep letting it slip my mind that she doesn't know how we fight. That last match didn't have Senpai in it either, so this will be new for her._

What felt natural for them was not what was natural for others. Their way of fighting was their way and it seemed rather difficult for them to move away from it given the responses they gave.

What exactly was the standard for people who had no standards? That question had never come up for them before, but that had likely been due to having Yuki and Mei around. With them no loner helping them here it became a question that they should think about.

With the addition of Hoshi and the current assistance from Nakagami there would need to be some order for their squad so that they did not get mixed up with themselves.

"I guess I should be the one to explain. Suzuka-san, we don't work as a team. Hoshi, I think you noticed this during our last match. It's hard for us to work together since we are the type of people who just don't like fighting with each other. We provide support for each other, but that's all. That is why you are an important part of our team. You can work as a pure support for any of us or you can fight by yourself and there would be no issue."

 **JK:** "Should I be worried about what would happen if you guys did try to work as a team...?"

He exchanged looks with Toby before they both shrugged.

It had not been anything for them to think about until it was brought up now.

"We have tried before, but it was still like we were fighting by ourselves. If we worked as a team... Who knows?"

Was it possible that their want to fight without relying on each was their way of not wanting to trouble each other? No, he was sure that they would not worry about that kind of thing.

If you had taken away the fact that they had been teammates for a while now, they would be viewed as selfish people who only wanted something for themselves. A pride that would never be satiated by fighting as single individuals. That would place a burden on them that would be heavier than trying not to trouble each other.

If that was what the burden was, then it was only logical to assume their reasoning was the opposite of that.

_...We don't want each other to have to fight?_

But that answer also felt wrong.

None of them could doubt that Toby lived for the thrill of a fight and Suzume found her fights becoming dances more often than not, so she would not feel bad about it. So then what exactly was their reason for not wanting to work as a team?

When a person wanted to fight without others it could have multiple meanings, but none of those meanings fit into the working machine that was Kotowari Squad. The same could have been said for the former Tsukiko Squad too, yet there was nothing to suggest that had been the case.

The former Tsukiko Squad had worked similarly to how the current Kotowari Squad worked with the exception of being able to not question what they had been doing up until that point.

It was not a simple question that Takeshi could easily answer. What it did do was make him realize something. That being...

_...Was this why Yuki-san did what he did?_

It could be because he was now the captain of their squad that he had realized this. Even if he was only a figurehead, he tried to view things in a way similar to an actual captain of a squad.

"I see... I need to give this some thought later on. For now, please just put up with us, Suzuka-san."

 **JK:** "Fine, fine. I can do that much for you guys."

He was grateful that she was cooperating to this extent.

 **JK:** "So what, are you just going to leave Ōji Squad to Lobo-kun while you guys take care of the rest?"

"No, but if he happens to find them, he can take care of them however he wants. If I have enough room to work, I would like to set up what I did last time to keep Kurauchi-senpai in check for a bit."

* * *

Nakagami had seen the log from Kotowari Squad's previous match and knew right away what he had meant.

Because they had been fighting against someone like Nasu, Takeshi had gone to the length of figuring out how to shut down her long range attacks. This had forced her to move in where their close combat fighters could reach her. The plan had gotten ruined due to an unforeseeable accident, but it had worked well enough.

_So he wants to use that trick again to keep Shooters from thinking they can gain an advantage by keeping their distance. It really isn't a bad idea, but I'm sure everyone else will be aware that he wants to try that again._

_Against someone like Rei-chan, it worked because it was new and he had not done it before. Even if he hides it, once he fires the first one, they are sure to know what is going on. And for what I saw on the Laser Shooter Trigger, he can't really control it once he reaches a certain distance. That means he won't be able to really stop someone else from destroying them all before he can fire._

Data on the entirety of Kotowari Squad was placed in front of her after having it sent over by Yuki.

The data was based on what he and Mei knew, so it was completely accurate and had nothing missing from it. Every little detail about Kotowari Squad had been put into what she had been given.

Along with the data, a special program had been placed inside of the data, likely by Suzaku. It was a safety measure that would erase the data if sent to any unauthorized personnel. It seemed that this was implemented into any data sent via Border as to keep unwanted people from being sent important information.

Within the data sent directly to her were the most up to date list of Triggers each member had, their statistics, as well as fighting styles and habits.

_Well I can see why Boss wants them to join. They really aren't bad for a B-Rank team of young people. Give them some extra boost and they can reach some good heights._

It had been the reason behind her agreeing to assist them.

The information had been sent to her before she had agreed to help them. It had been assured that someone like her would help them out. Watching the strong grow stronger as a nice pastime for her, so this was a good way for her to use her time while not having much to do for the Yagura Branch.

It was apparent that this would work out for her since this group of young people had their pride, their faith in their fighting abilities, and the power to show off when they wanted.

"That should be fine as long as you don't get caught, but this is only one team we're talking about. There are two other teams who have their ways of doing things. I guess it would be hard to plan for Senzai Squad given their luck-based fights, but Yuba Squad is someone you guys should be prepared for."

All the records on the three opposing teams had been found by her. Their logs from previous rank wars, their points and positions, as well as any possible Triggers they might use.

_Mei-san really stays on these things. Damn, I guess I can just stick to being what I do best instead of trying to reach her. That's fine with me. I prefer to go at my own pace than keep up with someone like that._

There was no point in trying to reach the top when the place you are at is fine enough.

 **Colors:** "If they are so much like us that Suzume-senpai had to point it out, then that should be fine."

"I guess... But I think you guys should just stay away from solo fights with them as much as possible."

 **Honest Sister:** "Heh heh heh. Tono-kun should be fine for me to handle. I am used to going after Snipers before attacking anyone else, so he can be left to me. Shingai may be trouble since she is arguably as fast as Toby, but that should also not be too much of an issue if I use Teleport at the right moments."

 **Lobo:** "Hold on there, Suzume. You're overlooking something here."

There were multiple things being overlooked, but she held her tongue for the time being. If one of their own had pointed this out then it meant it was something that she herself may not have noticed.

 **Lobo:** "You had said you aren't usually around those guys, right? That means you don't really have their Rhythm down, do you? It's kinda too dangerous if you tried one-on-one while only being a Sniper. If you were going in as your usual self, it wouldn't be an issue to worry about, but this is different."

 **Colors:** "He makes a good point. It would be best if you didn't try to fight anyone you don't have a full understanding on, Senpai."

It had been just as she expected.

These people knew each other far better than she did from data alone.

Using the data alone would only give her the statistics on each of them so this would be her chance to get to know them.

 **Honest Sister:** "There is a way to get around that of course."

What exactly would that be?

Suzume had stated before that she would be participating as a proper Sniper for this match and not as her usual strange self. A statement that could not be ignored so easily when given who she was.

There had been multiple accounts of the honest sister forgoing her position as a Sniper to fight against others in her own way. If she decided to switch that and had decided to forgo her own way of fighting to stay a Sniper, what else could she do if she were to get into a one-on-one fight?

 **Prototype Star:** "...You mean me, right?"

 **Honest Sister:** "Exactly."

"That makes sense, but..."

Nakagami input something in her computer while continuing to speak.

"Hoshi-chan is new and I don't know if she can keep up with those kinds of guys. No offense of course."

 **Prototype Star:** "None taken. I understand what you mean though. From the way you are making it out, it seems as though you wish for me to be a main fighter?"

 **Honest Sister:** "You would be supporting me by being my guard. If you were to stay at a good distance while being able to act quickly near me, then I wouldn't have to honestly worry about going into one-on-one fights. You would be able to handle any of those while I maintain a distance and snipe to then help you."

 _I see,_ Nakagami thought. With that sort of tactics, it would place Toby and Takeshi as the two main attackers again and have Hoshi support Suzume instead. At the same time, Suzume would not have to worry about others getting too close or at least being prepared for that to happen.

It was a basic strategy that anyone could have come up with and yet that was what made it so appealing. Thinking of anything more would be expected of teams in the top tier, but at times it was best to look at plain and simple strategies as a way to change things up.

If someone had started doing something crazy every time they were seen, it would become the norm for everyone who was witnessing it passed the first time. There would be nothing crazy about it and what they had done before would seem like the odd thing.

If someone had switched back to a normal lifestyle after going through everything being crazy, it would be strange for anyone witnessing it. The normal lifestyle would have become the strange one while the crazy lifestyle would be considered the normal one.

Using that here, basic tactics being used would be the unforeseen actions that could lead to victory that outlandish ones could not reach. It was a rather interesting take on the matter, but...

"Doesn't this mean you guys will be relying on me? That's a pretty big risk considering this is the first time I will be working with you all."

* * *

"Is that a bad thing?"

Toby looked over when Takeshi readily answered the JK's question.

The question had been a way for Nakagami to question their reliability on their Operator and a way to tell them that she was not at Mei's level.

When comparing the abilities of one person to another, it was best to try and see both for their strengths and weaknesses. That became difficult when the people in question were someone they had barely met and someone they had known for most of their time in Border.

But that was not what she was asking about.

"It doesn't matter if this is the first time or not," Toby continued for his friend. "We trust you to help us out here and we know that you can manage that much."

 **JK:** "How can you be so sure?"

It was an obvious question to ask.

To put so much faith in someone like that was not something a person would normally do. It took time and effort before someone completely new could be trusted the way they were trusting in her. Toby knew this as well as the rest of them did, but he was also aware of how they worked as a team and as such...

"Because you don't seem like a bad person."

The response from that came in jumbled garble from the girl.

He was unsure as to why something like that got to her, but he already understood that she was a strange person.

"Looking passed the fact you are only here because Yuki asked you to help and Mei is unavailable, you are still here. You are still helping us because you want to and even got us this information. It might be a bit weird, but it does have some good points that we can use for our match. If you went through the trouble of that then I don't see why we shouldn't trust that you can help us during the match."

The response was amazing in its own right.

.

Takeshi watched with fascination as word after word, the chat was filled with nothing that could be considered sane.

 **JK:** "Wh-what is with this kid!? How can he say something like that like it's nothing!? I-I-Is this kid some sort of smooth player!? How many girls does he have just hanging around for him!? Dammit! If he was only a few years older! If that was the case, I would totally fall for that kind of talk! Yeah, I would definitely have him as my boyfriend! Dammit, dammit, dammit! Could I possibly make an exception...? No! I can decide that when he's at least a second year in high school! Not while he is in middle school! Even if he is a third year..."

To his left, Hoshi seemed to understand that the older girl was going through something at the moment. Her silence and small smile was enough to show that she did not understand all of it, but she knew enough.

To his right, Toby looked at his screen with furrowed brows. Unlike Hoshi, he understood that something was going on and that he was the problem, but he did not specifically know how he was involved.

Right in front of him, Suzume expressed her own feelings on the matter. She was not afraid of Nakagami seeing her words since she put them in their group chat.

 **Honest Sister:** "If you want, I can honestly make a doujinshi for you. Have it be with you and an older Toby. Through unknown but totally legal means, I know his measurements, so I can estimate how he will grow when he gets older."

The dog understood what that meant all too well.

 **Lobo:** "Don't use me in a doujin! And how the hell did you get my measurements!? That's only for me and my doctor to know! A-and when I'm older...th-the person I w-w-will..."

It was amazing to see how the dog could go completely red in an instant when given the right reasoning.

_This time it was his own fault._

_...I should take a picture to get some points with Suzume-senpai._

He lifted his phone while Toby was busy trying to cover his face and took a picture right away. It had turned out a bit blurry, but it was enough to see what was going on.

Placing it in a private chat with Suzume, he got a thumbs up and a show of how many points he would be getting for that.

If he could accumulate enough points then it meant he could get away with not being placed in a doujinshi the next time she wanted to make one of him.

With a new resolve to throw Toby under the bus every chance he could, Takeshi focused back in on their main topic.

_We have been getting off topic quite a bit, haven't we?_

_So this must be why people don't like having conversations with us and prefer to just fight. That makes sense now. Hoshi might be able to hold an actual conversation while not getting off track, but the rest of us are probably a lost cause at this point._

It all made sense to him now.

"Well, for now, we should finish this discussion up. We still need to go over Senzai Squad."

 **JK:** "Sniff. Sniff. Yeah... Even if you think you can manage the others with your usual style, currently seeing it up close, I can tell that they will have a big impact in this match. After all..."

There was no added joking to her words.

 **JK:** "Their Side Effects make any plan pointless."


	92. Ōji Squad

The area would absorb voices.

On a vast cityscape, no one's voice traveled far.

But the acoustics changed when a series of artificial structures sat on that expanse.

It all had a unique sound when those structures were transport containers and moving vehicles.

The voices and other noises were not reflected up from below, so they always arrived horizontally.

"Hey."

"Over here!"

"The food goes in that place over there!"

Below the clear early morning sky, the clear sky was overpowered by the lights shining in the city from the buildings and elsewhere. The containers and ships cast dark shadows with the sunlight.

Sounds and people were moving throughout the land there.

"Hey."

Cargo was being carried to the transport ships labeled "Owner: White Rock".

A single voice could be heard past the footsteps, people, and vehicles.

"Are you sure about that, Kurauchi? That middle schooler - the one from Kotowari - picked a fight with that captured guy? And he's the one causing a commotion during the festival? Wow~"

"Ōji? To be clear, that's nothing but trouble for Border. I mean, he created an incident during the time we were trying to hold meetings. I am just glad it turned out fine in the end."

"What does that matter?" asked Ōji.

Workers and laborers were walking back and forth along the thin, packed-down area while linked vehicles carried material. Ōji spread his mouth horizontally and kept talking while looking at the area they had heard that Kotowari Squad boy had been before his showdown.

"Getting a little hot-blooded is perfectly normal. Especially for someone who was under that fox for so long. Besides, we don't go to that squad too much, so it's good to know that they have such wild people like them."

Honestly.

"He may be a bit too wild. But won't that be stopped by SenSen's team during our match?"

"They were not being too secretive in how they spoke earlier. It is easy to figure out what they had meant," said Kurauchi while checking the information of each squad for their next match. "I mean, Senshi seemed to have no issues with them speaking about it, but we all know that it is troublesome coming up with a plan against them."

"Luck-based Side Effects, huh? They can be annoying, but they can also be tricky for both parties."

"Then we need to make sure they don't get too involved with our members until it is necessary, isn't that right?" Kurauchi pointed to the way out of the area. "Besides, you are just irritated about not being able to fight Tsukiko anyone."

"No, I've gotten over that one."

"Eh!?" responded someone from behind the nearby containers.

Shirogane and Shashin poked their heads out from behind the containers.

"Creepy! Creepy!"

"That's two words!"

Ōji plastered a fake smile and hit the ground with a stomp and the two fled.

"Honestly," sighed Ōji and Kurauchi patted his shoulder.

He gave a satisfied nod and sighed.

"You've grown, Ōji."

"That's not what this is about. It's just..."

"It's just?"

"Well," he said while looking ahead. There was an end of the road where Toby had once made a large leap. He walked towards the area across from it. "There's even more to the younger members, right?"

"Yes, there is. ...To be clear, I quite like them. After speaking with Kōchō I realize that being a 'fan' of the younger group is a bit exciting since it provides interesting support."

"A 'fan', huh? ...Heh, you are being kind of soft there, aren't you?"

Kurauchi shook his head and sighed.

"Well, they seem to be on the right track now, so I do hope they can get some of their own 'fans' without others needing to worry about them."

"Then don't shake your head at me over it."

"Don't worry about it and keep walking straight, okay? ...Anyway, we're focusing on Kotowari Squad now, but there are still other teams we need to think about here after all. If the rest of them are as relaxed as we are being right now, it's going to make things worse for when we have to deal with Senshi's squad."

"Yeah, but how much can we plan against those guys when their Side Effects are so troublesome?"

Kurauchi raised her eyebrows at that.

"Because anything can happen, you mean?"

"Yeah." Ōji's breath lingered in the air. "We know how to handle Yuba-san, Kotowari Squad is strange, but they are following that fox's path, but it becomes hard to plan against Senzai Squad."

"What, do you think they are untouchable?"

"Of course not," said Ōji. "It's just that they might end up taking themselves out before we can even try something."

.

Ōji recalled the times they had fought against Senzai Squad or seen them fight.

The results had always been strange and interesting considering who exactly had been fighting, but two things had held special meaning for him.

First, there had been times when the captain of the squad had been defeated due to his own attacks, albeit with support from his opponents.

Second, their Shooter was always with one of the two others and the two others were never with each other.

The former meant a lot because it told him that Senzai could be fought without any actual fighting being needed or at least with little help.

That had brought an odd sense of relief but also a bit of irritation.

He wanted to berate the boy and tell him to get his act together.

During the times where Kuraichi had spoken about his friend, he had always made sure to bring up the bad luck that followed. Something bad always happened, at times to both parties, and wins against them should have been wins for them.

But Ōji still felt oddly unsatisfied with it all.

After all, it seemed rather unfair for something like that to be a major factor, he had not managed to really fight Senzai many times before, and he had only been there to witness the Bail Outs that had been caused by something else.

Even when he had been given chances to fight, he had not really had time to take in the fight due to the boy not feeling up to it. Worse, Kurauchi had managed to always get in a fight with Senzai Squad's captain, have losses collected due to that, and could ask for another fight.

So it was still a question what would happen in a pure battle without his Side Effect. Of course, the many overlapping factors on the battlefield did not allow for battles that did not involve Side Effects. An extended battle without something happening was nearly impossible.

But that could happen under certain circumstances.

Other rank battles had demonstrated something in fights against Senzai Squad.

They showed that those Side Effects could be nullified.

The opposing squad may not have noticed it or forgotten about it, but the records from those matches showed them getting both the captain and Sniper near each other. And since they had been working together, their power as a team would have been even greater those times.

Yet they had managed to lose.

That was the reason behind Ōji's feelings.

... _Although it's weird to feel like they beat us to it._

He might not have felt as bad if a top tier squad had done it, but he could feel one side of him growing intensely irritated with himself that a squad from the mid tier of B-Rank had accomplished that.

_...When did I become such a gloomy person?_

"I heard the fox once say I was being weirdly envious and spiteful, but that might be a pretty close match."

"Yeah, just when I think you have grown as a person, you start getting all smug about figuring out something everyone else figured out ages ago."

Kurauchi smiled at him.

"But that is fine."

"Shut up!"

But there was one thing about which he felt justified feeling so weirdly angry: deciding how to fight.

.

Kurauchi listened to Ōji's question.

"Kurauchi, did you see the records for any of their battles?"

"For their most recent ones?"

"Not those," he said.

He knew he did not mean those ones, of course. _What a pain,_ he thought. That was why he had tried to steer the conversation elsewhere, but trying to be considerate was useless with this guy.

 _Fine,_ he thought half in resignation.

"You mean his battle with Shor during that meeting night, don't you? The unofficial one. They kind of made it a spectacle."

"What are your thoughts?"

"Awdry can fight pretty well. I mean, he essentially fought multiple opponents and came out on top. ...He might be better than most, given the proper training."

"Not that," he said again.

He knew that was not what he meant, of course. That was why he had tried to avoid the issue, but...

_...He really is hopeless..._

_Fine, fine,_ he thought while responding.

"Yuba Squad is falling behind, but Kotowari Squad is gaining traction. Senzai Squad is in their usual place. And you know what?" he said to get ahead of Ōji's inevitable response. "It is good that they are our opponents. We know what we are dealing with. ...What, did you want Tsukiko to give you more attention? It would be why you are overthinking it this time around."

"It's not that."

He added an "it's" this time.

"Then it's what?"

Kurauchi added an extraneous "it's' as well. And to get ahead of him again…

"Looking at things as a whole, I think it's important to be looking from multiple angles to determine if Tsukiko was right to leave. Although with it being a four team match, there will be a lot of factors to take into consideration."

"In that case...well, setting aside the amount of people on the field," said Ōji. "Are we going to do the same thing as we had before?"

... _Ohh._

He had not expected this one.

But he knew what he was thinking.

"We can't."

"Why not?"

"Right."

He nodded and pointed toward the back of a transport truck that they had been passing by.

"We probably can't go near those kinds of things."

"Yeah, if I go near it, I bet it would be annoying to hear everyone telling us to stay out of the way."

It had been an area where Kurosaki had been supplying materials, but they easily curved off the path to the stay away from it. They were on the outer edge and did not want to be seen. He felt like that family might recognize them from the incident with their truck, but…

_...We know how to keep our distance._

With that in mind, he continued their conversation.

"It shouldn't be too long before we need to consider even more possibilities. So even if we wanted to come up with something foolproof, we would still need to think about the current situation."

"Yeah, I guess that is true."

The match would begin very soon.

They did not have much time to think over everything.

"We did have to hold off from coming up with too much for our match given how we helped out with the sponsors in our own way. So instead of trying to hit every base, maybe we should hit the important bases and go from there. Basically, think of something for the more dangerous opponents and leave the rest for after that has been accomplished. We know who those dangerous ones are, so that makes it a bit easier."

"When did you become lax with planning?"

"I am saying for the moment. We still have time before the match, right?"

He knew waiting for the last moment for planning was a bad idea from every standpoint. For the moment they would have to think of things on a basic level before reaching a definite answer.

He was constantly reminded of how seriously he took things. It had been how they maintained their position in the top tier.

He made mistakes, but once he put his mind to something, he would see it through to the end. It was not the impression one got from him.

_...Although that is fine since he knows what he's doing._

* * *

"We got off kinda lucky, didn't we?"

Yuba looked over to his squad's Sniper.

There was time before their match would begin and the entirety of Yuba Squad had joined together in their operating room to discuss their plans.

Before they could go over it all, said Sniper had spoken up and continued by adding,

"We didn't have anyone on our team go deal with sponsors, taking on a wild dog in a race, or have an accident happen due to bad luck. I guess that means we had more time to focus on our match than the rest of them."

It was true that they had nothing as active as those things happen to their members. Yuba had watched what had happened with his former squad members while hearing some comments from Kakizaki about the Kotowari Squad captain. While he did not care too much about the latter, the former had gotten his interest as he watched both Ōji and Kurauchi fend off Kurosaki who had been using Hikigane.

Even if the man never seemed to care about the things going on around him and only tolerated his own team, Yuba had respect for Hikigane as he had proven himself to be capable in multiple areas before while retaining his squad's standing as a top tier and former A-Rank squad.

_If those two pushed back an attempted attack made by him then it means they really have gotten better. After all, he isn't the type of guy to let someone else stop him like that._

Along with what Kakizaki had told him, he had also heard rumors about how a black wolf had managed to hold back and be on par with the man.

_That sounds stupid though. He can take on a dog._

It had just been people exaggerating about something they had no clue about.

But this had been different. He had seen for himself Ōji Squad's captain and Shooter push back an effort by Hikigane. That meant they were now capable enough to keep up with an attempt made by him.

Meanwhile they were...

"That doesn't mean we're guaranteed anything. It just means we have things planned out a bit more than they all do. And even that can fall part given who we are up against."

"There really are a lot of people so that can mean anything really."

"That's true, but... Obishima, you saw it, didn't you? The 'race' Awdry had during that festival."

The two turned to their youngest member. They had both been doing other things during that time, but they had been told that she had been at that festival with her parents.

"Yes. He was running on top of the stands with some others."

"How did that end exactly?"

"I am not too sure, but it has been going around the Border network for a bit that Awdry-senpai had won. They were moving pretty fast, so I couldn't really keep up with my sight alone."

"So that's what Misaki was going on about..."

There had indeed been an overflow of comments after that night. Some of which had been about other things, Yuba being involved in that as well.

Having been sent a few messages himself by the Hogo Squad captain, he became more determined to keep an extra eye on both the boy as well as the star girl he had mentioned. Said girl was also an opponent now, but that wasn't enough to hold him back should they come in contact.

That girl had joined a squad that was similar to his own in the fact that they worked independently from each other. It seemed out of place for her given her nature of helping others, but that did not seem to stop her from joining.

She was not the main issue with that team though.

"You said they were moving fast, but how fast was it exactly?"

He looked at her with a critical eye.

She responded with a nod of the head while also seeming to think back.

"He was moving faster than he had before. It was hard to tell since there were so many people, but it looked like he was using a Trigger."

"A Trigger used for speed... That goes against that team's usage of Teleport, but I know you aren't lying. So that could mean Awdry put Grasshopper in one of his slots."

"He's already pretty troublesome to hit as it is. If he added Grasshopper and along with Teleport I don't think I'll be able to take a shot no matter how much I prepare."

"That's fine, I was planning on taking him out myself anyway. When it comes to the speed of attacks, I can do it as a Gunner. For Attackers, Ikoma's Senkū is also fast enough to keep up. You Snipers have the bad end of the deal when it comes to him."

"Shingai could probably get a hit in with her Side Effect."

The good luck Side Effect that was a selfish one.

They were aware of what Ōji Squad was capable of, they knew that Toby was the main threat of Kotowari Squad, but the two luck-based Side Effects from Senzai Squad made their plans' possibilities lower. There was no precise way of planning against something that was completely random on both ends and could cause almost anything to happen.

Yet that was also a weakness for them. Something that worked in their favor as well as against them.

Every member of any squad that was going against them understood that well.

Even so, due to the time given since finding out who they would be fighting, they had come up with a way to fight these squads.

"If we think about things stats-wise, Tono is all about the special tactics, but Shingai has mobility and Suzu's Big Breast Defense is too hard to get through."

.

Obishima turned her sight to the side at the mention of the strange defense that Nono spoke about. There had been times when she was taken by the strange Sniper and so it left an impression of sisterhood with her.

When looking around she noticed how the glare from the lights prevented any of them from seeing Yuba's eyes and Tonooka was artily trying to lose eye contact with any of them. Both were fair enough reactions in her book.

"I mean, those things are big enough to block some good attacks! But that's only if you're an Attacker, so this is also being directed to Obishima. In Tono's case he needs to keep away if she starts dancing."

"Uh... I really don't want to get involved when it comes to her strangeness to begin with. Besides that, I've been hearing that she isn't allowed to do that for the next few matches Kotowari Squad has."

"Hah!? But I really wanted to see some of her dances! That's just not fair!"

The exclamation came with a certain sound effect that seemed to also be around whenever Misaki was nearby.

_...Or is that just something I hear when they are around?_

It was not unlikely considering the strangeness of that older girl.

Tonooka could speak more about the girl's abilities, but she felt as if she could understand the girl's personality more. The times she had been taken when her squamates were not looking had been in the double digits at this point which then gave her more time with the older girl.

If she was not going to "dance" during her squad's next few matches then it meant that something major had to happen or she had made a promise to someone important.

The likely people for that promise to be made with her upperclassmen like Hiura, Satori, Kodera, or Köhler. Her own teammates were also options, but they likely would want her in top form and would allow her to "dance" all through the match.

She looked back over at her own Sniper teammate to see that he had gotten over the comment and was now paying attention again to their planning.

_We could ask if it was Kodera-senpai since the two seem close enough._

Before she could speak up to ask, he had already started speaking again.

"Dai has also told me that they won't have Takato-san as their Operator this time. I don't know who it is, but he wouldn't lie."

An immediate response came a few seconds after. The first was from Nono who looked away with a click of the tongue. The second was from...

" _We know."_

.

Tonooka and Obishima were surprised at the amount of resentment that came from their captain. The response from their Operator was negligible since she already found out about Suzume, but the one from their captain had been unexpected.

Yuba's eyes were still behind the glare of the glasses, but they did not need his eyes to tell that he was holding something back. The hands at his side were curled into fists, his frown deepened, and the way he held himself was much more stiff than either one had ever seen.

"I don't know who Kotowari Squad is using for an Operator this time around since something has happened to Takato. It's likely that whoever it is was chosen by Tsukiko."

"An Operator chosen by Tsukiko-senpai, who doesn't have a squad yet most likely, and can keep up with Kotowari Squad... Is there anyone like that?"

"Who knows? But..." Yuba shifted his head. With the glare of the light no longer hiding his eyes, the two younger members could see the anger in them. "As much as I hate to think of this as a good thing, this makes it easier to fight Kotowari Squad. Without Takato to help them they have a lot less power to them and calculating ability."

* * *

"Chu!"

 **Colors:** "Will you really be able to make it to our match?"

"Of course, of course! Someone must be talking about me, is all! You see, I'm actually the Yagura Branch's secret weapon, their trump card, their ace in the hole, their-"

 **Lobo:** "I get the feeling you're going to say something stupid, so I'm going to stop you there. Just confirm that you are fine to go into the match with us."

"Uwah! I thought this kid would become an ikemen playboy when he gets older, but he's harassing me like some sort of delinquent! Ah~ But if he can keep up the charm of not even knowing what he's saying when he's smooth talking then I'd be fine with that! He'd make a good enough boyfriend at that point. Too bad he's in middle school right now. Sigh..."

 **Lobo:** "-!"

**Lobo is experiencing some issues at the moment. Please hold on while we organize what is trying to be said.**

_Wow... This chat is a little too advanced for this world..._

"We should really just call it a divine chat at this point..."

 **Lobo:** "-!"

 **Colors:** "Suzuka-san, please try not to kill our (arguably) strongest fighter before our match."

"Can't promise muuuuuuuch~"

* * *

"I do not want to rush our captain because it would look like we are waiting in fear, but I do not like taking it slow because it ends up leaving too many holes."

Near the cafeteria, lightly-clothed Shingai viewed some previous logs through her tablet. She focused individually on the few forms she constantly saw in the image. And while sending the video data to Senshi...

"Sthénos, you will be fighting later tonight if things are as we were told, so you should rest up some right now since we have yet to go into our match."

"Oh, right! I just thought I could contact a friend from back home if I was out here!"

In the air conditioned space, Sthénos opened a window on her phone while Shingai watched her.

.

Shingai's eyes followed Sthénos as she paced along the floor.

Sthénos was checking on the signal strength of the phone, but since the signal was pretty bad here because of their service provider, she kept altering her orientation and position while checking the phone.

She had enough training and on-site experience to stay out of the way of the others in the area who were doing their own things. That was appreciated, but none of them had expected Sthénos to be here. Whenever they passed by, they would greet her and encourage her, so...

"Oh, thank you! I will do my best in the next battle too!"

It was adorable how she bowed down to them despite being a B-Rank currently in the top tier.

... _No, I get the feeling she will be like that as long as her core remains intact._

It made her a bit overwhelming as a "person", but the mutual courtesy would be appreciated in the long run. In Shingai's opinion, it was crucial to know where you stood with someone.

But while Sthénos paced around the area, she would occasionally come across one of the tables.

... _Oh, my._

It was impressive how she hopped up the waist-height to the top of the table in a single step. There was no audible footstep when she did so, which showed why she had been able to win them some interesting points in previous matches and how she had managed to fight against higher ranked agents.

She was a promising "person".

 _What were we like last year or even before that?_ wondered Shingai.

"Phew."

She breathed from her nose as she watched Sthénos holding her phone to the west.

"Sthénos."

"Y-yes!? Right! What is it, Big Sis!?"

"Big Sis? Did someone come up and tell you to call me that?"

"Yup. Hisato said you're Big Sis and the Sniper with Kotowari - Suzume - is Massive Sis!"

 _That does not really work without a Sis, does it?_ thought Shingai.

_Well, this just means I have to swat Hisato-kun in the ass with my bow next time I see him._

For some reason, she saw the nearby agents crossing themselves and praying toward her, but she soon recalled that some of the people within Border were strange ones and who worshipped things like big breasts.

... _Do they worship me when Misaki is not around?_

There was something wrong with praying to a huntress, so her shoulders kept drooping further and further. But...

"Sthénos, why not head down and use the connection with Piripiri instead of wandering around like this? Besides, I heard there is a lot of action at the moment because of a recent incident right now, so the directors, Senshi and his age group, and other important members are going to be using up most of the infrastructure. That should change when we reach mid day, though."

"No, this is a personal call! So I don't think I should use the Piripiri's connection!"

That did make sense to Shingai. And then Sthénos clapped her hands once.

"I know! I just had a great idea! And it should work since I have you around! I'll call a different friend first!"

* * *

 **Jin-san's Fan:** "Hey, um, Older Kawa-senpai? I have a quick question."

 **Manager:** "Huh? What is it, Kusakabe Puppy?"

 **Jin-san's Fan:** "Sthénos just sent me a mail asking if you could relay a message for her."

 **Manager:** "Don't intercept someone else's messages! That gets you in trouble!"

 **Jin-san's Fan:** "No, she apparently wants to talk with a local friend and she says she doesn't care if someone listens in."

 **Manager:** "That is really something... Anyway, that would be Suzaku-san's call. Suzaku-san, can you see whether or not we can do that?"

 **Umi:** "Eh? Wait just a second, okay? I'm just about finished preparing some food."

 **Life:** "Wait, does this mean Shoo-chan and Sthé-kun are friends!? Is this the end of the Dog Trio as we know it!? Feeling lonely, Sumi-chan!? Then how about I run with you in the nude? Hm?"

 **Haru:** "What!? I have Oshiro! I don't need a nudist running up to me unless your name is Oshiro, you have one (fake) red eye, and can look good in a Fallen Angel Erotic Maid outfit!"

 **Life:** "I can make all of those happen! So waiiiiiiiiit for me, Haru-saaaaaaaaan!"

 **Mi-Kon:** "If you think about it, Hogo-kun is younger than you, so this means he prefers to be around younger people than you, Jinsei."

 **Ortlinde:** "Tatsuhito? Have they started their super lunatic time I've heard about?"

 **Iko:** "Don't worry, Chisato. They're nowhere near that yet."

 **White Fox:** "Why did you think that would be reassuring?"

 **Jin-san's Fan:** "Also, I'm not a dog. That was just a name you guys came up with for us."

 **Haru:** "That's right! And I'm not a dog either! I'm the one that raises...well, that looks after them! A dog shepherd!"

 **Demon Child:** "Kagami? Should we tell him how he's usually presented in doujinshi?"

 **Artist:** "No, Mako. The temptation to tell everyone how they're presented would be too great."

 **Umi:** "Umm, ignoring this idiocy...Midorikawa? Right now, Border is applying some security to transmissions from outside, so mail can get in, but an actual call would be difficult. There was a hiccup before, remember? So I would appreciate it if you asked your friend if this can wait until tomorrow morning when everything important is complete. ...Will that work?"

 **Jin-san's Fan:** "So this is what it feels like to be seen as a dog or a child..."

 **Life:** "C'mon, you shouldn't doubt yourself! You're Shoo-chan and you'll always be Shoo-chan!"

 **Jin-san's Fan:** "Fine, I'll just blame it all on you!"

* * *

"Ah! I thought it was a great idea, but it didn't work!"

Shingai nodded at Sthénos's words.

"The rest of us use Piripiri's transmissions for private stuff, so no not worry about it. I generally use a specialized one after winning a raffle, but I will relay it through Piripiri's transmission to add to the range."

"Um, sorry! I don't really get what you mean!"

"Even though you two come from the same place?"

"Pretty much!"

 **Archer:** "Piri, add Sthénos to your transmission permissions group."

□□ **凸** **:** "Eh!? Why!?"

 **Defender:** "You should know by now that questioning what we do is meaningless."

 **Archer:** "If you are worried, you can route Sthénos through a secondary line. But give her the same official use privilege we have."

□□ **凸** **:** "Oh, that's fair enough. Wait 3 minutes!"

Shingai spoke to Sthénos who was holding her phone up toward the sky.

"You'll have a connection if you wait 3 minutes."

"Eh!? Did you use some magic!?"

After 2 seconds of thought, Shingai nodded.

"I did. My familiar is checking the transmission environment of Japan's Buddha."

"Wow! So magic is a Neighborhood thing!"

"My time spent as a child was not used up for nothing. Flesh and blood are most powerful in the afterlife. ...So wait just a bit and you can speak with your friend."

_It's nice being a proper upperclassman from time to time. I should probably treat Piripiri to a coffee dumpling in the cafeteria at some point._


	93. Minoru Hatohara: Part 2

"You're really a troublesome guy, you know that?"

Yuki looked up from his spot in front of the Yagura Branch Office.

He had been planning on getting to his own job while telling the remaining people to finally leave when Arafune had spoken to him. The taller boy had been waiting for some reason, but Yuki thought nothing of it since it was better than the weird sight of Inukai off to the side.

Arafune, along with others like Inukai and Hokari, were still waiting around the branch office. Some others seemed to be loitering just as much, but they seemed more prepared to leave and were only checking on something.

Yuki himself had decided to not tell anyone to leave since he was also waiting for Suzume to come by like she had said she would be.

"You guys have told me so many times by now. How could I _not_ know by now?"

Arafune shook his head before looking over at Inukai.

He could see his schoolmate rubbing his cheek against Oshiro as the younger boy allowed it to happen while having a normal conversation with Suzaku. It was strange, but nothing out of the ordinary.

He turned his head back to Yuki but his eyes trailed to the opposite side of where Inukai was standing. It felt like he was looking for something but found nothing there.

Yuki looked around as well to see if there was anything to note. There was nothing there.

"I feel like you're forgetting something important here."

"No, I know full well about the people who will be getting mad at me. Yuba and Fujimaru already sent me a message of complaint and Tsukimi said she would be coming by later. But that's only because they were apparently there. I don't plan on telling anyone else about what happened. Especially since I wasn't there to begin with."

"You already told the majority of us."

"That's different. Mostly because you all found out through Kimura and not me. I filled in the blanks for you guys, but she had been told by the directors. I had been told by Sensei, Jin filled in things for me, and the fact I know Kushi means I can figure out what happened."

There was a moment of silence.

Arafune filled that in with a glare down towards Yuki.

"Hey, stop that."

Yuki furrowed his brows at the tone Arafune was taking with him.

"You don't like her, right? Your older sister. You always seem to be against her, but the way you speak about her… You never sound like you really hate her. Even when you say you do. You call her by that name. You won't even say anything particular about her."

"That's-"

"You're being a contradiction again. You hate her, but you still can't really say you don't at least like her. Isn't that right? Maybe because she's your sister?"

"She is a part of the job for me. Besides, I always get a bad feeling when I say too much about her. As if she will come after me."

"So you're afraid of her then."

"Am I…?"

Yuki knew he was contradicting himself again.

It was just how he was now.

Ninomiya would point it out by calling him a faker or outright tell him what was a contradiction. It was the truth and he hated it.

"Then again, you have always had issues when it comes to talking about your family. At least the ones who aren't your younger sister."

"I need to not focus on the particulars or I'm going to mess up again. Just drop the conversation, will you? Staying in this mindset will be what helps deal with that woman while also doing the jobs I need to do."

"...Don't change how you address her just because I point it out."

"Testu…"

The squad captain did not flinch under the dull look he got from Yuki. Not again at least.

He had seen that look before and was prepared for it this time. Last time it had been when they went to Germany, but the situation there had been different.

"I need to stay as neutral as possible until all of this is resolved. If I lean towards one side then I'll be easily swayed. You know that."

"Sadly I do…"

It was not the first time Yuki would have been swayed easily over something just because there was a story behind it.

The first time was because a boy could not find anything worth his time.

The second time was because of a girl who was having troubles of her own.

The third time was because a boy had decided to run away from a life he had no choice in.

Those had led to this point where it seemed to work out, but at the cost of a lot of hurt for those three. An attachment had formed that had caused a lot of pain for those three, even if they were now moving forward.

Now that someone so important to Yuki was in such a situation, he had decided to remain neutral to it all and focus more on the statistics than the person involved or the people she knew.

There was no way around this sort of thing when it came to the Yagura Branch Representative and Arafune knew it. He had known for a while now.

Kageura and Hokari had spoken about it before. About how the boy in front of him could never stick to one thing, always trying to do something else as long as it was for the benefit of anyone. Anyone who was not himself at least.

Murakami had solidified it by not even speaking about it.

And now he was seeing it again firsthand.

"…Alright, fine. I guess I really am one of the last people you want to hear this stuff from."

"You're just… You're not as bad as Ōji, but I know what you think of me too. It's fine. Even Kage has his own thoughts about me. I'll just deal with it along with the rest of the thoughts people have."

Arafune let out a sigh while crossing his arms. His eyes looked from side to side again as he spoke.

This time his eyes had caught sight of something.

"Just make sure you're ready to handle what comes next."

"What comes next…"

Yuki looked over to where Arafune had his sights focused on and saw the same thing he did.

A body.

A fast moving body going in their direction.

"So he found out then…"

Arafune could only nod as Yuki straightened himself up in preparation for what was to come.

A loud voice came soon after. It went along with the pounding of footsteps.

"You!"

.

Yuki wiped all emotion from his face as the moving body finally reached him.

To the side, he could see Arafune take a step back but prepare in case something happened. Behind him Inukai could be seen doing the same thing, except taking a step forward instead.

It took only a hand grabbing Yuki by the front of his shirt for the two of them to lean forward.

"Explain yourself."

Yuki glanced towards the two leaning forward as if to tell them to keep their distance. The hand that continued to tighten around his shirt and the tone taken with him were opposing in a way that only the people who knew this body could say anything about.

The body belonged to a boy a bit taller than Yuki and with rage clear in his eyes.

"What do you want me to explain, Minoru?"

"Don't give me that crap! You know what I'm talking about here! And if you start lying to me, even you won't be getting off so easily!"

"Have I ever 'lied' to you before?"

"Don't start with me! Tell me why I heard about that bitch of a sister messed up Fuji!"

"I have no control over that woman. And besides that, I had nothing to do with that. _Mei_ had gone out to find that woman along with Jin and the others. I had no time to even try to find her. You know that as well as I do since we had been with the sponsors until late last night."

There was an audible noise as Yuki was pushed down onto the steps leading to the Yagura Branch's entrance.

Minoru had used force to push the weak body onto those steps, but saw that such an act had no effect on the smaller boy. Yuki had not winced or even registered what had happened as the grip on his shirt only tightened.

At this point more people than just Arafune and Inukai had gotten closer. By now even Suzaku and Hokari had moved closer in order to see what was happening. The latter of the two seemed more ready to step between them once he saw the cut Yuki had gotten from the landing.

"I left her in your care! You were supposed to help her, make sure things like this don't happen… You were supposed to be that pillar… But what about now!? How the fuck are you doing anything resembling help!?"

"…I can't say."

"Why the fuck not!?"

At this point Yuki had grabbed a hold of that hand gripping his shirt. The knuckles were turning white and the cloth was beginning to tear from the grip.

They could all clearly see just how enraged Minoru was at the moment and yet Yuki gave nothing away with his expression. No regret, no sadness, no anger of his own. The plain and blank expression he wore did not even give off the same sly feeling usually coming from him.

"Because I have my job to do. That event last night added to my job and now I need to focus on what can happen without being able to see it."

"Your job…?"

He saw it.

Yuki saw the moment when all of the collective anger building up within Minoru reached a critical point.

A point where it was not shown and instead left only something blank. A devastating calm that could only be described as "the calm before the storm".

"Hey, Yuki… Shouldn't you explain it better than that?"

Inukai's voice sounded shaky from his position in front of Oshiro.

He seemed to be blocking the younger boy from seeing what was happening as others tried to usher him away from the scene before anything bad happened.

In response to those words, Yuki turned this head - no, he let his head fall. The same blank expression on his face.

.

"Inu, this isn't something I will just be saying out loud. Don't try and say something while thinking it will be helpful. Mei took her chance against Kushikage and lost. Jin was there and she lost. Kanzaki attacked and she lost as well. That woman is on a different level and they knew that. They lost and now have to think about that."

A shudder ran down all of their spines at the monotone voice coming from the usually tricky person. There was nothing in his tone to give away how he felt about the matter. This kind of thing had been seen by some of them before, but they had forgotten about it after having wiped it from their memories.

During that time there had been some people who went by different names. Those names were ones that should have also been forgotten, but no one could forget them due to having been lost and given up on.

Those people who had different names had been rough to deal with since their personalities were selfish and undefined by normal standards.

One of those people was what others could see right now. A boy who had an undefined personality that was trying his best not to fight back against the clear offense from Minoru.

The boy had not gone looking for fights but would not back down from one. It did not matter what kind of fight it was so long as he had a chance to fight back. The hand holding onto his shirt right now was a clear indicator that he should fight the boy in front of him, but he seemed to be holding back from doing so in front of everyone else.

"Kiyoshi!"

"What?"

The boy had not said a simple "Yes?" or even tried to calm the taller boy down. Instead he was taking the challenge with his words while keeping his body from reacting in any way.

"What did you do to my cousin!?"

"I let her do as she wanted. What, do you want me to take that away from her?"

"You are supposed to protect her! To take care of her and make sure she is safe! You need to take responsibility after changing her so much!"

Inukai knew that getting between the two of them was not a good idea and so pulled out his phone instead.

There was someone else who he could ask for in this situation. The risk of them starting something was very high, but it would have been better than anything he could do at the moment.

**Haru:** "Ninomiya-san, there's a problem here and we need you over here now!"

**Ninomiya:** "Is it Minoru or the faker?"

_The fact he immediately goes to one of those two…_

It was to be expected with him, but that still did not make things any less strange.

**Haru:** "Both actually. I know you hate Yuki a lot, but you also love Mino! Please help out over here! We're in front of the Yagura Branch."

**Ninomiya:** "I was already making my way over there. I should be there in a bit, so hold things off until I get there."

Looking back to the blank boy and the angered boy, he saw that the two had been separated by the Arafune Squad duo. Hokari takes a close position to Yuki and Arafune looking to Minoru with some worry. Suzaku seemed to be inching towards the center of the two sides to keep them from going back near each other.

This seemed fine enough, both Minoru and Yuki were kept apart from each other. Neither one was being left alone at the moment, but…

"Oh, no…"

He could see it from where he stood.

Everything that had built up over this short amount of time had created an ominous calm within Minoru before it had burst. That had been the reason the Arafune Squad duo had stepped in a moment ago.

But that was also the wrong choice.

It was no longer the anger that was building up from within Minoru, but something else entirely.

.

Minoru could feel so many things all at once.

He had felt the moment Arafune pulled him back and Hokari had grabbed hold of Yuki. Both had used enough force to keep them apart, but not enough to hurt them.

From there he could only feel terrible things.

He felt his blood start pounding in his ears.

He felt his heart pound against his chest.

He felt his hands shake uncontrollably .

He felt the need to get away.

" _Where will you go? Who would even take you at this point?"_

A voice echoed in his mind.

The voice sounded all too familiar. It was the same one he always heard when it was all too much for him. When his inner demons came to the surface.

" _You keep being this way and you know you are just being a burden to them all. Who would want that exactly? No one."_

He could feel a burning sensation as the words came in. His arms burned. To be exact: his wrists burned. The same ones that had taken abuse before and had marks to show it.

Each scar that was left on those wrists were hot. He became much more aware of them as the seconds went on.

His body began to bend forward as a hand was placed on his shoulder, something he did not notice. He began to curl in on himself.

" _You think you can be helpful, but you know that's not possible. Just look at Fuji. You couldn't do anything for her."_

He had left it to someone else because he could do nothing for her.

He left it to the boy in front of him, yet that boy seemed to only harm her more.

Why had he left her to him?

" _Mirai… Fuji… Your family just leaves you behind. Because they know you aren't needed. You didn't leave Fuji with him. She knew you couldn't help her and so left to find someone else."_

This boy in front of him who could only hurt her. Hurt some of the remaining family he has left with him.

The heat coming from his body seemed to only grow as the thoughts grew louder and louder. Each one invading his mind even deeper than the last.

He felt his body heating up and his stomach quickly turning into knots, yet he shook. His body shook even as it felt like he was burning.

Flashes of previous events came flooding into his mind. What had he done then? What had made things better?

"…"

No noise came out as he continued to bend forward. Someone had been trying to right him into standing up, but he just continued forward.

He continued to bend forward as his arms started to reach for each other. Each one pushing up their sleeves to reach the skin under them.

Two sharp sounds were carried in the wind as he reached for his arms. His nails touching the skin roughly instead of with care.

This was the way he could feel better. There was nothing he could use except his own nails right now. Nothing but that could tea into him like those blades had done before.

And yet…

"Minoru…!"

He was stopped from doing that.

A pair of arms had reached out to grab his own. They felt rather weak in comparison to everyone else's, but they were enough to hold his arms in place. Rather, he was allowing them to hold his arms in place.

The hand that had been on his shoulder before was now moving in front of him, where his arms were being held. It reached for his sleeves and began to tug them down.

.

Yuki had covered the distance between him and Minoru in an instant.

Even without his trion body, he was rather fast on his feet. Without his illness he would easily be able to cover the ground with no issue at all, but that was not the case. It was not the past, a time when he could do so freely and without any reservation. Now he could feel a pain in his legs from only that short distance and his own heartbeat pounding against this chest as coughs threatened to come out.

But it was no time to think of those things.

He had seen something that made him disregard his own pain. The pain that was only affecting him physically and could be tossed aside so long as he took medicine later on. It had been something that even he did not fully think about until he felt his own body move forward.

Scars.

Inukai had been the closest Minoru, but Yuki had the best view of what was happening.

From his perspective, Minoru was closing himself off from everything. Curling in on himself as if shutting down and not noticing anything around him. It had been more than enough to make him lose his facade in favor of worrying about Minoru.

Once Minoru had started to move his arms closer to each other, Yuki made sure to pay attention. He had brushed off Hokari's hand and instinctively leaned forward.

It was when he was not paying attention to himself that his Side Effect began to force his body to move in the same way that Minoru was. His body began to curl up and his arms started to move closer to each other. The position of his fingers, his legs, his body, and his head were all starting to mirror that of Minoru. Once his fingers started brushing up his arms he fully noticed what was going on.

The moment those sleeves moved up his body pushed forward.

He knew that he had let out a small gasp when he saw the scars, but it was blown away along with Inukai's.

He reached out his own hands in order to grab Minoru's before they could do any damage. He made sure to position himself close so that others around them could not see those scars. Only Inukai, who was just as close, could see those scars and began to cover them up again.

His own physical strength was nothing when compared to Minoru's, especially with the way his body currently was, so he had fully expected to be pushed off instantly.

Instead, he was met with little resistance.

Minoru only stood there, seemingly allowing Yuki to hold his arms and Inukai to pull down the sleeves.

He could say that this was not the first time he had seen something similar happen, but that did not mean he was any more prepared for it. This was still something new to him, both in terms of what was happening and who it was happening to.

He turned to Inukai, expecting him to tell him what to do next.

But that seemed to be unnecessary.

"Move aside."

A voice that could only make him angry in an instant soon came through.

The footsteps that followed were quick, yet steady. They were moving in their direction and Yuki knew to let upon his hold of Minoru's arms. Even if it meant turning to the person he hated the most.

"You move aside too, idiotic faker."

"Don't tell me what-"

The words for his retort were caught in his throat as he stared up at a cold glare.

Unlike anything ever sent his way, the glare he was getting from his only true enemy was not one of hatred or loathing. Those ones were usually followed by an insult meant to rile him up so that they could begin their arguments. It has become a constant for them and something that only happens when around each other. This one particular glare was one meant to keep Yuki in place and prevent him from moving. Something that was far more harsh than any insult thrown out or any hit to his body.

It sent a chill down his spine.

Being kept in place by the glare and with what had just happened, Yuki could only watch as Ninomiya held Minoru close before turning to Inukai, completely ignoring him standing there or the onlookers.

"I'll take him back for now. You do whatever you need to do here and come by later."

"Right…"

Ninomiya only nodded in response, ignoring how Inukai turned towards Yuki with a worried expression of his own.

"Um…"

Everyone heard the sudden voice that came from the side.

Yuki recognized the voice instantly. It belonged to the girl who had said she would be coming over.

.

Suzume was at a loss for words upon coming to the odd scene in front of the Yagura Branch.

She had decided to visit the branch office in order to see what Yuki had to say about Mei and to see the older girl herself. It had been on her mind since she had been told the vague details about what was happening.

Something she had not expected to come to was the heavy atmosphere around the entrance of the Yagura Branch.

Moving closer had brought her to where everyone had been standing, watching the center of the small crowd they had formed.

In the middle were four people. Two were standing there while the last two were walking away.

Due to the nature of her Side Effect, she automatically began to watch everything with keen perception to determine the state of everything. What she saw was a mess. Most of the people standing around had a similar Rhythm at the moment with the only real different ones being the two standing in the middle of it all and one of the two walking away.

Inukai held his body in a much different way than she had seen before. The changes from his usual stance showed in the way he sagged his shoulders and the frown on his face gave away that everything was not okay. The fact he was not grabbing hold of Hogo, who was only a few feet away, also gave her more than enough of an understanding of the situation. Even his breathing seemed different and out of place compared to all of the times she had interacted with him.

Near him was her former captain and one of the reasons she was here in the first place.

Unlike Inukai, who she could clearly tell there was a difference with, Yuki gave nothing away.

It was not in the same way as hiding something though. Quite the opposite.

Instead of hiding anything behind false motions or forced ones, he seemed to be trying to make multiple motions all at once. His hands moved from one side to the other, his fingers twitched constantly, his feet shifted quickly, his knees seemed to be buckling, his head shook at times, and his breathing was erratic. It was something she had never seen from her usually composed and kind former captain.

_But it isn't honestly the first time this has happened…_

Mei had told her before about some occurrences in the past.

The past that Kotowari Squad knew so little about.

She had been told how Yuki's Side Effect forced him to constantly maintain a focus on his own body's movements. If he allowed his body to act upon what his Side Effect wanted then he would be stuck trying to move like everything he was seeing. There would be no choice for him to move how he wanted since his body would only take in the movements of those around him.

_It is honestly sad,_ she thought. For someone who moved as freely as she did it was nothing but sad to know he would not be able to do the same. _I'm sure Toby feels the same way considering how he does things._

But what had gotten her former captain to this point?

As far as any Kotowari Squad member knew, Yuki had a rather composed concentration and seemed to always be in charge of himself. Even with his own quirks, there had never been a time when he had gotten to the point of having his Side Effect be in control of his actions.

That had been when he attention had been drawn to the two walking away.

What she saw was…

"…What?"

One of the two was Ninomiya, someone who's Rhythm had long since been categorized in her mind. It had its own uniqueness to it and continued to remain that way. There was a bit of something else there, but that was likely due to her former captain being so close to him.

No, what had gotten her attention was the one next to him.

The one who had a Rhythm so unlike what she was seeing that she could not believe it was who she thought it was.

But…

"It's best not to look, Suzu…"

"Yuki, you can't just-"

"I know. But remember that Suzu and I tend to find things out by a person's movement."

"…"

The silence from Inukai only brought about curiosity from her. Yuki was against her seeing that person walking away while Inukai was against Yuki at the moment. No one else was making any particular movement, so she was unsure as to what she should do or what was the right thing to do here.

Normally she found that person's Rhythm rather nice and had no issue with it. There had always been times when there was static with it, but nothing she thought too deeply about. There had never been too much of a reason to worry. If there was, she knew that there were better people to handle the job.

Like the two boys in front of her who seemed to also be rather reserved for the moment.

"Alright… That's enough. All of you can leave now. Rather, I would appreciate it if you did. Suzu, I still need to talk to you though."

.

Everyone who was standing in front of the Yagura Branch began to slowly walk away. Some were much more reluctant than others though.

Yuki ignored them all as he slowly flexed his fingers, eyes closed and breathing a bit erratic. He knew that Hokari was nearby, ready in case he needed something while his teammate had moved over to Inukai and Oshiro. The duo separating to their respective schoolmates had made sense, so no one thought anything about it.

As he took his leave, Suzaku called out, "I'll organize the data from the sponsors for the time being." It had mostly been waved off, but some of the people nodded in his direction.

Yuki took a long breath as he opened his eyes.

He looked over to the side to see that most of the people had left. That included Inukai and his small trio. Hokari being nearby was the only other person there now besides him and Suzume.

There were no words coming from either of them. The only thing giving anything away was the way Yuki began to move his body again. They were slow movements, but enough to get the point across.

Hokari nodded towards him before taking his own leave. There would need to be some messages sent, but it was not something that they should say out loud at the moment.

Being glad that everyone had left, Yuki finally turned to Suzume.

The girl had remained quiet as everyone left. The reason for that was obvious to everyone, even more so to Yuki who had spent a good amount of time with her.

He let out a sigh as he began to make his way to the Yagura Branch's office.

"Let's go inside. I'll tell you as much as I am allowed to say."


	94. Ōji Squad: Part 2

"[Hello and welcome to the fifth round of the B-rank Wars. I am Lukas Wagner - no, don't correct me on that - and I will be your commentator for this match. With me is Tamakoma's Kyōsuke and Miwa's Yōsuke. They will be providing their own commentary.]"

"[Hey, hey, Wagner, does it bother you that you're the only non-'ōsuke' doing commentary here?]"

"[Of course it doesn't bother me. Besides, I'm not even Japanese, so it would be strange for me to have a name like that.]"

"[Are we sure it's fine to have Yoneya-senpai between the two of us?]"

"[Oh? You wanna switch spots? I'm cool with that.]"

"[We are fine where we are. Stay put and just don't mess anything up.]"

"[Fine, fine. I'll only fiddle around with this, this, and...this!]"

"[Hey!]"

The crowd in the large room turned away as the loud voice came right before a loud smacking sound.

"Will those guys be okay...?"

Kōchō took a glance above her to see Yoneya holding his hand. It clearly did not hurt, but he still put on a hurt expression while the glasses-boy next to him seemed to already be irritated by the action.

There had still been some time before the match actually began but she had already decided on where she would be sitting. The middle was the best for a closer view while also being able toes the screen properly while the far back would allow her to see more at once. She had gone with the former option so that she could better see what was happening and get a good feel for what was going on.

Maybe as a downside to this kind of spot, she was in right below the commotion caused by the commentators.

_I guess I can put up with this much given the last match. At least this time around I know more people in this match too, so I can come up with more stuff myself._

The lack of Kurauchi beside her made her realize just how much she had replied to him in the last match for explanations.

This time may not be too different when it came to her understanding, but it was possible these commentators would do a good job explaining things unlike the last ones.

The fresh memory made her shiver.

_Those guys can be scary when they drag unsuspecting people into their mess..._

It was just the lifestyle of those who could easily claw at each other and begin a cannibalism fest with themselves.

Thankfully there was never any worry of that reaching her and her own age group. After all...

"I think we are fine without killing each other..."

As if on cue...

"I really can't decide if I want to get my revenge by throwing my phone at her or not..."

.

Wakamura heard a cough as he walked down the steps of the large room.

He had been coming in to find a seat so that he could see the current match before his squad had defense duty for the day. It would then lead into his own match, so this was what he had been planning on using his free time for.

When he turned to the cough he came face-to-face with an awkwardly waving Kōchō. The look on her face was enough for him to realize that he had spoken out loud.

With an awkward wave of his own, he pointed to the seat one seat over from her while saying, "Is that...seat taken?"

"No...?"

The fact it came out as a question put him on his toes.

He slowly moved forward, as if waiting for a response, and began to sit down.

The commotion right above them was drowned out by the awkward silence as the two waited for the match to begin.

"It was Katori again, wasn't it?"

Wakamura noticed the way Kōchō jumped at the same time and same height as he did once the voice behind them reached their ears.

Neither one had expected someone to speak up to them during their awkward silence. He did consider it a blessing though as it got them out of the silence.

The two of them immediately recovered before turning their heads to see who had spoken to them.

The calm girl had been a former opponent of Kotowari Squad but now sat behind them to watch the match.

"Asano?"

"That is I, yes."

The second female Shooter sent a polite wave to them as if she had not just scared them seconds earlier.

She pointed to the phone that was still in Wakamura's hand.

The two of them looked down to the phone until it finally clicked. Kōchō's eyes widened slightly and Wakamura nodded his head.

"Yeah. She was hounding me for wanting to see Tai-... Uh, Kotowari Squad's match."

"It's fine, Rokkun, I'm pretty sure the three of us are here for specific people. Right, Asano-san?"

"I'm just here to...watch my fellow Shooters. Kurauchi-senpai is in this match, isn't he? Yeah, that should explain it."

Her words didn't seem like a lie, but there was more under them.

"Oh, right, that does make sense. Kurauchi-san is a nice example for us to follow. Even though my style of shooting is a bit off from his own... But it does make sense. You two are pretty similar after all."

"I would say I want to learn some things from Yuba, but that would be kind of hard, all things considered. I'm really just here to see how things play out for all sides."

"Rokkun, I feel like even you don't believe that..."

"I believe it! I need to believe it or I'll be eaten alive! Yoneya's right there... Oh crap, he saw us!"

"When did we get like our upperclassman!?"

"I think that just comes with growing up. My own age group can be kind of like that at times too. It's a bit scary when they really get into it..."

A moment of silence went by before they let out a collective sigh.

With their spirits broken at this point and the commotion from the commentators settling down, they turned back to the screen.

The next match was about to begin.

* * *

"There are still some holes in this, but I think we can manage this if we play it by ear."

"Lobo-kun, you remember what to do, right? Hoshi-chan and I went over the possibilities, so feel free to try whatever you want. I'll supplement any extra data you might need."

"Thanks. Even for a really strange girl, I have to give it to you when it comes to these things. I should be fine as long as I can keep up with myself, but I'll make sure to remember that you'll be there if I need help."

"Uwaaaaaah~ Saying something so smooth like that before a match! Damn you and your charms!"

"Someone, someone, we have a lunatic with us! Call help!"

* * *

"Remember not to go off on your own, Kasio. No matter how tempted you are this time around."

"Yes! I'll keep my personal feelings out of the match and stick to our plan!"

"Good, good! Oh but, if things go well enough, you won't even get the chance to act on your personal feelings."

"Thanks for the pressure you put on me there."

"It's because I know you can handle it."

* * *

"These are our main targets. You two, make sure to remember this. We need to take them out before anything else. But if you see a chance to take someone else out, make sure you can do it and survive that."

"Right, we'll keep that in mind!"

"Good. You can leave that major one to me. I'll finish it quickly."

* * *

"Who will it be~? Who will it be~? Who will Sthé-chan go with~? Who will she take out~?"

"At least you're in a good mood."

"It's always fun when we go into matches! I never know what's going to happen, so I'm always having fun with it!"

"Sthénos, just make sure to regroup with one of us as soon as you can. I would prefer you find me first, but if not, I know you two will be able to handle yourselves just fine."

"Oh, you're also in a good mood, Ite?"

"I guess you could say that."

* * *

"[The transferring of each squad member is now starting. This match's map choice went to Senzai Squad.]"

"[Oh~ That could be interesting. Are they going to Shingai's good luck or SenSen-san's bad luck?]"

"[Maybe a mix of both? When they were given the choice of maps in previous matches, they usually went for one or the other. But there were a few times when they tried for both good and bad luck advantage.]"

"[Well we can see it now. All members have been transferred in. And the map this time is-...]"

* * *

_So this is what they went with..._

Ōji looked around for only a second and understood the location.

He had been placed in a large plaza with a fountain in the middle and stalls all along the outer edge of the plaza. A few meters away was a large pillar that overlooked the entirety of the map and stuck out no matter where you were.

From his knowledge of the map, beyond the stalls were rows of tall buildings that led into smaller ones like stairs. It came to a halt near the end where there were house-sized buildings that only had a semi-tall building scattered here and there.

It was a multi-layered cityscape that converged in the center of the plaza.

The layout seemed strange, but it was built on the premise of sections for fighting in for the matches.

_The tall buildings are for Snipers, the lower buildings are for Shooters, and this plaza is for Attackers. Of course that isn't how things go most of the time, but it gives nice space when you know who you are going against. That being said..._

It was not a place to make use of luck and did not fit the style of Senzai Squad at all.

_Senzai Squad operates by having their Attacker and Sniper separated from each other and then having their Shooter go to one of them. If she goes to their Attacker then the two of them attack using pincer attacks or hit-and-run tactics by switching from having their Shooter or Attacker moving in before switching places with the other._

_If she goes to the Sniper then their Shooter becomes the main attacker with support from their Sniper. At times they chance that up by having their Sniper be their main attacker and have their Shooter cover for her so she can move._

_But since that's how they do things..._

Why did they pick this battlefield that was meant for separate battles?

Even if they were to meet up like they usually did, it would be obvious what was happening if one just followed the Shooter. If she moved to the plaza then she would be with their Attacker. If she moved to the tall building then she would be with their Sniper. There was always the chance of her going to the lower buildings to fight by herself, but...

_She does not fight alone._

Ōji moved forward cautiously.

Being placed in the middle of the plaza meant he was open for attacks from Snipers or Shooters. Moving to the tall buildings would make him susceptible to sniper fire while moving beyond that to the lower buildings would mean he would be fighting a shootout with the Shooters or Gunner.

Either way, to get out of the plaza he would need to go into the Sniper field. If he wanted to get to the Shooter field he would need to pass by the Sniper field.

_Was that their plan? Were they hoping to get someone with sniper fire since we would have to move through that area?_

If that was the case, what won?

Did Shingai's good luck win and place her in the right spot to snipe him?

Or did Senzai's bad luck win and place her in a bad spot?

When looking at the map and the location where others had been placed, it became difficult to tell. The moment everyone had made it in, some of the dots of the map disappeared. In total there were six missing people with his own teammates being the ones he was guaranteed to notice.

_The Snipers are a given, but if I had to guess, I would bet that Take* and SenSen are the other ones to put on their Bagworm. And I don't think anyone has ever seen Tobe* use Bagworm before. Oh, but I guess he is a dog and not a bird. It wouldn't make sense for him to use something that looked more fit for the sky than the ground._

With this amount of unknown now becoming apparent in the match, it was best to become one as well. Ōji activated his own Bagworm.

"So I just need to-"

Seeing the flash from a distance, he moved to the side.

Throughout the plaza were trees that were placed far enough from the stands that it did not seem odd from a normal perspective. The trees were what usually kept the sniper fire from the taller buildings away, but...

"Looks like someone got too greedy."

Shingai's luck would not have allowed her to miss like that.

Tonooka would be sure that his shot hit, regardless of if the tree was there.

That left only one other option.

"So Bell-san wanted to try and take a hit on me, huh? She must have teleported to reach that spot so quickly."

There was no need to go after her at this point.

The distance he would need to cover was too great and her use of Teleport would have made it impossible to catch her at this point.

Even so, he made a command to his team.

"Kurauchi, can you throw some shots this way. My spot should be enough to tell you where to fire."

It was likely that Misaki would have left by now, but it would leave the Snipers with one less place to hide.

Firing even just a simple shot towards the area where the shot had been taken could do some damage for later on in the match.

It was a simple tactic that could be used because he had someone like Kurauchi on his squad.

But...

_"-"_

"Hello? Am I getting through?"

"Sorry, Ōji. Looks like I won't be able to get past my spot at the moment."

"Did you run into someone already!?"

But that made no sense.

Checking back to his map, there was indeed someone else where Kurauchi had been placed on the map.

The Shooter had not been standing still the whole time. He would have started moving the moment he made it into the battlefield, there was no doubt about that.

So then how had someone already caught up with him?

_Was it another Kotowari Squad member? But even Teleport couldn't have gotten there that quickly. He was moving away from whoever that was the entire time, so Teleport would not be able to keep up due to having to wait before repeating it._

Grasshopper was also an option, but none of the Kotowari Squad members had it. That went for Yuba Squad as well.

Senzai Squad also had it, but the two who used it were likely the ones he could not see due to Bagworm.

_So who caught up to him!?_

"Hey, who are you looking at?"

_"..."_

There was no answer.

If Kurauchi did not have the time to answer then it meant the battle had already begun. And he was fighting hard.

* * *

Yuba furrowed his brows.

"Someone is already fighting...?"

It was not uncommon for battles to begin soon after being teleported onto the battlefield, but this was too fast.

No matter what Trigger they had, to find someone and engage them in combat so early on was very unlikely. That meant they were fighting one-on-one and had decided to forego any sort of regrouping.

_That means it's Kotowari Squad. But which one is it?_

Misaki could handle herself when it came to defense, so it was likely she was holding someone back. But that did not make sense given the information they had on how she would be fighting for this match.

Kotowari, while being able to handle himself fine enough in a solo match, was not the type to go into a fight against opponents like these without some sort of backup. His main backup would likely be Taiyōko again, but that would mean there were two people fighting against one and that was not what he was seeing.

That left only one choice left.

_Awdry got to someone that quickly?_

Obishima had said the younger boy had been moving rather quickly during the night of the festival. He had participated in a race against many people. They had used the ground, the festival stalls, and the rooftops for the race. Awdry had come out the victor, but that did not mean he should have reached the point of another opponent so quickly.

It was likely an Ōji Squad member who would be fighting against the Attacker at the moment. Senzai Squad was either hiding or did not have someone strong enough for a solo match against the boy and he had not heard anything from his teammates to suggest that they were the ones fighting.

"It has to be one of those two then. No offense to Kashio, but I know from experience that someone like Awdry would be able to handle him quickly. But..."

Yuba came to a sudden stop.

He had appeared on the opposite side of the map of where the fight was currently happening. That meant he would have to cross the entire map to reach that area.

To cross the map from where he was, he would need to take one of three routes.

The first was through the center. It would send him outside of the outer area meant for Shooters and Gunners and into the tall buildings meant for Snipers. It would then take a lot of effort to move cleanly through those tall buildings without being sniped at, which would then put him in the plaza. From there it would be a reverse situation of going through the plaza into the tall buildings to the other side where it was meant for Shooter and Gunners.

The second and third routes were the same in that he could stay in the outer area of the map and circle around to reach that section. It would take more time, but it was likely the safest option.

"..."

Instead of any of those options, he had decided to go with a fourth one.

"I won't be the only one wondering about this situation. In that case..."

A Bagworm began to form on top of his upper body.

"Obishima, Tonooka, we will be waiting things out."

"So you are wondering about how that fight started too?"

"Yeah. We will continue to move. If you happen to find someone, keep up with them but don't engage. Until we know what is going on with that fight, we will be waiting it out."

Looking back at the map, he saw two more dots disappear.

"Looks like we aren't the only ones thinking that..."

There were now less people visible on the map. With that being the case, all the focus seemed to be gathering on the single fight that had begun on the other side of the map.

This was where the match would start and how the tone of it all would be set.

_Let's see what happens here._

* * *

Senshi let out a sigh as he moved through the shadows of the tall building placed around him.

He had gotten the short end of the stick the moment he had entered the map. As an Attacker who relied on speed via Triggers and heard offense, being placed in an area where Snipers ruled the battlefield could not have been a worse position.

_I guess that's just how things go. Ite seems to have been placed on the other side of this area though, so that's good. And Sthénos..._

The girl had announced how she would be going to see the first fight of the match before putting on her Bagworm.

With her following everyone else's lead it left the match in a strange place. All but two people could not be found on Radar, most were likely waiting for that first fight to finish and being spotted may not immediately lead to being attacked.

It was unlike any match he had been involved with before.

No one was waiting out the time - it was far too soon for something like that - but no one was rushing in to attack or defend either. Even regrouping felt like it would be a strange choice right now.

_What to do..._

Looking at the map again, he saw where exactly his teammates were placed.

With Sthénos moving towards the fight, it would put her closer to Ite. With the way they moved normally that would be no issue.

Taking this as a chance, he continued to move through the shadows of the buildings. Even if he were to be spotted, it would not be easy to properly aim at him. With everyone besides the two fighters using Bagworm he could not be seen on Radar, even if seen by eyesight he would still be moving and harder to hit. If they did lock their sights on him then they would likely get a single shot in before being found by the others around them.

This was his bad luck.

A Side Effect that caused bad things to happen to him. A Side Effect that caused bad things to happen to those around him.

It was likely he would be seen, but they would not be able to aim properly. Others could not find him on Radar because of something else, but he could not find others. If they tried to attack him, they would likely get attacked in return.

A Side Effect that did not indiscriminate and affected everyone around him as well as himself.

_It's better if Sthénos is with Ite. They will have a better chance at doing damage compared to if she went to me. We rely too much on random factors when I fight with her._

Yes, this was the best course of action.

They were not meant to take everyone out. They were only going to take out whoever they could.

_A one-on-one fight has started and everyone is focusing on that. So our response should be..._

Shifting the Bagworm on him a bit, he spoke to his teammates.

"We will take out who we can while they are busy with that fight."

* * *

"[It looks like most of the fights have stopped or slowed down their movements. The only ones who seem to be going at full throttle are Kotowari Squad.]"

"[That makes sense given what we are seeing.]"

"[Taking on a Shooter like that... The mutt looks to be making light of Kazuki or is putting himself too high.]"

"[I wouldn't be so sure about that.]"

"[Oh? Something you know, Yoneya-senpai?]"

"[The two have just been running around for a bit, but that's probably because they're sizing each other up. Remember that these three teams are ones Kotowari Squad have not fought or have rarely fought.]"

"[That explains why they have not launched any serious attack yet. But what about how the mutt got to Kazuki so quickly? It happened before any of us could really see anything.]"

"[Oh, you'll just have to wait and see. It won't be a long wait though, so don't worry your pretty glasses face about it.]"

"[You...!]"

"[Too late to change spots now~]"

* * *

To say this was surprising would be a clear understatement of the situation.

Kurauchi had expected for someone from Kotowari Squad to go for a hit attack, but this was far too blatant and obvious for him to fully understand.

The squad had been known for their usage of Teleport due to their former captain. But that did not explain how or why the boy below him had been so ready to face him. It was likely because he was closest one to him, but it seemed as if he had appeared the moment the match had started.

Since their initial confrontation all the dots representing the opposing squads had disappeared, leaving only the two of them there without a Bagworm on.

_No one seems to be making a move against us though. That's a bit troubling in it's own right... Still, that means this fight needs to be settled before anyone else does anything major. I would try to escape, but he has been able to keep up with me rather easily, so I doubt he'll let me go._

It was more than that.

While the boy had been able to keep up with him, there had been times that he was certain the boy would pass him. Those times it seemed like the boy had not realized how fast he was going and had to force himself to stop before moving out too far.

_So this is the difference then. But it won't be enough. He can't outrun my shots, and if he can't even do that then he is no match for Yuba-san._

This was the first battle of the match and it would set the mood for the rest of the battles to come.

Theoretically he would have the advantage due to being a Shooter against an Attacker. It was something that should have been so obvious to even the boy himself.

Kurauchi relied on his techniques, speed, and strategy while the boy relied on his ability to close the distance and the strength of his attacks.

It was a race to see who would land first.

He would use what he had to maintain the distance between the two and the boy would use what he had to close that distance.

"Hey, Kazuaki!"

He heard his name called and stopped just as the boy had.

The two were in the outer area of the map. The buildings were low and meant for Shooters like him to gain the advantage by moving around the area without being spotted. He had taken to moving by rooftop to man the high ground while the boy had taken to running on the fat ground, something that had likely provided a small edge when it came to keeping up.

With their positions decided - Kurauchi on the rooftops and the boy on the ground - the boy had called out to him and stopped.

While not against any rules, it was extremely uncommon for a conversation to begin during a fight.

Yet this boy did not seem to care.

"Yes? What is it?"

He had not meant to humor the boy, but there was a feeling that if he did not then he would come to regret it later.

The look he got in return was one of complete glee. Happiness that his call had been answered.

The grin that came with it began to put him on edge.

"I'm going to let you know right now that I don't plan on letting you escape. Go ahead and fire as much as you want at me, because I also don't plan on being captured. So basically what I'm saying is..."

The grin grew until Kurauchi understood why he was on edge.

"I plan to win."

He was facing a beast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Ōji uses the English word "take" to refer to Takeshi
> 
> *Tobe means "fly" in Japanese but sounds similar to "Toby"


	95. Toby Awdry: Part 6

Minoru stared blankly as he looked towards the screen.

The middle section of the seating was where to get a better view of the entire screen while being close enough to see the smaller details of what was happening.

The very top section, where he stood behind, was where you could see the entire screen without having to move your eyes too much. It was easy to see what was displayed in front of him even while he thought about something else.

"Oh? Wanting to see how your student is doing? I'm guessing you taught him how to move like that."

A body moved up next to him and rested their arms and upper body on the railing.

"I actually haven't gotten the time to teach him anything, Tachikawa-san."

"Is that so…?"

He was aware of the look that Tachikawa was giving him, but there was little reason to care about it.

"I didn't really expect to see you here though. Is there someone you want to watch?"

"Yeah. Your student. I got rejected by him so I want to see how he's doing here."

"Rejected? Did you-...?"

"Not like that. Pretty sure he likes the little nightingale down there anyway."

He followed the finger that pointed to the trio in the middle of the seating.

Wakamura seemed to be saying something to the girl a seat away and the girl behind them.

Like the man next to him, those three were likely here for someone specific.

"I asked him to join my squad and he rejected me. He is like Murakami in that he's loyal to his squad. That's a good quality to have, but they are using their talents for something that holds them back."

"So you want to see how he's going to do when he's fighting for his team then."

"Hm. Looks like you get it."

Minoru looked down with flattened brows.

The look he had gotten in return was one of knowing.

"The way you said that... You already know that that whole team fights by themselves, so he still won't be fighting with them. That's where he differs from people like Murakami. Murakami fights with his team and supports them, but Toby fights by himself but for his team."

"That's not what I..."

He was waved off before he could finish.

"It's fine, it's fine. I get it. But that is definitely the reason I came by. I want to see what he can do. Even if he is fighting for his team and doesn't have support like everyone else, he can still manage some great things on his own."

What the #1 was saying rang out in his head.

He knew that it was true, but it was also rather harsh.

It was a direct way of saying that the rest of Kotowari Squad was not good enough. The support they provide meant little to someone of Toby's level and they could not be seen as a real team at the moment.

There was also a certain amount of judgement on Toby as well for sticking to Kotowari Squad.

This #1 was not completely at fault though, he knew that. These were thoughts based on his position and the fighting ability he saw in those people.

What he said was only the truth that he saw.

And now that truth was being displayed in front of them.

Minoru focused back on the screen and the fight that had started on it.

When he did...

"What?"

* * *

Fall.

Kurauchi continued to watch as his opponent continued to fall forward.

To others it would seem like he was simply running, but it was different for someone who watched his own attacks miss due to this.

The boy started as if running by touching the ground with his heel and beginning his next action before his toes could follow and hit the ground as well. This action seemed to be the start of his speed, but it continued beyond that.

Each time he started his second action a small square would appear in front of his knee or his foot. As if tripping on it, he began to seemingly fall forward before righting himself and moving ahead of the shots fired at him.

When it seemed like he would slow down a new square would form again and his fall would continue.

_It looks like a sign frame... I'll just call it that then._

Kurauchi saw a weak but definite acceleration like the floor had been removed.

The boy seemed to grab the air and fell forward.

It was a gradual acceleration that almost made Kurauchi think he could fire and it would definitely hit, but...

"That is being naïve!"

Kurauchi moved over to the next building and made a cube of trion appear. He fired it forward while a second cube appeared that would be used to get in his opponent's way instead of hitting him.

He made it.

His plan was to block the path forward and force the boy to move in a way that would be too awkward for him.

_...This should make it in time!_

It hit the ground, the ground threw pieces up, and he did indeed force a different move.

He made him spin around.

The force of the attack spun the boy's body, affecting his stance.

_This will work,_ thought Kurauchi.

Unlike Grasshopper, this Trigger's acceleration was generally cumulative, but if the accumulated acceleration was not maintained the Trigger would likely break and the acceleration would be lost. At best, the user would slow down. At worst, they could be sent flying through the air.

He had just altered the boy's stance, so...

_...He should slow down or fall over!_

However, Kurauchi saw his opponent calmly continue accelerating.

.

"What?"

Kurauchi saw a blue sign frame below the opponent's feet.

It displayed the name Headfirst Fall. Mostly likely for aesthetics only.

Despite Toby's stance being thrown off, it did not vanish or shatter.

It was working just fine.

_Strange,_ thought Kurauchi. _That shouldn't be._

"Headfirst Fall!"

The boy's voice rang out again and he made another leap. This time, he moved toward Kurauchi.

Kurauchi understood what kind of acceleration system Headfirst Fall used.

_...It really does use the act of falling!_

Falling began slowly and accelerated from there, but the acceleration itself was occurring from the very beginning.

That meant the directional control for its acceleration did not occur when the speed was rising.

_...Does he control his next direction of movement from the moment of the slower initial acceleration!?_

Any later interference would be corrected by the already controlled acceleration. Even if his stance was thrown off, the already promised acceleration would forcibly regather his body.

The vague acceleration of "falling" was likely a way of more easily controlling his movement if any interference occurred.

And currently, the boy was falling toward Kurauchi.

He had figured out that this was supposed to be the same Trigger that Tamakoma's Kagerei and their own Kanzaki used, but there had been a clear difference between them.

It was not that the trigger itself was different. It was how it was used that was different.

Kagerei and Kanzaki used their movements to continue their acceleration and not break their chain.

This boy was using his falling body to start the Trigger, which then created a different form of it with different standards and usages.

_...It really is a "headfirst fall"!_

.

Toby could feel so much as he fell forward.

He had not planned to do something like this; to change how a Trigger worked, but he remembered how he had used this Trigger when facing off against Seikai.

He had used more than just his own speed to move faster. He had also used his falling movement for it.

It was the same as now.

He had asked Nakagami to check over the abilities of the Trigger before their match and had figured out how to create such movements on their way to the Border base.

The stomping of the ground he used was meant for control and break, but also used for preparing to attack. It was how he had been fighting up to this point.

Once he figured out that starting with his fall and moving into his next action right away was a good way to gain more speed, he incorporated that in some quick practice before their match.

Now he could tell the difference.

He continued to fall forward while repeatedly activating Headfirst Fall to continue holding his speed.

Kurauchi had tried to prevent him from maintaining that speed by sending him spinning, but that did not seem to work either. His initial fall had begun and could not be stopped by something like that.

Then there were the Hound shots that had been fired at him came in.

Their speed and ability to keep pace with him had always been an issue that he found hard to get around. Skilled fighters knew how to pressure him with attacks like those and Kurauchi was no different.

He had used the right tactics, right speed, and the right amount of shots to put enough pressure on him to keep him at bay.

But now that was not enough.

The standard amount of necessary parts to put pressure on him reached a new level. New tactics needed to be thought of, greater speed was needed to keep up, more shots needed to be fired for no escape. If things stayed the way where now...

"You won't catch me like that!"

"You won't reach me like that!"

.

Toby's repeated acceleration via falling had left the Hound shots to try and follow after him. Each one changed course mid-air to do so.

Some shots had not been able to turn in time and crashed into something else, leaving I'm with more room to move around.

The way Kurauchi moved atop the buildings seemed slow to Toby now, but that did not mean he could catch up. As long as those Hound shots continued for him he would not be able to fall towards Kurauchi.

"In that case..."

Seeing that Kurauchi had changed position to another building, he began a new action.

Each time he had begun to fall forward, he would create Headfirst Fall while beginning a new forward movement.

That was not the case this time.

"-"

Instead of starting with his heel, he began his next action with his toes while pushing his body forward. The action had started with his toes, but his shoulder was first to move by forcing itself forward and to the side.

It began to put him into a different kind of spin.

"Headfirst Fall!"

"While you're still spinning!?"

A blue sign frame formed in front of him as his knee started to catch up to his shoulder.

His spinning fall increased his speed even more as he made his full rotation.

With his body now facing the multiple Hound shots, he fell forward into the pack of Hound.

"!"

He did not need to look back to know that more shots had been fired from behind. It had likely been to attack him for the front, but he had changed positions so now they were coming from behind.

The shots that had been behind him were now coming head on, but...

"Ah! Ha!"

Feeling his body begin to move, he thought nothing about how he should move and so began thinking about what he could do to assist his own body.

Activating another Headfirst Fall right now would increase his acceleration even further, but that was not what he needed to do.

Preparing some shields right now would guarantee defense if he could not dodge, but that was not what he needed right now.

Creating Scorpion blades right now would prepare him to attack after he had dodged, but that was not what he wanted to do right now.

Right now, what he wanted, what he needed, and what he did were all the same thing.

"Ha ha!"

Lifting his leg starting with his knee, he took to the air with a leap using his acceleration. It was not high up, but it sent him flying over the pack of Hound that came from the front while forcing the ones from behind to follow by curving up.

The ones that had been in front of him curved again and continued their pursuit of him. Some crashed into the oncoming cursing ones, putting even less pressure on him.

Instead of landing on the ground after his jump, he continued to fall as he hit the ground.

The continued fall was followed by another Headfirst Fall being formed in front of him.

"Ha ha ha!"

He let out a voice as he continued to accelerate on the open street.

The street itself became curved near the end while moving into the tall buildings that had been meant for the Snipers to have a better place to fire from.

Their fight had reached the end of the shorter buildings and was now in-between the two portions.

"Pa pa pa! Ha ha ha! Whoohoo!"

It meant there was only one place to go now.

.

Kurauchi was surprised by what he was seeing and what he was hearing.

Seeing Toby reach such amazing speeds and out running his shots was already something expected. Now he had raised his voice as he fell, accelerated, then fell once more.

"Whoohoo! Whoohoo! Ha ha ha! Pa pa pa!"

They were less like words and they did not even seem directed at Kurauchi at all.

Each sound that came from his mouth was followed by a step then an acceleration.

Kurauchi was not one for the arts and had only gotten a small lecture from his classmates and Suzume before, but even he could tell what was happening here.

It was something he had seen from others at his school before. Something that came with excitement and for those who enjoyed what they were doing so much.

_Yes, some of the stranger ones had even said it was "excitengu". What that means exactly, I'm not sure. But what I am sure about is that this is the same thing as that._

Like those people he had seen, Toby was enjoying himself in this fight.

No, it was wrong to call it a fight.

Toby was running around how he liked and Kurauchi was providing some toys for him to play with. There had been some movement towards him, but Toby had yet to make a full attack against him this entire time.

This truly was just a time for Toby to play around and that was how the mood was set for the moment. Even so, he made sure that Kurauchi could not escape.

Since that was the case...

_I will deal with him here! While he is still playing around!_

* * *

"[Well Awdry seems to be enjoying himself here.]"

"[I'd say so. Just look at him out there. He isn't caring about what's chasing him, his trion usage, for the fact he's about to be attacked again.]"

"['Having fun' like that can only lead to something bad for that mutt. He is being extremely careless, so I don't doubt that he will be taken out at this rate.]"

"[So harsh. But that is true still. Well, kind of. But that's only because this is Toby we're talking about here.]"

"[That mutt... Well I can't say that his teammates are any better. I've seen something like this before too, but it had come from Suzume before. I don't know what is going on in his mind - and I would rather not know - but it will be dangerous for Kazuki if he thinks this is something to overlook. While we know he won't attack recklessly, there is a chance he has the wrong mindset right now.]"

"[Is that a compliment to Toby or an insult to Kurauchi?]"

"[I feel like complimenting that mutt will only end badly... I am only saying that when Kotowari Squad gets like this that it is better to take things more carefully.]"

"[So it means you actually do know how to have some fun.]"

"[You...!]"

.

"You're laughing quite a bit that it makes this seem like a show instead of a match..."

Wakamura hid behind the glare of his glasses while Kōchō had turned away at some point. Her shoulders visibly shook and her hand covered her mouth.

Asano who was behind him also questioned the reaction, but did not verbally express it like the glasses boy.

"S-sorry... But I-I know... Hahaha! I just know that he is enjoying himself so much out there. He is acting like a dog who is being played with by someone, so it's hard to get that out of my mind."

"And now I can imagine that..."

"So can I..."

"Oh look, dog ears. Listening to you has made me go crazy, Kashi. Good job with that."

"Glad to help," Kōchō said with a finishing huff.

She looked back to the screen at the same moment as when Kurauchi had fired more shots.

When watching what was happening she had been able to notice some of the Hound shots get destroyed due to something getting in their way or destroying themselves due to not curving in time to chase after Toby. That had been why Kurauchi felt the need to fire even more, to replace the ones lost and fire a new volley for more pressure.

"Can he even feel pressure at this point?"

"I think some of the others in higher ranks can manage to keep up with him. This just means Kurauchi-senpai needs to find a way to close the gap so he can put pressure on Awdry again. Without that pressure, it will be hard for him to win. ...Even if Awdry is playing around."

"You two should get it as much as the rest of us that us Shooters, you Gunners, and those Snipers have it rough against him. If not for Shana and Shor wanting to fight him and vice very, outmatch would have gone differently. It took both Maya and myself to take on Take, but that had its own circumstances to it. If I had been the one to fight Toby, well..."

"You don't need to say it. We had just fought him, so please remember that I had been against him and Taiyōko with Yuta backing me up. I know how hard it is to hit him. And it looks like he got even better between then and now."

Some more giggle could be heard after they had both let out sighs.

Kōchō had begun anew with her laughing.

"It looks like the one who likes him is the only who has yet to fight him. You two even got to fight against the people you like. What a shame."

"What!?"

"Hold on a minute."

Kōchō ignored their protests in favor of continuing to watch the match.

Compared to the level of fighting she was witnessing, her own abilities paled in comparison to them.

.

Toby, while looking to just be enjoying himself, and Kurauchi, who looked to be trying to find a way around that enjoyment, continued their high speed movements and thoughts. The smoothness the two showed while trying to outmaneuver was not something she could take lightly.

Without being in the B-Rank Wars or doing many solo matches she found it rather difficult to understand just what was needed in this fight.

_Moto-san says that we can enter whenever we want and Maihime is always ready to go, but the rest of us don't really feel like joining. We manage just fine against Neighbors, so there really isn't a need for us to go against our fellow agents. Still..._

Looking at the seat next to her and behind her gave her a good understanding that it was not the same for everyone.

While she was no slouch when it came to her shooting, she was aware that the girl behind her was far better than her at it. Coming up with strategies was not her strong suit to begin with, but that did not mean she could not see the boy next to her thinking at least five steps ahead of her. Both of them had reached that point because they had been participating in the B-Rank Wars.

It meant that something like these fights had more importance than simply showing off strength.

_...It's a bit late for us to join, so I'll just keep watching. But..._

She felt the need for that added word was important.

_I can also learn from this. We can use it for when we need it and maybe even show it off ourselves._

These rank wars were showing her more than just fights and strength.

Toby was showing her the carefree nature someone could have during these fights while Kurauchi was showing her what it took to deal with that carefree nature.

"...And this is only the opening fight for the match."

The boy a seat away from her must have thought she was speaking out to them as he answered her unasked question.

"Don't get too used to it. Kotowari Squad is just strange like this."

"Definitely. They like these personal fights and only help each other to then make them into those personal fights."

"I wish I could speak up like you two. Then again, that should be a given since you two get to fight and watch the people you like."

The Gunner and Shooter duo were quick to defend themselves from the attack.

* * *

These kinds of people were troublesome.

In that same vein, they were dangerous.

People like these tended to base their actions on their mood. If they were hungry then they would hunt for food. If they wanted to play then they would drop everything to enjoy themselves. If they felt threatened then they would prepare to attack. And if they got serious then the true danger would show.

At the moment Toby was in a mood to play around and it showed with the way he ran around the area while making sure his prey could not escape while he had his fun.

"Ha ha ha! Pa pa!"

"-!"

The Hound shots gathered, they separated, they spun, they twisted, they curved, they moved straight, they did everything possible to reach the one who tried to run away and instead continued to fall.

"Just hit!"

It may have been due to the situation but Kurauchi felt as if that was what his own shots were saying as they continued to chase down their own prey.

For every jump he made to a different rooftop, Toby made at least three movements and moved a far greater distance than he could with no buffing Triggers.

Yet even with that speed and distance coverage, he was still far from reaching his target.

The distance between the two would take him at the least 10 seconds to cover. Those 10 seconds would be filled with shots of all kinds by Kurauchi.

Changing positions, forcing him to move away, and waiting for the right time was what he would have to use here.

Even then...

* * *

"Fight Awdry by himself!?"

Kashio's shout was met with an understanding glance.

Kurauchi looked to their captain with a raised eyebrow.

They had been discussing what to do against each squad when the idea of fighting the young Attacker alone came up. It made sense in a general sense, but everyone in the room knew what exactly that meant.

"I appreciate the confidence, but I will have a hard time doing that by myself. Do you want me to be bait or distract him?"

"Not at all. I want-... No. I need you to fight Tobe by yourself. You have the best chance between the three of us. Even if you were to provide support fire for us, I don't know how that would turn out. According to everything we know, he is still getting used to something new, so you would be best."

"But Awdry is-..."

"He is...?"

Kurauchi felt a bit sorry for their youngest member, but he knew what both sides meant with their arguments.

"We don't have a Sniper, but I don't think that would help much. Kasio, I could manage a win against him, but that would be all for me. I don't doubt that he would take too much from me in return. And you would get destroyed the moment you entered his range."

"So does that mean we shouldn't try to support with our own support fire?"

"We might just get in the way. Besides that, we would have others to worry about. If someone from Yuba Squad or Senzai go involved then that would be great since we would then know where they would be. It is highly likely that they will stay away from that kind of fight though."

It would make sense if that was the case.

Anyone within range of that kind battle would need to be wary of frontal attacks from Awdry and multi-directional shots from him. Doing something like that was far more trouble than simply staying away from the fight altogether.

Support fire sounded nice in theory, but even that would not work.

Anyone who had fought against the higher ranked Attackers who used speed knew why exactly that would not be with much and instead get in the way.

Even with the amount of people who he had faced off against, Kashio did not seem to think about why it was that this battle needed to be done.

That was enough for him to speak up and explain for his underclassman.

"To deal with someone like Awdry, you need to constantly be changing your attacks, shift between attack and defense at any moment, know the entirety of the space around you, and a few other things that we don't have time to go over. I would be moving constantly and maybe even in strange ways, so any supporting fire has a chance at hitting me as well. I would say try that if it looks like I am really on the verge of losing. That way taking me out would not be much of an issue."

"With the way you're talking, it sounds like you are agreeing to this."

He nodded in agreement.

It seemed logical enough when given enough thought.

"I get it. The other Snipers would have a hard time, Sensei's Shooter is nowhere near that level yet, and anyone needing to get in close could possibly get a win, but that would be all. Yuba-san could manage a win while staying in, but it would also be a risk for him that he knows not to take."

"Right. So that just leaves you: a very skilled Shooter who doesn't need to get in close, knows what to do, can win without losing too much, and can come up with any plan you need while keeping a close on on him at the same time maintaining a distance. Do you get it now, Kasio? That wolf is tough, but not impossible to beat. That fox who had been leading them was their strongest fight - as much as I hate to say it - and so with him gone, the others are simply wild animals who are moving on their instinct and emotions."

"That's it harsh, Ōji."

"I'm not completely over the incident with the sponsors. And thinking about that damn fox has gotten me irritated."

"So then focus on the others. If you think about Tsuki... Yuki. You will likely lose sight of everything again."

The sigh that came from the squad captain was enough to release some of the tension that had built up.

"Very true."

* * *

_Looks like this was the right choice after all._

The amount of trion both of them were using continued to increase as one tried to run around while the other tried to catch him.

The pace that this fight was going at was faster than Kurauchi had expected and it was only growing in speed.

_Ōji probably didn't even see this coming. He put me here because it was only right to do so, but now we can see that there was no other choice._

Kashio would have been destroyed long ago by the pure speed of the fight. He was no slouch when it came to fights, but this was not something he could handle without some major support from someone else. Speed, power, and tactics were needed at a high rate that he would not have been able to reach in a short amount of time.

Ōji's chances also seemed to be sliming down every more as the fight went on. From what he could see, his captain looked to still be able to take out the Attacker, but at a greater cost. There would be no doubt that he would need to Bail Out if they did not go for mutual destruction.

That left it up to him.

_Don't stop, even for a moment._

_Increase the shots fired, the types fired, change the accuracy of them, keep moving and don't stay in one place, and make sure you always have him in your sight. As long as I can keep those up, I should be able to run him down enough to catch him._

_After catching him, don't let up on attacks. Cover the entire area around him so that his Side Effect can't get him out of it._

_Takato-san isn't with them this time around, so there is no need to worry about her or her Side Effect either. So-_

It was a single movement.

"!"

.

Kurauchi watched as green light scattered in the distance.

He had been moving to prevent Toby from getting a lock on him and had been focused on the movement of his feet and upper body the whole time. So where had these scattering lights come from?

No, he knew where they came from.

_From Awdry himself!?_

Looking back at the boy, he saw that he was still moving at an amazing speed. His falls contained his starting actions, direction for that action, and change if needed. It was the same as before, so that had not been what ceased those scattering lights. Instead it had been...

"Scorpion...?"

One after another, Scorpion blades formed in his right hand before being destroyed by any Hound shots that had gotten too close to him.

That in of itself made no sense as Kurauchi was sure that his shots would not be able to get so close for another minute or so. There was no way it could have made Toby react like that.

_Wait... There is a chance. A way they could have gotten so close. But if that's the case then this will be getting worse for me._

Two Triggers were now being used by the boy.

In his right hand a Scorpion blade would be created, clash with the shots, shatter then scatter the light, and then reform in his hand immediately.

On his feet and knees a sign frame representing Headfirst Fall would appear to continue his acceleration without losing any of the speed.

As a natural counter, his Side Effect also seemed to be putting in work for the shots that he could not block with Scorpion.

It was a constant cycle of offense that worked as a defense.

They were ideal movements.

He started getting a bit more serious now, huh? So that means he is tired of playing and will now be going for his prey.

It meant he would be going after Kurauchi.

With his current speed, there would be no chance of escape unless he expanded his trion usage even more in an attempt to cover the entire area. Doing so would likely result in the same outcome as Ōji.

_In that case, I think I should stop worrying about our distance and move forward myself._

With a new resolve to fight, Kurauchi created two cubes of trion.

_I have only seconds before the last of Hound is taken out or dodged._

It was enough time for him.

The two cubes of trion began to shift and mold as they melded into each other. It would not be a single shot that was fired but a combination of two different Triggers put together that would leave an impact.

A composite shot.

Salamander.

A composite shot mixing together the tracking aspect of Hound and the destructive aspect of Meteora.

With Toby moving forward now, there were only so many ways he could move. Even if he blocked or dodged this attack, he would still receive some sort of damage from recoil. It would be enough to fire a last bout of shots.

_The timing needs to be right..._

With it now set in his mind, he waited for the opportune time.

.

The continued feeling of falling felt great.

Toby wished he could continue this for as long as he wanted, but he had received word that it would be better to begin attacking instead of running around.

The pack of Hound shots had not been much so long as he fell forward to escape them. None of them could catch up and some had been taken care of due to his own maneuvering. They crashed into each other, crashed into buildings that got in the way, crashed into the round when they could not turn fast enough, and they only continued to crash as long as he continued to fall.

Once he had been told to actually start fighting, that had changed. There was less crashing and more shattering and scattering.

He had originally thought that he would need to stop Headfirst Fall so he could use two blades to deal with the Hound shots, but that had not been the case according to their substitute Operator.

"Hey, hey, just keep that up. One blade should be enough. Besides, it shows off to the likes of these guys who have looks but can completely be jackasses!"

It was followed by a quick, "He's picking a fight, isn't he!? Isn't he!? That damn good looking president-type is totally picking a fight with the way he's doing things, isn't he!? Hey Lobo, attack! Sick 'em!"

"I'm not a dog! Are you listening!? I! Am! Not! A! Dog!"

That had been when he felt his energy reach a new level.

It meant nothing particular in a fight, but it was good motivation for him.

The first action that came from it had been a shattered Scorpion blade.

Within the span of a second he had managed to create a blade before throwing it in the direction of one of the shots. This was followed by another sign frame appearing to activate Headfirst Fall.

The moment he noticed the blade had shattered upon impact with the shot he created a new one while shifting his feet. The top of the roof came to an end one step away so the shining at his feet had happened the moment he reached the edge of the building.

Leaping into the air, he turned his body around as a set of shots came towards him.

With a single blade in hand and Headfirst Fall ready to activate at any moment, he began his full on defense using offensive measures.

The first thing he had done was shatter another blade using one of the shots and used the shattered pieces to activate Headfirst Fall. Still in a small spin, he began to fall at an angle that would place him on the side of one of the nearby buildings.

The remaining shots began to catch up as the spin also slowed down his forward acceleration.

Instead of creating another blade, he had chosen to take off one of his shoes and let it hang in the air for a moment. Once the shots reached a point he thought was acceptable, he activated Headfirst Fall and used the shoe as a starting point for his fall. It was soon destroyed by the shots while also destroying some of the shots.

With only one shoe left, he knew that it would mess him up with the difference between steps. That was why he took the other one off and held it in his hand.

"Hey Suzuka, are you helping the others like we planned? You seem to be paying a bit too much attention to my fight here!"

"I am, I am! Everybody's waiting on your ass to finish up here though! Apparently these guys want to see who wins here!"

"Seriously!? Why!? That's now how this is supposed to go!"

"Don't worry, the others are doing their job. Colors is setting everything up and Honest Sister is getting into place. Hoshi-chan has yet to reach either of them though since she was placed the furthest away from any of you, so it will take some time. Everyone else went Bagworm and we haven't seen them yet."

"So that's what you meant..." he sighed out while activating Headfirst Fall again.

_I was wondering why Ōji Squad hasn't come over to help Kazuki. But it's because he's the only one who could keep up right now. They want to see where our limits are. Whoever wins here will be the target for others._

And of course everyone else is too far away for me to lead anyone to them... Just our luck.

The irony of that thought was not lost to him as he destroyed the remaining shots that had not crashed along the way.

_So then what can I do to finally end this? The longer this goes on, the more trion we are both going to be using._

His thoughts were quickly interrupted by his own actions. The actions had been decided on by his body instead of his mind, forcing him to realize what was happening.

The last bout of shots had finally reached him, making his Side Effect activate to move him through those shots.

With his body now in a new spin moving towards the shots, he could get a better view of Kurauchi.

He had wanted to move around behind him, but due to the forward spin his actions could look like a frontal attack.

Kazuki must have thought that was the case as hesitance showed he was ready for such a thing. It may not have been a hardened defense, but he was prepared for it.

In his hands was a tube of trion that Toby was sure was some kind of composite shot.

_Crap! Depending on what it is, I could be really screwed here! I can probably move around it, but there's no doubt there's an aspect of Hound in that shot! What can I-..._

With his body now free from the spin and the Hound shots finally being completely gone, he was able to see the area in its entirety.

The tall buildings meant for the Sniper were behind him while the two of them were still within the inner edge of the outer area of the map. Kurauchi had to hold himself in place for a moment to prepare the composite shot and Toby could not stop moving or else he would lose the accumulated acceleration of Headfirst Fall. The area he had left was limited and the distance between the two of them was enough where he would get shot through if he did not move away at this very moment.

So that was what he did.

.

With the distance between Toby and Kurauchi being so small, he activated Headfirst Fall. Multiple sign frames appeared in front of his knee and foot as he began to turn his body.

The accumulated acceleration from his fall increased even more. While not reaching the point of Idāten, it did become hard to fully control his body as he moved forward.

He could see it. The composite shot being fired.

_Crap! What now!?_

In front of him was a tall building behind smaller ones, behind him was now a tracking shot that had another aspect added in, and Kurauchi was already moving again.

_Huh...?_

Wait.

_I can try that..._

Steeling himself for what was to come, he repeatedly opened multiple sign frames to activate many more Headfirst Fall. Once shattering, the sign frames continued to increase his fall as he moved across the rooftops.

"Suzuka, prove yourself here for me!"

"I don't need to prove anything! But what do you need!?"

"Calculations!"

.

Kurauchi was sure this was his win.

Even with his speed and ability to move around, escaping any sort of damage from Salamander would be too much to ask without something having to be given up for it.

If he tried to outrun it then it would mean he would need to use even more trion to create the sign frames that made him speed up.

If he tried to dodge or use a blade to get rid of it then it ran a major risk of getting hit by the explosion that followed.

If he tried to simply block it with a shield then he would lose the accumulated speed from the sign frames.

At any of those points in time Kurauchi would simply fire an all-out attack against him. One that could not be dealt with so easily.

"This is Kurauchi. I have-"

"Headfirst Fall!"

.

The sound of someone howling out brought Kurauchi's attention to the first tall building that was outside of the outer part of the map.

"What is he...?"

After crossing the many roofs leading up to that building, the wolf who had been trying to run from the Salamander took a large leap.

As expected, the Salamander followed suit by curving to chase after the wolf.

Instead of plummeting to the ground or defending against the Salamander, the wolf made a single action.

He fell.

But it was not a fall that would lead him to the ground.

The falling wolf did not face the ground and did not move to the side. Instead...

"He's falling up!?"

The wolf's fall did not start with him. His fall started with the sign frames that appeared in front of his toes or his knees. From there his feet followed with his whole foot being used to step on the side of the building and then finished with his body following behind. The rapid appearance and shattering of the sign frames created an upwards fall for the wolf who seemed to be trying to reach the top of the building.

His speed was a bit lower than before, likely because of the kind of steps he had been taking, but it had still been enough to outrun the Salamander.

Kurauchi knew this would not be enough for the wolf to win. He was certain this would not be enough, yet...

"Hound...!"

He fired more.

He created cubes of trion that left to try and catch the upward falling wolf who tried to reach the top.

At the same time, he moved along the rooftops while keeping a close eye on the building and the lights leading to it.

With the speed he was going at, it would take another second before he reached top of the building.

"What then...?"

Where would that falling wolf go?

If he went onto the rooftop then it could be considered a win for Kurauchi. He would have pushed him back and proven that he could take out that wolf any time he wanted. That would have also been a good outcome, even if it was not the best.

If he tried to circle around the building then it would simply lead to the attacks hitting him or end the same way as the first outcome.

Going to the ground at this point would only seem strange and like a bad idea. He had been trying his best to reach the top, so what point was there in going to the bottom right after?

"But there are no other options left..."

There was.

Kurauchi saw it firsthand.

He saw the action that wolf had decided to take and could only stare at it while preparing another attack.

.

_This is crazy! This is seriously crazy! I mean, I did do something similar with Noah, but this is still not something I'm used to doing! Last time it was because I had something to do! I had to reach up to him again! But this time..._

It was not different.

There was something he had to do and someone he had to reach. Since that was the case, there was no reason to doubt this would work.

"You are seriously a crazy kid! No wonder Hoshi-chan always told us about how fun sports with you are!"

Suzuka's voice reached him as he reached the top of the building.

The calculations, while not as detailed as Mei's, came in and he knew just what to do. How to move his body.

"Headfirst Fall!"

The moment his foot touched the edge of the building, he leaped back.

He was now parallel to the ground with his top facing the sky and his back facing the ground.

The Hound shots and the composite shot followed him. They were getting closer even as his accumulated acceleration moved him forward in the air.

"You better not be wrong about this!"

There was only one chance for this to work.

If it failed, he would take the full brunt of all those shots.

If it succeeded, it would mean victory for him.

_What a cliché. But I guess that's just how it goes for sudden plans like these ones._

He gave a bitter laugh as he looked to the false sky in wonder.

He noted that there were no clouds. Just a clear sky that looked so fun to be around.

"But now it's time to move."

.

Kurauchi saw an arcing form fly up into the clear sky.

It was Toby.

He had pulled herself up from the fall and used that momentum to jump even higher than ever before.

It was all a series of forcible actions.

When looking over earlier, Kurauchi had seen no footholds for Toby to use Headfirst Fall on.

Activating Headfirst Fall in the empty air would only lead to falling.

Even if he could supply the proper direction and shift his position, he could not escape the falling motion.

But that was only without a foothold.

Toby had created a foothold for Headfirst Fall.

He had kicked off many created and shattering Scorpion shards.

"—"

And he fell.

He directed his fall toward one of the many buildings around him and slammed into it.

The rest was simple.

He repeatedly "fell toward" the buildings and used that momentum to jump.

"So he came back..."

His gray form formed an arc as he fell from the clear sky.

He fell toward the end of the next building over where Kurauchi was standing.

Their fight was not yet over. So...

"...Here I go!"

Kurauchi created cubes of trion and moved away.

He had to make sure he showed that he could handle this fight himself.

"Here I go...!"

He made a high-speed dash.

.

Toby saw where he needed to go and fell in that direction.

There was only a few seconds before it happened.

The distance between him and Kurauchi gave enough time for him to fire one last bout of shots before Toby reached him. With that in mind, he fell forward with nothing but victory on his mind.

_First step!_

The cubes were created and the following shots were closing in.

_Second step!_

The distance was almost nonexistent now.

_Third step!_

The last shots had been fired and the following shots were close now.

Moving forward would mean getting hit.

Falling back would mean getting hit.

Moving to the side would mean getting hit.

So what was left?

_Taking a hit!_

Toby started to activate Headfirst Fall. The sign frame started to form in front of him.

He saw Kurauchi prepare to move away as best he could. His body shifted to the side where he was likely to simply fall to the ground and off the building.

_I won't let you escape!_

Before the sign frame could fully form, he canceled the Trigger activation, causing the sign frame to shatter as he passed over it.

Upon shattering, the backlash of the acceleration hit him from behind, pushing him forward while also doing some damage to his legs.

Instead of focusing on the damage done, he created two Scorpion blades in each hand and used the forced push to finally reach Kurauchi.

"-!"

"!?"

In a quick and swift motion, his blades cut off Kurauchi's right arm.

"One!"

The following shots that had been going after him had finally caught up.

Since their target was directly in front of them, they continued forward.

They overlooked Kurauchi in order to reach their target and...

"!"

They collided with the one who had fired them.

.

An explosion went off as the composite shot collided with Kurauchi.

He could only stare down with wide eyes as the Hound shots followed along, hitting some of his remaining body.

Lines of trion ran along his body as he saw his lower body move towards the ground, his right arm being flung in the way of the remaining hounds, and his left arm being pierced through by his own shots as well.

Everything he had done to win had been brought back around to be used against him and create an opening.

"Two!"

As if to solidify his loss, he saw the wolf now in front of him.

Unlike the times before, he could not feel his chest anymore and realized his head had been severed from that body as well.

**Bail Out**

* * *

Kurauchi looked to the lights above his head as he registered what had just happened.

He silently got up before moving over to where Kittaka was. The looking she was giving him was a questioning one, but he wavered her off before speaking up.

"Sorry about that. I lost."

"It's fine. Now we accomplished two things because of you."

"That's right," he nodded in agreement. "We made Awdry use a good amount of trion as well as..."

His pause had not been for any sort of effect. Rather, it was a way for him to organize his thoughts on what had just occurred.

"We know just how dangerous Awdry is now. Watch out for his speed and know that distance means little to him now. You would need to cover the entire area in an attack to get him or somehow get him by surprise. The amount of pressure you need to put on him has increased."

"I see. Then we will stick to our plan. Kasio, you ready?"

"Yes!"

Kurauchi gave another nod.

It was good that they understood what exactly the danger was at now.

It was not the same as before and new measures would need to be take against it, but it was still manageable for them.

"Now then, let's see how the rest of them do here."

* * *

Toby Awdry saw the confirmation of the fight in the appearance of his opponent having to Bail Out.

He took a breath and wiped his brow.

He made sure that damage was minimal on him, but...

"Oh?"

For some reason, the previous impact had managed to get a hit on him and prevent him from moving too much. Stopping the leaking trion was the priority for the moment.

Thus, he used a shield to cover it up and stop the leaking. With him using Shield it meant that Headfirst Fall would not be usable for the moment.

Then he looked to the destruction in the distance.

"...We can do it."

They could keep up with the top tiers.

Of course, the Ōji Squad Shooter could not use support from others at the moment. This victory was an imperfect victory, just like some of their previous ones that had also been similar in style. However...

"We know what that means now."

They could not view that as a victory. They had to look at it differently:

"We can do it."

He could not see anyone else appearing or moving around him.

It did not seem they had decided to withdraw yet, but they must have thought it best to keep a distance. So...

"We can already win when the conditions are right. And we should eventually be within reach."

Toby looked up into the clear and false sky.

He spoke into that vast blue.

"I hope that 'eventually' is sooner rather than later."

He lowered his gaze to the Radar that displayed anyone not wearing Bagworm, but that was not saying much at the moment.

He knew that he would be given a rest period by his team. Trion bodies prevented fatigue from entering into the mix, but moving to another fight after the one he just had would cause more chaos than anything. And...

_...What are the others doing? Better be something good._

They had been trying to set everything they needed up while he fought, but...

"Will they be found out? Suzume should be fine, but I'm really worried about Hoshi and Take here. They need some help at times..."


	96. Suzumebachi Misaki: Part 5

["The first point of the match goes to Kotowari Squad's mutt and the first loss goes to Ōji Squad's Kazuki. Through very...unconventional methods this fight has been decided. Now it will be up to everyone else to figure out what to do now."]

"[Ōji Squad has it tough here since they were likely counting on Kurauchi to win that fight.]"

"[They took Toby too lightly. Well, not really, but they did not understand what he could actually do. We usually see him at a disadvantage against those kinds of strong Shooters, but he also works best when he is having fun. He enjoys a challenge and those kinds of disadvantages are a real challenge. So it's safe to say he won because he was having fun because of his opponent who just to happen to be a strong Shooter.]"

"[Yoneya-senpai, that may have gone over some heads here.]"

The two commentating Combatants looked down to see some of the audience looking at each other in confusion.

Unfazed by the comment, Lukas continued his own commentary.

"[Kazuki is no slouch though, so it does bring up the question as to how he wasn't able to really tell how the mutt would move here.]"

"[I guess someone who doesn't do much exercising who know.]"

A clear tick could be seen in Lukas' eye behind his glasses as Yoneya shook his head with a shrug.

He let out a sigh while looking back to the match in front of them.

"[Moving your body the way Toby was doing takes a lot of practice. Disregarding his Side Effect, he built up a good and effective way to move his body. If he didn't then most of us would have broken bones whenever he comes at us.]"

The famous attack that only Toby had been able to produce.

Most people who knew of the boy were aware of it and dreaded the day it would reach them. From behind, the sides, or even directly in front of them, it did not matter when he had his target set.

Lukas himself had been subject to one of the first times it happened and had in fact broken an arm due to it getting messed up.

At the time it had seemed like it would be a simple high speed crash but the end result had been enough for the glasses-boy to truly dislike the Attacker.

"[I can't really say what would happen if he decided to take things seriously from the start or if he did not take the risks there, but I think everything because a coin toss the longer that fight went on. Both of them were using up trion, but Toby was not using it effectively, so he was actually in a worse position. He actually still is. If he did not waste time at the start then it would mean he would have more trion, assuring things went the same as they did here.]"

But...

"[Even if that is the case, he just scored a major win for his squad.]"

"[From what we can see here and what we know about the others, that is true. Besides Kazuki, there are only three or so people in this fight who would be able to keep that mutt in place long enough to attack him.]"

"[That is not what Yoneya-senpai meant.]"

Lukas let out a sigh while pushing up his glasses.

"[Yeah, I know. This win...it has more meaning than just a simple point or getting rid of an opponent.]"

.

"[With someone like Kazuki taken out of the fight by the mutt, it put everyone else on edge and give Kotowari Squad a feeling that they can win.]"

"[As long as they don't go passed a certain point and maintain their focus, they should be fine.]"

Wakamura nodded at the words he was hearing.

Having fought directly with Kotowari Squad he was aware of what this meant for Kotowari Squad.

_If they get a win then it affects the whole team. If they get a loss, they attack each other relentlessly. If something surprises them...well that actually hit everyone in general._

They were no dark horses like the squad he had heard about coming from Tamakoma, but they were also not a squad someone thought about as "strong" after their captain had left. It took fighting them to understand why that was now a wrong impression of them.

Continuing through wins and losses was to be expected from anyone, it was simply how people tend to be. There were exceptions to this, yet they were not as plentiful as the majority who're like that.

Kotowari Squad had been the type to continue on after those sorts of things and never give an inch afterwards.

_I may be giving them a bit too much credit, but it's hard to deny them when you see something like this. What's more..._

Looking to the side he saw...

"Yay! Nice job, Toby!"

He saw a fan cheering for the squad she wanted to win.

Just from a glance he could tell that Asano was in a similar position as him. Neither wanted the cheering to go on, but neither one was ready to confront the girl either.

So instead of stopping her they tried to gain her attention.

"Kōchō, what did you think of that fight? As a Shooter that is."

It seemed to work well enough with the girl turning to him.

He sighed the moment she put her arms down and glanced at the screen.

"Well I'm clearly excited for Toby and Kotowari Squad. But I'm also a bad choice to answer that kind of thing. Compared to Kurauchi-san and Asana-san there, I'm really weak. They both outrank me in stats, experience and general abilities. The most I can do is flap my wings how I want and hope to hit something."

"That's fine. Your squad is generally different from the rest of ours, so no need to beat yourself up over it."

"That's not what I was doing..." It was her turn to sigh. "But if I had to say something about it... For all intents and purposes, Kurauchi-san should have won that. Even with that Trigger Toby was using to run like that, it should have been his loss."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because that Trigger is new to Toby and Kurauchi-san is not the type to be taken down by something new like that."

That was true for most of the stronger or calculative agents in Border. Simply applying something new did not necessarily mean it would result in a win.

If something that simple was enough to win then there would likely be a lot of us who would try it.

Something new took time to master, it would be something others would need to work around or with, there would be new findings with it, and it was highly likely to mess up the user if they are not familiar with it or use a different style. It was just too much for someone to win with something so new so suddenly.

But that brought up a new question that needed answering.

"How did he win with something so new?"

This time it was Asano who decided to answer his question.

"That would be because of his Side Effect and lack of self preservation."

"Asano-san has it right. ...Hey, do you mind if I change how I address you? We're having a nice conversion and are watching this match for the people we like, so it feels off when I talk to you so formally."

The younger girl shrugged her shoulders as if it did not matter. Although there was an underlining something that showed in her furrowed brows.

"Right then! Like I was saying, Asanocchi got it right on the mark. That is why I'm only a bit surprised by the outcome."

"Toby's Side Effect would let him move through that kind of speed, his mind would have enough time to keep up since he doesn't need to focus so much on that speed or his body, and he naturally has a good idea on how to move his body. It's like those guys up there had said."

"And the other reason?"

This time both girls answered at the same time.

"Simple. Would you think to vertically run up a building and throw yourself off of it?"

"Ah... Point taken."

* * *

_Toby-kun won! He must be so happy right now!_

"Hey Take, can I go fight someone else!?"

"I already said no, you damn mutt."

"C'moooooooon! I'm pumped now after that and I wanna go beat someone else up!"

Hoshi smiled at the banter coming from her teammates.

She had used the time given to her by Toby to move through the map's large buildings to reach her destination.

As an Attacker mostly and a support Shooter in needed, she would have no place in the Sniper ruled area of the tall buildings. Dedicated Shooters and Gunners may have a better time within the area, but it was no place for someone to close quarters oriented like her.

She was nothing more than open prey while moving through the buildings. At least until something happened...

"Hoshi-chan, three buildings away from where you are. I can honestly see Yukari-chan over there and moving towards the center of the map."

"This means Suzuka-san was correct then."

"Nya ha ha! Of course I was! Oh, but I can't take all of the credit. I did have to run some things through the computer. It sucks, but I really can't do much without that program. Another downside is how it makes me get sad about my JK-ness!"

"We can honestly do without that knowledge..."

She had not noticed the way both older girls spoke with some bitterness in their tones until now.

The way they held themselves usually made it seem as if they always went at their own pace and stopped for no one. To hear the kind of tone from them...

_Is something the matter? Should I ask them or simply wait until the time is right?_

When would that be?

It did not seem that these small tone changes were affecting the battle right now, but it would likely be gripping at Hoshi until she figured out if the two girls were fine or not.

_I suppose I should focus though. I am unsure if Obishima-san has noticed me, but there is still sniper fire to worry about here. Just because Suzume-senpai has not noticed any Snipers does not mean they are not there._

The noise from the two older girls went silent for a moment.

"-"

That moment was enough for her to realize the danger she was now in.

.

A fast shot ran between the tall buildings lining the middle part of the map.

The target had been the Kotowari Squad support Attacker who was running somewhere.

Shingai was certain that her attack would reach her target. Even without her Side Effect her training had built her up to the point of being able to fire a shot without worrying about missing.

Firing a gun was different from firing an arrow by a bit, yet there were fundamentally the same in her eyes. All that was lacking was pulling back the string on the bow to fire the arrow.

Aiming was actually better when using a gun due to their scopes. It had been something she was grateful for as well as found as a hindrance during times.

With the speed and agility of a beast running through the forest, she had caught up to the running girl without being spotted. The time used to reach that point had been spent on planning as well as focusing on the ongoing fight a ways away.

_Moving around here really does remind me of moving through the forest or underground through those caves. It may even be better since I am able to look through these buildings as opposed to the trees that I am unable to see through._

Like a gun and a bow and arrow, moving through a city and moving through a forest were fundamentally the same in her eyes.

And just like those similarities...

_Catching a target should be the same._

Lock onto the target, restrict their movements, prevent as many outside interference as possible, and shoot the target dead before they could react. It was the pattern of hunting that she had found relaxing once in the middle of it.

This target was less skilled as the others around her who would fire attacks back, use their Side Effects to dodge and then counter, or simply not be in the correct area knowing they were at a disadvantage. Compared to those ones, this target was just a small animal who was trying to survive as best as she could.

_My apologies, but…_

"What!?"

.

Hoshi's eyes widened as a shield appeared to her right before taking a hit from a distance.

She had wanted to ask what was happening seeing as how she had not been the one to defend, but a voice came through before she could.

"Don't worry, Hoshi-chan. That was honestly me who put up the shield. Sorry but we sort of used you as bait."

"A-ah! That is fine. I was just surprised but it is all. Feel free to use me as bait all you need."

"...I am honestly starting to feel bad about it."

"...I honestly feel the same."

"Suzuka-san, I will honestly need to have some words with you after this match."

Hoshi could hear a sigh come through from Suzume.

_It must be tough keeping that up._

She gave a pity smile to no one in particular.

"Anyways. I honestly wanted to see if anyone would attack. I was able to see in the direction the shot came from, but that's all. Both Shingai and Tono-kun could have honestly been the one to shoot that. If it was the former then it may be because she thought she could take you out. If it's the latter then it could be in retaliation for going after Yukari-chan."

If it had been Shingai then it would be more difficult given her ability to move around easily through places like these. The logs they had gotten to see before the match proved just how well she was able to maneuver around areas at amazing speeds.

If it had been Tonooka then moving closer to Obishima may force him to fire more to provide support to her. The fact he tended to do things on his own like the rest of her squad did was not overlooked. A change that he would only attack again when the time was right was highly likely.

Both options did not seem like the best considering her lack of experience on the battlefield. These were the top tier of B-Rank Squads and they would act accordingly with well thought plans and quick decisions.

_Ah... I am a bit afraid since my own squad tends to disregard those sorts of things when their first plan goes awry_.

It was the simple and easy way they went about doing this that made her worry.

That did not mean it was to be looked over as a surgery though given that they had managed to reach the top tier of B-Ranks as well. It only meant one thing for her.

"Suzume-senpai, please use me as you wish so that we may win some points. Losing any after Toby-kun went through that trouble... Well it would put a bad feeling in the chest. And I most certainly like pushing my chest out for others to view favorably!"

There was complete silence.

Even the two older girls were unable to say anything.

Fearing that she may have said something wrong, Hoshi began to apologize. Instead of getting a chance to do so...

**JK** : "Um, sorry, I can't actually bring myself to say something out loud so this is all I can do."

**Honest Sister:** "I know what you mean... Hey, um, Hoshi-chan?"

"Yes?"

**Honest Sister:** "Did you honestly mean what you said? That I could use you however I want?"

Was there something to what she had said?

The words had come out in the spur of the moment and her feelings coming up, but she did not think she had said it in a way that would confuse others. That did not mean she would not answer her upperclassman who was willing to take her offer seriously.

"Of course! You may use me as you wish! Besides wanting to hold my chest out proudly, I do wish to be used however I can be used so that others can be happy with the result. Even if it is admittedly a bit embarrassing, I would allow for any possible movement or position so that everyone can be happy in the end."

Another silence fell upon them as she reached the nearest building to her.

Throughout their conversation she had been keeping track of where she was and where she was going.

Suzume had said that Obishima was three buildings away. With that information given to her, she had begun running in the right direction while staying close to the buildings so as not to be spotted by a sniper again.

Now that she had run that distance, she was able to see Obishima clearly.

_I can fire an attack myself and then go in for an up-close confrontation, but I am only to support Suzume-senpai as she fires her shots. It is best to wait for her to respond before doing anything that could risk losing a point._

The trouble was that there had not been a response.

The two older girls had remained silent and said nothing in return to declaration.

_Oh no! Have I said something wrong again!?_

She couldn't let Obshima get away, but she had done something that prevented her allies from responding to her.

"A-ah...? Hello? Um, I apologize if I have said anything wrong. If it is not too much, may I get some commands as to what I should do here?"

A voice came through this time. It was from the older girls and was instead from her captain.

"What are you guys doing? Senpai, stop asking ridiculous things and Suzuka-san, please focus on supporting us properly. You three are in charge of the sniper front while I am busy over here and Toby is on his rest period."

**Honest Sister:** "Right! Hoshi-chan, you are nothing greater than a wonderful goddess that even I can't honestly taint! I will do as you want and use you all I want, but know that you will be the purest things ever seen and not a single piece of skin will have a blemish on it!"

**JK** : "The amount of editing that will require is going to be amazing! Let me help out with that! I really want to see how that turns out!"

**Lobo:** "Hey, Idiot Girl #1 and Idiot Girl #2, pay attention and help Hoshi out! You can go crazy after the match!"

_Maybe I have not said anything wrong then...?_

The response she had been waiting for finally arrived via a voice.

"Alright! Hoshi-chan! Honesty follow my lead here! I will defend you as much as possible while attacking as much as possible. Don't worry about defending and leave it all up to your big sister. Just keep attacking and don't let up until you have honestly taken some points from the others."

"I'll provide as much support as I can manage. The program is still on cooldown, but even I can manage more than your standard Operator! I'll show you what the Yagura Branch can do!"

.

Suzume gave a bitter laugh as she stood on top of a tall building.

From her position she could see the running Obishima, the trailing Hoshi and...

Shingai must be in a hurry after having her shot blocked like that.

It was the pride of a huntress that prevented her from backing out now.

That was how she had been similar to Suzume. But unlike the pride of a huntress, Suzume showed the pride of an artist.

When drawing doujinshi, there was never a moment of giving up and all-nighters were pulled whenever they were needed. When performing for others or for herself, each step gradually got better, her voice began to rise up, and the thoughts and feelings of her audience always came with her. When fighting for her squad, she would put up with anything for them to win.

This pride had been the reason she found herself in this particular situation.

_I honestly said all that, but what am I really supposed to do here? I saw something like that before and now I can't get it out of my head... The situations are different and I need to be ready for everyone, but it's really becoming hard for me to not honestly just get this all out at once._

She had very recently made a mistake by seeing something that continued to follow her through the match.

Sounding normal for her teammates was all she could think doing to make sure they did not worry too much.

If another mistake came up because of her while Hoshi was under the impression that she could rely on her then it may lead to something new and horrible for her.

Suzume gave another bitter laugh as she thought about her situation.

_How selfish can I honestly be for only thinking about myself during this match? Toby went through that trouble to take out Kurauchi-san and Hoshi-chan is putting a lot of faith in me. Takeshi is also letting Suzuka-san help me out instead of helping him like we had planned._

The younger ones had noticed her behavior.

There was no doubt that they were doing everything they could because they noticed the way she was acting at the moment.

Instead of looking past that and forcing her to move with them, they were bringing themselves to her so that she could keep up with them. Each one was doing something to lessen the burden she had during this match while not forcing anything out of her. The burden she had taken up before the match was not something they were trying to get rid of and instead were trying to help her through.

Under normal circumstances she would have told them off and began a scolding session. But now was not the time for that.

She was the one being helped by the ones she had already decided were her own younger siblings.

She was not doing well enough to where they could rely on her and were telling her to rely on them instead.

She was forcing them to do things differently to the way they normally did things.

It was humiliating.

But it was not the first time it had happened.

* * *

As the view on the screen changed and the sight of a girl could be seen, Arashiyama asked Satori a question.

"Are you not going to watch?"

He felt the situation was rather odd since he knew the situation the girl was dealing with.

_...If Misaki can't fight like she normally does..._

She would get taken out or one of her teammates would get taken out.

He felt a bad feeling in the bottom of his gut.

"She will be fine," said Satori as he looked up from his phone.

Arashiyama turned toward him and saw Satori's eyebrows raised as he looked to the screen. His expression belied his words, so it seemed he had been speaking to reassure himself.

"She will be fine. Her team and I believe she will, so it's better that you do too, Arashiyama-san."

"But..."

"Suzu won't lose easily."

The instant Satori said that, he closed his mouth and frowned. Arashiyama looked over at the boy's phone.

"That's..."

The screen showed some comments from a recent event. They did not mean much, but the meaning was clearly there.

However...

"She will be fine," said Satori without looking at his screen. "I wouldn't expect any of you to know, but Suzu has only ever felt truly low once."

"When? And for what?"

While looking at the screen, Satori gave the answer.

"A few years ago and for something important. ...That was the only time."

So...

"As long as she has someone there with her, she will be fine."

* * *

As Suzume waited and watched for her moment, she thought.

_...This is terrible. I am being dumb._

These were good opponents. Not many people could fight opponents like these often.

_They are such wonderful opponents,_ she thought. _There are boys, so it honestly has a sensual side too, but since there are also girls it is...um... What do you call it? Let's see... Oh, well. I forgot. But this is fine. I..._

It was there.

The reasons she had forgotten about.

_I make my own rules._

_...But this is honestly wonderful._

Their opponents could keep with them, so they would need to be in top shape.

From what she knew about the fight Toby had just gone through, their opponents kept up with them as well. They would forcibly keep up since this was no longer a low tier match.

_...This could be fun._

She did not feel like they were being forced higher. After all, they were supposed to run away and have their opponents chase after them. There was beauty in running away so they could not be caught.

At the moment, she realized what she had been feeling.

She had messed up and seen something terrible during the early morning. It had shaken her up and made her realize her own behavior.

She felt as if speaking out would expose her feelings and regrets to the outside world.

It felt terrible.

But it was not the time to feel anything of the sort.

"—!"

She could not simply dance everything out. She had told Narasaka she would not. This was not something she could do.

_But,_ she thought. _That should not honestly be all for me to do._

There was a time some time ago when she had truly felt low.

_...Would there even be a dance that could reach that point?_

There had been a few times when she had tried to reach that point again, but she had never been able to reach that truly defenseless state a second time. No matter how far she took a dance, she could not catch up to that instant in the past.

Even what Yuki had done to them was nowhere near that.

She recalled what she had been exposing back then.

She recalled the past.

_...That was..._

She thought about what had once happened.

_...That was what made me realize who was really important to me._

She remembered.

* * *

"It seems Mitsu got a serious injury in an accident during that time. It was around the time Yuki-san had been looking for a member for Tsukiko Squad and I had directed him to Suzu. It ended up well enough given that Tsukiko Squad had gotten another member, but... It's also a reminder that I had basically sent someone else to go take care of her."

Over the screen and small noise around them, Arashiyama listened to Satori.

"For a while, she had stopped coming to class. She stayed in her home for a long time and she had never said anything."

"Misaki did?"

"Yeah. Toward the end, she stopped being conscious of what was going on around her. At the time, Seihana-san was away to watch over Mitsu and Suzu didn't want to go to her. When we came to see her, she would refuse to come out, so we wondered what was going to happen."

Satori's words spilled from his mouth. His hands quickly becoming fists.

"But it was Yuki-san who had helped her out."

* * *

_That's right. I messed up that time too. That hurt a lot. And this time..._

This time it did not hurt as much.

It may have been rude of her to think like that, but what had happened was not her fault.

The start of it was because of what someone else did and she had just been there at the wrong time.

_Yuki-san just wanted to tell me that Mei-san couldn't help us today. It was honestly not my fault that I had to be there._

Since she was not at fault, she did not need to feel down again. She did not need this feeling that was nowhere near what she had felt some time ago.

"Right. It's time to actually focus on this match. I can't honestly look out for those guys if I am being the one looked after. Heh heh heh. Maybe I can give them a break. Yes, I will give them a one panel break each so that they can be happy with the result."

Anything more than a single panel would have given them the idea that she was feeling bad about herself. One panel was enough and they would be happy with it.

If they complained about it then she would not give them even that one panel. It was how she was and how she made her rules.

The time from the early morning was hard, but that was because she was the type to work using her emotions. Thoughts that interrupted that needed to be purified.

_Yes, they need to be purified in an R18 way! After this match, I will honestly purify my bad thoughts using Toby and Noah-kun in a doujinshi! And since he was having so much fun with that dog, I will also throw in Kura-san too! Perfect! Sandwiches are perfect!_

For the time being the thoughts would stay, but they would not be a focus. They were moved to the side as she brought up her Lightning.

Looking through the scope of the Trigger, she could see that Hoshi was ready to attack and that Obishima had not noticed her yet.

Instead of taking a shot, she moved her hand to the top of her chest as she deactivated her Bagworm.

"It's time I follow up on my promise here. I need to honestly work with Hoshi-chan while keeping the proper look of a Sniper. And to do that..."

Living her Lightning again, she took her aim and fired immediately.

"I will honestly be playing some games here."

.

Hoshi finally saw her chance.

Obishima had been cautiously moving through the tall buildings while trying to escape. Her movements were shallow and easy to figure out, but that was likely because they were also easy to chance at a moment's notice.

There had been little opening for her to attack without Suzume helping her, so she had to wait it out.

Then it finally came.

"!?"

A sniper shot had come from the side to hit Obishima. The speed of the shot was a giveaway that it had been Lightning that had been fired.

"Hoshi-chan, sorry it took me so long to get into this. Go in and don't worry about anything else. I will honestly make sure you can't be touched by sniper fire."

She wanted to thank her upperclassman, but there was no time to do so.

She ran forward when she saw Obishima move to the side to dodge the shot.

With her feet now barely touching the ground, her balance would be slightly off. It would make it easier for her to attack and harder for Obishima to dodge or properly block.

She drew her blade as she ran.

Once she was within range, she moved her Kōgetsu through the air.

Because of their positioning, she would still have to push through some defense to reach Obishima's body. If she swung going to the front then she would be using her forward force to attack. If she swung from the back then she would make it awkward for Obishima to block, but that also forced her to attack using a backhand swing instead of a frontal swing. So she made her choice as quickly as possible.

_I will make it a diagonal-backhand swing!_

If the front would require more force and the back would require a backhand swing then it was best to use the one that made it easier for her.

She had never put too much force behind any sort of attack due to her nature, so this was what she could do while staying true to herself.

Using a diagonal swing starting from her feet to her head meant that Obishima would need to find an accurate position to block. That became more difficult when the swing was also coming from the back, where she was already in a terrible position.

It was a simple yet effective way to attack.

Even if it would not get her a point, it would be the starting point for that point she would get.

_No... Suzume-senpai had created the starting point. I am continuing from that point and moving forward._

With her body already leaning forward, there was little chance that she could even stop her swing anymore.

.

Obishima watched with wide eyes as the opposing blade got closer to her.

She had expected a sniper attack, but not the one from the blade getting closer to her.

Because of her dodging the sniper fire, she had been put slightly off balance in order to not take a direct hit from it.

With her right foot still on the verge of touching the round, she had to balance on her left foot and leg while now dealing with the girl who had rushed at her from behind a building.

"I was hoping to wait a bit longer, but..."

The sound of her teammate came through as another shot could be seen coming from the side.

Tonooka had fired a shot to protect her and force her opponent to back away.

From what she could see, there was no chance of the other girl backing away. Her swing was already in full motion and her forward leaning body would prevent her from making any sudden stops.

Even when she had accidentally forced her teammate into action, he had taken the right shot to win them a point.

"-"

The other girl made no motion to try and defend against the shot. She looked like she had not even registered that it was coming at her at all.

_Is she going to take the shot?_

Before it could reach her, a shield appeared right where the shot had been fired.

_Where!?_

The girl could not have been the one to create the shot given her tunnel vision expression.

That was when she heard the voice of their Operator come though.

"Someone else has appeared on the map!"

She wanted to see where, but now she had to focus on righting herself enough to not get taken out by the oncoming blade.

_I..._

With no way to force herself to balance on one foot or to properly block the attack, Obishima made a sudden movement.

She spun.

"Here!"

Instead of trying to touch the ground with body feet, she moved her right foot below herself while turning her body.

She had thought about falling to the ground, but the opposing Kōgetsu was moving diagonally, so she would only end up getting cut. It would have been too deep though, so it was a bad idea to even try.

By putting herself in a spin, she could move her body in the same direction as the moving blade.

It was likely that she would still get cut, but it would be a shallow one that would lead to nothing more than a bit of trion leakage.

With her plan put into action, she continued it.

_I won't make it! It will still be a deep cut even from here!_

Stealing herself, she moved her hand down to the blade at her side.

Pulling out the blade would take too long and she was sure she could not block even if she wanted to.

So instead of doing either of those, she simply kept it in it's holder.

While still in it's holder she slammed the end of it into the ground and put as much force as she could.

_Like that...! Keep it up like that and you can move away...!_

The force of the hit to the ground had thrown her up a bit. The force of the throw added other spin and sent her whole body flying to the side.

Not wanting to lose her Trigger, she held on tight to it as she went into the sky before crashing and rolling on the ground.

She jumped up from the roll and pulled out her Kōgetsu.

"That was close..."

"Ah! That was truly amazing!"

.

The other girl faced forward with wide eyes and a stargazed expression.

Obishima blinked for a moment. Her opponent had just complimented her.

_I should return the gesture. ...Right?_

Nodding in her mind, she spoke up to address the girl.

"Th-thank you. That was a really nice swing..."

That seemed to be enough since the other girl gave a surprised look before smiling.

Taking this time to look at her Radar, she could see where the previously mentioned person was. The direction that person was in...

_I was right. That was where that shot had come from._

That meant there was a Sniper who was not trying to hide where they were. The answer to who it was was obvious to anyone who paid attention to who was fighting in this match.

"A-ah... Um..."

Hearing the other speak up again, Obishima looked forward, expecting another attack to come.

She seemed to be fidgeting nervously, but that did not mean she would let her guard down in the middle of a fight.

"I know that it is not proper etiquette during a fight, but..."

Before she could finish, two shots had been fired.

Obishima could see the one coming from a different angle, but the same general direction as the one previously fired on her.

The second one had likely come from Tonooka again since it was a direct headshot that would have taken out the girl if not for the shield that had appeared right next to her head.

She moved out of the way again from the first shot, but the other girl did not even blink as the shield appeared.

She was being defended while not putting up any defenses.

She began to open her mouth again, this time was something that Obishima felt like she could not ignore.

"Kotowari Squad's Newest Member and Support Taiyōko Hoshi! Moving forward!"

She had just introduced herself in the middle of a fight and prepared to attack.

She had never seen anything like that done in real life, but now that she had, it felt wrong not to respond in kind.

The name of each Kotowari Squad member had been given to them all before after doing the research, so she knew who this girl was by name. Likewise, they should have known who she was from their own records. They knew each other by name, but nothing more.

_But she still introduced herself to me..._

As much as she knew she would get in trouble for it later on, Obishima opened her mouth as she moved forward to meet the girl halfway.

"Yuba Squad's Youngest Member Obishima Yukari! Thank you for this opportunity!"


	97. Senzai Squad

"So another fight broke out."

Senshi listened to what Shingai was saying to all of Senzai Squad.

He had managed to make it out of the tall buildings without being seen by an opposing Sniper.

With only a limited number of places to go, he had chosen to move to the inner part of the map. The inner plaza where Attackers were at their best.

"It seems Taiyōko and Obishima are fighting each other while their respective Snipers are providing support. Besides my initial shot, I have not fired any other one, but I do think at least the Kotowari Squad members are wary of my presence."

"…"

"What would you like for me to do here?"

They both knew she was only asking out of courtesy.

"Hunting is your territory. I'll leave the decision up to you. I'm at the inner plaza, so it's up to you on what you should do."

"Understood. In that case, I will stay here and try to earn us some points."

"What about me!? Who should I go with!?"

That was a good enough question to make Senshi stop for a moment and think about it.

But the reason he had stopped was not for that but instead because of something else. Something that was already towards his face and chest.

.

A laser-like beam tore through the air from the right and the left of the open plaza. Each one seemed to have speed that rivaled a speeding car while the power was that of Asteroid instead of the weaker ones like Hound or Viper.

There were not trees or stalls to get in the way of the beams and nothing that could hide them or the heated noise that came from them.

Putting up a defense was never an option when it came to the beams. A Shield, even if concentrated, would be worn down in no time and Escudo would have a hole torn into it in a matter of moments.

Even while not having experience fighting against the attack, Senshi knew well that it was best to dodge the attack or counterattack instead of defend against it. That was why it was not strange when he disappeared with a sudden sound and a flash.

When his feet touched the ground again after his teleport the heated sound could be heard moving again. This time the attacks from the left and the right moved along a different line that went side-to-side instead of directly forward.

With the laser beam blade moving to cut through everything else to reach him, Senshi placed a blue plate on the ground and multiple into the air.

Stepping on the blue plate on the ground sent him into the air. The heated noise followed.

The set path of the blue plate in the air sent him higher and higher into the air, the heated noise following the whole time.

Each time he had finished bouncing up because of Grasshopper the blue plates would begin to fade away before being shattered by the heated noise of the left and right laser-like beams. Blue shards scattered in the air as the warrior climbed higher.

Once he had reached the peak of the blues plates he turned his attention towards the ground. A sudden sound could be heard in the air as Senshi disappeared again, this time touching the ground a moment later.

This was the chance he would take.

Even if those beams tore through everything and moved every whichaway, it still took them time to move and correct their movement. With them being so high in the air it would give him a few seconds to move away and towards the locations of where they were coming from.

"!?"

The left and right beams continued to hang in the air for a moment before disappearing altogether.

To take their place, another heated noise came from directly ahead. The noise was created by another beam that was on a direct course to Senshi.

.

Takeshi fixed his scarf as he sat on the ground near the outer area of the main plaza. Around him were the tall buildings of the middle area of the map, glass and reflections showing multiple angles.

From where he sat he could see five major vantage points. The first three were of the main plaza's center, far right side and far left side. The last two were of the inner part of the middle area of the map.

These points showed him where he could fire, but at a cost. These major vintage points were near the edge of one of the tall buildings, meaning he could not properly see the other side of the building. It was a major blind spot that he would have to deal with if he continued this fight.

Some of the trion orbs created for his specialized firing had been spread out around the border between the main plaza and the tall buildings. Controlling the ones that were farther away was difficult, but they were not meant to be moved in the first place, so it seemed fine to him.

His attack had worked well enough with Senshi having to face a head-on collision with one of his beams.

The left and right beams had been a way to confuse the opponent so that they would not think about where Takeshi could be attacking and would focus more on the actual attack instead. From there it would be easy to determine how he would move and control one of the other trion orbs to attack.

_I'm spreading myself kind of thin here... The more I make and fire the more trion I have to use up. Even so..._

He could not face anyone head-on anymore.

Attacking like this was the only way he would be able to keep up with the top tier agents.

Unlike his teammates, he did not have the fighting abilities to get closer, have the defensive abilities to always be protected, or have the ability to adapt well to the battlefield or the opponents. Strategy was his only ability, but even that seemed to be lacking when compared to the others on the battlefield.

He lifted his scarf to cover his mouth as he looked back to the reflection of the center of the main plaza.

_I'm not the weakest here, but I tend to go after the strong ones for some reason._

It would have been nice to take out Senshi here while he could and it would have been nice if it was Ōji who was taken out instead. Kurauchi had been taken out by Toby, but he was not the only capable one on Ōji Squad and most certainly not the only capable fighter in this match.

_Yuba-san, Tonooka-senpai, Ōji-san, Shingai-san, and Senzai-san here. Each squad has two major players with their third being someone any of us can handle. Ōji Squad has one taken out, so that leaves one more. Suzume-senpai and Hoshi are keeping one of Yuba Squad's in place and I have one of Senzai Squad's in place here. So all we need to do is..._

Takeshi's thoughts stopped.

The reason for this was simple: something completely strange happened.

.

The attack he had fired had missed in the most strange of ways.

The left and right beams were meant to determine how Senshi would move and then he would respond accordingly to that. That had been why he fired the beam from directly in front of Senshi once he landed from his teleport.

What he had not expected was for Senshi to fall to the ground and begin rolling.

What was strange was the way it happened.

It had not been a simple tuck and roll that people would take to move out of the way. If that had been the case then Takeshi would be able to correct his aim, even if it would take a moment. This type of fall was as if he had tripped on something then could not regain his balance and began to spin.

His expression was that of someone who found nothing to be wrong, but he did not react in a way like he had done it on purpose. It seemed to be an accident that had just so happened to move him away from the oncoming beam right before it would hit him.

A strange and unprepared for accident meant that Takeshi could not correct his aim, so the beam with a heated noise tore through empty air before crashing into and destroying a tree.

_What was that...!?_

He knew the answer, but he did not want to believe it.

Senzai Squad was known for the two strange Side Effects it had on it's captain and Sniper. The captain had been known for his incredibly bad luck while their Sniper had been known for her incredibly good luck. Determining how those would affect something like a fight was nearly impossible due to the sheer fact that everything became random when around them. All anyone could know was that something bad would happen near Senshi and something good would happen around Shingai.

Normally, tripping, falling, and being sent rolling along the ground would most certainly be considered "bad", but Takeshi witnessed firsthand how it could be changed to "good" as he stopped his attack on the tree.

Another way it could be viewed as "good" was the way it had placed it outside of the view of the reflections that Takeshi was looking at.

To finish the reasoning for why something this "bad" could be considered "good", it did what would be considered "terrible" for any combatant in a multiple team match - it brought the fighters to a single point.

The way he had done so was by forcing the two remaining Ōji Squad members to round the corner of the building in front him and the Senzai Captain appearing from behind the building he was using for the reflection.

"Sensen and Take spotted!"

"Oh, this really is my bad luck isn't it?"

"..."

Takeshi said nothing as he removed his Bagworm and stood up.

Ōji and Kashio were coming from the left and Senshi was coming from the right. The irony of this pincer attack was not lost on him as he moved to the right.

With his position being on the edge of the building he managed to round the corner and perform a quick Teleport toward the main plaza.

The moment he landed from the teleport he saw multiple shots moving towards his direction.

Yet more irony that he felt was deserved at this point.

In retaliation to the shots, he fired using one of the trion orbs placed beforehand. It came from nearby and horizontally collided and tore through the shots fired with a heated noise.

_How should I do this...?_

Using the trion orbs placed beforehand would use up the trion faster and they were harder to control, but they also cover multiple angles that his opponents did not know about.

Using new trion orbs created near him were easy to control and the trion management could be fixed just as easily, but the attacks from them would be obvious to his opponents.

Both options were good in their own way and bad in their own way. All that was left was to decide on which one.

"Kasio, make sure you keep track of Take. His teleporting isn't as good as that damn fox, but it can still let him escape. Sensen can do it too, but he needs to move in to attack. So make sure he doesn't run away."

"Understood!"

.

Takeshi could feel his hand begin to move towards his scarf once more. It had become a habit for him to hide himself when something did not sit right with him.

The command made by Ōji was one of those things.

He was not sure why it bothered him, but it did, and his hand moved in reaction to that command. It was the truth that he could use Teleport and that he was better at it than Senshi, but...

_I won't run away._

He forced his arm to stop moving as a trion orb appeared around his head.

_You think I would run away?_

Another trion orb appeared, maxing out the amount he could create at once without draining his trion too much.

_The place I'm headed for is the start of a different battlefield. Over a great amount of time and with the help of other people._

_Trailing behind the others, but that can change. I will make sure I change it._

The two opposing squads began their attacks. The two Ōji Squad members moved forward while the Senzai Squad Captain moved to the side.

_Even if I start racking up loss after loss, just once... Once more, to reach that person..._

He did not fire from the two trion orbs by his head or the trion orbs scattered around the battlefield.

He ran forward, right into the oncoming attacks.

_Our goal is simple and selfish. And it's easily viewed as childish and clingy by everyone else. Even so..._

The two orbs floating around his head began to move around and lower themselves until they were floating above the back of his two hands.

_I'll make sure we reach that point. The point where we can stop being so simple, selfish, childish, and clingy._

The distance between him and the two Ōji Squad members had decreased significantly.

He saw his own attack come with the movement of his hands.

Using his hands had always felt right and gave him better control of direction, so it was no wonder he chose to use those to begin his attack.

Like the other attack he had done, laser-like beams tore through the air with a heated noise. The difference this time was clear and even Takeshi was unsure as to what he was doing.

As he moved his hands, the heated noise filled the space, but it did not feel as if leaser-like beams were attacking.

Instead, with the movement of the arms and hand, it was more fitting to say that two blades were moving to cut them down.

* * *

"[That guy...]"

"[You really have issues with the Kotowari boys, don't you?]"

"[I have my reasons. But I won't let that be the basis for my words here.]"

"[Is that so...]"

Yoneya gave a hum when he saw Lukas fix his glasses. From the side he could tell that Karasuma was paying close attention to the match as well, but it was likely for a different reason than the glasses-boy.

He had no problem with any member of Kotowari Squad himself, so he felt that he was best to start any talk about them. That seemed to be what the other two thought as well since the next words had not been for them and instead as a general statement.

"[The match has taken another interesting turn here. Yuba is still trying to catch up to the others while the mutt seems to be on a rest period. Besides those two, Kazuaki and Senshi were the ones who probably held the power to change the outcome of some of these battles. The two of them are now engaged in combat with each other, Yutaka-kun and...that guy. Like the previous fight, this one looks like it can change the tide of the match depending on who remains.]"

"[To a lesser extent, the other ongoing fight can do the same thing. Tono is good when it comes to waiting for the right moment to snipe while Suzu-chan has her own way of doing things. If either one of them makes it through that fight then they can take out an opponent without being taken out. Likewise, Taiyōko and Obishima can provide nice support for their teams if they make it through with minimum damage.]"

Yoneya did not miss the underlining words the two next to him were trying not to say. It felt very much like they were waiting on him to bring up some facts that they felt unqualified to say.

"[I doubt it will be easy for either side though.]"

He would not give them that luxury.

"[Shingai is nearby, but that doesn't mean she will be fighting there too. If Sthénos goes to help her, it would just put the fight there in a sort of stalemate. Instead of taking a chance going against people like Tonooka or Suzume-chan, they will likely go after one of the other two who don't have anyone to fight right now.]"

He could see the small glare he was receiving from Lukas while Karasuma's brows lowered a bit to his other side.

There was no reason for him not to help them, but it did not mean he would make things easy for them.

_If you guys want to talk about it, then you bring it up yourself._

There was a smug feeling that began to bubble up with the looks he was getting.

Karasuma seemed complacent with the results of their failed attempt with the way he lowered his shoulders to speak.

"[Awdry would be a bad choice for them. Even if Shingai has her good luck and Sthénos usually gets close to attack, they are still a Sniper and Shooter respectively.]"

"[Which means they will be going after Yuba...]"

"[So let's see how that goes exactly!]"

* * *

Yuba noticed himself getting distracted too much during the match.

It had only been a few hours since he had seen the monster of a woman hold Jin hostage, overwhelm Kanzaki, and beat down Mei, all with little effort, before leaving as if she had only come by for some fun.

Fujimaru had also seemed to be thinking about that as well before the match, but she was still managing her job here just fine. That meant he was seeing it in a different light than she was, but...

_I can't be blamed for that. Kanzaki is one thing, but Jin and Takato... That woman being able to move so freely is terrifying if she managed what she did in a short amount of time._

The others who had seen the scene had their own thoughts on the matter, but the ones who were combatants like him understood just what the scene meant for them. The sight of seeing two strong fighters pushed back and pushed down like nothing while someone like Jin allowed for it to happen without taking any action.

If it did not leave some kind of mark on him it would have felt like he was not even human anymore. The fact he continued to think about it helped him reconfirm that he was indeed like the others who had watched the scene and was not like the woman who was now somewhere else, doing as she pleased.

A person who could leave such a mark from only moments was not someone he felt he could just overlook. Even so, there was something he still needed to do right now. That was...

"Aha! I found him! I found Yubaba!"

.

Yuba's hands instantly went to the guns at his side as the pink haired girl moved forward.

The monster he had seen hours earlier was of importance, but that was not what he should have focused on. There were others who were strong that were directly in front of him because of this match.

One of them had already beaten one of his former teammates and was still fine enough too continue in this match.

Another one was...

_Like I'm going to fall for that!_

Because of his instincts he had been ready to fire at the girl in front of him, but that had not been the threat he needed to focus on. The one who had been the one to fire at was nowhere to be seen.

The reason for that was simple.

_This girl has little combat abilities here._

Senzai Squad had rarely fought against Yuba, but that did not mean there were no logs to go off of. From those logs he had been able to see how Senzai Squad functioned and realized exactly what they were like.

_Senzai and Shingai are the real dangerous ones. This girl is nothing if she can't get close to you._

The irony of that fact was not lost on him as he knew that Sthénos was a Shooter. Unlike normal Shooters, she tended to get close to the target before firing any shots. It gave the opponent some time to react, but it was always pointless since it meant their focus was on her instead of the ones who were truly dangerous here.

He had gotten confirmation that Senzai had begun fighting elsewhere, so that meant only one thing.

Shingai was nearby.

"!"

True to his thoughts, a shot came from far off instead of directly in front of him.

It had hit the ground as Yuba performed what could only be described as a sliding turn.

_If I had tried to attack that girl, Shingai would have gotten me. My hands even reacted to her instead of what I know. Her movement is fast enough to confuse others into thinking she is the main attacker, when in reality she is nothing more than a decoy who happens to attack. Since that's the case..._

From experience he know what those kinds of people could be like and generally what movements they would make.

Fighting against Sthénos would be relatively pointless if not for the fact that she was not the main attacker in this situation. Her movements would be the key he needed for this fight.

With that in mind, he moved forward while readying himself for the fight.

.

The distance between Yuba and Sthénos shortened in an instant.

Cubes of trion began to load themselves along a small path from Sthénos' right and left starting from the bottom to the top. Two rotating wheels of trion cubes appeared on her sides as her hands twitched from within those wheels. The wheels expanded while also comparing into each other, creating a strange sight of a three dimensional wheel that Yuba was not too familiar with.

Even so, he moved forward. His own range was nothing great, but that was not where his strengths lied. That would have to be...

"!"

"-"

He began to lift his arms up to fire his first and likely last set of shots.

A normal human's vision would not have been able to keep up with the speed he used to begin firing. The quickest of people had a hard time as it was keeping up with him once he had gotten close enough or caught them off guard.

This was what he had built up over the many solo ranked matches he had gone through during his time in Border. A blinding speed with power behind it that was enough for others found themselves unable to properly counter once the shots had been fired.

"!?"

Yet that blinding speed was not enough here.

The shot that came from the side was edged easily enough with a sliding turn, placing him to the opposite side of Sthénos that the shot had been fired.

Because of having to perform the sliding turn he was left with less time to fire his shots, yet he had managed to do it regardless. His target had been Sthénos, who was continuing forward while he had already fired from his point after the sliding turn.

If he fired at a speed that a person would not be able to react to in time while having just moved himself to a different spot then it was impossible for his shots to miss their target.

"Nyahaha!"

The laugh that came from the girl he had fired at came within the moment he had fired his shots that had blinding speed and amazing power to it.

Besides the speed from the shots, the power behind those shots would tear away from any defense that had been made in a haste for cover. Everything that came down to defending against him could not be pulled off by this small girl who could not even fight without one of her teammates nearby.

But...

"What!?"

His shots were canceled out.

The multiple shots he had fired never reached the small girl who was still moving forward.

Small popping sounds could be heard as the shots from the three dimensional wheel collided with the shots he had fired.

The girl herself moved forward one more step before turning and moving her arms. While one arm flew above her head, the other was moved out to the side.

The three dimensional wheels followed along that path as he was forced to the side before being sent in his direction.

He readied himself to fire another round of shots when a distance shot came. It was not from the three dimensional wheels but from a great distance that had not been fired from a moment ago.

The unseeable girl who had fired on him before had already moved across the map to a location that had to be several meters away so that she could fire at him. It was highly likely that she had already moved another few meters after having fired that shot.

The shot itself had not been meant to hit him since there were not holes through any part of his body. Instead, it seemed to be to stop him for a single moment since it had crossed a path that was in front of his moving arm.

"These two...!"

The shots from the three dimensional wheel had been fired already and there was no time to fire back. That meant he needed to put up a shield of his own.

The shots crashed into the shield while he moved to the side, making sure not to stay within her line of fire.

Something had been wrong.

From the very start there had been something wrong with the fight he found himself currently in. The two girls should have been aware of who they were fighting and what the outcome could be, so why had they come directly to him?

It should have been obvious from the start, but Yuba had found himself wondering about a monster he had not been able to do anything against. The monster that had taken down power opponents as if it was nothing. The lingering thoughts from the had stopped him from seeing what was wrong.

It was more than just a feeling and more than simply just luck from one of the girls. It was a key fact that he knew about yet did not take into account.

What was wrong had been him.

His shots had been fired perfectly. His sliding turn had been performed without issue. His strategy to attack the one he could not see was ideal.

But he had been completely wrong.

The assumption that he could win due to his firing speed and power, along with his own speed, had been wrong to the point that it had almost cost him this fight.

While it was true that the speed at which he fired was something that people normally cannot keep up with, there was still the chance that there was someone who could see it happen. Jin had his foresight, Mei had her calculations, and he was at least aware of some people who had similar Side Effects. Those people would have been able to see what was coming and react in time, if barely.

Even if he had prepared for that, it would have been wrong.

The girl in front of him had never once stopped moving forward. Her sights had not been on him but what was in front of her.

Contrary to that, the three dimensional wheels on her sides were fired in any place that was not in front of her. They followed a path that she could not see but one that existed only to lead to him.

She had a counter to him.

The girl who he could not see had luck on her side, but even that would not have been enough.

She too had a counter.

Unlike her teammate, her counter to him was not something as special or intricate. It was so simple that he had not even thought about it even after hearing about it a few times already.

She was a hunter.

* * *

"[It looks like we were right on the mark with this one. Ite-san and Sthé-chan have gone after Yuba and are now engaging him in battle.]"

"[How did they deal with his firing though? As far as I know, Sthé-chan doesn't have much in the way of knowing what will happen like Jin-san or Mei-san. The way she went about that was timed perfectly. The same could be said for Shingai.]"

"[...]"

Karasuma thought through his words before he said anything out loud.

He had only been told the general information about Senzai Squad before and he had not been able to ask any questions.

From what he knew, it would not have been too much of a problem for Sthénos to know what to do. Everything that made up the being known as "Sthénos" was made from trion after all.

She was a Trion Soldier.

It could have been viewed as cheating, but he did not think that should be the case since she was fighting, using a Border issued Trigger and did nothing that a normal person would not do.

_Besides the stripping... Then again, Kirikari-senpai also does that._

The number of strippers in Border was a bit concerning, but it was not something he should have been thinking about at the moment.

_She can probably tell that he will be firing only moments before he does it. Even then though, it would not mean she should be able to react in time, unless..._

"[Those are fake.]"

Lukas and Yoneya turned to him as soon as the words escaped his mouth.

It had been an accident, but now he had no choice but to make something up in order to explain himself.

"[The shots Sthénos makes next to her... She left some behind and had likely preset them to fire in that direction.]"

"[While she isn't really weak, do you really think she could manage something like that?]"

_She doesn't have a human brain, so it's possible._

He could not say that, so something else came out instead.

"[She could have spoken to Shingai about this. I mean, if you could pull off a sliding turn like that, wouldn't you want to have something in the way in case of sniper fire again? They could have planned for him to move in that direction before he could fire and then fire their shots at him.]"

"[When you put it like that... If Shingai thought that up then it would make more sense.]"

"[Hm? Because of her luck?]"

Karasuma shook his head while still facing the screen.

His expression did not change as he gave the simple reasoning for this to even be possible.

"[She is a hunter.]"

* * *

Shingai only felt calm.

This entire map was nothing more than a large hunting ground.

Using her specially made Trigger that consisted of a bow that fired arrows of trion was forbidden during these Rank Wars, but that didn't deter her in the slightest. She had trained long enough with Lightning and Egret to where the difference between using those and the bow were not as major as they had once been.

While she had Grasshopper in one of her Trigger slots, her natural speed was nothing to look down on. Her top speed was hard enough to keep up with after all. That made moving from place to place after firing easy as well.

There were many reasons for her to feel calm in this large hunting ground.

She looked towards her target with a steady hand and predicted how the fight would turn out.

Yuba was skilled enough to make it to the top tier of B-Ranks alongside his squad, so she did not feel bad in the slightest for using Sthénos' Trion Soldier abilities for minor things like timing. Against opponents like these it was necessary to take as many precautions as possible and this was just one of them.

Even if she did not have Sthénos' abilities to fall back on, she was certain that she could get some shots in on the man.

Her good luck was also a factor in this. She hated to think it had much to do with this, but even the small things worked well. The fact Yuba moved exactly where she thought he would could also fall under her good luck.

And yet...

_My luck will never affect my shots. I refuse to allow it to do so._

.

_I have my pride as a hunter when I am in battle._

She had done a lot of hunting before and understood that timing was very important. It was due to this that she prepared for the exit moments she needed during matches.

She had used the right timing to hold back Yuba from firing for a moment. She had used the right timing to force him to perform a sliding turn. She had used the right timing to fire a followup shot.

It came down to timing for her.

Hunting meant that she needed to be patient, what out the target, and fire at the right moment. That had been the reason for her calm.

Remaining calm was something everyone should have been able to do if they were prepared to get into a fight.

This was nothing new to her and her pride would not allow her to say that her good luck had a part in her hunting.

She cherished and protected children as best as she could, but her pride would always be remaining in her hunt. Her speed, her timing, her shots fired, her ability to shoot, her entire being during those hunts. That was her pride that she would not allow luck to tarnish.

The pride she felt towards her hunting had her remaining calm and collected as she watched Yuba try to escape.

_When it comes to hunting, there are two types of hunters._

Setting her aim on the man, she timed the pulling of the trigger, the movements on his feet, the way Sthénos moved and fired, and where they would end up.

_The first type are those who enjoy the fun of a perfect kill while never being detected._

She was amazed at the way Yuba was able to determine the situation so quickly. She was waiting for the right moment, but he was making sure that she would get that moment.

His footwork changed a bit each time as he moved away from Sthénos. It seemed that he had chosen to not fire until a shot had been fired at him.

The way Sthénos fired her shots required her to be close to her opponent. The distance was considered extremely dangerous for any Shooter and only Attacker would reach that area, but she would continue to move in as if she had a blade in her hand instead of two three dimensional wheels at her sides.

Yuba was using that to maintain a certain amount of distance from her the entire time. A distance that was just outside of her firing range but close enough to keep Shingai from firing.

_The second type are those who enjoy playing with their prey and watching them suffer as they are taken out._

She had always found the second type to be cruel in the case of animals and a bit demented in the case of humans.

_If I was pressed to say so, I would say that I am the former. Yuba Squad also has one of those people in Tonooka. That is why I am certain that he will not intervene here._

He had likely been helping the fighting Obishima and could not reach his captain.

With both of them being on the same side of things, she understood the amount of time she would have before she would have to deal with more opponents.

This was the perfect chance to take out Yuba. To get the perfect kill she enjoyed when hunting.

_Since this seems to be the case..._

She let out a breath through her nose and set her aim for a different location.

"Sthénos, I hate for this to go on too long. For both our squad as well as Yuba-san. I will start being more offensive now."

"Oh, oh!? I got it! Just go crazy and I'll make sure to catch up when it's important!"

She could only smile as her finger pulled the trigger.

_What a kind girl._

At the same time she fired she could see the three dimensional wheels on the ground twist and turn before flying off to the side. They moved away from Yuba and smashed into the building they were next to.

Shingai was placed within the tall buildings where the Snipers ruled the battlefield. From her position she had been able to see the border where the tall buildings stopped and the short buildings began. A place where Shooters and Gunners had the advantage.

She would not dare go near that border, but that had not been her plan.

Her shot had hit one of the windows of the tall buildings that touched that border. It had been followed by the shots from the three dimensional wheel, destroying multiple windows in the process.

The false glass that had shattered began to rain down on the battlefield where Yuba and Sthénos were.

Because of human's self preservation, Yuba made a shield to block the falling glass from hitting him, using up a Trigger slot.

_He knew that the glass would not matter when fighting in that body, but he still went and defended himself. A perfect example of a human._

This hunt was not one to take out a wild animal or even an escaping one. This hunt was for a single point that would help Senzai Squad in a match between humans.

Sthénos did not defend herself due to her condition of being a non-human. It had been for that reason that Shingai resolved herself to take this hunt to the next level and make it be between two humans.

"Now we shall see which one of us wins here."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Senshi Senzai
> 
> Captain, Attacker
> 
> 18 Years Old
> 
> Born Aug. 4
> 
> Apentenodytes, Blood Type AB
> 
> Height: 5'10"
> 
> Likes: Underground tunnels, Monster movies, Tomatoes
> 
> Ite Shingai
> 
> Sniper
> 
> 16 Yers Old
> 
> Born Nov. 4
> 
> Chronos, Blood Type B
> 
> Height: 5'4"
> 
> Likes: Archery, Monster movies, Lemons
> 
> Sthénos
> 
> Shooter
> 
> ? Years Old
> 
> Born ?
> 
> ?, Blood Type ?
> 
> Height: 4'5"
> 
> Likes: Saying "No" to people, Helping others, Eggplant
> 
> Fusegu Tekitai
> 
> Operator
> 
> 25 Years Old
> 
> Born Feb. 25
> 
> Amphibious, Blood Type O
> 
> Height: 6'6"
> 
> Likes: Working, Wrestling, Candy


	98. Kotowari Squad: Part 7

_What should I do for now...?_

Toby sighed as he ran throughout the battlefield.

His fight against Kurauchi had ended with a victory for him and he was now in his rest period.

Others fights had already begun and now he was the only one without an opponent of any kind.

"Suzuka, what's going on with everyone else?"

"You're seriously asking that now? Urg. Fine, fine. Give me a second. I'll send you the information. I can't really tell you since I'm busy helping them."

"Thanks for that."

"Don't thank me for something I was planning on doing anyway!"

_This girl is too difficult for me to handle..._

Mei was much more simple and would have been able to tell him everything while still helping everyone else.

He had been worried about her since she had not been able to help them during this match and she would not answer when they had tried to call her earlier.

They were all aware that she could handle herself just fine, but they would never try to convince themselves that everything was fine when she had not told them anything herself.

_We might have done that before, but we're different now. Only a little bit, but we are._

They were growing up.

It was at a much slower pace than anyone else, but they had started to get over what they viewed as "their terrible selves" and were now moving forward. Doing so without their Operator who had helped them so much just felt wrong.

As much as he hated the current state of things, Toby knew well enough that all of them would not be able to do much for Mei at the moment. They trusted her and loved her dearly, but they were not in a position to try and help someone like her.

There was only one person they knew who could do that.

_Yuki..._

There was a history between those two that none of them could fully know. Even if they had been told a lot, it would not be enough to know everything. There was just so much time they had together that could not be filled in with words alone.

It was because of the fact that they had to trust their Operator and friend to Yuki for the timing being. He would be the one to help her and they would be the ones to welcome her back.

But for now he needed to focus on something else.

**JK:** "Alright, here's the general idea of what's happening. I need to get back to helping those guys, so take your time reading."

**Main Plaza**

\- Colors-kun vs Senzai Squad's Beef Captain vs Ōji Squad's Prince-Kid Duo

\- Colors-kun is fighting back, but is the one who is being pushed back the most

\- It is still your rest period, so don't go there

**Tall Buildings**

\- Honest Sister and Hoshi-chan seem to be fighting against Yuba Squad's Counter Trap and Tongue Twister Sniper

\- They are keeping up fine enough. Hoshi-chan is playing her part well enough and Honest Sister is blocking attacks for her while also turning on and off Bagworm

\- From experience I know she's making some trouble for the other Operators

\- Even if you weren't on your rest period, there would be no reason for you to go

**Somewhere far away from you**

\- There are two people (at least)

\- I don't know much about what's going on over there, but they are moving in a weird way

This was what she could provide in the small amount of time she took to inform him of what was going on.

His rest period would come to an end when certain conditions had been met or a certain amount of time had passed. That was what they had agreed on before entering this match.

They had made it back to the top tier of B-Rank and now he had to wait because of the plan they had come up with.

There was nothing for him to do. He was an extremely offensive Attacker who went after his prey and did what he could to take them down. This had gotten to a point where he had managed a win against Kurauchi and it could only go up from there.

He was a wild animal who would continue to fight to win or lose trying everything he could. That was just how he was viewed.

Even the chat name he had changed to showed him as such.

.

Lobo - the King of Currumpaw.

The story of a wolf who had outsmarted all of the hunters who had gone after him.

Traps had been laid, bait had been used, and those hunters had tried everything to capture this one wolf and his pack.

They had failed.

The wolf had outsmarted them. Dug up the traps they had set, ripped apart the bad parts of the bait, and dodged everything that had been thrown his way. He had even gone so far as to mock the hunters with the way he had outsmarted them.

Then it happened. The things that had led to his loss.

His mate had been captured and used against him. The end result had been his own capture at the hands of a trap set by a hunter. With only hatred for those hunters, he had refused to eat or drink anything when left alive.

His death came soon after.

_I'm pretty sure I heard that story before and it stuck with me. Damn, that actually sucks. It means there was at least one good memory from back then._

_Even so, a part of that story was how Lobo had still stood his ground, even with his injuries from that trap. That takes a lot of guts._

"Heh heh. Guess I'm still a kid since I changed my name because of that story. No matter what No says, it's not because of that damn comic character."

The people who used the chat connected to Border's network made their chat-names for fun most of the time. There would be those who used it as a meaning for something, but otherwise those were looked over.

Toby was one of the latter, giving himself a simple name that had been meant to show his own change.

At the start he had gone by a simple and generic name since others had viewed him as a wild boy. The name had meant nothing much and was just a way to get back at others for calling him a dog.

Once the race with Noah had ended only two nights ago, he had changed that chat name. This time it had not been to get back at anyone and it had not been to say he was stronger now. It had been his way of moving on from the wild animal people thought he was to someone who knew what his own value was.

_I guess I should stick with the theme and try to get out of this mess. It's not my mess, but no way am I just going to wait for the rest period to be over._

Even with people viewing him as an anima, he knew what he could do.

He would not just be an animal. He would be someone who tried to outsmart those around him.

"Right, I think I have a plan here."

Placing his hand to his ear, he began to speak directly to his teammates.

"Take, mind trying something for me?"

* * *

Ōji narrowed his eyes as he moved away from the lasers that threatened to cut him in half. From the corner of his eyes he could see Kashio do the same, barely getting skimmed by the laser.

The entire time their fight had been going on, Takeshi and Senshi had kept a focus on what was happening around them. It was even more true for Kashio who was focusing so intensely that it seemed he had become narrow-minded.

_This is why I didn't want him to be fighting against Take at all._

The boy had something against Takeshi, but he had never disclosed what exactly that was.

He had reassured them that he would focus on the match more than fighting with Takeshi, but that did not seem to be the case here. If not for Senshi being around, it would have been fine, but Ōji found it hard to just let the boy be.

He wanted to correct Kashio's thoughts as quickly as he could, but that had been when it happened.

There had been a change in movements for one of their opponents.

.

While fending off against the laser-like beams and blunt Raygust hits, Kashio only saw the person who had placed right in front of him.

Takeshi had shown how he viewed others and how he would use them to gain something. It happened during his matches and it had caused an incident before.

That alone was enough for him to be viewed as bad in Kashio's eyes, but it had not been the only thing.

The boy had always seemed arrogant and dismissive every time he had tried to get to have a solo match with him. There was always a shift of a scarf and a dull look that gave the impression that the Shooter was looking down on him.

That much he could look passed and go for another challenge, but even that was not the only thing.

_He had said something before. Something that makes it all come together in a way I cannot forgive._

It had been a time after his loss to Kitora.

Something had started to bloom inside of him, seeing her in a different light and feeling something there. It could have been nothing and he could have let it go, but he chose not to do so. He chose to hold onto it and let it grow.

At the time, he knew little about Tsukiko Squad and the members who made it up. There had not been a reason to focus on them.

It was only after they had been invited to join their squad in some training that he took any notice of them.

Kurauchi, Kittaka, and Takato had set it up since they had been scheduled to work together during their next defensive duty.

The most noticeable people had been their Sniper and Attacker. Both had been strange and easily existed over the strangest of things. It was then that he had decided to keep interactions with them to a minimum.

The next one had been their Operator. While he had only spoken to her a bit, he had gotten a nice feeling when she had passed a smile in his direction. She had then gone back to talking to Kittaka about something else.

Their captain had been the one to properly greet him. He had been an upperclassman who had been nothing but kind to Kashio since that first greeting. Kindness, assistance, and praise was all that had come from him. Even so, he seemed to have a bad relationship with his own captain since Kashio had been pulled away immediately by his captain who had been muttering something along the lines of, "This damn fox only knows how to lie through his teeth..."

It was then that he had decided, even though he enjoyed the kindness and praise, he would keep a distance from that upperclassman. Doing so meant he would not get his captain angry and that upperclassman would not get in trouble.

There had only been one person left for him to meet.

The Shooter.

It was a boy as tall as their Attacker with a scarf wrapped around his neck a few times. His eyes were dull and he seemed to be looking at nothing in particular. It felt as if he was bored and did not want to be there at all.

_Now I realize what he was thinking... It wasn't boredom from being there. He just didn't care about what was going on. He viewed everything there as nothing more than something he was forced to do._

It had been when the training started that he realized what kind of destruction that boy could cause.

The moment he had come in contact with the boy on the battlefield, he had been bisected without any hesitation.

The attack had been a laser-like beam similar to the one he was currently facing. The destructive force was just as strong and both seemed to never end.

Afterwards, he had gotten to learn a bit more about the boy from Kurauchi who spoke as if he was uncertain about what he could and could not say.

Over time he had started to interact with the boy little by little until the thought of fighting him again came to mind. His first loss had been against Kitora, but his second loss had been because of that boy.

Each time he had asked, he had been rejected. The boy had always said, "I don't really want to fight. There's hardly anyone who stands out to me. That includes you."

It felt rather insulting, but it also gave him some determination to get another fight against that boy. The boy who saw has nothing more than another guaranteed win.

It was during one of these times that she had come up to them.

"Kashio-kun, you should leave him alone. He doesn't hold back when he fights and you aren't really at that level yet."

The words had hurt, even when he knew it was the truth.

He knew that when compared to this boy, he was still a ways away from beating him before he could be torn apart.

This girl that he had let affect him was telling him to stop. That seemed like enough reason to go along with the fact that he knew he could not win against the boy.

But then...

"Would you like to have a match?"

The boy had spoken up.

His tone was not the same bored one he had always used with Kashio and he was not looking down on her like had always had with Kashio. There was a clear feeling of wanting her to accept his request that Kashio felt he could not ignore.

This boy and that girl began talking in front of him as if he was not there. No, they knew he was there, but they were using words that only meant something to them.

"Sorry, but I need to go. Satori-senpai called me over to help with something. When I have more time I'll let you know so we can have a match."

"Thank you for the consideration."

There was renewed determination once the girl had left and the boy was ready to leave.

That determination had gotten him to go to the boy for a challenge more often than it had before. Each time he had been rejected.

It had been irritating with each rejection, but it did not deter him in the slightest. That boy had become a rival Kashio could not overlook. Someone he had to beat at this point.

So when he had heard that a certain squad had disbanded he had stopped asking for matches. Even he had found it rude to ask for such a thing when it seemed that the members of that squad had been going through something.

That had been when he saw their first match.

That squad had gotten back together, this time without their former captain. That boy had taken the position of captain and they had entered their first match in the B-Rank Wars.

What he saw was nothing good.

The boy did not care after his own squad. His targets were more important.

Those laser-like beams seemed much more dull in color than before, but the power behind them had been the same as when he was first cut down.

After that had been the second round. The round where he saw what the boy was truly like.

A master who had wanted to get some petty revenge on a good person. Someone who fired his laser-like beams without a care of who or what got hit.

He had never once tried to help his own squad and his focus had been solely on that good person.

It showed what exactly he was like now.

That had been the moment Kashio gave up.

He gave up on the challenges. He gave up on seeing the boy as a rival. He gave up on thinking anything good about the boy.

_And yet he likes her. This kind of person likes her and I won't let that stand!_

His own reasoning was petty on a basic level, but he thought nothing of it.

When he had been told to watch the fourth round match involving that rebuilt squad, he chose to ignore it. He had no reason to watch that boy try and destroy everything around him.

And now...

.

"Kasio, don't just pay attention to Take!"

Kashio could hear his captain, but his focus had been on the laser-like beams that were moving around the area.

They were trying to destroy everything around them again and he would stop it this time.

He would not be cut down by those beams again and he would show that he is better than that boy once and for all.

_They look more radiant, but that means nothing. He is still just a person who wants to destroy everything around him. This season has shown us all that, so no one would complain if I took him down._

It would score his squad a point and they would have one less opponent to focus on. It was a major win that Ōji Squad could use here.

That was why he moved forward. Towards the chaos of beams that moved around the inner plaza.

Once they got close enough, he fired his own shots while preparing his blade.

"Oh, you can't forgive me either, can you?"

The boy had spoken up.

Kashio realized that the boy in front of him was far different from the boy he had seen before.

The first time he did not seem to care about what was around him.

The second time he seemed like a monster going around destroying everything.

This time…

"Sorry, but you will have to keep that up for a bit longer."

He was unsure when it happened, but he got a clear view of the boy's face.

_That doesn't make sense…_

This boy had spoken up a moment ago. Spoke up like he had with that girl he seemed interested in that day.

That had not been the reason for his confusion though.

No, the reason was much more simple than that.

_Why is he upside-down?_

Kashio could see the boy's face from a high view. From above the boy's head. From there he could see the sorrowful expression the boy wore as he lifted his scarf.

Those one dull eyes were looking at his eyes with nothing but sadness in them and Kashio began to feel bad for the boy.

Everything had finally caught up to his brain as he began to move towards the ground. His body, filled with cracks all over it, began to glow as he saw his lower half only a few feet away from him.

"Damn it."

**Bail Out**

.

Takeshi fixed his scarf as he watched Kashio Bail Out.

It felt like a hollow victory the moment he had seen the overly focused look in his eyes. It was a sign that this was yet another person he had angered with his behavior and someone who could not forgive him for showing such a sight.

All he could do was push the self loathing feeling he had for himself down as the bright light took to the sky and the two older boys moved towards him once more.

_A point for us. But…_

He moved back while firing a beam at both of the older boys.

_I took out another person who already didn't like me._

He allowed himself to have a moment to be disappointed in himself before he focused back on the situation he found himself in.

It was no time to think about his former mistakes. That would be for later, when he knew he had no way of letting others down.

_Toby had told me his plans. I need to follow through with it considering that Suzuka-san had agreed that it was for the best. Focus on that first._

Stealing himself, he maneuvered through the attack that never reached him.

It was not that those attacks missed or that he moved out of their way. The reason they had not reached him was simply because they were too far away to reach him. Each attack was stopped as Ōji and Senshi moved away from the beams that would skim near them at times.

For the plan to come out well enough he would need to be the one to first take action. That had been what Toby told him, so that was what he had planned on doing.

.

Ōji felt bad for his as he dodged the two laser-like beams that threatened to cut him in half, he felt bad for what he had just put them through.

Kurauchi should have won his fight against Toby. Even that opponent must have known that he should not have won.

_He must have done something so unpredictable that we couldn't have guessed he would win. Damn. That means that damn fox really has influenced them a lot._

Everyone on this battlefield knew just how straightforward Toby was most of the time. For him to do something other than that meant that he had been influenced by the white fox to the point that he would forgo being straightforward.

Then there had been Kashio only a moment ago.

The entirety of Ōji Squad knew that it was a risk having Kashio go against Takeshi, but they took that risk anyway. It had helped to amplify their teamwork.

But it did not work out.

Kashio had quickly become too focused on Takeshi to see much of anything else. His sights were on taking that boy down instead of scoring a point for them.

Now he was alone on this battlefield. The first one to lose his teammates and points. But…

_Here would be a nice place for a comeback._

Focus would be put on him, but that was fine.

He had no more teammates, but that was fine.

Senshi and Shingai's Side Effects, as well as that wild animal, were still things to worry about, but that was fine.

It was all fine because…

_Take is definitely up to something._

.

Ōji and Senshi repeatedly moved back and forth as laser-like beams ran along the inner plaza. They had yet to destroy anything around them, but they had managed to cut through someone cleanly.

Each time one of those beams threatened to cut them as well, they moved to stop their attacks and move back or fire back an attack of their own.

The amount of trion it took to fire those lasers was not so cheap that the boy using them could continuously fire them.

This was where the amount of trion each fighter had came into play. The usage of those beams took a good amount of trion while the blades the two of them used required much less than that.

It was all a matter of timing and patience.

Both older sward captains understood this and so responded accordingly by moving in and out of those beams' range.

"I guess I should stop stalling…"

The words coming from Takeshi made the two of them halt for a moment. It was not enough time to attack them, but it did stop them from moving for a single moment.

The words alone was something that had put them on guard, but it was the next action that had made them ready to move away or attack.

The beams that had been trying to cut them down were no longer firing, leaving Takeshi relatively defenseless. Even so, they did not move in to attack him. The distance was great enough that he would have time to start firing again if they tried.

The multiple trion orbs that had been firing at them began to come together above his head. One by one, they collided with each other, but did not disappear before detonating.

At the same time, Takeshi's legs began to move.

They did not move towards Ōji and they did not move towards Senshi.

Takeshi's legs began to pick up pace in a direction that was not near either one of them.

He moved towards the tall buildings.

The tall buildings were where the Snipers pulled the battlefield.

Kotowari Squad had a Sniper, but so did Senzai Squad and Yuba Squad. Moving into that area meant that he would likely get attacked by those skilled Snipers that were not on his side.

"What to do now…"

If they were to follow the boy then they would also be moving towards the den of Snipers.

Having a Sniper on his squad, Senshi had less to worry about, but Ōji was well aware that he had no one else on this battlefield to call his teammate.

And yet…

"I just need to take him out before he can get too far in."

Ōji had been the first one to move into the den of Snipers.

.

Senshi stayed motionless as he watched Ōji move toward the tall buildings.

Takeshi had ran in that direction while he was turned away from them and Ōji had chased after him. It was clearly a trap so that they would be lured into the tall buildings where his squad's Sniper could take them out.

"…"

Or it seemed that way at least.

Placing his hand to his ear, he began speaking while still facing where Ōji ran after Takeshi.

"You guys still have Yuba in your sights, right?"

"Correct. I am ready to attack him, so do not worry about that."

"And Sthénos is with you?"

"Yup, yup! I'm right here!"

His own teammates were not close to where he was, but they were not too far away. While he was at the edge of the inner plaza, they were at the edge of the border between the tall buildings and the shorter buildings.

Because of the other fight going on right now he could tell where two other people were. A third person seemed to be trying to mess with others by turning on and off their Bagworm.

"If I had to guess, I would say that's Misaki. Tonooka would never try something so uncertain."

The distance they had from where he was standing was much smaller than his distance with his teammates. Also…

"Kotowari is moving in the direction."

Senshi did not move.

There was no reason to move.

After all, his bad luck was not so forgiving as to just let him go. Instead, it would do something different.

"There they are."

It would bring his enemies back to him.

.

It had only been two minutes since he had ran away from his two opponents.

During those two minutes, Takeshi had focused on the plan sent to him by Toby.

Running away had been to see which one of his opponents would follow him. The direction he ran in was the same direction that Suzume had been fighting in with Hoshi. If he reached that location then he would be considered "safe" by others since he would be with his teammates.

From there he would be able to attack with others backing him up and supporting his actions.

That may have been the reason for Ōji following him soon after. He had been the only one to follow though since Takeshi had not seen Senshi anywhere.

With his trion orbs left in the plaza, he had no way of attacking the oncoming Attacker.

Ōji had rushed him unlike before where he had been moving in and out of Takeshi's range.

Instead of trying to keep away, Takeshi had moved within that strike zone around Ōji. His hands had been on his scarf as he lowered his body.

_Keep your legs bent and your body ready to move up or down. That's what Toby told me. If I do that…_

The moment the attack from Kōgetsu got closer, Takeshi lowered his body as if bouncing off of something above him. His legs lowered and he ducked his head while the blade was swung over him.

He was not given a moment of time as Ōji began to turn while still swinging his blade. Above him a cube of trion was created before being fired in his direction.

_It's Hound so…_

A small defense appeared to take the hit from the shots.

While still in his turn, Ōji moved his arm in the same direction he had originally swung his blade.

The momentum from the swing did not lower and instead forced him to move faster.

Balancing would have been difficult in this situation, but Ōji Squad had been known for being good on their feet.

An attack starting from the right quickly came to the left as Takeshi tried to steady himself without falling forward.

Something Toby had failed to mention was the need to maintain balance throughout the entirety of the dodge. His feet wobbled as he threatened to topple over and his head was still facing the ground, so he couldn't even see where the blade was coming from properly.

As if to respond to his need for safety, a memory of the following words came to his mind.

"Sometimes it's better to just fall down. If you're having trouble with keeping yourself straight, you should just fall to the ground. At least the opponent won't see it coming."

He could remember the strange and scrunched up look Toby wore as he explained this to him and Hoshi.

"Oh, but I guess you shouldn't do that during class or in a race. You'll just eat it and end up looking like an idiot."

Takeshi did not give a smile, but he lifted his scarf over his mouth as he fell forward.

_What was the point of telling us then? We had asked about how to better our grades in class after all. And the sports festival was coming up. I ended up getting picked to be in a race, so I had no choice but to go to you, you damn dog, and that's the advice you gave me? You really are the worst._

Even so, he followed those instructions.

His legs gave out and he did not care if he looked like an idiot. His body hit the ground.

But it was not as simple as stopping because he hit the ground. Once he had hit the ground, he began to roll forward while maintaining the momentum from his fall forward.

The blade once again hit nothing as the target moved away in a strange way.

"You guys are really into doing things I never thought you would do."

The way Ōji had said it made Takeshi feel both proud as well as a bit fearful for their futures if someone like Ōji did not see it coming.

"Still… You really aren't much when compared to that damn fox."

It only took a moment for Takeshi to register that an attack had made it.

It took another moment for Ōji to realize his attack had not made it.

Ōji turned away from the strap that landed on the ground where his blade had been moved and instead focused on where the teleportation had taken place.

It had been the use of the prototype Trigger Kotowari Squad had used in their previous match. A Trigger that replaced the user with something else to escape an attack.

Zanzō - the afterimage.

Takeshi braced himself for his land when he saw Ōji turn towards him.

_I should have expected this much. They haven't stayed near the top for nothing._

The reaction time he was seeing was definitely from someone who had remained near the top with his squad and could fight without them.

It was far different than Takeshi himself.

For that reason alone, he moved his body to the side once his feet touched the ground again. Another attack had already made it and he could not teleport away in time to dodge it. The blade managed to cut deep into his arm but not enough to where it could not be used.

He placed a hand over the cut to stop the leaking trion while moving behind the tall building.

Right back into the inner plaza.

* * *

Yoneya was sure now that neither Lukas nor Karasuma would bring up what was on their mind.

He had been wondering for a while now, but this seemed to be enough for him to confirm that they would be holding back from saying anything particular.

Even so…

_I won't be going easy on them. Face the facts, you two._

He wanted to let out a sigh right then and there but held back due to others being able to hear him right now.

_I guess that isn't really possible right now though._

Looking back to the screen, he watched as Takeshi tumbled back to the inner plaza while Senshi only watched his opponents return to where they had previously been.

"[That guy's plan fell apart before he could get too far. Although doubt that was a mistake on his part.]"

"[He probably wanted to drag along the other two and ended up getting a full out attack from Ōji-senpai. Managing to dodge as much as he did was nice though.]"

"[I wonder if that was what he wanted…]"

"[Yoneya-senpai?]"

Yoneya shrugged while leaning his body forward.

From where he was he could see a certain trio down below and watched with interest as they spoke to each other over hearing what he had to say.

"[I don't really fight that guy since he doesn't like solo matches too much. I managed to drag him into a fight before, but that was because I had help from his teammates. Although that was before he… Well, I'm sure most of you know by now.]"

_I gave you guys that much, so work with it._

He grinned at the glare he was receiving from Lukas.

"[He dodged as best as he could. But why only dodge? Isn't strange for such a forward attacking guy like him?]"

He didn't wait for any responses from the other two as he continued.

"[He left his attacks in that plaza. If Ōji or SenSen-san noticed, they weren't worried about it. If anything that was the perfect chance to take him out. But he's still there.]"

"[And back to the plaza. This just means that he will be continuing his former attack and use up his trion. That looks to be the best option for him at the moment. He can wait for the mutt, but he can't rely on Suzu at the moment since she's helping out Hoshi.]"

"[If he was waiting for Toby then Toby would have been there already. We just saw how fast he's gotten.]"

"[So is going to continue by himself?]"

"[Looks that way. But don't go underestimating him now. Having fought him before, even if it was just once, I can tell from here that this is different from that time. He's actually thinking about what to do here instead of just attacking head-on.]"

"[So then what is he planning?]"

"[Who knows?]"

Yoneya gave another shrug. This time it was an honest one to express that he really didn't know what would be coming next.

"[But I'm sure it will be something pretty fun.]"

* * *

Suzume did not stop as she moved around the area.

Each time she stopped to take a shot, she saw the battle going on between Hoshi and Obishima.

Both girls seemed to be giving it their all with Hoshi moving back and forth between attack and defense.

To counter her, Obishima moved front to back between defense and attack.

From what she could see, it looked perfectly like a dance between the two of them. A leader had been chosen, but the one following was not backing down or moving away. She was keeping up and maintaining pace with her partner. They were in perfect harmony with this dance and if not for her job, Suzume would have added her own music into it.

But she was focused.

Focused on the dancing girls and focused on creating the stage for them to dance upon.

Multiple shields continued to appear around the two girls as something crashed into them.

One by one, the shields shattered as quick as they had been made.

Some of those shields had been made by her and shattered by someone else.

Some of those shields had been made by someone else and shattered by her.

Hoshi and Obishima had used those shattering shields however they could to keep up their own dance.

While not as professional as ones like those in A-Rank or ones demoted to B-Rank, the two dancing girls moved between, around, and on top those shattering shields.

There was hardly any time for them to think about their action and Suzume could see that. They were not focusing too much on the actions they made so much as the actions they made was the focus of their movements.

"Heh heh heh. I suppose I am honestly still feeling down if even this great summit flower is starting to judge such good girls like that."

She stopped her movement, placed Bagworm over her shoulders, and fired towards the two dancing.

Hoshi had moved back to prepare for a defense and she used that chance. She signaled to the younger girl that she could move forward again by firing a shot directly at Obishima's head.

A shield appeared before shattering on impact.

Hoshi did not focus on the shield and instead moved forward for her next attack.

Any professional combatant would link their actions together to create a chain of attacks while they had the chance. Moving back would have just been a different form of moving forward and the shattering of the shield would just mean to turn a bit while continuing "forward" for them.

The difference between those dancing girls and the people who could manage such chained movements were as wide as a canyon.

But that was fine.

_Dancing is honestly the same as fighting in that sense. In this case, you and your partner create a chain of movements that link together with the music playing around you. If there is no music, simply make it yourself. Honestly use everything you have from your heartbeat, to the steps to take, to the sound of your breathing, to even the clicking of the insects around you. It honestly seems easy enough when speaking about it, but even I know what it takes to pull off something like that._

There was no reason for someone like Hoshi, or even Obishima, to know such advanced techniques when they were clearly trying to keep up with each other as it was.

It was rather amazing that the two of them still moved as smoothly as they did while sniper fire came from all round them, shields shattered after those shots, and the attacks from each other continued to move towards them.

If not for wanting to keep her location a secret for the moment, she would have praised both of them with a loud voice, arms stretched out, and chest upwards.

Since she could not do that she settled for simply praising them in her mind.

"Now then, we should be moving properly now. I am here, Hoshi-chan is there, Take is over there, and Toby is honestly far away."

She gave a light "Heh heh heh" before standing up straight and looking around.

"JK Operator, can you send us the parameters now? The locations of most of everyone have already been found out, so we are fine now."

"Yeah, yeah. Leave it to me! You can focus on Hoshi-chan for the time being."

.

Hoshi felt as if she understood now.

During the third match of these B-Rank Wars she had gone to see Kotowari Squad's match against Tsukiko Squad and Shor Squad. They had all done very well and Kotowari Squad had shown off how much better off they were during that time.

Each combatant had shown their skills, worked with what they had, gone through many lengths possible to win, and came out with something new for themselves.

She had seen so many amazing things during that match that she would never forget.

There had been dances in the forest, wild displays on the stump stage, and wonderful light shows within the cityscape. Each performance was something you would only see from professional performers who had taken years to master their craft. The dazzling gleam of it all had stuck with her to this very moment.

Others saw it as a simple fight, or just a strange one in certain cases, but that had not been what she saw.

During that time she had been having a conversation with someone else who could see that as a performance from all of them. That had been where her resolve to join Kotowari Squad had come in.

She had wanted to be on that same stage with them. To show her own worth to those who had decided to call her someone important to them. Now that she had reached that stage…

_Must do my best!_

She had heard that phrase from some of her upperclassmen before, but never truly said it herself.

There had never been too much of a reason to say such a thing when most things she did seemed easily enough to do. If it was normal things like sewing or swimming then she had no problem. If they were Border related like taking out Neighbors or simply reaching B-Rank then she was fine with taking her time to get it right. She had always found herself doing things in a way that would be helpful while also not putting any stress on anyone.

But now it was different.

She stood on a stage greater than the previous ones. One that was called "Top Tier" and had people who easily outmatched her in skill, strategy, movement, and general abilities. People who had trained with all their might, moved up within the ranks, and claimed a spot for themselves in that area were on the same stage as her. Or would it have been better to say she stood on their stage?

Either way, she was here now and she was with the two of them. The two who had gone up to her first and had gladly taken her hand when others rescued her because of her appearance and nature.

They had never done her any wrong, never gone against her, never showed her anything that was not amazing. Even during the time they were hurt, the two of them had still given her their best. After that hurt had gone and they had been better than ever, they continued to be next to her. Their hands seemed farther away now, but that had not been their fault.

When she saw just how far they were, she had gone to them in hopes that she could be by their sides once more.

When they had accepted that with no problem she had felt happy. That happiness continued to grow as she went from one stage to the next with them. And now that she was at the top stage with them…

_I must not hold them back._

She would trust in the team that had allowed her to join and make everything she had usable for them all.

_I will not be sacrificing myself for them since I know they would not like that, but I will not be stopping myself at any moment since they would not like that either. To keep up with them means I need to keep going and not worry about if I am being useful. They do not like things like that, so I will not like that either._

She had long since resolved herself to going along with them and doing things how they wanted.

"So please do not hold back in the slightest!"

The girl in front of her nodded as another shot came from behind her.

.

Obishima was amazed by this girl a year or so older than her.

She could not say that she was particularly good when compared to the others on this battlefield, but she knew that she had much more experience than this older girl. It was a fact everyone knew since Kotowari Squad had never held back from saying that their newest member had barely made B-Rank.

Yet here she was, clashing blades with Obishima while not even flinching back from the shots fired by Tonooka.

If not for the constant shields that appeared around them she was sure that this older girl would have been taken out fifteen times by now from sniper fire alone.

_She really trusts her teammates if she doesn't even look in the directions the shields are being made._

Obishima trusted her own teammates but even she got the feeling to look at the shots or the shields coming by them at times.

Compared to her, the older girl did not seem fazed at all by the extra movements going all around them. It was even more difficult when someone else would constantly appear on Radar before disappearing again.

She had been glad to share a moment of understanding with this older girl, but that seemed so long ago given how much time they had spent moving back and forth to attack and defend. They had both given their names while starting a fight and agreed to give it their all. She was not backing out of that, but it was only becoming more and more difficult to do so as time went on.

"!?"

It had finally happened.

A shot had finally gotten through the shattering shields that moved around them like a set rotation.

The one to take the hit had been Obishima.

"Sorry about that. I lost focus on you guys for a second and let that attack get through."

She wanted to reassure that it was not Tonooka's fault since he was not supposed to be babysitting her like this, but found she had no time as the older girl in front of her moved for an attack.

This was a chance since Obishima had been pushed back by the shot while moving forward to attack. It had caught her off guard and set her balance off in a strong way of moving forward while being forced back. The same could have happened to her opponents if not for the shield that had shattered right by her shoulder.

This season they had been down a member when Kanda had decided to continue his studies instead of staying with Border. They had been fine with that, but the results of that were showing here.

Yuba Squad had been reliant on the directions from Kanda while Yuba had usually gone off to do his own thing and score them points. That was very apparent here, against a squad that excelled at strange tactics and controlling the stage.

If it had been Takeshi or Toby then it would have been more straightforward of an approach, but she and Tonooka had ended up against the worst opponents for this kind of fight.

Under any normal circumstances they would have taken out the newest member with ease. There would not have even been a need for Obishima to engage her in battle since Tonooka was more than capable of sniping the girl who did not seem to focus too much on her own surroundings.

That became as hard as any top tier fight once you were to add in that strange upperclassman who used dance for her defense. The repeated shields that shattered were being created by her as she fooled around with Bagworm and fired at Obishima. She had been doing all three of those things at the same time in order to attack Obishima, protect her teammate, and harass the Operators as well as the other Snipers.

The worst part was that she was probably having fun while doing so.

Even so…

"!"

Even so, Obishima wanted to keep going.

She wanted to meet up with that older girl who had introduced herself before starting.

_Should I want her to use that special Trigger she has? If she did, I would have no way to counter it. But I really want her to use it so she can view me as someone strong enough that she has to use it here._

The logs from the previous match had shown Yuba Squad the prototype Triggers Kotowari Squad had been using. One of those had been the ribbons of light that had been used to attack using blades. The main blade itself would disappear, but in its place were those ribbons that had the ability to cut whatever they touched. It amazed Obishima to see it.

If the older girl were to use that Trigger now then she would have no way of blocking those blades.

At the same time, that older girl would have no way of blocking any sniper fire from Tonooka should he manage to get past Suzume's shattering shields.

_What would be best here…?_

.

Shattering sounds, repeated footsteps, glass shaking, and a strange melody.

Those were all of the things moving around the battlefield within the tall buildings.

Two Snipers continued to move around the area while two girls clashed blades as their dance continued to intensified with each movement.

The two girls were not so skilled as to be praised highly, but for them, for the two dancing upon a stage going through a set rotation, they were doing their best. Each movement did not lead into the next, but there was only a single missing piece for the both of them. Only a single moment of not moving before their next action was taken. This repeated the entire time their blades hit each other.

The two Snipers were a different story. Both were qualified to be praised by this better than them under normal circumstances. Their abilities to remain hidden while sniping was not something to mock. But that only applied to one who were not each other.

One of the Snipers moved quickly around the battlefield while activating and deactivating her cover from Radar while the other one moved to find the right place to snipe from. Both of them fired their shots, fully prepared for them to be blocked.

"Heh heh heh. I'm honestly used to my shots being blocked, so this is no problem for me. What about you, Tono-kun? Does this hurt your pride? Am I the perfect person to move you along so that you cannot find your spot to snipe? Heh heh heh. Yes, I am an Anti-Sniper Sniper who will move the stages to their next show."

The moving Sniper was a girl who found herself at the summit. The untouchable summit that could only be reached should she allow it. Right now was a special occasion due to her mentor telling her to stop that for this match.

So instead of remaining on the summit, she traveled down to harass everyone else as best as she could.

Her words could not be heard by the second Sniper moving about, but that was fine. She knew well that he understood what was happening.

And as if actually hearing her, he spoke to no one but himself.

"You're always like this. I'm fine with you outside of fights, but you really make me tired once we are doing something like this. Then again, you are better than that teammate of yours. How did he beat Kurauchi-senpai? You guys are all too much for someone like me."

The second Sniper was a boy who found himself annoyed with the summit girl. After having come down from that summit he realized that she was trouble in the worst ways.

He was used to patiently waiting for the right moment to strike. The perfect kill that he could say he took and finished without being noticed. It had been the reason for his training in Special Tactics after all.

The two Snipers continued their own movements that were as far away from blades as possible.

Those two girls with blades were different in that their blades could be seen continuously crashing into each other.

One of the girls moved with a hole now in her shoulder. Her blade moved lightly through the air, crashing into the resolute blade of the older girl.

She had her own determination to show in this fight, but it felt like nothing when compared to the unwavering movements of the opposing blade. Both had the same sturdiness but the difference between them was clear.

The girl who wielded that resolute blade held nothing back as she moved forward to strike before pushing back to blacken attack. It was amazing to see the younger girl in front of her still being on the frontlines after having taken a shot to her shoulder. Not even a moment to think about before she went back to attack

"Thank you for continuing this fight with me. I am learning a good amount of things here."

"H-huh? Oh! Right. Um, thank you as well for not holding back here."

The two girls had come to an agreement with each other without having spoken too much to each other. Their own words to each have been ways to thank each other for the fight they were currently involved in.

Two sides with two people.

One side had a girl continuing on after taking a hit and a boy who could not find a moment to properly attack.

One side had a girl who swung her blade resolutely and a girl who knew what it took to move people how she wanted.

Amid all of this, a plan had already been put into action.

.

Suzume smiled as she finally saw it.

There had been more to her fight than simply protecting Hoshi and trying to take out Obishima. Even the Bagworm harassment had been nothing more than a bit of a show for her to put on.

Now that she had moved so far away from her original position, she could see exactly what she wanted.

"Takeshi, I found them. You can start moving in here. Don't worry. I'll be protecting you as well."

"Just focus on Hoshi and your fight there. I'm less important when it comes to this. Besides, it won't be too hard to keep up once I'm done with this."

She gave a bitter smile at the words her squad captain had just said.

That boy needed more help than she could currently provide.

A few faces came to mind and she would remember to talk to them later their match finished.

"Now then… Let's see how much of a mess we can make."


	99. Senshi Senzai

Each shot was not meant to hit the man who continued to move around the battlefield.

Glass shattered and lights flew through the sky.

A lone huntress gave chase with a sniper rifle in one hand and a Bagworm over her shoulders.

Each step led into the next one as she ran atop the tall buildings' rooftops. The scenery completely changed as she jumped from one building to the next in short leaps that bursted before she took the jump.

Her scope had been removed and her eyes locked on another target.

A man wearing glasses moved through the falling glasses with little thought as another shot came above his head.

The shot hit the glass of the building next to him, shattering it and making a rain of false glass. It would not actually harm the man, but it provided the proper response from him in the form of arms raised above his head.

The huntress enjoyed a perfect kill, but that would not be the case here.

Her target was not someone who could be taken out so easily by a single fast moving shot that held little power. No, it would require much more than that.

That was where her Side Effect came into play.

The plan was not to take him out with one for her shots but to take the kill away from someone else who could manage to wear him down. Moving through the city provided this.

They would move through the tall buildings to where the other fights would be. Sthénos had been left behind so that she could keep up with the fast pace of the man who moved on the ground. It had been fine though since they understood that her speed was something that would decide the outcome of this fight.

She could not take out the man with one of her shots and she would have to wait for someone capable of taking him out to appear. From there she would wait for her chance to take him out. In the worst case scenario she would be able to take that other person out.

"Ite, there's a good fight going on over there. Although I say to stay away from it since it involves the rest of Yuba Squad."

"And the inner plaza is still occupied by Senshi. Should I lead him over to Awdry who has taken out Kurauchi-senpai?"

"You should be fine so long as you keep your distance and don't reveal yourself to him at any point in time."

"Keeping a distance did not seem to work for Kurauchi-senpai."

"So what will you go for then?"

The answer was obvious.

One battlefield had teammates that could support this man.

One battlefield had her own teammate who would then weaken her own abilities a bit due to their Side Effects colliding and canceling each other out.

One was not a battlefield yet had a beast running wild in it.

So then what was the obvious choice?

* * *

Asano sat calmly while watching the match play out in front of her.

Directly in front of her was the glasses boy from Katori Squad and the lyrical girl from Motojime Squad. The both of them were watching the screening as intently as she was but for a different reason than her. They had people they wanted to watch while the match was going on and she was watching someone else.

_I should just keep that kind of thought to myself…_

The lyrical girl seemed to enjoy teasing her as well as the glasses boy without actually knowing what it meant for them to be there, watching the match and the people who were there in it. Her words were always meant to get a reaction out of the two of them, but they had managed to keep their reactions to themselves.

Well, at least Asano managed that. The glasses boy couldn't help himself here.

"So what do you think everyone's play is here, Asanocchi?"

The lyrical girl had spoken up while turning back to her.

Her words were not meant to tease her and instead an actual question pertaining to the match.

"Ōji Squad being down to a single member means he will be careful so he does not lose that last point. It would probably hurt him more if he was taken out by a Kotowari Squad member too."

"Going to that comment… What are your thoughts of what happened to Kurauchi-san? How do you think that will affect what Toby will do?"

"You are really asking a lot from me here. Remember who you are talking about. Coming up with something for them that relies on common sense is like asking for my captain to not go around challenging people."

"Ah…Yeah, she is still a bit mad at me for running away from her last time."

"Try not to get within her eyesight for a while. That won't end too well."

"Would sending Hime to her do any good?"

"Probably. But then we would have two battle crazed people near each other."

"Good point."

There was a small buzzing noise that had both girls pulling out their phones.

Asano's screen showed a chat linked to only her squad.

 **Overprotective Sister:** "Hey, is someone talking about me behind my back? I feel like someone is. Whoever it is, come forward now! You'll only get a light scolding!"

 **American Idiot:** "So she says… Aren't you being paranoid? I would think it's fine if it was about Kaede, but asking that for yourself just feels weird."

 **Overprotective Sister:** "Is someone saying something about Kaede too? Who is it? Tell me now and you'll only get a harsh scolding."

She heard a laugh come from in front of her and looked up to see the lyrical girl showing off her own phone. There was a similar chat on her screen and that had been the moment Asano felt a strange sense of camaraderie with the lyrical girl.

"Um, getting back to this…"

"Right. So about what I think of this match."

.

The two girls nodded their heads as the glasses boy glanced at them with a raised eyebrow.

While there was only so much she could go off of, the positions where everyone had moved to showed what some of them thought of doing and what some of them were actually doing. The difference between the two was small but noticeable.

_Now then, what to say here._

Her mind began to wander through the information she had on each squad and how their movements had been during previous matches.

Due to Tsukiko Squad not being able to make it to the top tier before she had not been able to get a proper understanding of what those kinds of squads could do. The best she could go off of were those who fluctuated between mid tier and top tier. Even then it was difficult since those kinds were the ones like Katori Squad and Senzai Squad, who were luck based a good amount of the time.

"I can only really speak for Kotowari Squad here. If I say anything particular about Senzai Squad I feel like I will need up on the wrong side of their luck."

"So what can you say for the former then?"

"The fact that Toby isn't moving too much after his win leads me to believe that he isn't being allowed to go to any of the other fights."

"So you noticed that too."

It was not hard for anyone to notice so long as they had gotten to know the members of Kotowari Squad even a little bit.

Toby was not the type of person to just sit around after having a fun fight with someone and even less of the type to not go back to his team after a win.

"Koto-… Ahem. Take is probably planning something that is reliant on Toby and needs him to be in the best shape possible for it."

She was not ignorant to the way the two in front of her had quickly turned their heads at the way she referred to the Kotowari Captain.

From experience she knew not to give those kinds of people the attention they wanted. Especially since it would likely end up in some sort of friendly fire from all sides.

"If we look at who the top agents here are then it's obvious who he is saving Toby for. Given what we saw in the fight against Kurauchi-senpai we can tell that the long range ones are the real issue for him. Close range fighters should be fine since he has his Laser Shooter, but I guess even they are people he should be careful of. Although knowing him, he is probably just wearing them down so that they can be easy targets for his teammates. Oh, but I don't mean Hoshi. She looks to be too inexperienced which means he will leave it to the other two. Other long-range fighters tend to find a way around his Laser Shooter." Asano continued to speak while ginning the pointed looks from the two in front of her. "He will probably get yelled at later for it, but he will be using up all of his trion to deal a good amount of damage to Senzai and Ōji. If they take him out then he will probably take the blame for that. But it will be fine because Toby will be able to manage those two points he wouldn't be able to get. Hm… Now that I think about it, someone should probably tell him to stop that. I can, but I think someone else would be better here. Nasu and Kakizaki have been helping him a lot recently so they would probably be the best options. Right, I'll do that after this match."

At this point it was not a matter of ignoring the two in front of her so much as she had not noticed them at all. The boy fighting on the new stage had caught her attention to the point of blinding her to the other two.

Their voices, while being heard, were ignored in favor of planning her next actions. Behind that was thinking of what the next actions of the combatants would be.

The voices she had ignored had its own meaning that she would have no way of knowing about.

.

"Well it looks like we have a special case here. I don't think even you will get like that, Rokkun. Good job not being the most embarrassing thing around."

"That really doesn't sound like a compliment! And why would I ever end up like that!?"

"Because you found a princess who can look past you megane-ness."

"That sentence hurt me in more ways than one."

"I sure hope so."

"So what should be done about Asano?"

There was a short silence between the two of them so that they could look back to the focused girl.

The lyrical girl only hugged while turning back around.

"Girls like that can be a lost cause at times. It's best to just let things play out and tease her as much as possible later on. Oh, but we need to make it fair and get to Kotowari too so that he can feel that embarrassment as well."

"I was referring to her not focusing on the match anymore…"

"Oh… Just leave her be then."

* * *

Senshi was not ignorant to what was before his eyes.

His two opponents had made their way back to the inner plaza, but it was not by coincidence or chance that they had made it back. Even his own bad luck did not play much of a part in this turn of events. The reason for this had been clear the moment the Laser Shooter had moved back and away from the two opponents he faced.

His offense in those trion orbs had been left in the inner plaza and Senshi had watched as each one slammed into each other before accumulating into a single orb that hung over the area as if it was another false sun.

After that had been seen he had kept track of where everyone was placed by having Tekitai tell him the locations of his teammates as well as the opposing fighters. This had been done within that small amount of time that his two opponents had left him alone in the inner plaza.

Now that they were back…

"…"

He wasted no time in his next actions.

Instead of moving forward he moved back, closer to those tall buildings.

Ōji followed that movement as Takeshi made his way back to the inner plaza.

But it seemed that they had been a moment too late.

The Laser Shooter raised his hand to his scarf and began to fix it as the trion orb over their heads began to fire.

The first attack had been a single beam fired directly towards the ground in front of the Shooter.

From there the beam split into two.

From there the two beams split into four.

From there the four beams split into eight.

From there the eight beams split into sixteen.

From there each beam continued to split up to double the number of beams.

They rained down on the area from high above the ground. The split beams would take a large portion of the Shooter's trion, but the area it covered as well as the offensive power it provided was not something that could be overlooked.

From his position near the tall buildings, Senshi could not help but see this rain of seemingly endless beams as a tree diagram that came from the heavens to smash into the ground. An amazing light display that would rip and tear through any defense that tried to defend against it.

And as luck would have it…

"Oh?"

His body felt light.

.

When bad things happened to people, others would usually think of the simple lines like "The luck has run out", "You were unlucky", "Better luck next time". They were easy to remember saying that held no real meaning for the people saying them or the people hearing them.

For Senshi it was different.

There was no luck that could run out for him. He was never lucky to begin with. There would be no luck for "next time".

He was an unlucky person because of his Side Effect.

There was no indication as to when that bad luck would reach him or others around him, but…

_There is always a heavy feeling whenever my Side Effect is active._

His body felt strangely light.

_The only way to counter my bad luck is to have someone with good luck just as strong. Then there would be an equal amount of both lucks and they would cancel each other out. Since that's the case, it means that we got too close to each other._

His teammate was close enough to him that their Side Effects canceled each other out.

If there was always a heavy feeling on him because of his Side Effect then there was always a sort of light feeling on that lucky girl. If his heaviness was gone then her lightness was also gone.

Now they were only a boy and a girl. There was nothing lucky or unlucky about them.

_If this is the case then…_

Placing a hand to his ear, Senshi began to speak while moving away from the tree diagram attack from the sky.

"Ite. Sorry about this. Looks like they caught us. Can you hang out for a bit while I get us some points?"

"My opponent is Yuba-san while we are moving towards that beast and you are asking me that?"

"Yeah. Sorry for the trouble."

A sigh came through.

"It is no problem. Just be aware that I may not be able to make it through to the end then."

"What about me then? Should I go help Ite?"

Their own Shooter seemed to have nothing to do since Yuba had been left in the hands of their Sniper.

Seeing one of the beams come close to him, Senshi shifted his feet while turning. It was not the same sliding turn that Yuba had been able to pull off before. His action was different from that.

As the beam split once more to reach him he began a new movement by moving his Raygust to the side as if to cut through the beam.

"Thruster…"

And that was exactly what happened.

The blade that had already been in motion because of its turning accelerated even more as the Optional Trigger was activated to push it forward even more.

The blade itself went from a relatively thin blade to that of a broadsword in a single moment.

The swinging blade cut through the beam that had split off from the original one. Although it did not stop the beam completely, it had managed to create a new moment for him to escape.

The push from Thruster had managed to let the blade cut through the beam while pushing his turn even further. The spin of the turn increased while his feet pushed the ground to move away and continue the turn.

Once the full rotation had been made he was within the tall buildings where the Sniper ruled the battlefield. From his spot he could see that Ōji had managed to get away from the beams as well, albeit at the cost of his side.

"Sthénos. You stay hidden. You will be our reserve member for now. If one of us gets taken out and it comes down to it, we will go for a tie. Can you stay quiet for that long?"

"I'll try my best! Only because I know these guys won't last too long if you're really going all out here!"

* * *

"Are you sure you don't want to watch Kotowari Squad's match?"

Murakami looked up from where he sat on the sofa.

He was in the Suzunari Branch Office with his squad. Across from him sat Yuki who, up until now, had been looking down at the tablet in his hands. A bottle of pills was placed on the table between them and Kon was being cautious as she watched Taichi move closer to his upperclassman.

"Hm? Yeah, I'm fine with that. While it would be nice to see SenSen go at it with them, Ōji would probably get on my case for having watched his match."

"What did you even do to get on his bad side?"

"Who knows," Yuki shrugged. Murakami found this investing since he was aware of the reasoning for this as well. "That guys can be as bad as Akashi at times, so I just ignore them for the most part. Don't worry too much. I don't really get along with him like I do that asshole cosplayer."

If not for the fact they knew him well enough, Murakami was sure that they would not know who he was referring to.

"But you know."

He watched as Yuki tilted his head towards Taichi. The fox boy gave a sideways look while raising an eyebrow at Taichi.

"I would have thought you would be watching that match. You're really close to SenSen, aren't you?"

"Yup! SenSen-san always takes care of me whenever he's around! He doesn't complain about my mess-ups and he always lets me hang off of his neck! He also let's ride on his back or shoulders whenever I want!"

The way Taichi was talking brightly was a bit blinding, but his words did not go unnoticed by everyone else. Murakami could feel his brows lower in sympathy for his fellow Attacker. He could see the way Yuki looked back to him in a similar way while Kon looked ready to explode what they were hearing.

If Kuruma was here then he would surely be able to calm down the girl.

"Oh, but he can be scary at times. Especially when fighting."

"Yeah, his luck can get like that."

Murakami raised a brow at the way Taichi shook his head.

The way the boy smiled showed just how much fun he was having with this conversation.

"No, no, no! SenSen-san is super scary when he doesn't have his bad luck!"

"I've seen him when his Side Effect is turned off, but never when he's fighting. His bad luck is always active whenever we have some solo matches."

"The same goes for me," Murakami said, finally speaking up. "Now that I think about it, who actually has seen that kind of thing?"

"Eh? But I thought all of you knew already!"

There had not been anyone around to see such a thing, yet Taichi knew.

It was something they all understood as a possibility, but not something they could verify for themselves.

None of them had known Taichi to be a liar, so there was no reason to doubt him. If anything, he was the one to trust when it came to the Senzai Squad captain.

Seeing that the other two occupants were just as confused by this, Murakami spoke up again. His words were being directed towards Taichi while covering for the other two.

"So what exactly is he like? When his Side Effect is shut off."

"He's ultra scary! I don't know if he's as good as Kō-san when he gets serious, but he is probably near that! Kō-san can attack and defend because of Kōgetsu and Raygust, but SenSen-san defends while attacking with only Raygust! He's also really, really, really good at mixing in other Triggers."

"He's asked me before to help him with Teleport..."

"Yeah, that's why I said he's scary! Oh, but there's a big downside to this! Shingai-san ends up losing her luck. So if someone takes her out, his bad luck comes back! That means he's not as scary!"

Murakami took this knowledge heavily.

Suzunari-1 had fought Senzai Squad before, but they had never tried to cancel out those luck-based Side Effects. No one but Taichi had experience with seeing what that was like and he would be the best person to trust in for this information.

"I guess I hope no-one tries that… But if they do then SenSen-san will probably win… Aaaahhh! I don't know what I want to happen!"

"Why not just watch it? You caught my attention with that, so I'm a bit curious as to what will happen. Here, here. You can even sit next to me, Taichi. Oh, but I won't be as good as SenSen when it comes to patting you, so keep that in mind."

It was amazing how quickly Taichi had jumped into the seat next to Yuki. It was less amazing how he looked up expectantly.

Next to him, he could see Kon shake her head. He only gave her a smile while reaching for the nearby remote.

"Well let's all watch this together then."

* * *

Ōji found it odd that he had not been the only one to get away from that attack.

The rain of beams had covered a wide area and he had taken some hits, but he had managed to get out of it with as minimal amount of damage as possible.

At least that was what he had thought.

A good distance away was an unscathed Senshi holding a bulkier Raygust than before.

As the rain of beams subsided and disappeared from before them, he saw the way Takehsi looked towards them. When his eyes fell upon Ōji they looked as if he had expected much, especially given how close to the edge he already was.

But when he looked over to Senshi, his eyes grew a bit wider as the hand on his scarf tightened around the accessory.

_So Take is also surprised by this. I would have thought his bad luck would get the better of him there. Or did that bad luck affect Take?_

He shook his head.

_No. If that was the case then I wouldn't have gotten out of that so easily. So what happened then?_

A sound filled his ears a moment later.

His two opponents seemed to want to collect themselves once more, giving him time to listen to what his teammates had to say.

Both Kurauchi and Kashio had been taken out, but that did not mean their words would be useless here. In fact, it would be best to listen to them given the situation.

"What-"

"Ōji, get away right now! You can't be within Senshi's range!"

He wasted no time in moving back. It had gained the attention of his two opponents, but that was not what mattered here.

Kurauchi had been the one to warn him and that was enough for him to comply. The Shooter would not react in such a way if it was something trivial or something Ōji could handle easily.

He looked between the other two in the area and saw that Takeshi had taken his lead by following with a similar movement. Unlike Ōji, he moved a bit slower and was not as fast to respond.

"Those guys got it wrong."

It was Kurauchi again who spoke through the comms.

"Kotowari Squad was trying to get Shingai and Senshi close to cancel out their Side Effects. That is not something you should do if you are fighting against them. While it might help with fighting Shingai, it will only cause problems when trying to handle Senshi. Make sure you aren't with a teleporting range of him or in rage of a quick Thruster. If you can…hold off until Shingai moves away or gets taken out.

Something about the way Kurauchi had been seemingly praising Senshi along with his warning had made a competitive feeling begin to boil up from inside. While the temptation to go with that feeling was strong, Ōji's want to win was just as strong.

_I need to just go along with his warning for now._

_Besides, I would also need to deal with Take firing at me. Letting one of them get a single point is better than losing our chances of getting any points._

With a bitter smile, he began to move back.

"Hold on."

The calm voice from a distance came with a worried undertone that Ōji couldn't help but enjoy a bit.

A laser-like beam followed that voice as it tore through the air. The heated noise had been aimed properly towards him so anything less than teleporting would have meant an instant defeat.

But…

"Are you sure you should be focusing on me right now?"

Ōji did nothing to try and evade the laser-like beam.

Why? Because there was no reason to do so.

Without any movement from his part, the laser-like beam with a heated noise moved in a direction other than where Ōji was moving back.

From where he was moving, he could see a streak of red in the air just above the Laser Shooter. A green blade had already been in the motion of a swing and the body attached to that red was making a full mid-air rotation in only a single fluid motion.

_I don't know why he didn't go after me instead, but I'll consider that a good thing. Maybe Take had done something to upset SenSen. Either way…_

The body of red and green had chosen Takeshi as his target instead of him. While it gave him a slight feeling of relief, it also irritated him in a way he only felt when around a fox-like boy.

The realization of that fact had made him go wide eyed as he got out of range of the laser-like beams.

_So that's how it is… That's why I feel so bad about these kinds of thoughts…_

_._

Takeshi felt his body tense up at the sudden appearance of a body above his head.

It was an odd sensation - having this trigger used against him like this.

Due to their former captain throwing himself to find the best ways to use Teleport, his entire squad had followed along and learned how to use Teleport as best they could. Toby had managed to understand how to use it well enough while Suzume had rarely used it, instead focusing on Scorpion as a secondary Trigger. Takeshi himself would use it when needing to escape a situation, so he was not too unfamiliar with how to use it. The appearance of Hoshi had only increased this with her specially made Teleport known as Zanzō.

But this was different.

It was not a Kotowari Squad member using it and it was being used against him instead of by him.

He knew that by no means were they the only ones to use the Trigger, but it was still not something he was used to seeing.

He was unprepared to handle this.

Yuki had taught them how to use the Trigger once they had brought it up. He had also taught them how to counter the Trigger properly. It was not something that he would fail to do since he knew who else used the Trigger.

So then why did nothing come to mind?

The answer was painfully obvious to Takeshi as he finally moved his body.

_I still couldn't see much during that time. It's my fault that I'm in this situation._

It was too late as the red and green body came down before he could move. His arm was the consequence of that moment of stagnation.

_Wouldn't it be better to go after Ōji here? He is more dangerous than me._

_Oh, that's why, isn't it? Because I am less dangerous he wants an easy point. That makes sense._

_If I was like that mutt then I would probably say something like, "I'll show you I'm dangerous too!" Or maybe, "I'll show you how dangerous I can be!" Most likely something akin to, "I'll at least take you out with me!"_

_Yeah… That last one sounds like it would fit him, doesn't it?_

It was a secondary sadness that he knew what his teammate would think at a time like this.

Those two sad realizations were pushed aside as he moved his remaining arm while his body rotated to face the ones who had cut off his arm. Two orbs of trion appeared next to him, both glowing a brilliant green.

Aiming and then firing would take too long, leaving the only choice to fire without any aim. A blind attack that could take off his remaining arm like it had before.

The orbs glowed brighter as they began to fire their shots.

"!?"

But they were far too slow.

The red and green body moved forward the instant Takeshi had begun his rotation. It moved forward while applying a rotation as well.

The length of the blade in his hand grew even more as he rotated. The blade's extra length reached that short distance in a single quick motion of the wrist.

The blade cut through the orbs ready to fire while never stopping for a moment.

The large blade continued to move through the space between the cut orbs and Takeshi. While it did soothe cut orbs' light flickered for a moment before detonating as they were supposed to.

The explosions that followed had been enough to catch Takeshi off guard again, but did not so much as scratch the hand holding the blade.

Due to the changing ability of Raygust, the blade had extended its reach a bit more to cover Sensei's hand from the explosion. The same could not be applied to Takeshi who had taken the brunt of the explosions as well as the slash from Raygust.

Or that was what should have happened.

.

Senshi was not surprised upon seeing the two straps fall to the ground in front of him.

This was another form of Teleport that he had not been properly introduced to until now. A replacement Trigger that allowed for an instantaneous escape the moment the user was hit.

The fact that two straps fell to the ground instead of one showed just how much Takeshi had tried to escape.

_The first one is because he tried to escape the explosions. The second was a quick one so that he could escape the slash. In which case…_

Without moving his body at all, Sensei's eyes turned towards the side.

A noise filled the space he had occupied before a new heated noise tore through the air.

Upon landing at the teleportation spot, he readied himself for the next attack.

He was right in doing so.

A laser-like beam tore through the air to reach him. From the corner of his eye he could see the first beam fading away as this new one became the main source of attacking.

"This is bad…"

It had not been his words that filled the space. Those had been the words from the one who had fired the beam.

Standing a sea distance away was Takeshi. The arm that had been severed was now leaking trion at a tremendous rate and green lines were running along his face.

Instead of blocking the attack, Senshi sidestepped it while leaning forward.

The green beam seemed to be the final attack Takeshi could provide in this situation. It was his way of trying to make less work for his teammates later on.

But it meant nothing here.

"Do you want me to cut you? Do you want to shoot yourself through? Do you want to run out of trion? Do you want to try and escape first? What do you want to do?"

This time it had been his own words that filled the space.

He was questioning his opponent as he ran forward towards that opponent.

Takeshi was fixing the beam so that it ran along a different line to reach him, but it was still too slow. He could still move around that beam.

"What do I want to do?"

Senshi nodded.

"I want to win."

Senshi shook his head. The distance was now even smaller, even as his opponent backed up a bit.

"Then I want to still be here for my teammates."

Senshi shook his head again.

"I don't want to lose. But that doesn't look like an option."

Senshi nodded.

"Damn. In that case…"

Cracks began running along Takeshi's whole body at this point.

As a show of sportsmanship, Senshi activated Thruster once more. This time he had aimed for his opponent's legs.

Takeshi fell to the ground with a soft noise as the last of the beam faded away.

"Can I ask that you go after someone else's squad instead of mine?"

Senshi nodded for the last time.

He bladed his blade above Takeshi. In one quick motion he cut cleanly through his opponent's neck.

A light filled the spot his opponent had occupied before flying off.

**Bail Out.**

* * *

"[That is a point for Senzai Squad. They are now in second place for this match…]"

"[You don't sound too hazy about that.]"

"[I'm only saying what we all know here. With Kazuaki making his escape, the fight between Senshi and Takeshi has concluded with the former taking the win.]"

Yoneya grinned in his place next to the glasses boy. The usage of the Laser Shooter's name did not go unnoticed by him or Karasuma. Even so, neither said anything about it and focused back on their commentary.

"[What changed there though? Even if he was using a lot of trion, Takeshi seemed to be doing fine enough. It was just a moment before Senzai-senpai was able to gain control of the fight.]"

"[If I had to guess… It would say the little teleporter just got outmatched by a better teleporter. But there was also something there that some of you might not have noticed.]"

"[You are talking about the lack of bad luck for Senzai-senpai or Takeshi, right?]"

"[Exactly.]"

"[Kotowari Squad may have been planning to turn off both Ite-san and Sensei's Side Effects so they would not have to deal with so many random factors. That looks like it backfired though since Senshi seems to do better without his bad luck around. That does make sense though.]"

"[I don't think there are many people who have seen him without his bad luck around, so this was actually a bit surprising to see. Oh, but don't get me wrong here. I know that SenSen-san is really capable the it comes to fighting.]"

"[That's right. Some people are under the impression that he is reliant on his Side Effect, aren't they?]"

"[Correct. You can hear it here and there around the base. Not believing in something like 'luck' is fine and all, but there are people who take that luck to mean that there is no value in the person in question. The same applies for Ite-san, if not more so. This should be a good reminder that their placement here is not a mistake or anything of the sort.]"

"[If anything, the reason they aren't placed higher is because of those Side Effects.]"

.

"…"

"Are you okay?"

"…Of course I am. No reason not to be."

"Oh? Then why are you fiddling with your hands so much?"

Kōchō couldn't help the small laugh that escaped her lips upon seeing Asano quickly separating her hands from each other.

The entire time the fight had been going on she could tell that Asano had been paying close attention to both fighters. Seeing it finally end may have finally gotten to her as her shoulders slumped low while she let out a small breath.

Wakamura may have noticed as well, but it was hard to tell from the way his glasses reflected the screen and the way his shoulders were a bit higher than normal.

_Am I the only one who is being calm about all of this?_

She shook her head. There was more to this than what she was thinking.

_They are both tense because they understand what is going on better than I do. They are used to fighting in fights like these and understand what has happened here. The most experience I have is a few solo matches and fighting Neighbors._

It was the clear difference between those who are competitive and those who were not.

"Well Asanocchi is now fine enough since Kotowari-kun is no longer fighting. Now we wait to see for Rokkun. Will he last the rest of the match or will Taiyōko-chan get taken out first. We shall see!"

This received a double glare from the one next to her and the one behind her.

"What about you? Aren't you worried about Toby? That's the reason you're here, right?"

"Nice try, Asanocchi. But unlike you two… No, I guess it's really just Rokkun at the moment. Anyway, unlike that, I can admit to my reasons. I came here to watch as a 'fan' of Kotowari Squad, but I hope to see more of Toby. It's always fun to see him so energetic after all."

"Thank you for that."

The two girls looked over to see Wakamura putting his phone down. On the screen they could see him exiting a recording app.

Asano raised an eyebrow at the boy, but understood exactly what he had done.

As for Kōchō…

"Oh, can you send that to me, Rokkun? I want to send it directly to Toby after their match is over. I'm sure it will be interesting to see what happens."

The one next to her and the one behind her made simultaneous sounds. One sounded like someone choking while the other was a sigh of resignation.

"At least you tried, Wakamura… I guess this girl just likes teasing Toby too much to care."

"What are you talking about? How could you not enjoy teasing someone like that? Oh, but don't worry. I am putting my feelings in teasing him."

"Is that really supposed to be a good thing….?"

Kōchō shrugged her shoulders.

She turned back to the screen in front of them as the match continued on.

There had been no falsehood in her words, but it had not been the complete truth either.

_That is for another time though. For now…_

* * *

_I'm so pathetic…_

Takeshi gave a dull look towards the ceiling. The bright lights that hung over him seemed like nothing compared to the ones he had seen moments ago.

The lights from his own attacks were much brighter than the ones above his head. And yet they still felt as if they were extremely dull when compared to other lights he had seen.

_Unless we ask for something specific, the lights won't change. The same light coming from my Laser Shooter and the light from that Raygust are the exact same. I know that, but it still feels like that blade was brighter. I felt like my own weapons were dull._

Holding out his hand, he tried to will one of those orbs into existence. The only things that were guaranteed to come when he called for them. Those same ones that also gave off a brilliant light for him.

Nothing came.

That was more than enough of a confirmation that he had lost.

He had been facing two opponents and lost. He had planned ahead to deal with then and lost. He had used his offensive abilities to their fullest and lost. He had been given a point to work with form Toby and lost. His plan had gone fine enough and he lost.

He lost.

_I lost…_

It was an undeniable fact now.

Since he had decided to take it as a fact, he slowly got up from the mat he had landed on after having Bailed Out.

He fixed his scarf as he began to walk over to the monitors that were placed in front of Nakagami.

The entirety of his fight played in his mind. The way Senshi had moved to the way Ōji had escaped. From the way he fired his shots to they seemed to not matter to his opponent.

Everything played out in his head so that he could repeat it for his teammates and warn them of what they were now dealing with.

He had lost, but he was not out of the fight completely.

He could not fight against anyone anymore, but he could assist his teammates. Even if he had been useless on the battlefield, he could do something here.

Even so…

_I'm still pathetic…_

With that final pessimistic thought, he looked to the monitors displaying the information on the match.

Nakagami did not look away from the screens as he approached her. Her words were still directed towards him though.

"So what next?"

A voice followed hers from the monitors.

"Sorry, Take. I guess my plan backfired there. Pretty hard too. Don't worry. I'll make up for that by scoring us another major point."

"Were you just trying to get me to Bail Out so you could fight again?"

"Of course not, you idiot! I didn't think you would get taken out! That looked like a fight you would totally win!"

"Well I didn't. And you saying any more will make me want to fire on you even more."

"You can try, but it won't work!"

It was the sad truth.

"Which one will you be going after?"

"Who do you recommend?"

Nakagami looked up from the monitors while waiting for that answer. She had not been the one to ask, but she seemed interested in the answer.

Takeshi knew that they would listen to his words, but his experience in this case was nothing compared to his teammate's. The difference in figuring out which opponent to go to was too vast for him to clearly decide on the answer.

Since this was the case, he only gave a short reply.

"You pick."

The howl laughter that came through the speakers irritated him to no end. But…

_He knows what to do._

This was how he would play his part as captain.

He would trust in his teammate to know what to do here while he thought about the entire situation as a whole.

A single fight could make all the difference here, but the entire situation also needed to be viewed properly to decide the right outcome for the match.

That would be what he would do. While he had been taken out first among their squad, it gave him a chance to view the entire match from a safe space where could properly think.

"Suzuka-san, I will probably need your help to figure this out."

"You aren't as much of a smooth talker as Lobo there, but that's fine. I'll help you out with whatever you need."

He could only nod in response to her.

It was his turn to move everything in a proper way.


	100. Senshi Senzai:Part 2

Her luck had been brought down to normal and it showed.

Shingai noticed right away when her luck was on longer helping her with keeping up with Yuba. Besides the sudden weight that suddenly appeared, her shots become exactly what they seemed like instead of something that would only help her in the long run. The way Yuba moved also seemed to be more refined, but she knew that was not the case.

Using her good luck so much had distorted her view on matters a bit since things would become unpredictable, but always end up well for her.

When that good luck was taken away she was able to see reality for what it was.

"…!"

And this was the byproduct of that.

It became more noticeable when that good luck was taken away. Everything could only be considering "going down" from here on out. At least until her good luck returned that is.

The issue with that was that there was on telling when exactly that would happen and what exactly would happen before that time. It was completely unknown in a way that she did not like. More so because she knew that it could cause issues for her team later on.

And that was exactly what was happening now.

Her shots became straight shots while Yuba moved much more freely than before. The random activities that would happen in her favor were no longer there and everything became clear to those around her except herself.

_Truly, this is a demerit to having a Side Effect like that. But to counter that, we have Senshi._

If there was a weight placed on her then it meant that there was a weight lifted from her captain. It was the simple duality of two luck-based Side Effects being around each other.

Everything would be "going down" for her, but they would always be "going up" for Senshi.

During those times they had always figured that it would be best for Shingai to slow down on offense and allow Senshi to continue an all-out assault on any opponents he came across. It seemed to continue to work as he had just gained a point for them from Kotowari Squad undamaged to aka the Ōji Squad captain retreat for the time being.

"That simply means I need to maintain my position here for a bit longer."

Because of the way their Side Effects worked, she would not be able to rely on her good luck for the time being. That fact caused some issues with her current situation given her current opponent was someone as skilled as Yuba.

.

There was no mistaking what was happening at this point.

The luck that Senzai Squad relied on was no longer in effect and everyone was placed on a similar ground at this point. It meant that there was nothing good and nothing bad happening to that particular squad or their surroundings.

The shots that had once been coming in strange ways were no longer able to move like that. The random appearances of obstacles was no longer an issue to deal with. And most important of all…

"I can finally go on the offensive again."

This was a change of pace that favored those in a losing or running position while those winning or chasing would be forced to change their tactics.

It was exactly what Yuba needed to begin moving how he wanted once more.

"Tonooka, can you see her from where you are?"

"I can."

"Obishima, can you manage a few moments without his help?"

"I…can!"

There was no reason for him to tell her that she was doing a good job by answering. She knew the situation she was in and taking too much to her would ruin her concentration.

Nothing else needed to be said as he began to move once more.

During the time he had been running from the shots Shingai was firing he had been keeping his hands free from the two guns that hung at his sides. Keeping them close would make him too excited and bringing them out may have made him a bit trigger happy.

Now that the course of the battle was changing, it was fine for him to reach for them. To grab hold of them, get excited, and be as trigger happy as he wanted.

The reason for that was obvious.

"We will now be making a counter attack! Before we have to deal with more trouble from these guys!"

His teammates responded to his words.

The first response had come verbally from Obishima, while the second one…

"!"

The second response came in the form of a shot.

It had been directed to an area above his head, where the tall buildings met the sky. It had seemed to miss its target if looked at in a basic sense.

But that had not been the point of the shot.

"There you are…!"

Yuba could see Shingai clearly now.

She must have noticed her spot was compromised by the shot that had been fired. The tall builds could take some time to climb for someone on the ground while she had to make great leaps to move from one building to another.

Even so, he began to climb.

_I was told that Awdry had been moving by using shattering Scorpion blades. That kind of thing sounds downright crazy, but I can imagine him pulling that off. Shot isn't a liar after all._

Taking a page from the Attacker's book, Yuba began to move vertically into the air by creating shields. Each one had little amounts of trion placed into them, but that negligible since they had not been created in order to block something. They were only steps for him to reach the top of the buildings.

His opponent had been chasing him around the map and had yet to take him out.

The skill she had was not something to laugh at and her Side Effect made anything she did have a good effect, yet she had not managed to take a point from them. Why had that been so?

_She wants to use me._

It was a risk, but he knew that it was the exact reason he had not been taken out.

Calling it a miracle would have been idiotic considering her good luck, so this was the only option.

She had kept him in play so that he could be used for something else.

What that was was no mystery for anyone there.

He was going to be used to take out a beast.

.

Toby Awdry was no perfect fighter, everyone knew that.

He was impulsive, immature, lacked any extensive experience, chose to play around when fighting, never bothered with plans, and was overall rather green as far as the strong were concerned. It was just how things turned out while under the command of his former squad captain.

But that did not mean he was weak.

Those same people who understood those things about him also understood how much of a threat he was.

He was impulsive, but that was because it always worked out for him.

He was immature, but that immaturity had placed him in battles against many types of fighters.

He lacked any extensive experience, but that was only when it came to basics. The more intricate something was, the more aptitude he showed with it.

He chose to play around when fighting, but that had always been his own way of fighting.

He never bothered with plans, but that was because there was no need for them.

He was overall rather green as far as the strong were concerned, but those same strong people saw his worth.

Among all of the members of the current Kotowari Squad, he had been the one to take the most amount of points during matches. The one the opponents had been wary of was him and his Side Effect that allowed him to react to most attacks.

Even if there was still a gap between him and the likes of the top six Attackers, he had proven himself during this match.

His win against a Shooter like Kurauchi was not something that his opponents could ignore.

Yuba himself understood it even better than most since he had the Shooter under his command before he had split off with Ōji.

_Using me to take that boy out… I guess even she is unsure if her good luck is enough to take him out. Or maybe she just wanted to weaken me before she dealt the finishing blow._

Whatever the case, it was clear that she was going to use him to fight against that beast who had taken out Kurauchi.

It had been strange to see that he did not move from the general area of that fight, but no one had been complaining about it if it meant they did not have to go against him.

During that same time, Yuba had also thought that it was best that Awdry did not join in to help his teammates. At least until he realized what that actually meant for the rest of them.

"Tch."

_These guys were trying to play us from the start._

Kotowari Squad's plan relied on Awdry winning against Kurauchi.

_Depending on who won, they would change their plan accordingly._

_If Kurauchi had won then they might have gone with a more reserved strategy. He would be low on trion after fighting Awdry, but he is still someone you can't just leave alone. If he were to meet up with his teammates then would have made things even more troublesome for them._

The attack that Kotowari had used against Nasu to keep her in place would have been their only reliable way of shutting down Kurauchi after that.

_Since Awdry won, they went with a more aggressive strategy. Something along the lines of wear-and-tear. While Awdry saved up his remaining trion, the rest of them would try to wear the rest of us down until we would have no chance against their ace._

Was he their ace?

There was no doubt.

The former Tsukiko Squad had someone like Yuki on their team. There had been no doubt that the captain was the ace of their squad.

With the loss of that captain that rob would likely fall to their Operator. Someone who had a great amount of experience with most of the squads fighting, had a Side Effect that could work for support or for actual fights, and who overall could fit anywhere. But since she was not even here as their Operator, the spot of ace had to go to one of their Combatants.

The only choice would have been Awdry.

They must have also decided that was the case and would leave things to him.

If they could not take out one of the stronger opponents, they would at least wear them down so their current ace could come in and take as many points as possible with little resistance.

"Are they relying on one person again?"

His anger began to boil up again when remembering how they clung to their former captain. So much so that they had shut down after he had decided to leave them for his own reasons.

After that, they had stuck together, but seemed to still be relying on Takato.

_With her no longer here, are they clinging to their current ace?_

No, that was not the case.

The members of Kotowari Squad were only helping each other out. They were making it easier for one of their own to score the points they needed.

It was not an uncommon thing for a squad to rely solely on their ace, many of them were reliant on them and would support them any way they could.

And it seemed that Kotowari Squad had decided to take that route as their own form of teamwork.

_If that's the case… I won't be playing the way they want. Same goes to Shingai up there._

.

Shingai could feel that her opponent was coming in for a full out attack against her now. The shot that had been fired in her direction had not been a blind shot meant to take her out.

_It was a way for Yuba-san to find my location._

A sniper would never stay in one place after having fired a shot, so there had been no point in firing a counter shot. The distance must have also been great since the shot was not even close enough to hither to begin with.

Even if the shot was meant to show her position, any would take a chance to at least weaken their opponent. The fact she was unharmed meant that the sniper in question could not get a good fix on her and so could not hit her.

But it had given her away.

_In cases like these…_

Running would only lead to a pointless chase.

The good luck from her Side Effect would help her if she had gotten it back, but it would also work against Senshi if that happened. Running out of the area close to him was out of the question.

_Since I cannot run vertically, I will just have to run in a different direction._

The rooftops required great leaps to cross and she had likely been spotted when making that great leap. But what if there were no more leaps like those? How would she be found out in tat kind of situation?

The answer was that she would not be found.

With no reason to hold back, she made a quick dash across the roof of the building she was on, towards the door leading into the building itself.

.

The first thing Yuba found strange was the fact he had not seen his opponent make any great leaps to another building.

Great leaps were needed to move from these rooftops. Yet there had been no sign of one being made.

Someone who had the agility of Shingai was able to cross such distances easily, but even she would need to give herself away for a moment to do so.

Since that was not the case here, it meant only one thing.

"Inside the buildings!"

She had gone inside of the building instead of relying on a pointless chase the would only make them go in circles.

Staying within a set area was all that she could do given the situation. Since she could not move too much outside of the area, it meant that she could also be targeted much easier by other Snipers or by someone who spotted her.

That did not necessarily mean that she would get caught, but it meant that she had less options.

For someone like this it was best to either bomb them or have someone as quick as them for the chase.

The only ones that came to mind who could keep up with her were Yuba himself and Awdry, who had already shown that his speed was not something to laugh at anymore.

Ōji may also have a chance to catch up to her, but he would be the third best option for it. But he would not have as sure of a chance to hit her while involved with a chase than the two of them.

Since bombing the area was not something they could do easily, it left Yuba with the only option he had here.

He had to enter the building and find her.

_I guess it would make little sense to have this chase if she was not a sniper. Still, the harassment I have to go through just to reach her is pretty damn annoying!_

Turning his body on the weak shield under him, he pulled out one of his two guns and began firing at the glass that made up the large windows of the tall building he was circling.

Instead of entering through the shattered glass, he began to move around the building, firing at different spots and at places that were either higher or lower than his current location.

* * *

_I should hurry up so Ite doesn't have to worry too much about losing._

Noise could be heard from two different locations, both sounding rather soft and from a great distance. The fact the sound even reached the area had been because of the echo created by the buildings that towered over everything running along the ground.

One of the sounds resembled that of shattering glass while the other one was more akin to feet running along the ground.

Which sound was coming from where was rather difficult to tell, but that did not mean it was impossible to figure out which sound belonged to which location.

_If I was Kurauchi then this would be so easy. If I was Suzaku then I could at least figure out which sound was which._

Senshi closed his eyes while tilting his head from one side to the other.

When the sounds continued to bend together at a point, he crossed his arms and began tilting his entire upper body to figure out which sound belonged to which location.

"…"

He could not figure it out.

The sounds were bending together too well for him to figure out which one belonged to which location.

With no way of figuring out which one was which, he placed a hand to his ear.

"Hey, which side has the shattering glass and which side had the running people?"

"I have the shattering glass! Yuba-san is starting to mess with me since I entered a building instead of continuing to run!"

"Oh? Should I tell Shinya that you have an older man chasing after you?"

What would be the reaction to that?

Senshi imagined that, without context, Shinya would question what Tekitai was saying while keeping an eye on Shingai. There would be no dramatic reaction and he would look into it if not told directly by Shinagi herself.

_He is a good guy. I should probably make sure something like that doesn't happen though._

Someone that good would only get swallowed whole by the others if they found out something like that. Senshi would never hear the end of it and it would be likely that all of the younger Border members would begin building a wall to protect their protector.

Since that was not the case, he found no reason to say anything to others. It would only be when Tekitai said something that he would get involved. For the time being…

_I know where to go now._

Shingai was where the shattering glass was and he knew where Shingai was. Yuba was where Shingai and the shattering glass was, so that would also be where Awdry would end up going. That made three fighters' locations relatively known.

There was no point in time when Senshi thought himself to be a strategist, but he did know that there would be no way of saving Shingai before she got taken out by either the gunslinger or the wild beast moving towards them. By the time he got there, she would have lost and his bad luck would come into effect again. That would happen if he went to the shattering glass.

What would happen if he went to the side with the running people?

That would likely be where most of the remaining fighters were.

Who did those fighters consist of again?

Kotowari's Taiyōko and Yuba's Obishima. The remaining two Snipers would have been unknowns if not for the fact that Kotowari's Misaki decided to harass the Operators.

He could clearly remember what Tekitai had said once that had started: "Screw that. I'm not focusing on someone like that, so you guys can figure out what to do with her."

_Now that I think about it… Isn't it a bit irresponsible of him to just leave it to us? I mean, it makes sense and all, but still. He could try to do something from his end._

But this was just how much faith he had in them.

If he felt that they could not handle something like that by themselves then he would have surely done something to help them.

Since he did not do anything it meant that he believed they could handle this without him.

Senshi was still getting used to certain aspects of human emotions, but he understood well enough what their Operator was saying by doing this. Even from a strictly factual perspective, it made enough sense for him.

For that reason alone, he made no mistake in his next action.

He ran.

If he went towards the shattering glass then he would have to contend with the gunslinger and the wild beast with his bad luck active. Only one of them would have been enough to take him out while sustaining some injuries themselves. But it would still end in a loss for him.

There was only one place left for him to go.

"Those people."

The side with the running people.

Going to the remaining side would mean more opponents, but that was not what mattered right now. Numbers alone would not be enough to take him on as he currently was. Only those with skill could manage something like that.

As he began to run, a certain thought came to mind. It was strange to him since the person he thought of did not have anything to do with his current match, yet they were still the one that came to mind.

_I wonder if Taichi is watching. If he is, doesn't that mean I need to look cool for him?_

Senshi nodded as he ran. It was to no one in particular, but he felt that it was the right thing to do here.

_Right, that's what I'll do. I'll score some points and look cool for Taichi._

* * *

"Whoo! Whoo! So cool, SenSen-san!"

A loud sound filled the Suzunari Branch as one of its Snipers jumped up.

The other occupants in the room looked to him in surprise since it had come from seemingly nowhere.

The first one to respond to the shout was Kon, who at the time had been boiling some water.

"What was that for, Taichi!?"

"Eh!? Oh… Um, I'm not too sure. I just felt like rooting for SenSen-san more."

"Was there a particular reason for that?"

Taichi could only look up at the ceiling in response to Kuruma's question.

_Reason… Reason… Reason… Why did I do that again? Was it because I'm full of energy? But then why didn't I do that before? Because I felt like he needed it? But he can't hear me right now, so that doesn't matter. Um, uh, un…_

When looking down again, he saw that Kuruma was calmly waiting for an answer while Kon was off to the side, looking ready to say something to him. Off to the side he could also see Murakami leaning on his knees with an interested grin and Yuki leaning back on the couch with an amused grin.

Even with those looks he knew he did not have a good reason for his action.

So instead of a proper reason, something else came out.

"Because SenSen-san is cool…?"

Once again, Kon was the first one to respond.

"You don't sound too sure."

"Um, I am…?"

"When you, of all people, add '…' then I know you are not sure why."

"Really? I guess that makes sense."

"I…really don't know if this is getting me more mad or not. The fact you are not sure just makes me want to end this right now."

At this point he could see Murakami lowering his head into his hands and Yuki with his hands top of his head; both completely trying to suppress their laughter.

Kuruma seemed to take pity on him as he gave a reassuring smile. It could have also been pity for Kon, who was unsure how to handle the current situation herself.

"Why don't we continue watching and see if anything comes up? Besides, there is nothing wrong with cheering for a friend you admire."

Ignoring the laughing duo, Taichi and Kon nodded their heads, taking a place where they could continue watching the current match.

The question as to why Taichi had done such a thing still hung in the air.

* * *

_So this is what was happening over here…_

Ōji looked through the reflection of one of the tall buildings. He stood in the shade of a pillar while making sure that his own reflection would not come out unless seen from a certain angle.

Even with the extra effort, he doubted that he would even be spotted by the two fighting each other within that reflection he saw.

_I'm not too sure what exactly I was expecting to see, but…_

But even this stood out to him.

The two closing blades with each other were Kotowari's Taiyōko and Yuba's Obishima. Both seemed to be giving it their all with the sounds of their steps seeming to synch up with each other to make a single sound.

He had seen others do this as well, especially with opponents they were compatible with, but that was why he could easily point out the times their steps had broken. The single sound would become two or three sounds instead and the one who messed up had to right herself so that she could keep pace.

All of that was fine from his perspective. It was a bit below what he had come to see in this match, but it was still not low enough to call amateurish.

No, what was strange was everything around them.

The flashes moving towards them, the sound following them, and the shields that appeared to stop those flashes. The next set of flashes would then come from a completely different location, but still close enough to the first ones that it was hard to believe that they were coming from snipers.

Snipers would normally take their shot and move away afterwards, that much even he knew. But this was different.

The snipers he had seen before would not fire so close to where they had run from. They would find the next optimal position to fire from, not move a few meters before firing.

It had been because of these flashes and their destructions that had caught his attention instantly.

_All of the Snipers are still in play here. But if it was a battle between Itai and Tono-kun then those two would not survive this long. And with the way those shields are appearing…_

There would be only a handful of people who would create them in such a way. And the one who was currently in the match was…

_Looks like it's Queen and Tono-kun. The harassment had been coming from over here, but…_

It had stopped some time ago.

Suzume had been visible to Radar for some time now and yet no one had gone after her.

This fight may have been the reason.

Each shield shattered upon impact as the flashes tore through the air. Those flashes had been meant to take out the two girls who danced on this strange stage for far too long.

That had been his reason for being here now.

This fight would end here one way or another.

But this did bring a question to mind.

Why?

Why was this fight still going on?

Why had no one gone after the queen?

Why had neither side moved away yet?

Who was currently winning?

These questions continued to run through Ōji's head as he leaned forward in preparation for an attack.

Once he was ready for his own offense, he saw it.

An action foreign to this fight and one that had played a part in stopping it.

It was also an action that had made Ōji feel the need to rush his attack.

* * *

The moment Senshi saw Tonooka jumping from one rooftop to another, he had locked onto him as his next target.

Taking out a Sniper would play a major part in fishing this match.

_It sucks that our own Sniper will be taken out, but that's just how things go. Sorry Ite. This is my fault for needing your Side Effect to be turned off so that I can score some proper points._

He had made a mental note to get her a lemon pie later on. It would be something she could share with others while watching a monster movie.

She tended to invite some of the younger agents to things like that, so he would make sure to buy enough pies so that everyone could enjoy them.

_I think I'll have Kazuki and Taichi come with me though. I want to make sure that the pies actually reach their destination. Besides, it can also be a treat for them as well._

That would be what he does after this match.

He would treat his friends to something nice. Even when it is supposed to be meant as an apology for his teammate.

That was just the kind of guy he was.

But that would be for after this match.

And during this match he would score points as a way of showing how worth on the battlefield.

.

Looking up at where Tonooka had made his jump, Senshi saw that the Sniper had made yet another jump across buildings.

It was strange to see a Sniper like him do that after so little time.

Even so, that did not deter him from his objective.

Senshi fixed his Bagworm as he moved towards a nearby building.

Each building, while being different heights, all had the same thing in common: You could see the top of every other building on each roof. It had been for this reason that he started to climb to the top of the building.

_I don't need to get to the very top. I just need to see the rooftops. From there…_

It would be easy enough to catch up to anyone he saw from there. Be it Tonooka or Misaki, who at the moment would likely be running along a similar path as the former.

Of course, this did not mean he would actually take out whichever one it was, but the point was to lock down one of the Snipers while applying pressure to them. If they were in this area then it stands to reason that other opponents would be her as well. Those would be the targets for the Snipers.

Since he had not gotten word of Sthénos fighting anyone, it meant that everyone else in the area was an enemy that he could feel free to take out without any reservation.

Fighting against the Kotowari Squad captain had been an interesting fight, but he had noticed a lot of holes within the offense and defense of the Laser Shooter. Those holes had been what he used for his own offense and offensive-defense. These were different opponents from him with their own ways of fighting, so that same tactic may not be the best for this situation. In turn, it could also be best that he does such things in case the situation is similar to that fight.

Against a Sniper, he would've the advantage when it came to offense, but if he could not cover the distance then all of that offense would be pointless. Even his offensive-defense was nothing if he could not get the timing right.

It had been the reason for why his squad had been fluctuating between the middle tier and top tier of B-Ranks.

* * *

A bad luck Side Effect was nothing good or something to be praised for. It was just a thing that wanted others to keep their distance.

Senshi knew this all too well.

He was a walking, talking, bad omen for those around him. A catastrophe that could go anywhere his legs took him. That had been what others had seen when looking at him.

Anything that had a sense of danger understood that staying near him would bring nothing good and everything bad. Only things that could be viewed as negative would follow him and stick to him, be it misfortune, accidents, or even plain disasters. They were all drawn to him like a magnet with a strong charge.

It was something he was used to.

Even when he was connately told about the views others had on him, he said nothing.

Even when something happened and others instantly flinched away from him, he said nothing.

Even when others would have lost all hope in themselves and given up on themselves, he said nothing.

Even when other Side Effect holders would complain about their abilities, he said nothing.

There was never anything to say about his own situation. A miserable situation that brought nothing good and everything bad. It was something he lived with and found nothing in. No comfort, no anger, no regret, no resentment. There was nothing to it all.

"I would rather this sort of thing be stuck to me than someone else. I mean, shouldn't it be fine for others if I'm the one who ends up like this instead of them?"

He had spoken those words before when asked about it all.

The time and place had been hazy at best, but he could remember it enough to know that he had said those words. In fact, he could remember that he had said it two times in his entire life. Both of those times may have been in a single moment, or they may have been during separate occasions.

One of those times he was certain that he had received a harsh hit from his friend.

The usually calm and collected boy had tightened his fist, reeled it back, and threw it directly into Senshi's face. Before another one could come, someone had come in to hold him back as Senshi had stabilized himself.

Senshi had been rather muscular even then, so the hit did not feel like much when it came to pain, but that had not been what hurt.

The fact that his own friend had done such a thing due to his own words had been what struck him the hardest.

He had not been sure why exactly his words had gotten his friend mad at him in the first place. They had been simple words to state how he felt about his own misfortune. Nothing bad should have come from simply saying them, yet something bad did come.

After that his relationship with his friend had become rather strained. Neither one had been able to see the viewpoint of the other no matter how hard they tried. It was just a matter of understanding and not understanding.

It was not until just recently that the two of them had finally come to an understanding. It had not been that they could see the other's viewpoint but rather that they understood that they could not do such a thing. A point had to be made that they were just too different for such a thing to happen.

The other time he had said those words he was certain that he had made someone cry.

Who had that someone been?

He was certain that it had not been one of his teammates since they had come to that understanding already. While they did not share the same view as he did, they respected his views enough to not fight him over them. They were just that ice to him after all.

So then who had it been exactly?

It felt like the answer was obvious, but Senshi could only remember that they had been small when compared to him. They wore a hat and made sure to cling to his neck while telling him something.

While the person in question was a bit of a mystery to his memory, he knew that they had cried and told him multiple times that they did not want anything bad to happen to Senshi. Their words came out muffled, but they were understandable enough that he knew what they were saying.

He had not been sure why exactly his words had made that person cry in the first place. They had been simple words to state how he felt about his own misfortune. Nothing bad should have come from simply saying them, yet something bad did come.

He was not sure how that entire interaction had turned out. Had that person accepted his views or had they rejected them? Were they still around to say anything to him or had they given up on him and left?

He wanted to know answers to many questions he had on that person, but the answers would not come easily to him if he couldn't even remember who it was that he had made cry like that.

Had both of those incidents been because of his Side Effect or because of his own actions?

A bad luck Side Effect did bring only bad things to the person who had it. The things around them were also affected by it, but they could get away from it unlike him. It was a major difference that had made him feel the need to live outside of Mikado City, where his Side Effect would be kept away from others.

But that did not seem to be enough for others.

"Hey SenSen, just come live over here. We have enough food that it won't be a problem at all!"

"Senshi, I would really prefer if you were nearby so I can make sure you are fine."

"Captain, Captain! Move in with me! I live over there! Over there! I promise not to strip near you too much! Oh, but Tora does come by at times, so there's that!"

"SenSen, you can move in with me and Shiro, if you want. It would be no problem."

They could not just leave him by himself, outside of Mikado City.

He had rejected each invitation sent his way, thinking that would e for the best. That had not stopped them though as some of them usually made the long trek to his house so that they could just hang around or do something they had planned with him.

At times his schoolmates would take him to the city before hashed a chance to go back home. Those times had always ended up in some kind of mess, but none of them had said much about it and only helped however they could.

If his bad luck Side Effect could only bring bad things to him then why was he surrounded by great people?

It made no sense and made his view on the matter waver slightly each time they had appeared to help him.

That was why he would not let them down.

His team was counting on him here.

Those great people were kind enough to let I'm live a normal enough life where he could be on this battlefield.

The Side Effect of bad luck clung to him most of the time.

It was not here at the moment.

Since that was what was going on…

"I need to show off a bit for all of them."

* * *

Tonooka was getting tired of this situation.

No, that was not right. He had long been tired of this situation.

It was a situation that should not have come up. Since it had indeed come up, it should have turned into a situation that was already over.

That was not what was happening here.

The situation was still here and could only escalate as time went on.

And since time went on, the situation only got worse.

Obishima could handle the Kotowari support girl just fine, but that meant the Kotowari support girl could also handle Obishima just fine. The two of them were inexperienced when compared to others, but they were a perfect match when fighting each other.

The same could not be said for his own opponent.

While not fighting her directly, he was still fighting her in his own way.

_Damn you, Misaki._

He had fallen into the strange girl's trap the moment he did not tell Obishima to fall back and regroup.

The stage had been set, the performers were in place, and the music had begun to play the moment the two on the round moved.

What words came with this performance exactly?

What kind of song was being played in front of him?

He could not figure out the simple things to this performance since he was a sane person looking at this fight like an actual fight instead of a performance.

But she was different.

Suzume was not particularly sane when compared to most people and she had an edge on everyone else when it comes to seeing performances for what they were.

There was on doubt that she had already thought up lyrics for this performance.

Normally he would be one of the first to go to her once one of her songs had come out. The Border Chat would be filled with congratulations or praise for whatever song she had recently come up with. It was only beaten out when she would work with two other girls that made up the semi-band known as the Rock Girls Trio. Those times were always filled with something interesting to see.

This was different.

There was no casual setting around.

There was no actual music being made.

There was not even a way for everyone to communicate with each other for praise.

This was a battlefield and they were both Snipers.

He had gone through training to mark up his Special Tactics points as a way to guarantee hits. Others were great, but he was no slouch either. Once had set his sights on his target, he would do everything a sniper would to perfection so that he could take them out without even noticing that he had been there.

But this strange girl? She was not to be considered a sniper.

Among the Snipers in Border, there was a sort of slip when talking about this strange girl.

One side consisted of those who thought that she was fine as a Sniper and could function perfectly fine, even with her quirks and Scorpion blade at the ready. There was no problem with it since there had been people like Arafune and Kizaki who worked well as a Sniper or offensive Attacker.

The other side consisted of those who thought that she should not be a Sniper due to the fact that she did things that a Sniper should not do. There should have been no flair or performance when it came to sniping a target, yet she did so without any hesitation.

_Harassing Operators the way she did is fine and all, that much we do at times. But this is too much._

Tonooka was part of the latter.

He thought that she should not be a Sniper and this situation was the perfect example as to why.

_Narasaka started training her, didn't he? Then what exactly has he been teaching her when she still does things like this?_

It was getting to be too much. This performance involving dancers, music, and a large stage was not something he was fine with as a Sniper who took pride in his abilities.

Obishima seemed to be enjoying himself, but that may have been because she did not know this kind of pride yet and had found an opponent who was perfect for her.

He felt a bit jealous over that.

"Obishima, can you start moving back now? This quickly became a fight relying on who has more trion. It's better if we fall back and regroup. Instead of continuing this we should take them out one at a time."

"U-uh? Eh? Oh! R-right! My bad! I will try my best to fall back!"

She had been so invested in this perfect opponent that she must have only heard a bit of what he had said to her.

It was fine as long as she understood what to do though.

"I should start falling back too… — !?"

As he began to turn around for his own retreat; he saw it.

"It looks like you noticed me. That is completely on me right now though."

Senshi was coming right at him.

"Thruster."

.

Senshi could feel his Raygust cut through Tonooka easily.

The younger boy had no time to even raise up a defense as he moved at an amazing speed. It was artificial speed that he had gotten by using Thruster, but it was enough to accomplish what he wanted.

Tonooka's top high flew through the air as his bottom half fell to the ground. Lines of green ran along both parts of his body.

"!"

Feeling that something was coming, Senshi turned around in one quick motion.

The sound of something striking his Raygust could be heard as Tonooka's top half hit the ground.

Tonooka had fired a final shot to try and get a hit on him while his back was turned.

"Sorry about that. I need to make the most of not having my bad luck, so I cannot have you getting a hit on me here."

Tonooka could only let out a sigh as his body began to shine bright before turning into only light. That light flew off into the distance.

**Bail Out**

It was a point for Senzai Squad.

A point that he had gotten for his teammates and while he did not have his bad luck active.

"Now then… Oh. Looks like Ōji is also making his move here."

True to his words, Senshi could see the two performers down below the building.

They must have noticed that there was less sniper fire than before since Kotowari's Taiyōko was pushing forward while Obishima was moving back.

"It looks like Obishima was already moving back though, so Tonooka must have already told her to do so."

It meant nothing now that she had lost her support and was facing a forward pushing Taiyōko.

Even with this being the new situation, it did not mean much.

The situation was about to change again after all.

.

Ōji saw his chance the moment a light flew through the sky.

One of the Snipers had been taken out and that left one of these two girls without someone to back them up. They would need to contend with both Ōji himself and the remaining tag team. All that needed to be done was get that point first.

This one point became more apparent when he thought about who could have taken out the Sniper.

_If I had to guess, I would say it was Tono-kun who got taken out. And the one who took him out was…_

Senzai Senshi.

Kurauchi had warned him already to keep a distance from the boy as long as his Side Effect was turned off and he was starting to see why that was the case.

While neither one had been particularly strong, both Tonooka and Kotowari - a Sniper and Shooter respectively - had been taken out by an Attacker. One who was known for his offensive-defense.

That offensive-defense usually meant little since his Side Effect of bad luck would mess him up, but now it was showing just what it was capable of.

_An offense so strong that he doesn't need to defend… No, it's better to say that all of his offense becomes his defense. He has great recovery because of it and can switch positions easily enough. The fact he uses Teleport is also something to note. That damn fox has probably taught him a few things about it, so it is even more troublesome._

While the fox boy had little in the way of offensive and focused more on tricks when attacking, Senshi was completely offensive to the point that it became a defense. If that kind of thing combined with the instant appearances of the fox boy then it meant whoever his opponent was would have to contend with an amazing offense that needed little time to begin its next action. Or at the least move away to fill in that time of switching attacks.

This was what Kurauchi had warned him about.

_I'll admit to not thinking too much about SenSen since I hardly thought to turn off his bad luck. Kurauchi always said not to do that, so I never planned on it. But now that I am realizing the reason behind it, I see that it really is a bad idea to do that. Let him be unpredictable with his bad luck. It affects him just as much after all. It's a much better option than fighting this offensive monster who can move around like that damn fox._

Taking points before having to fight Senshi was the best option he had at the moment.

The two who had been fighting each other were good targets to hit. One more so than the other due to having lost her only support.

There was still one Sniper within the area, but she meant little when compared to Tonooka. Her current partner was also too inexperienced to make full use of the support provided to her.

It really was the best time to strike.

So he did.

* * *

Tachikawa let out a whistle from his spot next to the unmoving Minoru.

Being the #1 Attacker in Border, he could see how Senshi was moving compared to the times they had fought. It was rather amazing to him.

Unlike those times when Senshi was held back because of his bad luck, he was now moving in a way that befitted someone who belonged to the top ten Attackers of Border. The placement he had was not within those ten, but that could also be because of his bad luck.

"[With Tonooka out, that gives a point to SenSen-san. Hm, hm. He really is a beast, isn't he?]"

"[Have you not fought him in solo matches before, Yoneya-senpai?]"

"[I have. A few times actually. He's pretty chill when it comes to accepting challenges. But those times it always feels…wrong? Probably because of his bad luck, he always seems like he's hiding back. From this match it looks like that is what is happening.]"

"[I have seen some of his solo matches with Minoru-nii. In comparison to those times, he really does look like he is fighting much better here. His movements look more refined and much more decisive than before. Was he always holding back because of his Side Effect? Would it not be better to use that skill alongside his Side Effect? His opponents would likely not know what to do in that case.]"

"[I guess it depends on how you look at it.]"

Tachikawa felt himself nodding along with Yoneya's statement.

The bad luck that came from Senshi was something that already hindered both himself as well as everything around him. If he started moving like this while his Side Effect was working then it would indeed put a lot of pressure on his opponents, but he would have to be much more careful.

Any attack he would make would have to be loose in order to change depending on how his bad luck came in. Anything that would require him to remain steadfast and have a solid hold could easily be messed up if his Side Effect made the situation nonoptimal for that.

Only so many people could manage a style like that while others had to cancel out their attacks right away. It would give the opponent time to counter attack or move away. There would be no point in trying anything that required more than weak attack that would do little damage. Also…

"[Look at the way he is moving. You can tell how he fights even with his Side Effect coming up, but this is an even better way to see it.]"

Tachikawa nodded his head at the comment.

There were those who were very offensive in the way they fought. Especially for those who were under the category of "Attacker". Unlike "Shooter", "Gunner" and "Sniper", they were meant to be as offensive as possible. Their blades were supposed to cut through the opposition and make way for their comrades.

Shooters and Gunners could also play that role, but in a different way. Their offensive capabilities were from a distance most times and each Shooter had the possibility to play the role of support. They had more choices to pick from than Attackers did.

Snipers were mainly for support with some exceptions. They could fire as a form of offense, but they usually showed their worth in team battles where they would not gain much attention. In a sense, they were the opposites to Attackers.

Other positions such as Trappers and Operators fell under more supportive categories as well. Operator being the clear supports for their squads since they could not go onto the battlefield themselves.

That was not to say that Attackers could not support though.

_Yuki's sister is proof of that._

Although it still felt wrong to call her a true support for Kotowari Squad.

Unlike other Attackers, she tried to back up her teammates as much as possible for her. Even with Suzume, it was still more supportive. Suzume would fire while Hoshi took the attention of their opponents.

Others who used Raygust along with their blades like Murakami were also a bit different, but it still meant little. They still used very offensive strategies instead of supporting ones. They were the ones others upporte instead of the other way around. It was why they used both offense and defense instead of just one or the other.

But Senshi on the other hand…

"[It can be a bit hard under normal circumstances, but we get a clear view of how Senzai-senpai truly fights. Unlike others who use offense only or those who use both offense and defense, he uses so much offense that it becomes his of blocking or dodging, he attacks what comes to him and that seems to be enough to push through.]"

"[Compared to our top Attackers, this is pretty different. Kei and Kirie are all about offense. While they know how to defend, they usually go for their quick wins by cutting through their targets. Sōya-san uses Chameleon for stealth attacks and compliments that with Scorpion - a Trigger that can be created and destroyed at a moment's notice. The mutt showed just that in his fight against Kazuki. Kō has both Kōgetsu and Raygust for a solid offense and a hard defense.]"

"[Yeah, those guys, while not doing solo matches much, make themselves known for the fact that they have their own offensive ways. Others are similar to them in a sense, but even they can only do so much when it comes to defense.]"

"[I cannot say I know too much about the others, or really much about the Attacker Triggers in general considering how Minoru-nii is. Even so, I know what you mean. If we take Tatsuhito and Shizuka-san into consideration - seeing as they are on relatively equal footing - we can see that they are the ones closest to those extremely offensive top Attackers. Their respective uses of Senkū do some amazing damage, but their defenses are not much,]"

"[In their case it is more like, 'Who needs defense when I cut them quickly?' That may or not be a quote from one of them…]"

Tachikawa understood that phrase all too well.

Any continuous attack he tried would likely apply enough pressure that defenses meant nothing.

Karasuma going to those two felt more surprising than his actual comments at this point. Even so, Tachikawa continued to listen in.

"[But Senshi seems to have taken that up and gone even further. Forging the extended slashes of Senkū, he is favoring Raygust and Thruster as his way of showing off that offense. But since that's the case, his moves are much faster when it comes to basic movements. Tatsuhito and Shizuka-san have the advantage when it comes to pulling out their blades, but Senshi had the advantage when it comes to mobility and general movements.]"

"[Hm?]"

"[Huh? What? What are those looks for?]"

Yoneya and Karasuma turned their heads away from Lukas at the same moment, neither uttering a word.

Tachikawa raised an amused eyebrow in their direction. Below him he could hear some whispering and looked down to see a strange trio speaking in hushed tones while glancing at the commentators box.

"It's strange for Lukas to lose focus like that."

The words this time came from the boy next to him.

The whole time the match had been going on, Minoru had stayed eerily quiet. It was only now that he had decided to speak up.

Not letting the chance go to waste, Tachikawa spoke up in response to those words.

"Really? He seems like the type to do that constantly to me."

"Akashi is worse."

"Ah, I can definitely see that. Suzaku has complained before. Took a few drinks in him to do it, but it worked out well enough."

"…"

"Don't go quiet on me again!"

Any other person would have sighed at his antics, but this was different. The way Minoru was acting was different to what he had seen before.

_Well not completely different… There have been times-_

His thoughts were cut off by a new set of words from Minoru.

"They are missing a point though."

"Oh?"

Minoru glanced over to Tachikawa with a dull look in his eyes. It was strange to see those kinds of eyes on the young boy, but he did not say anything about it.

"Sensei's footing is also perfect for this kind of thing." Minoru fixed his position so that he was leaning a bit on the railing. "You should know well enough that your footing needs to be good to really put up a good offense. Loose footing or uneven footing can make or break an attack."

"True enough. I can do some nice midair things myself, but when compared to someone like Yuki, it really isn't much. His footwork is something else and he has the ability to work without proper footing, to an extent."

Something that Tachikawa noticed immediately was the reaction to the name he had mentioned.

Immediately upon hearing the name, Minoru tensed up. His shoulders lifted, his hands curled harshly around the railing, and his jaw clenched for a moment.

Due to their shared past together he was rather fond of the Yagura Branch Representative, so he was not too sure how he should take a reaction like that. It was a known fact to those who knew him that Yuki's decision making with things not concerning battles were not the best. There were multiple occasions where Tachikawa himself had to do something because of one of Yuki's choices.

_Even so, I need to look out for him. I should probably ask him what happens between the two. For Minoru of all people to react like that means he really screwed up this time._

Leaving those thoughts for later, he tried to lighten the mood by turning back to the screen.

With the match still going on and Minoru's words left hanging, he was interested in where this would all go.

* * *

The current situation was a bad one.

There was no other way Ōji thought he could describe it. It was just how things turned out to reach this point.

There were two relatively easy targets for him to attack, but the trouble came from the fact that one of them had someone supporting them while a different monster was looming just above them.

Senshi taking out Tonooka made a major turn in the current fight that they could not ignore.

A Sniper had been taken out and the one who took him out was where he had been.

The distance between that building and where they currently were was hard to tell just from the Bail Out light that had gone through the sky. If it was close by then he would have little time to attack Kotowari's Taiyōko or Yuba's Obishima. If it was a bit away then it meant Senshi could reach them just as he took the points. The latter option would mean he had to fight Senshi with some likely injuries and less trion.

"Kurauchi, you know him better than the rest of us. What do you have to say about this situation?"

"…"

"Well?"

No voice came through from his teammate, but some general noise did. It was hard to make out what exactly it was and the volume of it did nothing to help.

It was only a few seconds after that noise that he finally got his response.

Unlike what he had expected, it came from Kashio. His voice was a bit low and he seemed to be out of breath at the moment.

_What are they doing over there exactly…?_

Pushing the thoughts aside for the moment, he listened to what his teammate had to say.

"U-um… Sorry, hold on for a moment. Hey, wait! Wait just for the rest of the match!"

The noise came back. This time it was followed by what sounded like a body hitting the coms.

Ōji winced upon hearing the sudden noise coming through to him.

Instead of Kahsio, it was Kurauchi who began speaking.

"That was… No, it was nothing. Sorry about that. You wanted to know what to do against Senshi, right? Right? I didn't mishear you, did I?"

Like his younger teammate, Kurauchi seemed to be catching his breath while speaking. The difference was that he was actively trying to bring the subject to something else.

"No, no, you are right. So tell me about the current situation before I really start worrying about what you guys are doing over there."

"Right, yeah, of course."

Ōji really wished his teammate would finally tell him what he wanted.

"Right now… Hold off until Shingai is taken out. I recommend working with Taiyōko and Obishima to make sure Senshi does not take you three out. At the same time, try to target them. Keeping point away from him is also something to keep in mind."

"Queen is still a problem though. I don't doubt that she will be helping her teammate, but I am still a target for her."

"Can you not do that then?"

"Don't give me that attitude. I was only saying that she is a problem. I just need to stay close to the princess so that the queen can't touch me. Although she can really be a pain if I am not careful."

"Then be careful."

"You are really cheeky right now, aren't you? What really is going on over there?"

The noise seemed to come back in response to his words.

Whatever it was that was making noise seemed to only bother Kurauchi and Kashio as he was still receiving good support from Kittaka while this was going on.

There would be no way for him to get anything else out of his teammate at the moment. Knowing that, he could only sigh while fixing his position.

_I suppose stalling for a bit should be fine._

He nodded to himself.

His opponents were a bad luck boy and two inexperienced girls.

That would be all he would see for now.


	101. Kazuaki Ōji

The first action came from the rushing Ōji. A sudden barrage of shots aimed at the two girls.

The reaction from the two was immediate, but lacking. The stances they had been in prevented them from dodging the shots with Obishima moved back and Hoshi moving forward. Both had their bodies leaned in one direction while Ōji was moving towards them.

The space between them was only a few meters away and Ōji was aware that he could cover that distance easily.

If the two girls managed to dodge the shots then it would give him a chance to decide on who he would be focusing his attention on. If they blocked it with either Shield or their blades, he would know that they could not defend against another sudden attack.

In response to this sudden attack, one of the girls began to twist her body while the other continued moving forward.

In the current state of things there would be no chance for them to get out of this two-pronged attack without taking some damage.

That is, if this was all there was.

As the shots came closer to the two girls, small shields appeared to block the way of the incoming shots.

Each shield was shattered upon impact, as if they had been quickly made and without any thought to actual defense. Even so, they had done their job as the shots that had been fired vanished when crashing into the shields. The shattering light reminded him of the girl who was a distance away.

The attempt at keeping points from the monster above them had taken up Ōji's thoughts to the point of forgetting about that dancing girl. It did not stop his charge in the slightest.

Close range combat and long range combat would be fine enough after having seen what both Obishima and Hoshi could do. Neither seemed to be lacking when it came to ability, but it still did not compare to the rest of them at the moment.

The appearance of the dancing girl only gave him information on how to attack.

Obishima was the only one to react to the shields as well.

The twist she had started began to change into a full rotation that moved backwards and to the side instead of just backwards. If more shots went her way then this would help to control where she went, even if it was a bit unstable.

For her part, Hoshi seemed to only notice what was happening and continue to move forward.

The step she took towards Obishima became wider as a way to go with the twisting motion she had started. Her focus made it look like she had not even cared about the shots or the shields that had shattered them.

Ōji responded to their action by pulling out his Kōgetsu from hip, mentally preparing to create new Hound shots should the two girls move in a way he liked.

Once he was within range, he began his swing towards them.

The twisting girl was stuck within her motion while the forward moving girl could not stop her momentum.

Again, they could not escape the damage even if they did manage to get out of this.

"Heh heh heh."

A slight laugh rang through the area, making two of the three fighters realize who else was there.

Ōji reacted by turning his gaze over to where the laugh had come from. In the distance he could see the dancing girl looking down at them from atop one of the many tall buildings.

The first thought he had was that she would either fire on him or use another shield to block his blade.

Because of his own attack, he was now in a similar situation to the two girls. There was no chance of him moving away now that he was already mid-attack. Only a shield could protect him now from her shot, but that would leave him with no chance of firing Hound shots.

Obishima noticed that her twisting was beginning to finish. She would not be able to move away from Ōji's attack, but the twisting at least let her drag her two opponents to a more optimal spot so that she could not be fired upon.

In that single moment, three actions were made.

The first action was made by Ōji.

He switched the position of his blade so that it would only target one of the girls. At the same time, he focused his attention to the side so that he could create a shield.

The green defense appeared in an instant.

The second action was made by Obishima.

She stomped her foot down on the ground to force herself to stop from her twisting motion.

Because of the momentum carried by the twisting, she had started to lose some balance. That did not matter once she saw how Ōji was moving his blade.

She could not push back against Hoshi so that she could take the hit instead.

The third action was made by Hoshi.

During this entire time of moving forward, he had noticed the way her two opponents had been moving. Their actions had been focusing on offense and defense respectively, but now it seemed that they were working in tandem with each other.

Obishima had kept her in place for Ōji to come in and do damage to her.

The damage she would take form a head-on attack would likely be fatal.

That is, if it truly did hit her head-on.

"! My apologizes, Obishima-san!"

The action she took was a sweeping one using her forward momentum.

Instead of taking the final step to reach Obishima, she extended her leg out as her foot slid across the ground.

Due to the twisting she had been doing, Obishima's balance was not the best at the moment. This gave her the chance she needed.

Hoshi pushed her foot forward, crashing it into Obishima's. It sent the smaller girl forward while pushing her side forward and ahead of the rest of her body.

She twisted her foot that was left behind so that it faced the opposite direction as before. It anchored her foot to the ground for only the moment while her other side moved forward.

"Almost there!"

To finish her own action, Hoshi began lowering her upper body towards the ground.

Her body spun as she released the anchor on her foot so that she now moved forward starting with her side and her upper body curving in a downward motion.

She sailed by the falling Obishima while the blade from Ōji went over the both of them.

"What the…!?"

She gave them no time as she leaped back, a cube of trion now above her.

Launching it forward, she pushed herself even further back.

.

"Heh heh heh. Good job there, Hoshi-chan."

Suzume watched with a smile as Hoshi performed her own movements. They were elegant in the way they moved but they lost some points in her book for how forcefully they were executed.

_Prince-san, don't get us wrong here. She is still our support around here. She does like to support in a very different way. The moment you noticed me over here, your attack was a failure. You gave her enough time to support Yukari-chan._

Her smile turned bitter once she saw the head of red moving across the rooftops.

She was proud of her teammate, but that red was a bad omen in more ways than one.

There was no more fighting between her and the other Sniper around and she had figured out why. That head of red had taken out Tonooka, leaving her as the only Sniper within the area.

Since he could not find her due to Bagworm, she knew that he was safe.

The same did not apply to her teammate.

"Hoshi-chan…"

"Do not worry, Suzume-senpai! You may go now, before you are actually found out. I appreciate your care here, but this should be the end of this battle."

"Oh honestly… A girl like you should be cared for dearly. But I guess you're right here. I honestly feel bad for leaving you like this though."

There was no saving Hoshi once that head of red reached her.

Suzume had heard of the things Taichi had said about that head of red and found no way around his great offense.

_I can hold off with my dances, but that bad luck is honestly annoying. Since he does not have it active at the moment I could probably go the entire song's length though. Even so…_

This was a different situation.

Hoshi had to fight against Obishima as well as Ōji before that head of red even reached them.

To add more to it, she could not even dance in this fight or the coming ones. Narasaka had forbidden her from doing so, even if that was her greatest strength.

She had slightly broken that rule already, but not to the extent where she would get in major trouble with the Miwa Squad Sniper.

"Senpai, you know what to do now."

This time it was the voice of her captain telling her the it was fine to leave.

This was all she could do in this fight now and the rest would be left up to her teammates.

"You guys are honestly outgrowing me here, aren't you? Maybe I should just take a break from Border for a while."

"Senpai, please stop joking while in the middle of a match."

"Heh heh heh."

Suzume lowered her brows while her bitter smile lowered into a sad one.

_Silly boy, who said I was honestly joking?_

Pushing the thoughts aside, she looked back down at the trio in the open area between buildings. One was her teammate, another was someone she very much enjoyed being around, and the last was someone she could say she tolerated. Above the three of them though…

"Yes, a new monster here. Our own mutt has gone ahead of us and turned into a beast. That simple Gunner has long since become a Gunslinger. The only other threat to our beast had been taken care of right away."

And yet.

"Here we honestly are. With a new monster. Or would it honestly be better to say a body of destruction? Either way, this is coming to and end soon and I honestly won't be much help here. Might as well survive so that no one gets these survival points."

She shook her head at the words that came to mind.

Toby had spoken to them after Takeshi had lost to Senshi and told them what possibilities could come from the remaining combatants. Those different possibilities include the one that she was seeing right now and what had been confirmed by Nakagami when it had been mentioned.

While not comparing to the seemingly endless possibilities that Mei could see, there were enough to show just why Toby was considered a genius.

_**LIN BREAK** _

Obishima was unsure what had happened in the moment before her body hit the ground, but she wasted no time in rolling away from the two who were close by.

The shots that had been fired from a distance crashed into the ground as she rolled. From her position on the ground she could see Ōji move back so that he would not get hit by the shots as well.

She jumped to her feet with a push of her arms. The shots had missed their target and separated her from the stronger opponent. Now she could see both Taiyōko and Ōji easily from where they stood.

Ōji wasted no time in rushing her again. This time it seemed like a focused attack on her alone unlike the one sent to both her and Taiyōko only seconds ago.

_...No, just give it a moment._

Instead of bringing up a solid defense, she began to move back once more.

Retreating was her main priority at the moment. Without anyone to help her, fighting against Ōji along with Hoshi would have been too difficult for her. It was a simple difference in experience that she knew she couldn't overcome right now.

Ōji was the most experienced on this battlefield, but Hoshi was very adaptable from what the logs showed. Fighting these kinds of opponents were too much to handle for someone lacking in either of those and without support.

So instead of fighting a losing battle she would focus only on retreating.

.

There was little time to finish the fight. There would be less people to focus on if he managed to take out these two girls. That would have made the overall fight easier for his squad considering the points, but it would mean that he would have less people there to gain the attention of the monster that was getting closer.

That may have been why he was making more mistakes than what was considered normal. There was no doubt that he would be chewed out by some people by the end of this match.

_Even worse…those guys will probably go for the throat from the start and only escalate things._

He could already imagine all of the things that would be said about him. Ones like Inukai, Jinsei, and Kunichika would be hardcore teasing while others like Arafune, Yuki, and Kaegura would likely be hardcore complaints.

_If I can get them to move to Kurauchi's loss today then I might be safe._

Or the damage would only spread. Either result was terrible and the only one to win out of all of this would be Senshi.

That bad luck boy would be gaining a win no matter the results due to how many people liked him or felt sorry for him. It would be the complete opposite for him whereas Ōji was sure that he would get a lot of flack from everyone else.

_Now that I think about it, I'm probably going to get some nasty looks after this match. I'm fighting two pretty pure girls. Obi-nyan has Yuba-san to glare at me while the princess has a lot of glasses' to do that. If that monster comes over here and I manage to take him out, I'll be getting it from Taichi and some others who like him. I was really put in a terrible position here. I guess I need to end this quickly then._

There was no escaping what was to come, so the best he could do was move right into it and face the challenges that would come from the current match.

He did so with his next move.

.

Ōji fired Hound shots behind himself while rushing Obishima with Kōgetsu. The Hound shots were scattered about and less accurate then usual. The difference between then was a terrible reminder that he was limited on time at the moment.

With the Hound shots scattered about behind him, Obishima became the current focus.

Instead of pulling back his arm for a full swing, he moved it forward with a hasty swing. The power behind it was minimal and inaccurate, but enough that it would catch Obishima.

Or it should have.

"!?"

As his arm swung forward in a hasty manner, something landed atop his shoulder before a new weight appeared on top of his swinging arm.

The first thing that had landed on his shoulder had been a delicate foot that had not lost any balance. That same foot had connected to the leg and body that connected with the weight on his swimming arm.

To his side, using him as a step, was the girl he had fired the Hound shots at.

Hoshi had gotten around his attack and made her way to offset his attack on Obishima.

The entire thing seemed like she was moving forward to help Obishima against him, but that was proven to be wrong when she swung down her own Kōgetsu at the same time she shot Asteroid shots straight down.

With his balance ruined due to the entire body on top of him, Ōji knew that he wouldn't be able to completely dodge the attack.

In an attempt to even the score, he lowered his arm along with her falling motion to offset the new balance she had found.

It worked well enough that she had to begin a strange landing while he moved backwards.

Something that caught his attention was something that was actually not there. It should have been close to the girl, yet it was nowhere to be found.

Until it came forward.

The light rain of Asteroid came down just as the pack of Hound rushed from behind. The target for the former was Ōji, yet it scraped Hoshi. The target for the latter had been Hoshi, yet to take Ōji's swinging and lowering arm.

The two different attacks had met somewhere along the line and hit their intended targets for minimal, but noticeable damage.

Ōji was the first to react by turning his backwards motion into a new rotation.

The rotation brought him back to his Kōgetsu that had been lost due to the loss of his arm. He grabbed it with his working arm and began a new attack.

Hoshi was slower to react. She had been unprepared for both of the attacks to hit her in some way, so her leg had become effectively useless with holes littering it from her knee down.

Upon seeing Ōji begin his rotation, she slid across the ground to move away from him while leaping back into a fighting stance.

From the corner of her eye she could see that Obishima was quickly reaching a point of retreating safely.

The two attacks that Hoshi and Ōji had tried to make had allowed her to reach that new safe zone.

But she had still yet to reach that zone.

"!"

Upon taking the final step needed to reach that safe zone, Obishima went wide eyed as a light flickered for a moment before she fell backwards.

The three fighters watched in surprise as Obishima's leg fell to the ground.

While there was no actual sound from anywhere around them, all three of them could internally feel that someone was currently giving them a "Heh heh heh" some distance away.

The terrifying thought was pushed aside in favor of costing on the fight.

Obishima had been kept from that safe zone and the two attackers were missing limbs. Only a few feet stood between all of them and the two attackers were already moving.

This would be the moment that decided the fight.

Obishima tried to fix herself before she hit the ground.

Ōji was already mid-attack while trion leaked from his now missing arm.

Hoshi was the furthest from them, but she moved forward while disregarding her now useless leg.

But…

.

There was no time to react as something had appeared in the middle of the triple reactions provided by Hoshi, Ōbishima, and Ōji.

To say it had landed in front of them would have been wrong. As would saying it pushed its way through to reach that point. There had been no movement after all.

All three of them had been moving in ways that would make it hard for anything outside of their fight to push through without being noticed.

So it left only one option.

If it had appeared without warning and none of them had noticed, it meant that a Trigger had been used.

Two of the three fighters understood immediately which Trigger it had been.

"Teleport!"

Hoshi and Ōji gave the same shout as they realized they were far too in with their attacks to be able to stop.

The oncoming blade was merciless to all three of them.

.

Senshi wasted no time in joining the fight that had been ready to reach its climax.

Using Teleport to reach them without any noticing had been the way to go for his assault. The sound made by the Trigger happened just before activation and there was one there to see where he would be teleporting to. It was the perfect Trigger to use against unsuspecting people.

That may have been why Yuki enjoyed using it so much.

Senshi did not push the thought aside, instead saving it for a later note.

Once the activation and location had been set, he had to determine how he would go about his assault. Two of his three opponents would be rather inexperienced while the remaining one would be well versed in how to counter his attack. All three of them had an injury of some kind and two of them looked ready to attack.

Attacking one of the two attackers while they were attacking would get him a point while likely giving a point to the one he did not target. What is more, he would need to begin his action the instant he landed on that battlefield. If he stalled for even a moment then it could give any one of them a chance to realize what was happening.

This had been where his training with Yuki came in.

The sickly boy was a master when it came to Teleport. His usage of the prototype Trigger had gotten him a small reputation among some of the better Border members. Senshi was sure that his reputation and its showing would have been even greater if he had gone into more solo matches than he currently has. That never seemed to bother him though, so there was never a need to bring it up.

With that sickly boy being as good as he was with Teleport, Senshi thought that it was only reasonable that he try to ask for help in learning to use it properly.

At the time it sounded like a good idea. But once it had been brought up, Yuki had gone on a tangent about the "greatness that is an amazing Trigger that lets you move anywhere instantly". They had gotten some strange looks for that.

Once he had been done with his fanboying, Yuki had instantly shown him just what could be done with Teleport.

Even with his Side Effect turned off temporarily, Senshi had a rough time trying to catch the boy. Besides the use of Teleport, his slim body and quick feet had allowed him to move out of any of the attacks coming at him.

Those kinds of movements could not be done with the amount of bulk that was on Senshi, but he had been reassured that spearlike that was not necessary to properly use Teleport.

The conversation they had during that time came to mind each time he prepared to use the Trigger.

"Something to always remember is the weaknesses of Teleport," Yuki began. He held up one finger as he spoke.

"The first is the sound. Using Teleport creates a sound before it actually sends you anywhere. Usually it doesn't matter too much, but more skilled opponents will definitely use that against you.

"The second is the location. You need to see where you want to go. You have to face at some point and determine that that is where you want to go. This is the troublesome part since it gives Snipers a chance to check the location beforehand. Against Attackers it isn't too much of a drawback and against Shooters…"

He had a wicked grin on his face at the same time a shiver had run down his spine.

"If they aren't completely morons and airheads, it could get you into some trouble. It works against the more impulsive ones for sure. But it is also an easy escape against any that will be keeping a very big gap between them and you."

He had nodded to himself as if remembered just who those people were.

"The third weakness is the time it takes between teleports. You need to remember that the greater the distance, the more trion you use. Something else is that there is a small gap of time where you can't use Teleport. That is also dependent on how far you are traveling."

Senshi had known all of those things the moment he decided to take up the Trigger. It was always important to know the strengths and weaknesses of each Trigger used.

He had said nothing though since it was never a bad thing to go over the basics again. A reminder was always a good thing, especially when you will be learning something new.

"And the fourth weakness…"

Wait.

"Four?"

Yuki nodded his head without any hesitation.

"It isn't really a weakness with the Trigger itself, but it's something that comes up. For you it might actually be something to work on, given your body size."

"What does body size have to do with it?"

"You see how slim I am and how little muscle I have to work with?"

Normally speaking about Yuki's loss of muscles and body fat was a sort of taboo due to previous events. The fact he was bringing it up now as casually as any normal conversation meant that he was taking this lesson seriously and was trying to help Senshi.

So with that knowledge, he nodded his head just as casually, yet seriously.

"Once the teleportation ends, the user needs to decide how to move afterwards. Because of the nature of the Trigger, you need to quickly get your bearings and figure out what to do right after. That becomes harder the more body mass you have because you then have more to move. I have very little body mass, so I don't have much to move in the first place. Something else to note is the situation you are using it in. Compare the way I use it to someone like Arashiyama."

Was this something that Yuki really wanted answered or not? At times it was difficult to tell with him.

Senshi decided to wait for a few seconds to see what he should do.

This seemed to be the correct response as Yuki let out a sigh while lifting the hair from his eye.

"Arashiyama uses it as a simple transportation. Normally he places himself away from his opponents, so he ends up with enough time to get his bearings. In all honesty, that is probably how you are supposed to use it. Just something that can move you around the battlefield."

"But that isn't how _you_ use it."

"That's right," he chuckled out. "I get right up in my opponent's face or appear around them. It all depends on who my opponent is and if I think I can move in time. So with that being said…"

Senshi raised an eyebrow at the two outstretched hands Yuki was showing him.

"How do you want to do this? Do you want to use Teleport as a form of transportation or do you want to use Teleport to fight your opponents?"

This time it was clear that he was looking for a vocal answer.

Still unsure what the two hands meant, Senshi looked up and directly into Yuki's eyes. The answer was obvious from the start.

"I want to use it to fight my opponents."

Yuki's response to this was to grin. Unlike the fake one she had seen around Border, this one was a sly one that must have been Yuki's way of showing him that he was happy with the choice.

At times he was confused by this smaller boy, but there had never been any bad blood between them, so he let it go.

"Great. In that case, we can go over the counters to the two most troublesome weaknesses of Teleport. Those being the location placement and having to move your body after teleporting."

.

_He really is obsessed with that Trigger if he found these ways of using it through trial and error._

Even with his criticism, Senshi could not be more happy to find out the best way to use Teleport for fighting.

Because of his completely offensive style, it was the perfect Trigger to compliment his bulk and weight in a way that Grasshopper and Idāten could not.

_Moving his body so quickly after teleporting is because he has little body mass. Doing something like that for me would be difficult because of my bulk. But we found a way around that._

If someone small began their attacks after teleporting then it meant that someone large would have to start their attack before teleporting.

It had taken many training sessions to reach this point, but there had been growth each time. While not at the level of Yuki's teleporting attacks, Senshi was sure that he could accomplish multiple attacks using teleport and his blade.

That had been the reason for his decision to appear in the middle of the three fighters.

Because of his attack having already started before teleporting, he had no reason to get his bearing as quickly as usual. His blade was already in motion and he only needed to follow that moving blade.

The first thing his Raygust connected with had been the forwards moving Ōji who had his blade in a sideways swinging motion. His positioning was off, likely due to having started a rotation, so Senshi took the chance.

Instead of coming from above or from the side to meet the Kōgetsu blade, he began to drag Raygust in a diagonal fashion starting from the bottom to the top. His own body had already been in a rotation, so the moment those two rotations clashed, they would cancel each other out.

That was exactly what happened.

Ōji's body had suddenly stopped while Senshi still had some spin left since his body was bigger and held more power behind the attack.

Because of this built up power, his swing connoted for a moment more, placing him directly in the line of fire from Hoshi's Asteroid.

"…"

Instead of panicking, he only looked at the shots fired at him as the girl moved forward. It seemed that she was also unable to stop herself from her previous attack and decided to just add on to the attack.

This all meant nothing to him.

_Increase the size. Activate Thruster._

Homerun.

Senshi held nothing back as he began a swing. Raygust quickly changed in size, becoming a blunt blade that covered a wider area.

The swing mixed with the wide blade had batted off the Asteroids easily enough, none seeming to even get passed the Attacker Trigger.

Next came the girl.

While he was still in the motion of signing the large blade, she was no real threat with the way had a dead leg to work with and a sloppy form for attacking at this angle.

Stopping his motion in order to counter her would have wasted too much time, so he did the next thing that he thought would work.

With his upper body moving quicker because of the swing, he used his lower body to increase the speed of the Thruster even more. He brought up one of his legs while continuing.

The bottom of his foot quickly met with the blunt side of Hoshi's Kōgetsu.

Using it as a springboard along with Thruster, he was sent backwards. Towards Obishima.

.

The backwards moving Obishima could only widen her eyes as she watched her two opponents be batted away with little effort.

The attacker who had done so was now rushing her at a speed that surpassed Hoshi and Ōji while they had working limbs.

Retreating had been her priority and she had thought she could make it to a safe zone, away from her opponents.

That plan had been a failure the moment she had her leg taken out.

Suzume had stayed before to take the shot at her and prevent her from moving back any further. That was now coming back to her even harder as Senshi moved closer to her while she could only fall backwards.

Yuba Squad would be losing a point because of her.

"Please do not give up yet, Obishima-san!"

What was with this girl?

Obishima was completely confused by the voice that rang out as Senshi got closer.

The voice belonged to one of her opponents, but it had been encouraging. Even in this situation of absolute loss, she was being sent words of encouragement.

"Please move to the side, if possible!"

This was a loss either way, so what harm could there be in listening?

With a thought like that in mind, Obishima tried to force her body to the side.

With her leg taken out, it was rather easy, all things considered. Her body already had a sort of tilt to it while she was falling, so all she needed to do was put more weight onto that part of the fall.

When she did…

"!?"

Asteroid shots passed by her as Senshi disappeared from sight.

_What was that…?_

The answer came soon after.

.

Hoshi felt the need to apologize to her teammates for her actions.

_Now is not the time for that. But…I most certainly do need to do that after this match._

She had just saved an opponent. An opponent who was just about to be taken out.

Unlike what Ōji was trying to do, she had not done that in order to gain another point. The reason for her attack had been simply because she did not want to see Obishima lose.

When compared to the two boys here the two girls were very inexperienced and would not have a chance to win even if they teamed up. It was just a simple fact of this battle. But the moment she saw Obishima accept the loss, she felt the need to help.

The younger girl had tried so hard the entire time, even going for an escape when she had lost her support. It was all something that struck Hoshi. It was very different from how Katori had reacted and it was not as forceful as Kumagai. This girl was very different from the two of them who had seen her as someone new to the battlefield but held potential.

It had really just clicked for her upon meeting Obishima at the start of this match.

They had exchanged greetings - something she did not think would be a two-way thing here - and fought each other as best as they could and with the support they had. Although in Hoshi's case it was her who was the support.

That had been the reason for her current actions.

She liked this girl, thought of her as an actual equal, if not someone better than her, and so wanted to provide some support for her. Even if she was an opponent.

_I will not be giving her a point by losing here, and I will certainly attack her if I see a chance, but I do not want her to simply give up like that. Um… Would it be bad to say that I wanted our fight to continue just a bit longer? I sincerely hope that is fine. I think I will ask her once this match is over._

For the time being, she would continue to fight until she was properly taken out by one of these two experienced boys.

Raising her Kōgetsu in preparation for the next bout with them all, she spoke up with no worries in her voice.

"Shall we move on to the next stage?"

.

Ōji could not believe what he had seen.

The monster known as Senzai Senshi had finally made an appearance and all three of them were still standing.

He had expected himself to remain alive during the confrontation, and maybe one of the girls, but he did not expect for all three of them to survive the attack.

What had made it even more strange was the fact that the reason one of these girls was still standing was because the other girl had helped her. Instead of running away or attacking him, she had decided to attack Senshi in order to prevent him from taking out Obishima.

That would not have been weird if not for the fact that she seemed to warn Obishima beforehand, as if to say that she would be supporting the younger girl with the attack instead of attacking her directly.

_That entire family really is strange. And they want my squad to join that branch?_

Their decision would be put on hold at least until the end of the B-Rank Wars. That was what was agreed upon between Ōji Squad and the Yagura Branch.

But…

_It may just be fun if they are inexperienced as this girl._

Smirking to himself, Ōji moved forward for his next attack.

There was a new determination to get some final points before the monster known as Senzai Senshi would target him.

.

Senshi put his knowledge into his actions without any hesitation.

His training sessions with Yuki had built up knowledge within him for time like these. Times where he could go all out and not worry about his Side Effect trying to take over the area around him.

The first thing he had been taught to do was attack before teleporting. It was something that a large person could do in order to prevent any lag in their movements once they had teleported.

As for the second thing…

_Prevent your opponent from seeing where you will be teleporting._

It had been a counter to the other major weakness to using Teleport.

Among the four weaknesses that Yuki had mentioned, this one seemed rather impossible to pull off with no preparation. But there were ways around that.

_Yuki does this by using his hair that is over his eye. When he wants to really go all out, he closes his visible eye and relies on his covered eye. He can still see through his hair while his opponents will have no chance to see beyond it. Snipers will have a hard time since their scope can't look at something so specific. As for me…_

His hair was not long enough to cover his eyes. The red hair that sat atop his head had length to it, but it was more on the sides and on the back than it was the front. It made it nearly impossible to use this hair for something like that. But it was not the only option he had.

The option open for Senshi was also atop his head.

_My goggles._

They may have been more for aesthetics, but they still had a tint to them that made it hard for others to see through them from the outside.

It was exactly what he could use to cover for that second big weakness.

That was why he wasted no time in lowering the goggles on his head so that they covered his eyes.

_I should make this quick._

.

Senshi disappeared.

He did so before any of them had a chance to react. The sound that came form Teleport rang out for a moment before he was gone.

It did not take longer for him to appear again.

The problem they found was the fact he had appeared directly in front of Ōji.

"So I'm the first target…!?"

Ōji's response was followed by him bringing up his Kōgetsu, trying to block the attack directly in front of him.

The sound of the other two moving towards them could also be heard, but he thought little about them since the monster had appeared in front of him.

Having fought against Yuki before, he was aware of how someone could use Teleport to attack. But the same weaknesses for that Trigger were being countered by Senshi at the moment.

"You really did learn from that damn fox…"

Another, and very familiar, sound reached his ears as he managed to divert Senshi's attack towards the ground. Letting the heavy Raygust lean on his Kōgetsu forced it to move towards the ground instead of spreading the force along the open area around Kōgetsu.

With the force now bringing him down, Senshi was in a downward motion as Hoshi appeared above him and Ōji prepared a counter.

Swinging the Kōgetsu in his hand, the blade was coming down on Senshi's neck.

From his position, Ōji could see Hoshi appear directly above Senshi, bringing down her own blade along with some Asteroid. Obishima was lagging behind from missing a leg, but it looks like she would make it in order to attack either him or Hoshi.

"…"

Or that should have been what happened.

"…Thruster."

In a single movement, Ōji found himself being sent back after having to make an awkward movement with Kōgetsu.

The fast moving Raygust had been thrusted to the side as the optional Trigger for it pushed it to the side. The force of the attack had shallowly reached his body, pushed him back, and was now forcing a full rotation form Senshi.

Hoshi was the next one to feel the force of the attack.

With the momentum from his downward movement, Senshi had more momentum from turning upwards like a pendulum. With Thruster pushing him even more, Senshi made the 180 degree turn before her attacks could hit.

The end result was a hard hit from Raygust to her side, only managing to push her back after she had thrown Kōgetsu to the side as a makeshift shield along with her arms. The shots she had fired vanished quickly as they were also stuck with the great force.

Obishima was the last one to be hit by the attack.

Since she was at the tail end of the attack, she had been the one to get hit the hardest with it. The pushing momentum from the attack cracked the Kōgetsu and Shield she had used. A moment later, the entire blade shattered with the end of the blade being sent flying.

The single attack from the Raygust and Thruster combo had sent Ōji, Hoshi, and Obishima all flying.

Their attacks had been swatted away and shattered.

Yet even with this outcome, Senshi did not relent.

"Keep it coming, Thruster."

Instead of stopping the attack, he only continued to push further. The next rotation began the instant he made a full 360 degree rotation. This time his body moved in a single direction, still being pulled by the Trigger that now tore through the air. The target?

Hoshi.

The instantaneous speed coming from Thruster got him to her in the same time it would take to Teleport there. The difference was the fact he had built up speed and power with his strike.

As an attempt to defend against the attack, Hoshi brought up a concentrated shield as well as her Kōgetsu.

They shattered.

The high power swing from Raygust shattered the shield starting from one end before reaching the middle, where it came in contact with the Kōgetsu. Upon reaching the blade, it tore through the trion keeping the mold of the blade before snapping it as easily as it had Obishima's. Once it reached that point, it continued to shatter the remainder of the shield.

.

Ōji did not hesitate to fire Hound towards the two fighting to the side.

He had been able to visually keep up with Senshi, but his reaction time was lagging in comparison to that.

_Glad he didn't go after me._

The way Senshi had torn through Hoshi's defenses had been a bit of surprise, but he did not let that get to him. Obishima could not do anything else due to her broken Kōgetsu, and now Hoshi was the same. The two girls were nothing more than targets at this point.

That had been why he fired in that direction without any thought about the outcome.

If he managed to hit Senshi then it would be something that could slow him down. If he managed to hit Hoshi, it would likely take her out and give him the point.

What happened instead made him click tongue.

Senshi had retaliated by continuing his new rotation, cutting through the Hound shots without stopping for a moment.

_I need to stop that momentum. But it's built up so much that a standard shield won't be much. In that case…_

From directly in front of him, the spinning mass of red continued to tear through the air as Hoshi tried to back away.

Moving away at this point meant nothing since the speed at which that red terror was moving would catch up in no time at all.

But…

"…!"

Ōji found his chance in the form of shots.

Instead of just falling back, Hoshi had fired her own attack. Asteroids filled the sky behind her as she tried to move away on the single working leg.

He could see that she was prepared to hit herself as well once she fired all of the shots. As if to add to the massive amount of attacks, she grabbed the broken blade of her Kōgetsu as well as the remaining portion of it and threw the both of them towards the spinning mass of red.

Once all of those attacks got in range, Senshi reacted by swatting each one away as if they were insects. The shots fired at him could not reach him as his feet moved along the ground to continue the momentum he had built up to this point.

That was when he saw it.

Four broken blades were stabbed into the ground.

Two ends of Kōgetsu were placed in front and behind the mass of red while two ends connected to hilts were stabbed into the ground on either side of the mass of red.

They were there to stop the mass.

It made sense for two of those to be placed in the ground since Hoshi had thrown them, but what about the other two?

_Obi-nyan._

Obishima must have noticed what Hoshi was doing and resolved herself to mimic the action. Her own escape had been lost long ago and she seemed ready to Bail Out, so this was a last ditch effort to provide something to the battlefield she was on.

Feeling bad for the two girls, Ōji began to move once he noticed the way the mass of red was now moving.

.

Seeing the blades on the ground had made the mass of red realize that, should he come in contact with them, his feet and legs would be torn apart from the momentum he had generated this whole time.

So instead of colliding with them and losing his legs, the mass of red took a leap into the air, still rotating from the momentum he had built up.

Now in the air, instead of using close range attacks, the mass of red threw his own attack. Specifically, he threw Raygust.

The thrown blade tore through the space and forced the air aside. The built up speed and extra speed from Thruster made it a deadly weapon with speed that the people on the ground could not keep up with without preparations.

But one was prepared.

Ōji appeared before the flying blade with a multi-layered shield and his Kōgetsu at the ready.

The previous experiences had shown him that something this simple would not be enough to stop a blade with that much force behind it. Something so quickly made would shatter and be torn apart and only result in slowing down the blade for the moment.

But that is if they were quickly made.

Like the times before, the blade shattered the multi-layered shield. Instead of cutting through them all, it pierced through them in a spiral fashion resembling a spinning spear. This resulted in each layer of the shields to have a clean-cut hole in it before cracks began appearing starting from the inside before stretching out to the ends of them.

Once it reached the final shield, the thrown blade had lost some of its spin and was now simply a thrown blade with great power behind it.

For his part, Ōji began his next action.

With him in the air, directly behind the shields he had made, he brought up his Kōgetsu with his remaining arm. Behind him was Obishima, trying to figure out what to do in this situation.

As things stood, Ōji's Kōgetsu would be torn like Obishima's and Hoshi's before continuing to his body. From there it would pierce through his body, slowing down the blade even more. It's final target would be Obishima, who currently could not move well due to having lost a leg. The blade would pierce through her before stabbing into the ground.

From there it was clear that Senshi would teleport to reach his Raygust to finish things off with Hoshi.

That was how Ōji's mind played things out as he moved his own blade.

The reality of the attack?

"…!"

It was different.

Instead of tearing the Kōgetsu blade like the other two, it clashed with it for a moment.

A certain noise came within that moment.

That same moment was when Ōji twisted his remaining arm.

Instead of taking the attack head-on, he made a forceful push upwards.

Not using just his arm, Ōji used his entire body to push upwards.

"Making me do something that damn fox showed me a long time ago…"

Moving along with his arm, the Kōgetsu forcefully pushed as well. The thrown blade began to move along the upwards blade, sliding along its side and towards Ōji's head.

Before it could reach him and pierce through his forehead, the thrown blade was forcefully ejected into the sky by the upwards blade.

"It kind of makes me mad."

With the thrown blade now spinning in the air and his upwards face being weaker than it had been before, Ōji began to finish his mid-air flip.

With his body upside-down he could see the battlefield one more.

Senshi, also still in the air and barely coming for a landing, seemed ready to go for his thrown blade.

Hoshi and Obishima were the last ones to move, both going and reaching for their discarded and torn blades stabbed into the ground.

"I don't think so."

Releasing his Kōgetsu, Ōji completed his flip.

Using the remaining force from his flip, he slammed his foot down onto the downward facing Kōgetsu. The falling blade straightened out before plummeting to the ground like a stake.

.

Obishima found herself lagging behind.

She had just seen something amazing, but it had also taken most of her attention. Once she realized what was going on, she began to move towards the broken Kōgetsu she had used to limit Senshi's movements alongside Hoshi.

Having only one leg to work with had made the whole thing difficult. She could not run and had to to rely on hopping to that spot that seemed so far away now. A spot she had been at when fighting Hoshi and had the backing of Tonooka.

_But I should reach it! One last attack on one of them! I can at least-_

Her mind stopped the moment she saw a Kōgetsu stab directly into her foot. It was now impossible to move with her remaining foot held in place.

She began to fall forward, onto the Kōgetsu, because of the forward momentum she had due to hopping.

"Sorry, Obi-nyan, but now I am kind of mad."

The voice in front of her reached her ears before the blade stabbed into her foot and ground came up. It had started from the ground and reached the top of her shoulder.

She had lost.

Trion began to leak from her body as well as the part that had been cut off from her body.

Ōji was quick to turn his back on her and move towards his next target.

Her body began to glow as the lines of trion covered her body.

**Bail Out.**

.

Hoshi had seen the entire event and could only feel sorry for Obishima as she reached her broken blade.

The sound of a teleport could be heard nearby, but that had not been what was on her mind at the moment.

_I hope Obishima-san is fine after this… Should I check up on her after this match is over?_

Resolving herself to do just so, Hoshi focused back on the match that was still going on.

There was very little she could use now. Fujin would not work due to the broken blade and her trion was now reaching the limit. Both of her opponents were much stronger and more experienced than she was. So what was left to do here besides simply lose?

With the shot moment she had before being attacked, she thought,

_Toby-kun is out of the question since I cannot move too well and my blade is broken._

_Suzume-senpai is also out of the question since I need mobility for that too._

_So that just leaves Takeshi-kun._

_So at a time like this he would…_

Bombard the area.

She prepared her last bout of Asteroid while taking a final leap backwards.

Ōji was now coming forward at her while Senshi had begun to move towards them as well.

Holding out her arm, she forced a cube of trion to appear. With no time to focus on splitting it up, she fired it as is.

The single shot moved through the air, but it was easily dodged by the moving Ōji.

A moment later she could see her own body as her head flew through the air.

Senshi did not have the time to reach her, so the one who got the point was clear without even looking at who it was.

_I suppose I should try better next time._

**Bail Out.**

.

That had been the final point he could take.

Ōji was aware that there was nothing else he could do now that both Hoshi and Obishima had been taken out.

_I guess I should be fine with getting those two points. The opponents I had to get them from will be giving me indirect trouble afterwards, but I did manage to get us onto the board here._

Kurauchi and Kashio had both lost without getting anything for them. But he had managed these two points.

_No, that's not right. Kurauchi got us some good information on Kotowari's dog. I would say that was pretty useful for later on._

He could do nothing with that information at the moment, but it would come up during the next time they fought. It would give them some advance thoughts about what to do with that beast.

But for now…

_I might as well see what happened here._

He felt rather irritated with himself for giving up like this, but it was a simple thing that did not escape him. This next point would be one he loses to the monster of red that was now coming towards him.

So instead of committing to a total loss or the thought of winning, he fired his last Hound towards the monster of red that was now coming for him.

As he did so…

"—"

A flash of green flew through the sky in the distance.

Ōji raised an eyebrow towards it, realizing that someone else had just Bailed Out.

The moment he turned to the sky, he heard a voice.

"Ah. I guess it's back."

Looking back at the monster of red, he saw something amazing.

* * *

Shingai could only curse at her current situation.

The case she had been having with Yuba had come to an abrupt end the moment all of his shooting had torn apart the tall building they were in.

He had been quick to find her and now she stood before him, Lighting at her side.

The distance between them was well within Yuba's range and sounds of the building falling apart could be heard all around them. Their sides faced the destroyed window with glass littering the floor and some even embedded into the columns holding up the building.

At this point only one of them would make it to the broken window to jump out. The other could be shot down before they could take their next step.

If she had her Side Effect active, as accursed as it was, then she was sure that she could easily escape this situation. In fact, it would have been guaranteed that she would not have been in this situation at all.

_But that is not the case here._

The current situation was against her and she did not have her good luck to fall back on. Yuba was merciless with his attacks and took them seriously. Relying on some sort of pride complex or foolishness from him to escape was unthinkable and even her speed could not save her when his speed matched hers, if not being barely under. His firing rate was also higher with his smaller guns than hers even with Lightning.

"So I end up in this shoot out. Of course I do."

She smiled bitterly to herself as she saw Yuba prepare for his next attack.

She did the same.

_Usually, I can fire my bow as swiftly and easily as breathing, Lightning is not too different. Actually it may even be easier. But this time, for some reason, it feels slow and heavy._

The pressure that was usually free from her shoulder built up as she dragged her arm up to fire her shot.

… _Right. I see. I guess I take my own Side Effect for granted too much to be natural. Is this a way of getting back at me for that?_

… _No, I do not think that is it. I think it is much easier to say…_

"You can shoot first…"

Shingai looked towards her opponent at the moment he fired his shots.

As a hunter who relied on her speed, she could mentally and visually keep up with it, but her reactions were not as quick to do so.

"…because I'm faster."

The unspoken, "Fire!" Rang out in their minds as Yuba shot three times from his gun before Shingai was able to fully pull up her Lightning.

Shingai let out a sigh through her nose as lines of trion began forming all along her body. The three holes made by the shots hit the perfect places to make sure she would lose.

Looking back towards the Gunner, she saw as he gave her a quick wave before jumping from the building.

Her loss was guaranteed, so she found no reason to go after him. Instead, she focused on placing her hand to her ear as the lines of trion reached her face.

"Sthénos, feel free to attack if you want. Just make sure to keep a distance from him."

"Roger, roger!"

With that, Shingai was overcome with light before flying out of the, now collapsing, building.

**Bail Out.**

* * *

Senshi knew the instant his bad luck came back.

All of the pressure that had left his shoulders quickly came flooding back all at once.

The feeling of something wrong happening came over his entire mentality and the feelings of strength in his movement seemed like it would only lead to something he would not want. Everything that expressed his Side Effect came back to him in a single instant.

That instant was all it took.

With nothing there, Senshi felt himself begin to fall instead of run. As if it had been placed there to hinder him, he began to fall once something touched his foot. His footing was lost within the instant and he could see the ground coming soon.

_I need to at least try._

He began taking in his body to lead into a roll the moment he would hit the ground. From there he could get up and move away. Once the instant was done he would be able to at least get his bearing and meet up with Sthénos.

For the first few seconds it seemed like it would be possible, but then it happened.

He landed on the arm.

His ankle twisted.

He could not roll to the side.

He hit the ground with a resounding noise.

The Hound that came from somewhere crashed down.

He was filled with holes.

He had lost.

.

**Bail Out.**

* * *

Wakamura could only hide behind the glare of his glasses as he heard the simultaneous sounds of foreheads being slapped by the palms of people's hands.

He felt that he could agree with that sort of sentiment. Some of the few who did not do such a thing happened to be the girl next to him and the girl behind him. No, they did not hit their foreheads, instead, they seemed to take to whispering to each other.

"That kind of anti-climactic ending kind of makes me feel back for Ōji."

"I know. He seemed pretty pissed with that last run against the girls, but now he doesn't look so good."

"He probably doesn't know how he won that fight."

"I would feel the same way. Something like, 'This sort of comeback… Wait, did that really happen!? I tried so hard and this guy just ran into my attack!? This sucks…' Or something like that."

"Yeah, I'm totally getting that kind of feeling from him right now."

Was it just how these two were that made them so openly pity their upperclassman without any hesitation?

Either way, Wakamura felt like he could not say that they were wrong. After all, anyone would feel like that after having just been put through hell before finding out the exit was right next to them with a sign that read "Not the exit".

_It feels like the best way to describe this all. And the worst part is that I'm sure Senzai-senpai would not mind losing like this. The real loser here is Ōji and none of us can deny it._

A few seconds later, he could hear the laughter from Yoneya die down while Lukas fixed his glasses. The commentators had said nothing about the loss yet and he was curious as to what they would say about it.

It had pretty much all ended in a flash, but the fight itself was something that he took notes on.

Seeing Obishima lose the way she did had been rough due to the way she did not seem to be giving up at all. But while he felt bad for her, his attention had been on the other girl in that chaotic fight.

_Taiyōko did well, all things considered. Is it bad that I feel proud of her? Maybe I shouldn't tell Tsukiko or Murakami about it. I feel like they would be happy that someone felt that way, but then get mad since it was he who had said it. But I really do want to tell her that she was great in that fight. Yeah, that's what I'll do. I tell her that she was great there with no one else around and so there won't be anyone to rat me out. It's perfect! Oh, I guess I could do the same for Obishima too. She was good there._

Wakamura crossed his arms while silently nodding to himself.

There was a plan he could use and the whispering from the two girls about him would not deter him from following through with it.

The whispering became a bit louder, but he chose to, yet again, ignore it in favor of listening in to the comments.

"[Are you done laughing now?]"

"[I refuse to be blamed for laughing at that.]"

"[You kind of have to feel bad for him.]"

"[With that point being…taken. Given? With Kazuaki getting a point, this puts Ōji Squad at three points with their captain remaining. The remaining fighters after that are Kotowari Squad's Suzu and mutt, who managed to score them a point earlier, Yuba Squad's Yuba, who has gotten a single point for them, and Senzai Squad's Sthénos, who had yet to score a point but had her captain score two points.]"

"[From the looks of things, Ōji might just be waiting out the clock now. The damage he took and the trion loss from his attacks means he won't have much juice left to fight. On the opposite side of that, everyone else, besides Yuba-san, is still pretty back with trion and have not taken much damage.]"

"[The fact Suzume-chan and Awdry are still around is probably the most concerning part. Toby had gotten his team a point early on and had saved his trion the entire time. Meanwhile, Suzume-chan has less trion form the fight before, but has no damage done to her. If those two work together then I'm sure they can handle the remaining three.]"

"[Sthénos might also hold back due to losing her teammates. But in all likelihood, she might just go on the offensive or try to find someone to attack.]"

"[If we look at the map… Oh.]"

"[Yup. That's what I thought.]"

"[It makes sense.]"

Curious as to what they were talking about, Wakamura turns this attention from the live feed they were getting from the fighters to the map showing where they were all placed.

Suzume seemed to be moving slowly while Sthénos was loitering around an area. Ōji, as expected, was finding a place to lay low until the time ran out or more people Bailed Out. As for the remaining two…

_I should have expected as much._

* * *

Destruction signaled the end of the battle and sounds of someone sighing signaled the beginning of a new one.

Of the remaining fighters in the current match, Yuba took a cautious approach to the situation.

"I should be careful over here."

Toby tok note of the remaining fighters left on the battlefield. Senshi and Shinagi had just been taken out while Obishima and Hoshi were taken out only moments ago.

That was he was one of the few who had remained and was now going to his next opponent.

The moment he turned a corner he was in the center of destruction.

Toby saw the remains of a building.

… _Explosion attacks are really annoying!_

He took a combat stance as several explosive attacks came down on the surface like walls.

And a moment later...

"...!"

His body noticed a sudden presence and swung his head half its width to the right. The ends of his hair swayed, informing him something was approaching.

And he noticed something where his left ear had been a moment before.

_...Wind!?_

He noticed the pressure and heard the blowing of wind. It suddenly appeared along a straight line and passed by.

It did not fly past him. An unexpected noise had split the air.

"This is…!" shouted Toby. "A ghost!"

"It's a shot from a Gunner, you idiot!"

A tall and slender figure stood beyond the destruction to his right. They were 7 meters away and facing him.

_So it's one of the captains,_ he realized.

… _He can be a bit annoying too, can't he?_

_Would it help if we put a number in his name, but I feel bad if I end dup mixing it all together._

Then he spoke to him.

"I'll take you on, Awdry. I think we'll be a good match."

"Is that so?" Toby nodded. "In other words, you think we would be a good match for going at it pretty hard."


	102. Takuma Yuba

The entire battlefield ground to a halt.

Other than the dust and debris floating in the air, even the sounds of firing stopped. All focus from those hidden from sight were on Yuba who was frozen in place and looking from side to side and Toby who stood in front of him.

"I'm still inexperienced, but doing it with someone skilled will allow us to work together, give it our all, and have a more fulfilling experience."

"…That would need to be censored."

"Yeah, there would be some hardcore penetrating. But…" Toby looked satisfied. "Feeling yourself reach greater heights like that is a pretty damn good thing. Personally, I see it as a kind of sport that lets you work up a sweat. Oh, but I guess we cannot sweat in a trion body. But that just means we can go harder and faster than we normally could."

"Fulfilling, you say?"

"Yup. Lately, I've been kept very busy going at it hard with Suzume to keep up speed. Isn't that right, Suzume?"

.

"Senpai, we are getting some direct messages from some people. Do you mind if we send them directly to you?"

Suzume waved off Takeshi, allowing the messages to come through.

_Might as well. I'm just honestly enjoying the show at the moment._

**Decoy:** "Misaki! Misaki! This is where both Hanzaki and Satori failed spectacularly, but let's try to use this to negate your usual behavior! Okay!? Okay!?"

"Heh heh. Hisa-kun, you've been going at it hard with me too, haven't you!? Along with Ken-kun, Yoshito-kun, and Dai-chan! You often come to my place to go at it hard, don't you!? And when Dai-chan gives you what you came for, you say, 'N-no, it's so hot. It's so hot, Daigo.' or 'Um, I want some bigger meat than this.' "

"Waaaaiiiiit! How could you say that on the entire Border chat!? How could you!?"

She could imagine Hisato grabbing the collar of the closest person to him and shaking them rapidly, but the idiot sniper did not care. It was likely that her classmates were trapped in a state of equal parts blushing and dumbstruck, but Suzume spoke to Toby.

"Toby, we were going at it pretty hard in front of everyone when you came over to my school, didn't we?"

"Yeah!" The wild boy lightly raised a Scorpion blade. "I was reborn by going at it hard. I may have that to thank for what happened when training with Noah. No and I repeatedly swapped positions and traded swords as we had some fun as hell time going at it."

* * *

**American Idiot:** "...No, what were you doing back there?"

**Shore:** "I…honestly don't remember that happening… Maybe I hit my head and forgot all about it when I was running on the stalls…"

* * *

Yuba heard Fujimaru and Tonooka's voices through their coms.

They were trying to be silent, but failed miserably.

"Yuba may not look it, but he's quite lewd."

"Is he a beast?"

"I didn't say this!" he shouted back at them. "And I don't understand it any more than you do!"

But as he frowned below his glasses, he asked a question.

"Just out of curiosity…how do you intend to fight me?"

Kotowari Squad's beast answered him with a deep nod. And…

"Let's go…Scorpion."

.

Toby sensed that he had cut the smoke and air before his eyes as well as the figure beyond them.

He did not see it with his eyes. The hit was confirmed by something more like tactile feedback or a sensation that should not have been there.

But he kept moving. He turned to face behind him.

… _He circled around…!_

There was a skinny person there.

It was the enemy.

The Gunner had already made his way behind him.

There was no point in asking when. The enemy was quick on their feet and on the draw. Attacking from beyond their enemy's senses was their specialty.

… _Of course, that is only against someone who is too dangerous to face head-on._

Did that mean he was somewhat dangerous to them? In that case…

… _I need to be even more dangerous!_

.

Yuba arrived behind Kotowari Squad's beast.

… _He has speed, but…_

His bodily control at high speeds was still poor. Or so he thought.

"…Huh!?"

Kotowari Squad's beast had spun around in front of him.

The movement looked slow, but it was anything but. Not even he was sure how to perceive it, but this movement was nothing like how he had moved back in the previous matches.

… _C'mon, now._

All he knew was that he had acceleration Triggers shining from all across his body.

None of them shattered and he was definitely guiding them.

The movements looked so slow he could reach out and grab him.

But they were precise.

Yuba watched his opponent. His attacks were fired using guns. That meant to draw a line between him and his enemy. And so…

… _I can understand his movements!_

He watched and he reached his conclusion.

"—!"

* * *

"Yuba-san…!"

Kōcho saw Yuba quickly slide-step to the right to shift his position from Kotowari Squad's beast.

While she preferred to watch that beast go at it, she found that she could not look away from the Gunner.

He did not move away. That was his pride as a Gunner and Combatant. But…

… _What is that?_

Kōcho saw something at the end of Yuba's evasion.

It was a dance.

Kotowari Squad's beast was dancing.

As someone who did her best as an entertainer, Kōchō found his footwork and movements sloppy and amateurish. Nothing like his dancer teammate.

But the boy was definitely pursuing Yuba.

He was precise.

When she saw the boy's line of movement, Kōcho realized these were the movements of a beginner dancer on the cusp of reaching the intermediate level.

This was the joy of realizing what it meant to express something through dance. Kotowari Squad's beast demonstrated that joy of understanding in the way he bent his body and the way he moved his hands, legs, elbows, knees, and hips.

It was sloppy.

But that was why its essence showed through.

This was the essence of combat.

It was a dance of nothing more than defeating the enemy and keeping yourself alive.

"Yuba-san better not underestimate him!"

Of course, he would not do that.

That was exactly why he had shifted his position.

Yuba had an innate sense for shooting. That was why he was in charge of guiding Meishō who also used a firing technique. From his perspective, Kotowari Squad's beast's movements must have looked like he was going to "shoot him".

And so he had shifted his position.

And because he had dodged his opponent's first shot…

… _Now he attacks!_

Yuba took a combat stance.

He stuck his hands back in his gun holsters.

"…Sorry."

With that word, a gunshot rang out.

* * *

Murakami saw Toby sent flying.

It looked like he had been shot. And behind him…

"…!"

Yuki raised his eyebrows and started forward from the group.

Murakami was briefly surprised by that reaction.

… _Oh?_

Yuki had the emotion of anger.

That had been a reflexive emotion upon realizing Toby had been taken out. It was an impulse that moved his body before he could translate his thoughts into words. Yuki had that now more than ever.

_That's wonderful,_ thought Murakami.

After all…

… _Yuki doesn't lament, cry, and feel sad when one of us is taken out._

He would also have the emotion of sorrow.

Beyond that was his greed for being with others. When viewed as a desire, it was triflingly small and thus difficult to obtain luxury. And when that desire was broken, Yuki grew angry.

After his anger, Yuki would probably feel sorrow.

This had all built up until it all reached the final point from earlier in the day. It had been the reason for Yuki being at the Suzunari Branch at all.

So Murakami spoke.

"Yuki, it will be okay."

He gestured with his chin for Yuki to look forward.

Toby was spinning his body even as he flew backwards.

"The Kiyome on his body have not shattered. Toby is still fighting."

* * *

Toby had taken immediate action against Yuba's attack.

He had first defended by raising Scorpion's blade right next to his right ear.

But nothing came there.

Something did arrive in the 2 or 3 centimeter gap between the blade and his ear.

"…!"

It was not a noise. It was a stillness faster than sound, like an aftershock in the air.

He sensed danger, so he twisted his head and then his entire body.

He leaped using his upper-body weight, starting with his head.

He ended up leaning backwards, but it was not enough. The still aftershock spread to cover his cheek as well, so…

"The changing forms…!"

He used his extra thoughts to create a longer Scorpion and launched the bottom end toward the ground to accelerate.

He more powerfully spun backwards and made a compact midair backflip.

As soon as he flipped onto his back in midair, something passed by in front of his chin.

It was a bullet. His current vision was not perfectly clear, but he saw the bullet as it briefly shone the recognizable green.

_In that case,_ thought Toby. His Gunner technique had to be…

… _I have no idea!_

How had he sent a bullet into the space between Scorpion's raised blade and his face?

Even his reflexes had trouble keeping up with it.

_Isn't that a little too convenient?_

If he had something that convenient, he would really like to know how to do it. That kind of Gunner technique would really make fighting easier.

So he thought: _Could he teach me that technique?_

… _Do I need to prostrate?_

He was performing a midair backflip, so it would be possible to land in a prostration.

If he did so, would it surprise him?

But was there any point in surprising him?

"Mh."

Just as Toby tried to figure out what to do, he sensed the enemy moving. The second shot was coming.

_Wait,_ he thought. _You still haven't taught me that Gunner technique._

So he raised his voice.

"No fair…!"

.

Yuba was initially confused by Toby's words.

… _Eh? No fair?_

_No, wait,_ he thought. _Isn't that how fights are supposed to work?_ After all, you were supposed to do what you could win ole also getting information and making it out alive.

When you were an individual fighting multiple people, how could you hope to play fair?

But once he thought about it, he realized he only had one opponent here.

Logically, this might indeed be unfair. After all, certain techniques were meant for when one was outnumbered, but he was using them against an individual.

_But,_ reconsidered Yuba while making an excuse to himself.

_You're a pretty strong fighter, aren't you? What with that Side Effect and all._

_And I'm a Gunner and at the same level as any of those tough guys… No, a little higher than that. Just a little, little bit higher! That's what I am. So if I'm up against an unfair Attacker…_

"It isn't unfair at all."

He aimed his second shot.

He aimed for his lower stomach as he made his backflip and prepared to land. He was reluctant to target a person's stomach, but a bullet shot through the stomach could pierce through quite a lot of the body and the trion leakage was hard to stop. He concluded that losing from trion loss would be cleaner and feel better than having his head smashed apart.

"…!"

And he fired.

* * *

"Toby!"

Murakami saw Toby move.

For some reason, he had been trying to decide whether or not to fold his legs underneath him in midair. And then Yuba prepared to fire at his lower stomach.

Murakami had an idea how, but his attacks occurred at point-blank range.

With Toby's enhanced reaction speed and with Kiyome still active, he could dodge it, but…

… _His landing pose is a mess!_

Like this, trying to dodge after landing would cause too great a time lag. And any lag here would be deadly.

Murakami thought about saying something, but Yuba was poorly positioned for that. He was somewhat hidden from the visuals by Toby.

Perhaps that was his Gunner sense at work.

_In that case,_ he thought. _Suzume could knock Toby out of the way with her shields the instant he lands._

But…

"Eh?"

Murakami saw something happen.

Toby looked down with an "Oh?" on his face.

Of course, the only thing below him was the battlefield's ground. That was obvious.

But Toby's expression made it look like he could not figure out why that surface was there.

… _Don't tell me he got distracted!_

Yuba's gunshot rang out, even if the television had no sound.

Toby landed at the same moment, but it was not a landing.

As he fell with his knees and hands first, light exploded between him and the battlefield's surface.

… _That was…!_

Kiyome.

The acceleration Trigger lost control as he failed to connect his landing into his next action. And as a result…

"…"

Toby was blasted high into the sky, effectively jumping over the bullet fired downward.

* * *

Inside of an office and in the Border base, Netsuki was inside his personal office within Border's large base.

This was a rather plain room meant for his work and figuring out what to do for Border's image. It was used to think things through, and for Netsuki...

… _It's a safe place for work even during battle~_

Of course, everyone knew about it since it was also in an open area. Most people did not go near though since there was hardly a reason to do so, but the one who did frequent it had to be Suzaku in order to manage certain things.

_Yes, it is fine to ignore the commotion at times and just work on things here. Probably. Surely. I hope they don't interrupt me..._

At any rate, it was nice having somewhere for work during battles. Suzaku was off to the side watching the match going on for the B-Rank Wars. Netsuki found his pretense there rather negligible, but...

"Netsuki-san! Did you see the footage from the match!?"

"Eh!? Suzaku-kun! Did someone die or something!? There won't be some major issues because of that, will there!?"

"No, it isn't that! Look at this!"

He saw recorded footage sent with a 5 second delay.

It showed Awdry being launched into the air. He seemed to have messed up his landing, but some kind of force had launched him back up and he managed to correct his position. And…

"That's one of the Top 16 Prostrations! The Launch Prostration!"

* * *

Yuba looked up in the air.

A prostration flew through the night sky.

… _What the hell is this!?_

_I have no idea what's going on,_ he honestly admitted. _I came here to fight, but I feel like it's just been one weird thing after another._

_Oh, right. Before leaving, Arashiyama said Kotowari Squad is a dangerous team, but it looks like he was right._

_This is so strange._

But then a dancer with gaudy hair spoke from atop a nearby rooftop.

"He's tightened up his body's axis, so he can correct his position even when he's sent flying. He used to get stuck in a wild spin. …Heh heh. Netsuki-san and Suzaku must be freaking out right now."

Then the dancer looked to Yuba.

He became extra cautious when she found that she was not even trying to hide or bring out her Lightning.

She winked and mimicked a handgun with her hand.

"Watch out, or I'll say 'bang' or something!"

Yuba did not think, _What are you talking about?_

Nor did he think, _Ridiculous._

He did not even think, _That doesn't even mean anything._

… _I've more or less figured it out._

He had fought against Yuki once before when he started learning about being weird. He had mostly been relaxed then, so even when close up, he had only thought of it as a "lively fight" as if viewing it from the outside. But...

"So that's it."

He made a turning slide to the right.

It was a quick rotation. The force of it swung around the bottom of his squad uniform's jacket.

"That's right."

A blade tip flew into the position his head had just left.

It was Scorpion.

Kotowari Squad's beast had landed behind him in his Launch Prostration and then he had attacked.

.

Yuba dodged the blade tip to the right.

He spun his body, looked back over his shoulder to view the enemy, and indeed saw Kotowari Squad's beast.

In that case, the plan must have been for the dancer to distract him long enough for the beast to attack from behind. But…

… _That's not it._

It was an adlib.

The dancer's distraction and the beast's attack had seemed coordinated, but they had not been. Most likely, the dancer had either noticed or predicted the beast's attack and decided on her own to distract him.

The end result was the same as coordination, but it was an adlibbed assist.

In other teams, that was done by firing at the enemy, not distracting them with an idiot.

"But you all don't have proper weapons."

Kotowari Squad had been disarmed.

As a constant fighter, he knew very well how people would fight under those conditions.

First, they would lure the enemy onto a battlefield that gave them an advantage, such as a forest with lots of obstacles or their home turf.

There they would use decoys and traps to disturb the enemy, prevent them from taking another step forward, and place them in a convenient point to attack them.

Only then would those with means of attacking be sent in, but even that would be done with the others' assistance.

These people were the same.

For the constant fighter, fighting in the forest or his home turf gave him an advantage.

But these people used something else instead:

… _Each one of them is like a tree in the forest._

None of them were incompetent.

They placed the incompetent one at the top.

And to keep that incompetent one alive, they created a forest from themselves, disturbed the enemy, and occasionally attacked.

It could look like they were being silly due to the person at the top, but…

… _That's just the kind of forest it is._

Kotowari Squad had no real weapon since their captain had left and their Operator was out of commission. So when they had joined together and started for the battlefield, they had to have had a single thought in mind: _We've got no choice._

Some of them were not used to fighting and some of them were utter amateurs, but they still did everything they could to intervene.

It was all supported by each other. They had the power of substitutions and their individual skills.

If one of them could not finish a fight then it was certain that someone else would be able to do it. It had been the reason for that dancer to not show any signs of attacking him.

So there was a lot of waste, but they were fearsome indeed when it fit together properly. When viewed as a fighting style, their unusual actions could take them to great heights.

_What is this?_ thought Yuba.

It was not a simple "forest". Nor was it everyone else's "battlefield".

_I have no idea._

So he moved. He reminded himself this was enemy territory and that the enemy had made sure they would have the advantage here.

"—"

As he turned around, light arrived from the corner of his left eye.

It was Scorpion. The racing tip gave a twist and reflected the left side of his face. And a moment later…

"Change! Scorpion…!"

.

Toby realized his attack had failed.

He saw Yuba moving. And he was continuing his previous path around him.

He was trying to move behind him.

… _Did I miss!?_

No, Scorpion's sudden cutting had worked. But…

"Bullets!?"

Bullets had struck the left side of Scorpion's blade.

The tactile feedback reaching the shaft-hilt told him it was 5 shots. They had not been fired simultaneously, he felt a slight time lag between them, and each of them had struck at a different angle.

They had hit and shook the blade just before the judgment was made for the cutting attack.

As a result, the cutting lock had been disturbed.

"Requires effort," said Scorpion.

The cutting was produced in a broken form. So…

"Well, I'm not exactly unscathed."

As Yuba slid his feet around in the right corner of his vision, he saw a cut in his glasses, face, and cheek.

But that was all.

And he said more as he moved behind him.

"I said we're a good match, didn't I?"

… _Indeed you did!_

Toby tried to turn around, but…

"Sorry."

Another point-blank series of bullets slammed into Scorpion's tip.

He was delayed getting the tip back in place.

"…Kh!"

Toby sensed danger from the left side of his back. That was the opposite side from Yuba, but he sensed a bullet there.

… _This is…_

Toby immediately dodged and raised her voice.

"I still have no idea!"

.

Yuba could tell Kotowari Squad's beast had dodged his bullet when he heard it graze him.

… _That's pretty amazing._

But now he was in danger.

After all, this was an away game in enemy territory. The enemy would coordinate through adlibs.

And this was not an official duel. Yuba Squad was making an attack and Kotowari Squad was fighting back.

Kotowari Squad's beast had just dodged his attack.

There would be a short delay before he attacked him next.

Normally, he would be left alone at that time. But…

"You all are different, aren't you?"

He heard a very familiar noise behind him. It was the sound of several shots aiming his way. An anti-personnel attack had been put together in response to Yuba's arrival onto the battlefield.

Based on the sound, it was at least a cluster shot made nearby with little in the way of targeting. It felt like an amateur was readying to fire. And the number of cluster shots had increased a moment later, but...

… _Well, I'll manage._

As soon as he thought that, he heard the firing Triggers start behind him.

And…

"This is more like it. A real man's gotta be outnumbered."

Several shots were fired toward his back.

* * *

Kōchō saw the result brought about by the squad captain.

She too had a good firing sense. _Well, maybe a little. Not all that much._

In her opinion, everyone else had demonstrated fairly accurate marksmanship. The shots fired by everyone on that battlefield seemed to be extremely practiced, but that would increase the accuracy and reduce the amount of trion wasted.

To supply support, a squad Operator helped control the location of where to fire and how they should be fired, so of the 27 cluster shots, at least 19 flew toward Yuba's back 30 meters away.

That was certain.

But what happened next was different.

Sparks flew from Yuba's back.

And not just from one spot. The number was exact:

"…19!?"

Yuba was unharmed.

She knew what had happened. He had deflected them with gunshots of his own.

… _Is this…?_

Kōcho realized that this Gunner could fire more than one bullet at a time. Or at least fired in rapid succession that made it seem that way.

His back stood in the battlefield as if to say that single handedly taking on a multitude was what made him a Gunner.

"Interesting. That, um, small girl from Senzai Squad - Sthénos, right? - must have been the one who fired. …For someone who can only make cluster shots, she did quite well."

"…And those people are going to be our enemy."

"I think they already are," pointed out Asano.

Just as Kōcho nodded in agreement…

… _Ah._

Yuba's back vanished.

He had moved. Toby was already changing his stance.

"…Let's go!"

He resumed fighting too quickly to follow.

Kōchō's eyes had trouble seeing the movements of this ground battle. Her advanced understanding of movements gave her additional information, but she could see nothing beyond that. Their movements were fast and tricky, so they were never in the position she expected.

But that meant one thing:

… _Toby is moving at the same level as him!_

* * *

Toby had chosen to disturb his own movements.

What he did was simple: swing his body at high speed to make sure his opponent could not target him.

He was adding an unpredictable element to his dodging and feints.

… _Meaning…_

"Moving at random!"

Yuba answered his shout.

"What idiot explains their technique?"

"I prefer to play fair!"

"…Hah. Then bring it on, honest boy."

"Of course…!"

He brought it.

His former captain had been good at this. He would readily distract him in battle by suddenly looking to the side and shouting "Ah!" or taking two right steps in a row and saying "Oops".

Mei had been good at seeing through those tricks. Whenever he had tried one during practice, Toby recalled her glaring at him and hitting him as hard as she could with the knuckles of her fist.

That was so nostalgic.

And now he had to do that nostalgic thing himself. After all…

… _My goal is to reach him again! This time on the same level as him instead of right under him!_

So he moved forward using Headfirst Fall.

"Takuma…!"

He pursued him.

He tried to circle behind him. No, more accurately…

… _He is moving to my combat blind spots!_

Beyond his arm's range of rotation. At an angle his blades could not reach. Even if he was not outside his field of vision, he would circle around to a spot where his attacks could not reach him or pursue him.

_In that case,_ he thought. _A beast must catch his prey._

_In that case,_ he thought again. _What do I do to catch some prey who is staying out of reach?_

_In that case,_ he thought a third time.

… _I just have to create a location where I can catch everything!_

He accelerated to keep him out of his blind spot.

"Ohhh…!"

He sensed his presence trying to circle behind him.

"Outside…!"

Not behind him.

He was running in a wide arc to remain outside of his range.

* * *

Wind, gunfire, and blade-strikes raced across the battlefield.

It took the form of two movements. Toby and Yuba repeatedly crossed paths and circled after each other in what amounted to a long S-shape.

When Toby used his speed to circle around, Yuba would make a short turn-slide back around.

When Yuba tried to circle behind his back, Toby would make a wide outward circle on the inner corner.

Yuba tended to move inward and Toby pursued him from the outside.

Yuba used all his strength to keep up with Toby and Toby used all his strength to keep Yuba from taking up a position on the outside.

Their gunfire and blade-strikes clashed, making sparks and evasion constant companions.

They moved across the battlefield and passed between the falling shellfire, but…

"…!"

If either one made a single mistake, they would lose everything, but they continued making only the right decisions.

They continued on.

"[Well this has turned into an intense battle.]"

"[Yoneya-senpai, can you keep up with all of this?]"

"[Pretty much. How about you? How are you doing with the speed?]"

"[I'm fine. Using Geist has gotten me accustomed to this kind of speed. Spotting what's going on is not an issue.]"

"[Great, great. Good to hear that you can keep up. What about you, Wagner? Can you find this mutt and his playmate? Should be easy since he is just a mutt who works with that other guy.]"

Yoneya waved off the glare he was getting from the Operator.

This was some payback for the going ons during the match and he felt that it was only right to do some more teasing.

There were always people calling Toby a mutt, sometimes it was a nickname while other times it held some malice in them. The former were always soaked up by the boy while the latter were always frown upon and ignored. But nothing was ever done about them, Toby always deciding to leave things as they were.

_He's pretty mature in that way. The only times he goes at someone for that stuff is when he's just messing around and wants a solo match or something._

It had happened with Yoneya a few times. Toby had taken to his teasing by jumping at Yoneya and lightly hitting him while asking for a match.

It was always funny to see since it was different from someone like Midorikawa.

But those times were the reason he felt like some teasing was in order now.

"[So, can you keep up?]"

"[Of course I can. …Enough at least. Mino-nii is also a close quarters specialist and moves quickly too. And that is without a proper Trigger for it.]"

Yoneya could hear something behind them that seemed to sounded like Border's top Attacker saying, "Oh, oh! He's really praising you here, isn't here? Leave it to Yoneya to get him to do that!"

He decided to ignore that in favor of humming towards the glasses boy next to him.

From his other side, he could see Karasuma giving Lukas a seeming look of pity.

_Yup, that's probably the best look you can give him right now._

He snickered to himself before clearing his throat and straightening his back. Folding his hands in front of him, he raised his head and continued.

"[Very good. So long as you can keep up then we can properly talk about this fight to its fullest.]"

"['It's fullest'?]"

"[Isn't that right, Tori- Ahem. Karasuma-dono?]"

"[Indeed. We should be able to give accurate and astute responses to what we are seeing here.]"

_Nice job going along with me there!_

Neither one of them needed to turn to know that they were getting an unimpressed look from Lukas. It had been what they were going for after all.

"[Now let us see how this fight will be turning out.]"

* * *

Yuba was on the move.

Until now, he had been focusing on evasion. He was up against someone with the monstrous speed needed to dodge shots at nearly point-blank range.

… _It was worth waiting…_

From the bottom of his heart, he wished he was not up against someone like this beast.

He kept a calm look on his face, but he was going all out.

His Gunner technique was a close-range firing type, but as a firing type, it had a limit to the firing speed and bullet speed.

And the speedy idiot he was up against was as fast as both.

He was very nearly helpless.

And that was what made his footwork so vital. He used his gunfire to deter him while he stuck to evasion. This kind of movement was the foundation of a skilled Gunner's abilities, so he had many ways of walking or moving his body to take the advantageous position.

He had never expected he would end up using these.

And he had used them so much that he barely felt like he was fighting anymore.

"…Honestly."

But this enemy was a beast who lived in this world.

He could guess that he saw the speed as himself and he might even feel like his everyday self was the fake one.

He lived in the speed.

… _I can't keep up._

_No, I can keep up. I'm skilled. Others have been fast before and I've fought them all before._

And he too had a world he lived in: gunfire.

"Yeah."

Yuba took a breath, performed a single turn-slide, and fully escaped the hidden enemy's line of fire.

"Power bullets will do, won't they?"

.

… _It can be a problem how many of these guys love flashy attacks._

As Yuba heard movement from nearby that seemed familiar, he saw something unbelievable straight ahead.

"C'mon now…"

He had just fired 10 bullets toward Kotowari Squad's beast at point-blank range. And he had been knocked away.

But even so…

"Did he forcibly defend against them in midair!?"

Kotowari Squad's beast flew through the air.

But he had not been hit. No, he technically had been hit, but…

… _He blocked them with his blade!?_

_._

Toby had chosen to use his blade first.

As the bullets arrived from so close to his body, he raised his blade and struck as if pushing back against them.

And that push allowed the bullets to hit the blade before his body.

And just as the blade was hit and pushed back toward him…

"…Headfirst Fall!"

He opened Headfirst Fall on his feet and knees. Then he kicked off the repelled blade before the bullets could reach him.

"…!"

He leaped.

* * *

Kōchō whistled, but Wakamura had lost sight of Toby.

… _Eh?_

Just as Wakamura thought Toby had been hit, Kōcho hand moved in from the side.

"Over there."

Kōchō grabbed Wakamura's chin and pointed his head left of the screen. Toby was there.

He had made a leap while bending backwards in the air. But…

"…!"

Even without sound they could tell that solid sounds rang out.

There was 1, 2, and then 3 such sounds. Each time, Toby jumped left through the air while continuing to bend backwards. Wakamura realized what was causing that odd position.

… _He's kicking the bullets!?_

He used the struck blade as footing and leaped in the direction of the bullet's flight. And since he was using Headfirst Fall…

"The Hassou Tobi…!?"

"What is that?"

"Girikage and Sasamori have talked about it before. It's something that Tsukiko - the A-Rank one - had shown them before with Hikigane," Wakamura responded to Asano by pushing up his glasses.

"He hasn't built up Kiyome enough and he isn't jumping right. …This will eventually become something else entirely. But, well, even when that happens," said Kōcho, "I doubt Toby can correct that unsteady trajectory. Not with his sense of balance."

But the sound likely rang out again. Toby matched the axis from his feet to the pursuing bullets and he ascended horizontally through the air.

He continued bending backwards as the noises should have counted up to 7.

"The last one won't hit him when he's bent that far back."

Toby's hair flew in an arc.

He dodged that final bullet and landed on the battlefield's surface. And…

"—"

Something flew into Toby's raised hand.

It was the last Scorpion blade he had used for footing.

He grabbed it and stood up.

The previous Headfirst Fall remained on his legs.

They had not shattered. And Wakamura saw Toby instantly jump toward Yuba on the right.

"Oh, wow… Hey, Asano, I can see him! I really can! You don't have to grab my face and turn my head for me!"

* * *

Yuba did not look back.

He did not need to know the enemy was approaching.

"Bring it on, impatient boy!"

He fired.

… _That side!_

He fired from the right of his enemy while he ran. And at point-blank range.

He immediately heard a noise.

It was the solid one of a ricochet. And it came from directly behind him.

"Goddammit…"

He did not look back.

There was no reason to. After all, the sound was more than enough to know what had happened.

"Did you block them with your blade!?"

The wind blew in on the left.

It was Kotowari Squad's beast.

He had leaped to the left and caught them on his blade while airborne.

The wind he created was not targeting him. So…

"I don't mind."

He let the small fragments fall down from his broken glasses and he reloaded his two guns.

"You know how my attack works, don't you? But let's see this through to the end."

With that, he came to a stop. And…

"Time for a shootout."

.

"Ohhhh…!"

Toby turned back toward Yuba. He primarily attacked with the tips of his blade while he made sure to…

… _Dodge!_

The gunfire arrived immediately afterwards. He had attacked from the right, but it came from the left. And the 10 shots appeared less than a centimeter away from the side of his face or his stomach.

The attack came from his blind spot.

But he had speed. He was swinging from right to left, but the axis of his feet had pulled off the previous footwork and bullet kicks.

So he leaped to the side and used his blade to…

"Block it!"

"Understood," said the weapon.

An impact shattered the Scorpion blade before it was reformed. He used that to adjust the speed and direction of his leap so he could dodge the remaining bullets.

This was much like a _kata_.

When he knew where the attack was coming, this _kata_ allowed him to accurately block it and use it for his next action.

And there was only one thing he could say about Yuba's attack for making him think that way.

"Well done…!"

He had never thought he would experience gunfire like swordsmanship.

And since he fired 10 shots at once…

"You really do rival a master Attacker!"

"A Gunner doesn't want an Attacker's praise."

_Oh, right. My mistake. I shouldn't look at everything from my own perspective._

_But,_ thought Toby.

There was something he understood now.

"Takuma."

He approached and was knocked back each time, but he was still gradually getting closer as he spoke. Even now, he was dodging the gunfire that appeared outside his field of vision.

"Your gunfire follows a certain rule, doesn't it?"

"And what might that be?"

Since he asked, Toby answered.

"All of your shots go for places I unconsciously don't keep track of!"

.

Yuba smiled bitterly in his heart as he continued firing at Kotowari Squad's beast

_He's gotta have figured out how this certain shooting technique works by now._

His evasions had grown quite sharp. He had focused on the attacks in his own blind spots and fully avoided them.

"Not bad, you raging beast!"

"And you are doing a damn good job with your blind spot attacks!"

That was true enough. After all…

… _This is how I choose to use Viper against monsters like you._

It was not simply power shots.

He wished it was as simple as "attack what is before me", but it was not always that easy when against people like this.

This had caused him a lot of trouble in the past.

He had initially trained in the Gunner techniques of power and speed for bullets.

Back when he was only firing bullets via pure gun power, his results had been lacking a bit.

… _Certain things just don't go the way you want._

And in a real battle against someone who could use Triggers, simple gun power alone was not enough.

So his training had begun to include different bullets for use in combat.

And he found he was disappointed in the power those Triggers had.

Everyone else had been able to use those Triggers freely or at least decide that it fit them well enough to use. When he looked into it, he found that his style of gun was activating fine but not providing the results he had wanted.

It was a matter of affinity.

Affinity did not always work in the positive direction.

Like Kotowari Squad's beast, there were those who were loved by acceleration Triggers. Like him, there were those who had been abandoned by different Triggers.

Triggers were meant to shorten the gap fighters had against each other as well as Neighbors. They were meant to provide different results depending on which one was used.

The Triggers had been too different for him.

People had said all sorts of things about him. Some claimed he was too headstrong to properly use them. Others claimed he was not trying hard enough. And his excellent track record at the start had only made the criticism stronger.

Some of his friends had helped him try to overcome the poor affinity, but even they had eventually realized it was no use and let him be.

He had been quick to realize they had given up on it and he had been quick to change the subject to something harmless when they did speak with him.

At the time, he had thought it was all over for his advancements, he had stopped trying to move forward, and he had eventually started planning to only be known for his power shots.

_But,_ thought Yuba.

_At one point, I figured it out._

He had decided to throw it all away.

One day after a particularly hard day, he had decided to let off some steam by firing at whatever he could in a training room.

He had used his poor usage of weaker Triggers to fire at the targets from his beloved guns.

And when he exited the training room, he had noticed something.

The targets had holes in them from different locations.

… _I don't get it._

It had made no sense to him. At first he had thought someone else had been around and had fired their own attacks at the targets, so he had taken a good look around the entire room to make sure.

But he found nothing out of the ordinary.

He had felt his only option was to recreate the situation, but whenever he fired the shots while focusing on them, nothing special happened.

He had only figured out what was happening after taking a step back and relaxing. Before summer break when everyone else was focused on their own things, he had lazily been practicing with his power shots while modifying the speed of them for his guns.

To make sure he had all that he needed, he continued to switch between shots until he found out he still had Viper set in his slots. When he had gone to switch them out, he had accidentally pulled the trigger and fired Viper. The shot moved before he could register what happened. The rest had been a clean hit on the target.

He had not known why, but he had known it was the same as with the other time.

He had wondered if Ōji or Kurauchi had done something to his guns, so he had tried it again. Then he checked his guns. They were not changed at all.

"This isn't what I would call a talent."

Sometimes people were simply geniuses at something. Sometimes the opposite was true.

He did not know which one he was, but he remembered what Mei had said:

"I think you have done so much fighting that even you don't realize what you really want to hit. You fix yourself up for power and speed, but you take too much control of your shots that way."

"How does that even work?"

"I don't use guns too often. …:Looking t it a different way, you can say that you have reached a point where you can set your own patterns so long as you don't realize it's what you are doing. It sounds interesting to me."

And…

"If you fire using that Trigger then I'm sure you will find your mark."

He did not remember how he had responded.

But he had never returned to Viper, always sticking with what he knew.

Because he had a goal.

… _I need to keep going and keep powering through. I'm not like those geniuses who can create things on the fly._

And the results could be seen now.

_Hey, me._

Yuba looked to the enemy as he thought to himself and tossed aside his destroyed glasses.

_Are you still finding the target?_

With that, the enemy arrived. He spun his body with all his might, and…

"—"

Kotowari Squad's beast arrived right in front of him with smoke trailing behind him.

He had caught him.

.

Toby saw Yuba move.

He took a back step.

But the movement began slowly. So…

… _I can hit him first!_

He charged in. He threw his body forward with all his strength to give himself too much momentum for any shots from behind to catch up.

"You're mi-…"

But his shout was cut off.

Yuba seemed to relax in place. And faced the sky away instead of at him.

He looked right up, but...

… _He isn't looking at me!?_

Then Toby realized what this meant.

By looking up into the sky, Yuba again something.

"The greatest blind spot and evasion!?"

If he looked into the sky, the ground and everything to the horizon entered his blind spot.

So that was what he had done.

He knew he would fire soon thereafter. Would it be to his left, right, or back?

… _Which will it be!?_

It was the front.

It was a pure counterattack. He had not used this line of fire before now.

"Kh…!"

Headfirst Fall contained great speed. Even if he leaped forward now, he would not gain much height while using Headfirst Fall. And…

… _A sound!?_

From the left, right, and back, groups of bullets were fired at different heights. They joined the barrage in front of him to surround him.

They were going to hit him.

Bullets were approaching from all directions. So…

"…!"

Toby took a certain action in response to the approaching bullets.

He made an intentional misstep.

.

"Heh heh. Now that was reckless."

Suzume crossed her arms and spoke as the light at Toby's knees broke.

Headfirst Fall had shattered. No…

… _He shattered it himself, didn't he?_

Where had he learned that? No, he had probably just now thought it up. And in so doing…

"He will fly. …It's terribly simple, but it's an idea that would never occur to me since I try to preserve the dance. I could learn something from this."

The solid sound only now reached Suzume, but Toby was already airborne. He had flown far above Yuba's head.

.

Yuba saw the enemy.

He was in the sky.

He saw an arc flying high in the false sky.

It was Kotowari Squad's beast hair.

… _He really did it._

The enemy had sent his acceleration Trigger out of control. Normally, he used that uncontrollable blast of acceleration to dodge when he could not otherwise avoid his attack.

… _Did he get that explosion of acceleration to follow his own axis!?_

It had to have been a split-second decision. Just how good was his combat sense?

But in the sky overhead, the Kotowari Squad Beast completed a flip and began to fall.

The arc of his hair was tugged straight as he dropped down.

He would be in trouble if he stayed motionless on the floor here. But…

"That's fine by me."

Yuba looked at the enemy and fired.

Not all blind spots were created by his field of vision.

"Your body creates a decent 'home' for my bullets."

He could not see behind him.

So he took aim and fired his powerless bullets.

He fired 10 times.

But he soon realized something.

"…?"

His bullets had not appeared behind the Kotowari Squad Beast as he fell.

.

… _What?_

Yuba had never imagined this could happen, but he did not panic and simply pulled the trigger to his two guns held above him.

But there was no sound or motion in the supposedly unseen area behind the Kotowari Squad Beast's back.

_What is going on?_ he wondered. _Did my "affinity" betray me now of all times?_

But when he looked to the Kotowari Squad Beast's back as he fell, he saw something there: glass.

"Oh."

So that was it.

"Did you reflect your back with the broken glass so I could see it!?"

He had erased his blind spot.

… _Dammit!_

He shouted in his heart.

… _Me…!_

"This would be so much easier if I just continued with my power and speed bullets…!"

Yuba kept his eyes on the opponent falling from the sky and he aimed a shot from his blind spot. He aimed a bullet from his right gun as he began to move away.

"…!"

But just before he fired, Toby raised his voice.

"Pierce down! …Scorpion!"

.

Toby realized Yuba could not avoid a direct hit..

… _Nice!_

This would be the end of the battle.

Scorpion had pierced him directly into his chest. Right where his heart was.

The impact rang out as something scattered around him. Toby grinned to himself as he saw the second Scorpion blade he threw shatter below him from the shots fired.

Yuba pulled out the Scorpion blade in his chest as green lines ran along his entire body. Even the nearby noise came to a stop, meaning whoever had been there had moved away from the fight.

But by the time Toby landed…

"Thanks. …For using a projectile in the end."

Someone stood there.

Yuba only responded with a sigh as green light overcame his entire body.

A moment later he was gone.

**Bail Out.**

"Heh. Nice job there. Guess I really am still bad at all of this."

Toby laughed to himself as trion began leaking from the small scraps on his back.

"Not all of those shots were blocked. I'm not good enough to do something like that. I think some of these things are even from my own blades. How lame is that?"

He was only talking to himself at this point.

He was aware that Suzume was nearby, but he didn't want to hear what she had to say, instead imprinting into his mind the fight he just had.

Yuba was a great opponent.

So was Kurauchi.

"This really was a perfect match to test myself."

Letting out a final laugh, he turned around.

Standing atop a nearby building was Suzume. He grinned up at her and he could see her shoulders shaking. She was likely laughing at him.

"Well, guess I should leave now. I'm too low on trion and I don't want to lose a point because of it. Guess Suzume can stick around for a bit longer through." Stretching his arms above his head, he ignored the leaking trion from his back. "Alllllright then! Bail Out!"

A flash of light moved through the sky.

An intentional Bail Out.


	103. Interlude: Part 4

"[With that, the time has ran out and no squads get survival points.]"

"[I doubting of the remaining ones mind that too much.]"

Lukas nodded his head as the results of the match finalized and the three remaining participants went back to their respective squads.

Yoneya relaxed back into his seat while Karasuma let out a held breath.

He understood how they felt after having seen the match. There was some tense still in his shoulders, but most of it had dissipated into thin air at this point.

_There isn't really one person in particular to blame for this. It was just that kind of match, I suppose._

Everyone had played their hands to the best of their abilities and they had all seen some amazing things that would stick with them.

Pushing up his glasses, Lukas focused back onto the screen in front of them all.

Below him he could hear two voices:

"I want to stay for the final commentary, but my squad has defense duty soon. Do you mind giving me a summary of it all later?"

"My squad has a match coming up, so I would appreciate a summary as well."

"That's fine. I'll make sure to tell you two the good parts later."

Down below, a Gunner and a Shooter stood from their seats before walking up the stairs leading to the exit. They had left a single girl alone in her seat, but she seemed fine enough. The way she looked at one particular side of the screen told him all he needed to know.

But it was now time for their final commentary.

"[Let's start with the score. The result is a tie between Ōji Squad and Kotowari Squad with both getting 3 points. Next is Senzai Squad with 2 points. In last place is Yuba Squad with a single point.]"

"[At a surface level, Yuba Squad did the worst. But when taking into consideration who their opponents were, that's to be expected.]"

"[That is something that was a constant in this match. Choosing the right opponents and connecting one fight to another.]"

"[The best example of that, ironically enough, is the one who only had two fights this whole match. Toby started out this match with his fight against Kurauchi. The end of the match then became Toby against Yuba. Instead of going through it all, he went straight to the end.]"

If only it had been that simple.

Yoneya must have known he was thinking this since his next words continued his thought.

"[But it was also everyone else's fights that led up to that final one.]"

"[Kotowari Squad had probably agreed to have him sit out of any fighting after his first victory. If it had been a defeat then I'm sure they had something else planned.]"

"[Despite what he may seem like, Takeshi is the type to come up with a few different strategies. Most of the time they are linked by a single point and diverge from that single point. The fact this point relied one two completely different outcomes means that he is getting better with his planning.]"

"[So you're talking about him now.]"

Lukas ignored Yoneya's comment to continue.

"[The fight between the mutt and Kazuki did something more than just get a point for Kotowari Squad.]"

"[Right, it also set the premise of this match and showed what everyone needs to now be on the lookout for when facing Kotowari Squad. Kurauchi is no pushover and Shooters are a good matchup against Toby. For Toby to come out on top form that fight just means that he reached a new level in his fighting.]"

"[Holding him back afterwards also made everyone else cautious. Awdry is usually the type to go from one fight to another without issue, so him staying behind put a good amount of pressure on the rest of them.]"

"[The ones least affected by that pressure would have to be Senzai Squad. While Ōji Squad needed to be more caseous after having lost their Shooter.]"

"[Ite-san's good luck meant that there was little to really fear. That may have been why she ended up going after Yuba. Her hunting him for so long had ended up being the wrong choice though.]"

"[In a sense, you could say that it was perfect though.]"

Lukas nodded in response.

"[True, having the good and bad luck canceled out had put Shingai in a bad position by the end of it, but it had been the perfect way to have SenSen-san go all out. Most people disregard him due to his bad luck, but this was a good showing of how he is without his bad luck.]"

"[The way he moved reminded me of Yuki-senpai. That kind of use for Teleport isn't something that just anyone can do. While Yuki-senpai begins his attack after teleporting, Senzai-senpai begins his attacks before teleporting. With normal speed you tend to want to figure out when you want your attacks to begin and when you want them to end. With Teleport it is complete based on if the user wants to start before or after the teleport. There is no in-between for them.]"

"[You heard that form Yuki-san, didn't you?]"

"[He really likes going in-depth when it comes to Teleport.]"

This time both Lukas and Yoneya nodded. They were all aware of how their upperclassman viewed that Trigger in particular.

"[None of them must have suspected that he could do something like that though since Takeshi had been taken out quickly while it took Yukari, Hoshi-san, and Kazuaki to fight against him. Even with the injuries they had sustained during the fight, they had an amazing amount of trouble against him.]"

"[That was where you really saw what Ōji was thinking. Instead of trying to take out SenSen-san, who at the time looked unstoppable, he wanted to get the points from taking out Obishima and Taiyōko before he would lose.]"

* * *

"When you put it like that, you make it sound like I'm a coward."

Kurauchi looked towards Ōji as he pouted off to the side.

They all understood the situation and he could not blame Ōji for his actions, thinking they were right during the time.

"Senzai Squad had to show their best move during this match and you were able to keep up with it. Think about it like that and you will feel better."

"Yeah, but…"

"[This all happened because of Kotowari Squad.]"

Kurauchi gave a bitter smile at the words that came through the speaker.

It was an indisputable fact that Kotowari Squad had been to blame for Senshi moving the way he did. There was no stopping it since he had been defeated first and could not figure out what was happening until it happened.

"[Kotowari Squad probably thought that Senzai Squad would be weakened if they did not have their Side Effects active. To an extent, it was the truth. Ite-san was weaker without her good luck, but…]"

But.

"Senshi is a monster when he does not have his bad luck holding him back."

"You knew that but didn't tell us. Kotowari Squad at least had no clue because those two teams, even when that damn fox was around, never really fought each other."

"I didn't think it would come to that. I had preferred to take out one of those two before anyone even had a chance to do that."

"You got bested by their beast. No reason to feel bad. Even Yuba-san got a loss from him. And that was after having fought you."

It was a terrifying thought.

Kotowari Squad's beast had been trouble for them. Even with the element of surprise, it should have been a battle that was won by Kurauchi. The experience he had over Kotowari Squad's beast should have been enough.

But it wasn't.

Yuba's experience should have gotten him the win as well. His own speed and power were greater than Kurauchi, and he worked best at close range, something he had over Kurauchi. It should have been enough.

But it wasn't.

_The truly terrifying part is how young he is. If he keeps this up, keeping on being a Border agent, he will definitely move far ahead of others._

"But he will end up leaving his team behind."

Ōji gave a bitter laugh at his words. It was not ignored, but Kurauchi thought it best not to respond to it.

"There are still more matches after this. When we are done here, we should focus on those ones after."

* * *

Senshi nodded his head to no one in particular.

It had been a fair assumption that he would also be weakened without his Side Effect. It had just been a matter of experience. Experience that Kotowari Squad did not have.

"Oh. So that is what this match was."

Nodding to himself again, Senshi looked to the screen, right over the large shoulder of Tekitai.

Tekitai looked at him from the spot in front of the monitor.

"What is it?"

"Give it a moment. I'm sure they will get to it soon," Senshi raised his hand in response.

"Hey, Senshi."

In the spot next to the monitors of the operating room, Shingai shifted in her spot with a towel on her head.

She leaned down onto the desk with both of her elbows.

"I thought we did pretty well for ourselves when considering everything, but is there something I am missing here? If it feels like they are holding something back."

"I guess so. I see where this matters to us, but it might not be so important if they aren't mentioning it."

Senshi was drying off his hair and Shingai put a hand on her chin.

"Hmm," she groaned with a tilt of the head. "What exactly am I missing then?"

Senshi responded to Shingai's doubt by opening something on his phone. He pulled a list of their opponents from their finish match.

"You actually had the best opponent in multiple ways. Even if the result is what it is."

At the same time, another screen was brought up.

It showed some of the younger agents elsewhere. They bowed with grins on their faces.

"These are the ones who were cheering for you the whole time."

Some messages came through from those same agents.

Shingai smiled at the children, even knowing that they could not see her do so.

"Oh, are you trying to distract me from my own question?"

"Ite, you really don't lose focus on things."

"I can leave the trivial things to you. Senshi, make sure to thank them all for me."

"Hee hee," laughed Sthénos from behind them. "You really love them all, don't you, Ite?"

"I suppose so."

Shingai wiped off her face with the towel. She was wiping off the water she had splashed onto her face.

"Okay," she said with some more cheer to her voice than before.

"I am ready to listen to what they have to say. No matter how much I usually wish to shoot at Yoneya, I will listen in as a B-Rank agent."

* * *

Yoneya ignored the feeling in the back of his head to be careful with what he said.

There had been other times when this feeling came up, but he had ignored most of them. This time would be no different.

Unlike those times, he had safety in being a commentator. No one could get at his throat for what he said here since he could say that he was speaking as an A-Rank agent instead of as Yoneya Yōsuke.

"[This math was definitely one of experience. The inexperienced against those with more experience. In this case, the experienced had won the small battles while the inexperienced had won the major battles.]"

"[As strange as it is to say this… The experienced ones might have had too much experience.]"

"[Oh, that's a good way of putting it!]"

Yoneya grinned with a thumbs up. It was returned kindly by Karasuma.

The sound of a sigh from the other side was not missed, but it was definitely ignored.

"[Going off of experience against wild beasts like the mutt really isn't the best option. On the same track as that; using experience against Senshi ended up being a failure to some extent. If not for Ite-san losing when she did, Ōji Squad would have been completely out of the fight.]"

"[We did not mention it, but that is probably because there was on need to. There was a particular moment that we should at least note. A note on what _not to do._ ]"

It was a rather harsh way of saying it, but it had to be said.

Holding back with his words here would only make things worse.

"[The way Kashio went at Takeshi… Well, it isn't hard to see why he lost so easily. There was nothing to think about with the way he moved in for the attack.]"

"[He is usually calm enough to not do something like that. And even when he might, his squamates can stop him. The fact that it happened means he must have really been wanting to get that point.]"

Yoneya halted in saying anything.

_If these guys have anything to say then they need to say it now._

"[Or he wanted to take out Takeshi.]"

There it was.

It had been the tone and words that he had been waiting for.

"[He was thinking about what had been done before. He let that take up his thoughts instead of the fight itself.]"

_Good job!_

The quick glare he got had made Yoneya turn away without a word.

There was no hiding his thoughts at the moment.

_Well it isn't like he is in the wrong here. If anything, he is more in the right then anyone. But I did my part for all of this. Up to Take-chan to do the rest._

"[In short, something like that can always mean a loss.]"

"[I guess over explaining things can end terribly too…]"

"[Well there is not much left to say here. Thank youth for joining me today for this match.]"

"[Being professional now doesn't take away from the rest of the time~]"

The last glare he got only made him grin even more.

.

Tachikawa chose not to look back as the sound of footsteps got further away from him.

There was no reason for him to question the boy as to where he was going since the match had ended. The both of them had seen what they wanted to see and understood something better than they had before.

It was something they had to do as A-Ranks.

Others began to exit the hall, but he chose to stay.

Losing that boy within the crowd was something he could not stop. It was bound to happen when there were even this many people around.

"Heh. I guess he had something to do and didn't want me tagging along. But it's not like I would be able to do that anyway. I have my own things to get to."

The thought of his previous actions came to mind. But not because he had suddenly started to regret.

No, it was the opposite.

_I should at least push him properly. Minoru is his mentor, so I can't really push too hard or else there will be people after me._

It was not just Kotowari Squad's beast that was on his mind.

Everyone in the match would have their own parts to play soon. Those parts would be both key roles and minor ones, according to someone else.

With those thoughts in place, Tachikawa pushed off the railing.

A grin set in place as he started to walk out of the hall.


	104. Taiyōko

Their match had ended. They had lost with a single point to their name.

Yuba could only give a sigh once all of the tension of the fight had left them.

They would use this match as a chance for future fights. Ones where these types of opponents would run rampant around the battlefield and where they would need to focus on what was important during the fight.

His own loss during the match and the stalling that he had gone through just before it stuck to his mind.

Shingai had managed to stall him out until the last moment. His quickdraw had been faster than her own, but not by much. With her good luck, she had managed to gain the higher ground in the fight and could have taken him out if it had not been shut off.

Once it had been shut off, he would only be gaining ground on her. His speed and power would make up for the gap that had been created during the time she had her good luck.

But…

_I shouldn't have let that gap be created in the first place. My mind was still wandering back to…_

To Mei.

To the way such a powerful person had been tossed about as if she were paper in the wind.

A monster had managed to do something like that and had been let go.

_No…_

That was not right.

She had not been let go.

_She had walked away._

None of them could do anything to stop her as she had walked away from them.

That kind of monster had stopped him from realizing he was being stalled out by the end of his fight with Shingai.

But it had been the final fight that showed him just how much his focus was out of sorts.

The fight with a beast.

Kotowari Squad's beast had reached a new level while none of them were looking and had been able to keep up with his speed and move through his power. Each move he had made at the start of that fight had been taken at face value and used to advance even further into their fight. The beast had torn through it all and reached a point of knowing what to do against him.

That beast was not at the level of the monster, but Yuba knew exactly what he had been thinking during that entire fight. The reason he had given up using his speed and power in and instead used Viper to strike specific points. It was painfully obvious what he had been thinking.

_If this beast can get through my attacks and strike back… What would that monster do if I had attacked her?_

The thought was terrifying when combined with the imagery of Mei getting tossed around like nothing.

A beast had beaten him, but that monster would have destroyed him.

When using a Trigger, the user's normal body was swapped out for a Trion-made one. Even knowing this, the overwhelming sense of dread came each time he thought about it.

All of the tense that had dissipated after the match's conclusion had now been replaced with a new tense.

_With that monster in mind…_

One of his teammates had fought against that monster's relative. Her younger sister.

Yuba looked over to Obishima, finding her staring at the ground in deep thought.

It was likely that she was thinking about the match itself. They had just finished and the tense for the rest of them was gone. Working to be better for later matches was something obvious for them to do.

But that was not it.

Yuba was well aware that Obishima's thoughts were about someone specific and not on the match as a whole.

_Probably because I have gotten like that when thinking about that monster._

"Obishima."

He had broken through her thoughts by the small jump she had made followed by a small, "Yes!"

There was no helping her meek response since he understood where that had come from this time.

All that mattered right now was confirming his suspicions.

"You were thinking about your fight with Taiyōko, weren't you?"

"U-uh… Yes… I mean… Yes, I was."

"What about it were you thinking of?"

"Well…"

She paused for a moment.

This would normally be where he would have her speak up, but waiting was for the best right now.

"She was very nice, so I want to go thank her."

"Thank her? What did she do?"

"Oh, you were busy elsewhere," Tonooka answered in her stead. "Admittedly, I don't know much about what happened, but Taiyōko seemed to be a good fit for Obishima."

"Why do you say that?"

"Probably because she is a member of Kotowari Squad."

"That's it?"

"Pretty much."

Tonooka had said it as if it had answered all of his questions. In a way, it did.

Kotowari Squad was strange in the way they affected other people. You could hate them as much as you want during a fight, but there were people who could not find it in themselves to hate them in a casual setting or as comrades. The proof of that was around him.

Obishima was wanting to thank one of them and Tonooka felt no malice towards Misaki now that the fight had ended. Even Yuba himself felt nothing particular towards them besides a want to fight against their beast once more.

"I don't know what it says about me, but she was kind throughout the entire fight. She had introduced herself to me before we fought, she fought without holding back, and she saw me as an equal. She even told me to keep going when we were fighting against Senzai-senpai. Also…"

It was to be expected at this point that she would want to talk some more with someone who had been so nice to her even while they were enemies.

But…

"She is the type of person to strive for!"

That had been a surprise.

Even with the way she was, Obishima had loudly and clearly voiced herself on this matter.

So Yuba responded in kind.

"Even more so than Kuga, who you have been watching?"

"No, that is different from this. I admire him, but he is someone who is leagues above me. Taiyōko-san…she knows that she is outclassed against people like you or Senzai-senpai, but she keeps going and works using what she can. She even goes to the length of supporting her opponents just so that others are trying their best too."

"So then is giving your gratitude to her the only thing you want to do?"

"Huh?"

Letting out a sigh, Yuba pushed up his glasses.

Some of the tense that had built up thinking about the monster had gone when hearing how his teammate felt about the younger sister.

It was proof that the older sister was the only one who was a monster.

"Right then…" Letting even more tense disappear, Yuba stood straight up and let his voice ring out. "Go over there and thank her properly!"

"Yes, sir!"

* * *

**Prototype Star:** "I know that you are busy, but I wanted to let you know that we had tied for a win in our match!"

Mukuro smiled at the message sent directly to him.

Hoshi had sent that same message to their older siblings, that there was no doubt of. But the fact she sent it to him as well made him happy to see her doing so well.

So he messaged her back.

 **Corpse:** "Good job. I'm proud of you. Although…I guess that doesn't mean much when it comes from me."

 **Prototype Star:** "No, no, no! It means a lot coming from you, Muku-nii! I am very happy to know it makes you proud! Oh, but I should let you go, shouldn't I? You have meetings to be in, right?"

 **Corpse:** "They aren't much. Don't worry. But you should have fun with your team after your match. If you need anything, go ahead and let me know. I'll make sure to get to you."

 **Prototype Star:** "Okay! I will see you later then! Bye, Muku-nii!"

Mukuro continued to smile as he said his farewell to his sister.

He really was proud of her for being in the top tier and keeping up with the rest of them.

She would often tell him about her matches and what her team was like.

He had his own thoughts about her teammates, but he held back from saying anything since it may make her sad to hear. If they started doing anything against her, he would not hold back in going against them, but for the time being, he would stay put.

This applied to his older siblings. The only difference was that he had full faith that they could handle any problem that came before them.

That had also been why he was in his current predicament.

"You seem rather pleased with something. Something important I would guess since you checked on it while in a meeting with us."

To make the lives of his older siblings easier, he had taken it upon himself to do this.

Sitting before him were a man and a woman, both with the same surname.

"It was my younger sister. She had just tied for first place in the recent match for Border's B-Rank Wars. I had to tell her I was proud of her."

"You don't hold back, do you?" asked the man with a grin.

"Not when it comes to my family. They…" He felt a yawn come up, but he ousted it down just as fast, turning it into a small sigh. "My family is the basis for my actions. I am here as a member of Border, but I am doing this for my siblings."

"That sounds nice," the woman responded.

The woman had already spoken with other Border members the night before. Both had been branch directors for Border and good boys that she was rather fond of.

"Kobayashi Noaki-san, I am not saying to sound nice. Please do-"

Mukuro felt himself leaning to one side of the sofa he was sitting on.

The space they were taking up was a casual one instead of a business office.

He would have been fine with the latter, but the Kobayashi parents had insisted that they have this conversation in this casual room instead.

_This isn't an official meeting after all. I'm just here to let Kobayashi know what's going on around Mikado City. I had managed to finish up the cleaning at White Rock, so I came here since it was closer._

After this, he would only need to go to Kurosaki to let them know what he had been doing and what Border was planning for the near future.

_That one will probably need more of my attention. I managed to slip through the Shiraishi parents since the workers had told me they would vouch for my work. These parents seemed to understand what is going on well enough to not have any malice towards me. But Kurosaki…_

They were different.

Kiyoshi had gone to Kurosaki with some others and managed to gain some advantage on them. It had been an amazing display that had made Mukuro amazed once more with the way his brother had managed things over there.

But this was different.

His brother had used his false name as well as one of his friends to end that side of things. That meant that the name "Taiyōko" was still a rough area with Kurosaki. If he was not careful, something bad could happen to him while he was over there.

_I wish Kiyo-nii would have taken me with him though… I know he had a full party, but I wish he would let me get closer to him. I miss being around him._

Another sigh had escaped his lips before he could even register what he was doing.

"Are you worried about what Shin will be doing?"

Mukuro focused back on the two parents before him.

.

Akio had been worried the moment the boy came to them.

It had not been about Border.

No, he already had enough faith in them for the fact the boy was there at all. What they had been told about the boy cleaning up White Rock also helped them understand that he was not against them.

What had worried him was the boy himself.

He was lanky, small, and seemed to be leaning in on himself. The black hair he had went down low to his shoulders and the dark coloring under his eyes only heightened the tired feeling from those narrowed eyes. The entire appearance of this boy gave off someone who had not slept for a long time and he felt like that tired appearance was making him want to sleep. Even the small yawns-turned-sighs made him have to hold back from sighing as well.

This had been the reason why he agreed to move the unofficial meeting to a more casual setting than a pure business one where the boy would likely be more stiff from the tension.

The boy seemed to be swaying a bit, likely from being so tired. Yet here he was, sitting before them, ready for whatever they would say. It was for this reason that he was still taking things seriously.

"Do you mean Kurosaki Shin-san?"

Even with the family he was a part of and even with his current circumstances, this boy - _Maybe a bit younger than Hisoka?_ \- showed some respect to them all.

_It's not full respect, more like a simple business type of respect. From the looks of things, I think only his family are people he actually respects._

The family of soldiers who had caused trouble in a lot of places.

_They have not done much to us, and Shiraishi also seems free from them. Kurosaki and some smaller businesses are the ones who have taken a large hit from their actions. The worst ones of all have to be Border though._

_Border and that family have been at odds from the start. While they have no problems with businesses like ours, because we simply do construction and real estate, they always had a problem with Border due to the fact they have a way to fight Neighbors. While we did get some flak for sponsoring Border, we were still left relatively alone._

_That is where Kurosaki comes in. Those guys were the ones who sided with Border and fought against Taiyōko as hard as they could. But there is still something that is bugging me about what Shin had said during their meeting._

This would be a chance for answers.

"Yes, I mean Kurosaki Shin. Are you worried about what will happen when you inevitably go to Kurosaki?"

The tired boy lightly shook his head. It seemed like something that took a lot of energy out of him.

"Not at all. I trust in what my older brother did when he was there. I expect some scrutiny, but nothing from malice. Now can I ask you something in return?"

"Ask me something?"

"The both of you, to be exact."

Akio glanced over to his wife in order to gauge her reaction to this.

The both of them began to slowly build up their guards.

This tired boy, even while looking to pass out at any moment, was indeed still a part of that family of soldiers.

"Very-"

.

Akio felt the words get stuck in his throat once he turned back to the tired boy.

His appearance had not changed and neither had his position. Yet..

_This is it. This feeling he is giving off is definitely that of someone from that family. He is trying to make sure we will speak the truth._

It was not an overwhelming presence like his sister or a cunning one like his brother. Instead, this tired boy gave a feeling of someone who was calculating out the world.

As if everything was laid out bare before him and he was simply looking over it all like some sort of puzzle. His eyes, even while narrowed from being tired, seemed to be watching them with an intense focus. It was like they were being observed as nothing more than data that could be used for his family's benefit.

Even if it was not anything as strenuous as what Kurosaki, Shiraishi, or even Border did, the work they did has put them against some people who had tried to get to them. To intimidate them or out think them to gain some monetary advantage. The two of them were always more than enough to handle those people, never ones to back down and always thinking logically. Their forward thinking about things had even managed to get them a wonderful worker like Mogami.

But this was different. This was a single boy who held no malice towards them at all. He was not trying to gain any monetary advantage and there were no reasons for him to be against them as someone speaking for Border. The only thing before them was a boy who wanted to ask a question.

This was the boy who was known as a genius among geniuses.

It was unnatural.

Akio wanted to do something. To say something. But it was all stuck in his throat.

If he said anything else then it would just be added to that data this boy was collecting.

If he did anything else then it would just be added to that data this boy was collecting.

If he so much as twitched then there was no doubt that it would be turned into data that would then be added to everything this tired boy was thinking about.

After a few seconds, something that felt like minutes, Akio found his voice. His throat felt dry, but he answered anyway.

"…Very well. What do you want to ask us?"

.

Mukuro knew what he was doing.

He had already gone through multiple scenarios before his mind became too tired to do so.

While Fuji had always had her Side Effect to do calculations, he had always just been smart enough to go through multiple things in his mind. It had been the reason why he became known as the Taiyōko family's strategist. Someone who thought through things to the point where even a war could end easily enough if he put his entire focus on it.

It had also been the reason his parents never allowed him the freedom to use his thoughts for something like that.

They had sheltered him from the start, never letting him out of their sights.

They provided what he needed and what he wanted.

They gave him their love and affection.

They made sure he would not be influenced by his older siblings.

The one known as a natural soldier and the one known as a true commander. The two people in the entire world who he wanted nothing more than to be around, loved by, and support to the best of his abilities.

They had been kept at a distance from him to the point where he had started to find it hard to properly remember what they looked like without having to look directly at them.

Once his younger sister had been born, it became easier to see them.

Both his older brother and older sister had found ways around their parents just to see him. It had been something that made him so happy that he made sure to never miss a moment of it.

Hoshi had quickly gained all of their attention and love, but those two older siblings continued to show him just as much love as they could possibly have. They had done whatever they could do for him from simply talking to him or kicking his head so he would not fall asleep. They would show their love constantly by punching him or throwing him to the ground when he started to lose focus or fall asleep. They had even gone so far as to hit him with a hammer just so that he could spend even more time with them.

It had been wonderful that his older siblings cared for him.

He returned that love with his own. The result was his current state. A state of lack of sleep.

His mind could not fully focus on things anymore that did not have to do with his family and everything he did was for only them. The sharp mind that could possibly reach the level of Fuji was constantly dulled by the muddle thoughts of sleep. But that was fine since it meant he would be awake any time his siblings would speak with him.

It had only been when his parents had disowned his older brother that he truly felt any pain from his family.

That brother that had cared for him so much had been kicked out by the parents who had kept him contained. They took his surname, something that kept him tied to Mukuro, and threw him out like it was nothing.

It only became worse when that same brother gave up his given name.

The same older brother was now insistent that he was no longer the same and Mukuro could not understand.

It had not been because of his sleep deprivation or because he over thought it. There was just no way something like that could ever happen. That was all.

Kiyoshi would always be Kiyoshi.

That was why he needed to ask these two people a question.

It would be a question to determine where they stood with him. They could call his older brother what they wanted and they could view his older sister for what she was, but he had to know what they thought about all of it together. What they thought about the statements made by someone else who understood nothing about his family.

About those siblings who had taken such great care of him.

.

"Do you also think that it was just some interpretation that made my parents disown my brother?"

Akio and Naoko's brows raised at the question.

Mukuro dismissed this and continued on.

"Kurosaki Shin-san is under the impression that it was just a simple misinterpretation that caused my parents to disown my older brother. I won't hold anything against him since it looks like he really does believe that and does not know the truth. But what about you two? What about Mogami Yoshiko-san?"

The answer to these questions would be what made Mukuro's choices matter.

"You are asking us about something that has nothing to do with us?"

"Yes."

"We play no part in your family affairs… This is not to be taken as an insult, but…"

Akio straightened himself up, gaining more confidence back as he went on.

This was still just a boy.

This was a place for Kobayashi.

"What happened in the past with your family is of no concern to us. If what happened was due to some interpretation, so be it. If that happened because of your brother, we have nothing to say about it. I would appreciate you not trying to drag us into something like that when it is best brought up with Kurosaki himself or others who matter to such a thing!"

It had not been anger that brought out a rise in his tone.

It was a want to stay away from what was clearly a dangerous family.

Mukuro's calculating eyes continued to bore right into the two of them. Each movement, each breath, each word; they were all added to some unseen data that only he would be able to see at the moment.

This was how this family of soldiers worked.

They would show their ability to handle anything that resembled a fight and this boy in particular.

"I see." Mukuro let out another sigh. He closed his eyes before slowly opening them while looking to the side. "My apologies about that. I didn't mean anything bad about that. I only wanted to make sure you were fine with my brother."

He was a genius among geniuses.

"That is fine… You just care about your family. I can definitely understand that."

This time there was no sigh. Mukuro let out a full yawn from his mouth, a hand slowly coming up to cover it up.

His body began to sag and his eyes closed more than they did narrow. The way his shoulders pushed back reminded both Akio and Naoko of how they felt after a particularly hard day at work where a lot of tension would be built but before being released in a single moment.

It was something that they thought should not be done by someone so young.

"Now then, you had aaaaaasked me if I am wooooorried about what Kurosaki might doooo when I go over there. I got side tracked, so I apologize for that again."

"I had said it was fine already."

"Right. That is just a habit when it comes to these things."

What exactly were "these things"?

That question had come to both Akio and Naoko's minds upon hearing those words.

It did not seem like they would be getting an answer though as Mukuro looked at them again after a particularly slow blink.

"If he doooooooes something to me personally then I won't do anything at all. Whatever happens to me is not really anything to be concerned about. If he starts something against my brother or tries to blame my sister…then I will end up doing something."

"What would you do?"

"I wonder…"

Once again, they heard a tone that should not belong to someone like this.

At this point they were fully aware that this was just a part of being a part of the Taiyōko family. Something that would not go away so long as that family was still around.

This time, though, instead of focusing on that, Akio and Naoko chose to change the topic. Specifically to the one that held meaning for both them and Mukuro.

"So what did you want to talk to us about in this unofficial meeting?"

"Oh, that," Mukuro said as he tilted to the side. "I want to let you know thaaaaaat Border will be a bit busy tonight, so getting in direct contact may be a bit hard. They will be trying something out within the Forbidden Zone and so will have most of the focus in that area. To put it bluntly, it has to do with the away mission and they want to make sure that everything is fine."

The way Mukuro had referred to Border was not lost on either Akio or Naoko.

He was telling them what Border was doing, but not as someone who was a part of Border. The way he spoke only told them that he did not think himself to really be a part of them just yet. It was obvious to them as they had seen this very thing before.

Mogami Yoshiko had been the same.

With this new knowledge in mind, they continued their conversation easily enough.

"Since it will be done within the Forbidden Zone then we have nothing particular to say. Although we thank you for letting us know ahead of time in case we need to get in contact with Border."

"There is no need to thank me. The only reason I am able to tell you this is because of how things had gone during the earlier meeting and you allowing me to even have this unofficial meeting."

"Is this the reason you had helped to clean up White Rock late into the night?" Naoko asked. She had her ideas as to the reasons he was going to such lengths.

"That was more because myyyyyyyy branch director had suggested I dooooooo that to improve my oooooooown image for others and give myself an alibi should anything particular haaaaaaappen. I had originally gone to speak with the Shiraishi family, but they were busyyyyyyyy. I would say because their youngest daughter was goooooooooing to the Yagura Branch and so had nooooooo time. Although the workers haaaaaad said they would be on my side and give their good word about me. I figured that would be gooooooooood enough, so I had left the destroyed White Rock."

"Did you take a break before coming here then? There has been some time since you were at White Rock."

"I had been called over by someone after leaving. Besides that, I understood that having such a late night meeting would likely not end too well, so I waited."

"Thank you for thinking of our sleep schedules."

"Thank you for allowing me this time."

Akio waved him off.

Mukuro nodded in response.

"Since you-"

"This is where you were. …Oh. Someone else."

The trio turned their heads upon hearing a flat voice coming from the door.

Akio and Naoko smiled towards the girl standing there and waved her over.

Mukuro stared at the girl with a blank face. There were no particular movements from him and his eyes had not narrowed like they had when speaking about his family.

In return, the girl stared at him with her own expressionless face. Her movements were natural as she moved in front of the door.

Akio and Naoko looked between the two, unsure as to what was going on. They were certain that nothing bad was happening as Mukuro continued to relax on the sofa he was on while the girl only stood there, staring directly at him.

"Hisoka?"

That had seemed to be enough to break whatever trance the two had been in as they both blinked in unison.

Mukuro had been the first one to respond, giving a sigh followed by a nod.

"I see. Nice to meet you."

.

Hisoka had thought that the boy in the room with her parents was nothing more than any other person. Maybe someone from another business at most.

That did not seem to be the case as he had responded to her unspoken words.

Being someone lacking in certain personal skills, she had been unsure how to properly address him. So instead she stared at him, giving unspoken words with her eyes.

But those unspoken words had gotten him to give his own unspoken words.

A conversation had already begun and she understood him at the basic level. A simple introduction and reasoning for why he was here.

It had been strange at first. Only her two best friends have been able to figure out her silent communication so far, so seeing this random boy be able to understand what she wanted to say had been a bit of a surprise.

It had been when her parents called to her that they had ended their conversation abruptly.

This tired boy in front of her seemed to understand that her parents were unaware of their conversation, so he spoke his words out for all of them to hear.

"I see. Nice to meet you," is what he had said with a nod.

She could only respond with a nod of her own, words not bothering to come out of her mouth at the moment.

Her parents must have noticed this since her mother had spoken up from where she sat.

"Didn't you say you would be bringing Shinnosuke-kun over? Where is he?"

"He had to use the toilet."

"I see. How long will you two be staying?"

Hisoka looked at nothing particular as she thought about the question.

Both she and Tsuji had to go to the Border base later on, as ordered by the directors. They had not said what time they needed to be there, but it would be safer to assume that it would be before sunset.

"A few hours, at most. We need to get to Border before sunset."

"Oh, for Border is trying in the Forbidden Zone, right? Taiyōko-kun had just told us what was going on. Well, at least what he is able to tell us."

There was no direct response from Mukuro, so it was hard to determine whether that was true or not.

It was always possible that he had only told them what he thought would be fine instead of everything that was necessary.

The hard part about it was that even she was unsure about what exactly they could tell others. Even if they were her parents and they were Border sponsors, there were still things that even they were not allowed to know.

All of it was a matter of facts that could or could not be told.

"Sorry for the wait."

Before her thoughts could go any further, they were interrupted by a voice coming from behind the door.

With Hisoka standing in front of it, the door could not move too much to allow the person through. Even so, it was clear who it was. There would only be one other person who would try to find them right now.

"Oh, Shinnosuke-kun. Hello."

"H-hello…Kobayashi-san."

"Please, I have told you before to just call me Naoko. Any friend of Hisoka is welcomed here."

"R-right…"

It was still strange how one of her best friends was still cautious around her mother.

Her father on the other hand…

"Well come on it. This isn't a problem, right Taiyōko?"

"…"

Hisoka looked over to see why the boy had not answered as Tsuji stepped through the door.

The reason for his lack of response had made everyone else jump in shock.

.

The moment Tsuji walked through the door, Mukuro's eyes had begun to close before he knew what was happening. His body started to lean towards one side and his entire body had become slack for no apparent reason.

Without properly seeing who had walked through, he had started to collapse on the sofa he was sitting on.

He was falling asleep.

That should not have been possible without specific people around. Even when his siblings were around, he could not ever find it in himself to fall asleep. His eyes would never get so heavy that they would fall and his muscles were always tightened in a way that held him up.

Who was this person that they had managed to make him fall asleep?

Regardless, the reaction he got from beginning to collapse had been immediate.

Akio had rushed over to check on him while Naoko and Tsuji only stared in shock at what had just happened.

The first to break the silence had been Hisoka.

"Shinnosuke, you should message one of his siblings about this," she said with a flat tone.

* * *

Yuki could feel it all throughout his body. Every single part was screaming at him to stop everything because it hurt.

But that was not possible.

Unless he were to die right there, there was no way for him to simply stop anything. The pain would continue to pulse throughout his body and every breath would feel like it was fire to his lungs.

There had been no blood this time, but that meant nothing when only getting outside of the Suzunari Branch had felt like pressure constantly pushed from inside as if trying to get out through every part of his skin.

The pressure would start from his feet when he took a step before forcefully pushing up to his legs. Once it reached his midsection, he felt as if he was walking through mud as the pressure pushed outwards and down at the same time. Getting to his stomach, the pressure had started to push towards the sides, making him want to vomit on the spot. Upon reaching his chest, the pressure began from the very center and expanded out. His heartbeat had begun to accelerate at an alarming rate, but he had managed to slow it down enough to take another step. From there it went to his neck. The feeling of suffocation had been quick, but left an impression on his mind. The final part the pressure reached had been his head. The aching that came from above, reaching the top, had been like a hammer slamming into him. His ears and eyes could feel the pressure pushing out, something he thought would lead to some bleeding. But nothing came.

After the first few steps outside of the branch he had started to slowly get used to the feeling. It did nothing to ease the pain, but he had managed to fortify himself enough to withstand it to the best of his ability.

_Kō knew what was going on immediately. That's to be expected. But Kon and Kuruma-san also seemed to understand that something was wrong._

They had even tried to stop him from leaving.

During the entire match he had been in his trion body and now that he was in his flesh and blood body he could do nothing but want to go back to that false body.

Taichi had been excited the entire time, having a nice chance to see one of his favorite people fight. Saying anything during the match or after would have only made him sad or worried.

They had all known this, but the rest of Suzunari-1 had still tried to stop him from leaving.

They knew he would not take it easy if he left at that moment.

Yuki had waved them off regardless, knowing that any chance of him getting rest was minimal no matter if he stayed or left.

Kuruma had been the most insistent. The man had pulled him aside and began to question him, worry etched onto his face the entire time.

When Yuki had still refused to stay, Kuruma had made him promise to be in his trion body until he felt fine enough to go back into his real body.

But…

 _I need to not rely on a Trigger to keep me fine. If I keep up then I'll be insulting Kuga. And that's at the least… I need to keep doing everything in my real body. Even if I_ am _a faker, I need to keep going with something that's real. I don't want to end up in something that isn't real._

More pressure tried to get out of his body.

"Hahaha…"

Yuki grabbed his chest and pushed himself to a nearby wall. That simple bitter laugh had felt like hell as the pressure in his chest was only pushed more.

With his free hand he began to reach into his pocket.

_Minoru was right. It's my fault that Mei ended up like that. And that's because I took myself out of what was "real" at the time, too busy being on the high of winning one the sponsors like that. …Even when I did so little._

Feeling the cold object in his pocket, he gave a mental command.

His casual clothes began to be swapped out for the uniform that had three emblems stitched into it. The gray coloring blended in with the wall he was against, giving him even more dull appearance than if he were directly in the sun.

With his flesh and blood body fully switched out with his trion one, Yuki let out a sigh. It was followed by a self deprecating smile.

_I didn't even do anything while I was there. Now that I realize what is "real" again I can tell that everything fell apart. My name, both my given one and my current one, really meant nothing there. Jinsei had to step forward before all of us, Kō was the one who pushed forward against Sekai-san, Kuruma-san had to protect me with his own name, and I had to rely on Kon to give Kō Idōgetsu._

"Just how pathetic can I get?"

He gave another laugh.

All he could do was laugh at himself.

"Am I real or am I fake?"

The answer never came.

There was no one around to answer his question.

"...Right then."

Pushing himself off the wall, Yuki fixed his expression. There was never a point in looking into his reflection when he knew what kind of expression he had to make. What he had to look like for others to think that he was fine and only in his trion body because he enjoyed it.

"I don't have time for this. I need to make sure that everything is set up for tonight."

Something would be happening and he was out in charge of a part of it.

Whether his question was answered or not, there was still something given to him to do and that would be what he would focus on.

It was how he would remain unneeded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Kobayashi family is owned by Yujonokage


	105. Interlude: Part 5

A certain road extended out through buildings, but it was free of people and rather clean.

Two people walked down that road, neither hurting or stopping. One was a grinning man facing straight ahead and the other was a glasses boy looking at the man.

The man spoke to the glasses boy with a thin bitter smile below his somewhat curly hair.

"Megan-kun, are you sure you want to go with me on this errand? I'm only going to meet up with someone and you still need to prep for your match tonight."

"Yes. I just got a feeling that I should come along with you for this, Jin-san."

"That honesty is a bit dangerous when it comes to certain people."

"What do you mean? And, um…I am not that honest."

Mikumo lowered his head and glasses as he spoke. He placed his hands on his shoulders and lowered them to his stomach.

"That isn't the first time someone has told me that. But to hear that…"

"I shouldn't have said that then. Sorry about that." Jin's bitter smile grew. "You could probably go your entire life without knowing why we all say that."

"Really?"

"I meant without looking at your future."

"I see. But I still don't understand why you say that." He seemed to realize something then. "Oh, but the way you are saying it is just like the way Tsukiko-senpai had said it. Everyone else said it differently from the two of you, so I'm really not sure how to take it when it was said two different ways."

"The same way as Yuki, huh? That just means it's even more true."

"Is it? It sounds nice, but to choose my words carefully…I think you guys are overestimating me."

"Be careful with who you say that to, okay? Things can end up either perfectly for you or terribly for others. So just try not to think too much about it."

"Thank you very much…?"

Once he said that, a message came through to their phones. It was the Border chat.

 **Torimaru:** "Osamu, listen to Jin-san when he says this stuff. Especially when it comes to one of the people you just mentioned. Someone like you can really end up hurting someone if you aren't careful. Especially when you start speaking bluntly."

"You are listening in, Kyōsuke?"

 **Torimaru:** "The match I was commentating for just ended. I was reminded of some people and thought I should give a warning to Osamu if he comes across any of them. I just appeared at the right time it seems."

"Oh?" Jin looked to the messages from Karasuma and gave a light chuckle. "It sounds like you had a fun time commentating then, so that's reassuring. Did you get everything out that you wanted to or did you still hold back? …No need to go into full detail though."

 **Torimaru:** "Yoneya-senpai was pushing us to speak up, but it wasn't;t until the end that Wagner started getting things out. I didn't say much though, since I don't have too much trouble with him at the moment."

"Hey," cut in Mikumo as he raised his shoulders. "Karasuma-senpai was commentating on a match? Which one was it?"

 **Torimaru:** "Was there a particular match you wanted to see, Osamu? Get some intel on them? Hm, hm. That makes sense. Always the smart thinker, huh?"

Jin smiled as Karasuma finished his message and went offline immediately.

"Ha ha! Leave it to Kyōsuke to leave you hanging like that. I'm jealous, but it should be fine if he just takes it the way he wants. After all, those squads will be ones that you might have trouble with if you aren't careful. Think of it like a favor that he isn't telling you."

"Ah, no, no, no! You got it wrong! I was just curious since Taiyōko had said she had a match early in the day! I just wanted to know if it was her team or not!"

"Oh? Do you happen to know what squad she is a part of?"

Osamu shook his head, giving Jin the chance to chuckle.

"Then I guess I'll hold off from telling you anything too."

The road turned to the right. At the same time, the buildings reached shorter heights.

As the tall and short figures turned the corner, the tall one had a long, casual stride while the short one jogged a little, but…

"Jin-san, this leads to…"

"Right. This isn't a usual way for others. But I trust that you will find something interesting at the end of it all."

"I won't distrust you, but uh…"

As he walked and caught up with Jin, Mikumo stretched his hands forward. "Is that who he is talking about?" he muttered as he looked ahead.

"—?"

Someone else appeared in front of them.

.

The new appearance was a boy in a gray outfit that seemed to blend in well with the wall he was leaning on.

The small, black=haired boy with unfocused eyes turned to Jin and Mikumo. His swaying hair was leaning toward the side and covered one of his eyes.

"So it's you two, is it? Heh. I guess someone like you would find me easily enough. What can I do for you?"

"You don't have to be so forceful, Yuki. We just happen to bump into you over here when going to the Suzunari Branch. It's pure coincidence."

"Don't talk to me like that, Jin. I know when someone is full of it. Whenever the two fo us come across each other, it's never a coincidence."

Yuki's comment was followed by an awkward silence. To fill the gap, Mikumo turned toward Jin while seeming to knead the air in his hands.

"Um, Jin-san? Do you and Tsukiko-senpai meet up that much? From what I've heard, he always seems busy."

"Hm? I guess so. He's like me in a certain sense. But he takes way less breaks than I do. It ends up being a bad thing for him since he has a bad illness and can't move around too much. Rather… _he_ _shouldn't move around too much._ "

"Is that why he doesn't look too good right now? Because he is doing a lot when he shouldn't? …Oh, this is the errand you were talking about."

"Mikumo…"

"Huh?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"About what?"

"Megane-kun, remember what Kyōsuke and I had said before? …About being honest."

"Oh."

Mikumo nodded, stood in front of Yuki, bowed his head, and began to speak. His hands were at his side and he could not see Yuki's reaction to this.

"I am sorry if I said something I shouldn't have."

"There's no reason to apologize. I just wanted to know what you had meant by that."

"Well, it's about that."

Jin opened his phone as he smiled with the ends of his eyebrows lowered. He held the phone in one hand and placed it in front of Yuki's face. Once he did, the boy began to slowly realize what he was meant to see.

"You look terrible. Even if you use a Trigger to swap out your body, you can tell how much of a mess you are. Well, I'd like to say it's easy to notice, but that's just for people who are looking for it in the first place."

Yuki frowned at Jin's words.

"So then how did Mikumo notice? No offense."

"Right. Because he's an honest person."

"So is that why you brought him along?"

"Well, the thing about that is… He came because he wanted to come. I'll admit that I was looking for you because I want your input for something, but I didn't intend to bring him along."

And…

"I want to ease your worries about the future, True Commander-san."

A cutting sound tore through the air as Mikumo found himself against the wall now. After two footsteps sounded throughout the narrow space, the wind came to an abrupt stop.

A sharp object had been pointed directly at Jin once the wind had subsided. The object had a sharp point that grew larger the more it went along the short shaft that seemed to be arm's length.

"…!"

Yuki gave a sharp glare forward at Jin, the words coming from his mouth like venom.

"I told you to never look into my future unless it benefits the people around me. And if you ever say that name again…"

The threat did not need to be finished. Yuki had left it at that while placing Idōgetsu back into its holder.

"Sorry, sorry. My bad. But I do need your input here."

"What do you want then?"

.

Mikumo had released a breath he did not know he was holding as he was slowly pulled from the wall and back to Jin's side.

"Sorry about that, Mikumo. Jin just knows how to push someone in the worst way and I wasn't prepared for it. Don't mind my words too much either."

"R-right…"

"Try not to scare my kōhais too much, Yuki. But I guess I'll thank you for not pushing him too hard against the wall."

Jin's grin was only responded to with a sigh.

"It's not like I can put a lot of force into my hits anyway. I'm someone who uses speed over power, so the worse that would happen is that he gets a scratch. And even then, I would do my bets to make it up to him."

"Is that so? Perfect, because I think I see a scratch right here," Jin said as he lifted Mikumo's elbow. "So that means you can make it up to him by helping me out here."

"Jin-san, this is nothing. Please don't make him do anything and use me as the reason for it."

"It's fine, Mikumo. Because of my own circumstances, I owe him as it is. I'll just put this as the start of what I owe you. If you ever need anything, just call on me and I'll answer as quickly as I can."

"There's no need for that! Really!"

His words seemed total on deaf ears though as Yuki only nodded with clouded eyes.

Filling up the new silence, Jin moved over to Yuki's side, making the boy bring up his arm should he need to reach for his holder again.

"So about your side. This side, yes, this side. It's going to get kind of crazy, so watch out. Also, don't mind anything that random comes up, okay?"

"If you want to give me a warning then do it like a normal person, would you? I almost went for Idōgetsu again."

"But I thought I would have some fun here~ Ah, fine. I need some people to be somewhere and need your help in figuring out who. I would prefer not to have anyone moved around, but things can be flexible."

"Just have Mukuro go then."

"Just throwing you brother under the bus like that!?"

"I'm saying it because I know… No, forget I said anything. Just use him. It will help him in the long run anyways. He's going around to the sponsors to help out as it is, so tossing him into something else that can make him look good will help him out. Actually, I would appreciate it if you could do it so he does look better for others."

Mikumo tilted his head at the conversation.

Interrupting them would have been rude, but he found himself curious as to what they were talking about. As well as…

"Tsukiko-senpai has a brother?"

This had gotten both older boys' attention.

"Ah, right, I forgot you only know him as he is."

"Jin, if you say any more then I won't hesitate to cut through you."

"You would try that in this narrow space?"

"…"

A few seconds passed with tension filling up the narrow area. It was hard to say anything as Yuki glared at Jin.

Once those few seconds passed, Yuki let out a sigh, shoulder sagging at his sides.

"I'll send you a list of people who can be useful. Now if you don't mind, I need to get everything set up. Unneededs like us don't have much time as it is…"

The last parts of his words may not have been meant for them to hear, but both Jin and Mikumo heard them clearly.

Within an instant, Yuki turned his back and vanished from before them. A sound had rung out in the area, but Mikumo still found himself surprised by the action.

.

"Osamu, can you do me a favor?"

Jin did not turn as he spoke. His voice had lost the cheer that had been previously there and now he spoke in a serious manner.

Mikumo had found it a bit unnerving to hear.

"…What is it?"

"If you ever find yourself uncertain about Yuki, just keep being honest with yourself. Always think about what you know of him and ignore anything you hear about him. Make your own judgement concerning him so that you don't get mixed up on the wrong side of things. Got?"

"Right…?"

There was no doubt that Jin was being cryptic on purpose. But the reason or it had to have been important if he was choosing not to say anything.

It also meant one thing.

_He looked into Tsukiko-senpai's future._

What had that future contained for him to say all of this?

The answer would come at some point and until then there would be nothing he could do about it.

All that mattered was keeping those words in his mind.

Hearing a small sound, Mikumo looked forward to see Jin giving him bitter smile.

The next set of words were a clear change of subject, but he found himself welcoming them regardless.

"Well, we should probably get back to the branch now. Maki-kun did say he was coming over after all."

* * *

Something dark existed at the bottom of the open air: shadows.

A dark shade was cast below the green ceiling of the forest.

But that shade did not fill one place: a clearing at the top of a slope.

A manmade structure existed in the center of that forest clearing.

It was a Shinto shrine with a dark thatch roof.

The gate at the entrance said "Yamaga Shrine" and bore the six coin emblem of the Tamakoma Branch.

The gate sat open and the shrine's shimenawa were old.

"Viper."

A voice came from the stage remade with a new roof and floor to the right of the shrine.

It was a shrine stage.

A boy stood on the wooden floor with his legs spread horizontally and his back straight.

He wore the Border outfit for Hatohara Squad with the emblem for the squad showing.

He was moving.

He shifted his body forward and placed just just the index finger, middle finger, and thumb of both hands in front of himself.

"And then I just mix them..."

He then shifted his body using his hands and shoulders.

Two cubes of trion appeared.

Takahashi Maki's movements were not rushed. He raised his body slightly, as if kneading something. But then he shifted his legs below him and formed a loose stance using his back, elbows, and knees.

"Oh?"

She heard a loud sound in the distance.

It was a shout. And when he heard it…

"Hyuse, huh? Crazy Bug wouldn't make that noise. …There!"

He fired the combined cube of trion out front of him.

At first it seemed to work well enough, moving forward a bit.

"This time?"

Before it could get too far, the composite shot fell to the ground, hitting it hard.

A part of it had split off upon impact and crashed near Maki's feet. He jumped back a bit at that.

He released a long breath, crouched down to pick up a piece of the destroyed ground, and looked directly at it.

He turned it around in his fingers and flicked it.

"Oh."

He returned his body to normal and took a breath. He rubbed his hand against his forehead and looked to the shrine.

The false morning sun shined on it and his eyes focused below the roof.

"Who even thought this setting for the training room would be good? Most of the time the fights we have are in cityscapes or open land. …Honestly, what am I supposed to do when there is less reality to my setting when I'm trying to train?"

Maki sighed and narrowed his eyes toward the old shimenawa and the wooden steps that always looked damp these days.

"Well, Minoru returned and if something major is coming up while we aren't in top shape, things will start moving ahead of us all while leaving key points behind. I guess this is our chance then. Just have to make sure that we know what is happening."

.

"It's been awhile since I've started coming here, hasn't it?" wondered Maki as he planned a hand on the shrine stage's pillar and looked around. "Really though, what kind of person makes this place a training setting? I guess it makes sense for Tamakoma though."

After the Aftokrator Invasion had ended, he and a small child had begun going to the Tamakoma Branch and gotten some help from them. That was when he had learned that the true strangeness of the branch, Border's strongest one, was built in with its members.

At first it had just been to check on their prisoner, but over time he had decided to make it a common occurrence.

The strangeness from the entire branch had been rather off-putting, even with the reassurance from Minoru. What was more was that he had never been good with children, so dealing with Yōtarō had been something else altogether. So during those times, a certain thought always came to mind:

… _What is this?_

Nothing happened.

He had gone and been welcomed easily enough. The only one who had snippy with him had been Konami. That should have been enough for him to understand that it was all fine.

But there were still some lingering thoughts about it all. Something that made him feel different there.

 _Of course nothing happened,_ he recalled Minoru saying with a laugh. _Those guys are all good people._

He agreed with that.

There had not been anything to make him think that they were bad people with the way they had greeted him. This had only been reinforced upon having Mikumo, Kuga, and Amatori nearby with only smiles on their faces.

Something else that was strange was the prisoner that he had originally fought against alongside Jin during the invasion. When using the training room at a point in time, he had been having some trouble with his shots. That had been when the voice came through to give him some advice. But...

"Why are you helping me out here?"

"The way you train and the way you were when we fought got me a bit mad."

Some irritation had come up, but he tried to push it down.

Hyuse had been making a point when he mentioned that. He saw it as a fighter. A lot must have happened to him in the past, so it was likely that he was just being critical since he had fought a lot.

But back then, he had only been able to sigh.

… _I shouldn't listen._

But Maki had realized that even some of the Tamakoma members would make some sort of face when he had tried training with the underclassmen of the branch.

So at the time, he had scratched his head, kicked the ground, said "well what do you expect?", and left.

The next time, he had made sure his team was not around to watch and entered their training room.

He had never failed to do his training with Hatohara Squad once he began to lighten up around them. But that time, he had decided to use the advice given to him by Hyuse.

That was the only difference.

But a thought had occurred to him.

… _Does this mean I am taking more help from an outsider? Is this how it's going to be?_

He had felt something like anger, but it really came down to how he thought about it. It was entirely possible to live one's life while thinking it was fine that all help was the same.

Could he do that?

He had not liked thinking that he needed so much help and had not wanted to constantly need it.

But wasn't that just because of his time as a model? The difference between the help he had gotten during that time and this time were vastly different, weren't they?

"I was really just playing around with how I defined myself."

 _Or was I?_ he thought while looking to the false rising sun.

The training room was being used by him. That meant the branch members were doing something else. But...

"Is it alright for me to just wait for everyone like this?"

"They left me in charge of checking up on you, so it should be fine."

A voice reached him from the open space. It had been the same voice as the one who gave him advice.

"Oh, Hyuse."

.

Hyuse did not enter the training area. He shook the prize in his hands so Maki could hear it.

"Yeah, I have something here, but bringing it into the training room wouldn't be god."

"Huh?"

Maki nodded his head and waved his hands back and forth.

 _Is that a yes or a no?_ he thought while glaring at him, but then he spoke.

"Because it's unclean? It's just just a treat or something then it should be fine. …Use it as an offering to Kirie or something if you have to."

"This is just from Yōtarō, so I only have so much."

Hyuse went out of his way to remain outside of the training area.

And Hyuse opened his mouth horizontally.

"You can come in here if you want."

"If I get the water clinging to me, it'll affect my footwork. My legs aren't as strong as the muscle head."

"You're not too bad yourself, Hyuse."

"That's because I focused on long-range and tracking. It is hard to move around too much with Lampyris at the start. Bulky people really are impressive."

That was true. Even with the amount of muscle Kizaki had, people like him were rather light when they wanted to be.

… _I'm also good at swordplay, but that may be rusty after having taken up Lampyris._

That was for him to use during that time. It was admittedly nice to use, but...

"I still lost to the two of you."

"Is that so?" asked Maki as he hopped down from the shrine stage. He tapped the ground and walked nowhere in particular."

"What are the branch members doing?" he asked. "You have seen them around here today, right?"

"Some of them said they would be going around the city then ending up at the base. They said to take it until they come back."

"Did you tell them about the bugs?"

"They said they already knew."

"Is that so?" asked Maki as he looked up into the sky.

A silhouette passed through the sky. It was a slow but large movement.

"Still… There are a lot of things going on right now so it feels weird to not be called upon by my squad."

"The confusion caused by your benefactors has set even more things in motion for you guys."

"I imagine so. But, Hyuse…do you think even that is enough for some of us not to be called on?"

"I really don't care much for what you all are doing right now. If you're called on then good for you all."

"Then," he said. "How can some of them do all that stupid stuff?"

He knew what he wanted to say. It was true that Border was a dangerous group for outsiders like hime that would chat amongst themselves and do stupid things even in the middle of battle. But...

"You all have your own kind of sadness."

"Oh, I get it," said Maki. "Then I bet that they already have things set up to the point of not needing to call everyone. I guess that would make sense when people like Jin are around."

"What makes you say that?"

"When something sad has happened to someone, they'll try to live without regrets."

"…Maki, did you hit your head recently?"

Maki had quickly left the training room and threw his shoe, so...

"That was close."

He hit it down.

His one hand still held the treats given to him by Yōtaro and his other hand was hanging in the air.

The shoe had fallen to the floor after being hit by the hand.

The noise echoed across the room and Maki quietly whistled.

"Well, that's a man used to fighting for you. You're really detailed."

"And that's why I cannot carelessly decide on what to do, even with you. I'm fine with making a mess of an enemy location, though. …Oh, but the noise won't stir up anyone, right?"

"You didn't ask about the one earlier."

"That wasn't me."

Maki looked puzzled, so Hyuse sighed a little and explained.

"It was Yōtaro. …He's been messing around with a friend since he got here."

"Oh, how adorable of him."

Someone arrived from the opening leading to the room's entrance, presumably after noticing their conversation.

"Crazy Bug."

.

Maki went over to grab his shoe. He stood facing the same direction as Hyuse and stepped out of the room out into the hallway. He then looked over to the end of the hallway leading to the open room.

"Crazy Bug? What is it?"

Yōtarō looked up at him, raised his eyebrows, and looked away. He instead looked at Hyuse next to him. And he spoke to that tense figure in a hoodie.

"Stepney had to leave for a bit but he said he was coming back. So those treats I gave you need to be saved until he gets back here. I can't have my subordinate going hungry."

"How is that possible?" asked Hyuse. "You told me that he has more than enough currency here. He would be more than well fed in that case."

Yōtarō's eyes alone darted from one to the other, and…

"I don't trust or like his parents, so I don't think they will feed him."

"Yeah, I had mostly figured that one out. And?"

"I sent him off to tell his parents that he would be spending the night over here, so he needs to be comfortable."

"Or to be more accurate, you're facing him to stay here for the night. …Not everyone here can handle you as it is. Another one will just be a problem."

Maki sighed.

… _If Rindō-san or Kizaki-san were here, I'm sure they would have some idea about how to deal with this._

Yōtarō by himself could be a handful most of the time. Maki could not stay due to disown reasons, so knowing that Hyuse would have to deal with both bugs himself did make him feel a bit bad. If the bugs tried something, there might be someone else to stop them though.

"I guess I have to deal with two of you today. At least the other one is well behaved."

Hearing that, Yōtaro looked to Hyuse with his eyebrows somewhat raised.

"Hyuse, I can also-…"

"No, you can't. Don't try and lie yourself out of this. Well all know what the truth is."

"I can behave if I want! But there's no need to do that since I have so much importance around here! After all, I'm the one who decides who can and can't rub Raijinmaru's belly! That's way more important than what you can do!"

"What a pain," sighed Maki. "You always think of the worst things to bring up, don't you?"

"These annoying things are just part of it all," said Hyuse as he walked down the hall.

Then he used his right hand to hand Yōtarō something.

They were the treats he had gotten. They rattled as he shook them lightly, and…

"Here, you hold onto them then. If something happens, then it's on you."

"That's unfair!"

* * *

It had been a complete surprise and Hoshi was not sure how to handle it.

Her squad's match had ended and she had been invited to get something to eat with everyone else. But…

"You stupid girl. You moronic idiot. I need to beat the basics into you, don't I?"

"Hey! Narasaka, stop hitting me! H-hey! Don't honestly start dragging me! Wait! Waaaaaaait!"

And…

"That was great, Toby. But you really did look like you were having fun there~"

"W-w-w-well, (y-ya know)! Ah ha ha ha… I-I was just d-doing what I n-needed to do-o, (is all). Ha ha ha."

Then there was…

"You did well there, Takeshi."

"…Thank you."

"I was going to go meet up with Jin-san and Osamu. Do you want to tag along? I want to talk to you about some stuff."

"If that is fine."

And the finisher...

"Ah! I was supposed to go back to the branch as soon as possible! I'm late! Like, I'm super late! …Oh well. Boss can keep things grounded while I take my time getting back. Yeah, I've totally been wanting to check out the shop near Hisama after all. Oh, but that's opposite of where Yagura is. Hm… Oh well!"

By the end of all the noise, Hoshi found herself standing in the hallway in front of Kotowari Squad's operating room. Her wide eyes and curious expression told her feelings on the matter.

A few moments after everyone had left, messages began to appear on her phone. Pulling out the phone, she saw they were from her teammates.

 **Honest Sister:** "I'm honestly sorry, Hoshi-chan! Bakasaka just started dragging me away! I'll honestly make it up to you later!"

 **Lobo:** "Oh crap! I'm sorry too, Hoshi! I got caught up talking to Kōchō! Do you want me to come back and get you!?"

 **Colors:** "I can do the same, if you want. Sorry for just leaving with Karasuma-senpai like that."

 **JK:** "Ah! Sorry, sorry, sorry! I'm sorry too, Hoshi-chan! Let's go shopping, yeah!?"

Hoshi found herself chuckling at the messages.

She didn't feel hurt that they had left and yet they were still apologizing to her as if they had just committed a serious crime.

It was amusing.

 **Prototype Star:** "Suzume-senpai, it is fine. I hope your training goes well."

 **Prototype Star:** "Toby-kun, it is fine. There is no need to come back for me. Enjoy your time with Kōchō-san, okay?"

 **Prototype Star:** "The same goes to you, Takeshi-kun. Oh, but please tell Jin-san and Osamu-kun I give my greetings when you meet them, okay?"

 **Prototype Star:** "Suzuka-san, shopping does sound fun, but going near Hisama may be too much for me. And do not worry, I will not tell Akasora-sensei about this."

Before she had a chance to place her phone back into her pocket, the response messages came in.

It was amazing how fast they responded.

 **Honest Sister:** "Hoshi-chaaaaaaaaaan! You're the beeeeeeest! Please let me marry you when you're older!"

 **Lobo:** I'll treat you to anything you want later! Name it and I'll make it!"

 **Colors:** "I'll let them now. And don't hesitate to ask if you need help with anything."

 **Jk:** "I'll buy you something really nice! I promise that it'll only make you look even more cute!"

It had not been her intention to gain anything from reassuring them, but that seemed to be the end result of it all.

Trying to argue against them would only be piling up what she received, so she happily thanked them and put her phone back into her pocket.

There was now free time for her after the match. There were many things she could do during this time, but one thing in particular stood out to her. It had been something she had been putting off for some time now due to joining Kotowari Squad.

_I need to finish the Trigger for Hato… Minoru-senpai._

It had been something she started after getting to spend time observing him. The way he moved and the fighting style he had used reminded her of someone and so the idea of a new Trigger for him came to mind.

Because of the time spent on the B-Rank Wars, there had been little time to actually work on it and this seemed to be as good a time as any to do so.

_The marker can be changed to anything after the fact, so what I need to do is figure out how to shift the mark itself for easy use instead of having it be placed. Since it will be a part of the body, there should be no issue once it has been placed, but making it shift and move is far better than having to use those few moments to place the marker. And then there are places that a person simply cannot reach naturally, so this would be much more effective. I am not sure if it can reach Kushi-nee's Triggers…_

She lightly shook her head at the thought.

It was not the thought itself that was wrong, rather, it was who she was referring to that was wrong.

_It is Fuji-nee's Trigger now. That likely has a higher power and speed output than what I can make with this one, but this one has more versatility. I suppose that is the difference in my experience compared to the actual Engineers. Even so, Fuji-nee needs to have the gauntlets and boots to activate it, meanwhile this will only need that marker. The weight for it will be nothing since it will simply be placed on the body as opposed to having to wear it. They will both be modeled after something Akasora-sensei has shown, but Fuji-nee's has the advantage of coming first and is more refined._

In a rare instance of selfishness, Hoshi let out a sigh through her mouth.

She began to comb her hand through her long hair before pinning it back up with the crescent moon pin given to her.

This had been something she was very invested in both for herself as well as for Minoru.

That upperclassman had been very nice to her and allowed her to observe him so that she could create this Trigger for him. While it would be sent out as a Trigger anyone could use, she was currently focused on making it well enough for at least Minoru to use.

It had to be perfect for him.

"Ah!"

Hoshi slapped her cheeks a few times.

She held her firsts in front of herself as a pout made its way to her face.

"No, Hoshi! Do not think that it will become a standard Trigger simply because you want it to be! Yes, it would be nice, but it is currently a work in progress and should not be considered a high performance Trigger until it is complete! Bad!"

She slapped her cheeks a few more times. A determined look shone on her face as her cheeks became red.

"Um…"

.

Hoshi jumped at the sudden voice from behind.

She quickly turned around to see who it had been to speak up in the hallway.

As a second surprise within the few minutes, it was one of the opponents she had just fought.

"Ah! Obishima Yukari-san, correct?"

The smaller girl brightened up at hearing her name.

"Yes! And you are Taiyōko Hoshi-san, right?"

"You remembered my name!? Yes, um, thank you very much for remembering."

"You had introduced yourself to me during the match."

"O-ooh, yes. My apologies for that. I understand that it is not something I should do when fighting. Even less so when it is in the top tier for B-Ranks… Please forgive my rudeness."

Obishima began to panic as the taller girl gave a perfect bow, her hair even flowing passed her shoulders.

She did not know how that could have been seen as rude. To her, it was something she was glad had happened.

"N-no, no! It was not rude at all! I think it was amazing that you did that!"

"What do you mean?" asked Hoshi as she slowly fixed her posture.

Obishima was amazed that Hoshi had been able to right herself so easily. Her hair easily fell back into place and her back was straight, as if she had not just given a deep bow. It felt as if she was standing before some sort of nobility.

"Well…you had introduced yourself like that even to someone you could have beaten. You saw me as an equal from the very start."

She knew that some of her insecurities were coming through to her voice. It was hard to keep down when facing someone with such a regal feeling to them.

But…

"Not to sound rude, but of course I would see you as an equal. Actually, I would say you are above me."

Hoshi spoke to her honestly and did not mind what she heard.

Obishima could only blink.

"You have been a B-Rank before I have and you were fighting in the top tier B-Ranks before I even thought of fighting like that. You have much more experience than I do. So in a way, you are my senpai here. I should be apologizing for not treating you as such and instead as an equal."

What?

This girl had just said something amazing.

Obishima had heard what Hoshi had said, but it didn't sound true to her. Those kinds of words shouldn't have come from someone like her. Someone who had managed to do better than her.

They were all honest words.

There were no lies in Hoshi's words and that had been enough for Obishima to feel like this girl really was leagues above her.

But that was not the end.

"Um, Obishima-san?"

"Y-yes…!?"

"If I may…"

The way Hoshi began squirming made her out to be a simple school girl, but Obishima felt like she knew better at this point.

"May I ask that you be my senpai!?"

"Can I just be your friend!?"

This time the both of them had stopped.

Obishima found that the words that had left her mouth had been an instant reaction from having spent so much time in Yuba Squad. But that only meant that they were her true feelings.

Hoshi had stared in shock at the immediate response. Her hand held out from having asked her honest question.

The both of them could only stare at each other as both of their words processed in their minds.

The first to react was Hoshi.

"R-really!?"

She moved in to grab Obishima's hand into her own as a bright smile appeared on her face and stars shone in her eyes.

"Y-you would really be my friend!? A-ah! I am sorry! I should not have grabbed your hand like that."

Before she could let go of Obishima's hand, the smaller girl quickly grabbed on with her own hands.

"Uh, yes, I do mean it. I would like to be friends with you. There is a lot I want to thank you for, so if you would be my friend then that would be great."

"Then I would love to be your friend, Obishima-san!"

"N-no need to be so formal then."

"Likewise. May I call you 'Yukari' then? That you can call me 'Hoshi'."

"O-okay. Hoshi…-chan? Thank you for becoming my friend."

"Thank you for becoming my friend, Yukari!"

The two girls smiled at each other before beginning to laugh.

Somehow this had been the end result of a conversation. Something both were happy about.

"!?"

The moment had ended quickly upon hearing the familiar buzzing of a phone.

Realizing it was her phone, Hoshi pulled it out to check the message she had gotten.

 **Deer Prince:** "Hoshi, would now be fine to test out that Trigger?"

* * *

Koskero took a breath in the dining hall of the ship belonging to a group different from his own. A group from the frozen nation Pagoménos.

The breath prepared him for the coming negotiation.

"Now, then."

He could smell strong spices and there was a lot of a unique sort of humidity.

He sat cross-legged. Sitting on the floor in a dining hall was unusual, but the Aiónia Pagoméni Gi group must have been following a certain style they had gotten from Miden.

It was a way of reducing stress on the ship and thus helped keep morale high.

So even on a ship, Koskero felt dirt below his butt. Blocks of packed soil were used as floor panels. That seemed unsanitary for a dining hall, but...

... _Well, they will be easy to replace, they will absorb moisture, and they probably have some kind of disinfectant in them._

He performed that pointless analysis because it was amazing that they were using natural material over simply solid trion.

But that was not his role here.

With Wen Sō behind him for support, he was here for...

"Let's get to the negotiations. You want to use the current group from Galopoula, so let's work out a deal."

Mochichiyo sat across from him. She too was cross-legged.

And she nodded. She did not smile, but she did not glare either. It was a flat expression.

The flat expression seemed to fit well with her long hair and average height.

_Although that may be the basis for their Trion Soldiers since they have started moving away from the demon ones._

That frozen nation was still a mystery to most other nations.

"I intend to use you as mere observation points. ...That's what I've done so far. Isn't it a little odd to suddenly raise your price through negotiations?"

The corners of Mochichiyo's mouth rose a bit.

She was smiling.

And Koskero could only think of one reason why.

... _She's drawn out the starting line._

This was still the beginning and they should enjoy this. That was what she meant. She was facing a losing battle, but...

... _I do understand._

Gathering and adjusting battle forces was uniquely enjoyable. It was the same as trying to decide what Trigger to use before heading to the battlefield.

You were constructing yourself, searching yourself, and arranging yourself in the best possible form. That process and its results were enjoyable.

Which meant one thing about what Mochichiyo had just said.

"Thanks, Mochichiyo."

"Thanks for what?"

"That's simple enough," said Koskero. "We're still trying to figure out what the other is negotiating for, but you're still willing to view our skill as a 'weapon'."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Maki is owned by Yujonokage


	106. Koskero

Koskero defined himself and the others.

"You are an important retainer and you said we are a 'weapon'. A weapon is wielded by someone, so you've said that we're worthy of being wielded."

He defined them through his words.

Even if they were rejected or overturned, words were a definition.

And negotiations were composed of words.

… _Captain was always talking about this._

Koskero belatedly wished he had done more negotiation training. And he was certain he would wish the same thing countless times over the next half hour or so.

"Wen, back me up here, okay?"

"Should I assist you? Should I support you?"

"Can't you figure it out on your own?"

"Alright. Then I should do what I think is best. …Should I negotiate in your place?"

"Wow, do I look that bad at this?"

But that was just who he was.

He knew he was not the kind of person who should be doing this.

But he also knew he had to do it here.

They could reach an agreement more easily in the current circumstances and that would benefit Galopoula.

"We will assist you," he said to Mochichiyo.

"I will hear you out."

She did not accept the term "assist". That meant she would not view them as "assistance".

She was saying she had no intention of being indebted to them.

Her stance was that Galopoula doing Aftokrator's dirty work was the natural state of things.

But he could not allow that.

He ignored her implicit rejection of the word "assist" and kept going.

"As a reward for our assistance, please have your nation protect Galopoula until we can settle things ourselves."

That was what they truly wanted.

.

Mochichiyo picked up a nearby container.

It contained a yogurt drink. It was a whey drink with as much fat as possible removed from it, so it was supposedly quite refreshing when you were tired. The guy at the counter had said 'Refreshed! You feel refreshed!", but she was not sure how much she believed it. For one thing, it seemed odd to name the menu item Lassi Kimura. Kimura apparently meant strawberry flavor. This is what they had learned from Miden.

But Mochichiyo took a sip.

... _Oh, it is refreshing._

With that in mind, she thought about Koskero's request.

"...You want protection for Galopoula until you can get out from under Aftokrator?"

"Correct. It's not a bad deal. Besides, the attack on Miden happening soon was at Afto's request and we are getting help from others in exchange for them not being there. We're only asking for you to protect Galopoula as a part of that."

"It's not like you have any authority over Galopoula." Mochichiyo spoke in a testing manner. "And that exchange was fine enough for the other nations. Not Galopoula though. This meeting is proof of that."

"Oh, so you do understand. _That's the point_." Koskero pointed at himself with his thumb. "I'm talking about Galopoula's land. ...If you don't protect that, then it's all pointless. Think of it as a request from Galopoula being delivered via you."

"What about the fact that you have no authority in this matter?"

"Correct." Koskero nodded. "Do you really think our own people with authority are going today not having Galopoula's people protected? It can be an empty promise, but we want to define our value as fighters."

He took a breath before continuing.

"That's what we really want."

.

"Listen," Mochichiyo heard Koskero say. "At the end of the day, Galopoula's forces are the ones on the frontline. Our condition for winning isn't a complete victory."

She was aware of that. It was described in a particular message.

This would demonstrate Galopoula's courage and establish a high opinion of them in later situations.

"How about it?" asked Koskero. "If you protect us, Galopoula's forces can have an easier time meeting the condition for victory."

But he was not done speaking.

"For Afto, this light condition would seem like a good enough victory against Miden after they retreated. And even if we happen to 'completely win' while we're at it, it can always be interpreted around."

How about it?

"During the time where your nation - Pagoménos - was conducting a strange experiment, Miden had been visiting, right? That means they have some knowledge of what you had been doing in your permafrost nation. This can be a way to get that information back." Koskero sat up straight. "Galopoula will not betray Pagoménos' trust. …So can't you do as we ask here?"

.

... _Not good..._

Koskero was sweating in his heart.

He had made some decent bluffs, but there was no way to guarantee any of it.

And he had hidden and glossed over everything inconvenient to them.

He was really hoping Mochichiyo could completely forget the first half of what he said.

Would that be possible?

... _No, I guess not..._

"Koskero, that was quite forceful, but I think you did express our main selling points."

Wen Sō used the brief pause to covertly speak to him using their coms.

"Can't you look at this positively?"

... _A lot of help you are..._

He was glad Kigisa was back with the rest of their group right now. He hated to think what this would be like with both of them criticizing him.

But Wen Sō was right about one thing.

He had listed off their strong points.

"You know the biggest advantage of protecting Galo, don't you?"

It was…

"Galo is your surefire attack against Miden while also staying under the radar. And on the same level as Afto during their invasion."

Koskero hid the lack of confidence in his heart as he formed the words. And he thought, _Before long, others may get a bit jumpy about Miden if they continue to win._

Aftokrator would see it as nothing more than they already did, but that did not mean others would.

Other nations would try their hand or back down even more if Miden started stacking up more wins.

Not only had they managed to push back Aftokrator after their invasion, the strange group known as Wanderers had also come to an agreement with them.

So…

"You can give multiple nations a single advantage for when it is needed. Can't you do that for us too?" said Koskero. "We will help you _here._ We will fight on the front line and ensure you're capable of preserving us. And in exchange for preserving Galo, we'll stubbornly hide your actions. Isn't that good enough?"

He was aware he was making up his argument as he went along, but deep in his heart, something else was apparent to him.

... _Most of what I'm saying is true._

Did that mean he was being watched over?

But this was still important. After all...

… _Galo's current state is…_

.

… _Smaller nations are in such a difficult position._

Koskero thought about the nation of Galopoula.

It was small, when compared to some others.

The scenery was much different than others as well. Even their seasons could be viewed differently because of where they were.

But it had always been nice to the ones living there.

That allowed them to enjoy their times in their land, but it also meant other nations invaded or intervened a lot, so they had to spend what they could on defense and survival.

In that land, it was difficult to take back what had been lost.

So they could not afford to lose anything.

 _That_ was the most important thing to them: Galopoula's land.

Even after losing their fight to Aftokrator and becoming their retainers, it was their home that they felt "this is still the place".

"...Honestly."

Koskero looked at Mochichiyo.

She was an important Trion Soldier for a nation not taken by anyone else, so she most likely knew their history.

After all, that nation had also been to Galopoula.

They had chosen not to do anything there.

So what kind of future had they felt was in store for them once they had been taken by Aftokrator?

There was only one thing Koskero could say about that:

"We don't know what it's like to be accepted by a large nation."

That was right.

When you were needed by a large nation, you were also protected by its presence and its rules.

It could be said that it was the case with them, but it was clear that it was just one ruling nation subjugating another. So...

"But nations like ours really do need people like us fighting for them."

They could not swap out their fighting force like a large nation could.

"If we're lost, it's all over," said Koskero. "So how about it, Mochichiyo?"

He threw the words out there and received an immediate response. It was a calm reply.

"Don't come begging to us, goo-throwing boy."

.

Mochichiyo formed her words.

The corners of her mouth rose as she looked straight at Koskero.

... _I see._

It was true Aftokrator had not seemed to care for the ones they had taken.

In fact, she was sure they would be the same way.

Every nation was similar like that. The stronger nations would only view the weaker ones as one to conquer and advance throughout the Neighborhood.

But sometimes even stronger nations would appear from outside that.

Miden was an example, as were the Wanderers.

Everyone did it and it happened everywhere.

Just like people would start using "better" cookware and clothing in their everyday life, the personalities known as "nations" would select the very best of whatever they needed.

How many years had it been now?

Nations who had been expected to grow into strong ones had been taken or destroyed and the original nations were gone.

The same almost happened with her own nation and she had simply thought "these things happened" when she thought about it.

So...

"Sorry, but telling me about a smaller nation's inferiority complex isn't going to change my mind," she said. "Besides, large nations are run by the people too. So that's where my focus is: the people. The protection of a large nation's presence and rules is no more than an advantage that nation has. You may look at a small nation as its people, but in that case, the lack of protection due to the small nation's weakness and rules is no more than a disadvantage that nations has. ...Don't just assume it justifies your inferiority complex."

She took a breath.

"Just get to the point: What do you want and what can you do, Koskero?"

.

Koskero began sweating profusely in his heart.

... _So I screwed it up!_

No, he had to view it as a good thing that she was willing to hear him out.

_I sure get caught up in sentiment easily. I was giving off the wrong sort of presence, wasn't I? I hope I haven't let my passiveness show too much._

At any rate, she had asked him to speak.

... _But I just did a bunch of speaking._

No.

Before, he had been forcing their _hopes_ onto her.

Now it was time for _reality_.

So he knew what he had to say here.

"We will join in that information search, if we can find it in time."

This was the procedure.

He had to list what they could do and what they would need to prepare.

"We have trion soldiers sent in from Rhodochroun. Dogs and Idras. Having some more would be nice."

"Wouldn't that be a lot?"

"Will you give us more?"

Mochichiyo smiled at that. He was not sure why she smiled.

If she would give them more, he just had to take as many as he could get. But Mochichiyo looked at him and made a comment.

"That look on your face tells me you can do more than that."

"Let's leave that as a surprise. …We do have one thing we have stubbornly prepared but have held in reserve. We really don't plan on using it against Miden, though."

"Is that so?" Mochichiyo then looked behind him. "Next."

Wen Sō stood there.

The woman was apparently ready to respond. She immediately spoke over his shoulder.

It was in a calm voice.

"Can you make some offense for a defensive person?"

"You don't like making things simple, do you?"

Mochichiyo smiled bitterly and placed a hand on her chin. Koskero thought this was a sincere reaction.

He felt they were being honest with each other now.

... _Huh?_

He mentally tilted his head.

He had thought he had angered Mochichiyo by creating an unnecessarily emotional atmosphere.

So why were they being honest with each other now?

... _W-well, I guess it doesn't matter._

He did not understand, but he was not going to find fault with a favorable result.

But this response was somewhat bad. After all...

... _Does that mean she can't prepare an offense for Shi?_

Shi Muon's Kipourós was unique. Since it was a simple Trigger that had not been meant for actual fights, it was mainly used for defense. Since Shi Muon was even more passive than he was, she tended to block attacks and relied on others for offense.

Depending on how things got done, she would be used as nothing more than a simple wall to get over, but...

... _Either way, she needs something heavy._

She seemed to be even more hesitant than ever to attack Miden. She had never said anything about it, but her mindset made her difficult to move since she would not be able to bring herself to actually harm anyone no matter if they were an enemy.

But there was a way.

Providing information here would not leave anyone indebted to anyone, so Koskero did not hesitate to speak up.

"Mochichiyo. …One or two Demons would be fine. They only need to have offensive capabilities. While I doubt they would fit well with the person Wen is talking about, they should be enough that it won't matter."

"That's right. ...That's a good idea."

"Then," said Mochichiyo before Wen Sō replied.

"Kigisa will need bodyguards to make full use of her Trigger and her style of fighting. Also," said Wen Sō. "Yes, would it be possible to allow her to take some of your 'stylish clothing'?"

.

"...And here I thought I was in charge."

"Oh? Did Koskero want to talk about Kigisa's clothing?"

"No, most of my memories of her have her wearing a tight suit..."

"Ah, so you're a fan of seeing it all. Oh, is that why you look at Shi Muon like that?"

"...Is it just me or have you gotten harsher lately?"

.

Wen Sō ignored Koskero's complaint.

It was true she had recently been more snippy with the rest of them. She had mostly been doing so to keep them on their toes and because she wanted to be alert around Shi Muon, but in addition to that...

… _My position isn't one of the best so I choose to just stick around Shi Muon to make sure everything is fine._

Whenever she found something she could do, she would make sure Shi Muon was within eyesight, something she had recently become aware of.

As a result, she had come to terms with herself and would mention this after their attack. Long story short, it meant sacrificing Koskero like this.

"Anyway, Kigisa's Trigger should work on Miden. If she can secure an open enough location on adjoining land, the geographic features should allow her to produce as much power as in Galo's land."

"I see." Mochichiyo crossed her arms and nodded. And she took a sip of her drink. "Ah. Maybe it's because of this heated conversation, but that really is refreshing."

She smiled a little.

Her shoulders shook as she took a slow breath.

"Now it's my turn to speak."

Her smiling eyes faced straight forward again. She re-crossed her legs and opened her mouth.

"Sorry," she said. "But your selling points aren't really doing it for me."

.

"Listen," said Mochichiyo. "You say that, if Galo is protected, Galo can strike at Miden when we find it optimal. ...That is admittedly important. But you know what?"

There was something she had to say here. It was a matter of reality, not sentiment.

"Listen," she said again. "By the time we find it optimal, we will have everything we need. Miden would also advance more by then. What good is striking back at that point?"

Koskero and Wen Sō remained expressionless, but that was to be expected with negotiations.

But that utter lack of reaction eloquently told her what was going on in their heads.

... _The truly skilled ones will intentionally let the mask slip at times like this._

But these were combatants from a defeated nation, so she could not expect that from them. That was the entire reason she had been requested as a fitting force for Galopoula.

But they would be disappointed in themselves for how things were going.

Besides, she understood what this Galopoula group was trying to say.

"You said Galo is a defeated nation, didn't you?"

"In essence, yes, I did."

"Right." Mochichiyo nodded. And, "Koskero. ...Then you went on to say that Galo is a presence capable of dealing a blow to Miden when it counts."

"I wasn't quite that wordy about it, but...yes, I did."

"Then." Mochichiyo took a breath. "This is not going to be easy for Galo, is it?"

Koskero's cheeks moved like he wanted to say something, but then they stopped.

... _That's right._

Koskero knew the fate of small nations that were caught up in the plans of a stronger nation.

After all, she was a trion soldier made to get out from under those stronger nations.

She knew very well that small nations could be dealt with and easily trampled on by the whims of a large nation. She had done it herself at times.

Galopoulas was the same.

"With this attack abasing Miden, Galo has two major events to their names: the defeat to Afto that caused them to be in this position, and the attack they tried against Miden."

And…

"In the loss against Afto, you lost the right to choose for yourselves what to do and so you have to follow orders."

"You've sure studied up on this."

"I was managing our fighting force up until recently, if you recall."

Mochichiyo smiled a little and realized she was being self-deprecating.

It was pathetic for two losers to fight over who had the superior position. But...

... _This is necessary._

They were Miden-neutral and they would remain as such until they stepped down from the stage of fighting.

She could not allow them to use their power incorrectly.

She was something of an elder fighter to them and had the support of a large nation. She could not accurately measure how open-minded she was, but she thought she was viewing all the major pieces that were moving history.

So she said it.

"Galo will be under attack by the nations and groups trying to join Miden. And not just in the physical form of war. It will include political and economic attacks."

That was why the Wanderers' Leader Futoyuki, their second leader, had fled to Miden the other day. His request for asylum was an unknown result to them, but the action still made it harder for other nations to make a move against that strange group.

The problem were the nations that had no choice in the matter. That included ones like Galopoula and the other retainers that Aftokrator had forced into place.

... _They will be under attack by the other nations._

Galopoula would of course be prepared for that. And they likely intended to survive after the attack like that, but…

"Most likely, the main force will be moved to action before you think it's right. Then the remaining fights you have will carry out any battles after."

And the main force would fulfill the conditions needed to be viewed as a victory.

She did understand why they would try to do that.

A note sent to her said that, because of this attack, Galopoula would likely be a none appearance territory that they should not go near due to being under Aftokrator and having attacked Miden.

A small nation tossed about by the age of occupation would likely have a definite destination.

She knew what would be the deciding factor in all this:

"Who will help in the end, hm?"

They intended to only do the bare minimum to obtain a "victory" and to perform what is needed from them without seeming like they didn't try.

They were showing the willpower of a small nation.

And they would make sure they had a future.

That was why these two were here to negotiate.

They wanted their fellow Galopoula residents to be protected to ensure they all had a future.

They wanted to protect the fighting force that would be worn down before they could even think of reclaiming themselves thanks to the attacks from other nations.

And it was of course about more than just their fighting force.

It would also be about the people who lived on Galopoula land and about that land itself.

If they were to have a future, they needed to protect more than just a fighting force.

... _In that case..._

This was not something Mochichiyo could decide on her own.

This was an issue requiring a decision from a living person of her land or from an official with the authority to manage the ones involved.

But she was not in charge of much and she had not contacted any living person about any of this. The battle she had wanted to fight was to reclaim their pride in order to eliminate one of the losses they had taken long ago, but she had not actually gotten a living person's approval.

She had been relying on the assumption that a living person would pick up on her intentions here. But...

"—"

The two from Galopoula looked at her with strength in their eyes.

They had to know how little political power Mochichiyo had at the moment, but they were still relying on her decision.

Was Galopoula really that important to them?

... _Honestly._

Mochichiyo had to wonder what the difference between them and her was. She thought about it in a positive light.

This had been a hopeless endeavor from the start.

However...

"I understand what you're trying to say."

"But?"

"You really won't be of any use to Pagoménos at the important moment."

That was the only possible conclusion there.

"If you are to be of some use to Pago, it would have to be at the time we find our 'Cancer' that was lost long ago. …That battle will likely take place on Miden, holding them in place while also being used, and prevents them from trying anything else afterwards. So as a Trion Soldier of Pago, my advice is to focus on what you think you will be like during that time instead," said Mochichiyo. "Besides, today…no I guess it would be yesterday by now. Regardless, those wanderers had made their mark to the ones fighting for Miden. That means any major battles for them will involve the Wanderers, right?

Mochichiyo stated her conclusion.

"Galopoula. ...I cannot grant you what you want here."

.

Koskero heard Mochichiyo say she could not support or protect Galopoula.

 _Yeah, I had a feeling,_ he thought.

... _Damn._

He had managed to convince himself it might work, but it might not be possible after all.

Participating in a battle meant gaining the right to speak within that battle. So during the strategizing phase, it was possible to use your combat force to negotiate with another nation.

So he had thought he might be able to work out a deal with this battle approaching. However...

"—"

It might not be possible after all.

… _The captain or Rata might be able to pull through in this tricky situation._

But what about the normal people or non-combatants?

 _Damn,_ he thought. _I need to keep trying._

"Umm."

He opened a sign frame.

This was no time to worry about how he looked.

The other person had revealed her hand and was listening to him.

It was just that her current and future positions did not fit with their future.

Was there no way of changing that?

... _Damn._

They had sent out some Trion Soldiers, so they had been able to gather some intelligence. But he could only access so much information since he could only connect to his own group's network instead of any other particular one.

Two major points had happened at Miden recently, but...

... _We don't really know how those played out in full._

He also wanted to re-investigate those two events to get a new look at it.

"Mochichiyo."

"Yes?"

"We don't have authorization to open any transmission from this ship to the outside. Could I borrow your authorization? …I want to take a look at the situation in front of us."

.

"I see," said Mochichiyo while giving a nod of approval.

Her own transmissions are personal, but...

"Oh, I can set up an interface."

Given that comment from the woman behind him, it would probably be fine.

Koskero immediately faced in front of himself. He quickly used his eyes to move the things that appeared in front of him.

"Are you greeting Galopoula?"

But just as she asked that...

"...?"

Koskero stopped moving.

He frowned and the things in front of him moved down so that he could use his hands to move it. Those hands then came to a stop.

"What's wrong?"

"Mochichiyo. ...Was your authorization shut down?"

"No, mine is still up."

Her own information was showing data from Pagoménos. She could access their information network through her core and the connection was fast. But...

"Galopoula's transmissions have closed."

"Most likely, you would need to use a new password," explained Wen Sō. "In other words…with our leaving, Galopoula wanted to make sure only a select few could properly contact them."

Mochichiyo knew what that meant.

"Galo is really relying on you here so they don't have to deal with Afto."

.

Galopoula was on the way to a destination.

Mochichiyo understood that as she took a breath.

... _This is our reality._

Koskero's group could do nothing to oppose Aftokrator at the current moment and that was terrifying.

It would mean they were less at risk of attacks and interference from other nations, but it meant the hold on them was just that strong.

Personally, she wished she could have protected them.

She felt like she could have accomplished that to an extent if she sent a transmission to a living person. After all, a living person had been the one to make her and her strongly held core.

But if she did that, a living person would probably grow overly considerate.

It might create an excess burden for them.

And the situation was dangerous enough as it was.

Mochichiyo was cooperating with other nations to eliminate one of the losses from back when those two men had defeated their Demons, but she would be acting separately from those nations during actual battles. While moving around the ship, she had confirmed that Pagoménos could not cooperate with those other nations, and...

... _They're using us as bait to catch an even greater prize._

That was obvious enough from how those nations were acting.

And Mochichiyo could make a good guess what prize they were trying to catch.

It would be a major loss for Pagoménos. It would also be a harsh battle for the ones attacked, but they would win big if they succeeded.

Mochichiyo felt certain that _that_ was going to occur.

She had no way of stopping it.

 _But,_ she thought.

"If only I had my own fighting force."

If only she had power.

"Then maybe I could fight some more and reduce this coming loss at least by a little."

"What are you-...?"

"A group will be coming to save me. I want a loss that leaves no regrets and reduces the burden on everyone else, but they will still come here and create an even greater loss."

"Can you trust in your comrades?" asked the woman.

"Yeah. We know each other well enough for that."

So...

"I don't want to be a burden on them."

And just as she said that...

"Wait."

Koskero raised his hand.

She looked up to find he was not looking at her.

His eyes were on the information in front of him and his mouth was open.

She heard a trembling voice.

"There is one thing I would like to check on."

Namely…

"This entire meeting. …I would like to reconfirm who agreed to this meeting and what Galopoula was supposed to gain from it."

"Huh? We went over this. It was on a living person's request and the Galo group gets a chance at a fighting force from it."

"That's right," said Koskero. "But as far as I can tell, 'Galopoula as a whole' isn't included in that. And 'a fighting force' doesn't specify anything and doesn't guarantee anything. Of course, your living people are..."

"...not the kind of people to go back on a promise."

Koskero silently nodded.

"Then I'll let go of one thing."

That being…

"The 'fighting force' is probably the remains of something else. So I won't insist you allow your stronger groups to participate in the Miden attack."

.

... _Not bad._

Mochichiyo was silently impressed.

What Koskero had done was simple.

He had split the conditions of his negotiation in two and backed off from one of them.

Koskero probably had not gathered his thoughts beforehand. He was also inexperienced as a negotiator. That was why he only now said something for the first time.

"Please protect the _nation_ of Galopoula by providing what you can."

This demand was likely born from this simple meeting request and the thought of Pagoménos getting rid of their junk. Before, he had been negotiating for a fighting force and the protection of Galopoula as an extension of this simple meeting.

But he had just backed off from one of those.

He would let the living people handle the idea of protecting Galopoula.

Nothing was promised, but it was something that only a living person could agree to.

In fact, it made the negotiation much simpler.

But it had changed what they were negotiating about.

After all, she had been negotiating _while accepting Koskero's words at face value._

So...

... _Since I was accepting both demands at once, I have to give some ground now that he's backed off from one of them!_

This was an official negotiation.

She had grown careless partially because of Koskero's limited negotiation experience.

She had also concluded she would end up rejecting any demands because she had no authority to grant them.

So she had discussed the "protection" Koskero demanded as if it applied to both the current Galopoula group and the nation of Galopoula.

Koskero had now backed off from one of those.

He had compromised.

"...?"

The look on his face suggested he had not planned this.

He had narrowed down his argument without really knowing what he was doing.

There of course had to be a reason why he did that.

... _Was it that information!?_

That had told him something that he needed to confirm his standing and beyond that. Seeing that had shown him the resolve he needed for this.

That had erased the arrogant idea that he had to protect everything.

He was left with only the desire to protect the people who would not benefit from any sort of protection from Aftokrator.

That had led to this unintentional negotiation trick, but the rules were the rules.

He had indeed removed one of his two demands.

That was a compromise, so...

"—"

Mochichiyo was unsure how to respond.

.

... _Huh?_

Koskero realized the atmosphere had grown quite heavy.

That was thanks to Mochichiyo.

She had fallen silent and was staring at him with her arms crossed.

... _Crap... Did I do something wrong?_

He had only been trying to make a clear division between the two aspects of this issue.

He had realized something when the Galopoula transmission had been cut off.

... _I can't hope to match Aftokrator._

They had enough resolve to get the normal citizens caught in the middle.

Koskero could not take things that far.

In a way, that probably meant he had not fully brought himself to go into invasions yet with a steel resolve.

He could not ask someone else to take the hits.

He did not know if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but...

"Can't I at least ask for the protection of the people who are hard pressed to fight?"

How about that?

If they were just talking about their group, there would be less issues. As a group ready to attack, they would have to step forward if they were to attack.

So even with the way things turned out, there was no longer a way of protecting them.

"Does this mean the captain and Pago's living people are trying to attack some sort of opportunity here? An Attack of Zero, if you will?"

"Who thought it was a good idea to let this woman do that...?"

But even that silly pun gave him a quick break.

If possible, he wanted to gain at least something for their upcoming fight.

... _But I guess that wouldn't be possible..._

But just as he thought that...

"Koskero."

Mochichiyo suddenly called out to him.

Her eyebrows lay flat and she seemed to be glaring at him.

"I understand that you have resolved yourself to this upcoming fight for your leaders while also trying to find some long term achievement for Galo. And there is one method of accomplishing that."

"There is!?"

His voice echoed through the dining hall.

It was abandoned at this hour, so even with a floor of hardened dirt blocks, the sound reverberated strongly.

But Koskero did not care. He scooted his butt a bit to lean forward while sitting cross-legged.

"...What is it?" he asked.

It no longer mattered what he looked like or what people thought of him. With how he was feeling now, there was no point in even considering the inviolable rule of keeping a straight face while negotiating.

He simply had to ask and snatch away the information he needed.

So he listened.

"You said you are skilled warriors, didn't you?"

"Yes, I did."

"Then there is only one problem left for you." Mochichiyo pointed at him. "You all are in charge of the attack against Miden."

.

Koskero did not understand what he had just been told.

... _Huh?_

He knew that they were in charge of the attack. Anyone from their group would.

It was going to be a battle between Miden and Galopoula.

During the attack, Miden would be playing the role of defenders in an attempt to protect themselves, an important thing, but they would need to contend with Galopoula's attack against them. It would not be a full siege, but it would amount to just as much of a fight as one since their goal was within the building that they would be attacking. It was led by their captain - Gatlin.

Miden knew the land better and was more skilled with a home advantage and small-scale battles, so they would have the advantage and understand what to protect until the attack was complete.

The amount of people on their side would also amount to many more than what their group had as living people. Trion Soldiers were more tools than the people themselves were. However...

… _Our victory can easily be overturned with interpretations._

But Mochichiyo was saying to do that.

Who was she saying should do that?

"...Us?"

"Right, of course. ...If you were serious about your skill, then you should be able to lead a small force more into this battle, right?"

Koskero gasped.

... _Hold on._

He had started this from a fairly unreasonable position, but it had just taken a very unexpected turn. It was true he had held a biased view that only a stronger nation could help them reach their victory. He could not deny that he had convinced himself that small groups like theirs could act as negotiators, but could not move an entire nation.

 _But,_ he thought.

Mochichiyo was suggesting that they stand on the main stage of history.

This would mean they were not just ones to be protected.

She was telling them to act as individuals who remained in this world. Did that viewpoint come from her position in a large nation?

It did not matter. There was something else he wanted to know now.

"If we did do that, what would happen?"

"I would have an easier time going at it against Miden. …That would create two battlefields: yours and mine. And that would split Miden's forces."

In other words, they could divide the enemy forces. He thought about what that meant.

"...So one of us would have a main role that would be to keep the enemy busy?"

"That's right."

Koskero saw Mochichiyo nod, but then...

"Could you wait for a moment please?"

He heard Wen Sō voice behind him.

… _Wen?_

His body tensed on reflex.

Wen Sō was a calm person. She was always looking at the best solution she could find. So if she was interrupting...

... _Is there something bad about this?_

"I would like to confirm one thing about what you said earlier, Mochichiyo."

Specifically...

"You said that there is a problem, didn't you?"

"Right. There's no point in hiding it, so I was just about to bring it up."

There was a problem.

Mochichiyo did indeed go on to explain what she had alluded to.

"Another nation will be giving me their force known as Mourí. They will be watching me like a hawk, so it's like I will be monitored. Oh, and a 'hawk' as a Miden animal, to let you know. But I feel like I have already fought and lost to Miden when those two men took out all of our Demons long ago. My core is even made up of ones lost in that event. I have a scratchy memory of that day."

"And we have yet to fight them at all and have never been near these Mourí."

... _So that's it._

Koskero gave a sigh of understanding deep in his gut.

"Our battlefields don't fit together well and you don't think you can beat Miden."

.

Wen Sō understood the problem Mochichiyo carried.

... _It is true battling Miden would be difficult even if she is given a new force here._

A few Trion Soldiers was not enough for an opponent like that.

Now that Miden has already pushed back Aftokrator and had beaten their specially made Trion Soldiers, how many nations even could say they had a chance of standing up to them?

But there was a reason Mochichiyo was stating this.

"Mochichiyo, you want to defeat Miden, don't you?"

"—"

Mochichiyo gave her a silent look.

Then her mouth twisted in what was probably supposed to be a smile.

"Ha ha."

She vocalized a laugh, but it was no more than a series of sounds. She also placed a hand on her forehead.

"Of course I do. Pago went to so much effort and we got utterly crushed in the end. …Even though we were on our home ground and they were an even smaller group back then."

"Then are you saying you want to defeat Miden without relying on the Mourí forces you will soon be given?"

But there was indeed a problem here. Koskero spoke while looking back at her.

"Wen, what do you think will happen if we try to fight with those Mourí Trion Soldiers?"

"If they are like Mochichiyo, and possess a core that lets them have a will of their own, we would be looking at a completely different factor to the fight. With the Dogs and Idras we're getting from Rhodochroun we can control them to an extent. Yomi can work outside of the ship with those and they are not in the way for people like me."

"If these Mourí Trion Soldiers have too much freedom, won't it just make for nice targets?"

"Not necessarily. There are certain cases when they could just make us the targets. For example…"

Wen Sō prepared to give an example, but Mochichiyo took the words out of her mouth. And her tone made it obvious this was intentional.

"If they think they're being used by people not from their nations, they can easily switch sides without worrying about betraying their home. So long as their cores are intact."

"Well, we can't be betrayed like that, can we?" said Koskero.

But they were on the right track.

They needed a force that Miden would not expect.

But also one that would remain on their side.

... _Does such a force exist?_

"…Wen."

Koskero raised his right hand in front of her.

"Let me see a list of everything we have."

"Do you have an idea, Koskero?"

"Nope," he said with his back turned. "But our Triggers are rather flexible with the way they can be used. These Mourí forces may be difficult for people like Afto, but we know how to adapt to things like this."

So...

"Let me see the list. ...And, Mochichiyo?"

"What is it, Koskero?"

"Well," he replied. "We will protect you."

.

Koskero felt a heat within him.

... _This isn't like me._

He wanted to say he wasn't this kind of person. But...

... _Am I?_

"Sorry, but I'll be going over everything more than once. I can just focus better when reading over something multiple times, so feel free to take off my head if I go to activate my Tigger's abilities."

Once he said that, several pieces of information appeared in front of him.

They were lists of what they had. Wen Sō had prepared them and they provided what they knew of Miden.

… _We have to find a way to fight alongside the Mourí force._

Looking at the information was enough for him to picture how they could fight in the back of his mind. He had helped in the planning after all. And that told him something.

... _There isn't one._

The repeated reading allowed him to calmly reach that conclusion.

Attacking from a single point was their plan, so it would be possible to use even more force on that point or divert even more attention away from them. But once they were found out, they would likely be forgotten about by Mourí.

And it was devastating that they could not avoid Miden's counter attacks altogether.

They had seen what Miden could do via the Trion Soldiers they had sent ahead of time.

They would be able to pinpoint the weak points of their Trion Soldiers easily enough, so using even more was rather pointless. So...

"—"

Was not using the Mourí force the only option?

No, that was not an option either.

Mochichiyo and Galopoula's reputation would plummet if they did that. In the worst case, Pagoménos would view them as a nation not to be trusted and Mourí would try to attack them.

... _In that case..._

The safest thing to do was to allow them to advance alongside their Galopoula group. Right to the front lines.

However...

"Mochichiyo."

"What is it?"

"...Can you guarantee that Mourí will honestly assist us?"

"I honestly doubt they will. They seem to be working on their own views…but as I said before, they are only using me as bait. At the very least, they would not want their forces or mine on the battlefield."

"I see," said Wen Sō behind him.

... _We're in such a difficult position here._

They could not borrow only a few of them for the battle.

Then what were they to do?

When viewed through the information, the attack felt so far away.

But even when viewed from a time gap, he could not find the right solution.

... _C'mon now. Pull yourself together._

If he could not find a good solution here, they would lose a strong force.

He had to find it. If he did that, they would gain a strong force.

They would be able to say they made something happen themselves and without Aftokrator commanding them.

In their group, everyone had to be preparing for the attack and beyond.

They were all facing that from within the ship. They were moving toward the history they would create and a future in which they survived.

_We have to help them from here._

The whole group of them had to complete this attack that had been demanded of Aftokrator.

If they could do that, it would greatly reduce the burden on everyone else. So...

"I will find it."

And...

"Mochichiyo. ...We will protect you and make sure you return to Pagoménos"

After all...

"You need to return to those living people and tell them how well this group from Galopoula did."

And to do that, he needed...

"A way to ensure Mourí's cooperation."

Just as he said that, Koskero realized he was in the process of activating his Trigger.

... _Whoops._

He quickly pulled his hand away from his hip. Then he realized he was too far to have reached anything.

"I have been keeping your perception of left and right different to make sure you didn't start using Nikokyra," said Wen Sō.

"Oh, so my carelessness didn't nearly get me killed."

He smiled bitterly and his careless right hand knocked over the glass sitting on his tray.

The water spilled out, circled around the bottom of the container, and spread out across the tray.

 _Now I've done it,_ he thought. But then...

"...Ah."

He realized something.

Here was a way that Miden could be viewed as an enemy for all of them without anyone betraying each other.

He had just seen it right in front of him.

.

Mochichiyo saw movement.

Koskero suddenly stood up and moved to the dining hall's counter.

He was fast. It only took an instant. But by the time she turned to follow his movement, he was already showing her something: a picture.

It displayed the group of Trion Soldiers from Pagoménos, which were all people in appearance.

It was initially a way to keep track of every Trion Soldier, but that had quickly changed. To the ones in the picture, it was a way to remember that they had been made with a purpose in their cores.

She saw herself there.

But...

"You Autonomous Trion Soldiers can feel this, can't you?"

What was "this"?

There was a faint light near Koskero's mouth. It was the light from a core yet to be placed in anything.

That green light illuminated a smile on his face.

"Mochichiyo, I've found it. This is how we will make sure they remain on our side."

He held up the core high.

He held it high enough that they could all see it without any issue and where it could be properly viewed. The core was no bigger than a rubber ball, but it shone brightly in the dim room.

But it was different from others.

"...A core?"

"Not just any core. … _A Pago core_."

It was...

"The cores from each nation have something to them. Even more so when they are for Autonomous Trion Soldiers. I learned that from the Wanderers."

.

Mochichiyo looked up when she heard Koskero's words.

... _Can we use that?_

This was a method of fighting Miden with a strong force.

It was a means of getting strong force on their side and forcing an even tougher battle onto Miden.

"You want to use the pride we Autonomous Trion Soldiers have in us to get them on our side?"

"I'm glad you understand," said Koskero. "The stronger the nation with Auto Trion Soldiers, the more pride that will come from them for having been made in that nation."

But…

"Those guys - the Wanderers - they have the upper hand in every aspect when it comes to Auto Trion Soldiers. They have that monster called the Pyrínas System. And if they have become allies of Miden, that ends that connection can be used to form one of our own. Mourí relies on Auto Trion Soldiers a lot, from this information, so this should be enough."

"And if it isn't enough? I guess I can contact one of the living people of Mourí then."

"That would be nice if you could do that."

"We can handle that on our own. ...And you'll be helping too, won't you?"

"Ha ha," laughed Koskero. "You want to do your own thing and get back at them for what they did to you before, didn't you? This isn't an all out invasion, but you can think of it as a reverse situation, right? You can go as long as you want and we'll protect you as best we can. …How about that?"

He held up the core for the unused Trion Soldier and tossed it to her.

She caught it and spun it around with her finger. And…

"I would be in trouble if I personally went out there, so this core will be 'me'. I will transfer some of myself to this new core and it will become 'Mochichiyo' for the battle."

Although…

"I hear my name came from an actual person in Miden's history. The 'Mochi' is from 'Mochizuki' and the 'Chiyo' is from 'Chiyome'. So then, if this will be 'me' for the battle, it's name will be 'Mochizuki Chiyome'."

But this meant a lot.

"Now we have a way of striking back against Miden. ...Isn't that right, Galo? That will be enough to give you some sway with Mourí too, at the least. Let's keep this quiet. Of course, Pago is sure to know all about it since we're discussing it here."

Mochichiyo stood up, took a breath, and realized the corners of her mouth were rising.

There was a tone of delight in the words that escaped her mouth.

"I'm finally prepared for this losing battle."

Ha ha.

"You can say you're ready a thousand times, but it's not so easy to actually feel it like this."

* * *

A long day was ending for a few different forces.

Night began to take over a certain city as people moved about instead of going to their homes.

The Galopoula force continued their preparation through the time and the night became their signal for their attack.

Pagoménos and Mourí brought out their forces and exchanged messages with Galopoula's attack group.

The fast approaching night would be one of an event.

Each of those battle formations took a short rest to prepare for the battle soon to come.


	107. Galopoula

A faint noise rang out.

The air split open and the space crackled as black tendrils shot out form the growing black sphere.

The black sphere expanded and contained to do so until it reached above the surrounding buildings. Those buildings, the road, and the light poles around it were crushed and destroyed by the black sphere.

"A Gate has been detected! Distance is 400 to the Northeast! There are multiple radar readings! This appears to be the planned Neighbor invasion!"

Sawamura relayed the information in front of her. To her left was Fuyushima Squad's captain - Fujushima Shinji. Behind her were the directors of Border, some sitting, some getting to their seats, and one standing tall.

"There are only thirty minutes until the nighttime B-Rank Wars start. The planned matches are Kageura, Yuba and Azuma squads in the top tier… Then Tamakoma-2, Katori and Kakizaki squads in the middle tier." Sawamura continued on without batting an eye. "If we're going to carry this out as planned, those six groups will not participate in Defense Duty. What are your orders, sir?"

The one standing tall was the one she had been referring to.

It was Shinoda Masafumi.

"That's not a problem. The Ranks Wars will proceed as planned." Shinoda spoke with only certainty in his voice. "Jin's Foresight tells us that it's unlikely, but if they do come after the agents, then we will suspend the Rank Wars and the squads will enter battle. Azuma will take command of them. Kazuma Squad, Hatohara Squad's Kobayashi and Yagura's Taiyōko are on hall security. Inform them and the two commentators."

"Understood!"

"Consider the possibility of a diversion and leave one squad on the west and one in the south!"

"A large Trion Soldier army is approaching!"

It was about to begin. The attack from Galopoula.

No…

It has already begun.

Border had prepared ahead of time for this attack and would respond to it in their own way.

* * *

_That's a lot of Ideas… Must be Rhodokrhoun's Trion Soldier army._

Hyuse thought to himself as he moved towards the door.

Behind him was a sleeping Yōtarō atop a similarly sleeping Raijinmaru. Laying on the side of Raijinmaru was the other boy that had recently become friends with Yōtarō. He was also sleeping soundly like his friend.

_Considering the movements agents as of late, there will definitely be a large battle._

Making his way through the Tamakoma Branch, Hyuse remembered the day's simple events. The time Jin and Konami had told Yōtarō to watch over him.

At the time he had seemed like nothing was wrong, that was only amplified as the day went on his new friend had gone to the branch office. This was likely done specifically after everyone else had left though, that way there would be no worry with another child there.

Hyuse himself had found the new boy to be fine enough with his well behaved attitude that kept Yōtarō from doing anything rash.

Having reached the location he wanted, the training room of the branch, he thought more about those two boys.

As well as the boy he had fought and helped before.

"…"

He let out a sigh with the shake of his head.

There was something else he had to focus on.

_Where's Lampyris?_

… _I suppose they wouldn't keep it somewhere that would be easy to find…? It's possible Jin has it. I should've taken it back after winning the bet…_

"Oh well…"

Hyuse grabbed a normal Trigger, activating it easily.

_I'll have to reserve Lampyris when I get back home. I need to prioritize not wasting this opportunity to meet with a retainer nation._

* * *

"This is Kakizaki. Snipers are in position."

"This is Tōma. We're ready over here."

Atop the border building, a multitude of snipers were lined up on two sides.

With the high vantage point they were able to see what was coming towards them. Even without their scopes to their eyes, they could see the mass that were Trion Soldiers moving forward.

What the mass consisted of had been a surprise.

"Humanoid…Trion Soldiers!?"

Idra.

The human-like soldiers moved in mass, each walking forward with their programing moving them ever so closer to each other.

"This will be difficult," Hokari commented from next to his teammate. "The targets are too small."

"And there are so many. It's gonna be hard to handle."

They waited for their moment.

They waited for the moment those human-like Trion Soldiers made it within their range.

"Approaching firing range…"

Once they were within range...

"Engaging the enemy."

Each with egret in their grasps, they began their onslaught of sniper fire. Their aims were spot on and the bombardment began without any sort of mercy.

And yet…

"!?"

Their slow movements towards each other had created small groups of Ideas that had continued their march.

Upon seeing the sniper fire raining down on them, each one opened their defenses while combining them with the ones around them. This created multiple sturdy shields that simple attacks could not break through.

Power was what was needed.

"Oh? That's a neat trick. Pretty smart, aren't you guys? Opening several shields at once to block."

"Are these cooperative type soldiers...?"

"Let's just honestly take them out."

Seeing that the power from a single agent using a single Trigger was not enough, they began their next attack.

One that held the power they needed.

"Concentrate fire on one of them at a time and destroy them!"

"Ok! Starting from the left!"

"Then I'll start from the right."

Egrets were exchanged for Ibis. Each sniper began to focus their attacks on singular shields of the grounds, powering through those shields and shattering the armor of the Idras.

The rain of sniper fire had turned into a high power light show for anyone looking.

Light that reached from the sky to the ground crashed into the shields.

This shields and armor shattered, shattering even more light across the marching mass.

It did not take long for the light show to expand even further than simply from the sky or the shattering space.

"Back up the Snipers!"

New light reached the shattering lights from the front of the Border base.

Attacks fired from guns were released towards the shattering lights in front of them and the solid lights they could see in front of them.

The entire space from the sky to the ground was covered in lights.

* * *

"They're whittling down the Ideas! So they _were_ waiting for us!"

"Miden squads are converging. What should we do, Captain?"

"We'll keep going. Keep the guys on the roof busy for one minute."

"Roger."

* * *

An explosion of smoke.

Then rain.

That had been what the Border Snipers had seen as they continued their fire onto the Idras.

Small, sharp-looking objects began to come down onto them like rain falling from the sky.

In response, one of them raised her voice.

"Ah!"

A flutter of clothes could be seen to the side.

No one had to guess who it had been.

"We just honestly need to make sure not to be hit, right? Heh heh heh. This just means we need to divert them instead of fully block them."

The sky was filled with shield panels in an instant. Arms were raised up and moved to the side as the rain came down.

The objects coming down them crashed into the shield panels, shattering them and scattering the light above them all.

But it did more than that.

Each object, seeming to be on the path to hating some of them, forcefully stabbed into the roof after having their paths diverted from the sky by the shield panels that were nothing but shattering lights.

Some of the snipers responded to the action with their own shields, not trusting in the girl, while others only continued to fire, knowing her well enough to trust her.

"…That was honestly weak. So that only means-"

A crackling sound could be heard near her feet.

One of the strange and sharp objects had landed in front of her after having shattered one of the shield panels.

The crackling sound was familiar to her. It was a sound she would not forget and a sound that she did not enjoy.

A black tendril began to come from it.

Her response was to cut it. Using a Scorpion blade from her foot, she cut through the sharp object with a harsh glare.

Before she could say anything, that same crackling and could be heard all around her. In every location that the sharp objects had stabbed into.

Black tendrils sprang from the sharp objects as black sphere opened in the spaces above the sharp objects.

"Gates...?"

"Something is coming out!"

Dogs.

Trion Soldiers is the likeness of Earth's dogs sprang from the small Gates that came from the sharp objects. Each one moved forward to make room for even more coming through.

This was the counter to the snipers.

And yet...

"Heh heh heh."

"!"

They did not reach any of the snipers.

Three movements were made the instant the Dogs had emerged from the small Gates.

The first moment was one from a blade. It cut through two of the Dogs in an instant before being held out in preparation for the next attack.

The second action was a quick step dance. A small blade wrapped around a finger stabbed through the cores of the Dogs as the body it was connected to moved on light feet.

The third action was simple. A punch. But it was effective in crushing the heads of the Dogs.

"Whoa! The three of the best close ranged Snipers!"

"How reliable~"

Those were what was used to take out multiple Dogs that were crossing through.

"These things don't bite, right? I hate dogs."

"I guess I should not use something so small. Hey, Narasaka, no complaining her, got it? I honestly need to do this."

The one who had used this fist wasted no time in commanding the ones below them.

"Ordering the agents below to repress momentarily. Without the cover from the Snipers you will be overwhelmed by their sheer numbers!"

_"Roger!"_

* * *

"This is bad…"

Shinoda was quick to turn to Amō.

Due to the nature of his Side Effect,he had been held back from the battle going on and was to watch from within the same room as the rest of them.

And what he saw was…

"Among all the humanoid Trion Soldiers, there are a handful that are different colors."

"What…!?"

The moment that single word came out of Shinoda's mouth, it was placed by the sound of Sawamura's shouts in front of them.

"Intrusion alert! Humanoid Neighbors!"

* * *

While the Border agents were busy with the Trion Soldiers, the humanoid Neighbors continued on with their plan. Four of the Neighbors that had been disguised as Idras made their way to the wall of the base and created a hole to go through.

Once the four made it into the base they took off their disguises and started to make theirs way through the base.

"Everything is going according to plan. This'll be done in ten minutes."

The four began to run.

When they did, they noticed that deadends were being made in the halls, making them have to change their directions at times.

_"They're inside. Updating the building's layout data. I'm sending you the directions to our target."_

"We'll take the shortest route," Gatlin said. "Avoid engaging enemies if possible. If anyone comes after us, Wen and Shi will stop them."

"Roger, Captain."

"R-right…"

"Rata and I will destroy the target."

"Roger."

"Regi and Koskero, draw Miden soldiers to you."

_"Roger!"_

_"Understood."_

"Kigisa, go from behind and take out some of the soldiers."

_"Okay~"_

_"Yes, Sir!"_

"Yomi, you're there for overall support. Make sure to stay out of Mouri's sight once they begin though. The same goes for 'Mochizuki Chiyome'."

_"Yes, Sir."_

"Captain Gatlin," Ratarikov started. "I just wanted to confirm one more time. If we come across a captive from Aftokrator in this base... The order is, 'we don't need to rescue them. We can dispose of them if they interfere.' Is that right?"

The others waited for the answer.

They waited to hear what would need to be done.

They didn't wait more than three seconds.

"That's Aftokrator's official position, yes... We have a recording of the conversation as well."

Before they could continue talking, Ratarikov noticed something from the corner of his eyes. The other three were quick to notice as well.

That something was the Elite Agent known as Jin Yuuichi with the Black Trigger Fujin.

The four running stopped when they saw him make slashes along the ground, never seeming to get any closer to them. They could see the slashes running across the ground and walls.

The first to react was Shi Muon.

"Kipourós!"

From the object on her back, vines sprang out.

The vines moved as fast as the slashes coming from the walls and floors.

The vines extend out while wrapping around each other in a way similar to sewing thread. One they had stopped, the threaded vines moved in the way of the slashes, each taking a hit.

The threaded vines each got cut from the slashes running along the walls and floor, yet they did not cut all the way. It had been safe for them now.

"Mr. R-Rata!"

Moving to one of the walls, Ratarikov placed a device on the wall. A hole was made in an instant, allowing for them to escape.

The four had managed their escape.

* * *

"They're after the away ship. Send a defense team to cut them off!"

That had been what the ones in the command room heard after the failed attempt of an attack by Jin.

Both Shinoda and Kinuta expressed the same sentiment at what they had been told.

"If the away ship is destroyed, our plans would be set back at least a year!"

"They're using Triggers to slip through walls…! There's no way to defend against them!"

"If their tunnel Trigger were that versatile, they would snuck in directly. But they didn't." Fuyushima turned his head to look back at the directors while maintaining what was in front of him. "That means there's a limit to their ability. We can intercept them at strategic points. Right, Director?"

"Yes, stop them! Don't let them have the run of the place!"

.

Amō continued to stare at the screen in front of them all.

Every part of the battlefield was on display for him to see. Each participant had their colors shown to him.

It was all laid bare in that sense.

"The enemy humanoid Trion Soldiers aren't that tough. I bet individual Marmods would be tougher. Color-wise, they're similar to lower B-Rank agents. But their color changes when there's a bunch of them together. They seem to be a hassle. The doglike ones are weak, but there's a lot of them. Their color suggests they're mainly there to distract us. The intruders…all have nice colors. A-Rank or above."

His attention turned to the ones they could see running throughout the building.

"The bearded guy in particular is similar to Shinoda-san in color. I think he'll be a tough opponent."

Everyone who heard him turned back to the large screen before them.

This was just another part of their fight they had to take into account.

"Should we call back the squads from outside? I could warp them over no problem."

"No… There's a chance of letting more intruders in if things go badly outside. Then our situation would deteriorate even further. We can't reduce our outside forces. The four intruders will be countered by personnel already inside. We know that one of them has a defensive Trigger with them, so it turns four unknowns into three. Getting overrun outside is the worst-case scenario. Regroup and push them back! Send order to the agents outside!"

"Roger!"

A small sound came through before a new voice could be heard.

Unlike Jin's assisting one, this one sounds much more exasperated than anything.

"Uh, I had Fukushima-san patch me in through the latter part of that. And have something to say."

"Yuki!?"

A small cough came through, but no one worried about it. He was in his trion body after all.

"What did you want to say?"

"You just said one of them has a defensive Trigger, right?"

"Yes. They use vines as a defense. It likely has offensive capabilities as well, meaning distance attacks with it are possible."

"Great." Yuki's voice sounded oddly drained for not having fought yet. "Then you can send Mukuro to attack them. His Trigger is made for something like that. Distance and power are one of his strong suites. As well as pinpoint precision. Defense is not the best against him."

"Yuki, are you-"

"O-oh! But you should also send some help in case he gets too tired and starts slacking off."

With that, the line was cut off.

Shinoda stared at the large screen for a moment before letting out a reserved sigh.

"Kobayshi will be sent in to assist Taiyōko. And I take back a portion of what I said. There will be someone from outside that we will be bringing in as well."

* * *

A sound of rushing wind was heard for the Snipers.

The three offensive Snipers moved across the small battlefield, taking out the Dogs as they came to them. Two of them moved swiftly from one to another while the third continued to move through them as if dancing atop a stage.

Lights could also be seen as the other Snipers tried to assist in any way they could.

This battlefield had only been made moments ago and the one who noticed a sudden change to it had been the dancing girl.

"Heh heh heh. Looks like we get some help up here."

The Dogs around them were cut through by new blades as she spoke these words.

Two new rushes of air had come from above, both with the intent to assist the Snipers.

"Hey! It's Tsuji!"

"Shun!"

Kizaki acknowledged the two Attackers who had made their way onto the small battlefield.

He then gave his next instructions.

"The Attackers, Arafune and I will take out the Dogs! Misaki, keep going too, but switch to defense instead of offense! Everyone else aim down below!"

The light show began once more.

This time the light show began from atop the tall building with much more to it.

Blades moved through the air with the intent to take out the targets.

Shield panels formed as rhythmic steps were taken. Each shield panel moved around the battlefield, never one getting in the way of the Snipers and always seeming to stop the Dogs in their tracks.

A system of offense, defense, and support had now been made at the beginning point of the light show.

* * *

The quartet running throughout the Border base remained alert even as the end ends continued forming before them.

As they ran, lights began glittering behind them.

The first to react was Wen Sō.

Bringing up her arm, she activated a shield to block against the glittering lights moving towards them.

The glittering lights ran into the shields, disappearing once they failed to break through.

"Shots from behind," she informed the other three. "They're after us."

"Can we lose them?"

Wen Sō took a quick looked behind as the four turned a corner and entered a large, open area.

She didn't see anything as she moved. Just as she was going to inform the other three as much…

"!?"

She brought up a shield to defend against the new set of glittering lights.

She didn't think the shots would be so accurate.

She didn't even think they would be able to turn the corner.

In the end, it didn't matter to her as she stopped and spoke.

"This is annoying. I'll stop them here."

"I'll leave it to you."

"Be careful…Wen!"

Completely turning to face her opponents, Wen Sō put her arm behind her back in preparation for her fight.

_You idiot. Don't focus one me when I'm busy worrying about you."_

Multiple sharp objects stabbed into the ground behind her as two girls ran through the opening into the area.

"Neighbor in sight. Three of them got away."

Wen Sō didn't back down in the slightest when facing these two girls.

She faced the two while multiple Dogs came through small Gates.

She would do as she said and stop the two girls.

"Come on. Little girls."

.

Nasu and Kumagai watched as Dogs came from the small Gates around Wen Sō.

Nasu had managed to fire Viper at them within the tight space of the hallway, but now they were in an open area.

The added space gave her more breathing room to attack, but it also fit as a place for the opponent to move around.

Even with that being the case, they were still the ones here.

They were the ones who needed to accomplish this.

This was their fight.

"Engaging enemy!"

* * *

"Don't worry about her."

Shi Muon blinked before lowering her head.

She was moving behind both of her teammates.

No, they were not her teammates. They were just the ones in charge of her.

"Right… I will focus on the mission. My apologies."

"Don't apologize. Just make sure not to worry about Wen."

She slightly turned her head to see Ratarikov giving her a look of sympathy while Gatlin continued to face forward.

"You know how good she is. There's no need to worry about her when you already know she is going to win."

Those were only words to get her to focus and not make her worry. The three of them were aware that it was all a coin toss since they did not know too much about Miden and Miden knew even less about them.

And yet she decided to believe those words.

This was a mission and she would have to focus on it to succeed.

"Right. In that case…"

With a single step, she had moved in front of both of her teammates.

The vines coming from her back extended out and began threading together to form a solid wall in front of her.

An impact reached those vines as both Gatlin and Ratarikov ran around the plants.

"I will handle this opponent!"

The girl with blue hair who had made a physical move against them in the hallway reacted upon seeing the two of her teammates.

The girl with blue hair used the threaded vines as a step while seeming to reach out for Ratarikov, who was to her left.

"I won't allow that!"

The threaded vines quickly became undone and moved along the sides of the girl.

The girl retracted her hand as the vines ran along the hall, creating a small path for her teammates.

"I will be your opponent!"

.

Hisoka gave no reaction to her opponent's declaration.

_An emotional opponent, is it?_

In that sense, this Neighbor was both a good and bad matchup for her personality.

She had been sent to assist the Taiyōko boy who had met with her parents earlier in the day, but there had been no sign of him as she came in contact with the Neighbors.

Moving back was not an option anymore and pushing them all back seemed like too much.

Tight spaces like the hallway were rather advantageous for her, so that had been an upside to this.

But the way her opponent had used her Trigger showed her that it was also an advantage for her as well.

This meant they were on even ground when it came to area advantages.

_But I still need to hold her off since I can't break through that defense myself._

All she had to do was wait for the power hitter to make his way to her for this fight.

* * *

"Oh. Spotted a Neighbor."

"Target confirmed."

Miwa and Yoneya took action the moment they had spotted their target.

Their job had been a simple one assigned to them by Arashiyama: find the one who had been sending the Dogs.

Once they had seen their target with other Trion Soldiers, they chose to rush him.

This of course had gained his attention.

A defensive stance had been what they were met with.

Yoneya leaped from the roof of one of the houses and went to stab at their opponent. He was blocked and jumped to the side so that Miwa could fire some shots from his gun.

One of the Dogs jumped in front of the shots.

The Neighbor responded by giving his own attack that only seemed to move Miwa from his position.

Yoneya moved in for another attack by lifting his arm up along with his spear.

.

Koskero anticipated the attack easily enough by raising his arm to meet the blade.

No command was needed as he activated his Trigger - Nikokyra.

The jellylike substance that came from his Trigger began to cover the blade of the spear.

The chance for an attack had been made and now he would use the Idras to close that chance.

Yoneya moved back from the pincer attack while shifting his body to strike with his spear.

But…

"What the…?"

Koskero could only give himself a mental nod. His Trigger was a rather easy one to figure out once it was in use, but that did not lessen the danger it posed.

A Trigger like this was perfect for him.

A Trigger like this was perfect against this kind of opponent.

Seeing Yoneya toss his spear to the side, he could only nod to himself again. A blade was pointless once it's blade became unusable.

Koskero watched as the Idras moved in for their next attack.

With the spear's blade being useless now, it gave them a new chance to attack.

Their forward change was met with bullets from Miwa.

With a defensive pattern set into them, the Idras brought up their shields to defend against the shots.

"…"

Those shields had meant nothing as the shot moved through the shields as if they were not there to begin with.

"Anchors" had appeared on every part of their bodies that had been hit by the shots.

With those "anchors" keeping them in place, it gave Yoneya time to move around the shields with a new spear to stab through their heads and cores.

Koskero brought up his arm to defend against the swift attack that had been a followup for Yoneya.

"!"

He moved back after getting his leg cut off by a sparse attack from Yoneya's new spear.

His Trigger had been bypassed and he had taken first actual damage.

_"Yomi. Can you change the attack patterns of the Idras? There's someone with bullets that can pass through shields."_

_"Roger. Should I go in too?"_

_"No, I'm fine here. Watch over Reghi. The Miden soldiers are gathering."_

Looking at his opponents, something came to mind.

The meeting he had before this entire attack had been made.

_Now let's see if Mochichiyo was able to get Mouri to actually join us after all._

* * *

… _Are they actually in a lot of trouble there?_

Chisato continued producing trion lances as she was formed of the battles around her.

They were effectively divided into 6 groups at the moment.

One was the Kobayashi daughter she hardly knew and one of the Neighbors inside of Border.

Another was a duo from Nasu Squad and yet another Neighbor inside of Border.

A third one was one on top of the Border base instead of inside of it.

The final 3 were the collective agents, Miwa Squad's two Attackers, and Chisato herself. All 6 groups could move through the battlefields and they had a clear role on the battlefield. There were a lot of other people around, but they were mainly assisting the collective agents.

Chisato guessed they would decide to change tactics once 4 of the 6 groups had been defeated.

Not when a majority (i.e. 5 or 6) of them had been defeated.

Once 5 or 6 were defeated, they had lost.

At 4, they could simply change tactics.

 _It's like the difference between serious damage and total destruction,_ thought Chisato. But…

… _Those girls are fighting inside and Miwa Squad's duo is going against someone troublesome for them._

For a while now, something felt a little off whenever she drew a trion lance. That would be due to the difference between Border's Ortlinde and Shiraishi's Ortlinde. It felt like someone was gently holding the tip of the mandible sword between their fingers.

This was stagnation.

 _If this were affecting my entire body,_ she thought.

"That would be a problem."

She wished she could go support the Miwa Squad duo, but the enemy in front of her would not allow it.

That enemy was…

"'Mochizuki Chiyome' moving for her first battle."

She was a Trion Soldier and she fought by throwing and controlling explosions using gravitational control. The latter part had been a massive surprise at first.

Even now, fire erupted with a slight time lag after the attack left her hand.

And she threw more than one. She threw as many as she had fingers on that hand: 5.

… _Eh?_

Chisato sensed something amid the danger.

She only barely detected it. It was something familiar, but…

… _What?_

She could not remember. It felt familiar, but it was not something close by.

That hint of familiarity reached her from the thrown fire, and…

"…!"

Chisato caught the thrown explosion on a specially made trion lance.

.

One explosion led to another. The sounds overlapped as they beat the air. The girl in a white hood and tight outfit ran through the consecutive noises with a bare minimum of 2 trion made lances.

The explosions were no longer producing a lingering reverberation in the air.

That was because she caught the flying red flames on her lances and broke through them.

Chisato did that to move forward, and…

… _I sensed something just now._

There was something familiar in these explosions.

Was it the setup of the powder, or was it something else? She did not know, so…

… _I have to focus on the battle._

Chisato continued forward while focusing on defense.

She occasionally sent an attack toward the approaching opponent, but it was always deflected by an explosion.

With the heated blast and firelight in front of her, Chisato held the trion lances to either side of her face and viewed the enemy through the gap.

The explosive flames were growing stagnant and revealed the enemy's silhouette in the backlight.

Chisato could see her.

The skinny girl wore her black hair back and wore a compact skin clinging uniform with armor attached.

The tights coloration that covered her arms and legs showed the obvious indentations of artificial joints. And…

"This isn't good."

Mochizuki was approaching.

She was not running. She removed her leg joint, sent it as far forward as she could, and planted the heel on the floor. A moment later, she stuck her knee forward and pulled her body toward the heel planted on the floor up ahead.

It was the movement of a spider.

Sticking one leg forward and pulling her body toward it was slow going. Her speed had almost dropped in half compared to running by alternatively moving her legs forward.

But Mochizuki had a reason to move like this.

By moving one leg forward and pulling herself toward it in a half-step, her body did not wobble in the slightest and the accuracy of her explosive throwing increased. It also allowed her to immediately move her body back to lessen the shock of the blast.

Like some kind of martial art, she would throw the explosive at her enemy and immediately move back.

Whenever Chisato tried to move close, an explosion was used as a counterattack.

And when she moved away, an explosion would destroy her surroundings.

This was a troublesome opponent.

 _Also,_ thought Chisato. _They're attacking from too many angles._

The attack on Border was being done in multiple areas that it seemed to be spreading them thin by having everyone take on opponents or masses.

It would have been hard to do with a single attacking force, but it was clear by their outfits, there was more than one attacking force behind all of this.

In their strategy, Galopoula could move the least, so with them as the main point, someone else would attack from outside the domain and Mochizuki moved in by herself here.

"How about that?"

Mochizuki approached and threw an explosive.

After a time lag, flames flew toward Chisato from the fingers wearing a black fire-resistant glove.

"This is coal."

The fires began about the size of a fingertip, but they expanded as they approached. So Chisato swept them up and away with her trion lances.

It had to be upwards.

After all…

… _The smoke is in the way…_

The remnants of the explosions falling to the ground were producing smoke that blocked her vision.

But there was further trouble.

Her trion lances had their path altered by the difference in Ortlinde from Border since it was much lighter than she was used to.

Of course, she never would have reached Border if interference at this level would screw her up. And as far as she could tell, no one else seemed to even think twice about her movements at the moment.

 **Ortlinde:** "Is it just me or are you guys being too relaxed with me taking this on alone?"

 **Iko:** "You've too much energy most of the time. You'll stop when you've had enough, so go for it."

That was quite the strategy there.

But this difference was a problem. It meant nothing for them, but it was dangerous.

* * *

Kigisa could clearly see the Border agents that were attacking the Idras.

She herself had a few with her.

They would be used as her bodyguards while she activated her Trigger.

Her job had been to handle the agents outside of the building while her teammates went inside.

This decision had been made with more than just offense in mind. Kigisa could not go inside of the building because of her own Trigger and how it worked.

Unlike the ones that were easy to carry around for her teammates, she had to remain stationary once her Trigger was activated. It would have been impossible for her to run anywhere once she had set up her location.

"Well, I can use this chance to give them all a show."

Kigisa spilled as she activated her Trigger - Kallitéchnis.

Kigisa brought the microphone to her lips while the Idras moved to either Side of her.

Taking in a long breath, she prepared herself to let out her voice.

And when she did…

"Ah!?"

Something came for her head.

Green lights flew through the air towards her.

The Idras on either side of her moved in front of her, bringing up shields to defend her from the green lights.

The attack did not end there, she noticed.

Two blue plates appeared next to the two Idras.

The two Idras turned while bringing up their shields. One of them shattered easily as a large blade came down on it while the other one remained strong against the blade that was pushing it.

With this new person in front of her, Kigisa smiled even more.

"Rowdy fans need to…BAAAAAAAAAAACCCCKKKKK UUUUUUUUUUUUP!"

The girl who had smashed through the shield jumped back as a power sound attack tore through the area.

The closer buildings were destroyed the instant the attack came. The one just outside of the range shook violently. And the remaining ones stood their ground against the attack.

.

Shana clicked her tongue while moving back after her successful attack.

It had been successful in that she had managed to break through one of the shields.

It had been in a failure in that she had not taken out the Neighbor.

" _Was that a sound attack just now!? Do we have a more violent Suzume on our hands here!?"_

" _Don't even say that! Just think what her concerts would be like if she had that thing!"_

The thought was terrifying for a multitude of reasons Shana did not want to think about.

Landing after having to move back, she looked ahead at where her opponents were.

The single girl stood atop the large Trigger while Idras surrounded the Trigger as if defending it.

Out of the corner of her eye she could see Noah land on one of the remaining buildings. But there was more than just him near the building.

" _Eri, Maya, you two good? It didn't hit you two, right?"_

" _No. We're fine over here."_

That had been a relief to hear. Losing anyone here would cause issues for them that she just did not want to deal with.

" _So what are we going to do here?"_

" _Noah, it's just you, right?"_

Off to the side, the boy nodded his head.

Shana understood that he may have felt out of place here, but there was nothing she could do about that at the moment.

" _Yeah. Prince is over with the Snipers and Minubuki is gonna be swapping out for Shinnosuke over there too. That means it's just going to be me over here."_

It sounded like he was apologizing for that fact, but she held her tongue on that matter.

It would have been nice to have more people on their side here, but they had to make due with what they had. And what they had was…

" _Alright. Let's split up then. Maya and Shana, you two go after the Trion Soldiers. Noah and I will take on the humanoid Neighbor. You two have better attack and work best in close combat. Noah at least as Shooter Triggers to work with here. So just leave her to the two fo us."_

They had a strategist.

With a resounding sound of agreement, they all began to move for their fight.


	108. Galopoula: Part 2

_So it started…_

Maki stared off towards the Border base.

The sound of a fight could be heard even from where he stood.

Hatohara Squad as a whole would not be participating in the attack, but some of their members had been called in for it.

Maki himself had not been called in to help while both Hisoka and Svantje had been told they would be needed. Lukas would be working as their Operator.

But he was not the only one who had not been called in.

The other had been…

"Our captain."

Minoru had not been called in to support any side of the battle.

Hatohara Squad had been informed by Inukai that something had happened during the day, but that was all. Any details on it were omitted with a bitter smile and a way of the hand.

_Sunshine looked like she figured it out easily enough, but I guess that's to be expected._

The girl's abilities as a detective were near unmatched by anyone else. Figuring out something through simple words, actions, lack thereof, or hints would have been enough for her to figure out what had been happening with Minoru.

But she had not told them anything.

Svantje had kept her mouth shut on the matter as Inukai explained that Maki would not be needed for the fight either. It had just been a matter of abilities.

Maki, while not lacking in his abilities, did not have the ones needed to go into this attack without moving too many things around.

So this had left him to his own devices for the time being.

"There are some others who aren't involved in that fight, so I guess it's just a matter of who is needed and who isn't. Fine with me. It gives me a chance to go check up on some…"

As he began to turn back towards his walk, something had caught his attention.

It was small, wore fine clothes, had been seen at the Tamakoma Branch, and would often stop Yōtarō from doing Yōtarō-like things.

"Rich Bug?"

.

Stepney heard a faintly familiar voice call out a faintly familiar nickname.

His parents had raised him to ignore any rude names that came his way, but this was different. He had learned already that the name itself was just something that this person seemed to call children. In a way, it was more relaxing to know that he was being referred to like anyone else.

But that had not been enough to curb his worry as he turned to the voice.

"Mr. Takahashi!"

"I told you to stop that, Rich Bug! It weirds me out when you…"

It may have been the look on his face or the way he spoke his words, but Stepney was glad that this person allowed him to catch up and speak instead of continuing his sentence.

The entire time he had been out here, he had felt nothing but worry. The reason for that was the lack of his friend.

Maki had met up with him halfway, leaning down to get a better look at him.

Stepney knew that Maki was not the best with children, so he did not expect any sort of meaningful comfort. Although the way he had been raised may have also played a part in not expecting anything here.

Even so, that thought lost all priority once he realized that Maki was waiting for an answer from him.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm trying to find Yōtarō! He left the office when I told him that Mr. Hyuse wasn't at the office anymore!"

There was no time to use formal speech. Stepney spoke clearly while remembering to use Japanese instead of English, no matter how many times he tripped up on it.

Hyuse had gone missing and Yōtarō had taken Raijimaru to go look for him. That had left Stepney to sit in the office for a moment before realizing what had happened.

He had seen parts of Mikado City with Michelle, Mitsubachi and Pyrínas before, but this was different. It was an area he was not familiar with and not one he could wrap his head around in all of the worry he was feeling at the moment.

He wanted to cry.

He wanted to let out tears from all of the worry he was building up.

Nothing came out.

He could not cry until this was all over.

Finding Yōtarō and Hyuse would come first. Crying would come after.

That was why he was relying on Maki here. Someone who knew the Tamakoma Branch much better than he did. Someone who could fight if the need called for it. Someone who could move through the city easily.

"Leave it to me. I'll find the both of them."

The response he wanted.

This was someone he could trust.

"But you're coming with me."

"…Huh?"

Maki activated his Trigger at the same time Stepney tried to register what he had been told.

He knew there was no place for him on the battlefield.

A child like him could do nothing for someone skilled like Maki. Even Yōtarō seemed to have more to him than anything Stepney had.

Even so, he had been told he would go along to find the two boys who had left.

"Look, I'm going to make sure you don't get involved with any fights. But I'll need you if we end up finding Crazy Bug. But don't worry. I'll…make sure you're safe."

* * *

As the light show outside of the building continued on, a new one began within an open area of the Border base.

Points in the air turned into lines. These lines then made sharp turns. Those sharp turns returned to lines. The lines ended the moment they crashed into the shields above the Dogs.

The points and lines were accompanied by swiping movements of a blade held by two hands.

The lights moved through the air as solid bodies covered the space in only a few steps.

Nasu continued her onslaught of Viper towards the Dogs and towards Wen Sō.

She could hear the crackling of Gates opening within the open space. It was Kumagai who formed her of what was coming from them.

" _More Dogs! Now there's seven- No,eight!"_

The movements of the Dogs were not lost on her, but they are not the sole focus at the moment.

That was on Wen Sō.

The woman who had kept her distance for some time now was moving forward to clash with a physical attack.

Kumagai was able to parry the attack with her Kōgesu, but even Nasu could tell that the hit was a stalemate for the most part.

"…"

Nothing needed to be said to fire her next round of Viper forward.

Kumagai would know what to do in an instant, having fought alongside her many times already.

.

Kumagai felt her feet leave the ground as she took a leap to the side.

Nasu's Vipers were sent in the direction she had cashed with Wen Sō. That only meant she was trusted enough to dodge out of the way of the attack before it could reach her.

The movement had been anticipated by Wen Sō as she followed along by pushing off the ground.

The seemingly straight shot had rushed between the two of them.

The Dogs to her side were moving in to attack her while she steadied herself. It wouldn't end well if she were to take a full attack head-on.

Seeing that they were coming, Kumagai had a though:

… _I have to wait. This battle might not even be the kind that I could use it on._

Instead of moving to defend, having to hold her arms from moving, she allowed them to move closer.

The straight shots that had gone passed her and Wen Sō began to make sharp turns in the air. Those turns turned into lines that pierced through the attacking Dogs at her side.

She felt some relief in knowing that they had been taken out.

" _I've got a handle on their shield strength. I'll take them out one by one. Kuma…"_

She hummed in response while moving back.

_I know. I haven't asked Taiyōko anything yet, so I hope I don't have to resort to that._

"!?"

Kumagai moved even further back as Wen Sō pulled a device from her back.

So far they had seen the shields she could create and the sharp objects that open Gates in the space around them.

But they had not seen her actual Trigger yet.

Even with the knowledge that they could take on the Dogs and move in close to Wen Sō, they were still in a situation that called for caution.

That was why the sudden smokescreen was a hindrance.

Kumagai brought up her shield as attacks from the Dogs came through the smoke. They could not be seen through the smoke, but they could not see through the smoke either.

" _The Dogs come after us even when they can't see!"_

" _You'll be fine! I've got your back!"_

What?

What did she mean by that?

Kumagai knew that she would always be there to help her out, but the tone used when saying that did not sound right.

It was the way that someone spoke when they were literally at another person's back. Something that Kumagai knew she was not.

That had only meant one thing to her.

"Rei!"

"What…?"

Two sounds filled the smoke.

The first was the familiar sound of Viper being shot at close range.

The second sound was something like a blade cutting through a body.

The smoke began to clear and Nasu's back could not be seen in front of her.

Along with her back, Kuamagi was able to see Wen Sō move back, Viper piercing the air, and Nasu's arm flying off to the side.

"Rei, get back!"

Kumagai looked over her captain and realized that it had not just been her arm that was cut. Nasu's side and hip had also taken hits, albeit to a lesser degree than her arm.

She did not need to look down to know that Nasu was glaring at the woman.

"Disguising yourself as Kuma... How dare she...!?"

* * *

Hisoka could hear the noise coming from the open area not too far away. It had been loud enough to hear, but not loud enough to make out anything particular.

Another thing that she could hear were the sound of her own movements along with the sound of vines extending out. Those vines would move in close to her, forcing her back, but then retract the further she got away from them.

_Is she afraid to attack?_

That was not it.

If her opponent had been afraid to attack then she would not have even extended her vines as much as she did. They would have only been moving around her to make sure she would not get hit.

There were no stall tactics being used, but there were no offensive ones in use either. It was something much more simple than any of that.

_She wants to keep her territory._

At times there would be people who only felt comfortable once they had set up a location for themselves. From there they would build upon that location and do what they could to maintain that location no matter what.

That was what Shi Muon was doing here.

Instead of extending out of her territory, she would use those vines to build her territory even more while not allowing anything else to reach that territory.

For someone like Hisoka, this was a bad thing.

Her normal movements in battle meant that she would work better while close to the opponent. If the opponent had built a territory for herself like this then it meant that she would not be able to move closer than the reach of those vines.

_In which case…_

She ran.

That territory was her goal and her feet would take her to that goal.

The vines moved the instant she fled the distance between her and their reach.

They crawled along the walls, ceiling and the ground like a snake slithering about. Each one had their points sharpened to the point of being pricing weapons that could skewer her if she didn't pay attention.

But she still ran.

She ran on the ground.

She ran along the wall.

She ran down the path that was created using the vines.

The speed of the vines was equal to that of Fujin's slashes, but she had been able to keep up.

This had been what built up from joining Hatohara Squad. Speed that could move along these vines that threatened to expand Shi Muon's territory even more. But they were not the only hogs she could use to move through the tight space of the hallway.

_Spider._

A cube appeared next to her before shooting out multiple wires that stabbed into the walls, floor, ceiling and vines of the hallway.

The vines stopped moving as they were caught in the thick wires littering the hallway. She stuck to the ground after having been pierced by the ends of the wires.

Hisoka paid them no mind as she moved through the wires.

She used light steps to step on the wires before pushing off them to reach an adjacent one.

"Th-this is…"

She could hear her opponent mutter something under her breath.

"I hate webs!"

The vines tore through the wires in a violent fit.

The ones that had been slithering around bounced up and swung upward. The free and speed from them cut each wire down from where they had been set in place.

_Thanks for that._

It had been perfect.

The wires had been a way to move through the hallway. They were placed around the walls, ceiling and floor so that she had more stable footings for herself.

But that did not mean that was how she fought.

Grabbing a hold of one of the destroyed wires, she moved through the air. Her feet touched the ground as a vine shot toward her.

With the wire in one hand, she leaped towards the wall closest to her. Her feet touched it for a moment before pushing off and throwing her back into the middle of the hallway.

The wire in her hand moved after her, turning in the air and wrapping around the vine.

The vines that had been around and still moving in the air were caught up in it as well.

She pulled the wire in her hand.

The single wire tightened and pulled together around the vines. They were trapped.

"Shino, now!"

A sudden sound could be heard from behind Shi Muon as Maki held the vine in place.

.

Tsuji moved with pushing steps and a sharp but light hold on Kōgetsu.

With the help of Fuyushima, he had been transported from the outside battle to one happening in the hall.

_Oshiro is busy helping Tsukiko-senpai and the rest of Hatohara Squad can't help right now. That means I'm the best choice to help out Hisoka-san right now._

That was what he was here for.

The vines that were coming from the Neighbor's back were stopped by Hisoka's wires holding them in place and this opponent did not seem like they could move from their spot.

_I just need a precise hit._

He drew Kōgetsu from its holder the closer he got.

But the closer he got, the more he noticed something.

The vines.

The ends of the vines were being held down by Hisoka on the other side of the hallway, but the base of them were still moving.

They extended out.

The base of the vines coming from this person's machine on her back extended out even more and began turning in the air. It looked like they were trying to thread each other to form a single object, but that could not happen so long as Hisoka held them in place.

So instead, they twisted into a spiral to create a shield.

_In that case…_

He continued to draw his Kōgetsu without any hesitation.

He attacked using Senkū.

The slash cut through the base of the vines easily enough.

This action had gotten the Neighbor in front of him to turn around in shock.

The defense had been a hard and heavy one, but he had put enough force to cut through it all.

So now he could see his opponent proper.

And what he saw was…

"A woman!?"

He hit the ground with a tumble.

* * *

"Gimlet."

"Hound."

"Idāten."

"No shields, no problems~ I just wish Oshiro was here to watch me!"

The Border members watched as multiple new lights shone in the night air. Each light had been aimed at the Idras that they had been keeping at bay, destroying them all. Flashes could also be seen as a body moved along a designated path.

Even as they moved back and split along the two roads leading to the base, the Idras held up their shields in a poor attempt at defense. Compared to what had happened before, this could only be a good sign that they were winning for the moment.

A duo from Ninomiya Squad and a duo form Kako Squad stepped forward to regroup with the ones who had already been stationed at this location.

"Snipers. The enemy Trion Soldiers retreated out of range," Ninomiya said. "I'd like to get rid of as many as we can, while we can. Send half the snipers down. We'll pursue them on the ground."

_"Roger."_

From the side, Kako gave a bitter smile. Her expression gave away her feelings on the current going ons with command.

It was easy enough to understand why she would feel that way.

"Oh? So Ninomiya-kun is taking command?"

"Is that a problem?"

"No, but I don't like it. Sigh. If only Yuki-kun was here to agree with me."

"I don't think he'd be much help, Kako-san..."

"Not to Ninomiya-kun of course."

A small hum came from behind the arguing duo.

Inukai, who was playing around with Kuroe's pigtails, had a bitter expression of his own. The thought of Yuki had reminded him of what had happened earlier in the day.

"I don't really want to think about that stuff, but it is what it is, I suppose. At least I know he will treat my Oshiro well on their end~" His grin spoke volumes as he spun the pigtails around his hand, choosing to ignore Kitora's look towards him. "But it's great that our captains get along well, huh?"

 **White Fox:** "Is someone talking crap about me over there?"

A voice came through to them all with a name in the corner of their visions. More names appeared under the first one to show that others were listening in as well.

 **White Fox:** "Things are set up on my end, so I want to keep track on your side. If things start moving over here then I'll be leaving."

Kuruma nodded to the words he was hearing, answering back to Yuki so that the others would not make remarks to him.

They were all aware of the sudden drop in the air around Ninomiya as the boy's voice came through.

It was worse than it has ever been.

 **Kuru-ma:** "Leaders are ordinarily in order of rank or age."

 **#5 Mountain:** "Then I'd like to ask Suwa-san to take charge."

 **Mystery Smoker:** "Alright, you guys!? I'll take command!"

No sooner had he said that did Suwa turn to Ninomiya.

 **Mystery Smoker:** "Ninomiya, got any ideas?"

 **Nino:** "Sigh. See… This is what happened anyway."

 **Fried Rice Queen:** "But it doesn't feel as annoying as before."

 **WorTri:** "At least she doesn't keep it going like Yuki does."

 **White Fox:** "If that guy is going to be talking a lot now, I'm going to go back preping the area over here."

The lack of response form the Shooter was cause for worry with some of them, but they pushed it down to focus on the task at hand.

Ninomiya had not seemed to even register that Yuki had made a short appearance and instead waited.

None of them said anything as a loud sound made its way to their ears from behind.

The pavement cracked under the weight of the Snipers who had crashed into the ground from up above.

They likely knew of the situation too since the transmission had not been a secure one.

"Welcome over, Hanzaki."

"Don't give me that patronizing tone."

"Calm down, you two."

"Reiji-san."

"Yo, Torimaru!"

"Minubuki-sama takes the stage properly! Nya ha ha! Take that, Shun!"

Inukai raised a brow towards the loud girl who sprang over to some of the other agents.

It was odd to see him down here when he knew that Tsuji had been the one sent up to help the Snipers with the Dogs.

"Shashin, why are you over here?"

"Tsujin had to go off to help out Koba-san! I took the place here so Taichin could help out Tsukiko Squad!"

"So he went to go help out inside huh? Wait…who else was supposed to be in there…?"

"Inukai, focus."

"Right. My bad~"

Ninomiya did not nod, he only turned back to the direction the Idras had retreated to.

Stepping forward, he began.

"Don't spread out too thin. Fan out on either side. Use the angle to concentrate on the enemy and take them down. Gunner and Shooters use enveloping fire and stress defense. Attackers follow through. Snipers attack from beyond the enemy's range."

All the agents gave their responses and got ready for the fight.

"Okay! We'll take 'em out and meet up with Miwa and Yoneya!"

* * *

Reghindetz could only stare as his radar showed that even more people had gone down to join the ones on the ground.

There was even more to the forces they had to deal with.

"The snipers came down. We still outnumber 'll use the buildings and surround them! Yomi! Send in more Dogs!"

" _Roger. The captain and the others are almost at the target. So I'll go cover for you in an Indra. Also…"_

Reghinhetz looked over with a hand to his ear.

There should only have been that much to say.

But Yomi was not done.

" _So they finally made a choice."_

Koskero's voice came through next.

His tone gave away his feelings on this unknown news.

" _Mouri has made their appearance."_

* * *

The first thing to fill the night on a different side of Border was a gunshot.

There was no moonlight and barely any starlight below the tall buildings that made it a forest of buildings where shadows overlapped. The gunshot raced up from below a rising slope.

Next, a firing line of ten all fired in the same direction.

They aimed at the center of the slope where they had sensed their target.

They continued firing on that location for ten full seconds.

"…" As soon as they finished, a group of shadows moved below around the buildings.

They were Autonomous Trion Soldiers equipped for night missions in mountainous forests and cities. They wore dark green maid uniforms with black aprons.

They split into three teams. One fell back a bit to act as the rear guard and command unit. The other two circled to the left or right of the slope. Their enemy was in the center of the slope, so they intended to flank the enemy on both sides at once.

The ones moving left had rearranged their bodies to be right-handed and the ones moving right had done the same to be left-handed. This allowed them to constantly aim their guns at their target.

They moved forward.

As they rushed through the forest of buildings, they searched for their enemy by trion and sound rather than vision. They also avoided speaking. They could use their Trion Soldier shared memory to rapidly exchange thoughts.

Even now, they were confirming each other's positions via thoughts instead of words.

"Right team has arrived. Checking for unusual movements."

"Left team has arrived. Checking for unusual movements."

"Center team has received confirmation. Please continue."

"Understood," the other teams replied to the center team.

But shortly thereafter, an especially loud report reached them.

"Okay, this is Mouri-01. Everyone, Mouri-02's unit has reached us, so I will now command both units. Please keep that in mind. Our priority here is not to assist Galopoula or Pagoménos, but simply attack at the same time as them."

.

Mouri-01 double-checked their current formation.

Two teams had split off from her unit for the pincer attack up ahead. To assist, Mouri-02's unit had also split into three teams with two sent after the other two teams sent ahead. So…

"An additional team will be added to both advance teams. The leading teams will be known as R1 and L1 while the following teams will be known as R2 and L2. Please confirm."

"R1 here." "L1 here." "R2 here." "L2 here."

The responses came in almost simultaneously and Mouri-01 gave them silent praise from the central team.

When she had come to be made, she had never expected to be given combat work as well, but…

… _We can handle this with the proper training and knowledge._

Thanks to the instructions of their makers and their familiarity with a multitude of locations due to their living peoples' want of new things, after only two years on Mouri, all of the maid soldiers had been able to traverse the forests or cities covering Mouri alone and with no equipment.

In a group of three, they could accomplish reconnaissance and delaying missions.

"Mouri-97 of R2 here. I have detected a large group of flora in this area. Permission to pick them?"

"Only if you use your spare hand while remaining in motion."

"Understood," they all replied.

A few reports of successful harvests came in afterwards.

Mouri-02 was silent even in their shared memory, but she seemed to have found a similar clump of plants behind the central team. Mouri-01 decided this was a good thing and that the girl had changed since being dragged around by the living people.

"But everyone, show some restraint and do not pick too many. The flora of Miden belongs to those residing in Miden. Disturbing them beyond our mission is strictly forbidden."

While they all replied with "understood", the central team prepared their rifle Triggers.

The bullets they used were muzzles loaded in accordance with their homeland's rules. They could control the loading and firing with their gravitational control as was built into them, so they could fire quite rapidly even with a normal gun. As for the materials used for the bullets…

"Mouri-01, this is Mouri-236. I have reconfirmed the makeup of the soil in this area. The rain last month has changed the soil since the last survey. Lowering the density of trion for the bullet composition by 2% should speed up the compost rate of the used bullets."

Leaving behind too much for Miden would mean more trouble later on.

… _And then we would lose the cooperation of other nations and even some local Miden dwellers should we come back._

And if the people avoided them even more, their want to cooperate would naturally no longer reach them at any point.

This was why it had long been said to be very careful when fighting on another's land.

… _And that is why it has become a job for Mouri Autonomous Trion Soldiers like us._

When moving through the forest of buildings, they could avoid speaking while also confirming each other's positions and maintaining order. Trion Soldiers were likely the only beings that could do that outside of the non-humans who lived in other ecosystems.

However, the combat Trion Soldiers could not do that.

Two of their leaders using giant swords and extreme gravitational control were bad enough, but their third leader's shellfire would destroy the buildings down to their dirt.

 _And that is why we do it,_ thought Mouri-01 as she gave instructions.

"Everyone, compress the bullets within 2% trion usage. Our previous shots were a response to sudden movement, but this will allow our used bullets to be destroyed upon impact of any kind. Also, R1 and L1, have you detected the source of that sudden movement?"

"Testament. R1 is investigating. …The sound is gone. No trion source."

"Testament L1 is investigating. …The sound is gone. No trion-…"

L1 was cut off before finishing.

"R1 has a correction! There is a trion source!"

Something quickly rose on the bullet-riddled slope.

It was a shadow and it sank down for an instant.

"…!"

Wind wrapped around it, and it leaped down the slope toward the central team.

.

The trion soldiers reacted calmly. Just as the enemy shadow leaped down the slope, the central team simply confirmed its presence and left the direct interception to R2 and L2 who were moving to the right and left.

The next to move were R1 and L1 who had moved ahead and reached about the same height as the point the shadow had leaped from. They calmly fired in a fan shape along the slope where it had jumped from as well as above and below that.

Down below, Mouri-01's C1 team finished confirming the shadow in the air ahead of them.

At the same time, that enemy shadow was suddenly stopped.

Mouri-02 stood at the lead of C2 which had caught up from behind.

"…"

She had used accurate gravitational control to fire a trion skewer as a high-speed counterattack.

.

Mouri-01 saw Mouri-02's counterattack strike the enemy shadow.

Gravity had compressed the tip of the trion skewer that stabbed into the shadow as gunfire from either side poured into it.

"…!"

Mouri-02 twisted her right wrist and the skewer was forced into the enemy.

The impact caused the shadow to burst, but the way it scattered and the sound it made told Mouri-01 something.

"That is not a person! It is a piece of a building!"

The scattering shadow was indeed a slab from a building, yet it also had definite trion.

… _What is this trion source!?_

Mouri-01 soon realized what it was. A mass of trion she determined was a trion sphere spilled from the scattering concrete.

Just as she determined the enemy had put it there, the other trion soldiers' thoughts shouted to her.

"L1 here! Noise detected to the outer left!" "R1 here! Noise detected to the outer right!"

Suddenly, new shadows appeared beyond them all to the right and left.

Two movements raced through the underbrush and the trion soldiers defended against the shadows moving down the slope.

"Please rise up!"

The trion soldiers on the outer edges of the teams used their gravitational control to lift the ground on either side.

They created barriers of earth between them and the shadows descending on either side.

It was enough to defend, but something suddenly appeared over the heads of R1 and L1.

"Trion source detected."

But it was not just one. Countless trion sources poured down on their heads.

"Spheres of trion!?"

* * *

Someone on the ground breathed the battlefield's air back into her lungs after listening to other battlefields.

It was Chisato.

 **Red Sky:** "No pressure, Shiraishi. Remember that you can always use Ikoma Squad to fight there."

She took a combat stance once more and thought to herself.

…I can't just say I'm a freeloader and slack off.

Mochizuki threw an explosive right in front of her.

But Chisato did not block it. She simply leaned to the side to dodge the coal that passed by her.

…Yes.

She understood something. No, she had remembered something: the identity of what she had sensed in Mochizuki's explosions.

"Is that a secret technique? You're still far from being cornered, aren't you?"

Chisato held out her trion lance and let the explosive detonate behind her.

"I've more or less seen through your explosions, when they expand, and that odd step of yours. I was hoping to wait until I had a more complete understanding, but one of my landlords is hoping for results sooner than that."

So…

"When my next attack hits, it will defeat you."

* * *

_Those readings are…_

Hyuse let out a frustrated sigh through his nose.

He was walking through Mikado City when he noticed that there were even more trion signatures around Border than there had been before.

_So whoever is attacking had decided to ask Mouri for help, did they? Pretty gusty, even if it only causes trouble for everyone involved later on._

Looking around himself, he found a particularly tall building that would give him a good vantage point to witness what was going on.

He began to move towards it.

_If it's Rhodokrhoun, their soldiers won't be on the battlefield. I'll have to make contact once combat ends and they come to recover their trion soldiers._

_But if Miden soldiers annihilate the trion soldiers… I won't even get that chance._

He had taken a flight of stairs to make it to the roof.

Upon reaching the door, he created a blade of trion, breaking the lock and letting him through.

_If Galopoula is involved, it'll be more likely that I can make direct contact with someone. Galopoula is small, but their soldiers are exceptional. They have Triggers to take on multiple opponents. Even if they're outnumbered, it's likely they'll be on the battlefield._

An expansive view was laid out before him.

The roofs of other buildings could easily be seen in the night.

Even more than the, large flashes of light and loud sounds could be heard in the distance.

_Either way, the odds aren't in my favor. But whatever it takes…_

He faced those lights and sounds with keen eyes.

_I need to open a path back home…!_


	109. Galopoula: Part 3

The space was filled with lights of all kinds.

Lights from guns appeared in rapid flashes.

Lights from trion creations flew through the open air space.

Lights from blades cut through the air.

Even the lights from the Idras appeared. They were the ones that took up the most space with each one firing a laser-like beam from their cores.

At a point they had split-up with ground forces taking the roads to fight directly in front of the Idras. The rest had taken to the rooftops, using their distance to attack at a range they could not be touched easily.

 **Tamakoma's Muscle:** "Try not to go too far ahead. Remember what Ninomiya said - we're on defense. Let's just take them down one by one."

 **Nino:** "The enemy numbers are still triple the amount of our own. If we lose even a single person on this side, the difference in our fire power will increase exponentially. We need to distract their attention with our more flexible mobility, and concentrate our attacks at key points."

 **Mystery Smoker:** "We can't let these trion soldiers show us up in teamwork!"

Sekai let out a sigh as he prepared another cube of trion.

He watched the lights in front of him move all around from the Idras to them and vice versa.

This was all to be expected with attacks like these, but it did not make him feel any better about having to join in such a battle.

_Maybe I'm just feeling riled up since using Kōgetsu is not as optimal in this situation than using Shooter-types._

It could have also been because of the other battles going on.

He knew that Yuki would begin his fight soon, Chisato and some B-Ranks were already fighting from the sounds made, and word had reached him that three battles were happening within the base itself. Even a ways away from him, a battle was occurring with the non-sniper duo from Miwa Squad.

_It's just something I need to get over, I guess. If those guys at Kurosaki were to find out about this, I would never hear the end of it._

If they found out about the attack then there would be more issues than something so simple. He knew this and chose to ignore it.

Instead, he focused on what was around him.

The lights around him could be blinding if he wasn't already prepared for it.

The trion soldiers were the same as always-

_No, wait…_

There had been a difference in them.

He had spotted it due to the many kinds of shady jobs he had taken before and from his time at Kurosaki. Something within the masses that did not fit with everything else, no matter how much it tried.

There was something not right.

There was one trion soldier moving through the mass of other ones while those other ones subtly moved out of its way.

His eyes followed the line that the trion soldier was taking and his eyes came to…

"Brat, defend Tatsuya!"

It was too late.

Daigo had reacted to his captain, but the trion soldier had already made a mad dash towards the unsuspecting Kuruma.

"!"

Sekai felt some relief come over him when he saw Sasamori appear above Kuruma, blade already clashing with one of the two blades coming from the Idra.

The second blade had stabbed into his stomach, missing any vital spots from what could be seen.

"Hisato!"

"I'm okay, Kuruma-san! It missed any vitals!"

Noticing something nearby, Sekai saw one of his teammates react in a certain way.

.

 **Mystery Smoker:** "Watch out, Reiji! We've got a lively one over here!"

"We've got one over here too. It's movements are different from the other ones."

Kuroe could hear the two men talking as she moved in to intercept the fast moving Idra. The target had been Tamakoma's Karasuma so she responded to its speed with speed of her own.

She held her Kōgetsu in defense against one of the blades coming from the Idra's arm.

The Idra pushed against the blade to widen the space between the two of them a bit.

Taking the chance, it moved back and circled around them.

"The stationary team at the back that got circled by the enemy is panicking. How about I go deal with it?"

Kuroe could hear the voice of her captain as she moved back into position.

"No, don't do that. Our fire team at the front lines can't go without Kako-san."

"Aww, really?"

Kuroe, hearing the conversations, turned around and started for the back. If her captain couldn't go then she would do it in her place.

This was how she would fight here.

"I'll go deal with that fast one."

"Alright. I'll leave it to you," her captain said easily.

Kitora also turned around and followed behind Kuroe.

The thought of having Kitora of all people follow her into this battle did not sit right with her, but it was not fully up to her to decide if that was what would happen.

So she could only move forward before she heard the answer.

But she heard it all anyway.

"I'll go support Futaba-chan. My equipment is better suited to close combat compared to shooting."

"Okay. Sorry for the trouble."

.

Daigo could feel himself freeze up.

He did not know what to do.

Because of the way things had been going as of late, he could tell that he was starting to understand things better. From people, to emotions, to how one should feel during certain times.

He had failed in reaching Kuruma in time to stop the attack against him as ordered by his captain. Instead of him, it had been Sasmaori who reached the trion soldier first and took a hit in the process.

Now here he was, wanting to look over Sasamori, wanting to do as his captain said and protect Kuruma, wanting to continue the fight that was in front of him.

"Ah. Guess this is the drawback from helping Dai-chan so much recently."

Jinsei's voice could be heard behind him.

Another voice had also reached his ears. This time it was in front of him.

"Hisato! Hold off the fast guy! Do your best!"

"Leave it to me!"

_Do your best?_

Those words had rang out in his head upon hearing them.

Those words had been what helped him advance even more. Both physically and mentally. Those words, that were not directed at him, brought him back to the reality of the matter.

He was in a fight. A fight that had multiple fronts and multiple things going on at once.

Staying still for even a moment would be a loss.

So…

"Cap-"

"What the hell are you doing, brat? Go support Hisato already or I'll make you Bail Out myself."

He could not finish his sentence.

His captain had understood his wants and what his objective had been. He then combined the two of them into one and forced a wonderful order onto Daigo that he would never deny.

"Understood!"

Moving away from the road and onto the rooftop next to Sasamori, he felt the corners of his lips lift slightly.

In front of them was the Idra that had attacked Kuruma and who Sasamori had pushed away.

The two of them were in charge of handling this strange behaving trion soldier who relied on speed and its blades for offense and defense.

"Hisato, I'll be your support this time. I don't think I can ever use you as a step anymore, so I will be under your care for this fight."

"With you here, I have nothing to worry about."

A quick flash appeared in Daigo's mind. It was the image of Sasamori when they had done a special training session with Yuki and Sekai.

During that time, Hisato had been trying to make him realize his own worth while lowering himself to do so.

The time when the Aftokrator invasion had happened he had also been a bit of a mess after Suwa had been turned into a cube.

But now...

"We need to watch out and make sure it doesn't disturb the Snipers. Even if Arafune-senpai was targeted, he probably will be fine. But under these circumstances we need to let them concentrate on shooting."

There was no hesitation.

There was no panicking.

There were no putdowns.

The calm and collected Sasamori before him now was a different person altogether who had managed to find his own way to advance. The lower areas where Daigo had once been were now nothing but memories for the both of them as they had both managed to climb up from that and appear on this battlefield.

"Understood!"

.

On the other side of the fight…

"I'll take care of this in 30 seconds. Don't drag me down."

Kuroe's cold voice had no effect on Kitora as the two ran across the rooftops to meet their next opponent.

"Don't worry. I'll cover you nice and properly."

Kuroe didn't say anything as she raised her Kōgetsu.

The next step she took, her foot moved a bit to the side as she started a slash.

"Idāten."

Activating the high speed Trigger, she moved in a literal flash.

The streak left behind by Idāten had. Single section cut out of it from where her blade had met with the Idra's upper-arm.

She wasted no time in turning to face the opponent.

Now with its body held down by wires, it could not move to react to her attack.

The next attack came from both her and Kitora with her blade clashing once more with the blade and Kitora's gun firing constantly against the weak armor.

Even with its body ensnared by the wires, it managed to push Kuroe's blade with its own.

It was only while she was in the air did Kuroe realize this was her chance to attack.

With the Idra's arm still in position from pushing her back, Kitora had moved in close to break through the armor and get its attention.

That was what she needed.

In a streak of light, Kuroe found herself already on the rooftop after having been in the air a moment ago.

The Idra's head fell to the ground.

"It's over."

* * *

"Kitora and Kuroe have taken down the humanoid trion soldier's ace!"

"That's our A-Rank right there. Nice and smooth."

Kinuta looked at the screen with a more critical look after hearing Netsuki's comment.

"No. It's not over. I just saw the color shift. There's a new 'fast one' nearby."

The directors turned to Amō as he told them what he had been able to see with his Side Effect.

His words were confirmed a moment later as Sawamura spoke up from the radar she had been watching intently.

"We've confirmed the new enemy ace! It's marked on the radar! Kitora, Kuroe, we need you to handle it!"

The two girls vocalized their confirmation.

This would be another fight they could handle as they had with the earlier one.

Even if these new types had managed to show off something new, it had been proven that their A-Ranks could take them out.

"But I don't understand…"

Shinoda was the one to bring up the worry that some of them may have had.

"If they have an entire stock of ace fighters, why would they only deploy two at a time?"

"Maybe there's a limit to how many can be active at once?"

Shinoda looked over to Kinuta.

Kinuta continued to face forward with the same look he had held the entire time.

"Maybe they only have two enhancement Triggers for trion soldiers, or perhaps there are two Operators controlling the entire trion soldier army?"

"I see."

"Both trion soldiers have the same color," Amō started. "I think the two-Operator theory is wrong. That means there's one Operator controlling two at the same time."

.

Everyone in the command room thought over what they had figured out as Kuroe and Kitora began their next actions against the new Idra.

They watched as Kuroe began her charge with the activation of Idāten once more. The speed Trigger left her with a single path to follow, but it would be near impossible to defend against if she had gotten the timing right.

The new Idra and the one controlling it must have caught on at this point, that much they were certain of as the Idra brought up its arms. It was a rather weak defense, but it showed them that there was certainly someone controlling the trion soldier instead of it just being some programing.

Once Kuroe moved in to attack, they could determine how the controller would react to it now.

But the result had been against them.

A moment later, a flash appeared.

The flash covered multiple directions, fully circling around the Idra.

Kuore had appeared after having activated her Trigger, but…

"Kuroe's badly injured!"

Her own attack had been used against her.

Four blades had come from the Idra's shoulders as Kuroe made a full lap around it.

Because of the blades being in her way, each one had cut through her body.

"Kuroe's been hit!"

"Not good…! The enemy had a countermeasure against our Triggers! This is going just as Ninomiya predicted. Losing one of our own could be critical to the battle!"

"Shouldn't Director Shinoda or Director Akasora join the battle…so it doesn't turn out like this?"

"As far as I can tell, we may be outnumbered, but our tactics are much more solid."

Shinoda faced each fight that was on the large screen in front of him.

The amount of battles had increased quickly, but therefore still enough agents to fight.

"There's no need for me to go out there or call over Chishi. For now… Leave it to our field agents to complete their mission."

* * *

As soon as the spheres of trion rained down on the trion soldiers, Yuki leaped above R1 and Oshiro leaped above L1. Their actions seemed to be stopped by the spheres of trion placed below, but…

… _We can do this!_

They jumped down into the hot air created before the fight had even begun. Yuki had set up the area's physical attributes, Oshiro had set wires around, and Sthénos had left detonation points around the area just in case.

Normal places had very few trion sources, so what happened to manmade sources or the people surrounded by it?

"…!?"

The confused trion soldiers turned toward each other.

 _Of course they would do that,_ thought Oshiro.

If they had been searching for a foreign trion sources, they would first notice their fellow trion soldiers after being covered in Dummy Beacons. And when searching for an enemy trion source, they would naturally be confused when so many appeared at once.

And the trion of the scattered wires and detonation points would form a sort of mist for them and make their vision uncertain.

Yuki and Oshiro had prevented the enemy from using their eyes.

… _Now we only need to seal off their auditory senses!_

When Oshiro landed, he slammed his Raygust and Kōgetsu together.

The trion soldiers looked over in surprise, so they had likely switched from trion sensing to auditory sensing.

… _Just as Yuki-nii predicted!_

That made him happy, but a voice behind him seemed to push him onward.

"Asteroid!"

It was Sthénos' voice from far up the slope.

That signaled the completion of her attack.

"…!"

Everything in the forest shook and cried out.

More accurately, Sthénos' fast moving shot had created a straight line wind that shot through the forest of buildings and their glass. Instead of moving the air, the attack simply accelerated and released it.

… _But if the windows shake enough…_

The wind struck all the buildings in an area one hundred meters long and thirty meters wide.

The forest of buildings shook. Nearby trees tilted, concrete collided, and glass sounded like a heavy hand was striking them.

The blowing roar grew and pressed in on the ears of the trion soldiers using auditory sensing.

"Kh!?"

The trion sources had been disturbed and now the sound was too confusing.

But the trion soldiers knew an enemy was here, so they had to do something.

However, they could not escape and put some distance between them due to the wall they themselves had created.

And then Oshiro shouted out.

"Shikifuku!"

The shadow that had raced down the slope on the outside sounded like it kicked off the concrete.

The shadow that flew into Oshiro's raised hand was one-third of a Black Trigger given to him for just this occasion.

Oshiro felt bad using it when he knew that held major importance for the Yagura Branch director. He had refused to take the Black Trigger as a whole and so only had taken the sword - the Willpower.

Even with those thoughts, Oshiro crouched down but used his full strength to swing the Black Trigger.

He charged at the enemy.

* * *

"When your next attack hits, it will defeat me?"

Mochizuki parroted Shiraishi Chisato's words while working her artificial intelligence.

… _I see. So she claims to have seen through me._

Her body was what Miden would call a "machine". And as a machine, there were limits to the movements of the joints. Even with a non-jointed gravitational control trion soldier, there was a limit to the range of the gravitational control.

To keep one's actions within that range, an accurate pattern was necessary.

That meant using efficient movements.

It was true that it was safer to assume the enemy would use efficient movements instead of random ones. The enemy's best attack method was also the easiest to plan a defense for.

However, she was a stealth soldier.

She was also an autonomous one, but that was why she devoted herself to being a stealth soldier. It had been what Mochichiyo had been.

She had expected that an opponent of Shiraishi Chisato's level would be able to read any pattern in her movements.

Thus, she had managed her actions and accumulated experience on this battlefield to ensure her movements did not fall into the same pattern. And yet…

"Am I following a pattern?"

Shiraishi Chisato held a single trion lance forward with her hips slightly lowered, but she did not nod. She simply pulled her right leg back.

Then the former Shiraishi representative spoke.

"When my next attack hits, it will defeat you."

It was the same statement as before.

Immediately, Shiraishi Chisato charged toward her.

.

 _She's slow,_ determined Mochizuki.

An autonomous trion soldier's thoughts were far faster than a living person's. If a living person's thought speed was a 1, then an autonomous trion soldier's was several thousand with a maximum of nearly a million. This had just been how Pagoménos designed their trion soldiers now.

Mochizuki's accelerated vision saw Chisato running. She had leaned her body forward.

… _That is quite a deep lean._

She almost seemed intent on bringing her chin to the floor. She kept her hips arched high and she was only able to run like that thanks to the strength of her false trion legs.

Her hair fluttered behind her and she raised her lance high.

"…!"

The raised lance was going to strike Mochizuki's left leg as she sent it forward.

The attack would sever one leg, but Mochizuki was puzzled.

… _Why?_

This was Chisato's _first time_ severing a leg like this, that was clear from her actions. So…

"You would not have seen a supposed pattern for this."

As she wondered why, she pulled her left leg back.

She dodged it.

She fell back while also throwing her explosive.

At the same time, Chisato accelerated and stood back up. The thrown explosive coal passed by her head.

Then it exploded. The blast pursued Chisato and blew her hair around, but she swept it back behind her by pursuing Mochizuki.

Chisato's lance was in her right hand. She once more targeted Mochizuki's left leg. Specifically, the left knee. Mochizuki had yet to fully pull it back, so Chisato targeted the raised left knee.

And so Mochizuki quickly pulled her left leg back.

Her high processing speed allowed her to see her opponent's movements. Her thought speed told her when she had to move to remain safe.

So she did so.

As she pulled her left foot back to join her right heel, she also pulled her right foot forward.

And she threw an explosive. Chisato ducked to avoid it.

She pursued. And…

"…Like this."

Her arm rotated in an impossible way. No, it was a false trion one. The right arm was targeting Mochizuki's torso even as Chisato kept her body low.

But Mochizuki could see it all. She calculated when to dodge, so…

… _It is no use._

With that thought, Mochizuki fell back and dodged.

Then Chisato attacked again. It was faster than before, but it came immediately after the other. So…

"…"

Mochizuki dodged.

.

The girl with a specialized Trigger pursued.

The trion soldier girl was pursued.

A trion lance attack was dodged.

Several explosives were avoided.

Many such moments were repeated, overlapped, and did not fit together.

No matter how much the pursuer bit at her, the pursued pulled back just barely enough.

No matter how much the pursued attacked, the pursuer just barely avoided it.

But someone spoke among those watching it unfold.

"She can't seem to hit…"

Voices of "yeah" and "of course" followed. But then Ikoma spoke as he worked to maintain his position next to Mizukami who was quickly managing the information being sent to them.

"Chisato. If you find your dance partner's movements are hard to follow, you can just honestly ask to take their hand. And yet…"

He repeated "and yet" with a sigh.

"Why do you always memorize your partner's movements?"

.

… _Memorize…?_

Mochizuki asked that question as she dodged and fell back for nearly the hundredth time.

What was there to memorize here? But…

"Don't be silly. …I'm not about to reveal to the enemy what I can do."

With that, Chisato moved forward.

She swung her lance toward Mochizuki, but the trion soldier saw through the attack. So…

… _Dodge._

She read the timing and evaded.

As a result, Chisato's attack did not hit.

 _I am the one memorizing your movements,_ she thought.

But at that very moment, Chisato spoke.

"I have _memorized_ your optimal evasion pattern."

"—"

Mochizuki briefly lost her trion soldier decision-making.

Memorizing and reading your opponent's patterns was usually what the defender did. They read the attacker's movements to keep themselves safe. That was how it worked. But…

… _She read my evasion pattern…?_

Mochizuki did not understand.

Reading the evasion pattern would not allow her attacks to hit. It was known as an evasion pattern because it kept those attacks from hitting. That would mean this opponent had spent all this time memorizing the pattern that would continue to keep her attacks from hitting.

Such a waste of time.

And yet…

"Now," said Mochizuki's opponent. "It's time to hit you like I said I would."

With that, she moved forward.

* * *

"Should I apologize to Kuroe-san once this is all done? Is my being within her eyesight causing her to misstep?"

Daigo vocally wondered this as he turned in the air.

He had been sent there when he had accidentally used the Indra before him as a step.

"Daigo! Decide on that later!"

_Oh, right. My bad._

This was no time to focus on unnecessary things.

Hisato was moving along the rooftop while Daigo had taken to the sky.

The theory of someone controlling these trion soldiers had made the two of them more cautious as to how they should fight. Hisato's charges and Daigo's jumping would normally have been viewed as a good combination, but that could not happen here. The battlefield had turned far too chaotic for those kinds of things.

Staying in the air too long could result in getting shot down.

Charging in would have the same result as Kuroe.

So then what were they supposed to do?

_Do our best._

It was the first thing that came to mind and the best option he could find.

His feet touched the rooftop a moment later. His feet did not stay in place, instead pushing off the tiles and tossing them into the air.

Grabbing one of the tossed tiles, he threw it with the strength given to him by the Trigger he was using.

The tile shattered on impact with the Idra.

Before he could become the moving target, another tile shattered on the back of the head of the Idra.

Hisato had noticed what he was doing.

_Oh, but he is supposed to be the leader here. I am the support and he is the leader. In that case…_

"Hisato!"

"I know! I can definitely cross all eight boats now!"

That had put a smile on his face.

It was his own way of saying that he knew he was different and would act like it.

With that new resolve in mind, Daigo began his supportive role.

He did not go for his blade and he did not think of his other Triggers.

Instead, he went for the tiles.

.

Sasamori could only sigh in his heart at the sight of Daigo forgoing his blade in favor of tiles that would do no damage at all.

The two of them moved across the rooftop, tossing up tiles as they ran. Daigo would pick ones with his left hand to hold and then throw every other one using his right hand.

It was clear what he was doing.

This would be those eight boats. The eight leaps he could not do before during training.

After the initial time, Daigo had continued to practice those eight leaps until he had not needed help from Sasamori. Each time he had been shown those leaps, the number had increased until they reached the full eight leaps.

Those leaps had been known as Hassou Tobi by both Yuki and Sekai. The sound of it was rather ridiculous and the method seemed simple enough.

It was anything but those.

Sasamori had seen firsthand what the ridiculous-sounding, simple movement could do for someone.

The method had been based on history, exaggerated over time, and could be performed by using a Trigger's natural increase in physical abilities.

Yet only a handful of people had managed to do it.

_That's why I'm certain I can do this now._

Daigo had now managed it and he had been given tips on how to perform the movement before from both Yuki and Sekai.

This would be where all of that would come together to finish this fight.

He had been left in charge of taking out this trion soldier controlled by someone else.

_So I will do my best!_

_._

Sasamori and Daigo moved in tandem with each other.

Both had found their left hands full with rooftop ties as shards covered the area where the trion soldier was standing.

It could have been that the controller was more focused on Kuroe and Kitora, but that would only make the fight easier to handle.

With the resolve to finish the fight, both of them tossed the remaining tiles into the air.

The trion soldier looked up at the tiles as if expecting something from them. Its arms were brought up and blades came out from its arms like they had before.

The first one to make a move was Sasamori.

He pushed off the ground and leaped into the air. This would be where the first major leap would come from.

Daigo moved next by pulling out his Kōgetsu and moving forward.

Electricity began to come off of his body as he readied his stance.

He would use Idāten.

Hisato made the third action by using one of the airborne tiles as a step.

Staying on the tile for too long and putting too much weight on it would only bring it down. The small space it gave for him had not even covered his entire foot, only letting him place his toes atop it.

And yet he had made it.

The first leap had been done in a fraction of a moment by lifting his body up when touching the tile and leaping before the weight could fully push down the tile.

He repeated the same action a second, third, fourth, with time.

It was the sixth leap that Daigo began his action.

Kuroe had failed in taking out the second trion soldier using this Trigger since the opponent had found a counter to Idāten by placing an object in front of that path.

While he felt bad for her, he did not view his actions to be the same as hers.

He would move differently from her.

So with that knowledge keeping him safe, he activated his Trigger.

"Escudo…"

A line ran along the top of the roof and reached a point in front of the trion soldier.

"Idāten."

The electric coming for his body faded as he disappeared from where he stood in a literal flash.

The fast ra along a straight path from where he had stood to the top of the Escudo wall, over it and on the other side.

The trion soldier that should have been on the other side could be seen moving to the other side of the shield.

Daigo moved in as the trion soldier swung its body around with the blades coming from its arms.

Daigo ducked under the attack and swung his own blade for the side.

Blades sprang out from the shoulders of the trion soldier as he did so.

Seeing the way the blades were coming, he knew that he could not fully dodge the attack and so resolved himself to take a hit.

The shoulder blades from the left of the lion soldier cut through his cheek while the blade from its arm stabbed through his side.

But…

"Perfect."

The feedback of Kōgetsu hitting the Escudo wall came to him a moment later.

The trion soldier was pinned to the wall and the blades it had to use for attacking were now stuck within Daigo's body.

Above the two of them, Sasamori touched the seventh tile in the air.

His weight had been constantly forced upwards with each leap he had made and only his toes had any sort of feeling that they had landed on anything.

Now high above the two not he roof, he could see where he needed to strike and fixed his position.

With his entire body facing the rooftop, he brought Kōgetsu forward and in front of him.

The eighth and file tile had been above him instead of below him, allowing him for the movement he needed to finish this fight.

Touching the final tile with all of the upwards weight, he pushed against it while forcing all of the awards weight down.

He shot down fast, plunging his sword into the trion soldier's head and letting the blade go through the entirety of its body.

The feeling of it passing by Daigo's Kōgetsu could be felt, but it did not stop and instead made a hole from the top of the body right down to the crotch.

This had been their victory.

.

"That was Hisato's Hassou Tobi…"

Righting himself after their victory, Daigo only blinked at Sasamori.

Feeling a rush of adrenaline, Sasamori returned the blink with a smile.

"We aren't done, so let's keep doing our best!"

Daigo returned the smile seconds later.

The sound of gunfire and blades moving through the air was all around them.

Even the sound of a new trion soldier moving towards them could be heard.

But that was fine.

After all…

"Yes. Let us always do our best."

.

Kuroe held her left arm as she lay on the roof.

The damage she had sustained from the counter against Idāten showed clearly. Both her arm and leg had been rendered almost entirely useless due to the deep cuts in them.

Using Idāten to move around was the best option for movement at the moment. The issue came in that she could not attack like that again or even more damage would come to her.

She began to stand, readying herself to finish this fight.

She was topped by Kitora, who held a hand out in front of her.

"Don't be so hasty, Futaba-chan. Calm down first."

"...! I'll be fine," Kuroe spat back. "I won't make the same mistake next time."

"You didn't make any mistake. It's just that the opponent found a countermeasure."

Kitora spoke with calmness and a focused sight befitting an A-Rank. She didn't seem hurt by the way she was being spoken to and continued to hold her guard up.

It was different from the times Kuroe had spoken so rudely to her before.

This was a battle and they needed to remain calm.

She was seeing that now more than ever.

"Our opponent is very strong. When we manage to defeat one, another one appears. If we make our move carelessly we will only be defeated. Kako-san is in charge of the shooting battle that is crucial in turning the tide of battle. Our mission is to suppress these opponents. _This_ is also the strategy Sasamori is using. Well…maybe not with Girikage-senpai around."

The words of her captain ran through her mind at the reminder.

Her captain had entrusted her on this small battlefield. It was on her to keep these different trion soldiers away from the main fight so that they could keep pushing forward.

And Kitora had been the one to remind her of that.

"We need to finish our own mission as well. Futaba-chan's strength is essential."

Kuroe stood up.

She didn't give any sort of cold remarks, or ignore her upperclassman like she normally would.

It was not the time to be swept up in arrogance or personal feelings. All of those things could come later on.

And even if it was Kitora who was her partner for this fight, she would have to work with it.

"…"

Kuroe got ready for the fight.

She would accomplish the mission given to her by her very own captain.

The mission she herself said she would take on.

"Understood."

This was her resolve.


	110. Mouri

The battle in the forest of buildings continued as Yuki and Oshiro separately charged in at the trion soldiers who had been split between left and right.

Yuki thought to himself as he heard repeated sword strikes from Oshiro and Shikifuku on the other side.

… _Well done!_

Shikifuku's path did not waver. Unlike the irregular iai techniques of a ninja, he sent the arc of the sword toward the thickest part of the enemy.

It was a bold sword technique.

… _The training he did after the invasion is coming in handy now._

Shikifuku was likely helping as well. Another blade from Shikifuku had come to him. It was light and dull, but it was effective as a blunt weapon. It was far from being a stealthy item and he was unsure a stealth agent should be wielding it, but he had no choice since it had taken a liking to him. Likely from Oshiro being the one to create it. He decided to think of it like a type of dog.

… _When I think about it, I'm completely relying on Shiro here, but I can't let myself think that way._

But as he cut down the enemy with his attack…

"Oh."

He heard guns being prepared. The sound he heard in the noisy area was unique to humans, so he held up Shikifuku as a shield and bullets soon collided with it.

He realized the enemy's grasp of the situation was recovering and used the sounds to count the number he and Oshiro had defeated.

Together, they had reached a total of twelve or thirteen.

The leading teams on the left and right had each had ten members, so the two teams had been reduced by about seventy percent. Two additional teams were arriving from below, but they could not do anything with the automatons of the leading teams in the way.

 _This was well done,_ he thought.

 **White Fox:** "Shiro."

He sent a prepared message as a sign and he made a wide swing with Shikifuku.

The slash pushed the enemy outward and up the slope.

He had a single reason for distancing them like that. He placed Shikifuku on his back to defend from behind and…

"…!"

He ducked low and charged toward the additional team below while Oshiro did the same on the opposite side.

.

Oshiro was relieved to be moving.

He had a variety of thoughts about having to fight, but he was here because of everything that had happened in the past.

… _Doing what I can here is the least I can do for the others!_

The enemy he drove back here was likely the same, so…

"Here I go!"

He held his side and seemed to move through the air as if gliding.

He moved on. Instead of utterly crushing the enemy, he had left a few behind him. That was to leave the possibility of friendly fire to stop the additional team from attacking.

"…!?"

Oshiro could see the area express itself via movement in the buildings and that revealed something to him. In the noisy night, the area was expressing its surprise at something that did not belong.

… _A skewer!_

He realized this was Mouri-02's attack at the same moment as Shikifuku moved from his back, circled around him, and arrived in front of him. An attack tried to gouge into the large sword raised as a shield.

But Oshiro had a sudden thought.

… _Strange._

The attack did not continue. There was nothing more from Mouri-02 or the others up ahead.

… _That was a diversion meant to draw my attention forward!_

In the past, he had tried to cut down three hundred opponents and later fought in an invasion. His Trigger usage was weaker the more he let himself relax around others, but he had not lost the intuition that had given him.

"Behind me!"

Instead of using his hands, he had Shikifuku sweep behind him using its autonomous movements.

It hit, but it hit more than just one object.

… _All of the remaining ones!?_

He looked over his shoulder and saw the correct number of enemies, but something was different about them.

"Headless soldiers!?"

Their arms were held out toward him as they tried to grab him.

His strike had smashed them all as they attacked from behind, but beyond them, the previously damaged trion soldiers were holding their comrades' heads.

"I have determined he has noticed."

As soon as Oshiro heard those words, the headless trion soldiers he had hit with Shikifuku exploded at close range.

.

"Mouri-01 to all others. If you determine you cannot continue your mission or that you are obstructing the others, remove your core and memory device and then self-destruct. Your body can be replaced and this is an excellent chance to gain a new body. There is no replacement for victory and your new body can be a reward you have earned instead of a simple replacement. …Make sure your decisions are sound."

Mouri-01 heard everyone reply with "understood".

They were excellent replies. All of those here, herself included, had bodies of hardened and reenforced trion. The spheres of hardened trion that moved their bodies wore out quickly, but they ensured high performance on short missions.

"All but your head is made from easy materials, so it will all return to our land eventually. If you detonate yourself, make sure to remove your head and core first and continue as we trained. Everyone remaining is to secure the heads and cores."

"Understood," the others replied just as another explosion rang out.

… _Now, then._

This self-destruction was not a "last resort" for trion soldiers.

When they were acting in groups, even if only one survived, they could secure the cores and memory devices of the others and return with all of them.

And detonating their bodies after giving them instructions for an automatic charge could quickly turn the tide of a battle.

It was powerful enough to destroy an enemy's front line or put a fleeing foe on guard. This was why they had achieved a 100% survival rate and a 100% success rate in their unofficial skirmishes with other nations.

"But how will Miden's living agents handle this?"

.

… _Shiro!_

Yuki did not speak a word when he heard the explosion and saw the flash of light. An expression of surprise or panic would only aid the enemy.

His training allowed him to continue as normal no matter what happened in battle.

He still mentally expressed his worry, but was that due to confidence in his abilities or insufficient training?

"…"

However, he soon saw the colors of black and white push out from the debris scattered by the blast. It was Oshiro's hair.

He had swung Shikifuku back and hid behind it as a shield. He had also used a shield to control the flow of the air.

He was unharmed, but he and Shikifuku had been blasted into the air.

The danger was not over yet.

After all, a headless charge was approaching Yuki as well.

He heard their footsteps behind him. They had not caught up yet because he had started running faster than Oshiro had, but if the enemy further up the slope was planning to self-destruct…

… _The additional team further down the slope doesn't have to worry about them!_

That was exactly what he saw in front of him.

The additional team was readying their guns.

They no longer viewed the explosive headless bodies as comrades.

So Yuki lowered down a bit.

"Shiro!"

And he leaped high into the air toward him.

.

_So this is what Miden calls a "ninja"._

Mouri-02 calmly observed the ninja's leap.

Her additional central team was in the process of joining with Mouri-01's leading central team, so she left everything in the rear to the others and moved further forward. She rushed in front of her sister to protect her.

"…!"

She accurately threw three trion skewers toward the airborne ninja. She targeted his knees and ankles to stop his swift movements as soon as he landed.

… _!_

After throwing the skewers as if pushing them, she prepared more. She would throw these at the ninja's estimated landing spot, but something happened just as she gently spun around in preparation.

"Mouri-02!"

Hearing Mouri-01 call her name, she reversed her movements. Her sister was telling her to be cautious and that meant she must have gotten ahead of herself.

She kicked off the ground to quickly move back to the others. She accurately traced her previous movements in reverse and finally looked up.

She looked toward the ninja, but he was gone.

… _!?_

No, he was there, but he was not down below or to the left or right.

He was up above.

The ninja's trion reading was moving up.

He had jumped again in midair. Mouri-02 wondered how that was possible. She also wondered if it was even true, but another trion soldier shouted the truth.

"R2's attack was evaded!"

That meant it was true. In that case, she had to determine what had happened.

Within the Neighborhood it was not uncommon to see double-jump movement and there were similar movements and Triggers for floating or moving in midair.

But her sister pointed out the ninja way of doing this.

"Wires!"

More specifically…

"The earlier building disgusted as a living person form was thrown at us using wires. …I have estimated he grabbed that wire to pull himself up!"

 _In that case,_ thought Mouri-02. _He must have predicted a situation like this back when he was disguising the building with the dummies._

He had left a means of assisting his movements on the battlefield and he had used the previous disguised building to make it look useless.

Mouri-02 decided this tactic was worth remembering and she also decided their enemy here was on the same level as them.

But…

"…"

The glass shook as the buildings shook and something fell behind Mouri-01. Mouri-02 and the others turned toward it, but it was too late.

After his double-jump, the ninja was attacking their eldest sister who was their central pillar.

.

The sudden attack from overhead was so unexpected that the trion soldiers were slow to react.

However, Mouri-01 spoke calmly amid their confused pause.

"This is nothing to worry about."

After all…

"Statistically, I predict their blade Trigger will be the first to drop down."

They soon saw the result of that prediction. The object dropping from above had a human form.

However, it was only the upper body.

The coat of the ninja's modified uniform descended while wrapped around Shikifuku.

Debris and glass scattered as it dropped straight toward Mouri-01.

But she had already taken a step out of the way.

The dropping sword did not hit its target and Mouri-01 predicted the ninja's actions as well.

"He will drop down from directly above the sword. I predict he wants us to think that the sword is a diversion and that he will attack from elsewhere."

Just as she said, a shadow shot down from above Shikifuku.

"No one move."

As soon as she said that, she used her gravitational control.

"Mine is not as powerful as Master Armand's."

She grabbed different spots along the ground, pulled up, and gathered them together as hard spikes.

"But this should make for a decent counterattack."

Three meter spires of crust stuck straight up from between the trion soldiers and the shadow fell toward that wide-range attack.

"Whoa, watch out."

The shadow jumped up in midair.

"…!?"

This true midair jump should have been impossible for the ninja, but…

"An unidentified trion soldier on Miden?"

.

Sthénos did not answer the enemy's question because she had already answered with a command.

She activated an acceleration ability built into her. She wrapped her fingers around a sphere of trion and opened four speedometers inside of her palm. Two were for acceleration and two for counteracting the recoil.

She often used this for her attacks when fighting as a trion soldier, but without any support to determine the angle of fire, she could not make any long-range shots.

… _So it has to be close-range!_

She had erased her trion signature with a reduction ability built into her and waited for the right timing.

They had all decided this would begin their path to victory.

After all, autonomous trion soldiers were dangerous enemies. She knew since she was one.

Her life on Miden had taught some people how immeasurably accurate autonomous trion soldiers' fighting capabilities were.

 _But,_ thought Sthénos.

… _When you're too accurate, you only ever think about the best possible option!_

That was why the enemy had predicted Yuki's attack here.

And they had not known how to handle her unexpected appearance in his place.

Sthénos' right hand was pulled back by her waist, but after confirming the enemy was caught off guard, she thrust the hand forward. Her palm broke through the speedometer and sent light scattering everywhere.

"Asteroid!"'

She fired a sphere of trion using one of Border's Triggers toward Mouri-01 as the trion soldier tried to turn toward her.

.

The sound of the blast filled the air.

Sthénos was about five meters from Mouri-01, so the opposing trion soldier could not avoid the attack.

The mountainous spikes she had created actually left her even less able to move.

But something did move.

It was Mouri-02 who was outside the spikes and quite nearby.

She used what she had prepared when predicting the additional attack above her sister. It was a different defense method from her sister's spikes.

"…!"

She used her gravitational control to lift up four trion soldiers who had met her gaze through the spikes and nodded. After saying "understood" via their shared memory, those four had removed their heads.

Mouri-02 forcibly launched them upwards.

She forced her arms up to instruct her gravitational control. She was generally in charge of more precise control, so she was not suited for this powerful and forceful manipulation. Her arms creaked under the strain.

"Don't hurt my sister!"

With those words, the four soldier bodies flew up as shields.

The four trion soldiers' heads dropped behind or in front of them and their bodies created a definite barrier between the eldest sister and the Senzai Squad trion soldier.

"…!"

Two were smashed by the direct hit, one was torn into, and one creaked but endured.

"Mouri-221, detonating." "Mouri-222, detonating." "Mouri-223, continuing as normal." "Mouri-224, continuing as normal."

Two exploded and the other two continued to act as a barrier.

However, the blast did reach the airborne trion soldier. Mouri-02 heard her wings moving and saw the light of a defense Trigger through the blast.

 _A capable trion soldier would have a countermeasure for a counterattack,_ she thought. _She did not shift to defense so quickly by chance. That was the result of constant training._

But Mouri-02 heard another sound.

It came from up the slope behind her. It was directly below the location of the ninja's previous double-jump.

"…!?"

It was the ninja. He had removed his coat and let go of Shikifuku, but he was preparing to throw a sharp pole with only the movement of his forearm. And he was targeting…

"Sister!"

.

Yuki threw Idōgetsu as if shoving it forward.

His target was Mouri-01. She was the enemy's leader and she had created that group of spikes.

… _So she can't form another barrier!_

 _But,_ he thought. _First Pyrínas' crash into White Rock and now this. Do trion soldiers naturally like walls or something?_

… _At any rate, we need to finish this here!_

They had used up all of their tricks and autonomous trion soldiers could adapt too well for a trick to work on them a second time.

Not settling this here would be too dangerous.

He was concerned about their numbers as well. Including Oshiro, they had three fighters at top B-Rank or A-Rank level and the enemy had two. That was a large difference, but the enemy had plenty of other trion soldiers fighting with them.

Yuki's group was at a disadvantage for a long-term battle and they did not want to thoroughly annihilate their enemy to win.

That was why they needed to defeat the enemy leader to stop their advance.

And to do that, he was throwing Idōgetsu.

"…?"

But his hand suddenly stopped moving.

He had not decided to stop his attack. Instead…

… _Idōgetsu stopped!?_

.

As if it had hit some invisible barrier, Idōgetsu refused to move even when he pushed it.

It seemed like a gravity barrier, but that technique required the great output of something along the lines of the Black Trigger Murasame. And the idea that this was the trion soldiers' doing conflicted with another fact too.

… _Because autonomous trion soldiers like these exist to serve their master, their personal abilities are only supposed to affect their master, themselves, and their fellow trion soldiers!_

He had learned that from both Sthénos and Pyrínas.

But regardless, his weapon had been stopped.

"Wait just a bit there."

He heard a girl's voice he had not heard before and Idōgetsu began to move. However, it moved toward his waist and to its holder.

After Idōgetsu was placed inside like a child putting away a toy, an invisible hand lightly tapped on the holder.

This was gravitational control.

… _What is going on?_

Yuki was confused because this should have been impossible for a trion soldier.

"Yuki! Watch out!"

After Sthénos' shout, he was fired on from the left.

"Big sister, are you all okay!?"

He heard the same voice as before as thirty-odd trion soldiers charged forward with guns at the ready.

The group was led by a girl who kicked off building sides and poles to secure an elevated position.

"Mouri-03 is here with her unit of thirty-two!"

They split into groups of eight as they ran. They crouched low, aimed their guns, and accelerated further.

"Crush them!"

* * *

Mochizuki saw Chisato approach.

However, she was not leaning forward like before. She simply walked forward with light steps.

And…

"Now, then."

Chisato threw away her weapon.

She discarded it like she was merely leaving it there. And the trion-made lance clattered to the hard ground.

Then Chisato continued forward. She moved to pass by Mochizuki on the right.

She approached.

Mochizuki was unsure what to do.

Chisato was a normal living person and a current enemy. And she was walking forward while unarmed

She had no combat power. Because she had discarded her weapon. Even if this was some sort of trick, Mochizuki's processing speed could immediately detect Chisto's weapon being created.

So there was no threat in Chisato's action.

Mochizuki determined this to be "safe" and then she realized something.

Her opponent really had seen through her.

… _She saw through my optimal decision as an autonomous trion soldier!_

A harmless opponent was not an enemy. If someone took no hostile action, they were not an enemy. If they were not going to contact her, they were not even an obstacle.

She could do nothing.

But she had made all these decisions in an instant.

An autonomous trion soldier's processing speed could reach as high as a million times that of a living person. So Chisato had only taken a single step toward her. The girl's movements were horribly slow in that high-speed vision and the autonomous trion soldier had plenty of time to react.

So Mochizuki thought.

What could she do to make this person into an enemy?

No, setting up a conclusion in advance and trying to fit the calculations to that made for a fun puzzle, but it meant straying from reality.

She only had to view reality and guide things to the result there.

… _Now, then._

Mochizuki thought.

" **I am fighting this Miden combatant and the odds are good her actions are some form of strategy."**

… _So the odds are good she is an enemy._

" **This Miden combatant was attempting to defeat me until just now."**

… _So the odds are good she is an enemy._

" **In our current mission, Miden is an enemy."**

… _So if she is with Miden, she is an enemy._

" **Miden took our pride from us, so they are an enemy of Pagoménos."**

… _So if she is with Miden, she is an enemy._

" **Galopoula and Mouri are also attacking."**

… _So she is an enemy._

" **Miden will eventually be our enemy during the fight for our 'Cancer'."**

… _So if she is with Miden, she is an enemy._

… _I see._

As Mochizuki thought, she saw Chisato prepare to take a 2nd step.

She was approaching.

She was also defenseless. That meant she was not a threat and thus Mochizuki took no defensive action.

 _But,_ began Mochizuki in her heart. _The past events suggest that Miden is very likely our enemy._

However, there was a problem. Was she perhaps giving an arbitrary advantage to the idea that Miden was an enemy?

So she thought some more.

" **Under what conditions would Miden be our ally?"**

… _I have determined the bare minimum requirement would be for the time to accept us to have passed._

 _Then,_ thought Mochizuki. _As that time has yet to occur, Miden must be our enemy._

Thus…

"—"

Mochizuki launched an attack against weaponless Chisato.

She fell back and threw a piece of explosive coal at the unarmed girl walking toward her.

.

Chisato pursued her opponent who fell back.

The coal approached and expanded.

"I see."

Chisato spoke with a smile just as the explosion erupted.

* * *

_Where are they…?_

Neither Hyuse nor Yōtarō had been spotted yet. Even with two pairs of eyes, they have not been able to spot the two of them at any point yet.

Using Radar would have been pointless when there was a large-scale battle going on near the base. They would only be seeing the trion signatures of everyone else so it would make noticing a single point hard.

They had no cues as to where they should be looking. The city itself was large, but it was almost guaranteed that they would be in the Forbidden Zone though since that would be where the fighting would be taking place.

All doubt of Hyuse wanting to go back to Aftokrator had been nonexistent from the very start.

Yōtarō had gone to meet up with him to stop him.

That is what Maki thought when he thought about the two of them.

_Still…_

There were words that still needed to be said and Border was still keeping him captive. It was just natural that they should find Hyuse so that he could not leave so easily.

That had been his reason for this search.

The rich bug with him had a different reason.

That reason was much more innocent and clear than anything Maki could come up with.

Friendship.

He had never been too good with children. Ones like Yōtarō only made things harder to deal with.

There had been normal ones like Michelle he had met, but it was still difficult to speak to them or treat them like others would. It was just how things were.

Even well behaved ones like this rich bug were difficult to handle.

But that crazy bug who was anything but well behaved and this well behaved rich bug had gotten along right from the start. They had become friends with the former deciding to be the "leader" while the latter being his "subordinate". Neither one had any complaints about that, both only smiling as they entered their own world outside of reality.

It was nice when he thought about it.

It was also sad when he remembered that he could not have that type of relationship until just recently.

From childhood up until the Aftokrator, he had not trusted many people, always thinking that they were only using him for his status. Even his own squad - Hatohara Squad - had not been trusted from the start. His captain even more so.

Minoru, someone who was all around a nice guy, had been the one he trusted the least. It hurt to think about that time now that he knew Minoru was having some troubles at the moment.

None of Hatohara Squad could be there to help him right now. Ninomiya and Inuaki couldn't be there to help him either.

So it hurt.

_It hurts because I trust him now. I trust them all._

Hatohara Squad was not a group that he could not trust anymore. Each one of them had their quirks and groups, but none of them would use him for his status.

He found this out after the Aftokrator Invasion.

The same invasion where he had met and fought against Hyuse.

The fact it had taken so long to find more people he could trust made him bitter towards the instant friendship those two children had made. Not the children themselves but just how quickly and innocently they had been able to form that friendship.

They never have to worry about status or who they were just to make a friend. They just needed to be themselves.

That was why…

_We need to find Hyuse. If we can at least do that, Crazy Bug will naturally get there too._

His goal was not to find Yōtarō. It was to find the boy who Yōtarō would naturally go to.

"Yōtarō… Where is he? I was going to tell him today, so where is he?"

The voice with him made Maki raise a brow.

The rich bug must have been talking to himself, forgetting that Maki was even there.

After all…

"I need to apologize to him."

He said something not like him.

.

Stepney felt himself do something very unlike him.

Unlike the "him" that had been brought up by his parents.

He extended out his body in search for someone.

He was looking for Yōtarō.

Maki had been looking for Hyuse much more than he was looking for Yōtarō, that much was clear even to him. It had been why he felt that he could forgo looking for the older boy and could instead focus on finding Yōtarō.

If he could not find him, the new friend he had made, he would continue to worry.

After all, he had to apologize for not being his friend.

"Hey, Rich Bug. What are you saying?"

"Huh?"

Had he been speaking out loud?

His parents had always said it was a bad habit of his. They always tried to make him stop doing that.

"What do you need to apologize for? If anything, it's that other bug that needs to apologize to you when we find him. Running off like that when you came over and even told him that Hyuse was missing. The little…"

"No, that's not-! …That is not the case."

"You don't need to speak formally like that. Kids speaking like that are pretty weird."

"…"

"Ah… Uh, sorry."

He wanted to reassure Maki that it was fine. He was aware that it was strange to speak like that for a kid.

Michelle and Mitsubachi had been trying to get him to stop talking like that while Yōtarō would not even answer back to him if he continued speaking like that.

But he felt that it would make things worse if he said anything like "Sorry" to Maki. Someone who already found it hard to deal with children.

"Um… Mr. Takahashi?"

"…Yeah?"

"Is it really fine to tell you? I know…you find it hard to handle children, so…"

There was a pause.

Stepney knew that Maki was really thinking about it.

He was smart for his age. But not because he was a genius like his brother.

He was smart because it had been forced upon him.

"Yeah. It's…fine to tell me. I can't say I can comfort you or anything, but I can at least listen to a kid."

That was enough for him.

"Mr. Takahashi, you are only looking for Mr. Hyuse, right? Not Yōtarō."

"…Yes. I'm looking for Hyuse more than I am that crazy bug. But if we find Hyuse, that bug will naturally be there too."

"Okay. But I will keep looking for Yōtarō over Mr. Hyuse. Is that okay?"

"If you're going to do it anyway, why ask if it's okay…? This is why I can't deal with children…"

It may have been a light joke, but Stepney knew better.

Maki was bad with jokes. So hearing a joke from him was unlikely.

"Uh, so, about why I need to apologize."

"Right. What's that about?"

"I want to apologize to Yōtarō because…I haven't been his friend. I-I-I mean, I felt like we were friends and all, but I'm not his friend because I met him by accident. Not like Michelle or Mitsubachi."

One of those names seemed to have gotten Maki's attention, but he said nothing about it.

So Stepney went on.

"My parents wanted to make sure that they would have a link with Border that isn't their money. So they…set things up so I met Yōtarō. And they wanted me to be 'friends' with him so they would have a link with the Ta-Ta-T… Ta-ma-ko-ma Branch. I want to say sorry for that."

"That…"

.

Maki felt himself get angry right away.

He was not angry with Stepney. Not at all. Getting mad at a child for this was something he could not bring himself to do, no matter how much he couldn't handle them.

No, his anger was at those who had made this child do something.

His parents, not one but both, had forced a situation onto him. With the well behaved nature Stepney had, it was likely that he had little to no objections to it.

_He probably wanted to say something on the inside, but he knew that it wouldn't matter. I get that all too well. After all…_

He was the same.

Maki understood what it was like to be forced to do things by a parent just because they could not say anything against it.

His mother had put him in the business of modeling and became his manager. The agency had then enlisted him into Border for publicity without him knowing. _But his mother had to have known._

She was his manager and they were his agency.

He had little to no say during that time.

That was exactly what Stepney was going through now.

Those parents - the ones who had political power and as much money as possible - had forced him to the point of feeling terrible for making a false friend. For lying to that false friend. For bringing their current situation onto that false friend who was now looking for his actual friend.

Maki hated false friends, ones who only became friends with others just so they could get something out of it.

But that was also why he could not hate Stepney for this at all.

Stepney was out here, looking for that supposedly false friend so that he could apologize and tell him everything.

_That's not something a false friend would do._

Stepney did not want to be false, she would continue to look for Yōtarō first and Hyuse last.

That was fine.

It only meant that the both of them would keep a keen eye out for those specific people they were looking for.

And when they found one of them-

"Oh ho? What's with this? I thought all of Border's agents would be out fighting right now. Well, all except for one stupid girl who refuses to wake up after her beating."

The temperature went cold.

No, it only felt that way to Maki.

It felt like everything had stopped and the world came to a standstill.

The voice that appeared was unfamiliar, but the way it sounded was enough for every alarm in his head to go off.

"What's wrong with you? Did you figure something out here? Hey, answer me already. I'm holding back from cussing here since there's a kid here."

Looking around he found that there was nobody around to give that voice. But that voice had to come from somewhere.

Was it in his head?

Could he be hearing something in his head?

Maybe someone was talking to him through a telepathic link.

But there were no names coming up to show him who was speaking.

In that case-

"Heeeeeeeey, fool! Are you listening!? If you want to get on my nerves and get a beating that badly, put the kid down first. I don't want him to see anything he shouldn't!"

The voice was right in front of him.

It belonged to a tall woman with hair dyed red and sticking out as if they were flames. Her outfit was very extreme, but it seemed to fit someone like her.

Noticing that he was looking at her now, she moved back to give him a predatory grin.

That grin made him feel like there was a monster staring at its prey.

"So hey, what are you two doing out here? I've seen you around the Tamakoma Branch before, but not the kid. Something happened there or what? Didn't you guys have a fu-… A prisoner there?"

"U-um…"

"Excuse me, miss! We are looking for two people! Well…actually, an animal too."

"Oh? Really now? I just happened to notice two people and an animal. Although they were in different locations. If they keep going then they'll meet up for sure though. Might be who you two are looking for."

How could Stepney speak to this monster without any issue?

He had looked at her with his innocent eyes and spoken to her like any kid would speak to an adult.

No fear could be heard in his voice and his heart rate was no different from before.

It made no sense.

Maki could not keep his eyes not his woman without having to wet his lips.

"Well, if you're looking for them then I'll just point out where they were. The guy with the hood was over there," she pointed at the Border base. Or at least near it. Her finger then moved over slightly to the side. "The kid with the animal are over in that direction."

"That you very much, miss!"

"No problem, kid! Have fun over there!"

"What are you going to be doing, miss? If you…do not mind masking."

The question had been smart.

The area they had been walking through was not one that allowed any normal people to walk through. So it only meant…

"I need to go put a stop to a fight. Probably mess around a bit. Throw some people into buildings. So nothing much. Now I need to go. See ya around."

Before the words fully registered in his mind, the woman was gone.

She had disappeared from before them, but not in the way someone would use Teleport. It was clear that she had used speed for her departure from the way the wind had moved after she left.

And now that she was gone, he could voice his words.

The ones he had been holding in the entire time.

The way she had been looking at him had made him freeze, but the Stepney had spoken to her made him think that it was only because of their natural sense of danger.

So he had decided that holding back was the better option.

Now that she was gone, he felt more free to speak.

"What was…that woman?"


	111. Galopoula: Part 4

Lights and sounds filled the open space within Border. Both of them moved at the same time, but it was hard to differentiate where the noise was coming from.

A decagonal blade moved through the air from the back of Wen Sō's hand.

Kumagai had been the target. The blade was deflected and the decagonal blade retracted a moment after it's course had been altered.

That moment before it could do so was filled with more lights on the other end of the open area.

Nasu fired Viper.

The points, to lines, to turns, to lines came from multiple directions that could not be dodged while still in a different movement.

The Dogs moved forward.

The remaining Dogs opened their shields to block the Viper. This had left them open.

Other Vipers turned directions and tore through the two Dogs.

Wen Sō moved back as did Kumagai.

Unlike Wen Sō, Kumagai had stationed herself closer to Nasu once more.

" _Stay sharp, Kuma. We don't know what kid of tricks she will use."_

Nasu fired even more Viper. They each turned once again, this time all of them were blocked by Dogs.

" _It looks like she's depending on the Dogs for her defense."_

" _So it does. We can take her down once the Dogs are all gone."_

Kumagai grabbed the hilt of Kōgetsu with both hands once more.

Their battle would continue and the both of them understood that letting their guard down for even a moment would be fatal.

" _Hello, hello? I'm coming through, right? Kawa, you're patching me through correctly, right?"_

The two girls were surprised to hear another voice come in telepathically. They did not let it show on their faces, but it was good to hear this voice.

" _Hey, Nacchan! Kuma! I'm here to support you! Oh, but I won't be coming out to help. Sorry about that. But isn't it better that I stay hidden anyway? It is, right? I'm not going crazy, right?"_

" _Teikō, you're rambling again."_

The line went silent for a moment.

A chain of apologizes came in soon after, making both girls smile in their hearts.

Support had reached them.

.

_I'm running out of Dogs._

Wen Sō observed the situation while she had the chance.

It was only a small window of opportunity to do so, but she took it anyway.

The two girls in front of her had been slowly taking out the Dogs she had with her and the amount was only growing shorter as the time went on.

_If I keep fighting like this, the odds will be against me. There's about five more minutes 'til the captain completes the job. And…_

Her eyes traveled to the hallway behind the two girls.

She made sure their every movement was still seeable, but her main focus had been on that hallway.

It was hard not to think about what was happening beyond that hallway.

There had been some noise coming from the hallway, in particular a strange shout, and it was worrying to her.

_I need to stop thinking about it. Shi is our perfect defense with Kipourós. She can stall out for as long as she needs. I just need to beat these two girls and then I can go to her._

There would be no need to go to her captain.

He would get the job done and complete their mission.

Shi Muon had no effective way of attacking. Her Trigger could attack if she wanted, but that was not like her. The strong points she had were in defense.

The only way she would be able to win her fight would be if Wen Sō could reach her.

And that could only happen once she had won her own fight.

So her choice was clear.

_I can just use them all._

She rushed forward.

Dogs meant nothing to begin with. They meant even less if it meant winning this fight and advancing forward.

"Servitora."

The straw soldiers.

Activating her Trigger, Wen Sō moved forward.

The reflective properties of her Trigger had created intangible imagines of her. Each one was a reflection of the original and moved in a way to mirror her own movements.

None of them could be physically touched and none of them could be physically harmed. The entire illusion was a way for her to confuse her opponent.

"!"

But then something confusing happened.

.

" _Did I hit her!? Did I? I didn't, did I!? There were a bunch of sudden trion signatures that I kinda panicked and fired on reflex!"_

Kumagai had been initially surprised by the sudden multiplication of their opponent. They had not expected for her to add more to her numbers without bringing in more Dogs.

She had been brought back to reality when a rain of shots came down on the new army of Neighbors.

Hitsugi had fired without any sort of warning, but she could not blame the girl for it either.

But what had she meant by "sudden trion signatures"?

Even when the army had moved forward after blocking the rain of shots, none of them had seemed to be harmed in the slightest.

They had all defended and they all came out unscathed.

Hitsugi was not the best Shooter within border, not by a long shot, but that attack had range and power behind it that would make it impossible for an entire army to come out unscathed.

_Then what-_

Before she could finish with "is going on?" she was surrounded by all of the clones that had appeared. Each one was coming in and moving around her to circle her.

Swinging her blade to reach one of them, she found that there was no feedback from her blade that she had hit.

The blade had gone right through the body, but it did not cut the body.

There was no injury at all.

"Urg!"

She felt a cut reach her side.

Another one came from her arm.

There had been a physical body among all of the moving ones. She had taken her hits without being able to give any out.

_Only one of them is attack! The rest are fake!_

Wen Sō moved back after having gotten her hits on Kumagai.

For her part, Kumagai readied herself again as the sound of Nasu's Viper filled the air.

" _Sayako! Which one is the real one!"_

" _It's like Teikō said! There are a lot of trion signatures here! Data analysis can't keep up!"_

"Viper!"

The shots flew through the air as points and pierced through the fake bodies as lines.

The amount of bodies made it hard to tell just which one had actually blocked the attack and which ones it had just gone through.

The rain of shots that came after only had a similar effect as two remaining Dogs jumped in the way to take the attack.

_I want to fight her head-on, but she's intentionally keeping her distance._

She heard footsteps behind her and noticed the trail of black on the upper level.

Both Nasu and Hitsugi were moved away from the open area.

" _Kuma, get back in the hallway. Let's move the fight to a more controlled space. Hitsu-chan, find a way to meet up with us over there."_

" _R-right!"_

" _Got it!"_

The sound of Nasu moving back had been enough to tell her what to do before the words came in.

Kumagai pushed off the ground to move backwards.

As she did so, her opponent moved forward.

The look on her face had come as a shock.

A fierce want to keep them both within this open space.

It had come from out of nowhere.

"I won't let you get near Shi."

An onslaught from each and every clone came at her with a full intent to take her out.

Every angle was covered, cuts appeared all around her body, and the noise from her footsteps blended together. The images alone were not just making her hard to find, but the relentless offense she was putting up meant that they could not figure out which one to attack since it all moved as one.

A simultaneous cry of "Kuma" could be heard in two different locations.

"So there _was_ another person hiding. That just makes another one to take out."

"Shit!"

Trion gas leaked from every cut that had appeared from the attack.

There had been no time to block any of the attacks that had come her way and that meant each attack had hit her.

The full intent to win had come over their showed in each and every cut she had taken.

_I'm running low on trion from these attacks… I can't figure out which one is the real one! At this rate-_

" _Do you want me to come and help you?"_

A certain voice came through.

.

" _Hey now, this is pretty pathetic, you know."_

It did not come through her coms. It did not come in person.

It came from the speakers above them.

Kumagai did not need to look up to know who it was.

" _Hey, I'm talking to you, Yūko. This is a pathetic show. You want me to get going over to you? Want me to get revenge for you when you lose? Want me to rescue Rena over there? How about Hitsutei? That's what you want? Or do you want me to go and save you?"_

Denji's voice filled the entire room.

Nasu said nothing and neither did the hiding Hitsugi.

Even the woman in front of her made no expression to the new voice.

"It would just mean another-"

" _Hey bitch, shut the fuck up, would you. I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to that weakling you couldn't even take out."_

His words held no malice towards the girl. They were spoken as if in a normal conversation.

But Kumagai knew.

She knew that all malice he had towards anyone was currently being directed at her and only her.

" _I make my way up to the command room to watch the fun and I see you getting your ass kicked. What's up with that? …Hey bitch, if you try to move right now then I'll have this old man here teleport me to where you are. Just stay put while I lecture this idiot."_

In a way it was amazing that words alone had been able to stop their opponent.

But it was not just their opponent.

Nasu did not move either. She did not fall back and she did not fire any Viper.

She knew what Denji would do if she tried anything as well.

The threat in his voice carried easily throughout the open space.

" _Answer me, Yūko. What do you want me to do? I'll hear you out and think about the answer. After that, I'll personally kick your ass."_

"I want you to shut up!"

" _Then stop losing."_

If only it were that easy.

This fight had gotten harder the more it went on.

There was an army before her that she could not touch.

She could not move back and she could not move forward.

_What am I supposed to do in this situation!?_

She got no answer.

She only got harsh words.

" _Sekai and his buddy are out fighting the trion soldiers. #3 is off moving against those women and Kō is having fun blocking attacks like it's nobody's business. And what are you doing here? Losing. I bothered to tell you everything and you bothered to deal with any of my hate. That isn't something as simple as verifying someone's existence or accepting the happiness of everyone else. But you still decided that you would do it. If you could take my hatred then you should be able to win this fight."_

But how?

How was she supposed to win now?

" _You know everything about me after all."_

Kumagai shot her head towards the ceiling. Where the voice was coming from.

Where he was watching her fight."

"Then tell me how to win!"

Her eyes widened at what she saw.

* * *

"I did my job here."

"Is that really why you came here, Denji? Just to help out Kumagai?"

Denji looked over to Shinoda.

The man did not turn his eyes from the screen and all attention from the others was now solely on him.

"Honestly, I just thought I should do something while I was here. I refused to join in this fight since it would get me some good hate from everyone afterwards, but I guess I couldn't keep to it when I found out the Yūko was fighting."

"Do you want me to tell the others that you did this?"

"What do you think?"

Shinoda only gave a nod in response.

"Well I'll be seeing you then. 'M g'nn' g' t'ke a n'p n'w."

* * *

Kumagai called out once she saw it.

" _Rei! Teikō! Look up!"_

There, hovering near the ceiling, were small, diamond-like objects.

They bobbed up and down while in the air, but otherwise did nothing else.

But what they were was obvious.

"Viper!"

Shots were fired from behind.

They did not move towards the opponent and they did not circle around the clones.

They moved up.

The Viper shots moved towards the ceiling and to where the diamond-like objects were.

That had been what the actual physical form of Wen Sō's Trigger looked like and they just had to attack it.

"Asteroid!"

A new rain came down from above as the Vipers moved upwards.

Taking out the diamond-like objects would stop the images from appearing.

But it did not stop their opponent from moving.

Wen Sō rushed at her once more.

Denji would not come to help her and she did not need him to come.

He let this fight for her, Nasu and Hitsugi to finish.

"So we will!"

Wen Sō ran around her while the remaining images followed along.

Each one was moving in a different way with some of them going to the right and some of them going to the left.

She of the images faded from her sight as Nasu and Hitsugi continued to destroy the diamond-like objects.

_There are still too many to figure out which one is the real one!_

Defending against all of them would be difficult.

At this range she would have to be lucky to not receive a fatal injury. But luck was not something that she wanted to rely on here.

So she would not defend against these attacks.

She would attack herself.

_Do I have enough trion for this!?_

.

It had been after their match with Katori Squad and Kotowari Squad.

She had seen some amazing things during the match. One of those included a girl younger than her who did not back down when faced against opponents better than her.

Katori had seemed to have a grudge against the girl, but Kumagai only saw her as another opponent.

The thing was, she was weak.

When compared to Katori, the girl was nothing but a newbie. She was not too far off from Kumagai herself, but she was still underdeveloped when it came to abilities.

But she had not backed down in the slightest.

She had continued to fight against the two opponents who had clearly been better than her.

And in the end, she did not win.

But she did not lose.

That match had come to a draw.

The last three girls of that fight had taken each other out and brought the end of the fight to a draw with none of them gaining survival points.

Besides the sheer determination and grit of the girl, Kumagai had seen something else that amazed her. Something that girl had used to reach that conclusion.

A special Trigger that was only a prototype.

So after some thinking and talking with her squad, she had decided to try out the Trigger itself.

Since the girl had used the Trigger in a B-Rank War match it meant that the Trigger, even while being a prototype, had been approved by Border for others to use.

She had taken that Trigger and added it to her slot.

And that Trigger was…

.

"Fujin!"

As Wen Sō moved towards her target, something amazing happened.

Kumagai's blade that had been solid the entire fight exploded.

It did not send shrapnel in every direction and every part of it had remained attached to the hilt.

But the blade itself had exploded outward in what could only be described as a blooming fashion.

The blooming blade extended out, thinning each part that moved. The stillness of the blade became loose and began to move with the wind generated from Wen Sō running. One it had finished its activation, there had been no blade to speak of and instead was only a hilt with ribbons of light streaming out of it.

Kumagai clicked her tongue.

"Damn! Not enough of them!"

In total there had been five ribbons coming from the hilt and guard of the former Kōgetsu.

Wen Sō looked at the ribbons of light with wide eyes as she continued to toe forward.

She could not stop her momentum from her running in time to change course.

The blade that she had seen had suddenly turned into the ribbons of light. That in itself was terrifying.

From the information they had gotten form Aftokrator, only the Black Trigger Miden had should have been able to do that.

The ribbons of light were slashes waiting to be made and could run along surfaces to reach the target.

But Kumagai had just created that Black Trigger using her White Trigger.

It was truly a terrifying thing to think about.

"Crap!"

But the time to think about that was over.

The images from Servitora were decreasing and she was already moving towards Kumagai.

There was no stopping the attack.

Kumagai had also seen this as she prepared her own attack.

Unlike the Black Trigger, this one could not run along surfaces to attack, but instead it gave the user the ability to manually control each ribbon of light as if it were an extinction of their blade.

And that was exactly what she did.

Kumagai swung the light sword through the air to strike at one of the Wen Sōs.

When she felt that ribbons flight did not give any feedback, she knew that it had just been another image.

"!"

The real one was at her side.

A heavy footstep had come from her left to attack her.

With her body already in a swinging motion, she would not be able to defend or dodge.

So she attacked instead.

Using her control over the ribbons of light she commanded one of them to move to her left.

There was no feedback.

She commanded one of the ribbons to move to the right.

There was no feedback.

She commanded one of the ribbons to move even further to the left.

"Tch!"

There was feedback.

The ribbon of light made contact with the real body of Wen Sō.

A cut appeared on her arm as she continued to move forward.

Kumagai did not relent upon finding the real body.

"Fujin!"

With her vocal command, the remaining ribbons of light moved through the air, pushing against the wind generated around them.

Each one of them moved at a different angle. They all converged on the same point, cutting off the entirety of Wen Sō's arm.

Once the ribbons of light were used up the user would need to recreate their blade altogether.

Knowing that, Kumagai moved back, kicking Wen Sō away while making the movement.

A voice came near the hallway.

"Every scratch you left on Kuma… I'll return them to you all at once."

.

Lines traced along the ground and the air above them.

The green lines had started as points before turning into lines. Those lines had made sharp turns before turning back into lines.

These lines spiraled.

From top to bottom, a relentless barrage of Viper slammed into Wen Sō's back and stomach.

She tried to block the ones form below, but that had only made them toss her into the air.

The Viper coming from the air shot down.

Viper from the open air connected with Viper using from the ground.

Wen Sō's body was torn to pieces.

.

Nasu and Kumagai watched as their opponent's upper half and bottom half slammed into the ground near them.

She stared up to the ceiling as the two girls moved towards each other.

From above them they could hear the sound of rapid footsteps getting closer.

With a sudden shout, Hitsugi jumped down to meet with them.

"That was amazing, Kuma! I have never seen that Trigger before! When did you equip that!?"

"Oh, I did it after our match with Kotowari. I haven't been able to ask Taiyōko anything particular about it yet, so I plan on doing that later on."

"I thought you wouldn't use it here since the drawback of losing your blade would hurt too much."

"I was low on trion anyway. So it was either now or never. Although…"

Looking down at her hilt, Kumaai noted just how light it became without the blade there for weight.

"It really is tricky to use. Even if she is the one who made it, I'm honestly surprised that Taiyōko had been able to use it so well when she fought me and Katori."

"That just goes to show how dangerous that squad is now."

Looking back up at Nasu, Kumagai couldn't help but smile.

The girl returned it in full, not knowing what it was for.

"You know, Rei, with you helping out Kotowari so much, maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing to have more practice matches with them. Toby already bugs me for a match as it is. This would kill a lot of birds with a single stone."

Now knowing the reason for her smile, Nasu's only grew.

"That does sound nice."

A new noise filled their ears as they looked up to see where it was coming from.

"Aw. Looks like we got here too late."

Kikuchihara and Utagawa stared down at the girls.

Kikuchihara had his hair tied back and was cleaning on the railing while Utagawa waved over to them.

With a smile on his face as well, he called out to them.

"Nice job here."

.

Wen Sō looked at the ceiling with half-shut eyes.

She had lost in the end and could not move her body.

Even if she could, half of it was somewhere else and she could not reach it.

_Looks like I managed to keep five of them here. I guess that's good enough._

But it was only good for the mission.

Wen Sō knew exactly why it was not good for individuals.

She had been trying to reach one of those individuals. They had been on her mind the entire time the fight had been going on.

_Shi…_

Shi Muon was in one of the hallways after this open area.

She had been stopped by some opponents and was fighting by herself.

The girl had never been much of a fight, always wanting to just take the passive route when it came to conflicts. Even her Trigger had been used for defense more than it ever had for offense.

It was just who she was.

And it was because of that that Wen Sō felt herself regretting her loss even more.

She had not been able to win and had not been able to make it to that hallway. To where Shi Muon was.

" _Shi. Don't push yourself too hard, okay?"_

She sent words of someone who had lost.

And someone who could not help.

* * *

Shi Muon felt like crying.

She had received the message from Wen Sō and the noise in that open area had stopped.

_Wen…_

She was not dead and she would not die. Her trion body would return her to their ship and she would be okay.

But she had lost.

_Wen is so serious. A loss like that might get to her. And…_

And Shi Muon had not wanted for Wen Sō to lose.

The older woman had always helped her out, taken her side, and been with her during troubling times. Knowing that such a person had lost while on this mission reminded her that it would stick for some time.

Their captain would finish their mission in only a few minutes and she only had to hold out for those few minutes. It would be easy for her and her defensive Trigger.

But that did not take away from the loss they had just taken.

Miden's fighters were freed up from a fight and could now move to assist where they would be needed.

Shi Muon gave a bitter laugh when she thought about it.

_Wen probably thought she did well because she held them back at all._

It was something that she would think. She knew this from having been around the older woman for so long.

That fight had indeed held back some Miden fighters and it gave them all some extra time, even if she had lost.

There was nothing to feel sad about when she thought about it.

Wen Sō would return to their ship. She would be fine after this loss and they would accomplish their mission because their captain was strong.

_He is a Black Trigger user. He can't be anything but strong! So I need to be strong too! I don't need my strength to attack! All I need to do is follow Wen's example and hold off these fighters until our strong captain has accomplished the mission!_

With a new resolve in mind, Shi Muon focused on her opponents.

One was a blue haired girl with a dull expression and the other was…

"Um… Is he okay?"

She couldn't help herself but to worry about her opponent.

.

Hisoka tilted her head at the question their opponent had asked.

She knew the woman was talking about the boy behind her, but it was odd for someone like a Neighbor to worry about their opponents while they were busy attacking.

Even so, she took a look behind herself to see what was happening with Tsuji.

From where she was, she could see his head speaking out from the far corner of the hallway. His entire body was hidden by the corner and his eyes were looking everywhere but their direction.

Nodding to herself, Hisoka turned back to the Neighbor with a worried look.

"He is fine. It's just that no one told him that my opponent was a woman."

"Is that an issue?"

"It is."

"…What if I hide my breasts?"

"You would still be a woman."

"If I cut my hair?"

"You would still be a woman."

"Um… What if I just cocoon myself in my vines?"

"You would still be-"

Hisoka's words were cut off by the sudden movement of the vines coming from the Neighbors device on her back.

The vines extended out far behind her and began to wrap around her figure before Hisoka had any chance to move.

Once the vines had stopped moving, the entirety of her vision contained only the large cocoon of vines that took up the space of the hallway.

"Well that is not good."

She looked behind herself again and saw that Tsuji was still refusing to look their way.

Hisoka herself was not a problem for him. Not since Oshiro had come along and managed to get Tsuji to conquer his fear of females.

It was just a shame that that fear was only conquered when it came to Hisoka.

With no way of breaking through the cocoon, Hisoka called out behind her to the shaking boy behind the corner.

"Hey Shin-kun, that woman isn't here anymore. She left after making this wall of vines. Can you cut through the vines so I can get through them?"

Tsuji said nothing, instead only shaking his head rapidly.

His perfectly combed and neat hair shook with the shake of his head. The part of his hair that was to the side moved closer to the middle of his forehead and parts of his hair could be seen sticking out.

"Well this really is not good."

How was she supposed to break through those vines?

She had only said what she did to get Tsuji moving, but when she thought about it, it was likely that this opponent really did just make a wall of vines while making her escape.

It would only make sense given the situation.

If they were kept in place in this hallway then she would be able to go back and help the Neighbor who had been in the open space passed the hallway. The noises from that direction had come to an end, but that could have meant anything.

Looking down at her guns, she shook her head.

_The strongest Trigger I have is Asteroid. Those are pretty strong, but it took Shin-kun's Senkū to break through those vines. If she layered them like she did before then I won't be able to break through with just what I have on hand._

She did not sigh and she did not glare at the cocoon of vines in front of her.

There was no feeling in what she was seeing and everything she was thinking about were facts on the current situation.

"Out of my way. Just being around you is maaaaaaaking me sleeeeeepy. If it wasn't for this trioooooooon body, I would already beeeeee asleep. You're shaking so daaaaaaamn much that it's aaaaaaalso annoying. If you caaaaaaaaaaaan't fight, mooooooooove out of the waaaaaaay."

.

Hisoka was confused by the voice from behind her.

Wanting to see who it was, she turned around. Just as she did so…

"Don't move."

Something shot passed her.

A green light had appeared next to her extending out and going towards the direction of the cocoon of vines.

With her back now facing the cocoon of vines and her front facing the end of the hallway, she could clearly see what all of the talking had been about.

The one originally tasked with this fight was standing there, hand extended out with a green light coming from his fingertip and extending out.

The tired looking boy glared in her direction with one foot on the ground and another on top of Tsuji.

For his part, Tsuji was on the floor, looking to have been kicked there. He laid flat on the ground with the tired boy's foot on top of his back.

It was a strange sight to see.

"You twoooooooo were having trouble wiiiiiiiiiiith this thing? It only takes one of my arc trion blades to pierce iiiiiiit."

Each sentence that came from the boy's mouth had contained a yawn within it.

Even with her lack of ability to understand emotion and express them, Hisoka still got infected by things like yawns and sighs. With the way this boy was doing it, she could feel a yawn start to build up within her body as well. Even if she did not feel tired.

It was dangerous to focus on his yawns any longer. So she turned back around to see where the supposed arc trion blade had connected with the cocoon of vines.

True to what the boy had said, the arc trion blade had pierced through the dense vines. It seemed to go even further as a small cut could be seen through the vines.

"Shinodaaaaaaaaaaa-san, this is Taiyōko. I've maaaaaade it to the hallwaaaaaay. Engaging in combaaaaat now."


	112. Galopoula: Part 5

The first thing Mukuro noticed after he had stabbed through the cocoon of vines was the way the vines were moving.

Each vine he had priced began to move as if climbing his arc trion blade. They wrapped around the extended blade like they were trying to reach for his connected arm.

If he were his older sister then he would have scoffed at this and allowed the vines to reach him.

If he were his older brother then this situation would not have happened in the first place.

If he were his younger sister then he would be slightly panicking right now.

If he were either of his parents then he would not have been fighting on this battlefield at all.

But he was none of them.

He was who he was and that would not change.

_That is pretty bad for me._

Since he was not any of his family members he would have to take care of this situation his own way.

And that was by destroying the vines.

With a wave of his hand, the arc trion blades continued to tear through the cocoon of vine as easily as cutting through the air. The vines tore and ripped apart like a gardener using sheers to take care of a garden. Nothing remaining in the wake of the high-performance Trigger.

"Eep!?"

The sound of the Neighbor could be heard from behind the cocoon of vines, but Mukuro felt no tactical feedback of his blades reaching her body.

The only thing he could feel was the feeling of the vies tearing apart at his movement.

Since he had used only one blade, a single line could be seen arcing over the cocoon of vines. It would have been a straight line, but he did not want to get in trouble for cutting through Hisoka as well.

Once his blade reached the other wall of the hallway he began to release the Trigger. Small lights fluttered into the air as the blade disappeared into thin air, nothing but the arcing line in the cocoon giving any indication that he had existed in the first place.

"…"

Once his Trigger was fully deactivated he staggered to the side.

With Tsuji underfoot, he had to force his body to move to the other side so that he would not trip over the fallen boy.

.

"Why is this uuuuuuuuseless guy even heeeeeeere?"

"Most of the time he isn't so useless."

"Then whyyyyyy is he so useleeeeeess now?"

"Because our opponent is a woman."

"…"

"He can't-"

Hisoka was cut off by the sound of a harsh kick.

She moved towards the end of the hall as Tsuji was kicked to the opposite wall he had been hiding behind.

Mukuro glared at the lump that had scurried behind the corner.

With a sigh he brought up his hand. He turned his palm so that it faced the ground and angled his index finger so that it pointed to the ground.

A small flash of light appeared at the end of his finger. An arc trion blade shot out form his finger and stabbed into the ground.

Mukuro moved his finger along the ground, the trion blade moving along with his finger. It gouged into the building's material and left a deep groove at the end of the hallway.

"Kobayashi, you are fiiiiiiine to fight here, riiiiight?"

"Yes."

Mukuro nodded as he looked at Tsuji.

The image of the older boy hiding behind the corner just because of the gender of their opponent was one that stirred him up inside.

It was pathetic.

It was something his family would not tolerate.

It was something he would not tolerate.

It was a sight that made him want to fight the older boy more than the Neighbor at the other end of the hallway.

"You're the idiot that I fell asleep around. I hate that. Pathetic people aren't people I should be able to sleep around."

There was no sign of tiredness in his voice.

He was not speaking for himself, so he couldn't afford to be tired or lazy.

When speaking about something his family had engraved into him, he needed to be stern and harsh.

"So if you can't fight here, don't go past this line. I would actually prefer you just leave altogether. You being here just makes me tired and less likely to focus."

"Taiyōko, it's not good to destroy Border's property."

"They can fix it later."

He let out a tired sigh.

He was speaking for himself now.

"Why did they even put me on this battlefield…?"

"I hear that it was your brother who recommended you be here."

"…"

He straightened his back and turned to where the destroyed cocoon of vines was.

"This really was a smart choice then. Mm. Only a smart and strong person could come up with this. Now…"

He attacked.

.

Shi Muon felt herself panicking.

Someone had managed to cut through her cocoon.

The boy who had been able to do so seemed to have trouble with women, so it was likely that it was not him.

The girl had been moving like she was more of a speed type than an offensive type. There should be no way that she would be able to break through her defense. And even if she did have a way, it was impossible for it to be so clean-cut.

She had seen just who had cut through once the trion blade had made an opening through the cocoon.

It had been a boy.

A different boy from the one before. This one had longer hair, a different style of clothing, was smaller, and overall looked much more like he was about to pass out at any moment.

That tired boy had been able to pierce through he defense that Shi Muon had been known for the entire time.

Wen Sō and Koskero had praised her defense and her captain had always said she was the perfect person to watch their back. It was something that she took pride in, especially as a non-combatant who could not find her way around a battlefield proper.

That defense had been broken through.

That one boy had been enough to break through her defense.

It made her feel useless. Then it made her panic.

The thing she felt the most form that though was,

_Sadness…_

She felt sad that all of that praise had amounted to nothing.

But that had not been the only thing she found once her cocoon had been broken through.

_I use a lot of trion to create that cocoon, so it would take even more trion to break through it. I just need to stall this out so the captain can finish. I don't need to win. I have never needed to win a fight. I have only ever needed to wait things out._

_They all know this…_

_I haven't been in many fights, so the captain never sends me in to win. The only reason I am here is because…_

She shook her head at the thought.

The reason for her being here did not matter.

She was already here and she was already fighting.

She did not need to win and she did not need to move forward.

All she needed to do was keep these three here.

_So I will!_

She began her next defense.

.

Mukuro and Hisoka watched as the vines coming from the woman's Trigger began to extend out even more.

Those vines had seemed weak when Hisoka held them back, but the way they would thread together brought out something unique to that Trigger. It needed to support and there were not vocal commands needed for it to move itself around in order to defend.

Each vine built upon the next to combine it's weak density with the other vines. Alone, those vines would pose no problem, but once they began to thread together they would become too dense for anything by Mukuro's trion blades to get through.

So they ran forward to stop that.

No words were needed for the two silent types. They understood what they needed to do here simply based on their actions.

From a device on her wrist, Hisoka launched out a wire that flew towards the threading vines.

The wire was taken in and Hisoka felt the pull of the vines as they tried to thread the wire into together with them.

Mukuro stopped halfway to the vines and moved his hand to the side.

"Perform final check. Once it is done, begin output."

As soon as Mukuro muttered those words, his eyes turned from a bored and tired look to a focused look that could put anyone on guard.

His fingertips began emitting a green light. This was his Trion coming out as a type of blade that didn't really cut like one.

While he had knowledge of different fighting styles, there was no need to use any of them. Hisoka would cover close range combat, so he was fine using mid-to-long range combat.

"We'll end this quickly before I end up falling asleep."

As he spoke, Mukuro lightly waved his right hand. Beams of light similar to a blowtorch were emitted from his fingertips. And they grew right away.

He had a look of disinterest on his face despite bringing out enough firepower to level a building just by waving his hand like he was shooing away an insect.

That was just how he viewed things.

So continuing his wave, he moved his fingers so that each blade would hit at different angles.

Hisoka used the opposite wall as a springboard while using her wire to draw her in even closer to the vines.

Once she was a footway from them they split open.

The trion blades from Mukuro's hand stabbed into the wall opposite of her before moving in the arcs that tore open the threading vines.

Each trion blade moved around as if dancing around Hisoka's flying body.

It was not one sided as Hisoka turned her body in the air, moving through the trion blades without touching them.

She made it through.

With the threaded vines cut and torn, she had been able to force her body through the new gaps.

Once she was halfway through and could see their opponent, she heard a sound.

She was sure that Mukuro could also hear the sound as it was rather loud.

It was the sound of threading vines.

The vines that had been torn through by Mukuro's blades had not stopped in their threading. They continued to extend out of the Neighbor's Trigger on her back and thread together while Hisoka was moving through them.

"Keep moving forward."

The voice behind Hisoka could be heard over to the threading vines.

There must have been a plan if she was being told to not stop.

So she moved forward.

She moved her foot forward and used the torn vines as a step to push herself forward.

As she was almost through, the sound of tearing vines overpowered the sound of threading.

Green filled her vision as blades moved through vines and vines threaded to keep up with the tearing.

These green blades seemed to be winning as they moved like multiple conductor wands controlling an orchestra.

That was when something strange happened.

Those blades moved up in a quick motion.

They had been forced up abruptly while she was still trying to get through the threading vines.

Using the last of her wire that was attached to the other side of the vines, she pulled herself through and landed on the ground.

Behind the wall of threading vines had been something she had not been expecting.

.

Mukuro staggered forward.

In front of him was a sheathed blade that had pushed his hand up in an instant.

His trion body could not feel tiredness, but his mind still registered.

The person at his side was someone who had a presence that made him fall asleep almost instantly. Someone who forced him to drop his entire guard just because he existed.

He hated this person for that.

There had never been a time where he could do that with his siblings, but this pathetic boy who could not even fight a woman was someone he could instantly fall asleep next to.

He would not allow himself to fall near this person and he would not allow himself to even touch that sheathed sword.

Mukuro caught himself and turned to glare at the pathetic boy.

"What aaaaaaare you doing? She was about to make it through with less trouble."

The pathetic boy glared back.

"You were going to readily cut off her leg for that!"

"It would have gooooooootten her to reach the Neighbor."

"She wouldn't be able to move around as well if she lost a leg!"

"But we would have reached the Neighbor. She ooooooonly had to get in cloooooose and distraaaaact her. It's simple taaaactics."

Mukuro ignored the glare he was getting to turn back to the threaded vines.

He held out his hand again, ready to activate his Trigger.

Something had grabbed his hand before he could activate it.

"If you are just going to use her for a sacrificial pawn then just leave."

"And whaaaaat? Are you going to fight? No, you won't. You can't fight here because of idiotic problems in your head! Idiots like you are the reason Kiyo-!"

Mukuro stopped.

Tsuji also stopped.

Mukuro was shocked by his own words and tone.

Tsuji was shocked by the pained expression he saw.

.

Idiots.

They had all been idiots.

Mukuro was not an idiot.

Those people had been idiots. The people they were with had been idiots. Even his own parents had been idiots.

The only ones who had not been idiots were his older sister, older brother and younger sister.

They were smart. They were strong. They knew what was good. They knew what was just. They knew everything that Mukuro did and then some.

They were the reason he continued to live in this world of idiots.

But those idiots had done something that hurt him and his younger sister.

Those idiots he had to call parents had thrown out his older brother and had only done so because of the words of other idiots.

He had tried to explain why it would be a bad thing to do so, but they ignored him. All of the calculations and theories he had spent days and nights coming up with had been tossed aside by those idiots.

Then he had been told the fate of his older brother.

That older brother had died.

Rather, the one known as "older brother" had died. But his older brother had not died.

Multiple things had happened within the time his older brother was not his "older brother". All of that had led him to the result that everything had happened because of idiots.

The only people he could never see as idiots were this siblings.

That would be why he would reject the entire world just so that he could make everything better for those three people he could not call idiots.

Even if his "older brother" had died, he still had his older brother. His name had changed, but that older brother would remain the same person no matter how much he denied it.

And now there was an idiot in front of him, telling him that what he was doing was wrong.

He was not wrong.

He was not an idiot.

He had calculated out the results of this fight and so put those calculations to the test.

They had been right.

A leg that wasn't even real was a minor price that someone else had to pay so that he could win.

A win here meant that things would be better for his siblings.

If it made things better for his siblings then he had no reason to worry about anything else.

Idiots be damned. So long as he could reform reality into something that benefited his siblings then he would twist everything he could.

That included this boring, idiotic and pathetic fight.

_I'll do it._

_I'll do this while Hoshi has fun._

_I'll do this while Kushi-nee does as she likes._

_I'll do this so Kiyo-nii doesn't have to worry in his own fight._

_Kiyo-nii has enough to worry about already._

_Kiyo-nii doesn't need more to worry about._

_Kiyo-nii is still here, so I need to make sure he doesn't leave again._

_Kiyo-_

"Listen!"

An idiot's voice rang out in the enclosed hallway.

.

Tsuji did not know how to describe what he was seeing. It was unlike anything else he had seen in a person.

This boy who looked ready to pass out seemed to be going through so much in his mind that everything else did not register to him. Everything around him did not exist and only his own reality was what he was focused on.

Then he heard a name.

"Kiyo-nii."

That name had no real meaning to him, but he recognized it. It had been a name that came out of both his upperclassman's mouth as well as one of his best friend's mouth. The full name they had used was "Kiyoshi" and they spoke of him fondly.

There had also been an upperclassman with the same name. He had argued constantly with Ninomiya, but had suddenly "died" at some point.

Now that "Kiyoshi" went by a different name, a different style, and a completely different personality.

He was now "Yuki".

The "Yuki" he knew was vastly different from the "Kiyoshi" he had heard about.

But there was something they had in common.

They were both blood related to Mukuro.

They were also blood related to Kushikage and Hoshi. Two girls with extremely different personalities and lifestyles.

That was where it all came together.

This tired boy in front of him was living a world only for his siblings. It was his reality that was completely different from anyone else's.

That was why he would Hisoka the way he did.

But Tsuji felt like he should not accept that.

This was not the reality everyone else was living in. It was just one that could only harm the tired boy even more.

He knew that it could end up harmful since some of them could have just as easily ended up like that.

When the Hatohara sister left. They could have created their own realities to cope with it, but they did no such thing. They had all accepted that reality.

So he had to find a way to pull this tired boy from the reality.

Even if he did not like this tired boy, he felt that he had to destroy that reality as someone who now knew it existed.

So he spoke up.

"Listen!"

.

Mukuro blinked and Tsuji grabbed his shoulders.

The sudden moment and the sudden voice had broken through to Mukuro.

Mukuro felt his body begin to sag as Tsuji held him in place.

Tsuji held up Mukuro by the shoulders, knowing the younger boy would fall the instant he let go.

"I don't want you using my friend like that. Besides just being her friend, it will also be bad if you just go around using people like that without letting them know."

He had already seen what that was like with the Kotowari Squad captain.

The reality he wanted to bring Mukuro into would not be good if he ended up the same way.

"So I'll give you permission to use me. You can cut through me, pierce me, or throw me at the opponent beyond that wall."

"But you can't even face her because of her gender."

"Then you need to come up with a way around that."

"Me? Stop being so-"

"You're smart, aren't you? You should already know how to use me here."

"…"

"So you do. Good. Then don't use Hisoka like that again. Use me however you want in this fight. And make sure we win."

"Winning here…"

"And don't think about your siblings."

Mukuro's reaction was instant.

He glared at Tsuji while moving back.

He seemed to have gained some energy back with that comment.

"Use all of your brain to focus not his fight and not on your siblings. If you don't do that much then they will be disappointed in you."

"What do you-"

"Taiyōko…your younger sister. She won't like that you were focusing on her instead of helping others, will she?"

"That's-"

"Tsukiko-senpai won't like how much trouble you're causing by letting this Neighbor stall us out, will he?"

"Will he…?"

He could not say anything about the older sister. It was likely she would appear if he were to say anything, so he held his tongue.

So.

"So can you do it? Can you just focus on something other than your siblings here?"

"What am I supposed to focus on then…?"

There was no need to hesitate.

Tsuji already had the answer.

"Me."

.

Hisoka moved through the hallway of vines with precision and speed.

The entire hallways beyond the wall of vines had become a world of green. Vines, vines and more vines littered the hallway to the point of her not being able to stand on anything without knowing it was just another vine.

The vines had not tried to attack her once she had reached this world of green.

No, those vines had done nothing more than thread together at multiple points.

Swirls of threaded vines could be seen moving in the air around the Neighbor as if to be her shields.

She had not cocooned herself like last time, but this was just as bad.

Now that Neighbor would be able to see every attack moving towards her and have hardened shields of threaded vines to protect her.

_I have Viper, but…_

It lacked power.

So did Asteroid.

They could not breath through the threaded vines acting as shields.

Even if they could, she would need to get in close for a decisive blow. Anything beyond that would only make minimal damage hits.

So she charged forward.

She rushed through the world of green and threaded vines while keeping one of her dominant hands free of any Triggers.

Her usage of Spider had been unique in that she did not use them to create a territory or hold others back. They were weapons to use for her own movements and were personal instead of anti-personal or anti-army. It was something that she found much easier to do when fighting alongside the likes of Minoru.

She used her customized Spider to keep moving.

The wire coming from the device on her wrist would attack one of the vines around her, allowing her to pull herself around the green hallway with easy movements.

The threaded vines would buckle or collapse altogether when she tried to get one that was in the air and the ones on the ground shook violently as if disliking her feet being on top of them.

But she did not care about those things.

The small moments of sharing did not disturb her balance.

They were just strange platforms for her to use as footholds.

_This is still trouble though. I can move in this area, but that's all. I can get close, but she will notice. What to do…?_

The amount of options open to her were limited.

Stalling her out and keeping her from going to help anyone else seemed to be what this Neighbor was trying to do. That was obvious to anyone.

She was doing a good job at that.

Hisoka could not help but notice that this world of green she was in was perfect for stalling people out.

_This really is the perfect opponent to fight against me._

Hisoka was a close-range fighter while this girl liked to keep her distance.

Hisoka had weaker Triggers and were meant to build up damage while this girl had a dense defense.

Hisoka could not understand emotions well while this girl seemed to run on them.

_I guess that last one isn't too important right now though._

Something she did have going for her was something that Oshiro had said before.

During that time he had compared to her a spider with the way she moved, ensnared and took down her opponents.

"You know, Hisoka-san, I really wouldn't doubt that you could pull off some amazing things just with wires. My own use of Spider is kind of lacking when compared to you and Kanzaki-san."

He had said that with a self deprecating smile.

She and Tsuji had lightly flicked him once they realized that he was putting himself down again.

But what stuck with her was his next comment.

He had been rubbing his forehead when he brought up an idea that she saved for later.

"You know what would be really amazing! If you moved more than one wires at once! Oh, uh, I meant all at once. You are really good at moving wires when you have full control of your hands. But, but! What if you, uh… Oh! Your fingers! What if you use your fingers instead of just your hand! Kanzaki-san does something similar, but she usually just grabs a handful of wires or uses the movement of her blade to control them… You know what, never mind what I said. It's nothing important."

He had ended that conversation with a nervous laugh and Tsuji had given him another flick. But Hisoka had thought about it as an honest suggestion.

It was something interesting to try out and her squad had even said as much when she brought it up with them. Svantje had suggested that she go see Kanzaki about the idea, but there had never been any time to do so.

Besides, that girl was an oddball herself and could be hard to handle if someone was not ready.

But now that she was in this situation, that idea had come back to mind.

_I guess now is as good of a time as any to try._

.

The world of green and threaded vines was something she had not seen in so long.

It felt like a lost world that she would never see again.

But here it was.

She had created this world.

Shi Muon marveled at her own work.

Every threaded vine reminded her of Galopoula. In particular the garden she had tended to constantly.

It had been a beautiful place that held much meaning to her. Back when she did not have to worry about fighting.

_No. Stop thinking about it. You are here now and need to focus. Just a bit longer and then you can go see everyone again._

She only had to stall out Miden's warriors for a bit longer.

The girl before her, the one running in her world of green, could not reach her no matter how hard she tried. The threaded vines would keep her at bay for the remainder of the time.

The boy who had been cowered behind the corner could cut through her vines, but he did not have the heart to attack her. There were no issues fighting him.

The tired boy had been a different story. He had managed to cut through her vines while holding a resolve to fight her. But it seemed there had been a falling out as his trion blades had been moved out of the way and had yet to reach her again.

It was a perfect situation for her.

They had begun to stall themselves out.

She would not have to attack any of them.

Defense was all she needed.

Even as the girl in front of her moved forward, there was nothing to worry about.

Even as the girl in front of her fired shots from her gun, there was nothing to worry about.

Even as the girl in front of her forced her arm forward, there was nothing to worry about.

Even as the girl in front of her activated a Trigger, there was nothing to worry about.

When the girl threw out a large amount of wires, there was something to worry about.

_What is this!?_

Hisoka had released a large amount of wires from the wristband she wore. They had all shot out like a spiderweb, shooting out in multiple directions.

From where she stood, Shi Muon could see her begin to move her arm around as her fingers twitched back and forth.

The base of the wires began to tangle around her fingers without running into each other. They did not thread together like her vines had, but they moved much more freely than those vines.

With quick and snapping motions, each wire flew through the air. They started running into some of the vines that were hanging in the air, gripping them hard and not letting go.

_Stop! Stop! I hate webs!_

She commanded the vines taken by the wires to get loose.

But that did not seem possible anymore.

The wires that had latched onto the vines were much too hard for her weak offense to break apart.

Hisoka continued moving through the world of green. She used both the wires as well as the vines themselves as steps to maneuver through it all.

Shi muon could see her getting closer and closer by the second.

The vines were trying to shake her off, but she managed to keep her balance the entire time.

_In that case!_

She commanded the vines to thread together again.

The threaded vines moved in front of her as the ones along the wall retracted and threaded together to form more shields.

But…

"!?"

They did not move.

No, it was not that they did not move.

They _could not_ move.

With a few flicks of her fingers, Hisoka had used the wires attached to the vines to move the vines around in different ways. Once they started threaded together in the way she wanted, she forcefully clenched her fist.

The wires went hard and pulled the vines they were attached to along with them.

The vines were now stuck between following Shi Muon's command and being held in place by Hisoka's wires.

"Oh no…!"

And now the girl was in front of her.

There was something to worry about.

"I need to…!"

She reacted to the close proximity girl by moving the threaded vine shield down with a forceful action.

The threaded vine shield slammed into the ground just as Hisoka touched the ground.

Upon tossing the shields to the floor, Hisoka jumped up once more.

Now she was above Shi Muon.

She brought out her gun.

She pulled the Trigger.

She fired her shots.

"I am strong in defense!"

The threaded shields made another forceful action.

.

Hisoka saw the forceful action from the threaded vine shields.

They had been slammed to the ground so she could not move forward, but she had gotten around that by making a quick jump into the air.

She had fired Asteroid from her handgun in hope that she would land at least one hit.

Then Shi Muon had made a decisive action.

She hit herself.

Using the threaded vine shields that had been slammed into the ground, she had forced them to retract with more speed than someone would be able to control. They tore through the floor and came back to her in the same way a rubber band would swing back into place after having been stretched.

The voice from the retraction had hit her head-on. She had been tossed back.

_Smart._

Hisoka had to give some praise to the action.

While it was self destructive and not optimal, it had been a better result than having to take hits from Asteroid.

She understood how those kinds of actions had worked since there was someone close to her who had used to use the same tactics.

These kinds of people saw themselves as the main defense against attacks. They viewed themselves as nothing more than shields who would soak up damage so that everyone else would be fine. They would even use self-destructive moves just to keep fighting and keep defending.

A certain boy had been exactly like that.

But that had changed for the better.

She did not understand the feelings behind that change, but she knew that it was good that the boy no longer fought like that.

_Now._

What could she do?

"G-get those webs a-away from me!"

She was now in a dangerous position.

Because of her jump, she was in midair with her hand in a firing position.

The opponent had moved back and now had a better understanding of what to do.

That defensive woman had launched an attack.

The threaded vine shields came undone in an instant. They began moving towards her while threading together again. This time they did so in a different fashion.

They threaded together into a single threaded vine lance.

The lance was going right for her stomach.

.

She had done it.

Shi Muon had gotten out of a dangerous situation and had launched an actual offense.

She had gotten rid of her defense in order to make an offensive move.

Now she only needed to hit this web girl with the threaded vine lance and it would be over for her.

She would get praise not for her defense but for her offense that had taken out a Miden warrior.

"Aha!"

Or that was how it should have been.

.

The wall of threaded vines did not burst nor did it collapse.

It fell apart.

A trion blade had pierced through the wall of threaded vines, continued on to the threaded vine lance and held it in place.

It then began to move across the hallway, cutting through it and running into the wall opposite of Hisoka.

Then a voice rang out.

"We have manifested.

"What, if it isn't a human. Pathetic. Die.

"You don't need to die if you don't want to."

A body came through the opening in the wall of threaded vines.

The body was wearing a suit and held a blade in their hand.

They cut down the vines covering the walls.

A second body came after.

This body had been the source of the voice.

It moved through the space on light feet. Trion blades extended out of its fingertips and it had its head raised towards the heavens.

"Growth, huh.

"I am happy because of this body."

The voice continued to fill the space as the two bodies moved through the world of green, cutting down everything in their way.

"I've become stronger.

"As expected."

Quick flashes of a blade being pulled out filled the area as the one in a suit continued to slash through the vines in rapid succession.

"Thank you very much.

"There is no need to say thanks."

The trion blades moved in smooth motions.

Up, down, up, down.

They swayed in the air as if in a trance.

It was like they were not trying to cut the vines but instead "just so happen" to cut the vines.

"Wonderful! You will become beautiful on every point!"

"My! You're being honest."

The body in a suit and holding a blade rushed forward.

Drawing his blade once more, he cut through the remaining parts of the threaded vine lance.

.

Hisoka did not understand what she was seeing.

Not only had Mukuro and Tsuji begun tearing apart this world of green, but they were moving so smoothly.

The way they were moving and the way Mukuro was letting out his voice remind him of someone, but she could not place her finger on it.

It had likely been someone she did not like.

She would use the chat instead of interrupting them vocally, for the time being.

It seemed that Mukuro's voice was a necessity for the two of them.

 **Grumpy Cat:** "They can't hear you. Or at least not Shinnosuke-senpai. Aki-can just sent the details of what is going on."

 **Blue Widow:** "What _is_ going on?"

 **Grumpy Cat:** "They are making sure Shinnosuke-senpai focuses only on Mukuro, so she had muted everything for him except Mukuro's voice. It's to make sure he can't focus on the fact that you there have a woman for an opponent."

 **Blue Widow:** "That explains why Shin-kun is wearing his tie like that."

From where she stood, Hisoka could see that the tie with the Ninomiya Squad emblem no longer hung around Tsuji's neck and was instead tied around his head like a blindfold.

It was to make sure he could not see his opponent.

But something still did not make sense.

 **Blue Widow:** "If he can't hear what is around him and can't see, how does he know where to go?"

 **Grumpy Cat:** "that would be hard to explain to you. And I mean you specifically."

Why was that?

 **Grumpy Cat:** "It is almost exactly like what Suzu does."

That was why it was so similar.

The crazy girl of Kotowari Squad would usually do something similar in the way she let her voice out and would begin to dance at any time.

Hisoka did not understand that girl at all and felt that it was for the better.

But that was neither here nor there.

What mattered at the moment was what she could do.

 **Blue Widow:** "Could I help them without doing that too?"

 **Grumpy Cat:** "They will probably need it."

With that confirmed for her, Hisoka began to move again.

She released more wires while staying out of the way of either blade.

.

"We are the loved ones. We are lights combined as one."

He felt so good.

"We are all ones together. Our hearts beat as one."

It felt amazing to let it out.

"Our connection is eternal, immutable. At least, to the level of stars twinkling in the night sky."

It also felt saddening.

"We guarantee it. You are connected to us."

It had been a song meant to be sung with those he loved and cared for.

The song coming from his mouth were his feelings. They were words meant to be sung alongside those other three.

But he had to use them here.

"Right. You have done well raising me to high.

"I shall praise you.

"Even if you didn't give it all."

These important words had to be sung out in order to fight.

They had to come out so that he could properly use that pathetic boy who refused to have him use his friend.

Movements that were meant to entertain others were wasted here.

And yet…

"We are the stars!

"The ones shining on the sky!"

He found himself enjoying it all.

"This is a special case. I shall offer you my guidance.

"We are the light. The light that comes after a storm."

He was moving his body in fluid movements for this dance.

The pathetic boy was listening to these words and these words alone, all while adding his own movements to the dance.

While she was not dancing along with them, that wire girl was also moving within the song.

This was why he liked music.

It was something anyone could like. Geniuses or idiots, music encompassed so much that even he could not deny those two this.

"Then praise! Our stars!"

He knew there was someone else like this.

A girl who loved song and dance more than anything existed in Border, so she likely knew what this felt like.

But he knew that this was still different.

He knew that this was not like her way of song and dance.

Her way was likely a way of expressing everything.

His way was a way of showing his devotion to only those three people.

The fact this pathetic boy got this treatment made a strange feeling in him well up.

"Fear us.

"Revere us.

"The ones shining in the heavens!

"The guidance of the stars!

"We descend and stand here!"

The feeling was not a bad one.

It made him feel light.

It made him move on light feet.

The feeling made him feel like he could let everything go and do nothing but sleep once he had let everything out.

"Divine essence connected.

"Divine essence excited.

"Power! Light! We ourselves!

"The love shining on the heavens!"

It all just meant he would need to end it all here.

This fight, this song, this dance, this feeling, and everything around him. It all needed to end so that he could sleep.

Even if it was near this pathetic boy, he felt like he should sleep.

A slumber that would right everything around him once more.

That was why…

.

_Wh-what is this…?_

Shi Muon could not even bring herself to see this as a form of attack.

The web girl was moving throughout the hall, trapping and ensnaring her vines with her wires.

The boy who could not fight her before was now moving with snapping motions and quick actions, cutting through all of the vines.

The most amazing one had to have been the tired boy.

Unlike the other two, he seemed to just be enjoying himself.

He spun and twisted with the trion blades at his fingertips while letting out his voice the entire time.

The sound of her vines being cut had long been overpowered by the sound of that boy's voice. It was an amazing voice that carried something she easily recognized.

_Love and sadness._

She had constantly used that kind of voice many times, so she understood all too well what it meant.

Even so, she did not stop her own movements just because she understood.

Her own love and sadness had come from this very mission, so she had to put her all into it. Failing to do so would only upset everyone else and cause them to feel bad for her.

_I don't want that!_

With her own resolve not he matter, she began creating more vines.

Her world of green had been torn apart and the threaded vines meant nothing when faced with those trion blades.

Yet she continued to create more.

She continued to extend them out.

She continued to thread them together.

Even as those three got closer to her, she continued defending. After all, defending was what she was best at. If she could not do even that much then she would be useless and the others would not use her anymore.

_So once more…!_

Her mind stopped.

She saw green gas rise up directly in front of her.

Looking down, she saw that the gas was trion. Trion that was coming form her body.

Why had she started leaking trion?

She knew the answer. It was staring back at her.

An arc trion blade was stabbed into her stomach.

"Oh yeah. I never gave the name of my Trigger."

She could hear the tired boy again.

The singing had stopped and so had the dance.

It was all over.

"The name of my Trigger is Daínsleif."

The arc trion blade was not the one to end the fight.

It held her in place, along with multiple wires, but it was not the thing she saw as "the last attack".

That had been the pathetic boy who could not fight her. He quickly drew his sword from its scabbard and cut her down.

_Wen… Captain… I'm sorry for not being a good defender._

* * *

"Both Wen and Shi are down, huh. Guess I was right…"

Koskero cursed in his heart.

He was standing before two Miden warriors, one with a spear and one with a blade.

The knowledge that two of his teammates had lost came through clearly to him.

He only thought one thing as he faced the two Miden warriors.

_Miden really is…strong._


	113. Galopoula: Part 6

Mochizuki saw the result of her explosion.

The small explosions had been narrowed down for anti-personnel use. It was small scale, but it had enough power to easily blow someone away.

However…

"Good evening."

The falling smoke and flames were parted by Shiraishi Chisato.

She was unscathed as she walked forward. And…

… _How?_

Mochizuki did not understand. She had thrown an explosive as a counterattack. And she had matched it to Chisato's timing.

She had predicted her enemy would pass through that, so she had prepared a second piece of coal which could completely crush her opponent.

Or it should have.

That "should" should not have existed for an autonomous trion soldier.

For an autonomous trion soldier, the result was determined in advance. There were times when they made a "should" estimation because their processing power could not keep up with their macro observations, but there were never any "shoulds" in the micro observations of a battle like this with little to interfere.

But the enemy was unharmed.

Her gait was light as she approached. Mochizuki worked her mind to figure out why.

… _Understood._

Mochizuki reached an understanding. Chisato was _walking_.

Mochizuki had thrown her explosive based on the timing from when Chisato had been _running_.

Since she was _walking_ now, the explosion had occurred in front of her and focused its power there.

… _But the early throwing time was not a mistake._

After all, predicting she would be walking and throwing accordingly would have been dangerous. It was possible she could shift from a walk to a run.

So this decision had not been a mistake.

But this decision had not defeated the enemy.

And that enemy was approaching.

She walked forward.

Mochizuki prepared to move back.

"—?"

Chisato raised her right hand.

Her lightly spread hand held nothing. And there was no sign of her grabbing anything with it. But…

… _I have determined this was unexpected!_

Mochizuki realized she had stopped moving.

.

"Well done, Shiraishi Representative."

Ōji heard Kurauchi speak quietly while maintaining his defensive stance.

He followed his gaze toward Mochizuki.

And when Ōji looked that way, Mochizuki did something odd.

Even though Chisato was merely walking, Mochizuki frantically began to move back but suddenly stopped.

… _What is happening?_

Ōji asked Kurauchi about it while he adjusted the aim of his own Triggers.

"What kind of trick is the Shiraishi Representative using there?"

"Right. …She intentionally placed herself at a disadvantage in two or three ways at once."

And…

"She is using the advantages of essentially a computer against her opponent."

That reminded Ōji of something.

"Is that what you tried to do earlier in the day, Kurauchi?"

"This is different from Awdry and the others."

Kurauchi had fought a beast in the morning, but...

"Compared to the Shiraishi Representative's current opponent, I can see just how free a life Yagura's trion soldier lives. I can also tell just how many harsh battlefields the other sides' trion soldiers have seen. And…I know perfectly well what combat policy the Shiraishi Representative has taken."

That being…

"Pacifism. Or rather, she aims to surpass her opponent without even fighting."

Ōji knew what he meant. That had been the Shiraishi family's initial policy toward Border.

… _They kept their distance from Border and tried to claim the uncertain path that made them the people's victors._

Even if they would have accepted Border after that, they had rejected any interference.

Of course, even if the Shiraishi Representative advocated pacifism, she would know that fighting was inevitable.

She avoided combat because the explosive power of dedicating all of her strength to fighting was too dangerous. Ortlinde's Unturning Trion Lances went well beyond an individual's technique.

Also, when she did use that, she tended to make her attack in consecutive waves to provide a warning.

"When she does fight, she pursues her enemy, bites at them time and again, and lets them know how much of an advantage she has before finally ensnaring them and crushing them. …Is that the way of Ortlinde?"

She had done that against Futoyuki during a training session earlier in the day. She had secured her advantage on the battlefield using the consecutive creation of Ortlinde's parts and then she had made her attack on Futoyuki.

It was a strange contradiction.

She held back because she understood the danger she posed.

But when she decided to use her power, she did so without feeling a single pang of conscience.

And most likely…

… _She stepped forward on this battlefield because she lacks Ortlinde in full._

Should you call it a prideful overestimation of her power?

Or should you call it a kind consideration for others?

But Ōji also heard some whispering behind him.

"Weird… She was pretty damn hostile with me from the beginnin'…"

"What'd you do to her, Iko-san?"

"Only gave'er some panties while playin' a porn game'n then fought her with Kōgetsu."

"That's pretty high level stuff."

"Um, Mizukami-senpai, I don't think that's the issue…"

Perhaps some forceful interference had altered the Shiraishi family's policy from the outset there.

But without that here, the Shiraishi Representative could handle this like normal.

"Here she goes, Ōji. …The Shiraishi Representative is moving forward."

.

 _This is a pattern,_ thought Mochizuki as she fell back.

_This must be the usual combat pattern of Miden's warrior known as the Shiraishi Representative. Understood._

… _She is going to repeatedly bite at me as a warning!_

She would make her superiority known and, if her opponent continued to oppose her, she would prove that accumulated superiority by sending all of it her opponent's way to achieve victory.

Shiraishi's Representative had already given several warnings.

When Mochizuki placed her memories on the chopping block of her decision making, she realized the warnings had begun from the first time that girl had blocked one of the explosives with her lances.

And that had done something to the timing of Mochizuki's explosions and the way she dodged the many lance strikes.

… _She created a pattern in them!_

Mochizuki had intended to avoid repeating a pattern in her attacks and evasions.

But the enemy had made her do so.

By defending, dodging, and attacking in the same way, Shiraishi's Representative had given a pattern to Mochizuki's movements.

It was not that Shiraishi's Representative could only defend or dodge, or that she could only make attacks that would not hit.

"I have determined she was guiding me by teaching me how to react to those actions!"

Mochizuki tried to fall back as Chisato walked toward her.

Mochizuki determined her opponent was dangerous, so she quickly prepared to move back.

"—"

Her body reacted to Chisato's light movements.

Chisato had made one of the "initial movements" that Mochizuki had unwittingly memorized.

It was the initial movement that Chisato always made before attacking.

And once she saw that movement, Mochizuki would not be making the "optimal reaction" if she did not dodge.

So she began to change her backwards movement into the optimal evasion.

… _I have determined that is wrong!_

The immediate change of intent dulled and stopped her movement.

This was a deficiency found in autonomous trion soldiers.

What was normally a strength had been remade into a weakness by the series of events.

And the enemy had made a further warning earlier.

When faced with the defenseless Shiraishi Chisato, Mochizuki had determined whether or not she was an enemy. If she had settled on "not an enemy", this would not have happened.

That had been the final warning.

After preparing herself to overcome everything, Shirishi Chisato was confirming her opponent's hostile intent.

Mochizuki had misread the situation.

Her primary mission was to buy time for Galopoula to complete its preparations in the large building. So she had determined her goal matched that of Shiraishi Chisato who was making no attempt at a finishing blow.

But she had been wrong.

Her opponent had only been warning her while building up what she needed to overcome.

… _If I do not fall back soon, she will ultimately crush me and sweep me away!_

Mochizuki had made the wrong decision here.

She had mistakenly thought this was provocation and that she was a step away from victory.

But that had not been true at all.

"I have determined you were luring me in!"

There was a reason for the intensity at the end of her statement. Shiraishi Chisato had lightly moved her knee forward as she approached.

She was coming.

Autonomous Trion Solder vision was fast. She could perceive all of her opponent's movements. But that was precisely the problem.

"—"

She could not overlook the initial movement of an attack that she had been forced to memorize.

To conclude that this was something else, she had to confirm it for herself.

This was the same.

Even in her high-speed vision, she had to wait to see that Shiraishi Chisato's leg was merely stepping forward instead of preparing to attack.

Her high-speed processing power was wasted.

It was a waste of time.

"When you can see everything, you have to react to everything," said Shiraishi Chisato. "Let me guess. You should have been a good match for me. You should have been able to use your explosives to hold back the consecutive creation of my trion lances. You should have been able to hold back all of my attacks. You should have been easily able to defeat me. That's how it _should_ have been…right?"

The enemy spoke of should after should. And without a smile on her face.

"And that's why a thought occurred to me."

"What was that?"

"What would be good for dinner tonight? We had fish yesterday."

Mochizuki did not understand.

But Shiraishi Chisato continued to approach. But as she approached, Mochizuki had a thought.

… _If I keep things like this, her attacks can't reach me!_

Yes, if the enemy attacked, she only had to dodge again.

If she made the appropriate response, the enemy could do nothing.

… _And…_ She still had a secret technique.

Her opponent was not the only one with a trick up her sleeve.

And just as she sensed the possibility of victory, Shiraishi Chisato moved again.

She displayed the initial movement of an attack.

.

 _Oh,_ thought Ikoma.

… _Is she gonna create her lance here?_

The B-Rank captain's eyes saw the false limbs white hood girl finally create a lance from thin air.

She had moved in close, but her trion soldier opponent had excellent reaction speed. Swinging that lance would not hit her. So…

"That's right."

Ikoma continued speaking before the confused underclassman and the others could turn his way.

"She's powerful, but she doesn't hold back."

As he said that, Chisato made a certain movement.

She let go of the lance she had partially created.

.

Mochizuki determined her opponent had done something unexpected.

She had given Mochizuki an evasion pattern, looked like was using that for a feint, and…

… _Did something else!?_

Autonomous trion soldiers always sought the optimal answer to the present situation.

They searched for that answer through calculations such as statistics and deviations, but most of all by searching.

Even when faced with a never-before-seen situation, there was a chance they had experienced, seen, or heard about a similar or equivalent action.

So that happened here. And…

"…Kh."

She could not move until she found the answer.

She might find the optimal solution, so moving before it arrived might mean letting the optimal solution escape her. So…

… _I…can't…_

Mochizuki made an adjustment as the word "move" appeared in her mind.

She saw Shiraishi Chisato charge forward without a weapon in tow.

She had to strike back.

This was an enemy before her eyes. As she had previously determined, this was a hostile opponent.

The current situation did not matter. The previous reason remained: Shiraishi Chisato was a part of Miden, so…

… _She is defined as an enemy!_

"—!"

Mochizuki moved. She moved back to avoid Chisato's approach.

And she swung her hand like usual.

… _I have determined she cannot dodge this!_

She threw her explosives as a counterattack against Chisato.

.

Chisato saw the coals approaching.

The explosives had been thrown toward her approach.

… _So she managed to respond. Well done._

And so Chisato continued forward. She leaned forward for just an instant to pass between the coals.

From there, she did not rush herself and walked one step further forward than normal.

That dodged the attack.

Ahead of her, Mochizuki was already preparing the next attack.

"—"

Chisato felt heat like wind on her neck.

It was…

… _The coals._

The five coals that glowed with a red light had supposedly passed by her, but they made a gentle turn and pursued her.

These were homing weapons. They were different from the previous coals that had only traveled in a straight line. Their movements gently wrapped around her at close range. They were similar to Hound in that way.

"…!"

And they exploded.

.

Mochizuki made her second throw.

She could not tell what had happened to Shiraishi Chisato.

This was a dangerous enemy, so she needed to throw more explosives.

… _Obliterating her so nothing remains is the optimal solution!_

Mochizuki used that decision to violently shake the air.

The many explosions surrounded her with smoke. The enemy was thoroughly hidden both physically and optically. Mochizuki knew what such an action was called: fear.

She had no emotions, but this was a statistical decision.

After all, this enemy had surpassed what autonomous trion soldiers excelled at and took pride in, and she had moved in to consume her. It was almost like…

"She is trying to make my existence meaningless…!"

All of these additional explosives were thrown in a straight line. They did not contain the gentle homing ability seen in the earlier ones. That was…

… _My secret technique!_

She had revealed her explosion ability that she only used as a last resort.

It was…

"A fuse, right?"

She heard a voice. It was Shiraishi Chisato's.

.

Mochizuki briefly stopped moving.

But only for a moment. She soon launched more explosives. She sent a great tremor into the air.

But the voice spoke.

"Your explosion ability - Trigger? - is formed from a fuse. You should have plenty of explosives stored in some other phase like a dual pitch space - such as a Gate - for when bringing weaponry along on a covert mission would be difficult."

"I have determined you are discussing 'shoulds'."

"And you should have things set up so that the bombs stored in a phase space are ejected and detonated when the fire reaches the end of the fuse. And for a fuse, you use…"

She said it.

"Your hair."

There was no "should" here.

"Your throwing action was fake. You used the throwing action to disguise that your gravitational control pulled out a hair fuse and threw it like a long needle. That was why the throwing action was always the same and the thrown explosives were always the same speed. And that made it easy to avoid once I had seen through it."

"But how did you-…!?"

"Because you tried to hit me by manipulating the timing more than the speed or angle. It's the same as trying to hit someone with a projectile fired at the optimal speed instead of just throwing it by hand. That told me you were launching something with your gravitational control instead of throwing the explosive."

Mochizuki stopped making the throwing motion.

Her enemy had seen through it.

It was no use against this opponent.

"I thought you did quite well at the end there. …You used nothing but straight-line throws the whole time and then released the gravitational control to give the hairs back some of their original limberness. The very air current I created by moving forward caught them and gave the fuses a gentle homing ability. A decent secret technique."

She had seen through it all.

Mochizuki determined that every technique available to her had been crushed.

"How long did you know…?"

"Would it sound cool to say 'from the beginning'?"

As for why…

"The smell. …You were plotting to infiltrate the Border base if possible, weren't you? So you prepared a disguise and used Earth products. …That shampoo can overpower the smell of other things, can't it? I've used it since last night."

The wind reached the smoke.

A slight gap appeared in the smoke, creating a window-like slit. And when Mochizuki searched for the enemy through it…

… _She's gone!?_

"I'm over here."

She was down below.

At the bottom of the smoke convection, Shiraishi Chisato was seated on the floor.

She had no hood.

There was no need to preface it with "most likely". To escape the timing of the explosion, she had abandoned the weights on her shoulders and dropped her body straight down.

The enemy had been in the same spot the entire time.

Which one was it that had lost sight of what mattered and instead viewed the wrong thing?

… _I have determined it was me!_

Mochizuki moved.

Nothing she could do would work any longer. So as if abandoning all that…

"…!"

She pulled out a bundle of hair with her gravitational control and fired it.

She lit the many fuses as Shiraishi Chisato got up from the floor.

"What if I attack with them all at once!?"

"You mustn't lose sight of your original objective."

Shiraishi Chisato created a semi-circle onto her shoulders.

And not just one pair. The semi-circle appeared like bullets being loaded into a magazine and she launched them toward Mochizuki.

They all took the same action she had used when attacking Mochizuki before.

She reproduced the attack enough times to reach the triple digits. The semi-circles accurately carried out the task. But those semi-circles were no weapons. So even more than before…

… _Those attacks cannot reach me!_

Just as Mochizuki made that decision and prepared to make her final evasion, she saw something.

The many semi-circles performing their attack in midair were holding her fuses. And each semi-circle held just the one hair.

Hoodless Chisato spoke calmly.

"Attacking with them all at once, you said?"

Then…

"That is what I'll hit you with to defeat you."

Mochizuki realized all of the explosions had hit her own body.

As she was smashed to pieces, she heard a noise.

It was coming through a special communication link she had been given by the original model. But Mochichiyo. It was connected to...

… _Lord Koskero._

She heard fast movements. He was still fighting against Miden warriors.

* * *

A jellylike substance moved through the air, curving and shifting.

Yoneya moved through the jellylike substance, extra spear in hand.

Fallen Idras lay behind him as he swung the spear at Koskero.

A decagonal blade was raised to block the spear.

From the corners of the room the jellylike substance spread out and moved towards Yoneya's side.

A large shield appeared at his side, but the jellylike substances only curved around the shield and moved closer to the retreating Yoneya.

Once it had a hold on him, it grabbed hold of his arm hand from the wrist down and his foot from the ankle down.

He tried to grab hold of his spear once more and found his hand slipping across the surface of it. His step did as much when he tried to move forward.

" _Thanks for trying, Sunshine."_

" _Uwaaah~ I was going to curve the shield, but that goo is faster than I thought it would be. My bad."_

" _No worries. You're using your scope to see us after all."_

Trying for a second time to grab hold of his spear, Yoneya found the spear slipping through his grasp with the jellylike substance not allowing his hand to make actual contact with the Trigger.

_"Whoa, I can't get a good grip on my spear. And I'm losing my balance. This stuff looks insignificant at first but is definitely bad news."_

_"His Trigger causes a 'disadvantageous effect' for his opponents. Kind of like the Lead Bullets."_

The jellylike substance that had been attacking them began to move back towards the Neighbor.

It swirled around him like tentacles ready to strike.

There was no physical damage with those attacks, but being stopped from using their own Triggers would only lead to bad things. They would not be able to fight or counter any physical attacks after they were taken by the jellylike substance.

_"We've failed every time we've tried to out-flank him. Looks like his positioning is mainly defensive. He's the type to waste an opponent's time."_

" _Just got word that Hiso fought someone similar over on her end. The difference was that she used physical defenses to stall out. You two just got the short end of the stick, I guess."_

" _Thanks for telling us that!"_

" _Any time!"_

" _If you two are done."_

Yoneya stuck his tongue out towards Miwa, knowing that Svantje was doing the same on her end.

For his part, Miwa just ignored the gesture and continued.

_"He might also be waiting for a chance to strike back. The important thing is that we don't try to fight that gel shield head-on, we should be fine."_

" _Aw~ Use 'jelly', it's more fun to say!"_

He would not and they all knew that.

_"Okay. We've encountered these 'do not touch' types, once before already."_

Yoneya grinned as he thought back to the last invasion they had fought.

During that time, the leader of the invasion had a Trigger that turned his opponents in raw trion or him to take. Anything trion based would be blocked by him and be rendered useless.

This time was different in the way the Triggers worked, but the situation was the exact same as back then.

_No, it's not the same this time._

This time he had more support.

This time there was Miwa at his side and Svantje backing them up from a distance.

So all he had to do was think about what they had done during the last time and what they could do during this time.

And that was…

.

"Senkū Kōgetsu!"

The extended slash from the shaft to the tip of the spear moved through the building.

A hole had been made in the Side of the building from a previous attack and both Yoneya and Miwa had stood at the opening. Within the building itself had been Koskero, trying to use the small space to his advantage.

The amount of places the jellylike substance could hide while inside of a crowded room had given him the advantage during the time, but now that was being taken away from him.

The slashes that cut through the air soon reached the roof of the buildings, tearing through its materials and splitting it open.

Koskero began to move back from the attack and the falling roof.

"!?"

Shattered glass could be heard from the side.

As he tried to move to the right, he stopped to make his step into a half turn.

A shot had been fired from a distance.

It had stopped him from moving to the side.

The roof of the building came down on him a moment later.

"…"

Or that was what should have happened.

At seeing the roof beginning to fall on him, Koskero used this half turn to slide to the side while the jellylike substance from Nikokyra splashed from the weight of the roof.

He glanced at the device in his hand as Miwa rushed forward with Kōgetsu.

_Guess I'll give some payback for Mochichiyo while I'm at it._

Tossing the device into the air, he closed his eyes.

The sound of a gun firing could be heard.

He brought up Nikokyra to block the bullets.

Two lead weights appeared in the jellylike substance.

At the same time, the device he had thrown gave a blinding flash.

It would detonate.

He prepared a second layer of defense with Nikokyra.

But…

"What…!?"

It was shot down.

The blinding light subsided as the device fell to the ground.

Koskero clicks this tongue.

_They know my Nikokyra is weak to non-trion attacks. That sniper noticed what was doing right away and shot it down before it could go off too._

This was the teamwork of Miden.

Their numbers, even when small, made up the danger coming from them. Aftokrator and Pagoménos had witnessed that firsthand and now Galopoula was able to see it for themselves.

_I should apologize to Mochichiyo after this. She might just let me off with a beating._

For now.

_I need to get outside._

Koskero took a leap away from the Miwa Squad duo and moved to the roof.

It was more dangerous when there was a sniper around, but it also gave him a wider area to move around.

The jellylike substance from Nikokyra gathered around him once more, moving around at his feet and twisting around his body.

_Looks like I'm going to need some time to set up a counterattack. I might even have to use the second gift Mochichiyo gave me. Although that one will be troublesome._

Anything to get through this fight.

Both Wen Sō and Shi muon had already lost within the Miden base, so it was up to the ones outside to hold off as many Miden warriors as they could. That included these two.

But then one of them did something strange.

It was frowned upon during fights, yet he did it without any worry.

"There is something...that I want to ask you first."

He began speaking.

.

Svantje watched through her scope and listened through the comms.

She had set up wires all-around the area so that she could snipe from just about anywhere.

Her tightrope sniping had been something she became well known for and it showed my once she put it to action.

But now she held back from firing.

"The ones that invaded and sanctioned the massacre of the world on 'this side' four years ago, was it your country? Or was it another country that you know of?"

Her friend wanted answers to something he had thought about for a long time now.

She knew that he wanted to know so he knew where to direct his emotions.

She could not fault him for that.

Even when speaking during a fight was forced upon, he did so without a care.

And the reason he could do so…

"…About that…"

Was because he trusted that she would be prepared.

She did not need to look through her scope to know that Miwa and Yoneya would get attacked during this time.

That had been easy to figure out from the way their opponent moved.

His stance, his mannerisms, the way he seemed to think through every action. It had all laid everything bare for her to see how things would turn out.

It was not a matter of calculating possibilities like Mei or Mukuro, or seeing possible futures like Jin. It was just simple deduction skills that lead her to the conclusion of his next actions.

That was why she did not hesitate to fire using Egret as he held herself on a wire.

The shot had moved through the air and ripped through the man.

At the same time, the jellylike substance rose from the building under the Miwa Squad duo, shooting out and reaching desperately for either one of them.

Some tendrils from the Trigger had grabbed hold of Miwa's arm and foot while other ones latched onto Yoneya's other leg.

With the jellylike substance taking his hand, Miwa was forced to let go of Kōgetsu.

Words followed after the simultaneous attacks.

"... I am under no obligations to answer you, but allow me to give you a piece of advice instead... _It's best not to talk too much, when we're in a battle._ "

The man spoke easily, even while his arm could not be used anymore.

This did nothing to faze either Miwa Squad member.

"'When we're in a battle'...? Don't be stupid."

Svantje could only nod her head as she began to move.

Her movement was casual and held no urgency.

This fight was over already. She did not need to be in position to attack anymore.

It had been clear why from the moment she saw the never changing expression on Miwa's face.

"The battle was already over... _The moment you came 'above_ '."

.

Five green lines raced along the ground before running up along the side of the buildings.

They climbed to the top just as easily and reached their destination.

Once they did...

"...!?"

They sprang up.

They were the five slashes from the Black Trigger known as Fujin.

* * *

In a far off distance, away from the fight concerning Miwa Squad, a single man stood with a green blade in hand.

_"A direct hit. Thanks for the hard work, Jin."_

Jin could only grin as he stared off in the direction he had sent the five slashes.

Tsukimi could be heard through the comms, but that did not matter.

What had mattered was the fact he had hit.

"You really know how to order people around."

* * *

Koskero could only stare as his body was slashed part by the five unseen blades.

_I knew there was a sniper, but this is…_

They had come as slashes instead of shots.

_The long distance slash attack that was mentioned in the Aftokrator report...! But from that far of a distance... Is this the effects of a Black Trigger! They lured me under the false pretense of talking to get me to stop moving so that the Black Trigger could take aim…!_

He could only curse from within his heart as he fell down on the roof.

These Miden warriors had worked together and come up with a strategy to beat three of them already.

They worked together as a single being instead of individuals who would not amount to much.

The Neighborhood viewed them as nothing more than a place to attack or a place to get some enjoyment out of by tormenting them. Trigger users in the Neighbor had all kinds of abilities, but they viewed themselves as individuals who could handle fights.

Miden was the opposite.

They were not as defanged as nations had thought and they were not so weak as to fall from an attack.

And because of all of that...

"I fell into a trap..."

Koskero looked in the direction of where the slashes came from, then to Miwa and Yoneya.

These two had seemed like they were "his only opponents" when in reality they were "two of his opponents".

That had been proven once the sniper had appeared to back them up and it had been reinforced by the final attack that caused his loss.

"Target neutralized. We're going to start escorting the Neighbor back to HQ. When we get back to HQ, we've got all the time in the world to talk."

Koskero could not help but think over the talk he had had with Mochichiyo before their attack.

There were no doubts in his mind that she would be laughing at him right now.

But she would also use this as a show of just what Miden could do.

That was why he had decided that they should send all of this information to her once they were done.

.

Yoneya looked down at their opponent.

The fight had been rather short, but it was also exciting in its own way.

But what he felt was the most important part to it all had to have been the way Miwa acted during it all.

There was no anger from him and each move was made in the same way it had been before they had ever met Tamakoma's Neighbor.

_It was actually better this time._

The rage and hatred he always showed toward Neighbors would come out when fighting on defense duty. This time had been different.

It was a nice change.

He knew that he was not the only one to think this as a message soon came through.

 **Sniper Detective:** "It's nice to see him like this."

Svantje had sent him a personal message so that they would not be found out by Miwa.

 **Spear Idiot:** "Yeah. I was shocked when he agreed to work with Jin-san. But I guess that just shows that things are different now."

 **Sniper Detective:** "I've heard that he's also helping out the Misaki flower shop."

 **Spear Idiot:** "Oh, yeah. Suzume's been coming by to talk to him about some things there. Nothing official yet, but I think he's starting to get some privileges for working there part time."

 **Sniper Detective:** "Are you sure he isn't just being used for doujinshi material?"

He had to laugh at that since it was likely that something like that was also happening when Miwa went over to help at that flower shop.

His grin fell to a small smile as he looked over to his captain and friend.

 **Spear Idiot:** "I think Suzume is just trying to get him to sing a song or something. Apparently it's become a goal for her now since she comes by regularly now. And nto because she wants to fight with Narasaka. She is usually begging him to 'at least hum the melody' of some songs."

It was an interesting thing to think about.

But that was not what had been important during those times.

While it entertained the rest of them, especially once she started dragging Kodera into it or started fighting with Narasaka, it was the way that Miwa responded to those things that would always catch their attention.

 **Spear Idiot:** "He always rejects her. But he always has a pretty relaxed attitude toward it. He hasn't blown up on her or anything since she started asking him. I think she sees the difference in him too since she usually just let out a huff and accepts the rejection. At least for the time."

 **Sniper Detective:** "She is pretty in tune with others' feelings on matters. No pun intended."

Still, it had been nice to see the interactions.

Neither side would push too hard and neither side would pull too hard. It was what showed them just what changed with Miwa after having calmed down from all of his anger and hatred towards Neighbors.

That anger and hatred was still there, but it did not show itself in any casual setting anymore and it did not appear even when fighting important battles.

Yoneya felt himself get more and more happy knowing that his and Svantje's friend was now calming down.

 **Spear Idiot:** "Hey, do you know what's going on around? Who is left fighting?"

 **Sniper Detective:** "I would ask if you planned on helping around, but even you know that you can't do much the way you are right now."

 **Spear Idiot:** "I'm hurt! But of course I know I can't do much!"

He knew that the both of them were laughing at the small banter.

It helped to lighten the mood a bit more.

 **Sniper Detective:** "There's a loud fight a good ways away. That one has Tsukiko and Shor squads. Then there's the large battle that looks like it's finishing up. As for the last one…"

 **Spear idiot:** "That's the one where Yuki-san is at right?"

He had heard that battlefield was a bit more difficult than the others, solely for the fact that there was not a single opponent but rather many.

_They should be able to handle it over there. But still…_

Would they be fine?


	114. Galopoula: Part 7

It was beginning to wind down. That was clear looking at how many battles had already finished.

Kizaki and Karasuma continued firing as news came to them that two of the four fights outside had just concluded. The new girl who had come from one of their sponsors' families had defeated an autonomous trion soldier while the Miwa Squad duo alongside Hatohara Squad's Köhler had won against one of the Galopoula Neighbors.

Everything was going according to the timeframe set beforehand.

Things had gone off of that at times, but they were aware of one fact that held importance to them.

"Looks like Osamu and the others are making it to the Rank Wars as planned. That's good."

"Yeah. Even a single point is huge for their situation."

Neither one of them stopped firing as Kizaki continued speaking.

They were both slowly moving forward alongside everyone else

"If the match got canceled, it would make catching up even more difficult. Although… If the away ship gets destroyed, that wouldn't even matter anymore."

"Shouldn't be a problem. Besides, if those four can't get it done, no one can."

"I guess you're right. Then we'll do what we need to do here."

Karasuma nodded as someone's name came up before the two of them.

It was from one of the people they were fighting back with.

 **Mystery Smoker:** "Reiji! Kyōsuke! Looks like it's almost over! We're at the last stage! Get ready to go full power and go wild!"

They both responded with their understanding.

But there was one thing that both noticed.

Certain words that stuck out to them.

"'Get ready'? Not yet, Suwa-san?"

They could hear an audible chuckle behind them.

 **Mystery Smoker:** "That's right. Gotta let one of your classmates get her shot in here."

It made sense now.

Karasuma knew exactly who would be assisting them on this battlefield now.

He did not need to even look back to know that she stood atop the roof.

 **Archer:** "I will now be paving the way for you two. Please be prepared to unleash your full power."

A huntress was going to strike down with her full wrath.

* * *

Sniper of Senzai Squad—Shingai Ite—nocked two arrows on her favorite bow Trigger, Tauropolos. She aimed not at the ground far below, but at the night sky which shined in the faint moonlight.

A chilly and dry wind shook her hair, and her ears twitched.

It was time.

"With my bow and arrow, I respectfully ask for the assistance of the outer world maintaining knowledge."

The arrows started to shine bewitchingly. Her Trigger's full power wasn't her bow, nor the arrows shot by her bow. Those were both merely the catalysts for it. Her Trigger's full power was the _technique itself_ of nocking and shooting arrows with her bow.

"I offer thee this calamity - Tauropolos!"

The two arrows she shot towards the sky pierced through the clouds and disappeared from sight, leaving a glittering trail behind them. This was the starting signal to the two Tamakoma Branch members, the first shot.

…Those arrows were a contract to the Neighbors. The ones who had created Piripiri and Sthénos. They were Neighbors deeply rooted in knowledge. They seek knowledge above all else and have no affiliations with anyone at all.

In compensation for Shingai requesting assistance from them, they sought knowledge. In other words, their current assistance equated to—a knowledge of calamity for the enemy.

A faint light filled the night sky, along with a quiet sound like falling rain. But it wasn't something as simple as a blessed rain. The knowledge seeking Neighbors sought an exchange, and scattered a torrential rain under the name of catastrophe.

Arrows of light rained down incessantly from the sky and trion soldiers were pierced and killed by the arrows one after another. Even the strong and sturdy shields had their defenses smashed apart one after another by the countless arrows.

Watching that dreary scene with an extremely cool expression, Shingai Ite looked over her shoulder and spoke.

"—With this, the beginning of the end move is over. Time to let it all out, Tamakoma."

* * *

Karasuma smiled as he saw the rain of arrows.

It was her way of making things easier on the rest of them.

"Thanks for that, Shingai."

"Kyōsuke."

"Right!"

She had made things easier on them and paved a way for them. That meant he could waste it by admiring her work.

The work she viewed as something natural she should do for them.

Shifting his position, he turned his side to properly face the much smaller army.

"Full Arms."

"Geist on."

Electricity crackled around both Tamakoma members as they began to use the full power.

"Gunner Shift."

A new destruction filled the space along the road.

It was not gunfire coming from multiple locations that reached a single point anymore.

The entire attack was a single point reaching out for multiple locations.

Kizaki's Full Arms unleashed a new barrage of rapid-fire attacks that held the same power as the arrows that had rained down just a few seconds ago.

Any attacks toward him were deflected but he shields that hung in front of him. Meanwhile, safe behind those shields, he could continue his onslaught until nothing remained.

As opposed to that, Karasuma held power behind each shot he fired. Each attack made it through to destroy both the shields as well as the bodies in a single shot.

The seemingly never-ending attack but the two of them only seemed to increase further as they marched forward, tearing and destroying all of the Idras that they had only been pushing back until now.

Other agents around them could only watch in amazement.

.

 **Kuru-ma:** "This is incredible! Those trion soldiers are getting completely destroyed! That Tamakoma-1 for you!"

Ninomiya found himself agreeing with the statement.

The rain of arrows had been something to see as well, but what they were witnessing here was not falling behind in the slightest.

Still…

"Tamakoma's secret weapons are indeed devastating, but they consume huge amounts of trion." He looked towards the other distance fighters. "Cover them. Make sure they don't get pushed back when they're out of ammo."

The fight was coming to an end on their front, evident by all of the destroyed trion soldiers.

But anything could happen at a moment's notice, and he knew that. It was just the natural way of things.

"The enemy is moving…?"

Which was why the new information did not surprise him.

* * *

" _The enemy is advancing without reservation. They seem to be spending all of their trion here and now. We need to deploy the Dogs in front before we get fully pushed back…"_

Reghindetz ground his teeth at the news.

He had not fought any of the Miden warriors and yet he was being pushed back by them alongside the trion soldiers they had.

"That's not going to work! Our lines have been broken…! Using Dogs now is just going to be another loss!"

" _Then we should have the trion soldiers retreat."_

"Man! And what the hell are those Mouri people even doing!? It feels like they are just playing around!"

" _Watch what you say there, Reghi. Besides, they are more interested in keeping tabs on 'Mochizuki Chiyome' than anything else. Fighting here is just a secondary thing for them."_

"Don't get me started on her! She lost to a single opponent! I thought she was supposed to be a split off from some crazy strong autonomous tiron soldier!"

" _That's just what happens when fighting someone strange from Miden, I guess."_

They had seen _this far ahead_ of them?

Miden had prepared so far in advance that their fighters had been taken out and they were being pushed back. Even when they outnumbered their opponents, they were still being pushed back.

_If that's how's going to be… I'll handle this myself!_

He ran.

With command over the remaining Dogs, Reghindetz began to run along the open road and the deserted houses.

With Radar opened at his side, he saw the battlefield and the points where their opponents were. He could see the way they would react to his movement and he would use that to turn things around right here.

He had to.

" _Reghi, where are you going? That's Miden's residential area."_

"Yeah! That's where I'm headed."

" _The captain ordered us not to attack the city…"_

"I know that! I'm only trying to make it _look_ like we're targeting the city! If the Dogs spread out and head to the city, Miden's troops will rush to deploy their forces!"

It was natural to think that would be what any fighting force would be concerned with.

Maintaining a fighting force meant to maintain the home of that fighting force. Taking care of one's home and their civilians was a matter that no self respecting world would ignore.

"I'll split them up and crush them when their numbers thin out!"

* * *

 **Nino:** "Are they attacking the city now?"

 **Haru:** "Maybe they want to split us up?"

It was always a possibility.

None of them could deny that.

 **Fried Rice Queen:** "I heard at the time of the massive invasion, the enemy used this tactic to send their trion soldiers into the city. Maybe they're doing the same."

 **WorTri:** "Nozomi, that tactic only works if it's near the start of the fight. When you use it during a losing battle then it becomes a desperate strategy that is bound to fail."

 **Fried Rice Queen:** "You're being pretty harsh there, Hikigane-kun. At least give them some credit."

 **Simple Boy:** "I thought that _was_ Captain-san giving them some credit. I suppose I was wrong. I still have a lot to learn it seems."

 **Decoy:** "Daigo, it's best if you just stay out of it…"

Everyone wholeheartedly nodded in agreement.

 **#5 Mountain:** "Either way, Jin didn't see any damage to the city in the future. If anything had changed, he would have told us."

 **Mystery Smoker:** "So they're just bluffing, huh? Then it's okay to ignore them."

 **Secondary Island:** "If the enemy targets the city, I'll transport you there before they can reach it."

 **Mystery Smoker:** "You're pretty handy, aren't you? Just don't go doing that too much or Yuki'll start compiling to you for stealing his shtick."

 **Nino:** "…"

The people around Ninomiya all turned to face the silent man.

Instead of speaking up or even scoffing, he remained silent.

 **Life:** "Alright, who did something to Nino-san!? Go on, raise your hand! We need people to step forward!"

 **TetsuG:** "This is coming from the first idiot who raised their hand."

 **Fried Rice Queen:** "Oh, something major must have happened if even this airhead is refusing to say anything against Yuki-kun. My, my, whatever could it have been?"

 **Victim:** "Kako-chan, try not bring that stuff up here…"

A bitter laugh came from Kako as she prepared more Hound shots.

 **Mystery Smoker:** "Whatever's going on can be made fun of later! For now, let's just tear right through the ones in front of us!"

* * *

An overpowering noise filled the side of border to the point that it could be heard over the fight against the mass of Idras.

"Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh! Oooooooooooooohhhhhhh!"

It was the sound of a voice ringing out.

The voice ran through the air, hit the megaphone-like microphone, and came out of the large speaker the size of an advertisement truck.

The sound that came from the large Trigger forcibly pushed back the air and struck the destroyed buildings in front of it.

Those destroyed buildings were pushed aside by the pressure from the attack and cleared a path.

Running outside of that path were two people.

The first was a girl with black hair.

The second was a boy with goggles.

The black haired girl ran on the right of the path and the goggles boy ran on the left side of the path. Both of them had their hearings turned off and communicated telepathically. Even if the pressure from the hits did not hit them, the noise itself would be damaging to them.

" _Hey Eri. I've done practice matches with Shana and Toby a lot and have fought Maya enough times, but I don't really remember ever fighting with or against you. Even during our match, we were on separate parts of the battlefield. Why did you want me to help you over here?"_

" _You are the only other one here who has long-range Triggers in your set."_

" _I figured as much, but you already know I don't use them for long-range attacks. I mostly use them to set up attacks or when I'm already close to my opponent."_

" _That's fine. After all, we aren't going to be the ones to attack her."_

Noah raised a brow at this.

He had thought that the two of them were meant to take on this Neighbor while the other two Tsukiko Squad members destroyed the trion soldiers.

That was apparently not the case.

It was hard to tell from where he was running, but he could see faint lights coming from Eri's arm.

" _Even if we have long-range attacks, we can still only get so far when compared to the range of her Trigger. Our job here is to keep her distanced and make her think that we're the ones who are going to fight her. Maya and Shana will be the ones to actually cut her down, once they can get close enough."_

The small lights around her were spheres of trion that lined up around her, as if to be fired off like a gun.

But that was not how she would attack.

He had gone back to look at the log of his match against Tsukiko Squad and Kotowari Squad and had seen what she had done at the end.

This was her way of firing free formed Vipers.

" _So just bear with it for now."_

.

Green lights flew in multiple arcs as the pressure attack from the large Trigger subsided.

Each arc had differing angles and heights, but each one looked as if it was going to a single place.

Kigisa.

Kigisa grinned as she lifted her microphone. The lights flying towards her were like lights of a performance.

She had not fought too many times before, so she decided not to view this attack as part of a fight. It was all a performance and her audience was just playing a part of it.

Fighting was for strong people who can manage themselves. She was just a weak person who happened to have major compatibility with this Trigger she was using. It was not a matter of who and who could not use it, what mattered was how well someone could use it.

The size of the Trigger as whole had been an issue while some people were unable to grasp just how to use it.

Kigisa had none of that problem.

In Galopoula, she had been an entertainer who gave her all to make sure others would enjoy her performances. Fights were not uncommon, but she had not particularly taken part in any.

That had been why she was unsure as to why she was partaking in this mission. It was even more confusing when she had seen Shi Muon there as well.

_I guess we are just that under. To the point of needing us non-combatants to fight._

Shi Muon was a simple girl who enjoyed taking care of things. The only she could provide in a fight was defense. It was the same for her. She was someone who could only entertain others. If she were to be in a fight then she would likely lose right away.

That was why she chose not to think of this like a fight and only like a performance.

This way she would not lose right away and she would at least enjoy herself with something she understood.

"Aaaaaaaaahhhhh! Oooooooh!"

She had been using basic sounds to test what her audience liked. These seemed to enjoy these simple tone changes as they continued to throw lights toward her. Those lights sadly got lost in the sound from her Trigger.

The girl in particular seemed to be pinpointing specific parts to attack with her reloaded Trigger.

The goggles boy seemed to a dancer as he moved easily through the debris she had launched into the air.

There had been two other girls, but she figured that her security had taken care of them since she had not seen them for some time now.

"Let's change it uuuuuuuup!"

She raised her voice for the performance.

A changing tone was nice for a warmup, but she had heard that other performers had already left the stage.

Wen Sō and Koskero had been ones she thought would last longer than this, but they had also left. Now there were only two stages left to perform on.

Her stage was only warming up while the second stage was already being completely used.

"Ru ru ru! Ru ru ru! La la la! Ru ru la!"

Her voice carried into the air and hit the microphone in her hand.

That activated the Trigger's abilities to send out her voice even further in front of her.

The lights that moved through the sky were shot down and shattered midair.

_Those lights really add to the atmosphere around here. The fact this is a nighttime performance also makes them shine even more._

And the more they shined, the more she was able to see them.

_Let's keep this performance going all throughout the night._

It was not possible, she knew that, but she still had some hope.

_Our captain will finish real soon._

That was the time limit for her performance.

.

Noah felt that there was something off with their opponent.

He had seen it with other people before. Especially the ones who enjoyed music.

Suzume was the same, Minubuki was the same, even Fubuki was the same. Jinsei was similar, as was Denji. Even Ikoma was the same as them. It was something they all had in common, but none of them had taken it this far.

But what was "this"? That was what he could not figure out.

It was at the back of his mind, but would not come forward.

_Let's see… She's a female like Suzume, Prince and Minu._

But Jinsei, Ikoma and Denji were males.

_Let's see… She's loud like Minu and Jinsei at times._

But Fubuki was usually quiet and Suzume only got loud when she was excited.

_Let's see… She is moving like a-_

That was it.

He had figured it out.

It was a major link between those people and this woman.

Everything had cleared up in an instant.

_She's a lunatic!_

With that realization, he understood how he should fight here now.

After all, there was only one way to fight a lunatic who was lost in their own world the way this woman was.

_Move even more forward!_

Looking over at the area and the way Eri was firing her shots, he realized what kind of lunatic this woman was.

She was the same as Suzume and Minubuki.

_No, there's still a major thing that sets them all apart from each other._

And that was…

_How deep their personal realities are._

The state of mind a person had on reality could change how they did things and the way they interacted with things around them.

Noah's own mind had been average from the start, so his reality was no different from actual reality. The same could be said for Eri.

But people like this lunatic had their own reality sets firmly in place that they refused to get out of it and face what was actually before them.

Suzume and Minubuki were more similar to her in that regard, but the difference was clear. The two girls from Border knew when to face reality instead of stay in their own worlds. Their crazy antics were filled with responsibility for what they had done and what they could do. The two of them would bring their own realities into the outside world, but it would not do anything more than let them have some fun.

This woman was a complete lunatic.

She may not be mentally ill, he couldn't say for sure, but she was clearly someone who refused to see what was right before her.

She was seeing a performance that she needed to continue instead of a fight that could change the future.

It may have been because he was so average that he had been able to notice this.

Eri not being able to see it yet probably had to do with the nature of her squad and the people she would hang around.

_Well it's not like the people I hang around are any better._

One of his best friends was a wild animal who had recently turned into a beast while his other best friend was a scythe wilding powerhouse. Compared to those two, he felt very average.

But that was a good thing here.

" _Hey Eri! This woman is a lunatic! Be careful!"_

He had meant to warn her about this and tell her about his findings, but he had done it so abruptly that she had sent the next set of Viper off to the side instead of at their opponent.

" _Wh-what are you saying!? Don't just tell me something like that when I'm trying to focus!"_

" _Sorry, but you just showed me how we can get through her attacks and move forward!"_

Any look he was getting from her was to be ignored for now.

This opponent would not wait for them and they needed to move forward to give Shana and Maya time to work.

So with a new resolve in mind, he accelerated.

.

The sudden warning had been unexpected and had caused her to fire in the wrong direction.

Wasting trion like that could only put them at a disadvantage, but Noah had done so with no issue. Whether he was aware of that or not was still up in the air, but he had accelerated anyway.

_What is he doing? And what did he mean by that warning?_

_"Asano-san, I'm sorry about what Noah-kun just did, but he figured out what to do here."_

Instead of the female voices from her squad, she heard the voice of a male.

It was Shor Squad's male Operator.

_"To put it in basic terms… Don't fire at her. If you can, try to fire at specific points of her attacks. I just sent the information to Ayugai-san. Good luck."_

Was the entirety of Shor Squad like this? Saying things that did not make complete sense and expected her to figure it out.

But that was when she saw it.

What Sora had sent to Kuni.

There were specific points that she would have to fire at while Noah got even closer.

She had never really worked with the boy before, so she did not fully know his movements, but he trusted her with this. The support he had been expecting from her was well within her abilities.

That was why she fired.

Loading up another set of Viper, she began firing at specific points along the battlefield.

With the weak power behind Viper the debris only floated into the air as the next pressurized voice attack came.

 **Shore:** "Sora! Shut off all of my hearing and give me the points of where Eri is going to fire!"

 **8 Skies:** "Understood!"

The two Shor Squad members' names appeared in front of her as she fired her attack.

All of the shots she had just fired moved into the pressurized attack. Each one hit some of the debris, sending it into the air.

The floating debris had been taken by the pressurized attack.

_What…?_

They had not been destroyed.

The debris was not destroyed by the pressurized attack, but instead, it had been carried by the attack and pushed back.

_So the more distance you have to the attack the less effective it is. that makes sense, but this also shows up that it just becomes a blowback attack instead of a smashing one._

The difference between the two had been what made the largest impact on the fight.

So long as they kept a perfect distance, they would not be mashed apart.

But…

"What's he doing!? Urg! What's with you Americans and being completely reckless!?"

If keeping distance from the attack was important here then Eri would gladly say that Noah was a complete idiot.

The reason for that was simple.

He leaped closer to the pressurized attack.

.

Maya and Shana could hear the voice of their teammate even over the loud yelling.

The both of them swung their respective blades at the same time, easily cutting through the remaining Idras not the battlefield.

Neither one had much more than scratches littering their bodies as they turned to the loud noise.

"Looks like No really did something amazing if he got Eri to yell like that."

"Didn't he help Toby get his speed? That guy is actually pretty amazing when it comes to helping others."

"You think so? I guess he was the one to recommend I use Grasshopper like this to me. …Huh. Yeah. Guess he really shows his stuff when he's helping others."

"Unlike you, who can barley help herself once she's stopped~"

"Don't you start with me!"

Both girls continued to look in the direction of the noise as they went on with their banter.

They had been told what to do once they had defeated the trion soldiers. All that needed to be done now was make that plan happen.

"It came from Eri, so I doubted it'll fail."

"Just make sure you don't-"

"Let's go!"

.

_What is this…?_

_What is going on…?_

_Have they…_

Kigisa smiled at what she was seeing.

The lights girl and the dancing boy had just done something amazing.

_They brought us to a new stage!_

The lights girl had used her lights to raise platforms in the middle of her singing.

The dancing boy then used those platforms to bring his dance to a higher place.

The two of them were adding to her performance in a way she had never seen before.

Lights continued to move through the air as this special dancer moved elegantly around with her voice.

_Blade dance! This kid is really using a blade dance! Uwah! I haven't done something like that in so long!_

It was all so amazing.

Nothing like this could happen in Galopoula.

Those people did not understand.

They enjoyed what she provided, and her current group seemed to appreciate her enough, but none of them understood.

Everything she did was for their own enjoyment, but they did not understand.

Her voice was a gift she had given them, but they did not understand.

All the movements she made shone brightly, but they did not understand.

But…

"Miden…"

These two understood.

"Miden is so subliiiiiiiiiime!"

She raised her voice louder than she had ever done.

The noise traveled outwards and farther than she could ever remember.

Miden had this kind of effect on her.

It brought out something in her that she had forgotten about.

Everything around her all came together perfectly.

"Heh heh heh."

But something had gone and messed that up.

"Heh heh heh. That woman is honestly pathetic."

Even with all of the sounds in the air, she could hear someone's voice.

Looking out while still letting out her voice, she came to the sight of the large building her captain was currently fighting in.

Atop that building were supposed to be snipers.

But she only saw a single girl.

That girl spoke. Her words seeming to come directly to her and no one else.

"Oh, looks like that woman has noticed me. ..Huh? What? Leave me alone, Narasaka. Can't you see that I'm honestly busy watching the worst performance of my life?"

What?

"That woman should honestly not be trouble for Eri-chan or Noah-kun. After all, she doesn't even understand the basics of a performance."

Those words were terrible.

Those words were directed at Kigisa and her high level performance.

"Huh? Huuuuh? Oh, you don't get it Akane-chan? It's really simple."

How was it simple?

Nothing she was doing a simple, yet that girl atop the building could not even look at her when giving her explanation.

"A performance is supposed to be made at the correct time and place. The audience is supposed to honestly be excited to be around for the performance. No matter the location, the very ground and air should be dancing in celebration. What's more…"

She had even more to say.

" _You should never honestly force someone into your performance._ If you do so, you will be nothing more than an amateur who is looking for attention. At that point, it would be best to just exit the stage and jump into sewage water!"

She could not hold it back anymore.

That girl had mocked her. She had said untrue things while speaking "honestly". She had done so without even facing Kigisa. She had completely destroyed the enjoyment that Kigisa was feeling during her performance.

So now…

"Just die, you stupid biiiiiiitch!"

She let out her voice with as much power as she could.

.

Eri saw the way their opponent was reacting to something.

There had been nothing around to warrant such a reaction, yet she had begun to quickly get angry.

And that had resulted in this powerful attack.

 **Honest Sister:** "Heh heh heh. I won't be needing any thanks for this opportunity. All I honestly ask is that you all put an end to this terrible performance."

Everything was clear now.

Eri had not heard anything that Suzume had said, but this lunatic had probably heard it all.

She had heard something that had angered her. That had then led her to give this powerful attack.

It had put more pressure on both Noah and Eri herself, but it was a perfect opportunity.

So she did not thank or criticize Suzume for her actions.

Because she had given them a chance here.

Once she saw the wide attack coming, Eri brought up her shield.

But it was not to defend herself.

It was to defend Noah.

 **Honest Sister:** "I've been given permission to help since I got involved. Don't worry about anything now."

Alongside her own shield, multiple shield panels began to form around Noah. They slid through the pressurized attack and formed countless layers of defense.

Each individual panel was weak and shattered easily, but those shattered pieces seemed to only increase the defense even more.

The shattered pieces were pushed back after being hit, placing them in front of the next layer of shield panels. Once those ones shattered, the collective shattered shield panel pieces would then hit the next layer.

This process continued onto the very last layer.

Onto Eri's layer.

The shield she had brought up to block the attack for Noah was begging to crack as the shattered shield panel pieces finally gave out and were unusable.

Seeing that the attack was finally ending along with the last layer, Eri began her next move.

She could see Noah use the last of her shield as a springboard, throwing himself high into the air.

She loaded her Viper.

.

Noah saw it from high up in the air.

He saw the ground, the destruction, the remainder of the attack, the Trigger itself, the one using the Trigger, but more importantly, he saw…

"!"

Maya and Shana.

Using Grasshopper while in the air, he threw himself toward the lunatic woman on the large Trigger.

Kōgetsu was held tightly in his grasp as he pierced through the air. The air resistance he felt had his mind go numb for a moment, but that did not matter. He knew what he was doing even during that time.

Once he got closer to the Trigger, he could see the lunatic woman look up at him, already moving back to dodge his attack.

She moved just like a dancer would.

_I've seen enough of Suzume and Minubuki's performances to know how to move!_

Using his falling momentum, he began to twist his body starting with his shoulders.

A moment later, helanded.

His initial swing had failed to hit the lunatic woman.

With the new found power starting from his shoulders, he had already begun to spin to the side.

Kōgetsu cut through the air as he reached the lunatic woman.

As for his attack…

.

Kigisa could feel her anger rise even more as she brought out a decagonal blade attached to her arm.

She had to defend.

It was no longer a performance.

She was in a fight.

Her opponent had attacked her and she had defended.

"I was happy here… I guess Miden truly is just terrible."

With a quick motion, she kicked the goggle boy away while gripping her megaphone-like microphone.

Before she could take a breath to activate it, she saw two figures leap towards her from the side of her Trigger.

The two girls from before.

They had not been taken out by the Idras.

"Fine."

Instead of taking a breath, she lifted her megaphone-like microphone even higher.

The cord attached to it wrapped around the leg of the slow moving girl with a scythe. It tightened up as she pulled on the cord.

The girl was sent towards the ground.

With the twin-sword girl now coming at her, she spun the cord attached to the megaphone-like microphone.

The twin-sword girl had jumped into the air so that she could not be caught by the cord.

"It's not fine."

Kigisa lifted her other arm up, towards the girl.

The arm with the decagonal blade.

She fired it.

The decagonal blade flew from her arm and collided with the two swords of the girl still in the air. With her feet not holding onto anything and nothing being behind her, the girl was sent flying.

With her out of the way, the decaonal blade began to retract.

Kigisa began to turn back towards the last girl.

"It's really not fi-!"

Her words were cut off by something hitting her.

.

Kigisa was surprised by the shots that had come from seemingly nowhere.

They tore right through her arm before the decagonal blade could even make it back to her.

Trion began leaking from the severed arm she now had.

Eri could see that her attack had hit.

It was now time for them to finish this fight.

It had been the moment they were waiting for.

The three close-range fighters could even be seen getting up from where they had fell.

But then…

"Huh…?"

She heard something from the advertisement truck-sized Trigger and looked over to see Kigisa, now with a grin on her face.

She may have just lost it.

"Thank you for inviting me tonight! Let's get this one-man outdoor concert on Miden really started! We won't stop until morniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnngggggggggggg!"

A tremendous pressure blasted away the surrounding area near Eri.

The Neighbor grinned as she saw the destruction around the Shooter.

Their eyes met and she winked for some reason.

"Looks like we have someone trying to get to the stage! I've got nothing against that kind of passion! If the fans are that excited, I've gotta start going all out with this soooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggggggggggggggg!"

"Damn!"

Avoiding an pressurized attack without using her Triggers would be difficult. But as Eri held out her right hand, she spotted something unpleasant out of the corner of his eye: an Idra who managed to escape from Maya and Shana.

_Dammit...!_

With her eyes opened wide, Eri tried to avoid the trion soldier by lowering her upper body despite knowing it would never work.

And then...

Multiple beams of light blew away the advertisement truck-sized Trigger creating the great noise.

Eri did not understand what had happened.

But since the pressurized attack had disappeared, she focused on the trion soldier. She fired off Viper directly at the trion soldier and blasted it full of holes.

"That was..."

Recognizing the attack, Eri was glad to know that the fight would be finished soon.

"Is this all they've got?"

This agent was not even looking in Eri's direction.

With five green orbs on either side of him, the special Shooter fixed his scarf and spoke to no one in particular.

"When you're using a big Trigger like that it's obvious others will target it before moving on to you. Not to mention you were being so loud that every battlefield could hear your idiotic yelling."

The B-Rank captain did not hesitate to walk right into the center of the commotion. It was as if this did not leave the realm of his everyday life.

The second boy with him gave her a wave.

That second boy then made a single movement. It had only been a single one, but he was already over where her teammates and Noah were.

_No way…_

Both of these boys had done amazing things as if it was only natural to them.

Meanwhile, the girl who had lost her speakers tossed the megaphone-shaped microphone aside, laughed, and tried to take control of the area with her unamplified voice.

"Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Thanks for the unexpected adlib request! This is why live performances are so much-...!"

"Shut the hell up."

An explosive noise rang out.

The single Neighbor flew through the air like a part of a joke, body now completely destroyed from the attack.


	115. Mei Takato: Part 4

Sthénos was the first to detect the attack by Mouri-03 and her four teams.

Up in the air, she spotted them coming from the west.

… _Not good!_

Her immediate response was to use some trion to erase the trion from inside her. She could not escape the autonomous trion soldiers' auditory detection, but this was better than letting them see her and her location clearly. And at the same time…

"Yuki-nii!"

While combating the enemy forces on the left, Oshiro used Dummy Beacon to confuse the trion signatures from him and Yuki.

That left only one thing to do.

Yuki would charge in on Mouri-01 or Mouri-02 and take them hostage.

Retreat was not an option for them.

… _We can't let the enemy get close to Mei-tsan!_

They did not know what the older Taiyōko sister would do if they made an appearance, but they had to get Mei to her to either buy time, fight, or negotiate.

Currently, Mei was asleep in the Yagura Branch Office. A building that was too close to them for comfort.

It was also a place that seemed to be attracting these trion soldiers not from Galopoula.

Her body's desire to heal itself had brought on this sleep.

Sthénos knew that human bodies could not recover like her own, so this sleep would likely heal any injuries from the beating she had taken.

… _So…!_

So they could not let these pursuers approach her.

Sthénos also knew they had reached the final stage of the plan she had put together with Yuki and Oshiro.

It all hinged on whether Yuki could capture Mouri-01 or 02.

Yuki's charge was a risk to his remaining on the battlefield, but they could manage if he succeeded.

So to support him, Sthénos put some distance between them and then removed the reduction of her trion signature. She held an Asteroid in her hand and prepared to fire. It probably would not hit, but it would draw their attention.

"Eh?"

However, the trion cube in her hand would not move.

She saw the rear half of the enemy's central unit slowly turn toward her and speak in unison.

"Is something the matter?"

… _What is this?_

It was the gravitational control that had affected Yuki's Idōgetsu.

… _But why is it all the way over here!?_

Her answer came in the form of a figure on a branch next to her. It was Mouri-03.

Sthénos realized what the autonomous trion soldiers turning toward her and Mouri-03's approach meant.

"They can see me without issue?"

"Could you not run away?" Mouri-03 smiled. "I locked my gravitational control's position on you using my master setting, so even if you completely vanish, I can still track the traces of gravity to see that ninja's approach and everything else. Also…"

Sthénos understood. Her weapon would not move. It was like pressing down on a child from above.

And just now, the front firing line had turned around.

Yuki's Shikifuku blade was trapped in the pointed spires and she could not use her own weapon, so…

… _Sorry!_

She gave an adlibbed instruction.

"Oshi-yan!"

But her instruction proved meaningless because Oshiro was already on the move.

"Yuki-nii!"

He did one thing to handle this situation.

"The blades of Shikifuku can resist the trion soldiers' gravitational control!"

.

While Yuki revealed his form and ran, he reached a hand out toward Oshiro.

He did the same toward him and threw Shikifuku to him.

Once it reached him, he would rush to the enemy and attack. That was his decision.

… _Because we can't let the enemy reach Mei or get within Border!_

Sthénos and Oshiro were here because they understood that, so he no longer worried about the danger this put them in.

He also had a further thought in reference to Oshiro.

… _Shiro is more or less family, so worrying about him comes last!_

That was an outrageous and somewhat conceited statement he could not say directly to him.

… _But before fighting, he said he was prepared to do what it took to make things work!_

On the battlefield, the time to save someone came at the very end.

And currently, Oshiro had given him his weapon which left him with only his basic White Triggers.

He looked him in the eye.

Oshiro smiled and mouthed the words "do your best".

_Inu is definitely not worthy of Shiro!_

He prepared to take the sword and immediately attack.

But in that instant, his hand was knocked upwards.

… _!?_

It was a wall. A wall of earth had quickly and forcibly risen up between the two of them.

This was Mouri-02. Her sudden gravitational control had raised the wall.

"…!"

Unable to withstand the burden of the gravitational control, Mouri-02's right arm audibly burst.

The wall stopped, but it was already as tall as Yuki and cut him off from Oshiro's smile and Shikifuku.

He heard the Black Trigger collide with the earth wall on the other side.

The Trigger had not reached him, and…

"They're going to fire!?"

He ran with the wall to his right and a volley of gunfire came from the left.

* * *

Mei heard a voice that sounded like a scream.

She wondered what it said, but her mind was too light and unclear.

… _I need to sleep._

Yes, she needed to keep sleeping.

After all, she was currently half asleep. She was in a state of exhaustion that made it easy to tell herself to go back to sleep.

… _That voice…_

It was actually the person's will that reached her. The tone of rejection in the voice reached her more than the voice itself.

And she somehow knew why that was.

She had once cried out in that same tone of rejection before.

… _Stop._

That word summed it up best.

Stop.

Please stop. I am telling you to stop.

"…Stop…"

But that word did not get through, so it eventually changed to something else.

… _Please._

And…

… _I won't do it anymore._

That was it. Yes, that was definitely it.

If they would not stop, she would stop on her end. She would stop doing what she had been doing.

Yes.

Stopping yourself as a sign of rejection only happened when you made someone angry by doing something. And the person scolding you would not stop even when you told them to.

They would only stop once you swore to never again do what had brought on the scolding.

She had once sworn that.

She had been horribly reluctant and had resisted, but the overwhelming difference in strength had prevented her from doing anything more, making any other choice, or even thinking. The difference in strength had ultimately made her make that promise.

That was what had twisted her.

When someone was left in a shameful, worn-down state, others showed no mercy.

Those close to her had been worried, but even that had felt like pity and grown distorted in her mind.

After all, while there were some who would take her side…

… _The other people were far more numerous._

So she had ignored those close to her and opposed those more distant. Eventually, that had gone beyond just playing around.

But…

"…"

 _It doesn't matter,_ she thought.

Back then, she had promised to redo everything, but here she had not even noticed that she had lost the sign of that promise.

And she had been unable to stand up to the person who had caused it all back then.

She had seen speed as her own weakness, but that had not held true for her opponent. The memory of that opponent demonstrating the speed needed to dodge Kanzaki's cutting attack was still fresh in her mind.

She could not stand up to her, so there was no way she could reach her loved ones.

… _So it doesn't matter._

She tried to go to sleep because there was no point in fighting anymore.

But…

"…"

That distant voice of rejection would not stop ringing in her ears.

.

"Kh."

 _What am I doing?_ thought Mei.

She was trying to gather strength in her body and recall the shape of that body.

… _You idiot._

 _What am I doing?_ she thought again. _Why am I trying to move?_

"Nn."

The painkillers were in effect, so her body was heavy and it creaked as if forcing it to move would strip the flesh from the bone. However, she tried to move regardless.

… _Wait._

What was she doing? Why was she getting up?

She had a somehow distant sense that her coworkers were fighting and she understood why they had left her here to sleep.

The scent reaching her nose told her she was surrounded by plants. Oshiro had likely used special scents to try and let her relax. He had always been that way after all. And within this building she knew she was in hiding.

She might not be found even if Yuki and the others lost. They were telling her to sleep, recover, and continue on to the right place after the enemy finished.

… _So wait._

Why was she trying to get up?

Stubbornness? Regret? Or was it pride or a show of courage?

She had lost the proof of her promise, so she felt she had no right to get up.

And she knew who that voice of rejection had belonged to.

… _It was Oshiro._

Then what did it matter? She had kept her distance from that B-Rank for some time now. Oshiro would not expect her to come save him, so what reason did she have to go?

She had no reason to help and they did not want her to help. And yet…

"Nn."

… _Wait._

 _Why?_ she asked herself. _Why are you trying to move and get up?_

And because she did not know…

… _Wait._

No, that was wrong. That was the wrong word.

… _Stop._

Stop.

Please stop. She was saying to stop and yet…

"I won't…stop."

She understood. She really did. The part of her heart telling her to stop was saying something.

… _Please._

Please what?

… _I won't do it again._

Do what? What won't you do?

"I…"

It came back to that cry of rejection.

She felt that her former choice had been wrong. That was why she had corrected her rejection.

But what about this voice that still rang in her ears?

Was there a rejection that could be allowed and that did not need to be stopped?

"I won't lose anyone again."

That was what her important people had wished for.

… _And I made a promise._

She had once made a promise. She had made up her mind and used that as a basis for her decisions.

So…

"—!"

.

Mei awoke. She tried to gather strength in her body.

… _Kh._

But she could not get up. Her mind had cleared, but her body could not keep up.

The cry of rejection still rang in her ears.

… _Kh!_

She clearly told herself to get up. She willed it and trembled with effort, but her body was sluggish and refused to move.

… _Why?_

She wondered if the hang-up was Oshiro. Did this last bit of hesitation hinge on whether she would rescue the boy or not?

… _As for Yuki…um, what am I supposed to say? But maybe I'm being too harsh. Although this is a completely different issue._

She had noticed a question in her thoughts when that boy came up.

That had not happened since they had gone by different names.

At any rate, she had definitely concluded she had no reason to rescue them.

She truly did have no reason. That was a fact.

… _But that cry of rejection is still ringing in my ears!_

"…!"

Oshiro had given the same cry she once had.

… _So move!_

But despite that, she could not even clench her teeth.

Just as she wondered what to do, a new scent reached her nose.

"Eh?"

It was something that should not have been here.

"…!?"

Her entire body sprang up in surprise.

* * *

Yuki had not given up.

The earth wall to his right had blocked Shikifuku's path, but he made a short dash up onto the side of the wall.

He then twisted his body downwards and kicked off the wall.

… _Jump!_

He would perform a midair side-flip over Mouri-02's head.

He would be upside down once he reached Mouri-02 and he would remove and throw her head with his hands.

He would go for a midair decapitation throw.

He quickly enacted that plan.

He twisted around in midair and threw his body into empty air while stretching his head downwards.

He saw Oshiro for a brief moment. He was deflecting bullets with Raygust in Shield Mode, but knowing he was safe was enough. Right now, he had only one thing to focus on.

… _My target!_

He jumped over Mouri-02's head.

She had no way of attacking after losing her right arm and the gunners to the left would be unable to keep up with his sudden movement.

He used his full mobility as a nimble agent. He was confident that only someone at the level of an upper A-Rank agent could keep up with his speed.

But below him, he saw Mouri-02 bring her left hand to her own head.

However, that hand did not stay there.

She pulled back her hand to remove the head.

As her head tilted back and fell behind her, it looked up into the sky and at him.

She was not smiling, angry, or even sad. She was completely expressionless as she had her headless body jump up at him.

It could not reach him and it was too slow, but…

"…"

It exploded directly below him.

.

"Yuki-nii!"

Oshiro saw the blast envelop him.

Shikifuku had been quickly grabbed after hitting the earth wall, but an attack was already coming from ahead.

Several headless trion soldiers were rushing in to self-destruct.

He gripped Raygust, but it was too late to use it as a shield.

As soon as he realized he could not avoid this attack, the three directly in front of him spread their arms as if welcoming him.

"Thank you very much."

They produced three explosions in quick succession.

.

"Please confirm the situation."

Mouri-01 used her high-speed thoughts to communicate through the scattering heat of the blast.

An autonomous trion solder's high-speed thoughts could divide a second into nearly a million parts, so the surrounding motion almost seemed to stop as she made her decisions about the battlefield.

So far, a total of twenty-two trion soldiers had self-destructed and eight were otherwise damaged.

Mouri-02 was one of those who had self-destructed, but all of their cores and memory devices had been recovered.

On the other hand, the enemy's solo A-Rank agent…

… _Um, what was his name again?_

_Whatever. We can worry about that later._

Regardless, the enemy's solo A-Rank agent had been caught in a blast, Oshiro Hogo who was on the level of an upper B-Rank agent had also been caught in a blast, and Unknown Trion Soldier Sthénos was being attacked.

Comparing the losses of powerful Trigger users, the autonomous trion soldiers were winning. They were of course losing if the total numbers were compared, but a powerful Trigger user was not comparable to a normal warrior in any nation.

… _This is a difficult judgment to make._

She decided to leave that judgment to their nation and to simply do her best here.

She slowed her thought speed to match the outside world and her surroundings sped up. After checking the trion reading of the explosion that had caught the enemy's solo A-Rank agent, she realized something.

"Miden's A-Rank agent is gone!?"

.

Oshiro was the one who realized where Yuki was.

… _Eh?_

He had supposedly been caught in an explosion, but he was now seeing the night sky.

From the inner part of the first of buildings, he had only been able to see that sky between the glass, but now someone held him in their arms and he looked to the right to see who.

"Yuki-nii!?"

Mouri-01 was baffled.

Why were the solo A-Rank agent and Oshiro unharmed after those explosions? And how had the solo A-Rank agent managed to reach Oshiro?

A few different phenomena did not fit together. They went beyond her statistical, causal, and predictive reasoning, so she had difficulty understanding what she was seeing.

The battle was still ongoing.

She double-checked the facts. The enemy was unharmed, Oshiro had been taken away by the solo A-Rank agent, and they had both moved to the left end of the battlefield.

That was all. Mouri-03 was attacking the unknown autonomous trion soldier, but…

"Big sister!"

A sound suddenly reached her from directly ahead. It was the sound of an object slicing through the air in a straight line.

"A projectile!"

Mouri-01 shifted her thoughts into high speed. She switched back and forth between auditory and trion detection, added that on top of her visual information, and even amplified the light in that information.

The processing of the visual data was heavy enough for her to drop some frames, but the data she did get informed her of a definite truth.

"We have a new enemy!"

Mouri-01 ignored the earthen spikes surrounding her and raised her right hand. She swung the hand as if rolling her shoulder and a row of new spikes formed in front of her. A total of thirty-two earthen spikes stood in a line stretching out in front of her. The hardened soil rose like a wave, but they were immediately destroyed from the other side.

The flying projectile loudly smashed the spikes.

Twenty of them broke in an instant, six more followed, four bent, one broke, and the final one stopped it.

However, the projectile simply stopped in midair. It did not fall to the ground.

This was not gravitational control, so Mouri-01 checked visually.

… _It's wrapped in wire!?_

Wire was crudely tied around the projectile - now that she could see it, it was actually a broken off piece from a trion soldier - and it extended back into the darkness.

With a tug on the wire, it returned. It moved so quickly that it seemed to shoot back.

The projectile returned to the newcomer who had likely been the one to retrieve the ninja and Oshiro with the wire projectile.

"From what we got off of Aftokrator… You are Lady Mei Takato, a top tier Trigger user of Miden!"

.

Oshiro saw the Kotowari Operator from Yuki's arms.

Mei stood halfway up the slope, she was not wearing her Border uniform, and she still looked very exhausted.

But when she caught the projectile in her right hand, her stance showed her intent to move forward.

… _She is not going to run._

The wire on her shoulder was the wire Oshiro had spread out throughout the battlefield, but…

 **Sthé-chan:** "Mei-tsan, how did you get up here!?"

There was no response through the chat.

That gave them another clue as to what body she was using.

Sthénos asked again, this time out loud.

"Eh? Oh, um, how should I put it? My pride as a combatant, I guess."

The fact she had put that as a question did not go unnoticed.

"Wow, real warriors are awesome! I mean, I went a little crazy on the painkillers cause I figured you could handle it, but you still managed to get up! You're like a…lion! A really strong lion!"

"You had better remember this later! That really wasn't easy! But…"

Mei glanced over at Oshiro and held something up in her left hand.

… _Ah._

It was a rice ball.

"I'm surprised you had this with you. Someone else made this, didn't they?"

"Yes. Sthénos-chan brought it to your room, but it seems they got messed up during the move. They had lost their shape and, while we rested, Yuki-nii expressed his concern about their state."

"Oshiro." The lion took a bite of the rice ball and swallowed it. "Oshiro, you use a lot of herbs, don't you? They have a bit of a strong scent."

"Eh? Oh, sorry-…"

"It is not a bad scent. …I am familiar with it from mixing perfumes."

As she spoke, she raised the projectile and lifted her left leg for a right overhand throw.

"Take this!"

She threw the projectile into the enemy group.

.

Mouri-01 made a split-second decision. She used her gravitational control to break the surrounding spikes at their base and free everyone. At the same time…

"Spread out!"

She gave her command to the others and swung her own arms forward.

Those two arms directed her gravitational control and pointed the broken spikes forward.

"Please have these!"

The broken spikes were fired toward the lion as if they had been kicked forward.

.

The spikes were made of earth and packed as hard as stone, trion was then used to allow them to break through everything. Those several dozen spears sliced through the air as their paths crossed.

But Mei did not panic in the face of what looked like countless deadly attacks. Her mind was still unsteady and her breathing rough, but…

"Like this, right?"

She twisted the thumb and forefinger holding the forcefully extending wire.

This swung the projectile and changed its path to a quick arc from left to right.

The movement was unthinkable as simple physical motion, but…

... _This will work!_

This wire was what Oshiro had used to set up this location. Oshiro had made them long, so now that Mei had stretched them out, it was a long piece of wire made out of trion. It was weak, but...

"This is no different from back then!"

.

That was how the Spider wire allowed the projectile to change its path in midair.

It shifted to a gouging arc toward the group of spikes.

And it struck.

It pierced straight through the center of the flying spikes from the side.

The sound of destruction reached Mei.

She tugged on the wire to return the projectile and smash the spikes again from behind.

But she was too slow. She had torn several holes in them, but the density of flying spikes was still too high.

"Oshiro!"

Mei forced the projectile back to her with pure strength, but she did not catch it. It passed by her and she let it fly behind her.

"Wrap it in Shikifuku!"

"Right!"

Bluish-white light and a dark pink light wrapped around the wire along with a flexibility that seemed to push out from within.

… _Such great strength!_

Mei wrapped the wire projectile around something behind her.

"That building!"

She tossed the last of the rice ball into her mouth and moved just as she started chewing.

She tugged on the wire with both hands.

With the sound of snapping fibers and a great roar, the lion uprooted the building behind her.

She went on to carry it forward.

"…!"

And she chucked the thirty meter or taller building into the group of spikes.

All of the spikes were smashed, the branches scattered, and the leaves flew about. After confirming the result, Mei roared.

As if swinging her hair around, she lowered her arms to her sides and raised her throat to the sky.

"Uu…"

The roar continued with an extended "oh" and a reverberating "nn".

She then bent her entire body forward and lowered down almost to the ground.

"Here I go!"

She began to dash. In an instant, she shot below the falling building and grabbed a thick flagpole.

"Right!"

She threw the building to the left. She had made a verbal feint, but she saw nothing wrong with that small level of cruelty.

The building stirred up the wind, broke through some trion soldiers, and cleared a path down the center.

She stood the building in the dirt as thanks, and prepared to face those on the left. She could leave the right to Yuki and Oshiro. She could already see Yuki's Shikifuku blade returning after being freed from the spikes, so…

"Third throw!"

She threw the projectile toward Mouri-01 who stood forty meters ahead.

However, someone got in the way: the autonomous trion soldiers making up Mouri-01's unit. They moved forward and raised earthen walls.

But…

"Go!"

The wire moved. She was not simply controlling it with the movement of her fingers. It arced up like a snake raising its head and twisted around to tear into the enemies behind the wall.

It moved just like in the past.

.

Mouri-01 realized what the lion's weapon was. It was not wire or a projectile.

… _Is it a thought transmission Trigger!?_

The Trigger sent her intention to an object and had the object move accordingly.

It was the same type of Trigger as one used by a certain other nation. While that Trigger distributed Trion to a great number of people, this was a heavier Trigger that converted her thoughts to any trios-made object she touched with her hands.

Mouri-01 had then noticed something she could not have seen until now. The black object around the lion's wrist that was connected by a pink rope.

"…!"

It had not been something as special as a thought transmission Trigger. When she thought back at the data she had, it was something so simple that no one could have understood unless told otherwise.

Reinforcement.

It had been that simple.

"!"

The wall raised by Mouri-01's subordinate trion soldiers was completely ignored. The projectile flew past it and swept them away.

But it did not end there.

There was more. The lion prepared her left hand for an underhand throw.

She held a projectile tied to the opposite end of the wire draped over her shoulders.

"Fourth throw!"

It broke straight through the wall.

 _What a powerful strike,_ thought Mouri-01. _I must stop this._

She searched for any way of intercepting it in the current situation, but the answer to her question quickly arrived from outside.

"Big sister!" shouted Mouri-03. "I'll stop it!"

.

Mei saw a small form jumping above the tree branches.

She swung down her hand which was connected to her fourth throw.

At the same time, Yuki raised his voice after lowering Oshiro to the ground and catching his Shikifuku blade.

"Mei!"

She already knew from the message that Sthénos had sent her.

… _So that's how Mouri-03's gravitational control works._

"She can freely set an enemy as her master to stop their weapons!"

By repeatedly switching between people with the high-speed thoughts of an autonomous trion soldier, she could artificially hold multiple "masters" at the same time.

And so Mei gave a shout with the same volume as her roar.

"Stand back!"

.

Mouri autonomous trion soldiers obeyed orders from their masters.

However, that fact held little meaning for Mouri-03. She could freely switch between masters, so she could switch to another master and switch back after ignoring the order.

She did the same here. To stop the enemy Black Trigger User's weapon, she had set the lion as her master. The lion had told her to stand back, but that only meant she had to set someone else as her master.

… _Eh?_

But the enemies she had intended to make her master had vanished. Both Oshiro and the solo A-Rank agent were gone.

She had removed the tracking lock using her gravitational control back when she had thought they were defeated in the explosions, so…

… _I'm in trouble if they've hidden themselves with a camouflage Trigger and ninja technique!_

If she could not see them, she could not set them as her master.

But a Mouri autonomous trion soldier needed a master.

If she removed her master setting, she would lose her reason for existence as a trion soldier, her abilities would be restricted, and she might even cease to function altogether. Also, it was impossible to set another trion soldier as her master.

… _So I need to set another enemy as my master!_

"Where's the enemy's unknown trion soldier!?"

She started to turn around, but…

"Right here."

Someone tapped on her right shoulder from behind and she turned around to find someone whose trion had scattered from gunfire.

"The unknown trion soldier…"

"You really shouldn't hesitate. If you hadn't, I probably wouldn't have caught up."

A speedometer now hovered above her right shoulder. There was no escape. The girl grabbed her shoulder to press a cube of trion against it. Not even gravitational control could stop this.

But…

"Doing it like this will damage your hand too!"

"Oh, don't worry about that."

The enemy unknown trion soldier smiled.

"Your master has guts."

.

Mouri-01 heard something fired overhead.

Mouri-03's right arm flew through the air while the rest of her used her left arm to grab at a building ledge to the upper right.

"Sorry!"

And she fell.

Mouri-01 determined there was nothing to apologize for. In fact, she was the one that needed to apologize. She had been the one to set up the battlefield on the assumption that the enemy's more important agents would not take part. Or at the least not in their battle.

That was why Mouri-01 decided that she should take responsibility.

… _So I will win this!_

She raised both her arms.

The ground below her hands was rapidly torn up and quickly transformed into a projectile.

She had to hurry. Her gravitational control excelled at bursts of strength, but creating and firing this high-density projectile was still a difficult task. She compensated by raising her power output above normal.

"I will hurry!"

This put a great burden on her body, so the ulna of her left forearm and the back of her right hand burst. But she did not care. These were necessary losses to achieve victory.

After all, the enemy's projectile was breaking through their walls as it flew toward them.

She had to hurry but remain calm.

"Complete."

She had created a two meter spear. It was made denser than rock, being made of trion after all, and she raised it in her right hand and flung her left hand forward.

She broke her own wall and cleared her vision.

"—"

Mouri-01 resolved herself.

She looked to her enemy, looked to the projectile that enemy had thrown, and moved to place her own projectile on the same path.

She succeeded.

.

The two attacks collided in the center of the buildings.

The sound of destruction resembled splitting stone and bright sparks lit up the reflections.

The scattershot of fragments sounded like a spray of rain as they gouged into the buildings and ground.

As for the two who had launched these attacks…

"—!"

They had already begun their next moves.

Mouri-01 raised her arms again to create a second spear while Mei began to catch the projectile in her hand as it returned to her.

However, Mouri-01 did something else to speed up the creation of her projectile.

"How about an addition?"

She severed her own left arm to use it as extra material.

The spear took form much faster with the extra part.

Meanwhile, the projectile returned to Mei's hand and she raised it overhead.

"…!"

But Mouri-01 was ever-so-slightly faster.

"Now, this one is ready."

She lifted her right hand toward Mei with the spear projectile floating beneath it.

"Here."

It shot directly toward the lion.

.

… _She's using her own body to win!?_

Mei's heart filled with admiration of her enemy.

She knew this was dangerous, but she had to admire the action.

This was not self-sacrifice. It was true cooperation to achieve victory.

She knew only an autonomous trion soldier could do that.

However, the level of praise she gave her enemy was also the level of danger she was now in.

She had to intercept this.

She did not have time to avoid it. Not only was it a speedy attack, but she had already raised her arm to throw.

Her only option was to stop the projectile with her projectile.

There was a single problem with that, though.

… _Hers will be faster!_

A projectile thrown by an autonomous trion soldier's gravitational control had a certain unique trait: the gravitational control could continue working on it shortly after it was fired.

Their gravitational control had an effective range, so acceleration of the launched object could continue while it remained in that range.

Mei had thrown her previous attack before the enemy had thrown her projectile. They had collided nearby the enemy, but that meant the enemy's projectile had yet to reach its full speed.

They had been of equal power at that point, so…

… _I'll lose if hers is at full speed!_

Mei was raising her stone, but the enemy had already fired.

She could not avoid having inferior speed.

At this rate, her projectile would shatter on impact and the opposing projectile would reach her.

"In that case…!"

She reached a certain answer.

… _I will throw it with all my strength!_

She could not dodge in time, so she simply made her overhand throw.

But even as she did so, she knew it would be slower than her enemy's attack.

"Kh."

 _I need speed,_ she begged.

An instant later, speed came to her.

"—!?"

However, it was a crumbling drop in speed.

… _What is this!?_

It was her calculations.

.

… _No!_

Her doubt about her counterattack had disturbed her focus.

Her knees gave way and strength left the arm throwing the stone.

"Mei!"

She heard Yuki's voice and saw him and Oshiro appear, but they were immediately stopped.

Mouri-03 had fallen to the ground, but she stood with her back leaning against a building and stopped Yuki and Oshiro by viewing them as her masters.

Strength drained from Mei's body and her arm swung forward.

"Kh."

She felt the projectile slip from her fingers.

But in that instant, she saw something unexpected.

After the projectile vanished from her hand, it immediately shot toward her enemy.

… _Eh!?_

She expressed her confusion in her heart.

It had been a weak throw that only slipped from her fingers, so what had happened?

The stone arrived right in front of the enemy's projectile.

"…!"

The instant of collision settled everything.

Her projectile attacked the hardened spear projectile just as it was about to break from its initial velocity.

The projectile scraped along the side of the spear as it passed by and its great speed caused the spear to burst from that scraped area.

It was utterly destroyed.

The solid sound told Mei the truth. The projectile she thought she had failed to throw had flown faster than the one she had thrown with her full strength. Not only that, it had reached her enemy.

… _What was that!?_

A certain memory came back to her.

When she had fought that monster at the edge of the Forbidden Zone, that monster had instantly avoided Kanzaki's cutting attack.

She had thought that the monster's speed was something she did not have, but…

… _What did I just do!?_

She did not understand because she was clearly not at 100% right now. So why had she been able to give the projectile such speed?

She remained confused while the projectile destroyed the opposing projectile and flew toward her enemy.

It continued on to gouge into that enemy, but…

"Now, then."

She heard a sudden voice and a loud noise from behind.

.

Mei saw the source of the noise.

It was a building. A felled tree dropped from the sky like a stake and stabbed into the ground right in front of Mouri-01.

Mei's projectile crashed into the tree. The trunk split open, but the projectile shattered.

… _Who threw that tree!?_

She was a little annoyed at this intervention, but she soon heard another reaction. Oshiro spoke while looking behind her.

"Oh, good evening."

Mei knew what that confused and smiling voice meant: someone stood behind her who it would be best to greet.

She sensed that monster's presence.

.

Mei felt the source of that monster's presence.

There was a scent, faint body heat, and some movement of the air. All those things told her that that monster had appeared about five meters behind her.

No one could move and they all focused on the person behind Mei.

Mei herself breathed with her gut to prevent that monster from seeing her shoulders rising and falling.

… _Calm down._

That monster had likely heard about the commotion from Border's lines.

She could do nothing now.

… _Nothing except buy time for the others to escape._

So she turned toward Yuki.

But the ninja in the darkness did not nod. He did not want the enemy to see him react. Taking his motionlessness as an answer, Mei prepared herself.

But…

"…"

She realized she could not turn around. She would be defeated in the time it took her to do so. If she did move, anything but a sudden action with all her strength would be too dangerous.

… _So I need to move the instant I hear her approach!_

It came immediately afterwards.

It came as pressure. The movement of the air, the scent, and the light sound all created a pressure that pressed against her back.

"Kh!"

 _I need to escape,_ she thought just as the presence arrived right behind her ear.

She tried to leap, but…

… _Too slow!_

Before her legs could sink down, she heard a breath of laughter in her ear. Or she thought she did.

 _Dammit,_ she swore.

… _But I just threw that thing so quickly!_

She was slow and heavy now, so what had that previous speed been? As if to take her past that question, the time for an attack to reach her passed and it was already too late to avoid it.

She realized she had messed up and wondered if she would not even be able to buy any time.

… _If only I didn't have these damn calculations!_

A moment later, an attack arrived behind her.

"…!"

She was not hit by fists, swung around, or jabbed.

Instead, a giant red sword fell from the sky.

"That thing isn't something Jin saw in the future!"

The massive sized blade stabbed into the ground behind her and an attack hit it on the other side.

The heavy, carrying sound was much like a bell and it shook the buildings' glass windows.

"—"

But Mei felt some wind.

That monster left. She gave a breath of laughter and ran off into the darkness.

Next, some pressure arrived overhead.

"I am an autonomous trion soldier from Pagoménos! Mochichiyo! I forbid this battle from continuing!"

Because…

"There is no longer a reason for either Pagoménos nor Mouri to assist in this attack! Any further conflict would be meaningless for all sides!"

 _What?_ wondered Mei as she looked at the trion soldier woman.

"Galopoula has lost this fight as their captain has failed in his mission, so we will now be retreating!"

* * *

He had been found.

Maki watched from a distance, Stepney safely behind him.

One of the two people they had been looking for had finally been found after help from a monster.

The issue he saw was…

"You must be from the Galopoula team."

There was someone else there.

A boy wearing, what he assumed, was the uniform for the attacking force. Doglike trion soldiers surrounded him, waiting for a command.

And all that boy could do was look at Hyuse in nervousness.

"Galopoula…"


	116. Hyuse

The battle in the forest of buildings ended and the wind blew through.

While kneeling on the side of the road, Mouri-03 looked towards the retreating figures of Miden's warriors and at Mochichiyo who jumped down from where they were headed. When she lowered her gaze…

"Big sister?"

Her sister had lost her left shoulder and looked at the tree skewered in the ground in front of her.

It was only one meter in front of her and it had split from the impact of landing.

"Now that is an abnormal ability."

"Yes, that Miden combatant with red hair threw this because she predicted what would happen, didn't she? How much strength and an eye for tactics does she have?"

"Right," replied Mouri-01. "The red-haired woman is of course amazing, but the black-haired one is impressive too. Take that piece of a trion soldier's speed for example. How did she strike with greater speed than an autonomous trion soldier's accelerated throw?"

"That's a good question," said Mouri-03 who did not know either. The information in her artificial memories told her that the hime-cut girl used her monstrous strength to break through for attacks, but…

… _There are no records of her making an attack with that kind of speed from what Aftokrator had sent Galopoula._

She wondered what this meant, but her sister sighed in front of her.

"There is nothing we can do about it here. At any rate, we have lost."

.

The eldest sister readily admitted that and lowered her shoulders, but Mouri-03 had a question about the action and conclusion.

"Big sister!? W-wait!"

Her sister turned toward her, smiled, lowered the ends of her eyebrows, and groaned uncertainly.

"You probably wouldn't accept it if I said it was because of our orders."

"Right. And, um… Why? What do you mean we lost!? Because you would've been hit if it hadn't been for that tree?"

But in that case…

"I could intervene with my gravitational control! I could even act as a shield like our middle sister! So don't give up on the battle! You'll make Mototeru sad!"

But her sister raised her partially destroyed right hand with the ends of her eyebrows still lowered and she motioned for Mouri-03 to calm down.

"From a standpoint of whether we could continue to fight, we did not lose. But as far as deciding the outcome is concerned, just look at this."

Mouri-01 showed Mouri-03 what sat on her hand.

"That's a fragment of the projectile you made."

"Yes. That is correct. But…"

She tossed the stone over and Mouri-03 caught the fragment.

… _Ah._

She realized what her sister meant.

"The compression is incredibly high."

"Exactly. I increased the power used in forming the projectile to increase its attack power and to increase its stability in acceleration. So even though it was made from Miden's materials, it can never return to that state," she explained. "So if we were proud of a victory won with this, other nations such as Galopoula and Pagoménos would have a poor opinion of us. After all, they had gone to the trouble of not attacking the city in their initial plans."

"But we had to do it to win!"

"Indeed," agreed her sister. "That is why I created and used it. But now that it did not work and the battle has been stopped, I've realized the princess would not want us to win this way."

After all…

"She is insistent that we do the right thing. …So now that we have not won and the battle has been stopped, this method is completely worthless. That must be why Lady Mochichiyo stopped us."

"That's about right. That's what I was told to do."

Her sister nodded toward Mochichiyo and turned back to Mouri-03.

"Sorry, okay?"

There was nothing she could do when her sister said that. She felt she should be the one to apologize and her sister expressed why she felt that need.

"I suppose this means our combined efforts were not quite enough."

"Don't say that," said Mochichiyo as she walked over. "I think you did plenty to show how much victory matters to you guys. And I'm sure your higher ups are aware of it. …I also have a message from your princess."

"What is it?" asked Mouri-03.

Mochichiyo smiled bitterly as she answered.

"'You can push yourselves, but not too much.'"

* * *

The ones in the command room watched as the invading leader, as well as the subordinate, were taken over by a Gate. Their bodies were covered completely with the explosive opening of the Gate.

The ones on the battlefield within the expedition ship hanger looked on in surprise.

"Trion signatures are lost," Sawamura reported while looking at the screen in front of her. "The Neighbors captured by Nasu, Miwa, Tsukiko squads, along with the one in the hallway, seem to have disappeared at the same time!"

"Neighbors can Bail Out…?!"

"There's nothing surprising about that. We imitate the technology from their side too. It shouldn't be surprising when they do the same."

Shinoda did not nod, but he acknowledged that to be right.

"What about the trion soldiers?"

"The one that Shiraishi had defeated seems to have been taken by someone else. She, along with Ikoma Squad and Ōji Squad, tried to apprehend the new person, but they had managed to get away. The ones that were on Tsukiko Yuki's front have stopped moving, but we have been told that they will not be continuing to fight and are going to be retreating. As for the mass that most of our agents are fighting, most of them are falling back. They are retreating."

"Tell Shiraishi's group, as well as the ground troops, not to pursue. Yuki's group is also to fall back and allow those trion soldiers to retreat. Stay alert until everything is under control."

* * *

"If you understand that, then this will be easier…"

Maki could hear them from his place closer to the two Neighbors.

Stepney had moved back even more, but he should have still been able to hear what was going on.

"I am Hyuse of House Erin from Aftokrator, under the command of House Beltiston."

He held nothing back in his speech.

"I demand that you assist me in returning home. Now take me to your way ship."

There was nothing surprising in what he was saying.

Everything Maki heard made sense. It was not unnatural to want to go back home once you have been away for too long.

Hyuse had even more reason to want to go back than a normal person on a trip.

"Hyuse!"

There it was.

The voice from the one Stepney was looking for.

.

This child walked up to them without worry.

Reghindetz knew that he was seeing things right. The boy in front of him is from Aftokrator - he had stated as much - and this child walked up to him with no worry at all.

"You left this."

"That's…Lampyris!"

A Trigger.

The child had brought a Trigger to this Aftokrator boy.

"I got it from Jin. He told me to give it back if you left. If you were going to leave, you should've told me! I had to leave Stepney behind to make sure I caught up to you!"

"I'm sorry…and thank you."

What was he seeing?

The two boys were ignoring him so that they could speak with each other.

Noise filled his ear, making him place a hand there.

" _Reghi! Reghi, do you read me?"_

It was Yomi.

" _The captain and Rata failed the mission. Everyone else has returned and Mochichiyo has told us that she and Mouri are also retreating. We need to do the same."_

That was it.

They had lost with nothing to show for their efforts.

All of the help they had gotten from trion soldiers to another nation letting their army run free, it had all just been to add to their losses.

Numbers were the thing that had given them an advantage, but how much of their numbers had Miden taken out before even one of their own had been defeated?

And for what reason had they been put in this position.

_That is…_

The ones who put them here.

_Aftokrator…_

The home of the boy in front of him.

It was possible that this boy did not know the situation, but things did not add up here.

After all…

"Hyuse of House Erin. Sorry, but…I can't let you board the away ship."

He did not care for their reactions.

"There were many things about this mission that didn't make sense to me. And it looks like you're on good terms with Miden's people. Didn't you sell out your country and join their side?"

"What did you say…?"

Reghindetz ignored the dark look to glance at the camera watching them.

"If you want me to trust you, you must prove you didn't surrender to Miden."

This was his play.

"Capture that kid. Take him as a hostage! Then I'll believe that you."

.

"What if I refuse?"

"I won't let you onboard the away ship, of course. I can't bring along someone who is suspicious of being a spy."

"I see…"

A blade formed in Hyuse's hand.

No hesitation was shown in the next movement.

The blade moved through the air in a single moment, stabbing through Yōtarō.

Yōtarō showed no sign of moving as the sound of a body hitting the ground was heard in the area.

"Do you still think I'm on their side? Just take me with you already."

"I knew it…"

The air was still for a moment.

As Yōtarō lay there, Hyuse only watched as Reghindetz clenched is first.

The words came a second after.

"You people from Aftokrator are all trash! 'Take me with you,' you say… Like hell I will, you asshole!" Reghindetz continued to let his voice out. His volume only continued to rise. "'We don't need to rescue captives. We can dispose of them if they interfere.' That's what your higher-ups told us! Do you understand!? _Your nation abandoned you!"_

With the swing of his hand, he motioned to the fallen Yōtarō who was next to Hyuse.

"The one who killed the Side child is you! It wasn't us! Now you get to deal with Miden's hatred!"

There was no stillness this time when it happened.

Immediately after saying what he did, Reghindetz heard a voice.

"Are you saying…"

It came from the fallen Yōtarō.

"Hyuse can't go back home?"

Reghindetz's sight went from Hyuse to Yōtarō. The child was slowly getting up, surprising him even more.

It had been a simple trick.

And he fell for it.

"Y-you set me up…!"

" _You set me up first."_

In a single motion, Reghindetz stepped back, lowered his body and gave a shout.

"Thugator!"

But in that same motion…

"Lampyris."

The sound of static filled the air as magnetics surrounded Hyuse and Yōtarō.

In place of the casual wear of Miden, Hyuse now wore the clothing and cloak of Aftokrator.

For a second time within the few minutes, Hyuse did not hesitate.

He unleashed a barrage of electrified shards towards Reghindetz. Each one stabbed into him before dragging him towards the ground.

"D-Dogs!"

"You take care of it."

A new sound filled the air.

Green lights flashed in the sky before turning and slamming down onto the remaining trion soldiers there.

"You have my gratitude for this valuable information."

Nothing else was said as Hyuse attacked.

Large blades made of the magnetics forcibly tore through the air before cutting through Reghindetz easily.

A Gate opened a moment later, forming around him.

There was no sign of his body.

.

"Was that Bail-"

Yōtarō's sentence was cut off by a body tackling him to the ground.

Hyuse looked down to see that it had been Stepney that tackled Yōtarō. From the same direction he had come from, another voice came after.

"He was holding back from running out the whole time. I thought I would have to physically hold him back, but the little bug has a surprising amount of self restraint. Unlike a certain someone…"

"I was right. You were over there."

"So you would have attacked the trion soldiers if I wasn't?"

"Of course. I was ready to do that anyway. But I figured that this would be a good chance to see if you could actually hit them."

"Don't just test someone when the situation is like that!"

"I trusted that that it would be fine with you there."

"That-!"

Those words had struck Maki once they registered in his mind.

Full trust was something people had to earn and Hyuse was here saying that he was trusted.

It was...

"Don't be too hard on him, Maki-kun. You can get on his case later, but for now…"

Coming from the opposite side as Maki and Stepney, Jin stepped forward.

Hyuse shut off Lampyris, showing his intent on not fighting. He handed it to Yōtarō immediately after.

"That was some nice acting though, you two."

"I taught him a lot of things," Yōtaro remarked. With Stepney now at his side, he held the hand of the other boy so as to not be tackled again.

Hyuse remained still, a new determination now showing on his face.

"Jin… Do you remember the bet?"

"Of course."

A bet Jin had lost.

"I'd like to make good on that bet, right now. Do whatever it takes, but you have to get me back to Aftokrator."

* * *

"Things really do get more and more crazy. Hahaha! Perfect! That's actually perfect for me! If things remained calm, I would have no place on this planet."

Kushikage released a breath as he looked over everything.

Battles had been fought all around, yet they were still contained within a certain space.

That fact alone had caught her attention.

"Border really does have some reliable people, doesn't it? I should be included in that, but my 'reliability' is more based on my own wants and needs. If they don't align with Border's wants and needs then there's nothing to gain from actually helping out."

But that could not be said for everyone in Border.

"I still have a duty to watch over my useless siblings. Hoshi is fine the way she is. Remaining that weak means I don't have to worry about her. Mukuro looks like he's starting to have fun with some others. Good, good. Here I was, thinking I would need to beat the shit out of him to make him understand that he needs to give me some space. And then there's…"

The battle she had interfered in contained her last siblings.

A sibling that her parents had disowned long ago.

"The fact I still see that little shit as my brother just shows how soft I'm going. Still… To think that he would need help from Fuji like that. He's really trying to reject what our old man and old woman taught us, isn't?"

Her grin began to fall into a scowl.

"Shit like that is the reason these rumors are going around. I shut up anyone who has the balls to say anything, but it doesn't stop the rumors themselves. But besides that…"

She turned her head away from the locations of the different battles.

Out in the distance was the rest of Mikado City.

Even further out were things that should have no connection to any of the things happening within the city, yet Kushikage continued to glare into that direction.

"There are some fuckers who are trying to stir things up."

It should have made her happy to know that.

It should have gotten her excited to know that.

But it didn't.

She could only glare.

"I guess…"

Letting out a sigh, she unfolded her arms and placed a hand on her hip. Her other hand reached for her hair and scratched at her head roughly.

"Guess I can use this to my advantage too. I'll leave the troublesome parts to Border, but I'll be dragging Fuji along for that little trip I have planned. She needs the help and my shitface of a brother is being a stupid fuck to do anything about it."

Looking back out to the city, Kushikage grinned to herself once more.

"I need to prepare. This attack was fun and all, but they didn't even tell me about it. So in that case…"

She kicked off the building.

"I'll just make some of my own fun."


	117. Aftermath: Part 2

The fighting was finally over, the combatants had regrouped and the directors went over the end result of it all.

Under uncertain circumstances, it would have been surprising that they made it through the attack.

But this time had been different.

They had been prepared.

"No sign of trion signatures. It appears the hostile Neighbors and trion soldiers have all retreated."

"There's a chance they're in stealth mod. I'll need the ground forces to stay inside the area for a while."

 **Umi:** "Shinoda-san, you can just let those guys go back home or wherever the wanna go. There are still a good amount of us who have nothing to do since we were held back from helping."

 **One:** "We're ready to go whenever!"

 **Other Sniper:** "Sorry about him. He's just rowdy since we could not do much."

The ones in the command room looked at the messages, considering the suggestion for a moment.

It was Shinoda who spoke for them.

"It's fine, Suzaku. With some things we learned from this attack, we need you monitoring the transmissions until we are completely clear."

 **Umi:** "Makes sense. Got it, I'll keep an eye out for anything. But…"

"Hm? What is it?"

 **Umi:** "Oh, it's nothing important. Just some of our guys going a bit cannibalistic again. Asagi isn't the only one up in arms about not getting a chance to do much."

"Isn't it better that they didn't have to do anything…"

Kinuta's muttering voice only got nods for responses.

Turning back to the task at hand, Shinoda gave some extra orders to Sawamura.

While in his seat, Netsuki could only wipe his forehead as he spoke.

"I guess we managed to make it through. Thanks to Jin's foresight, we were able to protect the away ship. I suppose he should be rewarded for his special contribution."

"The enemy is still going to stay on the tangential orbit for another month. We don't know if we'll be able to maintain our defense like this again…"

Fuyushima turned back to reassure their worries.

"But the fact that we destroyed a huge number of their trion soldiers means a lot. Even if they come back again and attack the city, our forces will take care of it."

"Targeting the city… I wouldn't even want to think about that."

 **Umi:** "Some of our more crazy agents would just think of it as another 'festival'."

"We honestly hold too many of those as it is."

That had gotten some chuckles from Sawamura and Fuyushima.

A small comment to lighten the mood, even if it had not been intended.

"At any rate, it was our victory today."

* * *

"Hey Denji, care to tell me why you decided to leave and go to the command room when you were the one who said we should stay put?"

Denji waved his hand lazily throughout the air.

It had only been him and Yorushi in their operating room the entire time.

They had rejected assisting around the base during the attack, but both of them had been there as some insurance.

Now that everything was cleared, the two of them had things to discuss.

"What's it matter what my reasons are?"

"The fact you're using full words means that it was something important."

"I guess you could call it that. But it was just one a whim that I ended up there."

"And what did you do there?"

"Made fun of some people and watched some boring ass fights. Really, you would think some of these guys would try harder."

"Wasn't Noah-kun someone who was fighting outside?"

Denji was quick to point a finger directly at Yorushi's face, flicking up his glasses with a glare.

"Don't mention that little ass to me. He had to get help from so many people to deal with one idiot. He was actually worse than Yūko."

"So that's what it was…"

The way Yorushi turned to the wall was enough for Denji to click his tongue.

With his mood now ruined, he turned around so that his back was facing Yorushi.

"I don't know how you two got so close - one of the few things I don't know about you - but you really do like looking out for her."

"I'm not looking out for that stupid girl. She just forced something onto me that makes me have to watch her back for her. Well, at least when she needs it. The rest of the time I just leave it to Rena to be with her."

"Oh? Are you jealous? Even without glasses, I would be fine inviting her onto the team."

"Go die. If she and I were on the same team, I wouldn't be able to hold back the way I do."

"The fact you count that as 'holding back'…"

"Besides…"

Yorushi looked down with a hum.

The reserved voice coming from Denji sounded strange, but also not out of place.

It had happened on a few occasions when speaking about the Nasu Squad Attacker.

"Even if this attack is over, there's still some things going on in the city. Being around her would only make me lose sight of what that is and what I need to do during it."

"And what exactly is going on?"

No response.

Trying once again, Yorushi put his foot to Denji's back.

"Denji, what is going on?"

This time there was a response.

It was a sigh.

"I won't be getting involved with it since it's #3's fault it even started, but… A hunt will be starting soon."

That was all that was said before the soft sounds of Denji sleeping could be heard.

* * *

It was done.

They could relax a little now, but their guards would remain up for the time being.

Destruction lay around them in the form of cracked walls and limp trion soldiers.

And while surrounded by this destruction, the members of Border…

"Hahaha! What is this!? It's so slippery! Oshiro, Oshiro, come here! Let's see how far he goes!"

"Sumiharu, you should probably leave that alone for now. The R&D Department will likely want it all in good enough condition. And Yōsuke, please don't indulge in his antics for now."

Miwa stared at the sight of Yoneya being spun around in a circle by Inukai while Oshiro tried to put a stop to it. Svantje was nearby, seeming to prepare for the chance to jump in.

"You aren't going to go help him?"

Miwa didn't look away from the scene as Suwa moved to stand next to him.

"He can handle this much. Besides, those guys know how far they can go before anyone else gets involved."

"Right…" Taking the cigarette from his mouth, Suwa continued. "So that's the enemy's Trigger."

"Right. Like Hogo said: we're going to take it back to get checked on."

New messages began appearing with names coming up.

From where the group was messing around, he could hear Inukai say, "Hey, it's Tsuji-chan's group!"

True enough, the first message had come from Tsuji.

 **Dino Boy:** "We have a problem over here."

 **Blue Widow:** "…"

"Really!? Shinnosuke-kun did that!"

 **Blue Widow:** "…"

"Uwah~ I'll treat you two to something tomorrow for the occasion! When he wake sup, also invite Mukuro-kun too! I am very proud of you, Shinnosuke-kun!"

How could he understand Hisoka's silence even when they were just words in front of him?

Something that they had heard about was the fight Tsuji had in the hallway with the Taiyōko brother and Hatohara Squad member. All doubt of Yoneya and Izumi not bothering him about that fight had been thrown out the window the moment it came up.

They had won, though, so the worst of the teasing would likely come from his own teammate.

In a way, Miwa was glad that that attention would not be directed towards him.

Especially when he was getting attention from elsewhere.

 **Honest Sister:** "Hey Miwa! I just had to watch something terrible! Can you honestly do me a favor and sing a song for me later on?"

 **Black Bullet:** "I refuse. I already made it clear what my conditions were for singing anything for you."

 **Honest Sister:** "I don't have the authority to let you move things around in the shop! My mom honestly won't give me a straight answer either!"

 **Black Bullet:** "Then the answer remains the same."

 **Honest Sister:** "So mean! I'm going to turn you into a doujinshi! Just watch me! That good on you right now will make great material! Yes, you will regret ever being covered in goo and losing your stiff sword on a rooftop! I'm even going to 'forget' to put a censor bar!"

Miwa decided to ignore that for now as he looked back to what Tsuji had said.

He knew it was dangerous to leave Suzume to her own devices, but Narasaka was bound to step in at some point. So he focused on responding to Tsuji's words.

"What's the problem?"

It couldn't have been anything too bad if he was telling them instead of the directors.

 **Dino Boy:** "Taiyōko fell asleep right after the fight finished. We don't really know what to do with him. Is Tsukiko-senpai there?"

He was, but…

.

"So what's going on with you and Masataka?"

Sekai refused to mince his words as he sat on a low wall while Yuki stood next to him.

The younger boy was looking around at the battlefield before his eyes landed on Ninomiya.

He noticed that Miwa had looked in their direction for a moment before being drawn into another conversation started by Ninomiya himself.

"…Sekai-san, is this how you felt when you decided to give up on your happiness?"

_So that's what this is about._

It would be wrong to call it a "right of passage", but Sekai understood all too well what was going on now. At least a portion of it.

It had happened to him before. Then he had seen it happen to Denji too.

The difference between them and Yuki was a simple matter of reasoning behind it all.

"Are you sure you want to be talking about this here? Kō is still in the hanger and Yūko is moving around in there too. I'll help however I can, but if someone overhears us, I can't guarantee that it will end well."

"…That's true. Sorry for bringing it up."

"Don't apologize when you haven't done anything wrong."

"Then I will apologize for my failure tonight."

Sekai raised an eyebrow and turned to Yuki.

What failure had he been talking about?

They were all aware that Yuki had a different battlefield than theirs. Hogo Squad's captain as well as Senzai Squad's Shooter had been a part of his team, but the finer details were something that none of them knew yet.

"So what are you talking about? If anything, I would say you had a big success."

A faint sound like nails tearing skin could be heard.

"You see her, don't you? Over there, being crowded around?"

Sekai looked one to where Yuki refused to look.

To the side was Mei, surrounded by some of the other agents who wanted to talk to her.

Something that he noticed was that she was not in a trion body and instead in her real one. Around her wrist could be seen a black bracelet with pink and blue lacing it in certain places.

"I failed so bad that she had to get up to go help us. And even then, there were other factors that had come into play for our fight to end. Pyrínas is still at the branch office, so he had to have also thought it was best that she come help. Shiro and Sthénos also had a hard time. Because of me."

"You sound terrible, you know that?"

"…"

"You aren't the type to blame yourself like that, so stop it. Neither version of 'you' would do that, no matter what you felt. _No matter how unneeded you felt._ So this is clearly something else."

"…"

"Do you want to tell Kō everything or do you want me to bring up this conversation?"

"All things considered, I want to hold off on telling him. He just won in the ganger with the other Attackers and his next match is one he will need to focus on. Me telling him about this stuff will just wear on his mind."

"So you're refusing to tell him?"

Sekai knew his tone had reached a cold place.

This was something they had agreed never to do, after all.

If Yuki was refusing to say something then he would have to get involved.

But Yuki shook his head at those words.

"I'll tell him. There's a break after his next match, so I'll do it then. I just don't want to bring him down with this."

"And the stuff with Masataka you seem to be steering away from for now?"

"…"

Letting out a sigh and a mutter of "irritating", Sekai stood up and turned to face Yuki directly.

_You really like to like, don't you? You especially like to give the most hurtful lies to yourself._

Lifting his hand, he placed it atop Yuki's head.

The younger boy looked at him, puzzled by the action.

He could hear others around him also question what was going on. His own squad giving the most annoying commentary.

"Oh, Captain-san is showing affection. This is when you're supposed to take a picture, right?"

"Eeeeeeehh!? I want a head pat from our captain too! Hey, hey, Yuki! If you switch with me now, I'll give you the latest porn game I bought!"

_I'm going to beat those two irritations._

Forcing himself to cool his anger, Sekai gave a small pat to Yuki's head.

"Even if you think it was a failure, you did well. Good job."

He turned to walk away a moment later.

Unneeded people did not need words to express themselves in the first place.

.

Mei looked over with interest as Sekai walked away from Yuki.

She had managed to push aside most of everyone's worries for her and now she sat alone on one of the low walls.

Without the use of Shikifuku, her body had started hurting again. The painkillers had also still been in effect, something that Sthénos apologized for profusely.

But now that she was alone, she could see just how everyone was acting with the fight over.

Hearing a small sigh, she looked over to see Kako walking up to her. Behind her was Hokari, something she was not expected to see at all.

_I guess that just shows that I'm not back to full strength just yet._

If she had not been in her current state, her calculations would have already filled her head with the different possibilities that could happen with that duo.

"Hello, Mei."

"Did you get tired of Miwa's rejections?"

Both Kako and Hokari stopped upon hearing her.

She did not need her Side Effect to understand why this was.

"My calculations are at an all time low because of my current state. Even if it sounds odd, I might end up asking questions. Rhetorical or not."

"I see…"

Without a word, Hokari lifted his hand to undo his Bagworm. He had not turned it off, only taken it off of his person.

Now holding it in his hand, he moved over and lightly draped it over her shoulders.

"You might be closer with the other two, but you're still my senpai too."

"Thank you very much, Hokari."

It was rather cold out, even with her body heating up. This was different from that heat though. It was more warm than it was hot.

Taking a seat next to her, Kako leaned a bit into her. To her other side was Hokari, seeming to be a guard for them.

"So even you couldn't sleep with all this noise, huh? Should I apologize for that?"

"Were you having fun out here?"

"Maybe a bit too much."

"Then there's nothing to apologize for."

Both women looked up from their spot to stare at Hokari.

Noticing their looks, he gave a nod.

"I had fun…watching Arafune have to fight dogs, that is."

The two women giggled into each other.

"Honestly, your age group is nothing but trouble. No wonder Mei finally decided to graduate."

"I figured that was because she was getting harassed by Jin."

"I beat him up if he tries. Although I did start missing my better underclassmen once I left. I'm just glad I can see them whenever I come to the base."

"If you tell that to our case rep then I'm sure she'll be trying even harder to join us at Border."

This time all three of them chuckled at the thought.

They were all aware of his hard that particular classmate of Hokari was trying to join Border. It would soon be her first attempt at joining and all three of them were rooting for her.

Letting out a hot breath, Mei leaned further into the Bagworm.

"So Jin saw most of what happened tonight with his foresight, huh? With my calculations it would have likely turned out better, but I'm glad it all worked out in the end."

"You aren't about to apologize for not being able to use your calculations, are you?"

Mei lightly shook her head.

"I know that I can't always be there. My calculations make things easier, but they aren't all I have. Apologizing for something like that would be pretty insulting to a lot of people."

"No one would take it too harshly if it is coming from you."

"…That may be a problem itself."

"How so?"

Because…

"They will probably view it as 'a perfect girl correcting them'. There are still a lot of people who are under the impression that I am a perfect person… That is incredibly wrong."

She let out another breath.

"Without my Side Effect at full strength, I have realized just how imperfect I am. It's only natural that I am like this, but I never noticed that it was to this extent."

"Is this because of Kushikage?"

Mei remained quiet.

Kako knew her well enough to know the answer. And even while being friends with Yuki for so long, Hokari only knew the bare minimum about the other Taiyōko siblings who weren't Hoshi.

"…Yes. And also no."

This was how she thought when she could not calculate everything out.

"I'm coming to a lot of realizations lately. One of those does concern Kushikage. But even more than that…are the realizations I'm finding out about myself and those who concern themselves with me. I guess this just means that my emotions take more precedence when I don't have too many calculations going through my head."

"Then welcome to being a 'normal' human."

"Well, no matter what, I still retain my ability to make curry."

"Oh, we still need to compare our dishes at some point! I have been wanting to try a new recipe."

As the two girls continued speaking, neither one noticed the extremely pale expression on Hokari's face.

There was now a terrifying conversation going on next to him and he did not know what to do.

"Hokari, would you like to try some later on?"

There was no escape.

* * *

Hollow.

That description would never have come to Hoshi's mind until this very moment.

She had prepared everything she needed to test out the prototype Trigger for Minoru. The whole time she was doing this she had been getting to know her new friend Obishima more.

The two had gotten along very easily and Hoshi had felt like she could speak freely with the younger girl.

That had been another thing.

Even when Obishima was the younger one of the two, the two fathom had spoken as equals. All formality had been lost so quickly that it may as well never have been there.

She had felt extremely happy to have made a friend in this girl.

That had been when the door had opened to show Kanzaki.

As opposed to Obishima, the older girl had spoken to them Kindly, yet formally. Her old fashioned speech was waved off, but the two younger ones were still rather reserved when it came to speaking with her.

Even so, this had all brought a nice atmosphere to the room that she did not think would be possible with people she had only recently met.

It reminded her of times with her family.

But it had been when Minoru showed up that things took a turn.

The blank expression on the boy had been unnerving and the way he held himself felt like he had shut himself out from the rest of them.

Hoshi felt cold when moving closer to him.

"U-um…Thank you f-for helping with this test, Minoru-senpai."

She only got a nod in response.

Directing him towards the Trigger on the table, she spoke with a bit more energy in her voice.

No matter what was going on, she would try her best to return that nice atmosphere.

"Kō-onii-san had something to do, so Kanzaki-san is here in his place. I had told you about it before, but I thought it would be good to just go over again."

"Right. Thanks."

His voice held nothing in it.

This seemed to put Kanzaki on edge as she slowly moved from her spot.

Wanting to stop anything bad from happening before it start, she moved over to Obishima.

"Yukari, can you help me get the rest of this set up, please?"

"O-of course."

"Then Minoru-senpai, Kanzkai-san. You two can make your way into the training room now."

Organizing the rest of things around her, Hoshi began preparing the training for them.

"Well will now conduct the test run for the prototype Trigger based off the the Black Trigger Shikifuku - Yushi."


	118. Minoru Hatohara: Part 3

"We will now begin. Thank you both for participating in this test. All information will be sent to the Engineers, so you may ask them anything when I am not available."

Hoshi let out a breath while stepping back.

"Wow. You sound very professional right now, Hoshi-chan."

"Do I? I am only saying what I normally hear when working with the Engineers. I do add some of my own words, but they sound much more refined than I do."

Besides what they had seen with Minoru upon his arrival, there had been other things that she felt she needed to focus on.

The first had been the attack on Border. Even while being with Obishima, she had been informed by her squad that she may be needed if things got too chaotic.

The entire time it had been going on, she had been worried about what was happening.

Her worries had been put to rest after a few messages from her team.

 **Colors:** "There is no need to worry anymore, Hoshi. The fighting is now over. Sorry if it was bugging you the whole time…"

 **Lobo:** "We didn't get to do much, but Take got to let off some steam by blasting through a big Trigger. Oh, and Suzume got some dancing in."

 **Honest Sister:** "The beginning was fun and all, but that honestly pathetic woman got me mad. No, not mad. She doesn't deserve my anger. She was only a disappointment. And now Miwa is rejecting me! Hoshi-chaaaaan! These idiots around me are terrible! Honestly teeeeeeerrrrrible!"

She had felt bad for her upperclassman, but there was nothing she could do at the moment. Miwa was not someone she had regularly come in contact with, so she felt it would be rude to ask him for help on that matter.

But it sounded like everything worked out well for everyone on their side. Nothing had been lost and they had managed to push back the invaders.

That was one load off of her.

As for the other one…

"I really want to see Tamakoma-2's match, but this takes priority."

"You watch their matches too?"

She nodded to Obishima. From the tone the smaller girl took it was clear that also watched them.

"Osmau-kun and I are friends, so I have been watching his matches as frequently as I can. If I cannot make it to the match then I watch the logs to speak with him afterwards. Sometime we do watch them together, so that has also allowed me to get a bit closer to his teammates."

"I see."

"And what of you, Yukari? Is there someone on Tamakoma-2 that you have an interest in?"

"I-it's not so much an interest as much as I admire him."

"Oh?"

"Kuga-senpai. He is new and yet he is so skilled. In a way, you remind me of him. B-but that's not to say that I am your friend because of that!"

"It is fine, Yukari," Hoshi answered with a slight laugh. "I understand completely. I feel the same way towards Takeshi-kun and Toby-kun after all. They all have something that makes you want to admire them and continue watching to see where they go. Although I would not compare myself to any of them. I still have much to learn before even trying to reach them."

"But you seem so skilled already."

"As do you."

The second load had easily been lifted by talking to the smaller girl.

Now that there was someone else in a similar situation as her, it meant that there was now a new friend who she could watch the logs with. It would be less lonely and they could look over everything together.

It put her mind to ease.

With a new sense of lightness, Hoshi turned back to the task set out before her.

Minoru and Kanzaki had been waiting for them to start, so she would do just that.

She faced the screen in front of her and began the simulation.

"We will now begin proper."

* * *

Kanzaki was the first to make an attack.

But it was not directed at Minoru.

It was directed at a trion soldier.

Instead of it being a one-on-one battle, Kanzaki had asked if they could make it seem like the fights going on outside.

At the time Hoshi and Obishima had begun whispering to each other, but she did not mind.

She had gotten a nervous look from Hoshi, but she agreed to it so long as Minoru was also fine with it. Although some things would be kept from him so that it did not seem so strange.

_Kiyoshi-dono's younger sister is a very kind person for allowing me this. Minoru-dono is also very kind for not rejecting it. Even though the feeling I got from him did not seem the same as usual, he still went along with it._

Two kind people were allowing her to have this chance while everyone else would be out fighting others.

That was why she started her attacks by giving it her all.

As an added difficulty spike for this, she had decided to limit herself to only making attacks possible for her while also saying her next actions. It was not a way to insult Minoru's skills but a way to strengthen her own skills to reach him.

So once she saw the trion soldiers moving, she made an immediate movement.

"I join the battle."

With those words, she lowered down in front of the trion soldiers.

"I name myself! I, Solo Pseudo-A-Rank Agent Kanzaki Shizuka, have shown my cleverness by finally figuring out how to challenge myself…so I will join the battle!"

The female warrior was quick even at her normal speed and she ran with Kōgetsu-Spear in hand.

.

Kanzaki ran toward the battlefield.

… _Basically, I have to say everything out loud without thinking too much about it._

 _In that case,_ she thought while opening her mouth.

"I move forward."

She started forward.

"I accelerate."

She accelerated.

"I maintain my speed."

She maintained it and understood.

"I thought I could do this."

And so she continued on, speaking all the while.

"I run."

"I dash."

"I rush."

"I arrive."

"I rush and arrive."

"I reach them." "I greet others. Taiyōko Younger Sister-dono, thank you for this opportunity."

"I-I speak. You are welcome?!"

"I thank her once more."

"I pass by them." "And I continue on." "I point out that the 'on' was unnecessary."

"I face forward." "I jump right." "I observe. I do not let the descending trion soldiers distract me." "I lower down." "I leap…no, I run toward the trion soldiers." "I rush my legs along the closer trion soldier."

"I leap."

"I place my feet atop the trion soldier rising into the air."

"I run." "I run onward. I race along the armor."

"I detect the initial movement of the trion soldier's body." "I realize how it will move." "I jump to reach the enemy's moving body." "I do not hesitate to thrust myself forward." "I catch up to the pulling motion." "I place my feet on it." "I stand upon the neck that is pulled back in preparation." "I endure." "I detect the motion of the neck I stand on."

"I predict its future movement." "I run."

"I run along the trion soldier's body." "I reach the top." I see the enemy's core." "I can see them."

"Now, Senkū."

"Understood."

One heavily-armored trion soldier fell backwards as a diagonal line of damage cut across its body.

* * *

Obishima watched Kanzaki through the cameras of the training room

… _She can do that with only her normal movements!?_

It also helped that Kanzaki's acceleration Trigger used resistance reduction and therefore did not apply a burden to her body. However, her basic movements and decision-making speed had to have dropped quite a bit.

… _And it took her less time than before to defeat the trion soldier._

"Did you see that, Yukari?"

A voice reached her from the spot next to her.

"She saw through all of its movements. She understands just how far the trion soldiers' arms and legs can move, where its armor creates blind spots, and the trick I have added to their programming. She must have learned all that while fighting so many times. And the heavy equipment on this one weighs down its movements and provides more space to stand on. That's why she defeated it so much faster than the previous ones."

Kanzaki leaped from the collapsing trion soldier. Her ponytail trailed behind her through the air and she faced the enemy group approaching from the north.

… _Minoru-senpai is still to the south._

Minoru was moving slower than she would have thought, but his current results and Kanzaki's current actions prevented any of the forces from carelessly attacking. It sounded fine and would likely be great in an actual situation, but...

"…!"

A tremor filled the ground as the trion soldier Kanzaki had defeated collapsed in the center.

"Yukari."

"O-oh, yes! I understand. …When she stood on the trion soldier's body, she grasped the surrounding situation and made sure it would fall in the center as an obstacle. That's what you want to say, isn't it?"

"No... I-I mean it is good that you understand that, b-but also that it would be best not to watch that hard."

"Right..."

She looked over at Hoshi then averted her gaze.

She looked away and towards Kanzaki Shizuka.

"I charge!" shouted the girl.

"I attack," repeated her spear.

She ran with her spear to diagonally tear into the back end of the enemy trion soldiers moving north.

 _She's intense,_ thought Obishima. _Can she really take out a lot before meeting up with Minoru-senpai?_

Suddenly, the trion soldier battle line heading north exploded.

"What!?"

* * *

Kanzaki watched the trion soldier running north.

However, the explosion of the trion soldiers beyond was also in her field of vision.

They were directly torn into and launched upwards as if something had burst from directly below them. The line of customized trion soldiers was lifted into the air much like a spear driven into the bottom of a snake from the side.

… _What was that!?_

"I question."

The trion soldiers charging toward her suddenly flew into the air and scattered with a wavelike motion.

It made no sense, but Kanzaki had a sudden thought.

… _Tactics change with the times._

Therefore…

… _Don't tell me…_

"I grumble. …Don't tell me that explosive destruction is a new Neighbor tactic Taiyōko Younger Sister-dono knows of!"

 **Tera-zō:** "I'll be blunt, but I really think they were just blown away."

 _So that wasn't it?_ she wondered while deciding not to worry about the explosive destruction. _They must be into that kind of thing. I suppose that is another kind of illness people can have._

That settled it for her. The real issue at hand was the large trion soldier charging toward her, so she focused on it.

"I lower my stance."

Her stance changed accordingly, but she heard another voice before she could accelerate. It was a male voice.

"Yushi!"

As if responding to the resounding words, the trion soldier exploded in front of Kanzaki.

It was smashed to pieces.

.

… _What!?_

Kanzaki's eyes opened wide.

"I show my surprise. Don't tell me this trion soldier's self-destruction is a new Neighbor tactic that Taiyōko Younger Sister-dono knows of!"

As Kanzaki cried out, the trion soldier fell forward. She could see cracks spreading through all of its armor, its outer shell, and the moving parts beneath and it soon broke apart along those cracks.

It collapsed to its knees.

"…!"

And it split open. The core inside of it could be seen before the cracks running oolong that also started to break it apart.

Next, the airborne trion soldiers reached their apex and began to fall.

Their overlapping trajectories turned downwards.

And as they started toward the ground, Kanzaki spotted the opponent.

A simple man stood below the trion soldier with his feet planted far apart. He had black hair and freckles. His hollow expression turned to her as he moved through the trion soldiers.

"I finally caught up."

Kanzaki asked a question while the trion soldier fell to its knees between them.

"I ask!"

She asked.

"Are you okay, Minoru-dono?"

"You're just gonna ignore my answer anyway."

He fixed his clothes for a moment just as the trion soldier's knees struck the ground. A beat later, the trion soldier's core and joins were destroyed, but the remaining ones still rushed toward him.

To Kanzaki, the man looked almost calm even as the customized trion soldiers attacked from every single direction around him.

"!"

* * *

Around a dozen trion soldiers attacked at once, but Terashima saw something else from elsewhere in the Border base.

… _That light._

It was trion light.

Several trion soldiers had surrounded Minoru and began their attack toward him, but trion light leaked out from between them. Terashima recognized that specific trion light.

… _What am I supposed to say for this? Um…_

Due to not knowing the full circumstance, he had to announce himself up front.

"I'll explain!"

Jinsoku turned toward him with a surprised look after announcing he would.

"Do you know what this is? I guess you would since you helped Taiyōko, but still…""

"I'm surprised. …Heh. You certainly are well-informed, Terashima."

 _Shut up,_ he thought while opening a screen and displaying an image.

 **Secretary:** "I will give you some advice, Terashima-san! Raise your index finger like this! Like this! And then say 'Allow me to explain!' That's how you show off when you want to explain something!"

"I'll ignore that."

At any rate, he had something he had to say.

"I will tell all of you. That light is the same as Yagura's Shikifuku."

As soon as he said that, the light grew and the full silhouettes of all of the trion soldiers attacking Minoru could be seen in it. There were fifteen trion soldiers in all and many of them had striking weapons instead of piercing ones for limbs.

However, Minoru stopped them all.

He defended with various parts of his body: his raised arms, his back, his stomach, his thighs, etc.

The weapons struck him, but he gently raised his arms as if nothing had happened.

Terashima saw wing-shaped tattoos on his right and left arms. The tattoos emitted bright light and definite wings appeared on the surface.

… _Those really are the same as the Black Trigger they used out there._

Next, the light formed further objects. Overlapping flowers appeared across his arms, his legs, and other parts of his body. They were all Hatohara Squad emblems.

"This is Yushi."

He trembled so hard he almost seemed to jump, he raised his arms, and all fifteen trion soldiers surrounding him were blown away.

They flew through the air, rotated, and floated up. Next, Minoru left that scene overhead as he began to move.

"Let's go."

He blew away the still-recognizable wreckage of the destroyed trion soldier and leaped forward.

His path took him directly toward the back.

 _Oh, no,_ thought Terashima, but…

… _Ah._

He relaxed when he noticed someone else there.

Kanzaki had begun to race forward as if planning to collide with Minoru.

* * *

 **Prototype Star:** "Kanzaki-san. I am worried about Minoru-senpai. Would you mind using this test to see if you can gauge anything from fighting with him? He looks to be focused elsewhere, so no need to hold back."

 _Taiyōko Younger Sister-dono certainly is kind!_ thought Kanzaki while thanking her from the bottom of her heart.

"I move forward." "I raise my weapon." "I thrust it forward."

"I strike," added Kōgetsu-Spear as its tip shot forward.

Fragments of the trion soldier were blasted away by the pressure as the weapon moved toward Minoru.

He was unarmed. He simply raised his right hand and moved forward in a compact manner.

… _He's fast!?_

He had only taken a single step, but that step had brought him past the trion soldier and to her. The leap measured twenty meters.

By the time Kanzaki recalled Yuki's Hassou Tobi from long ago, Minoru's strike had reached her.

"I'll knock you back."

Kanzaki responded to those words by jabbing Kōgetsu-Spear straight forward.

Just before they collided, she saw something.

An emblem of light had appeared on the pivot leg kept behind Minoru.

… _Hatohara Squad's emblem!?_

That was not the only one.

The emblems of light blossomed one after another, moving from his knee to his waist, stomach, right shoulder, right elbow, and wrist.

It almost looked like a flower extending its stalk to bloom in a higher place.

Finally, the glowing flower bloomed along his hand.

"Yushi."

The leg Minoru brought forward sank deep down and the ground shook.

"…!?"

The shaking felt more like a miniature earthquake than anything else.

.

… _So it was a powerful stomp!_

Before Kanzaki came to that realization, all of Minoru's Hatohara Squad emblems glowed brightly. The blossoming flowers raced from his foot to his hand.

"Next one, Yushi."

She realized an attack was coming but also realized she could not evade.

"Clear it up! Senkū!"

She sent the spear tip directly into the oncoming power.

She tried to pierce the tip of his jabbing hand with the tip of her own power. She perfectly and calmly read his movements and sent in a counterattack.

"I will make it so."

Despite Kōgetsu-Spear's displayed announcement, the weapon was crushed.

The blade and base were unharmed, but the shaft did not survive.

It was completely smashed.

With the sound of shattering metal, pieces of the three meter shaft scattered in every direction.

The primary segment of the weapon was deflected into the air.

The weapon had been destroyed.

.

Kanzaki had poured all her strength into the spear's shaft, so she lost her balance. She primarily chained attacks together, so this sudden change in her center of gravity caused her to stumble forward.

"—"

She had been right to lower her head. Minoru's barehanded jab shot by above it.

She wore a horn-shaped decoration that both bound her ponytail and provided her with certain amounts of data.

"…"

An instant later, Minoru's strike smashed the right horn, but it seemed the shaft's destruction had caught Minoru by surprise as well. He was unable to fully eliminate the recoil from the powerful stomp he had used to attack her.

"Hm."

He gave a small hum and flipped a dozen meters to the side.

Kanzaki cried out while grabbing Kōgetsu-Spear's primary section as it rotated through the air.

"I warn! Taiyōko Younger Sister-dono!"

 _Oh, no,_ thought Kanzaki.

After all, Minoru's leap had brought him past all of the trion soldiers but still quite near them.

Once he landed, he turned around and took action. He almost slid his body while turning and leaped toward the trion soldiers.

"Th-that is all!"

Everything came to a sudden stop.

* * *

Hoshi let out a breath she did not know she had been holding.

The test had turned into something that terrified her for a reason she was unsure of.

Kanzaki had been doing her own thing, as had Minoru, but it had been the moment the two met that had her shaking a bit.

She had checked the readings on Yushi the entire time and found something strange with it.

Based on the materials she had worked on with the Engineers, it should have done nothing more than boost the physical abilities of the user. But then something else had happened.

The trion meant for it's activation had been stored instead of used.

Minoru had started out by using the Trigger, but the more he moved without using it, the more of his trion it started to store. It had only been after attacking did that stored trion get released.

The released trion then provided him with the enhancements to his physical abilities by spreading out the Hatohara Squad's emblems around his body.

_It may have been an accident, but I think I have found out what the Trigger really does…_

Mimicking a Black Trigger was already something of a challenge. Like Fujin and Gauge, there were things that were completely different from the Black Triggers they were based on. Their power output and general abilities lacked the necessary numbers to even try and rival those Black Triggers. But they held their own special traits that made their differences something good.

From what she had heard, some of the trion soldiers involved with the fighting tonight also had limited gravitational control, something that the Black Trigger Murasame had. It was proof that no matter what the abilities a Black Trigger had, they could be replicated to some degree so long as they could be understood.

Feeling herself get tired from this revelation, Hoshi began to lean back into the seat she had been using. She could see Obishima looking over at her with worry, so she responded with a smile.

"That was certainly…something."

"…You are worried about our senpai, aren't you?"

"Of course," she said readily.

Besides what she had seen with Yushi, she had also been keeping an eye on both Kanzaki and Minoru the entire time.

Kanzaki's attitude towards the whole thing had been fine up until the point of having her Trigger partially destroyed by Yushi. From there she had shown urgency in wanting to stop the training.

Hoshi understood why.

It was because of Minoru.

"There is indeed something wrong. That much was clear when he first arrived, but this has given us a better image that it is something major. I will admit to not knowing him all too well due to only having met him recently, but even I can tell that he is a good person. For him to attack like that…"

"Should we do something?"

"I…"

Hoshi stopped herself.

She slowly brought up her arms to her knees and folded her fingers in front of her mouth.

It was true that she wanted to help her upperclassman if something was wrong, but for it to affect him like this meant that it was not something she could understand without being nosy. Something she did not want to be.

Going through the list of people she knew, there were a few names that came to mind when it came to who they knew mutually.

Continuing to look at Obishima, she gave a sheepish smile.

"It would likely be better to inform someone who he trusts more than us. Even if we want to help, there are so many things that we cannot do. For starters, we do not even know when he joined Border. That could play a major role in what is going on right now. Or maybe it is just a personal thing that we are not meant to know about."

"So then…"

She nodded.

"I will let someone know, but I will not be deep diving into this matter. For now…I will continue to refine Yushi so that it can be a perfect fit for him once it is done."

Fulling turning her body to the side, Hoshi smiled kindly toward Obishima.

"Yukari?"

"Yes?"

Holding her hand out, she continued to smile.

"This may be odd, but will you continue to be my friend as I do something selfish?"

.

_What does she mean?_

What part of this entire situation made her selfish?

Hoshi had not said or done anything that seemed even lightly selfish.

It was all more of a reason or her answer.

With no hesitation, she grabbed hold of the outstretched hand.

"Of course I will continue to be your friend. Please do the same for me."


	119. Kawaguchi Kimura: Part 2

In the Border base, bathing in the artificial lights, there was an open area.

It was an open area for Border members to relax and enjoy themselves for as long as they wanted. Tables and chairs were all over the place with plants being neatly placed around so that it could give a nicer feel to the area.

The open area had two figures sitting at one of the tables.

Two people in white uniforms with Border's emblem were eating their food and sitting in chairs.

They were exchanging words as one of them was watching the people walking by and the other the base itself. At the moment, the one wearing some accessories was looking at the people walking by.

"…As expected, we have a lot of people joining Border. Has the hype of joining Border ended yet?"

The boy watching the base itself, which was eating like nothing was wrong, nodded. Then he looked at the openings with a keen eye.

"…Right now, Border is pretty packed. First it was because of Mikumo after the invasion and then it was because of Yuki-san showing off for Yagura. It only got worse once the entire incident with the sponsors came up and White Rock got destroyed. The rest of us are kind of lacking if we compare ourselves to even the B-Ranks here. I'm telling you, Kaze, we need to hurry up and reach B-Rank so we can help out Shobu and Yuki-san more."

"That was a bit too detailed. I guess that's how it looks for someone who came from somewhere else to join Border."

"Right," the boy responded.

"I'm a naturalized citizen of Mikado City. Due to the first invasion's harsh treatment to the city and the second invasion bringing others in, I'm more focused on doing what I can. I'm even making a small community fanzine on the net because of my parents' work."

The boy gestured towards the people walking around with his fry.

In response, his friend turned his neck back, and at the end of his sight was a collection of upperclassmen talking amongst themselves.

Those upperclassmen had made appearances at their branch from time to time, but otherwise they were only known by name. The multiple colors of their uniforms did not matter to them, but it was something that showed that they were higher ranked than both boys, and...

"We don't really need to go up in rank too quickly if it means fighting those kinds of people who are better than us. The two of us would be too happy to enter the B-Rank Wars, but when we go against people like them, Shobu will be the only one who can even touch them. I have an access of energy most of the time, but I'm not dumb enough to overestimate myself here. It'll only get worse for us if we try something like that and Ōji Squad or Kotowari Squad join the branch."

"'Only get worse', huh…"

The boy with accessories, who had an underclassman's attitude, glanced at the side of his friend's face.

"That such a cheap way of looking at it… As B-ranks are the majority of Border's fighting force and ones who are more easily replaceable, it's better to go up in rank quickly so you can use your benefits for others. Wasn't your family affected by all of this Neighbor stuff?"

"Well, we were at a very low position from the start, so we didn't have much trouble at first. My parents were out of town during both invasions, but I personally don't have issues with specific Neighbors. After that stuff, with the reduction of staff expenses and the protection of classified information, we ended up having to switch locations to a more rundown part of Mikado City. Even then, we were fine until how things are right now."

The relaxed boy shrugged his shoulders, and trying to avoid that topic he peered at the other people walking around.

"But wouldn't it make things easier on your family if you were higher in rank? As a C-Rank we get nothing but. Change to train. B-Ranks get paid while A-Ranks get even more than that. I'm talking about helping yourself until you're fully satisfied, you know? It's just better to think about these kinds of things while you have the chance."

"Those kinds of things," the relaxed boy smiled bitterly.

He looked to his friend and felt a bit sorry for him.

"If I want to go up in rank then it's because it'll lessen the burden for the other B-Ranks. You feel the same way, even when you're going around talking like Urushima-senpai. Stuff like that is beneficial to a point, but if we're already good where we are, there's no need to focus on it so much. Besides, we're still young here, so we should leave that stuff alone for now. Wait another few years to think about that, Ame. Oh, but I guess that would be hard for someone like you."

He breathed.

"Just take. Look around you and figure it out. No one around us is in any particular rush. BRW matches happened yesterday and some of these guys are still taking it pretty easy. They know that holding back is nice at times like these instead of going all over the place like weirdos. And that's coming from a hyperactive weirdo who likes to fight others."

"Even so, they have the luxury of doing something like that since they are already beyond C-Rank. You and I are different since we still haven't gotten all the points needed, right?"

The relaxed boy gave a small laugh at his friend's words.

"Look, I'm in my downtime mode, so don't get me riled up here, okay? Besides, when you think about it, there are some people who have it worse than trying to go up in rank. Specifically the ones who went down in rank. You know how embarrassing that probably is for them? It's like randomly appearing naked with two-colored tattoos of little girls on their asses… Wait, wait, wait, that one was because I'm too relaxed here. Just forget that one."

He breathed again.

"There have been rumors about those squads ever since they went down in ranking, but you probably know about that already. We aren't as rowdy as those guys though, so when we get to A-Rank, I'm sure we won't ever have anything like that happen to us. Besides, Shobu's the kind of guy you won't want to do that to since you know it would make him sad. And a sad Shobu means people will be stabbed from multiple angles. Oh, but I did want to see what all of that stuff was about recently, so yesterday I decided to go to those demoted A-Ranks, but…"

The relaxed boy tapped the friend's shoulder and pointed at the group with his finger.

"…Although it's already noon, you can see just how carefree of a life those guys live; and see that they are already reaching the cannibalistic phase Yuki-san warned us about. I also went to one of the demoted squads - the one that guy is currently on - and saw something that made me want to just back out… That's why I came back immediately, you know."

"I see… Demoted A-Ranks sure are troublesome."

The instant the friend spoke that line, the relaxed one pointed towards the opening leading to a hallway.

"Ah, look at the hallway leading from the operating rooms. Amazingly, those two seem to be…Ninomiya Squad Gunner Inukai Sumiharu and Hogo Squad Operator Kimura Kawaguchi. Nimble even walking, just like some rumors, right? After Ninomiya Squad was demoted and they remained at the top of B-Ranks, that squad hasn't been pushed down, even by the other two demoted squads."

Just as he said, there were two people on the path leading down to the next hallway. The friend confirmed them with his own eyes as they passed by random people walking by, others rushing by or running quickly and the group of upperclassmen.

"His captain was on the same squad as current A-Ranks and Azuma-san, and is Yuki-san's enemy by nature; Ninomiya Masataka-san, right? That rank demotion into B-Rank sure was a blow for them. Well, it seems that way. And the other one, Kimura-senpai…is dressed like a man but given the way he is walking…that's a woman?"

"Bingo. She may be dressed like a man, but actually…she should be a woman."

"Should?"

At that question, the relaxed boy looked up at the ceiling once. Choosing his words, he talked.

"When the first invasion happened, there were 'two Kimuras'. One was a member of a pretty big business across Japan, had connections all over the place and were people who were said to revolutionize some sort of old tech we had. The other was more towards the political side of things, the side that worried about the people more directly. But when the first invasion happened, everyone quickly sided with their opposition to lead around here."

"If that's so, Kimura-senpai can no longer try for a high position seat in Mikado City, can she?"

"Right… But before that happened, she had an operation in order to seem more reliable. To make sure she had the right to lead later on, she was supposed to have had a sex change operation to turn her into a boy… But, in the earlier stages, after her breasts were removed but before they began with the lower parts, the first invasion happened. Since she doesn't have breasts, female clothing doesn't fit her well, so she dresses like a boy."

"When I was still living nearby, she was ignored and bullied. She was years above me, like now, and I heard that since she was unable to get anything from all of those privileges, she was abandoned by her dad; but…"

While looking at the two traveling through the Border base, the relaxed one slowly said this:

"Given that she's now an Operator, she's still doing her best, isn't she… I wonder if I should make a fansite…"

* * *

Inukai and Kimura were walking through the Border base towards the room used for commentary on the B-Rank War matches.

Without the Hogo Squad captain around, the two of them made no particularly notable actions around each other. Even when greeted by others like the group of underclassmen, they continued like any normal day. The open area that the group was in had started to become rather popular for meet ups, but that had not been the reason for their walking there. It had just been the quickest route to reach their destination. In all honesty, Kimura would have preferred not to go through the open area.

Inukai and Kimura walked the hallway, which had quickly become empty upon their arrival. As they traveled the inner hall of Border, they laughed and exchanged words while tilting their heads. Inukai was forming a smile at the corner of his mouth.

"…Speaking of which, tomorrow Jinsei is going to be doing something fun. What are you going to do tonight? As I said before, it looks like Jinsei and the rest are going to make some ruckus at their school. Are you going to go with them and act as the fire extinguisher smokescreen?"

"I am the vice president of our student council. If I did something like that the entire faculty would know about it…"

"It's alright, it'll just make you look like the rest of them."

"Then I definitely can't do it, can I? Anyway, what is even with the student council president, suddenly announcing that he's going to do something crazy and cause a ruckus at the school like that… The other day we had a huge meeting for a potluck in the dark, and he ignited the experimental-use magnesium with the lab room's alcohol lamp and it went 'Boom!'"

"Yeah, you can't make night potluck into a light potluck. I guess the glass pot of the lamp lightened everyone up, though."

"No, it wasn't like that, seriously…"

Inukai laughed in response to Kimura who was speaking in a troubled manner. Continuing like that for a few seconds, he eventually signed.

"Well, I'm just trying to say that one can pass the time like that too, you know."

Kimura wondered about this and folded her arms as if trying to protect herself. After that, she tilted her neck.

"Yesterday he started some trouble in a restaurant near the inner city when he covered one of Kon's friends, who was completely naked, in cream and stuck an eel up his butt. That was quite the incident, don't you think?"

"That did indeed happen, they told me about it before I got there, but you know…"

Inukai looked at Kimura out of the corner of his eye and in response Kimura pulled back a bit.

"…Did you know that what that 'friend' really wanted was to court Kon in order together some leeway with Kuruma-san?"

"…Huh?"

"I don't know if he was from Mikado City or just visiting, but he was trying to get in close with someone important who was also in Border and wanted to use Kon for her captain. With that objective, he tried to get close to her as a 'long time friend'. Kon is pretty strong willed if she is connately with Taichi, but she's also someone who thinks hard about things she seems trivial. Especially when it involves friends."

 _That means…_ Kimura twisted her eyebrows.

"That mess was Inukai's work?"

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, don't suspect me. I didn't do anything; someone among them noticed, that's it… After all, our group is pretty small when compared to some others, right? It was probably a coincidence, but…"

"But?"

"But, emotionally, Kon thanks everyone for that."

"—"

As if punctuating sound by sound, he introduced a new topic of conversation.

And suddenly, he once again looked at Kimura out of the corner of his eye and opened his mouth while looking around the area.

"—Yeah, today really is strange. Has Kimura noticed it?"

.

"Strange? What are you talking about…"

Questioning in her response, Kimura looked at their surroundings and the flow of people.

After a while, Kimura tilted her head as if she was saying: "I don't know."

Inukai pointed towards the people in the next open area in the distance, all seeming like nothing was wrong.

"—As you heard from Oshiro, everything near either my captain or your former captain has been relatively calm. Kimura, do you understand what that means?"

"That's…"

Surprised, Kimura raised her voice.

"Those two haven't fought in a while and that's even when they are around each other. In short, there's something majorly wrong between those two… This is the first time that I've seen the both of them in this much of an agreement. It's an agreement of staying away from each other, but it still counts."

"Yeah, those two never pass up a chance to attack each other's throats; but this time, there's nothing, strangely enough."

Kimura took one step forward and spoke to a frowning Inukai while turning back.

"…Is this the result of whatever happened to Hatohara? Wait, I mean Minoru… Anyway. Or is this a consequence of everything that has been happening recently with Neighbor attacks, like the one with the Wanderers and Galopoula? But even so, the fact that it's just between those two make it feel like—"

Kimura continued.

"—It feels as if something ominous is really going on there. Specifically something having to do with the past, don't you think?"

"Hey, hey, don't say scary stuff. It's just that those two are being more difficult with each other now. They're putting some distance between themselves and certain people. But well…"

 _I don't really know,_ thought Inukai as he nodded…

Suddenly a large object rushed by, right in front of them. Like a rock being thrown, that large object crossed the space.

"That is…a body?"

The body belonged to a person later than Inukai, but was also the right size to call him their age. Compared to the two of them, he was a bit bulkier. Even so, he got up and waved to them."

"If Zoe is just being tossed around like that then it means there's nothing to worry about up there. Yup, nothing suspicious or dangerous going on at all. But that did remind me of something I heard today. Kimura, you're going to be doing the commentary on my squad's next match against Suzunari-1 and Kotowari, right?"

"Yes," Kimura opened her mouth.

"I was asked to cover that fight since Hogo Squad is not participating in the B-Rank Wars and we do not have defense duty that day. I have no problem with covering it, but I do worry about what everyone else will say. That idiot crossdresser will probably be in the crowd just to mess with me while also making remarks about the rest of you. Oh, try not to make my life harder at that point, okay? Both you and Murakami will be involved, while Kon will be backstage, so it'll give him some ammo to use."

"You're well informed, aren't you? Who will be there…can you guess who would come to watch?"

"Yeah," Kimura said. And then she nodded…

"Arafune, Hokari, the idiot - but I already said that one so we will leave him out - Suzaku, Mizukami, Senzai, Kitazoe, and Tōma. Most of them probably just to annoy me or make fun of you three, so make sure to really not embarrass yourself. There might be some others, but those guys seem like the best choices to make it to your match. Because of that…"

She let out a breath.

"I was really hoping for some help from one of my former teammates since my current ones would only add to the chaos. And my captain would definitely be more interested din watching you than trying to calm everyone down. But still…it's hard to go to any of them right now."

.

Kimura spoke starting to walk once again whilst scraping her shoes on the ground a few times.

"And..it sounds like things are only getting worse?"

In the middle of the shadow projected by the artificial lights, Kimura remembered those days while looking at her feet.

"We had been pretty crazy back then, but it worked fine enough since each of them could fight on their own with no problem. It wasn't that they didn't want to work together; they were just the type of people to take things on themselves. Even our formation could be viewed as very offensive or violent since they were…"

 **Kiyoshi Taiyōko:** Captain, Attacker

 **Fuji Shitokei:** Vice Captain, All-Rounder

 **Shizuka Kanzaki:** Attacker

 **Mitsuteru Ariake:** Sniper

 **Kawaguchi Kimura:** Operator

"Our captain and Shizuka were usually the first ones going out to attack while Shitokei would stay back for a moment to think things through. But overall, she was just as bad as those two were. Ariake was the only sensible one…even when he was overshadowed by the others. Actually, he may have had an ever smaller pretense than I did at the time. His plainness was good since it helped him not be noticed when sniping. Still, all of us ended up all over the place when our captain 'died' and our best fighter went with him after his past caught up to him. In a way, he was more of a ghost with regrets than an actual person. It all made communicating with each other a bit hard since remembering old times always felt terrible for all of us."

Kimura looked at the ceiling, to the white-armored ceiling that was plain and had no blemishes.

"I guess that could just be me not accepting how different things really are for all of us even after all of this time. In the end, I would say that only Ariake and myself ended up in good places when compared to the rest of them."

She sighed.

"Sorry for boring you with all of this stuff. I know that you are aware of all of that since you managed to stick through almost all of that yourself. You even had your own squad to focus on and Hato-… Minoru and his issues going on. That demotion probably didn't help anything."

"It's nice to talk about the past at times, so don't be sorry for something like that. Plus, I know how Yuki and Mei feel about the squad you guys used to have, but I never knew how you, Kanzaki or Ariake felt about it all. The latter even more so since he has been our underclassman since moving to Mikado City. Even with Mei as our upperclassman, she still thought of herself as one of us even when she knew that wasn't the case. Most of us just couldn't really deny her since Kō, Pokari and Kage always seemed happy whenever she was around."

Inukai, who said that, formed a drooping smile at the corner of his mouth.

"But well…"

"What is it?"

That instant, Kimura relaxed her shoulders and took a step forward.

"Kimura… Do you know what you can do to try and change some things?"

"What's that…?"

"Right, right, right," Inukai nodded three times. At that point, he stuck his index finger up and said this.

"—Ask Yuki to be a commentator with you."

.

At Inukai's words, Kimura slightly lost hold of herself.

It made enough sense that there seemed to be no problems with it. But there was still something that caught her off guard.

"Why him specifically? Even if he is having some weird issues with Ninomiya-san, I doubt even he would have trouble holding back from making any comments."

"Right, right, but that's exactly why I suggested it. It might clear some things up. Also, I would have said to go to any of those guys, but you would have gone straight to Mitsuun instead of the others."

"Th-that may be true, but…!"

Kimura recalled her memories of being on Taiyōko Squad.

"It's a problem if things only got worse. Or even if he doesn't say anything. Ninomiya-san is bound to be targeted for a fight, so him not making any comments on that may end up even worse. And if it's the opposite, there would be no one to properly stop him from going off."

"Is that so?" said Inukai while he continued to look in the direction Kitazoe left.

"Well then, why not just bring along someone who Yuki definitely can't go against?"

"—Eh?"

Inukai spoke and looking at her he formed a broad smile at the edges of his mouth.

"I…just thought that it would be interesting if Kimura also came over to this side."

"By saying 'this side' you mean…"

"The side where we would be able to calmly talk about things like the past."

The past, that is…

"For example, the reason why we were demoted to B-Rank… How I, not knowing so much when I thought I did, allowed my best friend to do things that we view as wrong. The side where you would be able to bring those words to your lips with a smile."

"—"

_Telling me something like that would mean that he is putting too much faith and trust in me. My former captain and Minoru should be the only ones to know what is really going on with this guy. If he were to tell me something like that then..._

The words coming from him sounded all too tempting that she would not have noticed something wrong if she had not tried to learn how to be a politician.

… _He's also trying to figure everything out so that everyone can feel better._

Inukai Sumiharu.

This boy with her was trying something that could be seen as selfless while at the same time completely selfish.

What was the reason for that? Even if they were his friends that were being involved, he was saying that he would tell her extremely important things since it would place her in an area where she could do many things with knowledge of such things. But...

… _He's not throwing this on me. He is bringing me closer so that I won't back down._

Her current captain held a very special place in this boy's heart, a place that others would not be able to get to no matter what happened.

In the same vain, he held certain people close to that place meant for her current captain. It was a place for ones like Minoru.

If someone like her, someone who spoke to him based on their mutual understanding of her current captain, knew things that were not meant for people like her then it would give less meaning to those closer to him.

That was the reason that Kimura refused to think about Inukai and Ninomiya Squad's demotion.

… _However._

_I can't simply bring those words to my lips, am I really that naive?_

Inside her field of vision and without erasing that smile at the edge of his mouth, Inukai said:

"So, Kimura; as you seem to be thinking a lot, what would you think if a terrible story like the past has a continuation?"

"…Eh? A continuation?"

"Right, right," Inukai said twice.

"What if those two who had 'died' actually…never even left in the first place?"

"—"

Kimura lost all words for an instant. She forced herself to open her mouth. As she was not able to grasp what she had just been told and felt like her mind was still not stabilized, she asked something to confirm whether this was truth or fiction.

"No way. If those two continued holding on like that…"

_That would mean that they both are refusing to actually move on while also completely rejecting everything that has happened, right? However..._

"What are they doing holding on like that…? Is that what is happening now with them?"

"That's why I said that earlier, didn't I?"

Inukai spoke.

"If you want to know, step inside and come to this side, Kimura… Your wish is to be a politician and you seem to be thinking on the grand scale of things; but you are failing at stepping inside, don't you think?"

"But," Inukai added.

"I like those guys just as much, you know… So, why won't you step in with me?"

Speaking these words, Inukai suddenly sped up his gait.

The wind moved, the sound of clothes rustling resounded. As if being secretly held by Inukai, the Trigger in his pocket shook.

"—Well, let's end this conversation at that…alright?"

Kimura chased Inukai with her gaze as he headed towards the open area of the base and was passed by a group of people. Kimura, a little panicked, moved her feet in order to catch up to him; and accompanied by the sound of her footsteps she reached the open area.

"…Oh."

The sound of shifting seats being pushed out or pulled in, the murmurs of people, the sound of pounding feet against the floor drowned Kimura's body. The two traveled the quickest way through the open area and around others as smoothly as possible.

"Well then, Kimura. When we make it to the hall you'll be commenting on then we can go look at some other things and have some fun."

"Okay. Also, Inukai, as you probably know by this point, what with being on his squad and all; Tsuji won a major battle according to my captain, so the next time you see him can you send him my regards?"

"Ahh, that was… Will I see him today? Well, if I see him I'll speak to him."

* * *

"Are you okay if we leave for some food, Boss?"

"We'll be right back, Yuki-san."

Yuki waved from his spot on the sofa.

Futoyuki and Arisa had asked reassured him that they would be going out for some food enough times that no more words were needed.

After the fifth way the two of them had finally left the branch office.

With no one else around, he tilts his head back to stare at the ceiling with a blank expression.

_Everyone is out at the moment and I'm in my trion body. I need to keep this up for a bit longer. Just a bit…_

How long exactly was "a bit"?

He had never actually figured that out. Even now, he did not know what he meant when he thought those thoughts.

Others had always thought he overdid things when he should have been taking it easy. All that time he had thought he was only doing "just enough".

_I guess I really am bad at figuring these kinds of things out. That's probably why…_

Why he was now unneeded.

Someone who found themselves losing something to the point of it not existing or giving it up. It was not something so simple that just anyone could call themselves that.

But Yuki could.

There were two other people who knew it even better than he did.

What it really meant to be unneeded was something that only those three could truly understand.

_Well that's how I feel anyways._

Letting out a sigh, he placed a hand over his eyes. The darkness overtook him as he began thinking about everything that had happened recently.

_We had those rough days with the sponsors. Then it went right into yesterday morning and the incident with Minoru. Within that same day, we had an attack sent out way from Galopoula._

And during all of that.

_Just how useful was I?_

It hurt to think about, but his use had been rather minimal when compared to all of the others around him. Everyone else had made major impacts while all of his efforts had been rejected, blocked or shot down. At some points those held literal meanings to them.

The pain from thinking about it all had forced his mind back into the past and the things he had not wanted to remember for the rest of his life.

Things like his former family.

"…"

He audibly clicked his tongue at the images of his mother and father that appeared in the darkness of his arm.

Pulling away with a sour expression, he saw a message come through and opened before his eyes.

 **Manager:** "Hey, you, can you be a commentator for the match I have to oversee?"

.

"Huh…?"

He knew that it was Kimura who was sending him this message, but it felt odd to see it coming from her.

Even with his confusion, a return message had been sent back to her.

 **White Fox:** "You know that I already commentated on a match, right?"

 **Manager:** "And? There's nothing saying a person can't commentate on two matches during a season."

"I mean…that's true, but…" he spoke with a defeated voice.

 **White Fox:** "I doubt I would be the best person for something like that. With the way you are, wouldn't it be better to have someone who can view things from all angles instead of a hidden one?"

 **Manager:** "Don't worry. I have that covered. I already asked someone perfect for that kind of thing."

"Who did she ask?"

If she was asking him second then it meant that it was someone she knew he could get along with well enough.

But at the moment there were a lot of people who he could say he would not be able to get along with without forcing too many fake emotions out.

 **Manager:** "Look, you are actually the best person I could ask for this when we consider which squads will be participating."

 **White Fox:** "And which ones _will_ be participating?"

There was a moment of silence.

It seemed like Kimura would not be answering him until a message seemed to slowly come in.

 **Manager:** "…Kotowari Squad, Suzunari-1, Meishō and Ninomiya Squad."

Yuki forcibly sucked in air.

Watching another Kotowari Squad match would always be nice to watch for him, and Meishō Squad managing to reach the top tier was nice, but the other two squad names had started to make a heavy feeling come to his chest.

Kimura had not been wrong in saying that he would be perfect to commentate on that match, but…

_I can't…_

It hurt too much to think about.

Even while in a trion body, he felt like there were parts of him in pain.

_Besides my current issue with Ninomiya…there's also Inukai, Kō and Kuruma-san. I don't think I would be able to bring myself to say anything if the match has them in it. It's just not possible at the moment…_

Ninomiya had been completely ignoring his existence ever since the previous morning. No words came from him and all words never seemed to reach him. There had been nothing that Yuki could do, so he had begun ignoring the man in return.

Inukai had tried to mend as much as he could, but Yuki only felt awkward around him to the point of being unable to look him in the eye. A reminder of what happened to Minoru because of him had always come back to his mind when around the boy.

Murakami was a different story. After having his talk with Sekai, Yuki found that he did not want to get near his best friend out of fear of saying everything to him. He had promised himself that he would say everything once the week-long break started, so he did not want to say anything before then.

But that was not allowed.

Sekai had reminded him of that fact. If there was something that he needed to get out then he would go to Murakami as soon as he possibly could.

But he hadn't done that.

Kuruma was currently he leaps of his worries, but still a part of them nevertheless. The man was someone who he felt wrong speaking about at the moment when he knew that Sekai would get involved if he said anything out of line.

 **Manager:** "Hey. What's your answer?"

"…No! I can't help you out here. Sorry, Kimura."

His words filled the room as they were written out as text for him to send.

A new message came almost immediately.

 **Manager:** "Alright then, I'll just stop asking you. _You are going to commentate on this match."_

Yuki's eyes widened a bit.

His former teammate had wanted to be a politician, so he was surprised to see this kind of force used against him. Normally she would have tried to sweet-talk him into doing it.

 **Manager:** "You are going to be there. You are going to commentate properly on everything. You are going to get over your little fighting with Ninomiya-san so you can give advice. If you happen to criticize anyone, then fine. They probably need it anyway. You will deal with the people in the crowd who will be trying to annoy us. You will sit next to me and that other person so we can make sure you won't run away. You won't run away. You will be a proper enough human being."

 **Manager:** "Those are my demands."

 **White Fox:** "…And what am I supposed to get out of this exactly?"

If she wanted to force these demands on him then it meant that she was prepared to compensate him for it.

 **Manager:** "I will let you know who else will be commentating with us. I will let you say whatever you want. I will allow you to leave right away. I can guarantee that you will be allowed to throw something at the people who try to annoy us. And one more thing."

What else did she plan to give him for doing this?

_She must really want me to do this…_

**Manager:** "I will tell you about the conversation I had with Inukai."

"…What?"

Kimura was not the type of person to say anything about some random conversation she had with someone. Everything was about using what she could to get things done in an orderly manner and a way that benefited both sides of an argument.

Using a simple conversation with someone he had been avoiding meant that the conversation held meaning for both her and for him.

"This girl…"

He gave a bitter chuckle when he thought about her demands.

The old squad he had once been a captain of had relied on her for many things and it showed through at moments like these. This girl who had wanted to be a politician had just won against a white fox who only knew how to lie.

 **White Fox:** "Fine. I'll be a commentator for you. But on the condition that you tell me who the other commentator is for the match is right now."

 **Manager:** "That's fair. It's Hikigane Squad's captain."

.

Yuki could feel a long sigh escape his lips.

"Of course it's Sekai-san."

 **Manager:** "I assume that you don't have any complaints about me choosing him."

That was not it.

 **White Fox:** "I'm just a bit shocked that you managed to get him to go along with this."

There it was again. "A bit". Was he really "a bit shocked" or was he going over the top with his surprise?

He could not figure it out with no one else around to tell him.

 **Manager:** "He did not want to do it at first. I had to do the same thing with him as I did with you. The difference was that I didn't have to bring up as many things."

 **White Fox:** "I can figure. Sekai-san is pretty relaxed if you bring in the right stuff. In this case I can guess that it was because Kuruma-san and Kō will be involved there. Maybe because it also gets him out of defense duty."

 **Manager:** "Actually, he agreed immediately once I mentioned that I would be asking you afterwards."

That had been another surprise. And at the same time, it felt completely natural.

Yuki felt his lips start to curve up when he thought about the kindness he had always received from Sekai. There was no possible way to repay him for anything and yet he continued to look out for Yuki whenever he could.

It eased the pain.

He let out another sigh when he thought about the real reason why this was the case though.

_Sekai-san is too nice. My own unneeded self is nothing compared to him. To give up all his happiness…_

It was something unthinkable.

The man was someone who deserved respect for everything he had given up and everything he had been trying to do since giving that up. The relaxed and irritated persona he wore rarely came down to most people, but Yuki had only ever seen a nice person instead of what everyone else saw.

And that was for him and a few other people.

There was still one person who knew more about Sekai than anyone else, understood him better than anyone else, and would never leave his side no matter what. The problem Yuki found with that was…

_I don't know who that person is. Denji doesn't know either, so that just goes to show how far behind we are compared to that person._

Delving into those thoughts would only drag him into other parts of his mind that would make him want to back out of his agreement with Kimura. That was something he did not want to do.

So instead of focusing on what he knew of Sekai, he responded to Kimura's message.

It had been amazing that she held back from saying anything until he answered.

 **White Fox:** "I see… Well then, I guess you really thought long and hard about who to choose for this match's commentary, didn't you?"

 **Manager:** "I'll admit that I had help deciding not his. At first I was just going to go with someone like Kurauchi or Fuyushima-san, but the help I got really made me realize how good of a choice you and Hikigane-san were."

 **White Fox:** "Must have been someone knowledgeable in things they shouldn't be if they managed to change your mind."

He had a few guesses, but was not dumb enough to say them out loud.

 **Manager:** "I had informed the others while I was at it. Kanzaki said that she wouldn't be able to make it but will listen to the recordings of the commentary."

 **White Fox:** "And Mitsuteru?"

 **Manager:** "He said that he'll be trying extra hard during the match. I guess he doesn't want to look bad in front of his former squad."

 **White Fox:** "Seijin's been busy with some things recently, so we haven't seen him too much. It'll be good to see exactly how they managed to get to this spot. As for the others…"

When he thought about the remainder of Meishō Squad, he could only picture them causing a commotion in the match.

 **Manager:** "Well I have things I need to get done now. I need to inform some people about the slots of commentators that are now filled. I'll see you then."

Yuki only nodded to himself without responding.

With the way he knew her, he was sure that she would not even see his return message if he sent one. At least not until he brought it up.

Leaning back against the sofa, he found that his body felt a bit lighter after talking with Kimura.

The two of them had their own back-and-forths, but he would tend to just be with Mei while she would stick to Ariake or Kanzaki for the most part. They had been teammates before with Kimura forcing her way as his Operator, but she had been a good one.

She managed their squad well when he had been lazy with paperwork or he just did not want to get to it. There had even been times when she took his place at captain meetings.

He chuckled at the memory.

"She managed to outlast them all in staredowns when they told her to get me to go."

The entirety of the squad had respected her and truly thought of her as an important part of Taiyōko Squad. Even when they would often get on her nerves, criticize her for her terrible jokes or help others in cannibalizing her for their own jokes.

That was when a thought entered his mind.

It was a thought of how Kimura would end up scolding him if she ever found out about his abuse of his Trigger to continue pushing himself.

Lifting his hand into the air, he muttered the words "Trigger off" as he began to close his hand.

With his body no longer being made of trion he could feel some small pains throughout his body. They were not mind numbing, but they still made him feel like not moving. His eyelids were heavy and the arm he held in the air quickly fell onto the cushion next to him.

Everything that had built up was now hitting him and making him tired.

Unlike Mukuro, he could not keep himself awake when he felt extreme tiredness was over him.

Leaning his body to the side, Yuki began to close his eyes while pulling his legs up onto the cushions.

"I guess I'll…get some rest…before everyone comes…back…"

With his final words leaving his mouth and his eyes closing slowly, he went to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am planning to split this story up into smaller ones and put it as a series. There will be a bit more added to those than what this story has. Mostly for the parts up to Aftokrator and the invasion itself. So feel free to wait for those or just read this story to know what will happen.


	120. Noah Shor

Suzume had a bounce in her step for the first time today.

She was walking to the side of a group of Border agents, but she was making sure to keep away from them. She watched the C-Ranks begin to mil about in preparation for later in the day.

"Nn…"

She stretched and then spoke to no one in particular.

It's honestly been a bit since I took a nice stroll through the base. Even if I have somewhere to be, it is still nice to just walk."

Someone spoke to her as she removed her jacket.

It was Toby.

The boy had a gray trapper hat on his head and he raised a hand from the direction near the group of Border agents.

"Can you hurry it up already? The match has already started over there."

"Hurring will honestly mean nothing if we aren't on the same page. Besides, there are still the logs we can look over."

"Do you think it will be a long match?"

Toby stopped at a point 5 meters away and Suzume nodded.

"It has been a while since we fought those squads, so it's best to say that each one of them has gotten stronger. So if each one has gotten stronger, it honestly means they learned how to keep going. And…"

And…

"Later on, anyone who finds themselves in a terrible position will only find a way out of that situation."

"…So they need to make the first attack and challenge them there?"

"No." Suzume smiled. "We all decided to split up to watch these two ongoing matches. You and I chose to go watch Shor Squad's match against Arafune Squad and Kakizaki Squad while Take and Hoshi-chan went to watch Tsukiko Squad's match. Knowing that, it's clear how each team will move. At one point I even imagine that there will be a standstill for them."

"…So you don't think they're going to lose at the beginning?"

"If I thought they would lose, I wouldn't even go to watch the rest of the match. Good grief, foolish dog," said Suzume. "They'll likely go all from the very beginning. But unless they are knocked out early on or the entire match ends quickly, they need a safe way of reaching that standstill."

Suzume began walking in the middle of her statement.

And once she passed Toby by…

"Hey! Don't just leave me behind!"

"Toby, who do you think will win?"

"I want Shor Squad to win since No is my best friend, but Arafune Squad kinda has them dead to rights since they can take out Minubuki and No from a distance. Even Kakizaki Squad has an advantage since they have good teamwork."

"Being a good person doesn't honestly seem to be worth the cost. …Now, you said they already started the match, didn't you? Let's go."

"Wait!" Toby ran after her. "Do you really plan to just sit and watch the match?"

"I plan on taking some notes too. But I honestly just want to see how everyone does."

"You're planning on making fun of them later, aren't you?"

"You don't even notice what's going on, do you? These matches might actually show you and Take what exactly you are missing by only being good boys who try to do only good things."

"You sure are crafty."

"I am honest after all. Besides…"

Suzume gave a "heh heh" of laughter.

"On occasion, it is nice to show off for your underclassmen. Don't you think?"

That question brought Toby to a stop and Suzume reached a hand out to her.

Suzume rubbed the brown hair on that short head and laughed in her throat again.

"Heh heh heh… I'm glad you're worried about Shor Squad."

"Of course I am."

Toby sounded exasperated as he walked out ahead of Suzume.

Suzume followed behind him with a light step.

* * *

_This is bad…_

Noah could think of nothing else as he hid inside of a building with Bagworm on.

Multiple cuts and a few holes could be seen running along his body. The leaking trion had long since been taken care of, but the amount he had left would not be enough.

" _Sora, run by me who should be left."_

The sound of his squad's Operator could be heard coming through to his head.

" _Arafune Squad has Arafune-san still on the map. Hanzaki-kun was taken out by Kakizaki Squad's Teruya-san and both Tomoe-kun and Kakizaki-san were able to take out Hokari-senpai. Arafune-san managed to take out Kakizaki-san. And as for us…"_

He stopped Sora from continuing.

He already knew.

Fubuki had been spotted by Hokari and was taken out. Through a pincer attack, Minubuki had been taken out with the point going to Kakizaki Squad.

This meant that they were in last place with no points to their name.

_What to do now…_

A sudden feeling came up.

.

A strange feeling of defeat would always come to Noah, it was just what happened to normal people like him who could not stand out most of the time.

Being noticed or standing out was not something he ever tried for, but this feeling would always come when he was put in this kind of situation. One where he knew that he would lose and there was nothing he could do about it.

It had been why he had gotten a certain from Denji at some point.

Defeated Boy.

That name would always appear before his eyes when he had started to give up.

This time was no different.

Calling himself a defeatist was going a bit too far, that much he knew. Even when he became like this, he always held out hope that there would be a chance for victory.

Only a handful of time did his side of him not show itself during a fight.

When he was having matches with Toby and Shana.

The two of them had always made him feel like everything was fair and he could reach the same places as them.

It was amazing.

But that had also changed.

Shana had seemed to steadily be getting better. Her movements were just a bit more fluid and her swings held more power behind them.

But it had been Toby who had torn apart that feeling of being even with the two of them.

"It was that time, for sure… When I helped him…"

When Toby had been having his own troubles, Noah had helped him through that with some training. That training had seemed to give Toby the comeback that he needed. From there it seemed like things were only going upper him.

Noah had been happy, truly. But then Toby only continued to move forward at a rapid pace.

The amount of space between the three of them seemed to only increase by the day with Noah himself being far behind the two of them.

It was only proven during the attack against Border.

He had been helping Tsukiko Squad against a single Neighbor and some trion soldiers, yet he had managed to do so little. Nothing had been done until Kotowari Squad had arrived. Takeshi had been amazing, but the way Toby reached them so easily without worrying about the Neighbor had been what stuck with him the most.

Both of them had already gone far ahead of him.

_I had thought that moving to one of the branches would help us improve, but we are too far behind Suzunari-1 to even consider being their equals._

Having the help of their branch mates had only made him realize just what kind of difference in abilities there were between them.

Things were changing too quickly for him to catch up.

" _Hey Captain, we have complaints over here."_

"Just let Minu go off to the other room for a bit."

" _It's not from her."_

That had to be a lie. No one else would complain at a time like this. Most certainly not to or about them.

But still…

" _The first one says, 'Heh heh heh. That captain of yours is being honestly worse than our foolish dog.' The second one says, 'Tell him to stop being an idiot!' Really now, these people are such harsh critics, aren't they?"_

The smile in Fubuki's voice was as clear as day.

It felt like it was wrong to have the chat up when they were in a fight. Even if Fubuki had been defeated, it still felt wrong to have it up.

But the words were not lost on him.

The two of them were both saying the same thing.

.

" _I know you can do better"…right?_

Yes.

_I'm not like Daigo or Hisato, so I won't say "I'll do my best"._

But.

_I can do better._

If this was all it took then they would not have made it even to the mid tier after making Shor Squad so soon.

Since they had made it.

_I need to do better. That way I won't be criticized so heavily._

His opponents were not going easy and they were determined to run him down. Each one of them was doing what they could to win.

When situations like these came up, it would be better to wait things out and run out the clock.

But only if the losing ones could do nothing else.

_I can't be like that!_

His squad was relying on him and he was being criticized for not doing more when he was capable of it.

It was also somewhat insulting to these opponents who were testing their strengths here. If their opponent ran away or hid then their strengths and strategies would be pointless. They would be wasted in the worst way.

Noah understood this since he had done this sort of thing before without noticing.

_Yeah… Back then with Samu._

Defeated Boy.

_I'm always like that. Because of my defeatist personality, someone else had to come in while Samu put himself out there just so I could stop being an idiot._

It was the most shameful time of his life.

That time had been the reason for him getting more serious when it came to Border.

Denji would make sure he never lived it down while Mikumo would always reassure him that it was fine.

They were both so different. As were his current opponents.

They were all different, but had something in common.

They were also defeated.

So many times they were defeated.

The numbers for them were far larger than his own losses, he was sure. But what had they done afterwards?

That was…

_Get up._

They continued.

_Do better._

They did not stop when losing.

_Even if I'm just some defeated boy, that's fine. I just need to continue being defeated until I can't be defeated._

It was a selfish and arrogant thought that he never had before.

But that was why he liked the sound of it.

After all, even a defeated boy could be selfish and arrogant at times.

* * *

"That was rather mean, Fubuki-san."

Fubuki looked down at Sora with a hum.

The sound of Minubuki going crazy behind them could be heard. Either one of them paid her any mind and only focused on the screen before them.

"You know Shor-kun doesn't like us having the chat open during matches. Why did you tell him you got sent messages?"

"Oh, about that. I lied."

Sora turned his head so fast that it worried Fubuki about neck damage.

Even so, she knew why he turned to her so suddenly.

To answer his unasked question, she pulled out her phone and showed him that it had not been unlocked since before their match started.

"I only said what I thought my queen and Lobo would say. The former may not have much of a connection with our captain, but something like that coming from Lobo? That would leave an impact on him. Those two have the most gayly-straight bromance I have ever seen."

"…Where did you even hear that word from? Also, you are letting your speech mix up again, Fubuki-san."

"Am I?" she asked with a shrug. "Oh well. And as for where I heard that… Actually, it was Tsukiko Squad's American who told me that. We see it from time-to-time, but she had a front row seat to those two when they hung out."

"I am afraid of what sort of things she has told you."

"Enough that I always have something to give my queen when she needs ideas."

She saw Sora lower his head, likely in a short prayer for they captain.

Minubuki's noise traveled further away, she shrugged at that. The rocker girl could make noise in the other room if she wanted.

But as for where they were…

"We need to see how our captain does now that 'words of encouragement' have come in."

* * *

Toby and Suzume shuddered as they took their seats.

They both looked to each other as the commentators spoke.

"[Looks like things are finally moving again.]"

"[Well both Shor and Arafune had to gather themselves since they're down to their last members. Meanwhile, Kakizaki Squad still has Teruya and Tomoe.]"

Suzume gave a slight chuckle at hearing the irritation in Miwa's voice.

Wanting some revenge for the rejections he gave her, she had got Tsukimi to make him commentate for a match. It had only been made better when she realized who else would be commentating alongside him.

"Uwah… Kanji and Mr. Suwa are really trying to mess with him, aren't they?"

"Heh heh heh. Let this be a lesson to you, foolish dog. Reject my invitation so many times and something honestly fun will happen. Yes, just look at how much fun Miwa is having up there."

"I'm the one who reads your rough drafts. No need to tell me something like that ."

"I guess you would know this by now. In that case… The two fo you should remember this as well."

Neither one of them turned to look at the two boys sitting next to Toby.

"Um…right… But Misaki, I already know what happens. We're classmates after all."

Shobu shifted in his seat next to the nervous Sasamori.

The two boys had been watching the match before either the two of them had arrived, so they had gotten comfortable in their seats.

Wanting to give some pity to his upperclassman, Toby had decided to sit between Sasamori and Suzume. Shobu had been on the other side of Sasamori.

"As long as you know then."

"Of course…"

"By the way," Toby said as he leaned forward. "I expected Hisato to be here, but I didn't think Shobu would be here too. Do you know someone in this match?"

There was a moment of silence. The three older ones understood that Shobu had decided to not try and speak over the other noises around them.

In his place, Sasamori looked over with a slight smile.

"That's actually on me. I had invited him to tag along to watch this match. Daigo had something else to do and Hanzaki is participating, so I went to Tenryū. He agreed to come with me, after a small push from his uncle."

"Oh, so you went to Yagura."

"Yeah, that's right. While I was there his uncle had told me that his class is next to Tomoe's, so it would be nice to watch one of his matches."

"That sounds like Mr. Akasora alright… He's trying to do something nice at least."

Suzume and Sasmaori titled their heads at the bitter smile on Toby's face and the small nod from Shobu.

"Well either way, we are honestly here now. Let's see just how this all plays out for everyone."

* * *

The match had come to a standstill.

That had been the confusion that Arafune came to.

The two opposing squads had gone down in numbers, but one of them still had the advantage in numbers. But…

_When it comes to skill, I can still take them on._

He preferred to snipe them from a distance so that they could not reach him, but things don't always work out like that.

If it came down to it, he would have to fight them at close range with Kōgetsu.

Among the remaining three opposing combats, Teruya was generally the one to look out for. Noah was dangerous in his own right, but Arafune had been someone to help him improv, so he found himself safe to assume he knew what he could do. Tomoe would likely be supporting Teruya now, so taking him out was less of a concern and instead just a matter of time.

_I still shouldn't let my guard down around him though. If I end up giving too much attention to Tomoe, Teruya or Shor will come in to attack me._

From there it could only go bad.

_For the time being, I'll just-_

.

Arafune did not see the attack coming. What had happened was that he had a feeling that something was coming and reacted to it on instinct.

Because of all of his training as an Attacker, he had a better grasp on physical attacks than some others.

That was why when he moved to the side he immediately began to turn to the direction the attack had come from instead of what had attacked him.

If the attack was using an object then it meant the attacker would be at a distance. In a situation like that, it was best to look directly at the attacker instead of the attack itself.

And should the attack go along with their attack, he would naturally see them as he turned to face them.

But…

"What!?"

Something unexpected happened.

Like he suspected, the attack was only that - an attack. There had been no body attached to the attack.

What he had found strange was the attack itself.

As he turned to face the attacker, he caught a glimpse of the attack itself.

What he saw was…

_The scabbard…!?_

It had not been a Shooter-type Trigger or even a thrown blade.

The attack was the scabbard that normally held Kōgetsu.

The scabbard had flown in from somewhere else and moved to hit him.

Because of his instincts, the attack had missed and the scabbard was now moving towards the ground.

But that was where the second strange thing happened.

A blue plate appeared above the ground.

_Now Grasshopper? What is going on here?_

His answer came a moment later.

It came from the scabbard.

With nothing to stop it's descent, the scabbard had moved towards the ground. The Grasshopper plate had appeared just above the ground, where the scabbard would have landed.

"Shit!"

The scabbard was launched back up in the same direction it had been going before.

"…!"

No.

"Tch!"

It had turned just a bit after being bounced back by the Grasshopper plate.

Arafune had already begun his turn so he could not simply move away from the attack.

The second attack was not a physically dangerous one, but it was one that could lead to danger.

If the scabbard were to hit him while he was in this turn, he would be forced back at an awkward angle. The person who had thrown the scabbard at him would have a perfect chance to attack without worrying about any of his defenses.

_This kind of crap is something I would expect from those cannibals. The fact I'm seeing it here means…_

He stopped his own thoughts into order to focus on the attack.

With a second click of his tongue, he pushed his arm forward.

He had been holding onto Egret the entire time the attack was happening. Now he would push the Sniper Trigger towards the ground.

He pulled the trigger as soon as Egret pointed towards the ground.

The small amount of recoil it provided forcefully pushed him back.

With no target to hit anymore, the scabbard flew back into the air.

Arafune took his chance to look into the air to see who it would be going back to.

The answer became obvious once he saw…

_Goggles!?_

_._

Noah moved through the air as the scabbard for his Kōgetsu was launched upwards.

His jump had put him into an arcing line over where Arafune was.

The distance was a few meters in the air. He could see Arafune's eyes directed towards him after having forced himself back using the recoil from Egret.

The scabbard only took a moment before reaching him. The speed it had from the grasshopper meant that there was force behind it even as it climbed up to him.

Opening his closed fist, he reached for the scabbard while shifting Kōgetsu into a reverse grip.

The moment his hand grabbed hold of the scabbard he felt the pull from the force. It dragged him upwards.

His feet did not touch open air when moving up. Instead, he placed a blue plate in the air to use as a foothold.

He fell.

Unlike what he had seen with Toby when using Headfirst Fall, he felt himself being thrown towards the ground with Kōgetsu in one hand and the scabbard in the other.

It was a forced speed that pushed him down.

This forced speed was instantaneous though, meaning he did not have to wait to build it up.

The target was Arafune and the weapon was Kōgetsu.

.

Arafune released Egret in the moment. The force it had provided was using him back, but it also added weight to him.

With that weight now gone he could move fast enough to not be cut down by the thrown Noah.

Continuing his turn with less weight threw him off balance. So instead of trying to regain his balance, he made a certain action.

"Keh…!"

He pushed himself.

He forced his turn even more to the point of being on a single foot and moving towards the ground.

"!"

It worked.

Noah hit the ground with a noise while Arafune fell to the ground and into a roll.

He did not stop himself from rolling since he knew one thing about this goggles boy.

_His balance is crazy!_

Noah had a simple, yet effective, Side Effect of being unable to lose his balance.

No matter the terrain and no matter what forced him to move, his sense of balance would never falter.

It was because of the Side Effect that he could immediately attack after having failed.

So he did.

Noah turned his body on a single foot so that he was facing the rolling Arafune.

Arafune kicked off the ground to get out of his roll.

Noah's attack hit the ground instead of Arafune.

Arafune moved back while forming Kōgetsu.

A battle between blades had begun.

* * *

Suwa heard a familiar "Heh heh heh" below him.

He did not look down. There was only one person who would give such a laugh.

She seemed to hold back from saying anything though, allowing him and the other two commentators to speak about the battle.

"[That was a mistake on Arafune's part.]"

"[In this instance, that's true.]"

Suwa found it hard to disagree with them.

He was reminded of his own match against Arafune Squad and saw something similar. But there was also a glaring difference in this case that could end with him losing here.

"[He should not be fighting this kind of battle right now. If he had his teammates then it would make sense. In this situation, it would be best to move away from the fight and get back to a sniping position.]"

"[Shor isn't a particularly hard person to beat for someone like Arafune, but he isn't the one to worry about. Both Teruya and Tomoe are still there and have regrouped. If those two attack at once, or worse, coordinate with Shor, then he'll have no way of getting out of that. It would be better to rely on sniping when it's this late in the match.]"

"[Looking at the distance Kakizaki Squad is from those two, he should at least be able to take out Shor first. That way he would only have to fight Teruya and Tomoe.]"

If he had a lit cigarette in his mouth then this would have been a perfect time to puff out smoke.

Since that was not the case, he only grinned and leaned forward.

Both Kenzaide and Miwa gave their words on the matter already. Their view was accurate to a fault. Nothing they said was wrong and their positions only heightened the truth of the matter.

But…

"[You're both wrong.]"

He knew what to expect.

"[Arafune's not that dumb. He might bite you after hanging out with those guys for so long, but that doesn't mean he doesn't know what he's doing. The fact he's gone to using Kōgetsu just means that he's ready to end this match.]"

"[From the look at his Trigger set, he only had Bagworm and Shield in his sub set. If he could use one of the Sniper Triggers there instead, I would be inclined to believe you. But this just doesn't look like something that's possible for him. Especially with his trion going down from the match so far.]"

"[Just watch. If you think he can't win, fine by me. I'm sticking to my own thoughts though. Arafune isn't so dumb or weak to lose here.]"

He heard another laugh.

This time he did look down to the girl who had laughed.

Their eyes met for a moment and her smile only seemed to grow.

He started to get a bad feeling in his stomach when seeing that smile.

It was her next actions that made him realize that he was screwed and there was no longer any way of him getting out of the hall without issues.

The girl lifted her two pointer fingers, smacked them together, made some strange face, then mouthed words that only he could read:

"I honestly know."

Maintaining a professional appearance here was needed. He could not throw his head down in front of him or it would only gain suspicion from the two next to him.

So instead, he cursed that girl from deep in his heart.

* * *

Noah noticed something when he moved around the space with Arafune.

The two of them continually crashed into each other. It was not a simple matter of who was better so much as it was who had more force behind their attacks.

Both Kōgetsu blades would hit each other with a lot of force before being pulled back.

Noah would move around the air, never giving his opponent a chance to get a lock on him.

Arafune would hide his movements with Bagworm, never giving his opponent a chance to see what he would be doing.

The two of them only allowed for the bare minimum to show before they threw themselves at each other.

And as they continually crashed into each other, their words spilled out in front of them.

"You're very straight forward, so I won't need to worry about you pulling stuff like Kūga!"

"Thank you for the compliment!"

"You can't beat me like this!"

"I only need to win! I don't need to beat you!"

"You've grown up a bit, haven't you!?"

"Not at all! I'm just a sore loser!"

That's right.

Arafune remembered the name given to Noah.

Defeated Boy.

A name representing just how many times Noah had lost.

Each loss was recorded and marked down to show others.

Denji was just that kind of person.

"But still…!"

He had to add something to that name.

It was nothing special, but he knew that it would be enough for Noah.

"I'll knock you down before the other two get here! I'll knock you right off your balance beam!"

With a shout, he pushed forward one more.

This time he made a decisive action.

As Noah's blade moved forward to crash into his one more, he reach out his hand. His arm extended out as the blade came down.

He grabbed Noah's arm.

Noah tried to pull his arm away, but it was too late.

He had been caught.

Arafune pulled Noah closer at the same time he swung his Kōgetsu.

"Hm…!"

Before his blade could reach Noah, he felt something on his foot.

There had been no reason to see what the feeling was from since he had seen it happen before his eyes.

Noah had released Kōgetsu from his hand, throwing it towards the ground.

Turning a bit, he used the foot opposite of Kōgetsu to kick the blade down and into Arafune's foot.

Meanwhile, Arafune's Kōgetsu got closer to his neck.

Before it could, something had appeared to stop it.

Kōgetsu's scabbard.

Noah had used his free arm to lift up the scabbard in order to block the attack.

Now both of them were locked in place.

But it did not last long.

Noah raised his voice.

Arafune could finally see through the goggles.

What he saw was resolve.

"They made it!"

* * *

"…This match…is over…"

"Tenryū?"

"Oh? Have you found something out, Shobu-kun?"

Shobu said nothing as he lowered his head a bit.

Neither one of his upperclassmen had said anything wrong, but having their attention on him had made him feel nervous.

… _W-Willpower… …I need to have some willpower here… …So, um…what should I…say…?_

He had never gotten used to speaking with others, so he instead went with the first thing that came to mind.

"…Orange…"

Well that had failed.

And yet…

"Orange? Do you want an orange right now? Hey, foolish dog, go get this sweet boy a sweet orange."

"You idiot, that's not what he's saying!"

"Um… Is it bad that I had thought the same thing?"

He wanted to reassure Sasamori that he was fine for the time being, but there was something he had to do.

He had messed up the first time, so he had to try again.

So this time…

"…From above…"

The response he got was just as bad as the first time.

"Above? You want oranges from above? Heavenly oranges? Sorry, shobu-kun, but Mikado City is a city of tangerines! Yes, a tangerine heaven that only ends up being hell for oranges!"

"Tenryū…you can ignore her. …Our entire class does after all."

"Same over here. Our squad is too used to this by now."

"Heh heh heh. Is that so? Then I guess my next one will be about the both of you. Now which one of you honestly wants to bottom? Or do you both want mob characters to be in it? Or if you really want, I can have Dai-chan help you to properly model for a nice full spread. And I honestly mean a full spread of your legs of course."

"Alright, we're going to move to those open seats over there, Tenryū. Come on, come on. No need to listen to this any longer."

Shobu did as he was told and followed Sasamori and Toby to the seats that were away from Suzume.

He did have to worry once she started hugging herself and wiggling around, but that was a problem for other people.

At the moment he needed to properly explain himself.

Both older boys were waiting patiently as he gathered his thoughts.

… _This time…for sure…_

After taking a small breath he began to speak.

"…Other two…"

Sasmaori tilted his head. It looked like he was trying to put the pieces together.

Toby seemed to understand him, but also looked unsure.

 **Azure Dragon:** "Do you need help?"

… _Oh… …That's right…Ruri-san is…listening in…_

Nodding his head would be pointless, so he answered back in text before showing his screen to the there two boys.

"Huh? Oh, the new friend you had mentioned? Let's see…"

 **Azure Dragon:** "'Kakizaki Squad is already going in for the attack. The match will be over once they make first contact.' That's what he's trying to tell you guys."

Both older boys hit their fists in the palm of their hands with an O expression.

At the same time they both gave the same statement:

"Yeah. This match is over."

* * *

The first response to an area attack would have been to move out of the area or bring up a defense to block the attack. If it covered a wide area then it meant that the attack was likely made in the moment and held no real power behind it.

For power behind area attack, it would require power on the scale of an A-Rank. That had been why Arafune was certain he would be able to block the attack using Shield.

The issue that came with that was in front of him.

Noah had good hold on him and his foot had been run through by Kōgetsu and held in place. Putting up a shield now would only give Noah a chance to attack. After all…

_The scabbard isn't a Trigger! Since holding him here means he can't use Grasshopper, he can freely fire an attack directly in front of himself!_

The only thing stopping him right now was the fact Arafune was holding onto his arm and pushing against the Kōgetsu scabbard.

His current situation left him with only two options.

The first would be putting up a shield while holding Noah down. This would defend him from the rain coming down on them but leave him open to attack from Noah.

The second option…

"Keh!"

Move back.

Arafune released the force he was using against the scabbard. In the same moment he moved his leg to take a large step back.

The sudden disappearance of the push made Noah begin to lean forward, but not lose his balance.

He immediately reached out for Kōgetsu once his hand was also free from Arafune's grasp.

But Arafune did not wait for him to get the blade.

In one harsh push backwards, his foot was cut from the center to his toes by the blade stabbed into the ground.

This was his resolve.

.

Tomoe was shocked at what he saw upon reaching the ongoing battle.

The collaboration rain of Hound he had used with Teruya had been meant to see how Arafune and Noah would react. If they put up defenses then he and Teruya could move in to attack.

It seemed more like this had been what Noah wanted though, so it put him on edge a bit.

What he did not expect was for Arafune to move back and cause injury to himself. Trion leaked from the deep cut on his foot, yet that did nothing to stop him.

The Sniper removed his Bagworm in order to put up a shield to block the rain of Hound.

The shield began to break in parts, but otherwise remained sturdy.

Compared to someone like Ninomiya, the attack had been a light shower more so than a downpour.

None of the shots managed to hit Arafune or Noah. Both had managed to defend themselves before being hit.

And as Tomoe moved towards them, his eyes came in contact with Arafune's.

" _Tomoe, sorry to have you do this."_

The voice of his captain came through to him.

Even after being taken out and allowing them to move how they thought would be best, he still apologized.

" _But just hold out until Teruya is ready, okay?"_

There was something different with how he spoke.

He apologized, but did not sound like it was anyone in particular's fault.

That was because they all agreed to this.

The words from his captain were meant to tell him that he could do this. It was an apology that told him he was sending him out because he could get this job done.

So he would.

"Here I go!"

.

Teruya heard what her captain had told Tomoe. It ran through her too, but she said nothing about it. There was something else that needed her attention.

From the way the match had been going, Kakizaki Squad was in the lead when it came to numbers. They had two members still fighting.

But both of them were injured.

Teruya had lost an arm to Hanzaki and Tomoe's side had been shot through by Fubuki. Both of them were low on trion, especially after their combined attack.

At the same time, their opponents had no backup and had injuries of their own.

Arafune had just crippled himself by cutting through his own foot. His strength as a former Attacker meant that losing a foot would force him to steady himself more as he attacked and defended.

The worst problem had been brought down to a level that any of them could manage.

That was why she was preparing herself.

Recently, she had heard talk of a certain girl who had appeared in a squad that they had fought in the second round. The girl was an unknown to them, but the squad she joined was known to them.

_That guy…_

That squad had a captain that she has yet to forgive.

The boy had shown a disgusting side of himself during that match and treated her captain as nothing more than prey. And for what?

_He was being selfish and a brat. Someone like that…_

Her captain had been telling them that the boy was getting better and really did feel remorseful for his actions. Everything that had built up because of that match seemed to be slowly dissipating form her captain the more he was around that boy.

But she could not feel the same way.

She refused to go near him. If she did try then she was sure she would end up going off on him.

That was why she had not found out what the girl who joined that boy's squad was. All she knew was what the girl had managed to do.

She had managed to make a strong Trigger.

Talk from others had led her to learn what the Trigger was like and what the drawbacks of it were. At the time, it sounded interesting, but not something that she would try to use without practice.

And then more talk had reached her.

Talk of Nasu Squad's Kumagai using that Trigger.

The way she had been trying to use that Trigger quickly got her some attention. Some had even said she defeated a strong opponent using that Trigger.

So Teruya had looked into it.

Then she found it.

Fujin.

A Trigger supposedly based off of a Black Trigger. One that used the blade of Kōgetsu to slip into multiple ribbons of light, each one being a blade by itself.

Upon hearing about it, she had asked to try it out.

What she found was something beautiful, yet deadly.

The ribbons of light that acted as blades moved freely upon activation. When she began mentally commanding them to move around, they seemed to dance through the air while following her instructions.

It had been an amazing sight.

She had taken to it immediately.

In her squad's last match, she had been unable to use it. The entire match had been something of an eye opener for them all, but that was only after the fact.

Now that they were more free to move about, she had thought about what she could do.

Fujin was what came to mind.

A series of close range attacks that no one but her would be able to figure out without help.

So that was what she would do.

With a calm voice, she lifted Kōgetsu with her remaining arm and spoke.

"Fujin."

.

Enjoyment began to take over Noah's entire body. As the fifth went on, he felt himself enjoying everything about the fight.

He would not win and he would remain defeated, but all of that didn't seem to matter as he continued.

It was not the same type of enjoyment as when he fought Toby or Shana, it felt like nothing could reach that point, but it was enough to make him start smiling as he moved around the battlefield.

His trion was already in a dangerous spot, so repeated use of Grasshopper had been out of the question. That left him with his physical abilities while fighting against Arafune and Tomoe.

He was keeping up.

Tomoe was not much of an issue simply due to the small difference in skill, but Arafune had been brought down to a level where he could fight both of them. A few scratches would appear on his body, but nothing that would hold him back from moving forward.

It was amazing.

None of them were making decisive attacks and none of them were getting taken out in an instant.

It was so different from fighting against Toby and Shana.

So…

"One more time!"

He brought down the scabbard in his hand.

The target had been Tomoe.

With his small size, it would be difficult to properly hit him right now.

He was proven right when Tomoe ducked down along with the scabbard and moved back.

That did not stop his attack though.

Using Kōgetsu in his other hand, he took a swing at Tomoe, who was moving backwards.

From behind him, Arafune could be seen moving to cut the boy down.

_Do better than that!_

Shifting his feet to turn to Tomoe, he placed a Grasshopper plate at the bottom of his foot.

He was thrown forward.

His swing with Kōgetsu held more power in it as he moved forward.

Tomoe tried to dodge to the side, but was too slow.

Noah's Kōgetsu cut through his side while the scabbard and hit him directly in the stomach.

Arafune, having seen the attack, moved to the side before hand and prepared to cut through Tomoe.

_Even better!_

"Asteroid!"

While still moving forward, Noah created a cube of trion before firing it at Arafune and Tomoe.

With the sound of a clicking tongue, Arafuen dodged the attack.

Tomoe had not been so fortunate.

His body was quickly littered with holes as the Asteroid ran him through.

**Bail Out.**

His body turned to green light before flying off into the distance.

But that did not stop the other two.

Noah used his foot to stop himself and turned around.

But when he did…

"Huh…?"

He saw ribbons of light.

Those ribbons of light moved around him as if embracing him.

Three of those ribbons of light touched him. They touched his neck, his arm holding Kōgetsu, and they touched his stomach.

Each one of those ribbons of light tore through his body, separating him and forcing green lines to run along his body.

It had finally hit him.

These ribbons of light were blades.

**Bail Out.**

.

Teruya wasted no time in moving to her next opponent.

In her hand was a hilt with three ribbons of lights coming out of the hilt.

Arafune quickly recognized that Trigger. He was aware of its applications.

_I need to keep a distance from it!_

He began to move back as Teruya moved forward.

She lifted the hilt of the former Kōgetsu as if to strike him.

The three ribbons of light moved along different paths.

Each one could be controlled by Teruya using her thoughts or her voice.

If she went with the former then the attack would lag for a moment.

If she went with the latter then the attack would move faster, but he would be able to figure out where the attack would come from.

So how would she attack?

Either option would be fine so long as he kept a distance.

But…

"Keh!"

He had trouble moving.

The feeling of falling soon overcame him. His back would reach the ground after he tripped.

His foot was torn from the center to the toes and made moving around more difficult.

"Guess this is it…"

A grin began to form on his lips as he started to fall on his back.

The ribbons of light soon came down on him.

"!?"

But none of them reach.

Each ribbon of light touched a green shield hanging in the hair. The blades that formed those ribbons of light tried to cut through the shield.

The blades managed to cut through them, but disappeared afterwards.

Arafune continued to grin as he fell back, bringing up Kōgetsu as he did so.

"Learned this one form Senzai!"

The Kōgetsu cut through Teruya's arm as his back hit the ground.

With a forceful push, he did a tumble while turning off Kōgetsu.

Now on his knees, he took aim. Egret was in his grasp while he faced the leaning forward Teruya.

He fired.

**Bail Out.**

* * *

"[With that, the match is over. The end score is Arafune Squad with five points, including survival points, Shor Squad with a single point and Kakizaki Squad with two points. The winner is Arafune Squad.]"

"[Heh! Told you guys that Arafune had this!]"

"[I'll hand it to him, I didn't expect him to win in the end there.]"

"[To be fair, he is probably use to attack like that all the time because of the people he usually hangs out with.]"

"[Stop right there. Say anything more and they might end up coming over here, Miwa.]"

"Damn right they will. Then I'll be the one to have to deal with them."

Arafune spoke with a grin still in place. He walked over to the monitor where the rest of his squad was situated.

Hokari patted his back while Hanzaki gave a thumbs up.

"Good work out there, Arafune-kun."

"Thanks. I didn't expect Teruya to pull out something like that, though. It's a good thing I'm used to attacks like those already. If not for that then I would have lost for sure."

"She did her best too. But since that Trigger is relatively new, she couldn't have had too much time to practice with it."

"Once Taiyōko fixes those drawbacks, that thing will end up being a terror."

"For now we should be glad that it is still the way it is."

Arafune nodded his head. It was clear that his loss would have been assured if not for these particular circumstances to have happened.

With a sigh, he turned back to the screen.

Hanzaki was studying next to it while on his phone.

Deciding to get a small peak over the boy's shoulder, he saw some messages coming through and couldn't help the chuckle coming from his throat.

 **Simple Boy:** "Good job winning, Yoshito."

 **Yoshi:** "I don't need congratulations from you…"

 **Simple boy:** "Then would you like a kiss on the cheek? I hear that it's what couples do at times like these."

 **Yoshi:** "I definitely don't want that from you! Leave me alone!"

 **Simple Boy:** "I see… I understand. You want a double kiss from both me and Hisato. I will tell him right away."

 **Yoshi:** "Don't you dare! If either one of you tries, I'll punch the both of you!"

 **Simple Boy:** "You will find that to be too much work and allow it anyway."

It was the truth and they all knew wit.

Hanzaki may argue all he wants through messages, but none of them believed that he would be against such a reward.

From what Arafune Squad had seen, Hanzaki was always the most content when being smothered by both Suwa Squad's Attacker and Hikigane Squad's Attacker.

_Now that I think about it…_

Suwa had been one of the commentators for the match and he had heard that Hisato would be watching the match from the seats. That meant there had been no escape for Hanzaki in the first place.

He gave another chuckle at the thought.

His thoughts had been interrupted when he felt his own phone go off in his pocket.

The likelihood that it was some of those terrible people was rather high. Opening it may result in a storm of things said about him.

Instead…

 **Mystery Smoker:** "That final sHOT was nice."

He immediately covered his face as it went a deep red.

He was also in for a rough time after this match.

* * *

"You guys did great out there."

Tomoe felt a bit better at hearing that while Teruya's expression turned smug for a moment.

Once that moment was over, she deflated and looked to the side.

"I guess I should have stuck with what I know instead of trying to use a Trigger that had been barely invented."

"You wanted to try something new, that's all. Besides that Trigger is not complete yet. I'm sure you would have done fine with it being perfected for use."

"Still…"

Kakizaki gave a hum to the girl while crossing his arms.

Tomoe felt bad for her since she would not have been put in that situation if he had not gotten taken out before her. But there was nothing they could do about it now.

He wanted to say something, but Kakizaki spoke up before he could.

"Then how about this?" He raised his index finger while looking directly at Teruya. "I know that you don't like being around Kotowari."

The disgusted look she got on her face made Tomoe look away.

He was more indifferent towards his upperclassmen since Kakizaki had told them all about how the Shooter had his own problems to deal with.

The same could not be said about Teruya though.

"So how about I pull him away from his squad for a bit? That will give you a chance to speak with Taiyōko."

"Taiyōko?"

"Right. She is the one who invented this Fujin, so she should be the best person to speak to about it. I know that you have been holding back from doing so because of Kotowari, so I'll inform him about this. It will give you a chance to learn something new and help to improve Fujin."

After a few seconds of thinking about it, Teruya's expression turned a bit brighter. Her eyes showed more interest than before and her stance was righted once more.

It was nice seeing her like this again.

Tomoe smiled at his upperclassmen.

As he did so, he felt something vibrate in his pocket. It was his phone.

Thinking that it might be Ema or Midorikawa, he opened it to see a message he was not expected.

More accurately, a message from an unexpected person.

 **Shobu:** "…You did well…Tomoe-sama…"

* * *

Noah slowly brought himself to the main room where the rest of his squad was waiting for him.

Off to the side he could see Fubuki banging her head even when there had not been any music playing.

_I'm pretty sure she always has music going on in her head though…_

Seeing her began to calm down his nerves a bit.

Once he felt ready, he looked over to see Sora and Fubuki smiling in his direction.

He gave a sheepish grin while rubbing the back of his neck.

Once he felt the strap of his goggles, he began to fiddle with the front of it. A habit he had taken to recently.

"Sorry about-"

Fubuki turned her head with a raised hand. The plan of her hand facing him.

"Don't even say it. We don't want to hear that stuff from you."

"Okay…?"

"Just tell us how you feel."

"I feel…"

"Oh, and don't give us any sort of response we would hear from our upperclassmen."

A harsh, but fair demand.

"I feel like I did all I could. It wasn't at the level of others, but it managed to get us a point. So…I'm satisfied with that. For now."

The smiles on their faces only grew at his words.

They understood him well enough to know that he would be fine.

He was still a defeated boy, but that was not the only thing going for him anymore.

Defeat was something that everyone has gone through. After that defeat, it was only reasonable that moving forward came after. Once a person began moving forward it showed that a defeat was nothing more than a way to continue moving forward.

Noah felt that he understood that better than ever now.

So with his own smile, he moved forward.

He moved to stand by his squad.

"Let's do everything we can in our next match too."

Sora and Fubuki continued to smile while Minubuki bounced over to them.

"Understood!"

* * *

Sasmaori pumped his fist once the score had been announced.

Disregarding the wiggling girl in the other seat, they were all rooting for different squads during this match.

Toby had been there to watch Shor Squad, Shobu had been told that he should root for Kakizaki Squad, and Sasamori was behind Arafune Squad all the way. That was why he felt so excited when they had won their match.

He was not the only one to feel this happy as he got a message as soon as it was over.

 **Simple Boy:** "Hisato. I had heard that couples usually give kisses as a sort of congratulations. Is that right?"

 **Decoy:** "Uh… I feel like I know who told you that… But I guess that can be true."

 **Simple Boy:** "In that case… We must shower Yoshito in kisses for his win. Head-to-toe is usually how this works, right?"

The scary part was that Daigo would take that literally and actually kiss every part of Hanzaki's body.

At the same time, he found that it wouldn't have been too bad if he got to see something like that.

_No, no! You're letting that wiggling girl over there get inside your head! Only Satori should be that bad!_

Slapping his cheeks, he went on to respond to Daigo. It was best to do something before it became a mess.

Feeling a bit of relief, and disappointment in himself, he put his phone down while looking to the two boys at his sides.

To his right, Shobu could be seen typing out a message, His fingers moved slowly and with uncertainty, but he continued typing regardless.

_You can do it, Tenryū! I believe in you! Just don't end up with friends like mine!_

Deciding to give the boy some privacy, he looked over to his left. Where Toby was sitting.

The dog boy had his arms cross and his brows furrowed.

It was clear that he was upset about the match.

"I'm sure Shor doesn't feel bad about that last part."

"Huh? Oh, yeah… By the end of it, he seemed to finally get a hang of what he should be doing. I'm really happy about that. But…"

"You're mad that they didn't win."

Toby only nodded.

Sasamori could understand the sentiment. He was sure that he and Daigo would feel the same way if Arafune Squad had lost.

Even so…

"He did his best."

"Nah. He isn't like you or Daigo."

"Oh?"

Toby shifted in his seat so that he could properly look at Hisato.

"He isn't the type of person to do is best. No is a great loser, so he's the type of guy to do everything he can. Do better than what he can. He does stuff that's usually beyond his best, even when it's not necessary."

"I see."

And he did.

There was a difference between "doing your best" and "doing even better".

From his own experience, "doing your best" meant improving constantly while not giving up on yourself. It was to not feel down when everything you have tried fails and you need to start over. It was the essence of trying with everything you had.

"Doing even better" meant using yourself at every chance you could get. The failure involved in that hurt more, but the victories were that much more rewarding. A person's best could be viewed as a limit, so the people who "do even better" are the ones who find the determination to break through their best.

Knowing that, Sasamori patted Toby's head lightly.

"My bad. I'll apologize to Shor later on too."

Toby looked up to him in confusion, but said nothing about it.

"Well, time for the final commentary. Are you going to be staying for that?"

"Yeah. We weren't here for the start of the fight, so I want to know what happened."

It was Sasamori's turn to nod.

"Still… I wonder how the other match is going. Take and Hoshi were the ones to go over there."

That match was…

"It sounds like it's a tough match for everyone involved."


	121. Eri Asano: Part 2

"This looks like it would be tough to finish."

Lights flew across the screen. Each one started as points and ended as lines.

The lights began at two different points, but flew to multiple different points.

Shattering lights from shields scattered in the air along with the flying lights.

All of the lights started making Takeshi feel as if he was watching one of Suzume's concerts.

From next to him, Hoshi tilted her head.

"What do you mean, Takeshi-kun?"

"Looking at who is left and who has gotten points, it's clear that no matter what, it will be tough for any one side to finish this fight."

"Let's see… The remaining fighters would be Nasu-san, Kumagai-san, Asano-san, Lee-san, and Sthénos-chan. It still seems packed in this match, from what I can tell."

"That's true, but Tsukiko Squad is behind in a bad way. That makes it hard for them to end this. After having fought them the last match, I can understand how tough of a match this will be for Senzai Squad now. Senzai-senpai is out, meaning their close range fight is gone. With Shingai-san also out, that means their best long range attacks are also out. And Nasu Squad…"

They were the best off.

Hiura getting taken out had been a harsh hit since it meant that no one squad had the advantage when it came to stealth. But when compared to the other two squads, they were in a more dire situation here. After all…

"They are the main target."

"'Main target'? Oh, they are going to be the ones everyone else is going after!"

"Right. The main threats of Senzai Squad are taken out, so that only leaves Nasu Squad as a real threat."

"That does make sense. Nasu-san is very difficult to get past for someone as overlooked as me. So I can only imagine how much more of an issue it is once she has set you as the target."

"It really is troublesome… But that just goes to show how seriously she takes things. Although, I would imagine that Asano-san can handle a fight against her, as long as she remains focused."

"Heh heh."

Was it something to worry about if Hoshi was the one laughing?

_No. She isn't like Senpai._

If Hoshi was the one laughing, it meant that she understood how he felt on the matter. She would have no alternative motive to do such a thing.

"So does this mean you are on Tsukiko Squad's side for this match, Takeshi-kun?"

"Hm?" He moved his eyes over to her, but did not move his head. It would be pointless to do more than that as long as she knew she had his attention. "I also want to see Nasu Squad do well. Senzai Squad… Well, I have only interacted with Senzai-senpai, and that was only when we had fought."

"I see. In that case, how about I be on the side of Nasu Squad while our upperclassman here is on the side of Senzai Squad? That way you can focus solely on Tsukiko Squad?"

At her words, Takeshi did turn his head to look over.

Besides the two of them, there had been one more person sitting there with them. The volume other voice did nothing to hide them, but he found it to still be less loud than Toby at times.

Seeing the capped Sniper of Suzunari-1 reminds him of the match that his own squad would be having later in the day.

So with that in mind…

"Betsuyaki-senpai, why _are_ you sitting with us?"

"Huh? Oh, because you're Yuki-san's teammate and sister! We don't talk much, but my squad and Yuki-san have always said to treat you kindly!"

So then…

"Let's be friends!"

Another light laugh came from Hoshi. Those were getting harder to ignore as they came with the worst timing.

Seeing no way out of this situation, Takeshi only lifted his scarf with a resigned sigh.

"You are my senpai, so I don't know about friends. But…you can call me whatever you like."

"The same applies to me, Betsuyaki-senpai."

"Then as your senpai, I think you both should call me by my first name!"

The satisfied expression along with the way he puffed out his chest only made Takeshi begin to regret his choices.

_I guess there's no choice then._

Using his scarf as a shield against Taichi, he listened to the third laugh that came from Hoshi.

Instead of focusing on either one of those two, he turned back to the screen in front of them.

"Then it's settled… Tsukiko Squad has to win this match."

* * *

" _So… Can I be happy that I'm not the first one to get taken out this time?"_

Asano remained silent to Shana's words.

" _Can't you read the mood, Shay?"_

" _I don't want to hear that from you! All I'm saying is that I wasn't the first one taken out this time, so I should be allowed to be happy about that!"_

" _You don't see me doing that when you are the first one to lose!"_

" _Yes, I do! You keep reminding me of that!"_

" _Oh, I guess you're right… Still!"_

" _Hey, wouldn't it be better to let Eri concentrate for the moment?"_

The immediate silence from her teammates was all she needed to understand that they would not say anything else for the time being.

She was not the captain of the squad, so Amaya had some rights to speak up, but when it came to strategy, it was where she needed to focus without the background noise.

A small breath was released through her nose when she thought about that.

To make a good enough strategy, she needed silence to focus.

_But there are so many people who come up with strategies during even noisier times._

Her first thought had been Kotowari Squad.

Those people had the crazy upperclassmen dancing all the time and the dog boy who liked to make strange noises when excited. Their newest member seemed normal enough, but she did nothing to quiet the other two down.

And even with that noise always filling the space around them, their captain had been able to come up with plans without batting an eye at that noise.

If he did not even require a strategy, he would often ado the noise himself.

She had seen that during her fighting against the humanoid Neighbor.

It was a short battle where she had only been able to think of something after the Shor Squad captain had taken the lead. He had been the one to notice something and she had followed through by strategically moving around.

There had not been a time in that fight where she could properly think.

The noise had been especially loud during that fight.

Yet…

_Kotowari Squad came in to help us._

They had ended it the moment they arrived.

Suzume's words from the Border base had messed with the Neighbor. It had been the first action taken by them.

The next action had been the destruction of the Neighbor's Trigger. That had been done by Takeshi firing his Laser Shooter without much of a thought.

It ended with Toby moving faster than they could register to check up on her teammates and the Shor Squad captain.

In less time that it took for them to try and attack, Kotowari Squad had defeated the Neighbor and went to make sure they were all fine.

But they were not here.

They could not help them even if they were here.

It was up to Tsukiko Squad to fight their own battles.

It was up to Asano to come up with a strategy for victory.

It was up to her and Shana to follow through and obtain that victory afterwards.

_When did I become such a downer…?_

When her teammates were as energetic as they were, it was a wonder how she had even reached this point.

But she had.

Since that was the case, there was only one thing to do.

.

"This sucks."

She let it out.

"This really sucks.

"Seriously, this sucks.

"I need to come up with something. I'll do that. But it sucks that I need to do that under these circumstances.

"We still have myself and Shana around, but points have been sniped from us (no pun intended) and now there are only three people left to take points from.

"And one of those people is Nasu. She's better than me at Viper, for the time being, so we need to move more carefully. I would want to get her away from Kumagai, but that might not happen.

"Then I heard a rumor about some Trigger Kumagai has. We don't know what it is, so that just makes it even worse."

Her teammates did not interrupt and she did not stop.

She took another breath to continue.

"They are even more determined to win this since Hiura is leaving after this season. They might even go to extreme measures to make sure they win. We can do that too, but it would only get us two more losses."

This sucks.

But…

"There is still something we can do."

Silence took over their communication once again.

This time it was followed by words that held a smile in them.

" _Did you get it all out of your system?"_

"Yeah, pretty much," she said while lowering her shoulders.

"I'm good now. Just needed to get all of that pent up stress out."

" _You know… If you had a specific someone to rely on, you could always go to them at times like these. Say…a captain perhaps? A Shooter one? With a specially made Trigger. Always wears a scarf."_

"Don't you dare end up like Suzume, Maya. I will actually fire at you next time."

" _I'm just saying! …Ask Takeshi out."_

Was she being serious or was she just teasing at this point?

Asano groaned. Her head could not hurt while in a trion body, but she felt like it would once she left the body.

_It's probably both…_

But she could not think about that seriously.

As things stood, both of them had their focus on the B-Rank Wars. That boy even more so since he was trying to catch up to his former captain.

It would be hard to justify saying anything ruins this time.

What's more, what even were her feeling there?

She had started speaking more with him after their match. During those times, she began to realize what his true personality was like.

It was the opposite of what others saw.

Most could still only see what he had done against Kakizaki Squad and did not see past that.

Kakizaki himself had seemed to have gotten over it, for the most part, so it should have gotten things to settle down.

That did not happen.

People still held onto their thoughts instead of trying to get closer to that boy.

_It is kind of nice being one of the few who knows how he really is though.._

A shy boy who hid behind his scarf. Someone who could mess around easily enough with his squad while respecting others, no matter their age, gender or skill. He was someone who saw his own flaws and was working to improve himself.

And he was doing a good job at it.

His upperclassmen, herself included, and already helped him and noticed the changes in him.

_But I still don't know how to feel…_

That was something no strategy could tell her.

Her feelings were her own and she knew that she needed to figure them out.

Even if she would need help along the way.

" _Hey, have you come up with a strategy? Is that what all that silence was about?"_

She gave a small "eep" in her heart once she heard Shana's voice.

_Even I can do that!? Am I more girly than even I thought!?_

If she had done that out loud, there would be no end to the teasing she would have received from her teammates.

She felt extremely relieved to know that she managed to keep it inside.

Clearing her throat unnecessarily, she looked around the corner of the building she had been standing behind.

Stealing herself here was what was needed from her.

So she did just that.

"Yes. I have a plan that should work."

"' _Should'?"_

"You heard me wrong."

A smile bloomed on her face as she began loading her next attack.

"I have a plan that _will work."_

.

Nasu was the first one to notice the way their opponents were now moving.

That fact alone was troublesome.

For the past few minutes, both Tsukiko Squad and Sthénos had been using Bagworm to hide themselves. Since she was now able to see them moving, it meant that they were done hiding and would be moving to the final part of this match.

They would attack.

That is exactly what they did.

Lines traced along the sky above them.

The setting for this map had been nighttime, so those lights were clear as day to her and Kumagai, who was standing near her.

"A direct attack!? Wouldn't it be better for them to attack while hidden?"

"This could be a diversion, so watch out, Kuma-chan."

"Right!"

Instead of blocking the attacks with a Shield, Nasu held out her hands in order to properly fire.

The chess of trion circling her waist were the points that started her attacks.

"Viper!"

So she began to attack using those points.

Those points would throw out her trion as lines.

Once those lines reached a certain point, they would turn.

After turning, they would become new lines that would then lead to the end points.

It was a simple connection of points that she had been able to do after practicing with the Trigger.

This time had not been any different.

Her Viper shots moved through the air, following a line that only she could see in her mind. Those lines were set to follow the course that this attack had come from.

Some of her own Viper collided with the opposing ones midair while others continued on to where the opposing lines had originated.

_Simplifying things down to single words does help with these sorts of things._

That was a fact she had learned after asking around the Border base.

She already met the requirements to use a freeform Viper, but simplifying everything else reduced lag time between figuring out how it should be done and actually firing. Calling each attack a "line" and their beginnings and ends "points" made imaging her own attacks that much easier. To make sure they went where she wanted, all she needed to do was add "turn" to the "line" and "points". That would create the attacks she wanted from start to finish.

_When I asked Izumi-kun about it, he had used some pretty strange words himself. I guess everyone else has their own way of doing things._

Like that boy who used lasers.

The way he fired was different from everyone else.

His own "point" was connected to his "line" when firing, so he could always create "lines" after firing. It was a Trigger that took up a good amount of trion, but he always managed to pull through when he had to.

Then there was her current opponent.

She was a strategic type, just like that boy. The only difference was that he was free from that kind of thinking when firing due to the carefree life his squad provided for him.

_Asano-chan takes things seriously. But that can be a bad thing when it comes to using your imagination. It's what holds her back from properly firing Viper. But…_

She could say nothing to the girl.

When Nasu tried to say something to her, Asano would politely decline, stating she wanted to figure it out.

That had only been the first few times though.

_Recently, she had heard me out. She just can't understand how to get it done._

There was something the girl was missing.

Both Nasu and Izumi had noticed it easily, but even they were unsure as to what exactly it was.

Her thought process as a strategist was certainly a factor, but there was still something in her that was holding her back.

 _Poor girl,_ was the only thing that Nasu could think of as she watched the remaining shots collide and scatter light onto the battlefield.

She wanted to help, but she was not sure what to help with exactly.

So for now…

"I'll help her by not holding back!"

She prepared even more shots.

These would hit their mark.

"Rei!"

That was what should have happened.

.

Kumagai noticed the next opponent even as she ran forward.

She was not guarding Nasu so much as she was the one to notice this close opponent through the buildings.

_Which one is it? Lee or Sthénos!?_

Both girls were able to fight at close range. The former was by far the better one at that, but that meant it would be worse if she was the one attacking.

"I got it, Kuma-chan. Just make sure to defend if any more shots come in."

"Leave it to me!"

"Viper!"

With a hand thrown to the side, Nasu fired on both sides.

Shattering glass could be heard as the trion shots broke through the buildings to snuff out whichever opponent it was that had tried to sneak up on them.

"Nyaha! That's unfair!"

Something was thrown into the air once the shots reached the end of the buildings.

Nasu wasted no time in firing at the object.

But at a closer inspection, something did not seem right.

In the dark of the nighttime, they saw a light being thrown up.

"That's now her!"

Sthénos would not be a bright light.

So what they had attacked became obvious.

"Meteora!"

An explosion went off in the nighttime air.

The building under it had its roof destroyed.

Both Nasu and Kumagai hid behind a shield to defend against the explosion.

Smoke filled the air, blinding them from everything around them.

"Keh!"

A reminder of their fight against the Neighbor came to mind.

She had used a smokescreen to blind them.

Within that smokescreen she had used Dogs to attack them and trick Nasu. That trick had worked and she had taken one of Nasu's arms.

But…

"This is different."

_This is Rei and I am actually here._

There was no way to replicate their likeness.

This smokescreen only obstructed their vision from a few feet in front of them.

So what did they need to do?

"Push it away!"

Using the shields placed around them, both Nasu and Kumagai pushed those shields forward.

The smoke parted as the shields pushed them away.

And form within the pushed smoke they saw…

"I hope you didn't set me as a target!"

Sthénos held her hand out while moving forward.

"Rei, get back!"

"You're not as fast as those girls!"

With a snap of her wrist, Sthénos brought her arm down as if dunking the cube of trion onto the ground.

A new explosion filled the space.

* * *

"[Well that is a new tactic.]"

"[Is it really a tactic? I think she might have just wanted to mess with Nasu Squad?]"

"[It's Sthé-chan after all. I wouldn't put it past 'er.]"

Svantje and Kumokawa simultaneously nodded their heads.

The small Shooter had a strange habit of doing strange things no one expected.

"[Still, it looks like both of the Nasu Squad members made it out. They look to have taken some damage, but are otherwise still fine to continue fighting.]"

"[I wonder if Tsukiko Squad wanted somethin' like this to happen. Asano had given up her position 'n took some return fire a minute ago. Maybe that's just a way to get their attention while Sthé-chan went in for an attack.]"

"[Considering they are the toughest ones to beat at the moment, that would make sense. Nikko-chan, what do you think?]"

"[Tsukiko Squad was usin' Sthé-chan for an attack. But for their own attack. They're down in points, havin' zero at the moment, so lettin' Senzai Squad get any more than they have'll only make more trouble for 'em. So this might just be 'em moving everyone around to how they like.]"

"[Asano does enjoy playing with strategies. Like you said, it looks like she is moving everyone around to make sure they can attack.]"

"[Survival points come down to it for them. If they want to win, they need those extra points. So tying here won't help anything.]"

"[The issue with this kind of strategy is using Agent Sthénos. She is unpredictable even for her own squad. That is only made more true when it comes to her opponents. So if she blows herself up here, that would be one less point for Tsukiko Squad tottery and get.]"

"[I wonder about that…]"

The tone Svantje took when speaking was enough for everyone to consider what was going on.

She was not telling them what she had figured out, but not because she didn't want to. It felt more like she wanted them all to figure it out themselves.

"Is this a byproduct on Minoru-senpai wanting to be a teacher?"

"Is that how it works?"

Takeshi could see both Taichi and Hoshi shrug at the same time.

It was nice that they were getting along.

Hoshi was a nice girl who deserved this.

With Taichi focusing on speaking with Hoshi, it gave Takeshi time to think about the match.

He had reached the same confusion that Svantje had just said, but had not gone further than that. The girl had found something beyond his own thoughts.

He wanted to reach that point before it happened.

He would feel bad for not figuring out what Tsukiko Squad was doing before they did it.

At the same time, he felt that it wouldn't be too bad if that happened. It would mean that Asano had planned something that he would not be able to see through until the last moment.

Giving her praise for something like that was certain to make her feel happy.

_So should I stop right here with my thoughts?_

_No, that wouldn't be right. That would mean I stopped trying to understand her just because I wanted to compliment her._

If he figured out what she had been planning then he would be able to give her an even better compliment.

Understanding everything that she had prepared meant that he had taken the time to reach that point and cared enough to find the same thought process she already had. Coming to a full understanding here would mean something even better for him to tell here later on.

"You are really thinking about this, aren't you, Takeshi?"

Realizing that he was being stared at by Taichi and Hoshi, he lifted his scarf to hide his face.

_Letting them know what my thoughts were will only get me in trouble with the wrong people…_

Both of them were not the type to tease him on something like this, that much he understood. But he also understood that both of them would not be able to keep it a secret if it was brought up by someone else.

That was where the danger was.

So with that in his mind, he resolved himself to only give them the most simple of responses.

"…You took to calling me by name quickly, Senpai."

"You said I could call you whatever I wanted!"

"And that still applies. I was…only amazed by how casual you can be when this is the most we have spoken to each other."

"I need to look out for you for both Yuki-san and Suzume-chan after all! If Suzume-chan found out that I wasn't taking care of you… I'll end up being in a mob doujinshi!"

"The fact you pointed out exactly what kind of doujinshi…"

Fixing his scarf again, Takeshi gave a solemn nod.

"But that sounds right. Mob ones are usually her go-to punishment."

"Mob…? Um, what exactly is a doujinshi?"

Taichi was quick to pull out his phone.

 **Taicchi:** "Yuki-san! I'm so, so sorry! I didn't know! Please don't be mad with me!"

 **Kuru-ma:** "Taichi, calm down. I'm sure whatever you did, it wasn't too bad."

 **Colors:** "Um, I'm also sorry. I had thought…"

 **Black Wolf:** "What happened?"

 **Taicchi:** "T-T-Taiyōko! Um, she, uh…"

 **Black Wolf:** "Hoshi!? Did something happen? What was it? Tell me where you are. I will be right there."

 **Colors:** "No need for that, Kō-san. But, uh, what he meant was…"

 **Black Wolf:** "Yes?"

Takeshi looked over to see Taichi giving him a pleading look.

The one to tell the others about this would be the one to get the most backlash.

Neither one wanted to say anything.

"Is something the matter? Did I ask something wrong?"

"N-n-n-n-no! No no no no no! You're completely fine! We're just…uh…"

"We are only making sure of something, Hoshi."

"I see. Carry on then."

Neither one could say anything.

The amount of trouble would be too great.

And yet…

"I'll…take this one on."

Takeshi gave a mental salute to this brave upperclassman.

 **Black Wolf:** "Taichi?"

 **Taicchi:** "Um… I sort of didn't know that Taiyōko didn't know what a doujinshi was…"

 **Black Wolf:** "…"

 **Taicchi:** "I also…mentioned the mob ones Suzume-san makes as punishments…"

 **Black Wolf:** "…"

 **Kuru-ma:** "Um, excuse me? What exactly _is_ a doujinshi? And why are mobs involved as punishment?"

Everything stopped for the two boys.

Takeshi slowly turned to Taichi.

What he saw was…

"Sniff sniff…"

There was no longer any sort of escape for him.

All that Takeshi could do was prayer for his upperclassman.

 **Black Wolf:** "Taichi."

 **Taicchi:** "Y-yes!?"

 **Black Wolf:** "I am not mad."

"That only makes it seem like he's more mad!"

Takeshi gave another solemn nod.

 **Black Wolf:** "But."

"But!? But what!?"

 **Black Wolf:** "We will need to have a _long talk_ about your choices today."

Small tears could be seen coming from Taichi's eyes at this point.

Hoshi must have not noticed since she did not even turn in his direction.

But as for Takeshi…

_You have my respect, Senpai. I will be there for your funeral._

"Don't just kill me off in your heart, Takeshi!"

His thoughts must have shown to get that kind of reaction.

 **Kuru-ma:** "So, are doujinshi something bad?"

 **Mi-Kon:** "You can just forget about that word. Also, I will need to talk to you later so we can give those two some privacy."

 **Taicchi:** "Please, no! I need witnesses!"

"Oh, Tsukiko Squad is moving again."

"Don't kill me off in your mind too, Takeshi!"

It was all he could do to preserve the memory of his newly respected upperclassman.

Takeshi gave one final look to Taichi before facing the screen again.

* * *

Kumagai clicked her tongue as she moved back.

The explosion had missed her, but she still took some damage from it.

No, it wasn't that the attack missed.

_Rei pulled me back._

Instead of taking the brunt of the explosion herself, Kumagai had been forcibly moved out of the way by Nasu.

As a result of that action, Nasu's arm could be seen missing and smaller parts of her body were leaking trion.

"Rei…"

"You're at your best when you're using two hands to attack. If I lose an arm then I just need to make up for the loss of balance myself. You would have a tougher time doing that. Besides…"

Kumagai nodded as she looked in the direction that Nasu was looking.

In front of them was a girl with lines tracing all along her body. Each one connected and showed them just how much the damage had done to her.

Sthénos only grinned at them though.

"I did more damage to myself than anyone else. So if I Bail Out, none of you get the point. Isn't that great!?"

Kumagai said nothing while Nasu only smiled down to the girl.

It would have been easy to take this point in front of them, but they all knew better than to try something like that.

After all…

"Here they come."

As if to signal the final battle, Sthénos' body turned into light before flying off into the distance.

**Bail Out.**

But that was not what the two Nasu Squad members were focused on at the moment.

Instead, they looked towards the girl rushing them with a scythe in her grasp.

Kumagai reacted first by moving away from Nasu.

If this scythe girl went for her, Nasu would be able to fill her full of holes.

If she went after Nasu, the result would be the same. The weight of the scythe was just too much to move against someone like Nasu.

So instead of going for one of them, the scythe girl took a different action.

"Oooooohhh!"

She turned.

.

Shana had gotten used to being pulled by the weight of Reaper to the point of incorporating it into her fighting style.

But then she found something new.

It had been something she noticed when watching how certain others moved.

_Use your body more!_

At Noah's suggestion, she had added Grasshopper to her Trigger set. It gave her speed to move around, but it also helped add momentum to her attacks and an easy way to change their directions.

But that also gave away her movements.

It would be easy to see where her attacks would come from just by looking at where she placed the Grasshopper plates.

So she had tried to find a different way of changing directions.

And what she found was something she felt she could do.

_I lose some speed and momentum by doing this, but it makes moving easier. It also makes my attacks less obvious._

It was something so simple that others may have forgotten about it.

But someone had shown it to her through their actions.

That was…

_Kick!_

Still in the motion of her previous attack, she began to lift her leg into the air.

Nasu was ready to fire from the side, so that took priority over everything else.

Lifting her leg a bit more, she began to turn as if kicking the air.

With her forward motion forcing her to lean forward, she saw the ground get closer. Yet she still lifted her leg.

Her kick hit.

The kick had hit the dull end of Reaper.

The scythe was kicked to the side where Nasu was firing her shots.

As she began to lean towards the ground in a falling motion, she felt a sudden pull from the scythe Trigger.

The weight and momentum from the kick forcibly threw the scythe into the air. As a result, she was forced to move with it.

"Viper!"

The shots had been fired.

She would be filled with holes soon.

"—"

But that did not happen.

With a harsh swing, Reaper violently tore through the air. Once it had reached the height of the shots, Shana took hold of the shaft and swung the scythe even more.

The trion blade at the end of Reaper cut through the shots.

The surface was enough to hit each one of the shots that had been sent her way.

"What!?"

Instead of answering or stopping, Shana only lifted her leg again. This time it was a kick coming from behind her leg.

Like kicking a soccer ball, the direction of the scythe changed to match the direction the kick had come from.

With her momentum still intact, she rushed Nasu while fixing her grip on Reaper's shaft.

Nasu reacted by moving back.

Putting up a shield would have been pointless when this American Trigger was known for destructive power.

Shana did not worry about the dodge though and continued her swing.

Before the trion blade could stab into the ground, she placed a blue plate under it.

The blade landed on the blue plate.

The blade then jumped with a start.

"Keh!"

Feeling the pull from the scythe, Shana ground her teeth together.

_Punch!_

Like hitting it with a hammer, she brought down her fist onto Reaper's shaft.

She continued to move forward.

With a steady power to her blade, she made a repeated swing with Reaper.

She hit.

.

Nasu had thought she would be safe as long as she dodged the initial attack.

The Trigger Shana was using had been known for how difficult it was to move around. The Attacker had seemed to find a way to better move around with it, but there were still so many openings to her attacks.

_That doesn't seem to be the case now._

There were still openings that were obvious, but now there was danger in going for those openings. Especially at close range.

Using her full body and physical blows, Shana had been able to better move Reaper around. The cost seemed to be momentum and speed, but it seemed worth it in Nasu's eyes.

This was just what happened when people wanted to grow stronger.

When there was something they wanted to do.

And especially when facing strong opponents.

Fights were not based on spirit alone, that much had always been true. But that spirit could lead to finding something new to use.

That was the case here.

The spirit of wanting to win had shown Shana a way to fight that used her full body as correction points for her heavy and difficult to use Trigger.

It was rather amazing.

Still…

_We have our own reason and resolve to win too!_

Sinking her feet into the ground, she gave a harsh push off the ground and into the air.

The starting "points" of her attack shone for a moment before she fired.

Each "line" was visible in her mind.

Even the turns needed for her attack had been thought out the moment those "points" had been prepared.

All she needed to do was fire them.

"Viper!"

The lines raced out from each point.

And they were going to move into their turns.

_It doesn't matter if you figured out a better way to fight. I still hold the advantage when I create a distance between us. Sorry about-_

Nasu's eyes went wide as her thoughts were cut off.

Before the turns could be completed, something had come down from above and collided with the lines.

Her Viper had been shot down.

"How did she…!?"

There was only one person who could have done such a thing on this battlefield.

_But I thought she still couldn't do it!_

* * *

"[What's this? Captain Nasu's Viper have been shot down!?]"

"[We were focused on the new way Lee is fighting that we didn't notice attack coming from a distance. Although…]"

Oki looked to the side.

To his left was the equally surprised Kumokawa.

And to his right…

"[Heh heh~]"

Svantje gave a small laugh.

Noticing that she was being looked at, she turned to Oki and flashed a smile.

He could only respond with his own smile.

"[One of us had figured it out long ago.]"

"[It wasn't that hard to figure out. You just needed to think about the situation and how people like Tsukiko Squad do things. Oh, but I'm not the only one who figured it out in time.]"

She continued to smile as she tilted her head down.

Following her tilting head, Oki looked down to see one person looking at the screen with his own smile.

"[I see.]"

.

_Nice!_

Takeshi fixed his scarf to hide his smile.

It had not been until the attack started, but he had managed to figure out what would happen.

It was clear to him now and even he couldn't hold back the excitement that began to fill his body.

_I had thought she got it down when we were fighting our match. I guess that method was just a placeholder._

During their match against each other, he had lost an arm to an attack that came from a hidden location.

The problem during that time was that the attack had still been easily tracked. It had been what gave Takeshi the chance to strike back. But now…

_That attack was different. It followed a course that was not preset and the location it originated from is not something you could tell at a glance._

This was a freeform Viper in a true sense.

It was no longer a placeholder for a quickly thought of firing style.

This was how Asano Eri would fire from now on.

_Good job, Asano-san!_

* * *

The ever calm and reserved Asano felt pride in herself start to well up.

She had managed to fire a freeform Viper. She had even managed to shoot down Nasu's Viper from a distance.

_I can feel happy about this, right? Yeah. Maya and Shana always feel happy when they score points, and Kuni gets so excited when making a masterpiece. So I can feel happy about this!_

She still did not know what she had been missing to fire freeform Viper, but whatever it was, she had found a way through it.

Thinking back, she felt like it could have been some of the advice she had gotten from other Shooters. Even the ones who didn't use Viper had tried to give her some advice.

"I like to imagine my attacks following 'lines' and 'points'. It's like throwing attacks at people without them knowing where it will be coming from."

"I just want to see my attack hit and do damage. If they miss then even I'll feel like crap about it. That's why I prefer bombing. Making things go out with a 'BOOM' is so much better. …You shut up over there, Spear Idiot!"

"Um… My lasers work differently from normal shots, so I don't think I can help much. I still maintain control when I'm firing, so I don't even tend to use Viper or Hound. I can just move my attacks. Sorry for not being helpful here…"

"Eh? Me? You know I don't use Viper, dontcha? But I guess I'd say you could try turning the whole thing into somethin' you like. Like, turn it into a game or something'. If you do that, you might find out how to fi- Gah! Dammit, Frog! I told you I'm not a pad!"

"…"

She could only stare into nothing.

_How did some of them even reach that point again…?_

She had many questions about others now.

_But now isn't the time for that. I need to keep this up._

She saw it clearly.

There was no longer a reason to line up her shots or move her arms.

She had found out what to do.

Everything was laid out in front of her.

It was like a game of chess.

The way they all moved had begun to be viewed as pieces of a chess board. Each one had a specific type of movement that they liked to use.

From there, all she needed to do was use each one of their pieces correctly so that they could take the King.

Each one of them had their own roles to play.

Even her Viper.

_If I think about it like this then that means my shots are the Pawns. They are expendable, but still useful._

And even they had a set movement. All she had to do was set that movement herself.

_Think about how to move them and…_

"Viper!"

.

Kumagai quickly took over her shock at what she had been and moved in to deal with Shana.

Nasu's Viper had been shot down and if Shana got closer, it would only take one hit to deal with the finishing blow.

So in that case…

"Fujin!"

Holding her blade close to her, she activated the prototype Trigger she had set.

The blade of Kōgetsu split apart like a blooming flower. Ribbons of light sprung of that blooming. There were five in total.

Kōgetsu's normal blade would not stand a chance against the heavy blade of Reaper. The durability was just not enough to counter that heavy hit.

So if the durability of Kōgetsu would not cut it, there was only one thing to do.

_I'll control my slashes! If I can get at least one arm off, that should be enough._

When moving that heavy Trigger, it took Shana's entire body and movements to properly control the motions of Reaper. So if even one limb became useless, the entire Trigger would become too much of a hindrance for her.

That was Kumagai's aim here.

So she put that plan into action.

She moved forward.

But as she took a step closer…

"—!?"

She had to put up a shield to defend against the Viper shots that threatened to hit her.

Looking down at her split blade, she noticed that the ribbons of light were still there.

_So once the blade split apart, it's like I'm only using one Trigger then._

There was an advantage to that as well as a disadvantage.

If it was registered as a single Trigger in use then it meant that she could use a second one while moving in to attack with Fujin.

But it also meant that she would have to recreate Kōgetsu's blade once she had used up all of her slashes. Something like that would take too much trion.

_This just means I need to get this done before I use them all up!_

Focusing too much on the Viper coming from the sky would only slow her down. If she wanted to hit before she used up all of her slashes then she would need to resolve herself to taking some hits.

" _Kuma-chan, leave the distance attacks to me. Focus on cutting her down."_

With a nod, Kumagai moved towards Shana. Now with the reassurance of not being hit by the shots, she dug her feet into the ground and moved forward.

.

Shana continued her movement even after Nasu had dodged the attack.

Kumagai was coming from behind, so she kicked Reaper upwards from the bottom.

The scythe flew in an arc above her head.

She shifted the position of her hands to hold the shaft of the scythe properly with both hands.

Kumagai was rushing forward with no blade but five slashes.

If she were to take a direct hit from Reaper, there would be no coming back.

But if Shana were to take a slash to one of her limbs, she would be unable to weird her Trigger properly anymore.

The two girls moved.

With a downward swing, Shana slammed Reaper towards the ground.

Kumagai moved by sliding to the right.

She commanded one of the ribbons of light to move towards Shana.

Shana lifted her foot before the blade could touch the ground. She gave a hard kick to the shaft of Reaper while also turning it in her hands.

The blade now cut horizontally through the air.

The first slash came before she could reach Kumagai.

It chipped the blade. But otherwise it did nothing more than that.

The second slash came soon after.

It moved in from behind Shana instead.

Leaving the scythe the way it was, she continued her turn. The pull from Reaper's momentum dragged her along.

She took a step back while still swinging the scythe.

The second blade collided with the shaft of Reaper.

Three slashes were left.

Kumagai came in from under the horizon slash made by Reaper.

She found herself at Shana's side and commanded her third slash.

Shana's response to this was to slam her down on the top of the shaft in order to force the weight of the Trigger towards the ground.

Kumagai jumped back to dodge the downward hit.

She saw her third slash connect.

"Damn it!"

It connected with Shana's side.

"Don't say that when you hit me!"

Shana kicked the back of the blade to forcibly throw it back into the air.

This time, instead of letting the force take her, she let go of the shaft.

Reaper flew into the air as Shana began to run.

"—!?"

Kumagai was quick to follow.

Without Reaper weighing her down, Shana's speed was able to keep her at a distance away from Kumagai.

"If I could just…"

Kumagai muttered to herself as she chased the other girl.

There were two slashes left connected to the hilt of the former Kōgetsu.

Shana was far ahead of her now.

"I just need to…"

Feeling desperate, she threw her arm forward.

At that range she would have a small chance of hitting Shana.

"Reach out!"

That was when something unexpected happened.

.

Shana went wide eyed as a slash reached her side.

The cut was not deep, but it had been the fact that it appeared on her side that surprised her.

She knew that she was barely in range of those ribbons of light. But…

_It shouldn't have been able to reach my side!_

At worst it would cut her back a bit. For it to reach her side meant that Kumagai had either gotten closer or something else happened.

And she had an idea as to what it had been.

With this new realization upon her, she turned her head to the sky as she took a leap.

Taking in air, she gave a shout.

"Eri!"

.

Kumagai had seen it happen along with her shout.

She had not expected anything to happen. All she had wanted was to let out her frustration of not being able to reach Shana.

Yet something did happen.

The ribbon of light she had commanded with her words followed through.

The ribbon of light had extended it's form out and cut through Shana's side.

It had not been a deep cut, but it was something new that she had not known about.

Extending out slashes like that had not been like what she heard about the original Black Trigger.

The original had even more range than this copy, being able to run along surfaces. And she had not seen Kotowari Squad's newest member use this kind of tactic in their match against her squad.

_Did she not even know about that?_

Had that girl created a replica of a Black Trigger without knowing everything it could do? Had her tests not shown her that she could do such a thing?

Or had she just chosen to not use this in their match.

_Either way!_

This was her chance.

Shana had taken a hit, but she had only one slash left.

That was when it happened.

"Eri!"

.

Shana gave her shout without reserve.

As soon as she leaped into the air, one of the shots that had been with the ones fired at Nasu turned.

It had not been a sudden thing. That single shot had been singled out as the one to move unlike the rest of them.

The shot separated from the rest of them and flew in the air.

The target had not been Kumagai.

It had been the thrown Reaper.

The shot collided with the blade of Reaper, throwing it into a spin while tossing it to the side.

Shana grabbed a hold of the spinning scythe and held the shaft of Reaper tightly with both hands.

The weight of the Trigger pushed down hard as she applied even more pressure with a swing.

There was only one target.

Kumagai.

"Viper!"

From the corner of her eye, she could see a set of shots moving towards her.

Another set of shots came down from above.

The second set of shots shot down she of the first set of shots, but didn't manage to hit them all.

With that now being a problem, Shana created a shield to her side.

The remaining shots from the first set collided with the shield and could not break through.

But…

"Extend! Fujin Kōgetsu!"

When she focused back down, she saw the remaining ribbon of light extend from the hit of Kōgetsu.

The ribbon of light continued to extend as a sharp slash directly toward her.

"Damn it…!"

Using the remainder of her swing, she attacked the extended slash.

The two attacks collided.

The ribbon of light left a deep cut in the blade of reaper while Reaper cut through the slash.

But that had not been all.

Beyond the colliding attack, something else happened.

Kumagai tossed aside the hilt.

There was no longer a blade and there were no longer ribbons of light.

So instead of holding onto it, she made a different action.

She made a cube of trion.

"Meteora!"

"Crap!"

For the second time in that moment, two attacks collided.

.

From her position to the side, Nasu could see what had happened.

Once all of Fujin Kōgetsu's slashes had been used up, Kumagai had tossed aside the hilt and fired a Meteora cluster shot.

The problem had been that she had no time to actually fire.

So instead, the heavy scythe Trigger clawed Reaper and tore through the cube of trion.

An explosion had filled the space as smoke rose up.

"!"

There was no chance of moving towards the explosion.

But she did not need to go over to see the end result.

Two lights flashed in that space before flying off into the distance.

**Bail Out.**

**Bail Out.**

* * *

"[Well that was unexpected.]"

Kumokawa spoke calmly as she watched the scene play out before them.

The double Bail Out had been a result of two attacks colliding with each other and causing an explosion.

When she looked at the new score, she was able to see who exactly got points.

"[It looks like the explosion had finished Agent Lee off, but not without a price. Both Tsukiko Squad and Nasu Squad gain a point.]"

"[Lee had probably managed to get'er Reaper through at the last moment. And from the looks of things, it looks like that's what brings us to the last choice of the match.]"

She nodded her head at Oki's words.

Once the points had been distributed, there had been a sudden shift in the match they were watching.

The two remaining members were no longer attacking each other.

"[It looks like there is now a ceasefire.]"

"[Neither one of them will be making any more attacks now that all of their teammates are gone.]"

"[If it came to a battle between these two, Captain Nasu would come out the winner. But that would only be if they were both full on trion and had no injuries. In this situation, it would be a toss up on who would win exactly. Neither one of them wants to give the other team the survival points. So no matter what, leaving it with no decisive winner is the best option for them. They don't want to go on a suicide run and end up losing it all.]"

"[If Asano were to win then it'd put 'er squad in the winning position. But like you said, Kumo-san, there'd be too much to lose if she lost.]"

"[So the two of them will be running down the clock.]"

Kumokawa nodded once more. This time it was to Svantje's words.

This was the final moment of the match. Once it was over, she would need to wrap it all up.

But until then…

"[They had all done well in this match.]"

.

Takeshi released a breath he didn't know he was holding.

The match had basically been finished. Now he just had to wait for the time to run out. Then it would be over and he could go talk to the ones who had participated in the match.

"Oh my. That had my heart racing there. Between Kumagai-senpai and Lee-san, I was not sure who would win."

"He, hey, Hoshi, that's the Trigger you made, wasn't it? The one Kumagai-senpai used."

"Indeed. I was surprised to see someone as strong as her use a Trigger I had made. I will admit that it makes me happy though."

"In that case, you did a crazy good job making it! The way it extends out like that was nice!"

"Oh, yes… Um, Taichi-senpai, to be completely honest, I had no idea it could do that."

Takeshi was quick to turn to Hoshi.

During their previous matches, he had not seen her use the Trigger in such a way. He had thought that she only decided not to use it in order to keep it a secret. But this was new information for even her.

There was no reason to say anything to her. Taichi had already begun for him.

"You didn't know about that!? Th-th-then, Kumagai-senpai figured that out by herself!?"

Hoshi gave a nod and lowered her brows.

She truly had no idea that it was possible to do such a thing with a Trigger she had created.

Taichi let out a sigh of his own as he sat back in his seat.

"Man… Kumagai-senpai is really good. No wonder Kō-san li-"

This time with Takeshi and Hoshi turned to Taichi at the same time.

Both of them wore the same expression of, "What were you about to say!? Tell us, please!"

For his part, Taichi had covered his mouth and began to sweat profusely.

He rapidly shook his head. A clear sign that he wanted them to forget that he had said anything.

Takeshi only fixed his scarf as an answer.

_I wonder how much I can get from Senpai with that information._

* * *

"Hyuu~~! That was fun while it lasted!"

"Honestly, with you…"

Sthénos gigged into her hands. Even if Shingai sighed in her direction, it meant nothing when she had already had her fun.

To the side she could see Senshi and Tekitai smiling at the two of them.

The match had been the entire time, but it lacked a certain feeling that she had gotten when fighting against the Mouri trion soldiers.

During that fight, she had been able to do so much and not hide her abilities. It had felt so liberating that she hadn't even felt the need to strip during that time.

Compared to that fight, this match felt like nothing more than playing around.

_I do like playing around, but it just feels so restricting… I want to show off some more…_

A normal person would have sighed at this point. But she did not.

She had not understood why people sighed when they felt bad or slap themselves when they tried to motivate themselves. But she had done the latter before, just to feel what it was like.

But sighing here would only worry her teammates.

So instead, she continued to smile for them.

"Hey, hey, does this mean I can get a treat since I was the last one to lose!? I even took myself out so that they wouldn't be able to get a point!"

"Sthénos, while that was indeed a good job… Please do not do something like that again. Even if everything is inside of your core, I don't even want to think about what would happen if you did that in a real fight."

"Yuki told us about how well you did during the attack a few days ago. He also told us about how you managed to beat one of those strong trion soldiers. It had been reckless. But well meaning. If you can keep that up then we will be fine. Just make sure not to self destruct on us."

"Senshi! Do not be so soft like that. Any damage is back. It was indeed reckless, so-"

Sthénos' smile began to falter.

Senshi must have noticed this since he looked over Shingai's shoulder to smile down at her.

Seeing that smile, she returned it with full force.

All these people wanted to do was make sure she was okay.

The least she could do was listen a bit to their wants. And if they wanted her safe, she would try for that.

* * *

The first thing Nasu came to once she was back with her teammates was Hiura bouncing up to her.

The next thing was Kumagai grinning over to her.

"Nice job. Leaving it with no survival points is way better than trying to fight a losing battle."

They had not even given her a chance to apologize for the end result.

Kumagai brought her over to the computer for the final comments, all with a smile on her face.

"You both did so well too. Akane-chan managed to get some good hits in."

"Yeah, but Kumagai-senpai was more amazing with the way she used that new Trigger!"

"Heh heh heh… I actually didn't know it could do that. It was a happy accident that seemed to work out, in the end." Kumagai sheepishly looked away from the starry-eyed expression on Hiura's face. "If anything you should be praising the girl who made it. She is the one who managed to come up with it."

Nasu placed a hand on her chin while looking at nothing in particular.

She thought back to the first time she had seen the Trigger in use.

It had been during their match against Katori Squad and Kotowari Squad. The user had been a new girl who seemed to be doing the best she could.

"Oh yeah, now I remember when I have met her!"

"Huh? You met Taiyōko before our match with them?"

"Yes," she nodded. "It was at the hospital. She was visiting Yuki-san. Once she had left, I asked him about her and he said that she was his younger sister. It was a while ago, so it must have slipped my mind during our match."

"Well we haven't really seen her since the match, so it makes sense that it wouldn't come to mind."

"Still, if she was the one to make Fujin Kōgetsu, it shows what kind of person she is. Someone who enjoys inventing."

Kumagai crossed her arms and gave a nod.

If anyone on their team could understand that at the moment then it was her.

"Kotowari Squad has a match later today, so it'll have to wait, but I want to really have a word with her. The fact that you know her, Rei, just makes me want to speak with her even more."

"Do you think she likes ice cream as much as Yuki-san?"

A shudder ran down their spines at the thought.

No matter what their upperclassman said, they all knew too well that he had an addiction to the frozen treat.

"Let's hope not…"

* * *

"Whoo! High fives all around!"

The sound of clapping hands could be heard as Amaya moved from one teammate to another.

Once she reached Asano, she found that her hands remained in the air while waiting for her friend.

The unimpressed look Asano was giving her did nothing to curb her enthusiasm.

After a moment more, the Shooter gave in with a soft smile. She raised her hands and clapped them to her captain's.

"See, it isn't so hard~?"

"You do realize that we lost, right?"

"That sucks, yeah, but I think it was worth it."

"How so?"

The sly smirk on Amaya's face was a bit irritating, but Asano said nothing about it and allowed her to continue talking.

Putting her arms behind her head, Amaya turned on one foot to face the other way.

"Because we now have an awesome Shooter who can fire freeform Viper. We'll be winning even more matches from no one."

"Wow. Thanks for putting that pressure on me."

"Don't worry, don't worry~ We'll be there to back you up. Well… I will, at least. Shana has this nasty habit of losing right away."

"I don't want to hear that from the one who got taken out first this time! I at least managed to take out Yūko!"

Asano lightly shook her head as the noise began to rise slightly.

Unlike the times before, she felt as if she could focus a bit better even with the noise.

Looking back up, she saw Kuni waving her over.

Curious as to what the Operator wanted, she moved over, being careful to dodge flying hands.

She looked down to Kuni. The other girl smiled and pointed to the phone on the table.

All of them had left their phones on the table, silenced.

"You got a message as soon as the match was called."

"I did? From who?"

Kuni said nothing as she picked up her phone.

Opening it up, she saw that it was a message on Border's chat. And what it said was…

 **Colors:** "You were amazing in the match, Asano-san."

A light coloring dusted her cheeks at the message.

From the way it appeared, it had been sent only to her.

It was only after she calmed down a bit did she see the next message after that.

 **Colors:** "As did the rest of your squad."

She did not feel down at that.

The first message had been one directed only to her. This second one was for Tsukiko Squad as a whole.

The small smile she had before grew a bit more when she read over the message again.

"Oh ho~? What do we have here~?"

"I think Eri got a special message~"

"I think so too~"

"Wonder what it says~"

She could feel the two grinning girls looking over her shoulder.

To make sure they could not see her phone, she closed it with a snap.

After turning to their grinning faces, she waved a hand nonchalantly.

"Takeshi was just saying that we did a good job in the match."

The look the two of them shared said that they knew there was more to the story.

Thankfully, they said nothing more on the topic and only whistled while looking away.

Asano rolled her eyes at their antics and turned back to Kuni.

"It's about time for the final commentary."


	122. Yūko Kumagai

Kumagai lightly pushed her back against the wall.

The cool feeling of the wall had calmed her nerves down a bit.

Nasu Squad had just finished a match and she felt her body heat up a little, even after everything had been said and done.

For the time being, she had gone her own way while leaving Nasu in the care of Hiura and Sayako. Having them see her as she currently was would only complicate matters.

_Besides, we are still meeting up later to watch one of the later matches._

So she would need to cool her body by then and stop the rush of adrenaline that seemed to stick to her even after fighting.

Tapping her head to the wall, she felt the same cool feeling now reaching her neck as well.

She could have always gone for some solo matches to get the rest of it out of her system, but she thought that it would only add another problem.

Something like this had happened to others and she had always made sure to stay away from those types when she saw it. The battle crazed ones tended to still find her though.

But even with the cool feeling from the wall, she could feel the same rush flood her system.

So in order to fully deal with this issue, she pulled out her phone and unlocked the screen.

Once it was unlocked she tapped on Border's chat.

_Using my upperclassmen like this could be bad, but it might end up helping me here. Guess I'll give it a try._

It was a last resort that may end up getting her in trouble.

But it was a risk that she had been willing to take.

 **Kuma:** "Kimura-senpai, can you tell me a joke?"

 **Everyone:** "WHAT!? AND WHY!?"

"Yeah… Leave it to these people to give an instant reaction like that."

Sometimes it was amazing how well everyone in Border worked together when it came to harassing others. The more obvious ones had been her upperclassmen a year older than her, but other ones could be just as bad at times.

This was one of those times.

 **Zaki:** "Is everything okay, Kuma? Did something happen? Kotowari had told me your match went fine, so I thought you would be happy. Why are you suddenly asking for death like that?"

 **Red Picture:** "Kuma-chan! Kuma-chan! Whatever you're going through, it shouldn't have led you to this! We can talk this out! Uh, uh…how about… I-I can give you some of my dorayaki!"

 **U-T:** "Shouldn't you all calm down before trying to calm her down?"

 **Kōgetsu:** "How old is she again? 17? Doesn't she still have a year before the crazy catches up to her?"

 **2.7 Maime:** "But it reached you pretty quickly, Tachikawa-san~. Even before becoming 18~."

 **Kōgetsu:** "Oh ho? Who is this coming from again?"

 **Cloudy River:** "In my option, I think it starts to develop around 17. Some of us are just lucky not to catch it during that time."

 **Demon Child:** "You just hide it well. No one on the same squad as Jinsei can say they don't have the crazy."

 **Simple Boy:** "Am I crazy? If so, should I be happy about that?"

 **Lollipop Lover:** "Oh, are you and Hisato done giving Hanzaki his 'congratulation kisses'? That was quick."

 **Yoshi:** "No! They're doing it while typing!"

 **Decoy:** "Daigo is continuing. I stopped after the first one."

 **Ortlinde:** "You people change topics very quickly. Also, wasn't someone about to commit suicide via joke?"

 **Iko:** "You get used to this kinda stuff, Chisato. Oh, but what do you want for lunch?"

 **Ortlinde:** "I already told you. If you wanna know again then just ask Satoshi."

 **Shōgi Boy:** "Please don't send him over to me…"

 **Ortlinde:** "Fine. Tatsuhito, I want some eggplant curry and ice water. Oh, but a bottled one is fine too. Just make sure you get here quickly. I don't want you missing our lunch together."

 **Iko:** "This is why I love this cute girl, everyone. Suck it, all of you damn lovebirds who go around makin' kissy faces at each other!"

 **Ortlinde:** "You're going to make me get a big head."

 **Haru:** "Sorry, what was that? I was busy telling Oshiro how amazing he was and that we're getting married later in life."

 **Hero:** "S-S-S-Sumiharu! Th-that's… That was supposed to be a secret…"

 **Girls:** "Oh my!"

 **Boys:** "Damn you, Inukaaaaaaaaaiii!"

Kumagai felt herself heating up for a different reason as she fanned herself with her hand.

Her intent had been to cool off and yet those crazy people managed to only make her feel even more heated.

_Oh, but I never got my answer from Kimura-senpai._

At this point it didn't seem to be worth it anymore. She would likely just be thrown back into the fire.

"Ah. Looks like 'That Gunner' has gotten even more posts. What's this? 'How did that idiot get a girlfriend before me!?' looks like it's also going up in numbers. I guess that's fair."

Sometimes it was fun to peak at those threads, but for the most part she wanted to stay away from them.

Only terrible things could come from looking at dangerous stuff after all.

"…"

She let out another sigh. Her problem seemed to have only gotten worse.

She felt a sudden vibration and pulled her phone back up.

The danger of it being another message from those people was high, but she took the risk anyway. No one would be able to call her a coward if she did.

But instead of it being a fight, it was…

 **Gambler:** "So what's your problem? Do you wanna die that badly?"

.

It was Denji.

He was using full words and the mischief he usually had was gone.

That was how it should be with them. Holding nothing back and exposing everything for each other to see.

She smiled a bit at the words displayed before her.

 **Kuma:** "I'm just feeling a bit heated at the moment. I thought that one of her terrible jokes would cool me down. Guess I wasn't thinking straight."

 **Gambler:** "Of course you weren't, idiot. That would put you in freezing instead of cooling you down."

"I realize that now," she said with a sigh.

This was nice. In a strange way.

Speaking like this with Nasu had always been easy, but knowing that there was someone else who she could speak so freely with only made her happy.

Even if it was Denji.

 **Gambler:** "So? Are you horny or something? Is that why you're heated?"

 **Kuma:** "Of course not, you asshole!"

But there were still dangers when speaking with this man.

Like his lack of care about what he said to her.

_I guess I can't complain though. After all, I'm the one who decided to take all of his hatred and negativity._

It was something that not even Nasu knew about. The other girl had never asked about the relationship she had with Denji, but that had been because she understood that it wasn't something that could be spoken about so easily.

Kumagai was grateful for her understanding of the situation.

_The only other people who know what's going on are Murakami-senpai and whoever is closest to Sekai-san._

But only one of those two people was someone she knew.

Looking down at her phone, she saw that Denji had yet to reply to her. It was his way of telling her that he wanted to know what was really going on with her.

If this conversation had happened a while back then she would have assumed that he was just being rude again.

But she now knew better.

 **Kuma:** "Hey, do you know who is close to Sekai-san?"

 **Gambler:** "You're just gonna ignore my worries like that? Look, I don't want any of your hatred, got it?"

"That's not how it is."

He knew that as well, so his words were nothing more than a joke.

 **Kuma:** "I'm just still riled up from my match. Is that good enough for you?"

 **Gambler:** "I'll take it for now."

 **Kuma:** "Good, because that's all there is to it."

There was nothing else going on, so she felt safe in her answer.

 **Gambler:** "Sigh. I don't know who it is either. #3 is in the same situation. He's hiding it pretty well and we can't just go asking for something like that."

 **Kuma:** "That's true. Murakami-senpai and I have even less freedom when it comes to that stuff, so it would just be insulting if we tried."

 **Gambler:** "Why do you want to know about that anyway? Something come up?"

 **Kuma:** "I was just curious."

Was that really all though?

When thinking about it even more, she found that there were actually. A few reasons as to why she would want to know. The most prevalent one was…

 **Kuma:** "I pretty much forced this onto you, and Murakami-senpai has been friends with Yuki-san for a while now. So I'm just curious about the other situation."

 **Gambler:** "Yeah, you were pretty rough during that time. I thought you were even trying to hit on me at first."

"That's disgusting on so many levels…"

A shudder ran down her body when she thought about it.

It felt even worse since the shudder came while her body was still pretty heated.

 **Gambler:** "But I get what you mean. Sekai isn't the type to let something be forced onto him. He also didn't really have friends before joining Border. Even now, it's hard to say if he even considers anyone as a friend. So who could possibly know everything about him and what are the circumstances that led to that?"

Denji did not stop there.

This had been enough to catch his interest as well.

 **Gambler:** "I had heard that it was Shinoda who convinced him to join Border, but I doubt it could be him. Whenever I tried to pick on Minoru, he would put a stop to it, if only because it was annoying him, but Minoru has his own problems to deal with, so he's also not an option."

 **Kuma:** "Kuruma-san is someone who he is usually nice and laid back with. Could it be him?"

 **Gambler:** "That sounds like a nice idea, but I don't think so. Tatsuku is the kind of person who would start to show it if something like that happened. I really just want to cross out anyone who is our age. The rest of them are pretty terrible people."

The irony of that statement had not been lost on her.

_One of the worst people around is saying something like that… I think I'll just save that particular sentence if I ever want to get some revenge on this guy._

She made sure to cut the rest of the message so that other people would not be able to see what had led up to it. It would end badly if that had been found out.

But as she did so, a message came in that made her stop.

 **Gambler:** "I'm starting to think that he may not have had anyone to begin with."

That was also bad.

From what she had experienced with Denji, Kumagai understood what it meant for someone like that to not have anyone to talk to. Someone who would be able to know everything and then provide their own thoughts on matters.

In a way, that was true for everyone. But it was even more true for people like Denji.

If Sekai had no one to talk to then…

_What lengths is he going to to make sure people are happy…?_

He had decided to give up his happiness. His unneeded happiness.

Denji had long since given up on his own hatred. It had been why Kumagai pushed her way through and forced herself into his life.

That way he would have at least one person to hate.

But what about the time before that?

What had he been like when there had been nobody who he could hate?

_He was constantly destroying himself…_

A bad image of a man flashed in her mind.

For just a moment the heat from her body completely drained and she only felt a freezing cold take over.

Once she shook her head free of that image, her body began to heat up like it had before. This time it seemed to not reach the same heat as before, but it still bothered her regardless.

If that image had done that to her because it involved Denji, what kind of horrifying image would appear if it was true that Sekai had nobody there?

 **Gambler:** "You still there, Yūko?"

Her thoughts were interrupted by the message that came through.

That was when she noticed she had wrapped an arm around herself.

"Yeah… I'm here."

Why did she answer that way exaclty?

The words came out, but had it been because she was answering his question or because she wanted to reassure him that he would not be alone anymore?

She could not find the answer to those questions.

"Kumagai."

But before she could open her mouth again, a voice reached her from the side.

Looking over to the end of the hall, she saw a familiar boy moving closer to her.

"Murakami-senpai."

.

Murakami smiled as he moved closer to Kumagai.

The direction he had been walking towards had put him into the same hallway as her. She was leaning against the wall and looking down at her phone, so he did not raise his voice to her.

Instead, he had said her name loud enough that it could be heard from down the hall while moving closer.

It had been enough to get her attention it seemed since she turned to him while saying his name.

"What are you doing here?" she asked while straightening herself out.

"I was going to go find someone," he answers honestly. It had been his intent to meet with one of his next opponents. "It's good that I found you here though."

"It is?"

He nodded.

There had been something he wanted to tell her but had yet to get the chance.

"I wanted to congratulate you."

"Huh?"

"Well, I guess I should give you a double congratulation."

"Why two?"

"One for winning the match you just had. The other for the fight you won during the attack."

He smiled more as she seemed to relate what he was talking about.

Word had been going around about the different fights that had taken place a few days ago.

Everything had been muddled or spoken as generally as possible by the ones involved. But the ones who had been fighting in the attack were free to speak with each other on almost everything that happened.

He knew about the other fights that had taken place inside of the base.

One of those fights involved Nasu Squad.

"I heard about how hard you fought and how you managed to get some really good hits on your opponent."

"It really wasn't much. I was running low on tiron and made some pretty big mistakes."

"But you managed to win."

"It was more like Rei got the final shot and I just threw her into that position."

"That's fine. You were working together after all. It might have been more concerning if it was a one-on-one fight. Besides, I know that the two of you wouldn't let just one of you fight a Neighbor."

"Still… I also needed Denji's help to really start doing anything. I got scolded in the middle of a fight and he even said he would come in to beat the Neighbor."

The way she looked down at her phone told him everything he needed.

The person she had been talking to was Denji, and him bringing up her recent fight had reminded her that he had to intervene during that time.

But still…

"That's fine though, isn't it?"

Her head shot up to look at him.

"You and Denji… It's only natural for one of you to go to the other's aid, right? You aren't really friends like you are with Nasu, but he isn't someone you can just leave alone. Likewise, he knows that losing you would actually hurt him a lot."

He understood that just as much as she did.

There was someone who shared the same relationship with him as Kumagai and Denji did with each other.

That was why there was no hesitation in his words.

.

Kumagai was silent for a moment.

Murakami had just said something she already knew to be true.

During that battle, and even after it, she had thought that it had been a bit insulting that Denji would do something like that.

He had come in for the fun of it, managed to stop her opponent with just his words and tone, and effectively spoke down to Kumagai because she was losing. It had felt like he was looking at her like she was someone in need of his help, even when she had been the one to force her way into his life.

But now that felt like a lie she told herself.

Denji was rude, arrogant and annoying at all times, but he had never looked down on her since she had forced her way into his life.

It was not respect or camaraderie he felt towards her. Calling it a friendship was just wishful thinking. No, she knew what kind of relationship they had.

_We have a relationship of understanding._

They could speak freely with each other and he was able to show all negative aspects of himself to her.

In return, she had no reason to fear or hate him.

It had taken Murakami's words to remind her of that.

But that was also fine.

Murakami was someone who understood the situation as well as they did. Anything he said could only be viewed as something beneficial for them.

She felt a smile start to creep not her face as the heat from her body began to change into something else. Something more warm instead of hot.

"You're right. Thanks for remind-"

 **Gambler:** "Hey, is that Kō!? Tell him I wanna talk to him about some stuff!"

Her words were interrupted by the sudden message.

Glaring down at her phone, she saw that the same message had been sent five times with two seconds of the first one.

 **Kuma:** "You're right here! Tell him yourself! Just message him yourself!"

 **Gambler:** "I can't. He scares me…"

She blinked.

 **Kuma:** "How!?"

 **Gambler:** "Just look how nice that guy is! Someone like that won't be able to hate me! That's pretty damn scary! It's not even like the other people who don't gate me! At least they do it because they're oblivious about it! He does it because he just doesn't want to be rude! He knows exactly what he's doing!"

That did seem to be the case with her upperclassman.

Since he understood enough of the situation, he had always made a great attempt at showing Denji only his good side.

In a way, it actually was something scary.

 **Kuma:** "Ohh, but I saw him slowly pushing down on Taichi's head earlier."

 **Gambler:** "What!? Why doesn't he do that crap with me!?"

That was a fair question.

But instead of answering right away, she looked up and faced Murakami directly.

"Murakami-senpai, what are your thoughts about Denji?"

Upon hearing her question, his smile softened a little while his gaze moved to the side. The look in his eyes gave her the impression of someone talking about a person dear to them.

"He is…a decent person, once you understand the circumstances. So I think he's fine. I'm really glad that you get along so well with him."

"…"

She immediately answered Denji.

 **Kuma:** "Yeah, I don't think you can win here, Denji."

The cry from his message was ignored as soon as it came in.

She lowered her phone down to make sure that he would not be able to see the messages.

"By the way," she started. "I heard that you were doing a pretty good job during the attack too."

"Huh? You did?"

She nodded.

"Yeah. I don't know what exactly was going on, but I did hear some of the upperclassmen say something like, 'Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaa boooooooooooooyyyyy!' and 'MA! BOY! BE! BLOCKING! Those power shots don't have crap on him!' Some of them even appeared on the net."

.

 **Black Wolf:** "Who was it!? I won't be mad as long as you come out and tell me who it was!"

 **Pokari:** "Alright everyone, if you did something to him, please raise your hand."

 **Everyone:** "Like we'll fall for that!"

 **Life:** "Oh… Yeah. Ha ha ha. We won't fall for that one. Ha ha ha…"

 **Mi-Kon:** "I see we have the culprit for this. Should I be the one to inform the guards or does someone else want that honor?"

 **Umi:** "Already on it."

 **Life:** "That was fast!"

 **Umi:** "I figured that something like this would happen."

 **TetsuG:** "What even happened?"

 **Everyone:** "I don't know."

.

Kumagai raised an eyebrow at the defeated look Murakami had while leaning against the wall.

 **Kuma:** "Well that's weird."

 **Gambler:** "Those guys usually are."

 **Kuma:** "This coming from you."

His next message of complaint was also ignored.

"Anyways…"

She felt bad for the way he would sling his body off of the wall. Everyone understood just how about his age group could be at times, so this was likely one of those times.

Feeling the need to change the subject after she had been the one to throw him into the lion's den like that, she brought up her hand.

There had been something on her mind since she had come to a certain decision.

Murakami was a perfect person to talk to about this.

"Murakami-senpai, you know Taiyōko, right?"

"Which one do you mean?"

How many were there?

Thinking back, she could remember talk of a dangerous woman with a dangerous appearance also having that name. There had also been a fight in the hall beyond her own fight that involved someone with that name.

_Oh, I guess he would know all of them if he met at least Kotowari Squad's Taiyōko._

The connections he had to others was a bit amazing.

"Taiyōko Hoshi."

"Oh, yeah. She's a good girl. Why do you want to know?"

It could have just been her mind playing tricks, but the protective tone he took had been surprising to hear.

He did not speak rudely to her though, so she thought it would be safe to speak.

"I wanted to talk to her about some stuff."

"You want to talk about Fujin, right?"

Of course he would be able to figure it out that easily.

"That's right. With Kotowari Squad around, it might end up getting a bit crazy. I thought that, if you know her well, you could get her to talk to be one-on-one. I won't do anything to her, of course."

"Oh, I know," he said with a smile. "You're also a good girl, after all."

Heat filed her body again.

This time it was for a different reason.

.

Murakami continued to smile at Kumagai. Even as she seemed to get a bit flustered, he smiled to her as if he had said nothing wrong.

He had found what she said to be true. Hoshi normally stuck to Kotowari Squad once she had joined them. She had thought of it as an extension of them hanging out while not inside school.

She had been friends with Takeshi and Toby before joining their squad, so it was understandable that she thought like that.

But by doing so, she had begun to be seen less without them around.

There had been complaints by the Engineers since she would visit them less often now that she was participating in the B-Rank Wars. In his opinion, that was for the better.

But…

"She told me that she will be busy soon, so I don't know when there will be any free time to talk to her."

Kumagai seemed to gather herself at hearing his words.

Her face was still a bit flushed, but her expression and the sigh she let out meant that she knew what he meant.

_Cute._

A reminder of what Taichi had done came back to mind.

He would make sure to give the boy another scolding later on.

Or he could just leave it to Kon.

_Either one works, really._

But that was for Future Murakami to figure out.

For now, he would focus on the conversation he was having with Kumagai.

"That makes sense. With everything going on, she would be pretty busy."

"Right…"

"Well, thanks for telling me that. I guess I'll just wait until everything has settled down for that."

"Sorry about that."

"No, no, it's fine," she said with a smile. Lifting herself up a bit, she scratched the back of her head. "Man, and I was hoping to ask her about Fujin. I learned something new about it today, so it felt like a good time to ask her. Then I remembered that she has a match later on. Actually, isn't her match against you guys?"

"That's right. We will be going against Kotowari Squad. Along with Ninomiya Squad and Meishō Squad."

"Ah, I see. In that case, I'll be rooting for you guys."

It was his turn to get flustered.

The full-teeth smile she gave made him go a bit red.

"Kotowari has been really good lately, and I have some friends in Meishō Squad, but you guys were the first ones this season to take points from us properly when it comes to all of the squads in your match. You even managed to make it to the top tier. No way do I want to see you guys lose. You hear me, Senpai? You guys have to win this one."

The way she leaned in to make sure he was listening only made him go more red.

It was true that the match Suzunari-1 and Nasu Squad had with Tamakoma-2 had been a proper match unlike the one Nasu Squad had with Kotowari Squad the first time. Everyone had been trying their hardest and they had even gotten commentary from Tachikawa and Jin.

That match had been where Murakami had defeated Kumagai, even with how hard she had tried. Everything she had done amounted to little when compared to his own experience and skill.

But that had not stopped her.

Their next match had been against Kotowari Squad and Katori Squad.

Kumagai had managed to bring things to a draw along with Katori and Hoshi. The fight had many moving parts and the two opposing squads were no pushovers. Yet they had managed to draw with them.

From there it only got better.

Kumagai had taken to Hoshi's prototype Trigger and managed to win both her fight against the Neighbor and the match she had earlier in the day.

In his eyes, that was amazing. It was something that he found admirable and something he would keep an eye on as time went on.

So that was why he made sure to pick his next words carefully.

He did not want to end up like the rest of his age group in front of this moving forward girl.

"I can't say we'll win, considering who our opponents are, but I'll at least tell you that we'll follow your lead and not back down an inch."

"Hahaha! Now you're just giving me a big head here! You guys do what you can and I'll make sure to praise you the whole time. After all, not only did you beat me the way you did, you're also someone who understands my situation the best."

There was also that.

They normally saw that was a sad thing, but Kumagai had just used it as a connection between the two of them.

"Well, I feel better than before. I'll admit that I was feeling a certain way after the match, but after talking with you and Denji, I feel pretty good now. I've calmed down enough to where I can really watch your match."

"Hey, Kumagai."

"Yeah?"

He stopped her as she turned.

There was still something he wanted to tell her.

Something to make up for not being able to help her talk to Hoshi.

"Hoshi also said that she would be around the Engineers during the weeklong break coming up. Kotowari Squad usually doesn't go with her during that time. It might not be too long, but that would be the best time to talk to her about Fujin. Or just anything in general."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. She's not the type to turn someone away, so it should be fine. Just be kind to her."

"She's someone dear to you, right? Then there's nothing to worry about. I already thought she was a pretty cool girl, so there won't be any problems between the two of us."

He would be lying if he said that there had not been any worries originally. But those thoughts had left with the confident way she spoke to him.

Both Hoshi and Kumagai were good girls, so he knew he could rest easy with them meeting.

"Well, I'll be off then."

He gave a final nod while watching her leave.

.

Once Kumaga was out of sight, he let out a sigh.

Pulling out his phone for a second time, he checked the time and noticed that there wasn't much time until his next match.

There wouldn't be enough time to search for the person he had been looking for.

So instead, he messaged that person in the chat.

 **Black Wolf:** "Hey Mitsuteru, there's something I want to talk to you about."

* * *

An average looking boy with black hair and gray-black eyes stared down at his phone. There had been a wait time for him since the rest of his squad had yet to make it to their operating room. So for the time being, it was only him and his captain in the room.

He had just gotten a message from one of his upperclassmen while waiting.

He sucked in some air before slowly releasing it.

The tension that had built up in his shoulders was also released.

"So this really will be a stressful conversation for you, won't it?"

A voice came from one of the other rooms.

"I hope not. Senpai knows what to say and what not to say. Although it might just be me who ends up ruining everything."

"It's normal to think that, Teru-kun. Just don't think too much about it."

Mitsuteru lowered his shoulders and stopped himself from taking another breath.

Feeling any tension when speaking to Murakami meant that he did not believe in him and his words. That was something he did not want to think about, no matter what his own feelings towards the boy were.

Pulling up his phone again, she began to type out his return message.

 **Other Sniper:** "Is this about our coming match, Senpai?"

 **Black Wolf:** "That's right."

 **Other Sniper:** "Do you mind if Seiji-san listens in?"

"Are you sure that's a good thing, Teru-kun?"

Off to the side, a stylish boy with red hair having a streak running through it and green eyes looked over to him. The smile on his face told him that he knew what this could mean.

In response to the look, Mitsuteru nodded his head.

 **Black Wolf:** "That's fine with me. Although it concerns your former squad."

"I figured as much…"

A message soon came up on his screen that read:

**[2Truths1Lie has joined the chat.]**

**2Truths1Lie:** "So what did you need to talk to Teru-kun about?"

 **Black Wolf:** "You guys know that Yuki and Kimura will be commenting, right?"

 **2Truths1Lie:** "Of course."

They had been told recently. There had never been a reason to hide who would be the commentators, and they would hear them speak at the end anyway, so all squads had been informed.

That included Meishō Squad.

 **Black Wolf:** "I wanted to talk about what Mitsuteru was planning on doing."

 **2Truths1Lie:** "We can't tell you about what we plan on doing for the match, you know."

 **Black Wolf:** "I know. That's why I want to know only what Mitsuteru is planning on doing."

Seiji gave an apologetic look over to Mitsuteru.

"I'm sorry, Teru-kun. I tried."

He shook his head to say that it was fine. There would be no escaping this conversation and he was fine with that.

_I just hope we finish before Shige-ko or Shinichi-kun make it here. Kanji-kun should be fine, but those two might cause more trouble than I can handle._

Just thinking about what could happen had started to cause tension to build up. His shoulders lifted a bit while his shoulder blades stuck out.

He took in a breath before slowly releasing it into the air.

His shoulder began to fall back down while the rest of his body relaxed into his seat.

 **Other Sniper:** "I plan on going all out, Senpai."

 **Black Wolf:** "Why is that? It will only be Yuki and Kimura. Senpai and Kanzaki won't be watching or participating. And remember, this is 'Yuki' and not 'Kiyoshi'."

"I know that. Please don't remind me of that…"

"It's okay, Teru-kun. Feeling that way is normal."

Mitsuteru nodded at his captain's words.

Everything he was feeling was normal.

 **Other Sniper:** "Our opponents are Senpai, Nino-san and Kotowari Squad. Do you think I would be able to hold back if it was that case?"

"You really have been working hard this season. Although, I guess that's also pretty normal when you have a goal."

 **Black Wolf:** "So you want to show off by trying to beat us?"

 **Other Sniper:** "Please don't say anything that doesn't make sense, Senpai. I only want to use this random chance I got."

"Was it random…?"

 **Black Wolf:** "I see."

Did he?

He had to have.

This was someone who knew his former squad rather well.

If Murakami did not understand his words, then it would have been unlikely that anyone else would.

But he was not the only one.

"Yes. It's normal to think that way, Teru-kun. Don't let it get you down."

"...Seiji-san."

"Hm? Yeah, what is it?"

"Do you happen to know more about my former squad besides what I have told you?"

 **Black Wolf:** "…"

Yes, that was the response he had been expecting.

Murakami knew where he was going with this.

"Hm… Not particularly. As a matter of fact, I don't even know what that squad was called. You made sure to omit that when speaking about them. Even Shige-ko won't say who that was."

"Oh, she doesn't know either."

The surprised expression he got in return made him feel a bit bad for his captain.

"Well, it's not like she doesn't know. It's more like she knows the people, just not what happened while I was a part of that squad. You know them too."

"Yes, you told me that you had been on the same squad as Yukkun, Takato-san and Kanzaki. Rather, you had told me that you worked with them all before."

"That's right. But at the time, two fo them went by different names. And our entire squad was much different than what you see from ones like Kotowari Squad."

There was no tension in his body, yet he still took in a breath.

Unlike the quickness he took a breath, he slowly released it into the air.

He was taking this conversation seriously.

Both Seiji and Murakami knew that.

"Do you have time for a short story, Seiji-san?"

"It's normal to worry about that, so don't worry about it, Teru-kun. The other three don't seem to be in any particular rush, so it should be fine. Oh, but keep in mind that they are still rather unpredictable when it comes to timing."

He understood just how true that statement was.

Their remaining teammates had a tendency to have the best or the worst sense of timing, depending on how you looked at it.

Still, he wanted to take that risk.

"Senpai, are you okay with that? You can add in your commentary as well. Although, I'm not sure how much of this you know."

 **Black Wolf:** "I have no problems with that. If Kuruma-san calls me over then I'll just listen in on my way."

That was fair.

Suzunari-1 still needed to get ready for the same match after all.

This story would be for the sake of having his captain know more about the situation.

"It's more than normal to tell friends stories, Teru-kun. I would even say it's expected to share things like that with others. And likewise, the ones listening in have a responsibility to be patient and attentive. So…"

Seiji held out his hand as if to tell him to start.

"You can go on without any worry."

So after taking in and releasing another breath, Mitsuteru began.

"To start, the name of my former squad was Taiyōko Squad. And our captain was Taiyōko Kiyoshi-san."


	123. Taiyōko Squad

"To tell you the truth, before I joined, Kiyoshi-san wanted to have Senpai join his squad first. I'll admit to being jealous of that."

Meishō Seiji looked over to the computer sitting at their Operator's desk with Ariake Mitsuteru seated next to him.

He saw the screen turned on from when he had been over there a moment ago.

"That's also something normal to feel. Don't worry about it."

"You say that, but that's a bit difficult for me to do since Senpai is a good guy and I'm just being petty about it."

"Did you feel that way when Shige-ko and Shinichi joined before you?"

Mitsuteru lifted his shoulders at that.

"You have a troublesome personality, you know that? But anyway, there is a lot you don't know about everything. That is just how it is, Seiji-san."

 **Black Wolf:** "…"

"Are you going to ask me to wait to make my judgment until I do understand?"

"No, I'm not," cut in Mitsuteru. "Besides, you can still make your judgement since you at least know me well enough. If you don't understand before everything happens, then it's too late by the time you do. Then I'll really feel like a bad person."

"Are you talking to me here, or yourself?"

"Good question." Mitsuteru pulled his hood down over his eyes. "How about I finally start this old and unnecessary story?"

About…

"How those people left this ordinary person for a more hectic world filled with better things."

* * *

Arafune leaned against the Ninomiya Squad operating room's wall and raised his finger toward Inukai

"Listen," he said to gather the other boy's attention. "This might make for a good story and it might set the stage for something. You claim there is some major importance to your next match's opponents fighting each other. That sounds like an interesting historical suspense story, so I can use it like I do the radio while checking on the SS' manuscript."

"That's a good idea," said Inukai as he got up and opened a display window.

 **Inu:** "Do you want to hear about Taiyōko Squad too, Jinsei?"

Arafune raised an eyebrow at what he saw. It was not because of who Inukai had contacted. It was…

"When did you change your chat name?"

"Huh? Oh, just today. After a nice talk with Oshiro, I thought it would be better to have it as a part of my last new instead of my first name. That way he won't get jealous that other people refer to me like that."

"You mind if I write that down to get some points with the SS?"

"Go ahead. If Oshiro and I end up in a doujinshi made by Suzume-chan, we will know that it's good work that we can be happy with."

"Glad to know that love really has made you insane."

He began to write down a note as Inukai looked over to the display window.

 **Life:** "They do seem to have some kind of history, but are you sure it isn't a sad story that'll make me cry?"

 **TetsuG:** "They're still active as Border members, so they must have had a positive outlook by the end. Whatever happened to them, they still want to stay here with us."

Arafune smiled bitterly when he saw Inukai look up.

"That's my thanks for giving me some points where it's needed."

"Tetsu-chan, you're in such a good mood you feel like someone else entirely."

"Good. That's what happens when I get something good happening to me."

"Was it because of Suwa-san~?"

"Shut up."

"Fine, fine," said Inukai while raising his phone higher.

 **Inu:** "Um, okay. Let's talk about a mystery or slight oddity concerning Taiyōko Squad."

 **Life:** "You saying the guys are actually dickless?"

 **Inu:** "No, those guys definitely have dicks. As someone who has gone through similar struggles, there's something about their movement when they're hard that I recognize. …But that's not the point."

 **TetsuG:** "That would be a surprise though, you have to admit."

"I suppose," replied Inukai as the two dogs close to him propped themselves up in interest next to him.

 **Inu:** "This has to do with how they were even formed, the order in which it happened, so what even brought them together."

.

"Now," said Inukai as he scrolled through his display window.

All of this had been sent to Kimura as well.

She would provide information on the people with some connection to her former squad, especially when they had a connection to Yuki and Mei or were an important figure – and especially especially when they were from a period in Border's history that Akashi would invent weird fantasies about.

Ariake Mitsuteru fell into that category.

… _We don't have much time, so I need to get right to the point._

 **Inu:** "In all honesty, Kiyoshi and Fuji-san hit it off pretty well at first. Well, if you count yelling, cursing and unasked questions as 'pretty well'."

"That sounds awfully familiar."

Inukai wanted to shout "I knew you would say that!", but he could not stop the flush rising from his neck. He blushed far too easily when thinking about his own mistakes. Did he just have to get used to it? But…

 **Life:** "I remember the delinquent boy using me as a mace at times. That was kinda fun. But what kind of relationship did Kanzaki and Ariake have with those two?"

 **Inu:** "Well, at first, Kiyoshi had gotten Fuji-san, Kanzaki and Kimura onboard with making a squad."

 **TetsuG:** "Wow, so he was a player. So where did Ariake come in?"

 **Inu:** "Um, well, this is kind of a pain to explain, but he was still new to Border in general, joining properly at the same time as Kiyoshi and Kanzaki."

However, self records described what happened later.

 **Inu:** "When he had been rejected by Kō-kun, who had already joined the Suzunari Branch, he had told Ariake to get even better so that he could join his squad."

 **TetsuG:** "So he forced that decision onto Ariake in order to fill a spot that should have gone to Murakami, huh?"

 **Life:** "But why did he choose Ariake?"

 **Inu:** "I wasn't told anything specific about it. The only thing I knew was a passing comment from Hatohara… Uh, Mirai, that is. She had gotten close to them before Kiyoshi had even joined, it seems."

"But," said Inukai.

He had a thought about the current boy who held a different name. To put it to words…

 **Inu:** "The current 'Tsukiko Yuki' acts as if his former squad hadn't existed in the first place."

* * *

"Really, it was all a big pain in the rear," said Mitsuteru while seated on the sofa and eating a teacake that had been sitting there for a while now. "Kiyoshi-san was not my captain for too long. Probably for less time than I have been here."

"Yes, I was aware of that."

"You looked into it?" he asked without even looking over.

Seiji covered his mouth with a hand and smiled.

"Before even joining, I had been able to gather information because rumors easily spread."

"Then there's no point in hiding it. Think of this as verification from a contemporary."

Listen.

"All records say he had a squad of four.

"After that, he vanished. Rather, he died.

"But if we are including Kimura-senpai in that, he should not have had four members on his squad. A fifth one should have been down in the records."

 **"** Right, but after his death, most records would-…"

Another blank comment came from the black wolf in the chat.

"I'll get to that later," said Mitsuteru. "Now, you seem to think you know about the treatment of that squad, but I bet you didn't know this."

This being…

"Everyone was just using each other."

* * *

 **Inu:** "At the time, there was already a standard when it came to squads that was never mentioned but always implied. The two of you should remember something along those lines. That being you should look out for your squamates when fighting. I went back to look over some stuff after the incident with Kushikage-san and was able to view a ton of information about those guys. As well as remember some stuff."

He had learned something from tat.

 **Inu:** "Those guys, for the time, were absolute monsters…I think. I can't quite track down all the information, but the way they did things could be seen as a worse version of how Kotowari Squad does things without Hoshi-chan."

 **TetsuG:** "So you're saying that they only ever did things solo? When you bring it up, I do remember something like that going around at the time."

 **Inu:** "That's where things get tricky."

Inukai viewed the records as he spoke.

 **Inu:** "Fuji-san's name spread out first. And while she was building up a reputation with her Side Effect - something unknown to us at the time - Kiyoshi and Kanzaki started to gain some things to their names. …Ariake's time never came up."

 **Life:** "Cause he was lazy?"

 **Inu:** "Go have him kick your butt later, Jinsei. …Anyway, Ariake's only real accomplishment during that time was the fact that one could really remember him ever being on that squad to begin with. Although that never seemed to bother him."

 **TetsuG:** "So what was that overly average boy doing before he got noticed as 'Ariake Mitsuteru'?"

 **Inu:** "Well, from talk around the base at the time, I know that there was usually something on the battlefield that made those attack-heavy fighters start winning at a strange rate."

And…

 **Inu:** "That 'something' had turned out to be Ariake."

* * *

"That sounds like a complicated friendship. Or squad-member-ship…yes."

"I have to agree with you, but we thought we were making things simpler at the time. Those guys were good to me, so I saw them as proper upperclassmen. If anything, I was in charge of planning, supporting, and dragging them along. Kimura-senpai did help me at the time. The other three were more like warmongers, monsters, or…you know how you'll get those kinds of people who only go at their own pace at all times? That's what I mean."

"Oh, so something like my former agency with me."

If they heard any of that, it was certain that they would rush back to him and prostrate themselves in front of him.

"Well, they weren't quite so dramatic. But, anyway, they did feel like a team, even when trying to fight only by themselves and for themselves."

However…

"After Fuji-san had built up a reputation, Kiyoshi-san and Kanzaki-senpai did the same. Then Kimura-senpai had begun to go around to other squads for her own reasons. All of them were amazing and people I could look up to with minimal issues. Then again, that is also normal, isn't it? I mean, I also look up to you and Shige-ko. That was why it was fine when no one thought of what had supported them during that time."

"And that was you?"

"Right," confirmed Mitsuteru. "Although it was just them using this average boy who had nothing to his name. And I figured I might as well do something else after Shige-ko had suggested I join Border. It would make me a bit useful."

So while only really being a Border member in name only, he met up with these people and joined their squad.

All three of the females were well received by everyone and, by the time his captain had been better known, he had started to put less pressure and tension on him, making it a fairly comfortable life with them.

"Their position as a B-Rank squad was secured and, by the time they wanted to join the BRW, even I had learned how to do things better. I even ended up being mentored by a special someone. Anyway, they wanted to reach A-Rank, so I thought about returning to being a solo agent."

"Why didn't you?"

 **Black Wolf:** "Kiyoshi had told me about this part. Do you mind?"

"By all means, Senpai," Mitsuteru said with a shrug.

 **Black Wolf:** "That's simple enough. Mitsuteru had taken Kiyoshi out into the city and asked for help choosing a departure gift for everyone."

"A departure gift? Was that really necessary if you were just going to leave the squad."

Mitsuteru gave a bitter smile as he tossed his head back against the sofa.

 **Black Wolf:** "The thing was… Mitsuteru was only supposed to be in Mikado City for a bit. Once he had been scouted by Border he and his family had stayed in Mikado City for a whole year before he joined."

"Depending on how things went while I was a part of Border, we would either stay in the city or move back to our old home. The fact I'm here now should tell you enough."

"You were able to stay."

"That's right." He gave a weak thumbs up. "During that time I had been out with Kiyoshi-san, he asked me to continue working with them all if I had no real reason to return to that former home."

"He made a direct request?"

"Yeah. It was the first time he had ever done that, so I ran it by my parents."

Starting then, they had lived in peace.

He had never found out what the conditions for staying in Mikado City had been, but his parents had agreed to it regardless.

The rest of Taiyōko Squad had not been the type to let status or rank mess with them even if they wanted, so the days had passed relatively uneventfully.

But a certain time limit was approaching.

… _What could we even do?_

"Kiyoshi-san had tried to do everything in his power to prevent a certain person from returning to the city. The plan had been for him to speak with his parents in order to prevent that person from coming back and doing anything that could be viewed as drastic. It was thought that even they would benefit from it."

 **Black Wolf:** "It was a way from destroying his entire squad as people. That person would have done so much worse if she came in contact with any of you. After all, what happened with Senpai was…"

"Don't say it, Senpai. Even I don't want you to be in that kind of pain."

"Then this can be a lesson for the both of you. But what happened to that plan?"

You could figure that out from the end result.

"Without warning, everything fell apart."

* * *

 **Inu:** "The remaining parts that people can remember - even for someone like Kō-kun - is that Kiyoshi had gone to meet with his parents about something. At the time, they were trying to get in good with Kurosaki while disregarding Border for the time being. As you know, they were anti-Border, but only due to the way Border would not just hand out Triggers to just anyone. As long as the job was being done, they wouldn't go to extreme lengths to stop anything."

 **TetsuG:** "Why wouldn't they just try for a compromise? I thought they would at least try to get something for themselves to help. Actually, yeah, why did they never try to join Border themselves?"

 **Inu:** "You're asking too many questions about people were were much worse than the rest of us are. If Jinsei is the finical of stupidity, arrogance and unfairness, then these guys are the ones who laugh at him for just being a kid."

 **Life:** "That's freaking scary as hell! And they're the ones who raised our idiot ninja!?"

 **TetsuG:** "Wait… Inukai, how do you know that exactly?"

The harsh glare he got from Arafune only made him start to sweat in his heart.

 **Inu:** "Well… Because I had met them before. And not in a situation like Kō-kun either. It was in a terrible situation where there was only chaos and confusion. You see, that entire family has a bad habit of just being destructive when they try to help others. It's probably why they are good soldiers. Every time they try and do something for someone else, it's usually through a distorted and dangerous method. For example: say they wanted to end world hunger. The way they would go about that is by having everyone reach the point of starvation to have them realize that it's better to share and not waste food as opposed to just tossing out leftovers that are only a few hours old. That seems to have fallen off by the third child - Mukkun - but the two two children and the parents are like that. They truly do think they are doing something good, but I think that's just an excuse."

Arafune frowned at that.

… _Oh, nothing gets past him._

 _I should have known,_ thought Inukai while Arafune's face was illuminated by his own phone.

 **TetsuG:** "What do you mean t _hey truly think they are doing something good,_ but it was _an excuse_?"

 **Inu:** "Well, this is something that had to stay between us. Or rather, it's a special issue that is in some records but would be discredited as misinformation if you tried to spread it around."

 **TetsuG:** "Whether or not I send it to Misaki to draw is for me to decide."

 _Then this should be safe,_ decided Inukai.

"We know of the issue Yuki and Mei-san have with Kushikage-sas. In a similar vein, you can say that Kimura, Kanzaki and Ariake have issues with the parents."

 **TetsuG:** "What kind of issues are we talking about here?"

 **Inu:** "More or less the kind you would find with an overprotective brother threatening his sister's lover. What I'm basically getting at is that those parents quickly became harsh to the ones they viewed as bigger failures than the son they saw a failure."

In other words…

 **Inu:** "Everything happened all at the same time. Those parents had given their thoughts, that person had made it back, Kiyoshi was bak in a den of lions, and all of Taiyōko Squad would be caught up in it since they had that sort of connection."

 **Jinsei:** "But that was a shared connection using Border."

 **Inu:** "Connections can be viewed in a lot of different ways. Even if we have connections because of Border, there are also connections as schoolmates, age groups, or just because we know the same person. All of those connections only stacked on top of each other for that family."

 **Life:** "So what happens because of those connections?"

_I guess there's no holding back now. Yuki has been ignoring me since that morning, so I'll just tell them what I can._

**TetsuG:** "We should hurry along here. Besides the match coming up, if Akashi gets word of this, it'll only end terribly for all of us. So what all happened exactly?"

 **Inu:** "In basic terms. Everything bad that could happen, did happen. In order of events… Kiyoshi had arrived at his home; that person had made it back; Kurosaki had gone to see those parents; Kiyoshi had left, knowing that those parents would do nothing now. And after that… Well, Taiyōko Squad had their own incident. Kimura and Kanzaki were elsewhere at the time, but I got to see firsthand what caused one of the biggest incidents in Ninomiya-san's life."

"That was…"

 **Inu:** "The incident between Kiyoshi…Yuki and Ninomiya-san. And at the same time, the first instance of Rampage Dress showed up. The kicker that finished the day off, news of the Taiyōko parents' deaths came out. No one but the oldest daughter knew what happened."

* * *

"I still don't know why, but things changed so quickly." Mitsuteru thought back to when it happened. "At the time, it was a single day from the start. O had never really thought much about what was going to happen during the day and, when I heard that Kiyoshi-san was going to see his parents, I was just glad didn't have to mess with all that."

"Well, Have heard that that family didn't do much concerning the actual meters of Border, so why would you have thought much about them?"

"True enough," he agreed. "For that very reason, no one had actually bothered to go near that family unless it was absolutely necessary. But that had probably been why Kiyoshi-san felt safe going there. And why I figured it would be fine if he went without telling anyone else. Since that was the case, I suppose I should apologize to Senpai for being a terrible underclassman like that. I'm pretty average at everything, but those guys had turned me into a delinquent for a moment."

 **Black Wolf:** "Where do you think I started? Before that guy came along, I liked to think I was pretty good as a person. Recently, it feels like I'm really giving into some selfish demands."

"In any case…"

But what happened in there?

He only knew that it had resulted in a hardline stance on viewpoints that were never changed.

"My only raise is for everyone's decisiveness when it all came down to what they wanted."

"What do you mean?"

"Right. Rumor has it, they could be heard arguing in the house during the time and neither side gave an inch. A simple matter of not wanting to see a sister had caused that noise."

Thinking back now, he was glad Kiyoshi was the kind of person.

Because once it was all over, he had managed to follow him around a while and forget his own troubles.

But back before they knew what the future held, they had chosen a different path.

"When we departed for the morning, Kiyoshi-san called out to me and said this: 'I'm sorry for keeping you here for so long, Mitsuteru.'"

"Mitsuteru?"

"That's right. That was the first time he had called me by name, but I just accepted it without thinking too hard about it."

… _If I had thought about it, I could have figured it out. I was so stupid to leave it to an upperclassman like him._

"At the time, I laughed and told him he had nothing to apologize for and that it had been fun. You see, that conversation had led to Kiyoshi-san asking that I leave his squad. So if that was going to be the case, then I had to at least keep up with strange people like them, so I said this to Kiyoshi-san."

He had wanted to look like a matured underclassman in front of the boy he saw as a skilled captain. So…

"'I'll make sure to keep up in case you all need help again.'"

"Oh my."

"I will never forget the look on his face when I said that."

"Was he happy?"

"Not a chance."

Mitsuteru smiled bitterly. Kiyoshi had scratched his head with some red dusting his cheeks that could have been interpreted as hoy or resignation and he had beaten on Mitsuteru through his clothes. Over and over.

"He told me I was stupid. …But I already knew I was stupid, so I again _accepted it without thinking too hard about it_. And that was a mistake."

He had calmed Kiyoshi and gone back home without really knowing what any of it meant.

He remembered it being a long trip.

"By the time I woke up the next day, I had heard that a lot of things happened and that two certain people had been hospitalized. The names were all too familiar to me, so I made sure to skip school that day, as well as the festival going on, to go see them. When I finally got there and was told the girl had been sleeping, I went over to the boy's room. Once I got to him, he suddenly spoke to me."

He said…

"'How should I put this? You should probably stop addressing me the same way you had been until now.'"

 **Black Wolf:** "…Sorry about that."

_Please don't apologize, Senpai. That's just unfair._

There had been another boy there, but the look on his face had been a pained one.

Mitsuteru did not want to remember that boy for the time being.

 **Black Wolf:** "That is when Kiyoshi had 'died'."

It was.

"I had assumed he was just being weird again and wanted me to stop using an honorific with him. I remember that his expression had been much softer than I had ever seen, so it felt more like one of Kimura-senpai's jokes. I could see that others had already visited him and I said 'are you talking nonsense again?' with a sigh."

He had responded with a "no".

"I pointed out that I can't start disrespecting him just because he got hospitalized."

He had meant it as a bit of a cruel joke since he had always refused hospital visits and he knew his former captain hated the plain rooms. But…

"He had told me to call him by a completely unfamiliar name."

.

"––––––"

Should Seiji's silence have made him feel proud or made him laugh at himself.

He still did not really get it.

"He gave me a name to call him by when he had never cared about that stuff before. I don't get what my upperclassmen are thinking sometimes. But I did finally understand why Kiyoshi-san had wanted me to leave his squad. And why he had made sure to make the procedure happen quickly."

_You idiot. Stop looking down on yourself by assuming people are being considerate or cruel._

He had not thought much of anything about that idiocy. But…

"Well, I got really angry with him. But I had to calm down immediately since I was in a hospital and he was a patient."

 **Black Wolf:** "I don't think he has ever made that kind of expression again."

"And what happened after?"

 _You're enjoying this aren't you?_ he thought about Seiji's reaction.

"I made sure to get the situation down in my memory. Senpai had to explain it a few times for me since I only have an average memory. He was clearly leaving things out, but even I understood that he couldn't say everything."

With that, he had realized that everything connected to his former captain had been involved and had been why he had "died".

Kiyoshi had wanted to cut his connection with his entire squad.

He wanted to make sure that they would not be involved.

Kiyoshi had wanted to make sure that every bad connection he had could not possibly touch all of the good connections he had made with others.

"Of course it became hard to speak with him or the girl who had also started going by a different name after that."

Kimura and Kanzaki had been told as much as he had, but they had not tried anything afterwards. They seemed to accept it all to the best of their abilities and move on. Kimura had gotten involved with a nice person and became his Operator while Kanzaki had continued to gain points as a solo agent. He had not understood how they could do that so easily, but he chose to not think about it too hard instead. By that time he had decided to join Shigenaga in the squad she was a part of.

"But even that small time of figuring things out had come to an end."

"Ariake," Kimura had said when walking up to him. "I heard that 'Yuki' had gotten a new squad. They are all relatively new. I thought you would like to know."

It had been nice of her to tell him.

Those new members must have been having a rough time dealing with him.

"I should probably make sure he isn't causing trouble. Even if Fuji-san… No, she's 'Takato'-san now… Well, even if she is there, we all know how much of a handful he can be."

Upon finding him, he said…

"'Ariake, this is my squad.'"

"And what did you say in response?"

"I hate to say it, but I honestly don't remember."

That showed just how overwhelmed with emotion he had been.

Part of him was certain he had said something, but part of him was certain he had not.

And would he have even had the words to reply back then?

"I got to see firsthand how he was trying to get rid of the past. His name, the 'first squad', and how he called me. It was clear that he wanted nothing to do with things that had happened before he had 'died'."

He took a breath.

"And then those three showed me their true colors."

"You mean…?"

"Shortly after he had gone off, those three spoke to me. Well, two of them did. The third one hadn't even turned in my direction during that whole time."

The older girl had made some comments about him, but it felt more like she was playing with him. The second boy had been ready to fight him in a solo match, but clicked his tongue and turned away once he told him that he was a Sniper and that would not do.

"Apparently I had made a bad first impression with them, or they really thought so little of me."

 **Black Wolf:** "Those three… It won't make up for their behavior, but their respective situations were not the best so them acting out like that makes sense."

That was fine.

He did not need reassurance on the way he had been treated.

They had been underclassmen and the ones that his former captain had chosen as his next squad.

Still, it hit to think that ill-behaved underclassmen like them were who his former captain had chosen.

But he had no right to express any of that.

He could only stand by and accept it.

"Why is there so much you only understand after you lose something?"

_Dammit._

"I was so stupid to misunderstand what was going on with every around me. In a way, revealing my stupidity must have led Kiyoshi-san and Fuji-san to realize their considerate efforts were wasted on me. It's obvious now that starting over was the only way to properly get things done and escape what had happened."

They had really been thoughtful upperclassmen. But…

 **Black Wolf:** "There's more to the story than even that…"

Seiji's expression was something rare to see. A look of complete shock.

"Yeah. There's one last part. It's the reason for everything that's been going on with me recently."

Had he managed to catch up to those upperclassmen?

It was a bit late to be asking that, but he had to get the answer.

"I had heard that the new squad had disbanded."

He was disgusted with the small amount of joy he had felt at the time before squashing it down. And…

… _This is how I really felt._

"I started to resent those three even more. I felt disgusted by their behavior once I learned how they had been acting up afterwards."

Those three had taken a dangerous downward spiral simply because they did not have a team with him on it.

What had happened to the team before that? Where were all of those members now that they had been asked to step down from their positions on that forgotten squad?

_I really am stupid._

"I see… Teru-kun? You, who had seen him before his 'death' and after his 'death', feel like those three had no right to act the way they did. Especially since he was not 'dead' to them."

"Exactly." He stood up. "That's why I will be going all out in this next match. We have reached a point where we can finally face them. I know they have changed, but I want to see them for myself. What kind of people have they become after going through so little when compared to the rest of us? I want to find that out today."

He lowers his hood. When he looked over at the screen in the other room, he realized just how embarrassing a story he had told. However…

"They aren't the only reason I'm doing this. For at least a single moment, I want to see what my upperclassmen have to say about me now. The ones who will be watching…and the ones I will be fighting."

 **Black Wolf:** "That's not all, is it? There is one other person who you have a small grudge against."

That was right. One other person in this next match had also been on his mind when telling this story.

The regret from feeling this way would come once everything had been let out. Someone as average as him should have never felt anything as strongly as this, but all of the tension from the coming match had been too much for him to simply breath out.

"Yeah. There was one other upperclassman who played a part during that time. So I want to make sure that she was correct in her assessment of me."

He moved over to type some things on the computer in the other room.

And he took a breath.

Just as easily taking it in, he released that breath.

"Storytime is over, so it's time to face reality. …I will be properly focusing on this match once it starts, Seiji-san, Senpai. It's extremely selfish of me to do this, so I'll also be moving on no matter what the results are."

He could not see it due to being in a different room, but both of his upperclassmen smiled.

"That is a normal thing to do."


	124. Meishō Squad

Noise filled the hall as feet pounded on the floor and people took their seats.

All around the hall were different groups taking their spots in front of the large screen.

Different voices could be heard and sounds of bodies being hit rang out.

"Hey, hey, hey! What was that for!?"

"Did you seriously have to crossdress while we watch this!?"

"What are you talking about!? Suzume's in this match! I need to show my spirit for her!"

"There are a good amount of people here for this one."

"That's to be expected considering the ones involved."

"Whoo! We made it in time!"

"Let's just go find a seat already."

Sekai sighed as he looked at everyone who was coming into the hall.

The idiot crossdresser had noticed him and began to wave wildly.

Everyone around him turned to see who was waving at and received a glare from him. The only ones not affected by it had been the idiot crossdresser, Ōji Squad's Shooter and Senzai Squad's captain. Everyone else had quickly turned away.

He let out an irritated sigh while muttering "irritating" under his breath.

The noise all around him had done nothing to distract him from what was happening right next to him.

"It looks like we will be having a full hall this time."

"Hah. It's not even the last match of the season. These people are likely just here because of the people involved and the people commentating on it. Hah. It's actually pretty irritating. It feels like they are really expecting a lot from us."

"Considering who you two are, that makes sense. Maybe I should calm everyone down before we start though. I have been waiting to tell this joke, so it would-"

"Hah. Please don't do that. It would be irritating to try and get everyone back to the world of the living."

"You don't have to put it like that!"

Even with their voice bouncing back and forth between each other, the person in between him and Kimura remained quiet.

Since they had first entered the room, _No, before we even met up,_ Yuki had stayed quiet and kept his head down. Because of where was sitting, Sekai couldn't even see the look in his eyes because of the hair that was covering his right one.

_Well, it's not like I could sit to his left with Kimura needing to sit there. And sitting between the two of them would give him the perfect chance to escape._

Sekai let out a sigh while lifting his hand.

Out of pure reflex, he placed his hand atop Yuki's head.

Yuki turned to him with a bitter smile. His eyebrows lowered and his eyes moved towards the ground.

"It's fine, Sekai-san. I'm not going anywhere until this match is over."

"Ah. That wasn't my intent. …Sorry about that."

Kimura's gaze had been obvious, but he chose to ignore that for both of their sakes.

"Hah. So, letting the two of you know, I won't be able to fully speak for everyone in this match." Both younger members fully turned to him at this point. It was a good thing they were both so attentive. "I can speak about abilities and skill all I want, but I don't know a majority of these people well enough to tell if they are doing something out of character or not."

"That's fine. We can make up for whatever you miss."

"Right. Hah. But to make sure we do not mix ourselves up, we should probably go over who we best know and compare. That way we know who to leave it to."

"Oh, that sounds like a good idea."

Sekai was quick to catch the look in Kimura's eye.

_She's quick to catch on when it comes to the important things. That's good._

The three of them knew that this was not necessary, but none of them had rejected the idea. Knowing a person could help with things like these, but it was not strictly needed to give proper commentary on the way someone fought. So long as they understood how fights worked, there would be no need to know any of them personally.

And yet…

"Alright, here's the list of all participating members. I have included the Operators since they also play a part when it comes to fighting."

The quiet around the three of them had given him the time to type up this list.

At times like these he had been grateful for the technical advances Border had gone through. It made organizing and categorizing things much easier than they had been at the start.

**Masataka Ninomiya**

**Sumiharu Inukai**

**Shinnosuke Tsuji**

**Aki Hiyami**

**Takeshi Kotowari**

**Suzumebachi Misaki**

**Toby Awdry**

**Hoshi Taiyōko**

**Suzuka Nakagami**

**Tatsuya Kuruma**

**Kō Murakami**

**Taichi Betsuyaki**

**Yuka Kon**

**Seiji Meishō**

**Naki Shigenaga**

**Shinichi Asagi**

**Mitsuteru Ariake**

**Kanji Kenzaide**

_Takato still being swapped really lowers the possibilities for Kotowari Squad. But more than that…_

He looked over to see Yuki's eyes go a bit more dull while Kimura bit her lip looking through the list.

_The "fact" of her not being here ends up weighing on the people who understand the "reason"._

It was a harsh thought, but Sekai found himself lacking in enough reason to expression himself the way the other two were doing.

He was just not close enough to Mei to feel too bad for her at the moment.

Letting out another sigh, he began to slide his finger across the screen in front of him, crossing out names.

"Hah. Going down this list, the people I am best suited for are; Masataka, Inukai, Tatsuya, Kō, Shigenaga, and Kenzaide."

He crossed the other names off with his finger after sending a copy of the list to Yuki and Kimura.

 **WorTri:** "

**Masataka Ninomiya**

**Sumiharu Inukai**

**Tatsuya Kuruma**

**Kō Murakami**

**Naki Shigenaga**

**Kanji Kenzaide** "

Instead of a sigh, Sekai clicked his tongue at his own realization.

_I don't know Kotowari Squad too much._

It had not been because he didn't want to know them, _Okay, maybe a bit,_ but there had been no reason to do more than nod in their direction when they were nearby.

The noise that came with them was an irritation and his teammates had a better time with those kinds of people than he did. It was just a matter of differing personalities.

Akasora had tried to get him to properly meet them as his students, but that fell flat once the older man had seen his facial reaction to the idea. The sigh that had come after helped nothin.

Thinking about that stuff now made him think that it would have been better to meet them properly in the long run.

_Oh well. Nothing I can do about the past now._

He needed to focus on what was in front of him. And what that had been was…

 **Manager:** "Alright, I finished crossing the names off."

Sekai looked over to see what kind of reaction Yuki had to the list, but what he saw was something a bit unexpected.

Yuki had his list sorted out, yet he had yet to send it. The reason for that was his finger.

His pointer finger lightly hung over the screen and above a certain name.

Mitsuteru Ariake.

The conflict of picking the name or not was coming off very clearly to both him and Kimura.

He gave another sigh before looking at Kimura's list.

 **Manager:** "

**Aki Hiyami**

**Tatsuya Kuruma**

**Yuka Kon**

**Seiji Meishō**

**Mitsuteru Ariake"**

That was concerning.

Kimura knew one less person than he did, and a good amount of people she knew had been the same as him. That would make this entire thing even more pointless than it already was.

It meant that the two of them would be able to speak about those people from two different viewpoints, but that left the remaining people with only their general viewpoints to go off of.

Sekai refused to regret his choice here, but he would admit that he had gone about this poorly. The idea had not been thought out enough in the few seconds it had come to mind.

Wanting for at least some hope, he looked over to see that Yuki had sent his list. His eyes were closed as if he didn't want to think about his answer.

Even so, he and Kimura looked down at the list that had been sent to them.

What they saw was something that made Sekai realize what kind of situation they were now in.

 **White Fox:** "

**Masataka Ninomiya**

**Sumiharu Inukai**

**Takeshi Kotowari**

**Suzumebachi Misaki**

**Toby Awdry**

**Hoshi Taiyōko**

**Suzuka Nakagami**

**Tatsuya Kuruma**

**Kō Murakami**

**Taichi Betsuyaki**

**Yuka Kon**

**Seiji Meishō** "

Yuki's list had included most of the people there, But..

_Shit._

The majority of the names had been on his list.

Under normal circumstances that would have been perfect. Having at least one person know the majority of the fighters personally meant that they could go in-depth on the fighters, but in this case it only made a long list of people Yuki could only few as "needed" to his "unneeded".

And…

"You really didn't do it."

Kimura's words pierced through his thoughts.

.

Kimura could feel her anger begin to boil up.

The idiot fox next to her had not acknowledged that he knew one of their former teammates.

He had rejected the boy.

All members of the former Taiyōko Squad knew how the past had affected both boys. It was clear what both thought about the incidents that had occurred.

And that was why she was mad.

The idiot fox next to her had shown his want to remove the past from before he had become "Yuki". In doing so, he had begun to reject the people who had not been able to maintain a connection with him after that.

 _No, he didn't stick to people who_ already had a connection. _This guy had just_ created new connections with those same people.

He had chosen the people to remake connections with. She and Kanzaki had been two of those people, but even they were kept at a distance when compared to some others.

But out of all the people from his former connections, there had been a single person who he had never tried to remake a connection with.

_Ariake…_

The one name he had not put in his list.

_He had spoken to Ariake a few times, but not enough that I would call it a "connection". It had always been in passing and it was usually a greeting at best. The way the original members of Kotowari Squad had acted at that time did nothing to help the situation._

There had been too many times when those three had scared others off due to their dependence on their captain.

Some had found that kind behavior dangerous, but Kimura had only ever seen it as pitiful. It felt much more like they had been using that idiot fox as a lifeline instead of someone to look out for. The fact that it had not been one-sided only made her that much more disgusted by the situation.

But now things had changed.

The idiot fox had left those three.

Their behavior after that had been even worse. That had been the point where Kimura had been prepared to go to the directors concerning the issue.

_If not for the situation with the sponsors, the Yagura Branch barely being made, and certain people telling me to wait, I would have done so right away. If not making sure that they were kicked out of Border, I would have at least brought things to a suspension of service._

But…

_Now I'm glad I was stopped from doing that._

Kotowari Squad was still a hassle when they were around, but they had begun to change.

Instead of being dependent on the idiot fox or their Operator, they had started to spread themselves out and make their own connections. Their behaviors had improved and their skill in combat had been something to note for her.

So that just left the idiot fox next to her.

_He hasn't changed at all since becoming a new person._

Her former captain had been troublesome, annoying, loud, rash, stubborn, and overall someone who cared little for what others said.

But he knew who he was.

This idiot fox did not.

She had no clue as to what was really going on with him, but his behavior only seemed to worsen as time went on.

_He's different from those three in that sense._

And it was not in a good way.

"Hah…"

Letting out a sigh of her own, Kimura looked at the time and saw that the match would be starting soon.

The amount of people walking in had decreased to single digits and only the noise of the people sitting down could be heard.

Looking over at the other two, she put her headset on.

"Let's get started."

.

 **Manager:** "Welcome to Round 6 of the B-Rank Wars. I will be your commentator today. I am Hogo Squad's Operator, Kimura Kawaguchi. A pleasure. Helping me in this is Hikigane Squad Captain Hikigane Sekai and Yagura Branch Representative Tsukiko Yuki."

 **WorTri:** "Yo. …Hah"

"Stop sighing, Sekai! Smile! Smile! Yeah, smile with you man boobs pushed up like- Ow! What was that for, Arafune!?"

_Shut up, you idiot. And stop going out in public dressed like that!_

It was probably better than having him run around in the nude, but all felt like the same thing with that guy.

 **White Fox:** "Thanks for having me."

Kimura was quick to turn her head.

The tone Yuki had taken was a shock since it was far different from what his expression had shown up until now.

When she turned to look at his face, she grounded her teeth at what she saw.

Yuki had a smile on his face, his eyes were closed, and the relaxed position he took was nothing like what they had seen.

He was faking everything for this.

_This guy…!_

She remembered that she had a job to do. So she began again.

 **Manager:** "This match will be having Ninomiya Squad, Kotowari Squad, Suzunari-1, and Meishō Squad fighting. Because of their low position here, Meishō Squad had been given the right to pick the map and setting for this match. And the map they had chosen is Cityscape E."

 **WorTri:** "A lot of tall buildings and narrow paths. They clearly had their Snipers in mind when picking this map."

 **White Fox:** "A map like this really is good for Snipers, but that isn't the only reason they would pick it. It also forces long-range fighters like Ninomiya and Takeshi to think about how they want to move. As Gunners, Kuruma-san and Seijin can shift between long-range and close range. More than that, their guns work better in narrow spaces than if they were Shooters."

 **Manager:** "That's right. Shooters would have to make more precise actions and have to aim better in a narrow space than a Gunner would."

 **White Fox:** "Exactly."

 **WorTri:** "The Attackers and All-Rounders have less of an issue, but they also need to watch how they fight. If they aren't careful, they can be sniped or take an onslaught from shots with little room to escape."

Kimura was well aware that both boys were leaving something out. She herself saw it as well, but chose to not mention it.

_It's better to keep some things a secret until the time is right. Besides, I'm already worried that we may have given too much away._

Suzaku Squad's Secretary would have had a field day at this point and being like that was something she did not want to end up doing.

So with that resolve now in her, she spoke up again.

 **Manager:** "There will now be five minutes before the combatants are teleported in. That's right, I will tell-e you all when they are teleported in."

The entire room froze and became quiet.

 **Manager:** "Oh, come on! That was a good one! Right, you two!?"

She looked to the side to see Yuki's expression of pure betrayal and Sekai's entire body facing the other direction.

_You guys suck!_

* * *

"Do you think they had us in mind when picking the map?"

Inukai looked over to his teammates as he spoke.

They had all recovered relatively quickly from Kimura's joke and were now focusing on what they had been told.

"I can imagine that being the case. But they could have been thinking of limiting Kotowari."

"True. Take-chan's lasers become more of a hindrance than people would think. His aiming takes longer since he has to keep those orbs closer to his body."

He waved his hand through the air without a care.

Tsuji nodded from next to Hiyami. Their plans had already been thought through and only minor touches would be made due to the map.

For the most part what Inukai and Tsuji would need to do was the same.

As for Ninomiya…

"Of course we go against these people…"

Tsuji and Hiyami looked to each other. Across from them, Inukai gave his captain a knowing look.

The conversation he had had before this match was still fresh in his mind.

"Are you saying they'll be giving us more trouble than we thought, Ninomiya-san?"

Ninomiya turned to him with an unimpressed expression.

Inukai smiled at the face his captain made.

"Of course not. I'm only saying that because I already know how much trouble they all are."

"I have actually been wondering something about that."

"Hm? What's that, Hiyami-chan?"

"Meishō Squad has always been in the mid tier and never went higher than the middle of that. Even if they just barely made it, how did they manage to make it to the top tier?"

"That would be because of Teru-kun."

The confused look reminded him that Oshiro would be watching this match with Taku and Krümel.

_I really wish I could hear them cheering me on._

At least he would be congratulated on doing well once the match was over.

Getting back to the question from Hiyami, he gave a hum while turning to the ceiling.

"Looking back at the logs, it wouldn't be obvious that it was him. After all, he's a completely normal person."

But.

"But that's not necessarily a bad thing. He's the kind of guy who doesn't stand out, so it makes his teammates stand out even more. As a Sniper, that's actually a really good thing for them, but a dangerous thing for their opponent."

"Then he should be taken out quickly?"

"Well, you see, that becomes difficult _for people like us_."

"Inukai-senpai, please stop being vague like that."

A sigh came from the other side of the room.

Ninomiya faced away from them, but it was clear his arms were crossed.

"Inukai, just hurry up and tell them. It's about to start."

"Right, right, my bad. Sorry about that."

_But Oshiro loves it when I play around with him. I guess that just proves that Oshiro is cuter than even Tsuji-chan._

He chuckled at the thought of playing with Oshiro and the two dogs.

But they were still waiting for him to explain.

So he did.

"What I mean is that he's so average and ordinary that strong people like us tend to forget he even exists."

* * *

"What exactly would be the limit for 'strong enough'?"

Hoshi held her hands in front of herself as she listened to Nakagami questioning their captain.

Takeshi had just told them something important about one of their opponents. It sounded like it would be trouble to go against, but it also brought a sense of unknown sadness to her.

A sense of sympathy came for her opponent.

"I'm not sure. That's just something I heard when asking around. Nasu-san has said that she forgets that he was even in the match while Kakizaki-san said that he was acutely aware of Ariake-senpai once he had been noticed."

"In that case, we can determine that anyone at Nasu's level or higher is likely not to focus on him at all. Then anyone at Kakizaki's level or lower will notice him better. In that case, you guys should be able to keep track of him."

"Heh heh heh. What exactly is that supposed to mean, replacement Operator?"

"Gah! That one actually hurt me! You hit right in the core of a person's being, you know that!?"

"I honestly try."

Even with the usual antics of her squad, Hoshi couldn't find it in her to smile.

Something felt off.

Knowing that, at a certain level, one of their opponents would be more trouble than they thought was good for planning, but she felt nothing good from it. There was only a cold feeling in her chest when she thought about it.

_Is this because of what I had seen with Minoru-senpai?_

But she had resolved herself to helping him. He was not even around for this match, so that made even less sense.

So then what was it?

Why did she feel so sad when she needed to prepare for a fight.

"Hoshi, something wrong?"

Feeling a hand touch her shoulder, she jumped.

Toby looked at her in worry as the noise from the others continued. It was clear that they were listening though.

She put on a fake smile and waved her hands in front of herself.

It was obvious, but that was all she could do.

"N-nothing in particular. I just… I have a bad feeling about all of this."

"Huh? About what? If you're worried about being useful, then you're fine. With the plan Take thought up, you won't have anything to worry about. I'll be right there to make sure none of them can reach you."

"U-um… Right. Of course. I do believe in you, Toby-kun. It's just…"

Just what?

What words could she use to describe what she was feeling now?

Everything was only made worse since she knew only a few of the people they would be fighting.

Murakami had been like another older brother to her since they met, and Inukai was a good upperclassman who took care of her when he could. But she had no trouble in her resolve of fighting them. It would have been an insult to not fight them with everything she had.

But what about everyone else?

She had met some of them before, but never interacted much with them.

This was even more true for Meishō Squad.

She had never spoken to any of their members. So it made no sense as to why she felt a sad pain when her teammates brought up one of their Snipers.

"Hah. Look, just try your best, okay? I don't mean to say this as an insult, but I think you're weak enough to where you would notice Mitsuteru once we've found him."

It was hard to feel insulted when it was the truth.

She was well aware that she was weak. It was a simple truth that she took to readily.

But a sad pain hit her again at the mention of that Sniper.

"That means he's likely not to hit you since you will be more cautious of him. And if he becomes trouble, we know we can rely on you to take him out. At that post, we'll make sure you reach him and no one reaches you. Got it?"

Hoshi could only give a weak nod.

All of the words Toby was saying and the tone he was using had been meant to calm her down. Instead, they only added more sadness to her.

But she wouldn't let them know. Their match was about to begin after all.

_And Kiyo-nii is watching them again here._

* * *

"So everyone understands what they need to do, right?"

The members of Suzunari-1 nodded towards their captain.

Among the four of them, Taichi raised his hand while bouncing on his feet.

"Yeah, Taichi? Is there something you need me to go over again?"

"No, I'm good on what I need to do. But I thought of something."

"What did you think of?"

Murakami found himself also interested in what Taichi had to say.

Suzunari-1 had gone over everything they needed to do in a review here, but the more intricate parts had been decided on earlier than this. Taichi himself had a part for himself separate from what he and Kuruma would be doing.

"Wouldn't it be better to use this to our advantage? We could use the chance to take some points after Ariake-senpai fires, or something!"

Oh.

"That wouldn't work, Taichi."

Murakami took a step forward.

The topic had already started to make him feel a bit heavier. It was a reminder of the story he had heard before this match.

A story he was all too familiar with.

"Mitsuteru is like Tonooka. Do you know what that means?"

Of course he did. He had seen how Tonooka did things as another Sniper.

So.

"He will wait for the right moment to fire. And when that happens, getting the timing right would be an issue. And besides that, there are also his teammates."

That's right. He wasn't alone.

He now had a squad who would not leave him like his former one.

"He's a support type of Sniper. Once he fires, his teammates will use that chance to strike. And remember, Taichi, he isn't the only Sniper on their squad."

That's right.

Mitsuteru being strong against the strong and weak against the weak was troublesome, but he was far from being the only issue here. Ninomiya Squad was full of strong people while Kotowari Squad's unpredictability in the worst situations made it hard to move around freely. The rest of Meishō Squad also knew their way around the kinds of maps. There was nothing particularly special about that one boy.

"So we're leaving him up to you. You can do it, right?"

Comments from earlier in the day came back to mind, but he pushed those away. They had been accidents that he had gotten over easily enough.

Murakami covered the few steps between them while raising his hand.

Taichi flinched back from the reminder of what had happened before.

The rest laughed as Murakami gave light pats to his teammate's head. They got a pout in return for their laughter, only making them laugh more.

"Right! Are we all set?"

"Yes!"

* * *

Mitsuteru released a breath.

The tension left his body with that breath.

"Don't worry, Tsu, we've got this!"

He felt a harsh pat on his back and turned to smile weakly at his teammate.

The smaller boy smiled up to him as if nothing was wrong.

"Hey, Asagi, he's trying to get rid of his tension, not get any more! Stop beating up the guy! And Mitsuteru, tell him to stop when he does that crap!"

"Oh, come on, Nana. Lighten up a bit. We finally made it to the top tier, so just relax and enjoy the view from the top."

"I don't want to hear that from you! You've been even jumpier this season than the last, so that left Mitsuteru to support the captain and myself!"

"But he likes doing that kind of stuff! I'm just letting him do what he likes, is all! Isn't that right, Tsu!?"

Three more pats hit him on his back.

He was tossed forward with the last one and was caught by an extended arm.

Looking over, he saw that it had been Seiji who had caught him.

His captain smiled down at him while helping to straighten himself up.

"Alright, you two. We need to focus on the match now. We had let Shinichi-kun pick the map, but we let Teru-kun choose the settings. He is more familiar with some of the opponents than we are, so he will be having a more active role here. It's going to be our job to make sure his plans work out as best as they can. For that, we need to keep from bickering during the fight itself."

"Always charismatic, aren't you, Captain?"

"What's with that look, Shigeko?"

"Nothing," the girl called "Shigeko" gave a harsh look while pushing up her glasses. "But it feels like you're leaving command to someone else again. For the most part it had been to me or Kenzaide, which had been fine enough, but you are aware that Mitsuteru is an idiot who collects tension for a hobby."

"Was that really necessary to say, Shigeko…?"

Mitsuteru flinched back at the sharp look he got from her.

They may have been friends since he moved to Mikado City, but she was still a frightening person who he did not want to get mad.

She was just too scary.

He wanted to ease her worries by telling her that it had been his idea in the first place, but he was stopped by a hum.

Looking over, he saw Seiji with his arms crossed and a knowing smile on his lips.

That look had made him want to take back what he had said before.

_No. If this is where I'm going to leave all my grudges behind, I need to keep this up until the end._

Once this match was over, he would let go of those bad times that stuck with him.

It was normal to hold grudges, but even he knew that holding them for this long was not a good thing. That's why…

_No matter if we win or lose, I'll let it all go._

Then maybe all the tension built up in him would also disappear.

"Hm. That does sound unreasonable, doesn't it? But Shigeko, does that mean you don't believe that Teru-kun can manage this?"

"Wh-what!? No! I just mean to say that-"

"Hahaha. My bad. I didn't mean to question your friendship or anything. I only meant that…"

He gave a quick look to Mitsuteru.

"There's a solid reason it has to be Teru-kun this time. So, just this once, can you overlook this choice?"

The look "Shigeko" gave made it hard to figure out what she had been thinking. The shaded glasses she wore helped nothing in figuring that out either.

So after a few moments, Mitsuteru moved forward to tap her shoulder.

Before he could do so, she let out a breath of her own. A sigh. One he had heard many times before, usually when she had resolved herself to dealing with any issues pertaining to him.

With a flick of her wrist, he hand came up to pinch his nose as hard as she could.

"Fine. I'll overlook it this time. But this just means that I'm going to be grouping up with you as soon as possible, got it? You're probably thinking of something stupid, so I need to be there to keep you in line. I won't take no for an answer, so deal with it."

He smiled.

Of course she would say that.

Once she released this nose, he nodded his head.

"Yeah. I'll be relying on you."

* * *

 **Manager:** "The combatants will now be teleported in. This will begin Round 6 of the B-Rank Wars."

 **WorTri:** "Hah. Now let's see what Everyone's come up with."

The large screen in front of them quickly split what they would be seeing as members of each squad began appearing.

To the sides of the screen, pictures were shown with names next to them. In total there were 14 pictures and names.

It was finally starting.

 **Manager:** "With all of the combatants now on the map, we can start. The map chosen by Meishō Squad is Cityscape E. And the setting…"

It was pitch black.

 **Manager:** "…A moonless night."

* * *

**Seiji Meishō**

Gunner, Captain

18 Years Old

Born May 22

Lepus, Blood Type AB+

Height: 5'9"

Likes: Beaches, shrimp, fashion

**Mitsuteru Ariake**

Sniper

17 Years Old

Born June 13

Lepus, Blood Type AB

Height: 5'6"

Likes: Homemade food, Eating with friends, Light drinks

**Naki Shigenaga**

All-Rounder

17 Years Old

Born November 19

Chronos, Blood Type A

Height: 5'2"

Likes: Gymnastics, Indian curry, Relaxing

**Shinichi Asagi**

Sniper

16 Years Old

Born November 29

Cetacea, Blood Type B-

Height: 5'2"

Likes: Messing with others, Investigating things, Learning secrets, Cats

**Kanji Kenzaide**

Operator

16 Years Old

Born May 5

Felis, Blood Type B

Height: 5'5"

Likes: Entertainment, Festivals, Peppermint


	125. Mitsuteru Ariake

_A moonless night, huh?_

Ninomiya glared beyond the towering buildings and into the pitch black of the night.

There was no light from the moon and the stars seemed to also abandon that sad sky.

"Is this supposed to be poetic? Or…are they mocking me here?"

No, that had not been it.

"I see…"

That dark sky had not been abandoned by the lights of a night sky.

The true night sky simply did not want to show itself.

It was obvious when taking in the surroundings.

While the sky remained dark, the lights from buildings were turned off and a slight breeze could be felt running through the narrow paths around him.

"A faceless moon…and a wind coming in from all directions…this is…"

A recreation of history.

The night he would never forget, no matter how much he tried.

"That boy… I don't know how he found out about the specifics, but he better not think that it will affect me here. This terrible history recreation would only do something like that if that faker himself was here. …No, that faker has nothing to do with that. The one who had been involved that time was that delinquent. He's the one that I…"

Ninomiya shook his head with a sigh.

_Maybe this really is affecting me after all._

This history recreation should have had nothing in it to make him think. But only if there had been nothing else going on.

Besides this match, there had been other things for Ninomiya to think about. No matter if he tried to focus, what needed to come first had been switching constantly the last few days.

This was no different.

 **Inu:** "This is kind of harsh, isn't it…?"

_Between this, that faker, and Minoru… Harsh is a light way of putting it._

Inukai understood that as much as he did.

 **Nino:** "We have to put our emotions on the matter aside. Remember that this history recreation can't be complete since that faker isn't here. That is something that they can't recreate."

 **Inu:** "Right. But, Ninomiya-san…"

"What is it?" he asked while beginning to move forward.

The setting was not complete and the people who had originally been there could not appear.

This was no longer that time and everything had moved on from that point.

Still…

 **Inu:** "Try not to think about it too much, okay?"

Ninomiya stopped walking.

Those words played back in his mind a second and third time.

He gave a huff.

_It's too late not to think about that._

* * *

**White Fox:** "That's really harsh…"

 **Manager:** "What do you mean?"

The way Yuki shook his head at the question had been a bit concerning, but the looks from the ones in the seats under them were even worse.

_Don't give me those looks! You don't know what he's talking about either!_

**WorTri:** "It has to do with there being no moon, right? Hah. Really now…"

 **White Fox:** "There is a moon there."

Kimura shared the same look as Sekai when they both turned to Yuki.

The boy looked at the screen with dulled eyes and a bitter smile. Even so, he kept up the persona he had started this off with.

 **White Fox:** "It's a faceless moon. Or I guess we can just call it a new moon. You wouldn't be able to see it unless you were there, but it's clear what it was after seeing Ninomiya's expression while looking up."

 **Manger:** "So what exactly does that mean?"

"It means that guy really wants to dig into us," Yuki said while looking at the screen.

Everyone had begun to move and most of them put Bagworm on to hide themselves from Radar.

With the way they had all started moving, it seemed like regrouping was the strategy here. But in particular…

 **WorTri:** "Well, looking passed the moon thing, we can see exactly what each squad is thinking. Hah. Or at least how they want to go about starting this match."

 **Manager:** "Yeah. Each squad is beginning to move towards each other. Regrouping when there are so many people means that the ones to do it first will have the advantage."

 **WorTri:** "Hah. It looks like each squad has specific people they want to reach too. Take Suzunari-1 and Kotowari Squad for example. Tatsuya and Kō spawned a good distance away from each other, but are moving in the direction of each other. The same applies to Kotowari Squad. Misaki is closer to Taiyōko, but they don't seem to be moving towards each other. Hah. If anything, it looks like Taiyōko is trying to reach Awdry."

 **Manager:** "So each squad as a certain grouping they plan on using here."

 **WorTri:** "Seems to be that way."

 **Manager:** "Then that means Ninomiya Squad has the advantage here. Agent Inukai and Agent Tsuji were transported in relatively close to each other. The only one in the way would be Captain Meishō."

 **White Fox:** "Kimura, look at it as a whole instead of each person individually."

She raised an eyebrow at the comment.

There was no need to look over since she knew that Sekai understood what Yuki had meant. So instead of asking about his words, she did as was advised and focused less on each member and instead to the map as a whole.

What she saw was…

 **Manager:** "The Snipers!"

 **White Fox:** "That's right. It's true that Ninomiya Squad has the advantage if they regroup quickly, but there is something lacking for them to have the full advantage of this situation."

And that was…

 **White Fox:** "Besides Suzu, the Snipers have free rein in this situation. While she looks to be regrouping with Take, the same doesn't seem to apply with the others."

 **WorTri:** "Hah. So while everyone is regrouping, those remaining three Snipers can attack or keep people from regrouping. That is currently the true danger they currently provide."

 **Manager:** "I see."

_But wait._

There was something she knew.

 **Manager:** "That makes it strange on Meishō Squad's part. Agent Asagi does tend to do things himself, but Agent Ariake is a pure support. This entire season he has only supported his teammates and has never once gone on the offensive himself."

She could hear a bitter laugh form next to her.

Yuki knew this just as well as she did, but he still gave that laugh.

There was something she was missing.

 **White Fox:** "That just shows how much effort he's putting here. And how much he wants to let everything out…"

* * *

The first attack.

Reactions to an attack were key in battles and Ninomiya thought nothing when he reacted to this.

The shot had been visible from the direction it came from. A concentrated Shield had been enough to block the attack without even a crack appearing in his defense.

The sound of the hit and the speed at which the bullet came at him told him that someone had fired Ibis. They would not be able to fire in rapid succession then.

Radar showed that there had not been anyone in that direction for a few seconds already.

_Bagworm._

It was the only answer.

_Asagi and Miskai are too obvious when firing, so it can't be them. As for the other two…_

Taichi's attacks never seemed to hit that hard. The noise that came was different and held a different sort of power to it than if the Suzunari Sniper had fired.

That only left one option left.

_So he is aiming for me._

_He rushed things too much though. He should have let himself be forgotten before attacking. This only adds to his presence and makes it hard to forget him._

_Still…_

He knew that.

Ariake was aware of his lack of presence when going against strong opponents. So why had he attacked right away?

If it had been one of the weaker opponents then there would have been no issues, but attacking Ninomiya only brought caution.

"…"

Ninomiya faced the direction the shot had come from while turning on Bagworm. The seconds had gone by and the forgotten boy would have moved by now.

Firing in that direction would be pointless.

Instead of focusing on the boy who had missed his chance, he began to move to the locations of the ones who had no chance to begin with.

With the faker being one of the people commentating on his match, he had wanted to end things as quickly as possible.

This location would mean nothing for him in this fight as if left it soon.

* * *

Mitsuteru let out a sigh as he shifted Ibis.

Unlike the breaths that released tension, his sigh had been one of relief.

His attack had been blocked by Ninomiya, but no return fire had come afterwards.

_He probably thinks I had a quick escape._

It was normal for a Sniper to run after having taken a shot, expected even. That was only more obvious when the shot itself had missed or was blocked. Since they would have been found out by their opponents it meant they would need to escape as soon as possible.

That much had been drilled into him by his mentors.

But…

_If the opponent is also aware of that, they might not find it in themselves to give chance or attack back. Things like "They're already gone" or "Would I even hit them?" can come up and stop them from going after the attacker. So in certain situations, it's better to actually stay in place after firing a shot._

His mentors had said nothing of the sort to him before. This had been his own way of thinking about the matter.

With the black Bagworm over his body and the black coloring of his uniform, it would be visually impossible to find him in this faceless moon night. Radar would be of no help either, so it would have to be by other means that he would be found out.

Like the flash from his attack.

Since this was not training and was required, the flash from the muzzle of Ibis shone in the darkened city. It was only for a moment, but it would have been clear to see by anyone within the area.

But that was fine. After all…

_Which do you react to? The flash would gain your attention, and then you would realize that the shot is coming. That's why it can actually be helpful to fire blanks at times._

_Oh, but I guess I shouldn't do that too much. I'm way too average to be able to escape quickly or put up a strong defense. Shigeko might get mad at me if I start making this a habit._

The idea had come to him originally, but he had made sure to speak with his mentors on the matter. At the time, they had raised an eyebrow at his words while muttering something to themselves.

Once they seemed to reach a conclusion within themselves, they had grabbed him by the shoulders, shook a bit, then smashed their heads into his forehead.

"Are you an idiot!? Why waste a good shot on something like a blank! Just make sure you hit your target and you won't have a problem!"

"Yeah, yeah. You're pretty much average, and the only thing going for you is that you grow in an average way. Trying something like gaining attention will only lead to you getting beaten down easily."

"Hey, that was pretty harsh wasn't it?"

"And? You know that it's the truth. Seriously, just look at him. Don't tell me you don't want to beat him up at times just because you want to be that average?"

"I mean…"

They had been terrible people who never took in what he had said. Each time he tried to bring something up they would only flick him on the forehead and say that his way of thinking was "too average".

But that had only been two of them.

The third mentor he had was completely different.

She had always had something else to say on those kinds of matters.

"They are just that way. Terrible people tend to gather together so they can make a terrible community. Me? Oh, yes, I am pretty terrible too. But still, they let me hang out with them, go to karaoke with them, or just relax with them as they tear into someone else. It's a rather nice experience once you aren't the one getting torn into."

She was a lost cause right from the start.

Still, she thought nothing bad about them or him. When told specially what they had said to him, her only response was,

"That's good then. Being average is nice since it means you have less to worry about. Unlike the rest of us, you can just take your time to aim and take your time to fire. If you start coming up with those average ideas then that's even better. With your situation, you have more room to try things out since strong people tend to forget about you while fighting."

What had he said during that time again?

He always hated forgetting things, so this being the second thing that felt important that he forgot made his stomach churn. If he could not remember what he had said those two times then it felt like he had not responded at all and had been rude those two times.

Yet he still remembered what she had said to him. Even the bitter explosion and far-off look in her eyes were etched into his memory.

"You don't need to worry, Ariake-kun. I'm so useless and weak that I could never forget about you."

They had been words meant to stab into herself, but they had warmed him up on the inside.

No matter what she had thought of herself, he was aware of her skills. There had been no doubt in his mind that she was "strong". Strong enough that she would forget about him too.

But that had never happened.

Like she had said, she had never gotten about him no matter what happened. That strong person had always had him in her sights during training matches while her teammates would always forget about him.

The reminder put a smile to his face.

_The fact Seiji-san and the others are fine with my average plans does help my self-esteem. Even if Shigeko yells at me afterwards and Shinichi-kun ends up going off to do his own thing…_

_Wait, how much of my plans do we actually follow through with?_

This time felt like it would be different, but he had little hope that it would work out at all.

_Oh well. I guess I'll just have to see how things work out here._

* * *

"What was that…?"

Hoshi stopped in her objective of regrouping with Toby.

A noise had filled the nighttime air and a flash was seen off in the distance.

It had not even been ten minutes since the match started and people were already attacking each other.

_No, that makes sense. Stop being so clueless, Hoshi!_

This was a match between squads who were in the top tier. Their plans, their power, their movements, and everything else about them would be on a level that she could only ever hope to reach. Compared to her lackluster abilities they were all monsters who could easily destroy the area.

Meanwhile the only thing going for her were some incomplete Triggers and her team.

The fact that someone had already started their attack only meant that she was behind and had to catch up to everyone.

It was not something that could be done easily and in a short amount of time, but that had never been what she aimed for. Only gong as far as she could push herself had been her limit. That had been what got her through the tough fights she had already been a part of.

This time would be no different.

And yet…

_What is this feeling?_

The strange sadness she had felt before the match started had not left her. At the sight of the flash and the sound that rang out, that sadness only seemed to grow. It felt as if those things were desperate attempts to gain someone's attention.

But who?

And who was trying so hard for that attention?

The answers to those two questions would not suddenly come to her, she knew that, so she instead focused on her task.

_We are to fight as pairs in this match. Takeshi-kun and Suzume-senpai will be a distance focused pair while Toby-kun and myself will focus on the close-range and mid-range fighters. Although we must stay away from Kō-onii-san and Ninomiya-san. If we come across either one of them, we are to try and escape as best we can._

To her, it sounded fine. Both of them were well within the top five of their respective positions. Trying to fight either one of them without proper preparations would only lead to a pointless loss.

_Even if Kō-onii-san and I are close, we are both aware that holding back simply because of that is unacceptable. We both must give our all, no matter who the opponents are._

She had learned self discipline from him as well as many other things that she found to be useful. He had always been an amazing person to her and someone she could happily look up to. If she did not respond to his resolve here then it would mean she was not as close to him as she had thought.

And by fleeing from him when she knew she couldn't win she would show that she understood the danger he posed and her own inability to keep up with that.

It was not something bad and not something she felt bad about.

Because of that resolve, it gave her time to realize some other things about her surroundings and her opponents.

When the conversation of "strong" and "weak" came up before, she truly felt her own weakness begin to take shape within her.

Unlike uselessness, weakness was something that was natural and that all people had. It was something that told someone what they were lacking and what they needed. Whether a person followed through and did something about that weakness was up to them.

Uselessness was something that a person felt towards themselves. There was nothing natural about it as each person would determine whether they were useful or not. It had been something that Hoshi refused to believe herself to be and something her teammates had made sure not to believe in when it came to her.

This match had a heavier feeling to her than the other ones, but those lighter matches had shown her the clear differences between uselessness and weaknesses. Those people she had seen fight knew which ones they were and worked to get over those things or give up because they could not advance.

But she had a feeling this heavy match would open her eyes to even more of that.

There had been nothing to show her that for sure, but her own instincts were telling her that she would see both weakness and uselessness within this match.

And the reason for that was clear to her now.

_Everything is frozen._

She could feel her feet touch the ground, feel the slightly growing breeze through the narrow paths, hear the sound of a rising shot, and had seen the flash from said shot. In a literal sense, everything was moving rather quickly and with purpose.

But it all felt different when viewing it all conceptually. It felt like the world around her had changed and froze them all in a single moment of history. A situation where moving forward would be impossible unless something happened to force it to move.

It all felt like she was stuck within a hopeless and ephemeral dream.

Who was having this dream was still up in the air, but she was sure of one thing.

_They have gone through so much…_

.

As she ran, Hoshi thought,

_They want to escape from something. Staying here would only continue to make them feel terrible._

She looked up to see the extremely vague outline of the moon.

_Ah… That is so sad. A moon that refuses to shine for anyone. It is meant to illuminate the nighttime with the stars, but even those seem to have abandoned this terrible dream._

Was it conceited of her to think of the stars at a time like this?

She had not been sure, so she only continued to think to herself.

_This frozen night… This terrible dream… Just how sad is the person who thought of all of this? Even the buildings make it feel so sad. They have nothing to reflect, nothing that can shine off of them._

It reminded her of something.

A group of people who could not fully express themselves in the world. Ones who tried to move alongside the word and its own ways, but found themselves being unable to do that.

The world had just been too small for them all.

Only the last one of them had managed to find her footing in this world.

Others had been against her, to an extent, but it had been far worse for those other people. Unlike her, they had felt as if the world itself was against them. Like they were outsiders in a place where no one seemed to be outsiders.

Those people had also been stuck in their own terrible dream.

_A few things have changed, but they still remain there. And I can do nothing for them…_

Lowering her head, she began to clear her mind.

Her feelings on trivial matters needed to be pushed aside so that she could focus.

Her partner for this match was Toby. The boy would wait for her, she knew that, but holding him back like that would mean that she never had a place next to him to begin with.

So it was not the time to think like she had been for so long now.

This terrible dream - this frozen night - it would need to be finished quickly so that the person who had created it could leave it behind.

She ran.

As she ran, she heard another sound ring out and saw another flash in the distance.

A third one soon followed and a message came through from Takeshi.

 **Colors:** "Everyone, try to stay out of sight from those shots."

* * *

 **White Fox:** "That's pretty scary."

Yuki's bitter smile continued to play on his lips.

Kimura was starting to get annoyed with it, but held back from saying anything. As long as he continued his commentary, she would not say anything about him.

So instead of bringing up his appearance, she instead followed up on his comment with a question of her own.

 **Manager:** "What is?"

 **WorTri:** "The way Ariake is messing with everyone."

_What does he mean?_

She had been watching the entire time and had only seen the combatants regrouping and Mitsuteru firing three times.

The first time had been an attack against Ninomiya, that one had failed miserably.

The next two shots had done no damage to the area. The noise and flash from Ibis was obvious, but the attack had not been aimed at anyone and had not even destroyed the ground.

So it made no sense as thaw he was messing with people right now.

 **White Fox:** "When it comes to battles, something that is extremely important is following the flow of the battle. And just as important as that is keeping track of the battle _field_."

 **Manager:** "Now that you mention it, Captain Ninomiya seems to be looking around a bit and is moving rather slowly right now."

 **WorTri:** "Yeah. Keeping track of each fighter is important, but so is keeping track of what the battlefield itself is doing. Hah. Things can change quickly and every action made leads to a new outcome. Topography changes in the land, air, and surroundings can make or break an entire plan."

 **Manager:** "So what is Ariake doing that makes it scary?"

Yuki's smile fell while Sekai let out another sigh.

 **White Fox:** "He's actively showing off his location. Um, I have some Sniper training, but I think Sekai-san would be better for this explanation than me."

 **WorTri:** "You just throw me under the bus like that…"

 _Yeah, those people tend to do that,_ she thought while nodding at the words. People not used to that sort of sudden attack would normally find themselves at a loss for words.

This only showed how experienced Sekai was with this sort of thing.

 **WorTri:** "Hah. A Sniper who gives his location and can't move in time is a Sniper who is already dead. The flash and the sound that comes from firing can only be ignored if the attack connects with the target or you have some immediate support with you. In this case, Ariake is using that sort of disadvantage to his own advantage. Hah. He's actively showing off his location to let his opponents know where the danger is. But they can't do anything about it since it would mean attracting attention to themselves. Even the Shooters and Gunners are out of luck here since their shots can be followed back by the lines they trace in the air."

 **Manager:** "And the other Snipers are too afraid to give themselves away the same way he is doing now…"

 **WorTri:** "Exactly. Ariake is using the common knowledge that the strong have when it comes to battles to make sure he can't be touched. _He's accurately controlling the strong._ Hah. As irritating as it is, I would probably end up getting sucked into that sort of thing too. I become too aware of my surroundings in that kind of situation, so this must be hell for Masataka and Kō."

 **Manager:** "Is there a way to counter this sort of thing?"

 **White Fox:** "There is one solid counter. The problem is that she would have to switch from the regrouping tactic."

 **Manager:** "'She'? So it's a person and not an action?"

 **White Fox:** "That's right. …Suzu."

.

Yuki felt himself smile a bit as he began to speak.

 **White Fox:** "Suzu's Side Effect isn't something that only works on people or anything with a conscience. _It's anything that can change._ So that includes battlefields. Everything begins to have a rhythm once they start constantly moving. Battlefields are places of constant moving, so she is able to understand a battlefield's Rhythm as time goes on. So no matter if they're using wind, sound, light, or movement, she will be able to see it all and properly react."

 **Manager:** "But, like you had said, she would need to stop regrouping with her teammates in order to fix this situation by taking out Ariake."

 **White Fox:** "Right."

Kotowari Squad's plan was obvious, but it was also an effective one that was simple and easy to enact.

Under normal circumstances, that squad would have gone their own ways to fight who they wanted. Seeing them do something like this made him start to swell with some pride.

_They have grown up. If just a bit._

Teamwork had never been something they were particularly keen on back when he had been their captain. The most they would do was support him or have him support them.

Each one of them had relied on him and never on each other. It had always been bad in large-scale battles.

It had been embarrassing in its own right as well, but he overlooked it easily enough. They were only lost children who he found comfort in him and Mei. Putting up with all of that had only been natural for the two of them.

As time went on it became more and more clear that they had built up their own ideas on him and became too attached to him.

But now…

_They are trying to rely on each other. Hoshi being there may have played a part, but they had made that choice for themselves._

They were no longer relying on him. Those three were now trying to rely on each other while incorporating Hoshi into that.

He had started to view them as something that he should begin to strive for. A place where he could rely on others without worry or fear of being quickly rejected.

But that would never work.

A strong bitterness filled his heart as he thought about his own situation.

_At this point I really will just be fading away. No reason to prolong anything by using them as an excuse to feel needed._

There was no reason to think about himself anymore. This was a match for his former team now, so that would be what he focused on for the time being.

This was now something only for them.

* * *

It was starting to make sense.

When Hoshi had brought it up earlier, it sounded a bit strange, but now it made complete sense.

The sky was lonely, the wind had a strange feeling to it, the hollow shots that rang out, the faded light from the attack; all of it created a depressing rhythm. It felt like someone was trying to say something to those who were around, but could not get anything out.

The entire situation had made even her feel like something was wrong.

"Who else honestly feels this way…?"

Suzume looked into the frozen night air.

Night vision had been turned on for them once they realized there were no lights on within the city. Seeing everything became easier until the faded flashes started to appear. At that point, Suzume had to look away so as not to be blinded.

That had likely been the reason those hollow blanks had been fired in the first place.

"What are they trying to express here? If they want a distraction, that is honestly fine. But this amount of effort into everything feels too much like an expression of feelings instead of a simple plan to get on the rest of us."

 **Colors:** "Is everything okay, Senpai? You stopped moving."

 **Honest Sister:** "Heh heh heh. No need to worry too much, foolish captain. I am only trying to decide on some things."

 **Colors:** "Those three shots, you mean."

_Very perceptive, Take._

Reaching that conclusion would have been easy for anyone to reach since those had been the first things to happen in this match. It was even more obvious when thinking about how she had been able to see everything.

From her spot atop one of the many tall buildings, she brushed her hand through her hair.

The hair that came off her head began to fall before being picked up by the wind and pushed away from the building.

 **Honest Sister:** "That's right. Do you want me to go after them and take them out, or do you honestly want me to continue making my way over to you?'

Pushing her hand back through her hair, she repeated the process and tossed some more hair into the air.

This time, instead of it being lightly pushed away form her, the hair was forcibly moved forward as if keeping the hair away from her.

She narrowed her eyes as what had just happened.

 **Colors:** "For the time being, just stick to the plan. Pairing up makes it easier for us to take on the more difficult fighters."

 **Honest Sister:** "Hah. Fine. I'll stick to the plan. Oh, but I do have something to tell all of you."

Toby and Hoshi gave indications that they were also listening to her words.

The calm breeze she had been feeling for some time now became slightly harsher. The force she felt coming from it had made her change her positioning of her feet as she took a leap to the next building.

This was not a change in any one person, rather, it was a change to the battlefield as a whole.

 **Honest Sister:** "All of you, be careful when crossing the narrow paths."

* * *

"Wind?"

"That's right. Suzu-chan was checking the wind just now."

"But why? It just looks like there's a small breeze going through. Yeah, that can change things for Snipers, but she should be able to accommodate for that."

Satori gave a hum while crossing his arms.

Sitting to his right were a line of girls while to his left were some boys. In front and behind him were other Border members who were there to watch the match. It seemed that everyone had come to an agreement to stay close so they could discuss what they were seeing. The only ones who seemed to make their own group in another area were those terrible upperclassmen who were already making snide remarks at two of the three commentators.

_I'm really glad they aren't over here. I don't think I would be able to take any hits while talking about Suzu-chan._

Those terrible upperclassmen would eat him alive if he even tried that over near them.

Well, it wasn't like the group he currently was with had been any better. They just knew that they had their own people that he could make of them for.

But that was neither here nor there, he thought. Right now was to go over what Suzume had just done.

"Yeah, she can do that easily enough. But she probably wasn't doing that for her own sake." She would have no reason to do it twice to check if that was the case. "The setting for this match probably has more to it than we can see right now. Just look at what they said about the moon. We all thought that there wasn't a moon at all, but it was just hiding."

"So what do you think Suzu-nee figured out? If it has to do with the wind, does that mean it will get worse or will it get better?"

"Narrow spaces like that are good for us Snipers, those tall buildings adding even more, but wind makes things more tricky with those kinds of things. Do you get it, Akane-chan?"

"Hm… Oh! So you're saying that the wind will move through those narrow spaces!?"

She was quick to figure that out.

Before he had a chance to agree with her, someone spoke it.

"It is like what we had tried against Tamakoma and Suzunari. The difference here is that the settings were placed so the wind would not be a constant. At least from the look of things."

He had thought that Nasu being here would cause her problems, but she had waved him off to ease his worries. Like the sick boy above them, she had used her Trigger to be here now.

It still worried him and a few others, but they all seemed to agree that it was fine for her to be here.

"You understand what it felt like to fire in that constantly strong wind, right?"

"Yeah! You really had to fix yourself in place or else you would be sent flying! We even had the rain, which made it even more difficult because of how slippery it was!"

"Well they don't have rain there, but if I am right, it might be even worse than that."

That's right. She was also well acquainted with how Suzume did things.

She also understood that there was a reason for the other girl's actions.

"Akane-chan, you know how it feels to snipe in that sort of situation. Meanwhile, for us Shooters, areas like this are actually a bit difficult to fight in. Oh, well… In my case maybe not. Eri-chan, have you reached the point where it isn't much of an issue."

"Eh? Gek. That one was rather harsh, Nasu…"

"I was only asking a question."

Satori felt a slight shiver run down his spine.

They're starting to catch up to those terrible upperclassmen alright.

"Those narrow paths mean that you can't just attack as you please. The tall buildings prevent you from firing over them all. It is more like a maze with overwhelming height. So if you add wind into those narrow spaces, what do you think will happen when you need to fight in those narrow spaces?"

"You will be blown back?"

"Or forward," Nasu smiled. "But the point is that even the wind can play a large part in this match. The fact that Suzume-chan was checking it just now proves it. If it wasn't going to be a bother then she would have not stopped at all."

"Oh! I get it!"

 **Still Young Girl:** "Ko ko ko. To be that young and foolish. Just what kind of show are you watching, I wonder?"

Every single one of them jumped as the sudden text from an unknown person appeared.

Satori quickly online to message Suzaku about what they were seeing.

 **Umi:** "About that… Mogami-san asked for some access to our transmissions. The same goes for Kobayashi as a whole, Kurosaki, and Shiraishi. We kind of had to agree on that much. I think we went over that during our meetings with them, but I can't really remember right now."

 **Still Young Girl:** "Oh? Does that Arashiyama Squad boy not want me here? But it was Akane who invited me in the first place."

All attention went to the red haired girl.

From the corner of his eyes, Satori could even see the three commentators staring down at them.

_Crap! Kimura-senpai and Yuki-san are judging us! They definitely are! But what I'm really worried about here is how Hikigane-san is staring at us! Is he going to murder us!? Is he going to make sure we can't be found!?_

The B-Rank Captain had started giving them all a full force glare that dared them to say anything about what they had just heard.

It was terrifying.

"Ha ha ha… G-good job there, Hiura."

"Y-yeah. H-having some so important listening could be a good thing!"

"'Could be'? Idiot! You're supposed to say, 'That's perfect! We wouldn't want anything else!' Do you want to die that badly!?"

The only ones who seemed to be unaffected by everything going on right now were the rest of Nasu Squad and a few people above and below them.

When a laugh reached his ear he turned back to see Nasu with a hand over her mouth and Kumagai giving a sigh as she rubbed her forehead.

"It is very nice to see you making friends like that, Akane-chan."

"Yoshiko-san has been nice ever since I went over to Kobayashi!"

"Oh? I would like to personally thank her for that some time then."

 **Still Young Girl:** "Is that your captain, Akane?"

"Yup! Nasu-senpai and Kumagai-senpai ar ebt here with me!"

 **Still Young Girl:** "I would like to meet them both at some point. From what you told me, they seem like very good girls."

"Likewise. We have also heard some nice things about you, Mogami-san. Isn't that right, Kuma-chan?"

"R-Rei! Please don't bring me into this! I just want to watch the match!"

 **Still Young Girl:** "Ko ko ko. How truly wonderful it is to be young and foolish. You must be Kumagai then. Well, in that case, carry on. You likely have someone you want to see in that match you are watching. I wouldn't want to interrupt you on that."

The way Kumagai jumped at the comment and furiously turned her head only made Satori feel for the girl. Even without those terrible upperclassmen nearby, there had been someone to call her out and take a shot at her.

And it had been a direct hit.

Wanting to leave that dangerous conversation, he also turned back to the screen.

With the knowledge that Yoshiko would be listening in on their conversation, he felt the need to organize his thoughts and speak properly now. The consequences may end up being terrible otherwise.

* * *

Kuruma had been surprised by so many things within the first few minutes that the match started. There had been some hollow sounds and flashes, but nothing that sounded like they had hit.

The entire night sky had been empty so it made things hard to see without the night vision. But that same night vision had caused those flashes to momentarily blind him. It had come form nowhere and there was no way to pinpoint where it had come from.

But…

_We're the first ones to regroup._

The ones without Bagworm in their slots were visible on Radar, so he could see that they had not seemed to connect with one of their squad members yet. Finding out if the others had managed to regroup yet was difficult to tell while they had Bagworm on, but there had been no obvious moves by them, meaning they could not have found each other yet.

So it was only natural to believe that he had managed to reach his squad members before the rest of them as Murakami came into view down the street.

Along the many narrow paths, roads led the ways like a maze throughout the city. Each narrow path felt like a dangerous shortcut, so the main roads had been the best way to regroup for the time being.

It seemed to work out well enough as there did not seem to be anyone else nearby.

"Kō! It looks like we managed to get to each other before any of the others could."

"On my way I managed to catch glimpses of some others." Murakami lifted his hand and pointed in three directions, all of which had been along the path he had taken. "Asagi was rooftop hopping over in that direction. The north has Takeshi and Inukai though. None of them managed to find me and I didn't engage any of them."

"Right. Good job. Kon-chan, can you mark those down for us?"

 **Mi-Kon:** "Already done. Oh, and we got a sudden message as you guys got transported in. I just checked it."

"A message? Who is it from?"

It must have been a delayed one otherwise they would have been told beforehand.

 **Mi-Kon:** "Apparently it is from Kurosaki. Their CEO had sent one that really made me scared. A followup one sent by their Saitou Tonbo-san saying that they were rooting for us in this match."

"Kurosaki is watching!?"

That was just another surprising thing that he would have to deal with.

After their meeting with the sponsors, Kurosaki had started sending his family some messages to deepen the bonds between the two of them. After being told the full circumstances and that Kuruma's family was sponsoring the Suzunari Branch, Kuroskai had begun to put some more of their money into the branch as well.

It came as a shock to them when Nagao Kanetsugu came through the door, spouting some stuff about love, camaraderie, and how he was on business for Kurosaki Shin. And like a moth to the flame, Taichi had run right into his back, causing the two of them to hit the ground with a rough tumble.

Kon had made sure to give the boy an earful right after making sure they were fine.

_But I guess it was to be expected that Nagao-san took an immediate liking to Taichi. Those two really did become friends quickly._

The fact that there was someone else who caused a bit too much noise for Kon's liking had been concerning.

It had taken some nice words and sweets to calm the girl down. If not for Murakami knowing what to do after so long, he was sure that she would have blown up at the two of them.

"We should thank them once this match is over. But for now…"

"Yeah."

Something needed to be done.

The sign on their Radars were telling them that someone had caught up to them.

"We worked hard to get this new formation right. Are you ready, Kō?"

The black wolf said nothing as he raised his arm.

They both knew the answer to that question already. This fight, unlike the ones before, would not be the same for them.

This would be where they tested themselves against the top tier.

"They're here!"

A wind blew through one of the narrow paths in front of them. The body that came after that wind slid to a stop.

The girl with glasses and a sharp expression turned to them while lifting the rifle in her grasp.

"Shigenaga, engaging."

She fired.


	126. Naki Shigenaga

The shots fired from the rifle were followed by Shooter-like shots. The space behind the sunglasses girl had been filled with green lights at the same time she had fired her rifle.

The black wolf was the first to respond to the attack.

"Volley shots!"

He lifted the Raygust in his hand to shield both himself and Kuruma.

The shots fired had crashed not the defense as his captain removed his Bagworm. A new rifle appeared in his hands.

None of them wasted time in attacking and countering.

The black wolf shifted his feet so that he would be in front of his captain without getting in his way.

Kuruma fired a double-rifle attack as the volley of shots crashed into the Raygust.

In response to the attack, the sunglasses girl twisted her body to turn in the direction she had come from. Towards that narrow space.

But she did not leave their sights.

The sunglasses girl stopped just before the edge of the narrow space and began anew.

With a push of her feet and a hop to her step, she rushed the black wolf and his captain while firing her own rifle. Asteroid shots came in from above and collided with the rifle-fired ones.

The distance would normally have been easily crossed in seconds, but the shots coming from both sides made it difficult to move along the road. If the fight entered one of the narrow spaces then it would have been an automatic loss for her.

Still…

"Don't make light of me!"

The sunglasses girl forced her way through the barrage of gunfire.

Even with the spaces between shots being too small to move through, she pushed on forward.

The black wolf narrowed his eyes at the action. This sunglasses girl was willing to take some hits in order to reach them.

Then he saw it.

Shields.

Each time a shot would manage to scrap her, a small shield would appear to cover up the hit area.

With the area being covered, trion would not be able to leak out. Even the smallest amount of trion loss could result in a loss against strong opponents, so this was actually amazing to see firsthand.

But…

"She is using more trion creating those shields than she is by taking those hits."

The black wolf could figure out the amount of trion loss for each outcome. It would be minuscule, but creating shields, no matter how small, would result in more trion being used than lost.

And yet this sunglasses girl still moved forward.

She had clear resolve in her eyes as she inched closer towards them.

But all of that resolve was meaningless if she could not reach them.

"Kuruma-senpai, let's move ba-"

Without any sort of warning, the black wolf made a snap decision to move backwards.

The reason became obvious as something hit the ground. The attack smashed the ground and made a crack into the concrete.

"Ibis."

.

 **Daybreak:** "Sorry about that, Shigeko."

 **Shige-ko:** "Just make sure it actually hits next time."

 **Daybreak:** "Will do."

Shigenaga clicked her tongue while moving forward.

Murakami's battle intuition was something amazing for him to realize that the attack had been coming even while moving backwards.

Still, she took the chance to advance.

_That idiot. Where does he get off thinking that he can start this fight without telling me anything. I'll need to beat him later on._

It had been on her mind ever since they found out who they would be fighting.

_He really is an idiot. I thought he was the one who said he's too average to feel anything major towards other people!_

She made a careful stomp on the ground to push herself forward.

Using some sideways momentum, she blocked the incoming shots with some of her own.

Whenever some of the shots would manage to graze her, a small shield would appear to cover the wound.

The action had not been done by her or even Mitsuteru. It had been by Asagi who was still following through with their plan.

_He understands that there's something else going on here too, huh._

So far, everything was going just as their teammate had predicated.

The flashes of light throughout the dark area would cause a problem for anyone who was not using night vision, but it would also cause problems for those who were using it too. The only way to counteract the sudden flashes of blinding lights would have been to get the right ratio of light to dark.

Since they had been the ones to plan for this, Shigenaga had no problems with the flashes of light that filled the road.

She would move forward, rely on her teammates, and charge through everything else in order to obtain victory here.

_No, no just here. Everywhere. People hate losing as it is, but I hate losing at times like these._

So.

_I'll open a path to victory!_

After all, she was not here for herself anymore.

This fight had been brought about because her friend had forced it into place.

The same friend who was an average, everyday boy with nothing going for him.

If he was going to put so much effort during this season of the B-Rank Wars then she would constantly put herself on the line for him. There would be no regrets about it and she would never hold herself up because of it.

Her friend wanted victory, so she would grant him that.

That was why she only felt determination when faced against the black wolf and his captain.

Her body felt like it was moving on autopilot. Every movement was an action that had been engraved into her upon joining Border.

After all…

_I joined in order to protect his average and everyday life!_

Shigenaga felt her anger start to boil out into her actions.

The forceful way she threw her body was unlike her, yet at the same time it was exactly something she would do.

 **Daybreak:** "Did I get you mad? Sorry about that."

_Don't apologize, you idiot! That only gets me more mad!_

The black wolf reacted to her forceful movements with snapping ones that stopped her from reaching his captain.

"Keh!"

The Raygust in his hand pushed her back before her shots could hit either one of them.

_Let me through!_

These two were not ones who lived in the same word as her friend.

_I guess Kuruma-san is closer to it, but Murakami was pushed away by them. That just means I need to try even harder._

Because…

_I should show him that he can still live in that world!_

That ordinary world with ordinary people.

The same one her friend lived in.

The one she had tried and failed to protect.

_He was too easily swayed! Who the hell says, "Sure. I mean, it would be a good after school activity" when asked why they don't join Border!?_

The conversation had been like a normal one between classmates. Both people involved were only speaking to each other because it was simply what classmates did.

There had been nothing wrong with it for them.

But the same never applied to her.

_I can't ever understand things like that…_

_._

There was never a place for her in that kind of world. A world where everything could be black and white and all worries had to be about trivial things that could be solved by a few minutes of thought.

She had found that world to always be out of reach without thinking about what could be in it.

It was boring anyway.

The people who lived in that world could only raise people like her up without caring about how others felt.

They only had to go about their daily lives while listening to instructions whenever a Gate opened.

Most saw Border agents as some sort of heroes who needed to be put on pedestals and taken off when they failed.

Conversations with them had no real meaning, and options of different matters always changed. No one ever seemed to stick to their word like she and a few others did.

The actions done by those people were all easy to read. Each one of them moved with no urgency or want to reach a place.

Every single one of them were ordinary.

Sometimes there would be people with something special to them, but it was only special in that ordinary world.

Someone like her, someone who could only live in that world of fighting, could never hope to reach the people in that ordinary world. It would have been similar to asking Neptune to move closer to the Sun - an impossibility.

"You're really good at moving around, Shigenaga."

Or that was what she had thought.

"Hey, are you coming or not!?"

"Yeah, yeah, give me a second here! …Sorry, I have to go. But I actually want to talk to you about some things later, okay?"

One of those ordinary people - "Maybe a bit _too_ ordinary", she would later mutter to herself - had gone up to her so compliment her. People had done that to her before, so there was nothing new about that.

No, what had been new was the way he spoke to her.

The boy had gone up to her like she was nothing special, complimented her, had been told his friends would be leaving him behind, turned to her, told her he wanted to talk some more, and finished it by walking away like she had littler importance when compared to everyone else.

When she had brought it up with some others, they had laughed at her. Some of them had been making fun of her, so she punched them in the face.

The ones who had taken her seriously had been nice enough to explain that it was just something that people did naturally. It was nothing new, exciting, or thought provoking.

It was ordinary.

So when that ordinary boy had gone up to hearth next day, she gave into her curiosity and followed him along.

Everyone around them seemed to either ignore them or begin whispering.

A quick glare in their direction quickly changed that.

Once they had reached a more secluded area, the boy had sat down while looking over at her with a smile.

The only thought she had had been, _I actually forgot who I had been following there for a minute. This guy really doesn't have much of a presence, does he?_

Regardless, she had taken a seat a good distance away from him.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?"

Getting right to the point here would mean she could finish this discussion sooner.

"How are you doing today?"

She had given an unimpressed looked at the question.

A question like that felt like a waste of time. But she still answered it.

"I am fine enough, I guess."

"That's good."

That ordinary boy had nodded his head while looking out into the distance.

A silence had fallen over them.

Shigenaga had felt her irritation rise, but held it down.

She began again.

"Why do you want to know?"

"Hm? Oh, I was just curious."

"Curious about what?"

"About how you were doing."

"Why does that matter?"

"Aren't you the one who asked me about why I was curious?"

"But what's so important about it!? You don't just ask how someone is without having a good reason!"

"Is that so…? But me and some of the other guys always ask that. Although that just turns into a weird conversation at times and Nire-chan usually joins us. That girl is loud, but she's actually pretty funny too. Oh, but then Miwa gets dragged in and we get yelled at."

What just happened?

Shigenaga knew from a basic understanding of conversations that this boy had changed the topic to an explanation on what he did with others in his class.

He had sort of answered her question while going into unimportant details that she did not care about.

"Anyways," he said. "I heard you're pretty smart. And I've seen you do some crazy things while on the track."

This was it.

This ordinary boy wanted something from her and had led up to it.

 _He didn't really wait too long though,_ she thought bitterly.

She was surprised at how long she had wanted that unimportant conversation to go on.

But now she had to face this head-on.

"Yes. I get good grades, but am more of an athletic type."

"Yeah, that was the kind of feeling I got from you. Hahaha. Good to know I was right."

Another silence came.

He had not said that he wanted anything.

This could have just been him being curious again, but that just made no sense to her.

After all…

"Why does that matter!?"

"Well, doesn't everyone feel good when they find out they are right about something?"

He had done it again.

"Oh, but I guess when you're right about something bad then it actually sucks, doesn't it? Yeah, like when you know that the market runs out of your favorite snacks and they won't restock until the weekend." He had said that with his own bitter expression, but it had been for a completely different reason than her own. "But it's pretty funny when you make a guess after betting with your friends, then you find out that you were right. That's right, I still need to get my money from Nire! She better pay up or I'll have to complain to Miwa and Miura!"

"…"

"I guess in your case it's less impactful though. You seem like the type who doesn't get many things wrong," he had said with a shrug. "Ah, but judging a book by its cover is kind of messed up. So I was wrong there. Heh heh. I got to use a cool sentence there. Alright, that's at least two 'cool points' for me today!"

What?

The ordinary boy was making no sense. Everything coming from him felt like it connected while also being so disconnected that it confused her.

So with a start…

"Why does that matter!? Why are you asking me these simple questions!? What do you want from me!? Stop changing the subjects and answer me properly!"

She could not just sit there and be played with by the boy. Someone who had no presence, seemed like an airhead, and couldn't even reach her if in a fight.

It was insulting and she wanted nothing more to hit him.

Instead, her fists remained at her side as she glared down at him.

And his response to her anger?

"Hahaha."

A laugh.

"Sorry, I'm not laughing at you. It's just that… I guess this really does show me how much more reliable you are than someone like me."

His words and the laugh that had come before them did not connect.

The laugh was genuine, but the words had a bitter feeling to them.

Once again, this boy had confused her with little effort.

"I heard that Border agents were crazy people who had some sort of justice complex. But when I look at Miura, Miwa and Nire, I don't see that at all. I mean, Nire is crazy in her own right, but not like how I heard what Border was like."

"Border has been around for roughly two years now. How do you not know about its members?"

"About that… I just recently moved here. I guess I was scouted, but it was more like someone recommended joining Border. I kinda just thought it wouldn't really hurt, so I brought it up with my parents."

"So you moved to Mikado City because of a suggestion…"

"More-or-less. My parents weren't really onboard with me wanting to join Border, so we made an agreement that we would live here for a year before deciding on what to do."

"So you won't be entering this year."

"Yeah. But I'm fine with that. I would want to familiarize myself with the city first, but take my time doing it. Besides, I don't need to be in Border to meet people like you and those other two."

All anger had started to drain from her body as the conversation went on.

He handout answered her anger-filled questions and changed the topic again, but this time it felt different. Everything he was saying got her thinking about his situation and how he had wanted to wait before entering her world.

Unlike her, who had to make snap decisions and follow through with them, he was taking his time on making his choices while incorporating his family and his own feelings into it.

She had finally caught a true glimpse at the world she could not enter.

It was still out of her reach, but she could at least look at it from afar and witness as the ordinary boy lived happily in that world.

"Oh yeah. Haha. Guess we never did properly introduce ourselves, did we?"

She started at that.

Even with everything going on, she should have known that introductions should come before all else.

"Shigenaga Naki. Class 1-B."

"Nice to meet you, Shigenaga. I'm Ariake Mitsuteru from Class 1-D. I would like to be your friend, so please take care of me."

.

_That guy doesn't need this kind of thing on his mind._

The rest of them had no clue as to what was going on, but they would still follow through.

_Our captain seems to have an understanding though, so that also helps._

But they knew nothing.

Something from the past must have come up for her friend to take these measures and put himself out there.

There had been things that even she did not know about her friend, even when she had tried to drag it out of him.

Some things were just not meant to be told.

This frozen night was one of those things.

Still…

"Here me now!"

She would continue to move forward for him.

 **Daybreak:** "Shigeko, don't go all out from the start! There's still a lot of the match left!"

 **One:** "Uwah~… What did you do to get Nana so pissed, Tsu?"

 **Daybreak:** "Um… Did I do something? I guess I can ask that later. Shigeko, just pull back for now! It's coming in a bit, so just hold off until then!"

_No! The people you want to get back are obvious targets! I want to deal with them for you, you idiot! Let me do this much!_

He would not allow it.

Not because of his plan, but because she was getting angry.

 **2Truths1Lie:** "Didn't we agree to listen to Teru-kun for this match?"

Shigenaga clicked her tongue.

With a great forward movement, she pushed off the black wolf's Raygust.

As she performed a backflip off the large shield, she fired another volley of shots down towards the black wolf and his captain.

_That's right, damn it! Even that little punk Asagi is following it!_

There was no choice here.

They were right.

The match had barely started. She had even seen a new tactic from Suzunari. All of that should have been satisfying enough.

 **Shige-ko:** "Tch. Fine. I'll back off for now. Get ready to send me the locations of the next targets."

 **Daybreak:** "Hah… Thanks. Hey, Kanji-kun, are you ready?"

 **Feeling Alive:** "I'm ready whenever. Shigenaga, it's going to be there in 10 seconds, so back up to where you had been at the start."

 **Shige-ko:** "Got it."

 **Daybreak:** "…Sorry about this, Shigeko."

_Just shut up before I go over to beat you up…_

.

Murakami noticed something as he pushed back against their opponent.

Shigenaga's attacks had been relentless and well timed from the start. Each movement was smooth, yet held power behind each one of them.

But…

_She's falling back._

It had looked like she would be moving in for an even stronger offense, that had been why he brought up more of a defense.

That had been the incorrect action though as she loosened her body and used his defense to throw herself back.

The distance she had been so adamant to cover had not gone back to how it had been at the start of the fight.

Shigenaga now stood where she had been upon coming to face them.

"Kō, be careful."

There had been a lot of things that felt wrong about this fight, and it seemed that Kuruma noticed that as well.

_It took Kon some time, but she managed to find the right values to where the gunfire won't blind us. That could be why she is pulling back now, but…_

There had to be more.

Shigenaga was not the type of people to simply fall back because something became more troublesome.

Her two supports were also the type of people to not do such things unless it was absolutely necessary.

_So then what is it?_

"—?"

Murakami stopped his forward pursuit upon feeling something.

Something light had been hitting them constantly since the start of the match, but it had been nothing for him to really think about.

At least, not until now.

The small pushing feeling from all around him had been overshadowed by every movement made during this fight. But now that they were standing relatively still, he could feel it much better.

_Wind…?_

The wind had started to pick up at some point.

Realizing what that meant for them, Murakami quickly shifted Raygust so that he could use his full arm for an overhead throw.

"Kō!?"

His action had been a snap decision that gave him no time to even speak to Kuruma.

The volley of shots came to an abrupt stop as Murakami used his entire upper body to throw Raygust with all the power in his body.

"Thruster!"

The large shield forcibly pushed aside the air and wind as Shigenaga to a jumping step backwards.

"I'm sorry, Kuruma-senpai, but we need to stop her from falling back!"

He ran forward with his hand already going for Kōgetsu at his hip.

From the corner of his eye, he could see a flash in the distance.

The sniper shot came in contact with a focused Shield.

_Sorry about this, Captain._

The shot had been blocked, but had the cost of Kuruma using trion to block it.

"I just need to-"

A second shot.

Before he could make his next step, a second shot had tore through the air and crashed into the cracked shield.

The shield shattered and Murakami's fight or flight instinct kicked in upon seeing that.

"You're really pushing your limits at the start, aren't you!?"

"We have to or else we'll fall behind!"

Quickly drawing Kōgetsu from his hip, Murakami made an instantaneous movement forward. His feet sank into the ground as his arm came up with the blade in a reverse grip.

His body began to turn to the side as he lowered his hips.

Without Raygust, he was lower on defense. So to make up for that…

_I'll force my way through!_

Senshi had been known for his absurd amount of offense that it also became his defense.

Murakami had always prioritized a sort of balance of offense and defense, but that could not happen right now.

Raygust was still reading for Shigenaga and he only had Kōgetsu.

"—!"

But he had the advantage here.

With Raygust's weight no longer holding him down, he used the memories of his time training with Senshi to put all his efforts into offense here while the memories of moving his body properly came up from his training with Yuki.

So with a single motion, he forcibly cut the air as the second sniper shot broke through the shield.

A noise rang out as the shot crashed into Kōgetsu's blade.

Using all of the momentum he had built up, he pushed his arm to the side for a slash.

A third shot from a different direction soon reached him.

Kōgetsu blocked the attack by attacking it with more force.

"Right!"

Lights flew all around him from the direction he had ran from.

Kuruma had fired from where Murakami had left him.

.

Shigenaga saw something that she could only describe as amazing.

The black wolf had noticed what she was doing, as well as noticed the conditions set for this match, and responded right away.

He had thrown his best defense at her while moving forward to make sure her escape would become impossible.

When the first shot from Mitsuteru had reached the black wolf, his captain had put up a shield to block the attack.

A second shot had reached the cracked shield almost immediately. It was the foresight of someone who understood battles now that caused the second shot to have little time between it and the first shot.

_And that's with Ibis. The firing rate for that thing is terrible, but he still managed to decrease it by a bit._

Even she was amazed by her own teammate.

But that second shot did not hit either.

The black wolf had forgone all types of defense and used accurate body movements to throw a fully offensive strike at the second shot, as well as the third one from Asagai.

This was not a lone black wolf.

_He is a full pack of wolves in one body!_

Once that realization reached her, she saw the shots from the black wolf's captain coming from behind.

They did not reach the speed of the Raygust, but they were in no way slow.

_So that's what this is! This wolf can coordinate with others even while being his own one-man-pack!_

It sent a shiver through her heart.

_Amazing!_

This was what they had to contend with for the rest of the match.

It was perfect, in her option.

These fighters were not like those in the lower tiers and they had managed to hold off three of Meishō Squad's members as she tried to fall back.

_But that just means we need to fight just as hard! We can fight together too!_

Feeling the ground now underneath her feet again, she activated a Trigger.

Two narrow paths were to her right and her left.

Raygust and multiple shots were flying directly towards her.

And yet…

"Escudo!"

A large shield sprang up from the ground.

Upon impact from the Raygust, the shield slightly caved in on itself, creating a dent in it. The shots fired at her made no real impact against the defense.

She had managed to escape a dangerous situation.

The walling front of her prevented her from seeing what was in front of her, but that was fine. After all…

"My job here is done."

With a single leaping the air, she moved towards the narrow path to her right.

A fierce wind picked up from her left.

* * *

"There we go! Nice job, Murakami!"

Kurauchi nodded at the yell from directly behind him.

Arafune had thrown himself up upon seeing what his student had managed to pull off.

Even as a Shooter, he understood the kind of ability that would be needed for a movement like that. It made complete sense that Arafune would act like that.

"Oh, that makes me a bit proud."

"That was your kind of style wasn't it, SenSen?"

"Yeah. Kō had come to me before, asking to show him how to use a full offense for defense. I hadn't thought much of it at the time, so I agreed. Since he uses Raygust as a defense, though, I wasn't sure how to explain it to him."

He nodded again.

The difference between using something as heavy, but powerful as Raygust as either an offensive Trigger or a defensive one was pretty wide. Switching between the two was not something many people could do on a whim.

It seemed that even Murakami was not able to do that.

"Still, I did my best to explain it and show him the movements. He's already great at offensive since he has a good balance of offense and defense, so there were no issues there. And with his Side Effect, he had it down by the end of the training session."

"And I'm guessing the body movements came from that fox up there?"

Kurauchi narrowed his eyes towards his captain. The tone he had taken could not be overlooked, but Ōji only shrugged and threw his thumb over his shoulder.

The crossdresser that was sitting next to him began using the thumb to make some provocative movements, so he focused on where the thumb was pointing instead.

Above them, the three commentators could be seen.

 **White Fox:** "Because of the difference in our body mass, we had to figure out a good way for him to use his body. I can make smooth and curving motions easily enough, but they lack any power. Since Kō has power built into him, he can't make smaller movements as easily. But we had found out that he is better off with snapping motions. The way he threw Raygust was a good example of that. He didn't just use his upper body for that throw; he also used his arm, wrist, hand, and fingers to throw it."

 **WorTri: "** Since he couldn't properly hold Kōgetsu for the second shot, he also used snapping motions to bring it out. Hah. I sometimes do that too when I find myself fighting Gunners."

Kurauchi could hear some hollering coming from behind him, but thought it would be better to leave the crossdresser to Arafune.

For now, he would focus on what had been said.

He knew firsthand what it was like going against both a heavy offense, precision body control, and skilled opponents. To see all of that in a single person would have likely terrified others, but he only saw it as a matter of course.

"Kazuki?"

Feeling a hand on his back, Kurauchi looked over to see Senshi staring at him in question.

"It's nothing, really. I was just thinking about what a good job you did explaining things to him."

"Like I had said: he already had a good affinity for that. I only told him how to make it work when he had less defense."

"But you noticed that. That means you at least have a keen eye for others like you."

"If you say it like that…"

 **TetsuG:** "Urg. Making fun of this bara couple wouldn't even be any fun."

 **Ōji:** "I know what you mean. I always feel disgusted whenever they do this kind of stuff in the operating room and I can't find anything to say about it. I just turn away and pretend like it isn't happening."

 **Demon Child:** "Wait, what's going on over there!? What's this about bara!? Hey, send me some pictures or a recording! And if you can't deal with it, Ōji, you can just send them over here so we can get some good material out of it."

It was frightening that his captain seemed to be thinking of that as an option.

"Does this count as my bad luck acting up again?"

"No. These people are simply that terrible." Pulling Senshi a bit closer to him, Kurauchi glared at Arafune who was pretending to deal with the crossdresser. "Just don't think about it too much and I'm sure they will all end up with minor misfortunes themselves."

 **Demon Child:** "Are you saying that an all-nighter isn't a small misfortune? I still need to get everything done by the end of the week so that Suzume doesn't get on my case here."

 **Life:** "Hey, Mako."

 **Demon Child:** "Yeah, what do you want?"

 **Life:** "You think you can make at least one uncensored version of those two the next time you use them? I need a nice side dish for my long bathroom breaks."

 **Demon Child:** "That's more on Kagami, but I'll see what I can do. It might cost you extra though."

 **Life:** "That's fine. Just bill it to my captain, like you usually do."

Noticing the ominous presence above them, Kurauchi turned to see Sekai glaring down directly at his teammate.

Understanding the pain the man was going through, he stood up while giving a nod towards the commentator.

With an iron grip, he grabbed a hold of Jinsei's head, wig and all, and began dragging him towards the stairs.

"Hey, hey, hey! What are you doing, Karachi!? Oh, is this a hidden NTR route!? Amazing! I get to be the first to experience it! Hah! Take that, Arafune! I get the double di- Gack!"

The shoe that landed perfectly into the crossdresser's mouth had shut him up.

Sekai gave him an approving nod while waving his hand at the shoe he had just thrown.

He could see both Yuki and Kimura only looking away, both already knowing that it was better not to get involved.

* * *

The sounds and lights all around Toby had started to annoy him.

The firing of guns had used the frozen night to be filled with many types of flashing lights and it was irritating his eyes.

 **Lobo:** "Hey, Suzuka, you figure out the right ratios yet?"

 **Jk:** "Just got done with it. It would have been easier to do with you were closer to that kind of stuff, but I managed either way."

_Good. I don't have to worry about that stuff anymore. That means I just need to worry about…_

"Hah. This guy…"

"So you won't be attacking me. At last this proves that even you are smarter than that faker."

"I would be pissed at that comment, but I know that's just how you two communicate at this point."

Toby wasted no time in activating Headfirst Fall as multiple Hound shots were fired at him.

The glare coming from Ninomiya did nothing to faze him, having already dealt with terrible glares before from the likes of Kitora and his own father.

_This one doesn't even look like it's directed at me. That means he's just mad that I told him a truth about himself and Yuki._

If this situation had come up a few weeks ago, there would be no doubt that his reaction would have been different from the one he had right now.

But he was not the same as before.

He knew that.

_Would have yelled, thrown something at him, and likely gone completely offensive on him for that. Thinking that it was because of what I said wouldn't even have crossed my mind. Heh. I want to say that I'm growing up, but this is something that I should have already noticed before I even took that first step._

It was the same with his family.

The first step he had taken to dealing with it all should have long since been behind him. Instead, it was still within his sight, something he found regrettable, but also something to learn from.

It had been because of that first step that he was able to realize the difference in abilities here. The gap would have seemed small before, but now the true value of that gap was on full display for him here.

 **Lobo:** "There's a problem here. Masataka found me and I don't think he'll let me leave without me putting my full effort into it."

 **Colors:** "I'm almost there. Just try and hold off for a bit more."

 **Lobo:** "Easier said than done, you know. As far as I can remember, Yuki's the only one who can fully get away from this guy."

 **Honest Sister:** "When you think about it, that does make sense. Yuki-san's use of Teleport is honestly on a different level than the rest of us. Even you upping your speed is nothing compared to him when he's going all out."

"Yeah, that's a blow to my ego," he sighed. His movements were clear and precise as he moved through the Hound shots.

Each one was coming from a different angle, but he was still able to tell exactly where he should go while still letting his reflexes take the lead.

Yuki was the only known person to escape Ninomiya's attacks unharmed while in the middle of a battle. The bar was high, and the likelihood of Toby being able to reach it was extremely low.

Headfirst Fall - or Kiyome, as it was originally called - was a good choice to fight against Ninomiya's style, but it held the same disadvantage as using Full Guard. Both would allow for defense against the power pullets and the speed bullets, but it would get him nowhere close to offense against him.

So what would be the best course of action here?

Toby tried to think about what he could do as Hound shots collided with each other behind him.

Each one of them had been trailing behind him as he took the lead with Headfirst Fall. The repeated shattering lights of the sign frames appeared in front of his knee, leg and foot.

_Mid-air fights here would be terrible since the Snipers would have an easier time pressuring me. Well, not like this guy is letting up on the pressure at all, but that's different._

Ninomiya was actively not going all out from the start.

If he wanted, he could have let out a full barrage to the point where Toby would have nowhere to run, but he had yet to do so. The plan he had thought of must have been preventing him from tackling Toby with a full on attack.

Or maybe…

_He's wary of something._

Instead of letting everything out for an attack, he was saving up a part of his thought process for defense as well.

_The first shot fired in this match must have been aimed at him. That means there is someone who is targeting him specifically. If he knows that, he won't want to have no guard at all in case he gets attacked again._

_Let's see. He has speed and power to his bullets, but can't use them to their fullest right now because of that first attack._

_That first attack had come from someone who was aiming directly for him. That means they are also keeping tabs on him._

_Headfirst Fall and my Side Effect can keep me from taking any major damage for the time being. And I only need to hold off until Take and Suzume get here._

_So that leaves me with only a few choices here._

Escape was impossible at the moment from the way Ninomiya would fire at any exit points he could find.

But there was something he must not have noticed if that was the case.

Toby grinned as he felt that something all around him.

Headfirst Fall forcibly pushed aside anything that would restrict his movements' speed, but the time it took to do so depended on how much needed to be pushed aside.

As he ran, Toby could feel the amount of time it took Headfirst Fall to activate growing.

That meant that the amount of things to push aside was increasing.

And currently, there was only one thing that counted as a restraint for his speed.

_The wind!_

.

Ninomiya felt irritation build up inside of his body.

Irritation that was not directed at the dog in front of him but instead was directed inwards.

As much as he hated it, he was pulling his punches here because of the setting and the first attack against him.

He was being targeted and needed to be ready to defend in case whoever it was would attack him again.

_Who was it again…? Asagi, right? But he would have been easy to take out. So then…_

Who had attacked him again?

That thought had gone through his mind as he fired the next volley of shots towards the falling dog.

His irritation made him rather blind to the path the falling dog was taking and instead only saw the fox who had managed to escape him multiple times.

They were completely different people, and this falling dog was nothing compared to the fox, but the flashes of the person reminds him of that time long ago.

 **Inu:** "Ninomiya-san!"

Inuaki's voice brought him back from the depths of his own mind.

 **Inu:** "That's just Toby! He has speed on his side, but he still hasn't reached the same level as some others. You can still catch him easily enough."

He already knew that.

A lone dog was nothing compared to a single fox.

 **Inu:** "Hah. This Mino and Yuki stuff has really gotten to you, hasn't it?"

"Inukai, watch what you-"

 **Inu:** "Look… I'm worried just as much… No, even more than you are. Minoru is my best friend and, even if he wants to deny it, Yuki is pretty much the same. You hate Yuki, but I like him. I have more to worry about when it comes to those two. There's also Mei-san to think about. I'm really worried about all three of them. I even have Oshiro worrying about _me_ because of it."

But.

 **Inu:** "Thinking about it here doesn't help anything. Kō-kun is the only other person who knows what happened, and whoever set this place up just got lucky. That was the past and we all managed to get through it. This is the present, so we now need to push through it again. For now, we need to win this match. Afterwards, we can both go and see what's happening with those three."

That's right.

They were all currently fighting.

This was the present and they were fighting.

Nothing done here could affect what happened back then.

He had come to terms with that at the start of the match, but that had slipped his mind when seeing a member of that fox's former squad.

A lone dog was nothing compared to a single fox.

That much was true. But comparing the two was not fair at all.

After all, this lone dog had done nothing while that single fox had found himself drowning in the past.

So.

_I'll first get out of that past myself so that I can pull him out of it too. Kicking and screaming would be preferable, but I guess I shouldn't complain too much._

That single fox was the only person he hated with everything inside of him.

That would be why he would pull him out of the past.

His only enemy would not be allowed to be the only one to drown himself there anymore.

"…Inukai."

 **Inu:** "Yeah?"

"I will be dealing with these troublesome ones, so you and Tsuji take care of the rest."

 **Inu:** "Just leave it to us!"

"And one more thing…"

Not for his own sake, but for the sake of his most loved one and most hated one, he spoke out.

"I will likely need a reminder to not stay in the past for this match. I will be relying on you to get my head out of that mindset at times. Can you do that?"

 **Inu:** "Sure thing! And like I said: we can go see those three once we're done here!"

There was no hesitation.

Ninomiya scoffed at that.

Without moving his hands at all, he created his next attack.

Unlike before, these ones would hit.

They would lead to his victory and he would not hold back from that.

"Hm. Who would want to see that faker willingly?"


	127. Kotowari Squad: Part 8

An all out attack relying on speed and power.

Ninomiya held nothing back as he fired his next round towards the falling dog.

His own pack of hounds tracked down their target with half moving through the air while the other half tore through it.

Each time they seemed to catch the falling dog, he would step as if bouncing off of nothing.

Instead of simply stepping on the ground, he jumped with each step.

Between that and the wind that was starting to pick up, the falling dog's speed began to falter slightly.

For anyone at an average level or below, it would not be noticeable, but he saw it.

The difference between now and the start was starting to grow and he would soon catch his target.

"You're a really annoying guy, you know that!? Do you even know how much of my movements and brain power I need to deal with this stuff!?"

The falling dog spoke as he fell forward.

That was right, it was not only his speed that kept him from being captured. The amazing reflexes he had mixed well with his thoughts to create a difficult to catch body.

Even so…

"It's only a matter of time."

Pressure was the best way to beat this falling dog, and he was one of the best at applying it.

No matter where he ran, Ninomiya would be able to accurately and powerfully pressure him into a corner.

Even the dog himself seemed to realize this.

.

Toby gave a sigh in his heart.

Enjoying fights was always great, as was running without a care in the world.

What wasn't great was getting chased down like this.

There was no space for him to move properly and the increasing wind was slowing down his use of Headfirst Fall.

This had turned against him in a matter of seconds. It felt like even waiting for his teammates might be an impossibility at this point.

_Urg. It's not even like I'm being pessimistic either. I just realized what kind of situation I'm in here._

That first step had shown him what he was lacking.

And it sucked.

For all of his speed and reflexes, he still could not reach the point of beating a high ranked Shooter.

That was just how things were.

It was a fact that he was fine with, for the time being.

So with his resolve on only making it through here, he fell.

He continued to fall so that he would not be caught.

But falling alone wouldn't get him anywhere.

The map in front of him showed where his teammates were. Two of them were already closing in, grouping up as they had planned.

 **Lobo:** "Take, Suzume. Drop an estimate for how long it'll take you to get here."

 **Colors:** "Thirty seconds for me."

 **Honest Sister:** "I'm being careful with the rooftop winds, so I will honestly say forty seconds for me."

That was right, the winds were more dangerous for someone like Suzume than they were for Takeshi.

But that was fine.

Both of them were also here, even if they were still a bit away.

That only meant one thing to him.

_I just need to keep things in check while I wait!_

Simply falling would not do anymore, so Toby had a certain action to make up for that.

He ran forward.

Instead of letting himself be taken, he forced himself forward. The wind against him had lengthened the activation time for Headfirst Fall, so the extra time it took to activate would need to be made up for here.

As he pushed down against the ground, he activated Headfirst Fall before colliding with it.

The time difference had gone back to normal as the speeding shots chased him and the power shots collided. They turned into momentary lights instead of streaking ones.

Still…

"You really don't plan on letting me go here!"

He got no immediate response.

"In that case…"

Toby held up his hand.

Headfirst Fall only took up one slot in his Trigger set, meaning he still had another Trigger to use.

_Scorpion!_

Unlike the normal blade she had created, this one was flat. It had no corners, was circular, and up more space than the pointed one he usually fought with.

He held a disk in his hand.

_Sorry, but I'm wild, not an idiot. I can think while fighting too!_

He reeled his arm back as he looked at the oncoming pack of Hound.

Focusing on a single point, he threw his arm forward as Headfirst Fall activated once more.

_Try this!_

.

Ninomiya narrowed his eyes at the green disk that had been thrown to him.

It was small, but that only allowed it to move through his attacks. The direction it was going towards was also something that made the size make sense.

Instead of the head or the heart, the disk was going for the center of his chest.

When attacking, the placement of each strike mattered.

For someone like him it was about an attack that reached multiple locations at once. Using that method, along with the trying types of bullets, he could guarantee a hit. If they blocked it, then he would stall them out with his trion level.

But pinpoint attacks like these were deadly in the sense that it forced the opponent to make certain actions.

Dodging was difficult when placed in the center of the body since moving to the right or the left would mean getting hit on the opposite side. The smaller the attack, the more likely this was to happen.

Blocking it was easier, but it meant focusing on defense for a moment.

While fighting less experienced fighters, that would be no issue at all, but more experienced combatants would easily use that single moment of defense to cut their way towards.

So instead of doing either one, he made a certain action.

"Hound."

He attacked.

If dodging meant taking a hit and blocking would give the dog a chance to advance, then he only needed to pick an option that was outside of those two.

As if there was no time in the creation of the attack, the Hound shots moved forward with precision. Only one shot would be needed to destroy the Scorpion disk, so the others could reach the falling dog.

And once it reached the Scorpion disk…

"—"

It shattered.

The two attacks collided and canceled each other out.

And beyond that shattered light, he saw it.

"…"

The falling dog had moved up instead of the sides.

He had made an overhead leap that created a large arc over Ninomiya.

In response to this, Ninomiya created multiple Hound shots that started from where the falling dog would land to the highest point he would reach.

There was no longer a chance to escape.

But that had not been what the falling dog tried.

Instead of escaping, he shifted his feet midair, as if ready to activate his speed boosting Trigger.

And the moment he reached the highest point, he activated it.

But instead of going down or even shattering it himself, he continued his large arc.

His body turned and curved itself as if pole-vaulting.

The reason or the strange action became apparent a moment later.

"Tch."

A heated noise filled the air along with the building wind.

A green laser-like beam forcibly tore apart the air and crashed directly into Ninomiya's attack on the falling dog.

Said falling dog had managed to escape the attack by using the speed boosting Trigger to create his pole-vaulting movement.

The laser-like bream began to follow the arc that the dog would be taking, cutting down each shot that he had fired in preparation for the landing.

Ninomiya followed the laser-like beam to it's starting point.

The only thing there was a green orb.

.

 **Lobo:** "Hahaha! Thanks for the save, Take!"

 **Colors:** "You really are an impulsive mutt. What would you have done if I didn't show up when I did?"

 **Lobo:** "I would have figured something out, I'm sure. But I didn't worry about it. I knew you were coming by, so I just thought that I would be fine regardless."

 **Colors:** "…"

 **Lobo:** "Don't just go silent on me!"

Toby grinned as he continued his ring movement.

The laser-like beam from his captain had made an exploding pathway for him in order for him to land without worry.

If that attack had not created the path, he would have given up a body part in order to continue moving. Since that was not the case here, he was more than willing to place his trust and survival on his friend.

And it had not just been him who he could rely on.

 **Honest Sister:** "Heh heh heh."

The second round of Hound relying on speed came from the side he had jumped from.

Before any of them could reach him, multiple shields bloomed in the air, taking the hits easily and stopping their advance.

Toby's grin only widened upon seeing this.

Preparing himself for his landing, he turned his body so that he could go directly into his next action.

Now that both of his teammates had arrived, he would be escaping from the fight in order to group up with Hoshi, like they had planned.

 **Honest Sister:** "Jk Operator, send over the information I have to our foolish dog. He can honestly use it to his advantage."

 **JK:** "Already on it! Hey Lobo, get ready for some pretty damn high speed actions!"

_What the hell does she think I've been doing this whole time…?_

That trivial thought could only be allowed if he was certain that he did not need his brain at the moment.

With both Suzume and Takeshi now ready to help, he was given a bit more freedom in what he did.

His arms and legs all loosened up, and his thoughts became less focused and more trivial.

That was just the kind of effect his team now had on him. They were now a reliable bunch who could allow each other to ease up at a moment's notice.

_I can't get too relaxed though. This guy is still someone that'll take the three of us to deal with. And I need to be going as it is._

There was still one person on their team who needed him to be there for her.

 **Lobo:** "Hoshi, have you come across anyone yet?"

 **Prototype Star:** "H-huh? Ah! N-no! I have been maintaining a low profile and staying away from the narrow spaces like I was told."

Toby nodded, taking note of how he seemed to have surprised her by his words.

 **Prototype Star:** "Um… Toby-kun? Will you now be making your way over here?"

 **Lobo:** "That's right. I should be there soon, so don't worry about a thing. Just make sure to stay out of sight of Snipers and play defensively if you get into a fight. A lot of the people here are offense heavy, so building up a defense should buy you some good time."

 **Prototype Star:** "I see… Very well. I will hold off until you get here."

That was all he needed to hear as he landed on the ground with light feet.

Before he even began to move his feet, the activation of Headfirst Fall started as something began to push him from behind.

This was what Suzume had been talking about.

This would be his chance for at least one strike before his escape.

With his reflexes and speed, he would be able to at least dodge any close range attacks coming at him.

So with that in mind…

"I'm going!"

He ran.

* * *

"So he's really going for it, huh? You have to hand it to him, not many people would go straight for Ninomiya-san like that when they know they can't win."

Noah listened to what his upperclassman had to say.

Once his match had been over, he made sure to rush over so that he could watch the match Kotowari Squad would be participating in.

The match had barely started, but it felt like a lot had already happened. The difference between this match and his own was clear as day and he could only marvel at everything that was happening.

"He probably just wants to get one hit in before he leaves. Tobio only goes into an all-out losing fight when there are little stakes or there's no other choice. But that doesn't look like it's the case here."

The attention of some of the people around him quickly shifted to him.

Some of them continued their conversation, and he could see a crossdresser being dragged back to his seat off to the side, but he ignored those things. Right now he had to speak for his friend who was fighting.

"If he's acting like this, then Mr. Masataka is too much for him to handle. That's probably why he waited until the rest of Kotowari Squad got there."

"Heh heh. No need to get defensive, Shor. We all know what kind of person Awdry is. We are only saying that he has a good amount of determination for even trying it. Kuga-kun was the same during Round 4, but the difference was that he didn't know what he was getting into. Awdry here does. Although, you aren't the only one to feel that way. Right, Kitora-chan?"

"Nasu-senpai, please don't just redirect things over to malice that. Especially not when it comes to that mutt."

"That's right, you and Samu were there when Tobio and I were training. So you know what happened, Ai."

"Even if I wasn't there, he would have started annoying me with the details afterwards."

"Yeah, that does sound like him."

There was someone who knew as much as he did here.

Everyone around them seemed to be watching the match for specific people, and he was no different. While he was watching everyone around the map, he was more focused on supporting one of his best friends.

Kitora appeared to be here for the same reason.

"But even if he is a mutt, he is smart enough to know who not to mess with," she said with a hard expression.

"Yeah, but he usually forgoes that in favor of a good fight."

"He's an idiot like that."

"Actually, he's more of an animal. His instincts usually kick in and it pushes him towards the fight."

"So he's an idiotic animal. Although I knew that already."

"Hahaha. Yup, that sounds like a perfect way to describe him."

Even so.

"This just shows that he's not just doing as he wants for this match. He's actually thinking about what to do and how to handle the situations in front of him. Did you finally beat that into him, Ai?"

The sigh she gave with a head shake told him all he needed to know.

"I won't go into detail, but I'll just say that his family situation has played a part in his changes. It might be hard to see from here, but there is a clear difference now for him."

"Right… Those guys…"

If he could remain this focused and thoughtful during the fight, it meant that whatever his family had done was not something bad for him. The situation had gone in his favor and put him at ease here.

Noah felt his curiosity rise. Having not been told anything, he felt a bit left out on the matter.

Toby was one of his best friends and yet he had not been told anytime about the current situation with his parents.

_I guess it's fine though. He doesn't need to tell us everything. And the fact only Ai seems to know just means he's really just telling people really close to him. That just means he'll tell me when he wants to._

For now, he only had to focus on the match.

His own match had finished earlier and Toby had been there to watch it.

The match had been a loss for his squad, but it had still been nice at the end, and he had learned some things because of it.

So right now was a time for his friend instead of himself.

And what his friend was doing was…

"Wait… What!?"

* * *

Takeshi saw it form his spot behind one of the tall buildings.

He stood in one of the narrow paths that Suzume had determined to be safe from the wind for the time being.

Both of them had moved closer to Toby in order to make sure he would be able to escape from the fight against Ninomiya.

Comparing the two, Ninomiya had the overwhelming advantage against their Attacker. Even if he took some hits, there was no doubt that Ninomiya would come out the victor.

So that was what they were for.

Takeshi controlled one of his trion orbs closer to the fight yet at a distance from himself. That made simple commands the only way he could attack. Anything more than that would require him to be closer to his trion orb, which was too close to Ninomiya for comfort.

But that was fine.

He only needed simple commands for now.

Toby was already moving to take his leave.

And the way he would do so was clear by his movements.

_He's going to use the massive amount of wind going in that direction to boost his speed. From there, Headfirst Fall will activate and "push aside" anything in the way of his speed. If we didn't have Senpai here to determine the right timing, that wouldn't have been possible for him._

The three of them rarely worked together.

It was common knowledge that the three core members of the current Kotowari Squad were selfish during battles, so teaming up was always ruled out.

Until they actually did it.

_We're still doing this selfishly here, but we decided on at least pairing up for this match._

He fixed his scarf as thoughts of their strategy meeting came flooding back to mind.

"Hah. Sometimes even I wonder what's wrong with us…"

.

"So, are we in agreement here? Hoshi will be backing me up this time while the two of you do whatever the hell you two do."

Toby had said those words without any thought.

He would selfishly charge in for fights, leaving everyone else to do as they please.

It was how he fought.

"Heh heh heh. Foolish dog. I want Hoshi-chan to myself, don't you know? Keeping up with you honestly tires anyone out. For Hoshi-chan to do that, she would need to become wild. And that is honestly not something any of us want. Instead, I'll take her so we have a nice front-to-back combo. It'll be perfect. We'll get the groin while also tagging the ass."

Suzume counted with wiggling hips and a smile.

She wanted to control the battlefield while maintaining a stable range.

It was how she fought.

The strange giggling from their temporary Operator only added to the unnecessarily loud voices.

Takeshi fixed his scarf, deciding not to get involved just yet.

The one who the two had been fighting over had yet to say anything, only looking down with her hands held in front of her. The look she wore while having the ground was a bit unnerving, but all focus had gone to the argument.

Letting out a sigh from his nose, Takeshi stepped forward to get between the arguing teammates.

"You two are making Hoshi uncomfortable. Stop being annoying and listen first. If you are going to be arguing over here, just let her choose who she wants to support for this match. We can work from there and adlib during the match."

"We've been doing that a lot recently, haven't we?"

"Really? I thought our plans usually went well enough."

"Of course you would think that, foolish dog. You got to go for a run with Kurauchi-senpai and a nice go at it hard with Yuba-san. You even had some fun during the attack while I was stuck on the roof. I should honestly smack you for having so much fun."

Suzume gave another laugh, forcing Toby to take a step back.

Takeshi only gave a sigh as he turned to Hoshi.

The girl's demeanor likely had nothing to do with the current argument, but he wanted to take that advantage to make their other two teammates shut up.

"Hoshi, what do you want to do here?"

The girl jumped.

"H-huh!? Ah… Um, I am fine with anything. Please, go on and decide where I should be placed."

"Hoshi-chan, you honest know that's not how we do things. We only throw each other at bullets when it's these two idiots. You and I are honestly safe from that stuff."

"Yeah, because you're usually the idiot you fires that bullet!"

The way Suzume flicked her wrist was akin to reprimanding a dog and none of them could deny what they saw.

"Anyways… Do you have any plans then, Hoshi? Remember that we will listen to what each other have to say."

A quick glare towards the other two quickly silenced them.

They were too obvious here.

"O-oh. Um, right… How about… We could pair up? There are four of us, and while I am the main support, would it not be better to be more cautious against such strong squads?"

"She has a point," Toby said with arms behind his head. "I'll brag about my own skills whenever I want, but even I know that I can't 1v1 Masataka or Kō. Everyone else is fair game for me though."

"I'll honestly say that sniping them is also a bit rough for me. Asagi-kun and Ariake-paisen can be annoying to hit, but Ninomiya Squad and Suzunari honestly know us well because of Yuki-san. Hoshi-chan and our JK Operator are the only two wildcards here, but neither one of them can properly fight on par with any of them without us playing an offensive role."

The complaint from Nakagami was dropped out by the dip of Hoshi's head.

They were all aware that she was not near the level of their opponents, so it would be even more important for someone to be around her during this match.

"So then whoever Hoshi isn't supporting will also pair up for this match. In that case, I think she should go with the mutt."

"Bold choice, Take. What are your thoughts behind that? I honestly want to team up with her too, but I'm curious as to why you think we should team up here."

"It's because of our respective range. Senpai, you and I have the best range among us, meaning we can keep the distance fights at bay, if not outright beat them. Toby is a close ranged specialist while Hoshi is a close-to-mid range fighter. So even if one needs help, the other can be right at their back. What's more, they are both way more nimble and flexible than we are. With Toby's Headfirst Fall, his speed makes him a good target while also leaving the two of us in trouble of keeping up."

"But I am not fast enough to keep up either. I also don't have something like Headfirst Fall to keep up either. Teleport is an option, but that leaves me with some time lag before and after use."

"That's right."

He added a "but" after.

"You two would draw your opponents in close, keeping them within a space for the both of you. Senpai and myself would try to maintain distance, putting us at odds with the two fo you."

"I see. So you honestly want us to go after specific targets after pairing up. In this case, we will honestly be keeping Ninomiya-san and Kō-san at a distance since those two are currently out of our reach. Meaning, Take and I will theoretically have to fight Inukai, Ariake-paisen, Asagi-kun, Taichi, and Kuruma-san. Meanwhile, Toby and Hoshi-chan will need to take out Seijin-san, Shigeko and Tsuji-kun. We have more opponents to fight, but they can get it done quickly."

"Exactly. We aren't looking for a huge victory here, but taking out those targets would be our priority. If we end up fighting either Ninomiya-san or Kō-san, we need to run. No point fighting a battle we all know we'll lose. Everyone got it?"

With a resounding response, Takeshi nodded.

They were once again being watched by someone important, so this time they would do better to show themselves capable of fighting with the top tier.

.

_This is the end result…_

"Hah… Of course it would end up like this."

Their current opponent was Ninomiya Masataka, the enemy of their former captain and currently someone that none of them wanted to fight. While their former captain's thoughts did not linger on them about the man, they still had their own thoughts on him.

But for now…

"Just leave already, you damn mutt."

The wind began to pick up more, blowing his scarf wildly behind him.

The same wind was the one that Toby would be using to make his charge towards his escape, at the same time passing by Ninomiya.

Ninomiya had already responded to the action by firing Hound towards the boy.

The two types of Hound flew forward, yet never reached their mark.

Takeshi gave the command to crash the laser-like beams into the powerful shots while shields bloomed in the air to stop the fast moving shots.

For his part, Toby activated Headfirst Fall, falling forward as the wind reached its peak.

As if moving along with the wind, he rushed forward with minimal steps, weaving through the remaining shots.

Upon reaching a few feet in front of Ninomiya, he forcibly threw his arm out as a Scorpion blade extended out.

It was only for an instant, and even Takeshi was unsure when it happened, but Toby had moved through the entire space between him and his escape route.

Free particles spread out into the air as a shattering light filled the remaining space.

Takeshi slowly turned his head in the direction the line followed.

Toby was already gone by the time he reached the end of the line with his eyes.

But the results were obvious.

The green particles had been from a cute he had managed to land on Ninomiya's side. It was shallow and could be stopped easily enough, but it was there. A hit had landed.

The shattering lights had been a mix of the blooming shields being hit as well as the Scorpion blade shattering after having been used.

It had taken him a few seconds to register all of it, but once he did, Takeshi realized just how amazing the entire thing had been.

Even if it had been Toby making the action and Suzume helping with the timing, it was still amazing to know that Toby had survived his encounter with Ninomiya and even managed to land a cut on him, no matter how shallow it was. It was proof that they had worked together enough to where Toby was safe to do that much and still continue afterwards.

 **Lobo:** "Thanks for the help, you two! I'll make sure to cook us up something nice afterwards! Whether we win or we lose, I'll make sure it tastes great!"

 **Honest Sister:** "Heh heh heh. Don't message while at high speeds or else you'll honestly crash."

 **Lobo:** "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just make sure you two make it out alive, got it?"

It was a tall order considering it took all three of them for even this much.

Still…

 **Colors:** "Just go meet up with Hoshi. You need to make up for the time lost here."

They would try to meet those expectations.

* * *

Yuki stared wide eyed at the screen.

His hand was frozen to the side, directly in front of a confused Sekai.

At some point he had lost his focus and his body began mimicking the actions on the screen.

Since his eyes traveled to Toby, he began to move forward, only being stopped by Sekai's arm.

Both the older man and Kimura had turned to him with varying expressions of shock, but he had not been able to see them as he continued to mimic the movements before his eyes.

He had lost control of his Side Effect.

"Kimura, keep going with commentary."

Listening to Sekai, she did just that, even while seeing the expressions of the group off to the side.

 **Manager:** "U-uh… It seems that Agent Awdry has managed to get away from the fight against Captain Ninomiya. It required the help of his teammates, but it saved one of their best assets in this match."

 **WorTri:** "He had managed to get a hit in as well. While it wasn't a major one, it just shows us that they are actually something if they manage to work together. Even now, they still seemed to only be working at the same time as each other, instead of working a single unit."

 **Manager:** "In your opinion, who do you think they can best be compared to right now?"

 **WorTri:** "Saying Kazama Squad or Azuma Squad's Attackers would be too much. Especially since we haven't seen them truly work together. I guess it would be better to say that this escape plan was what you should have expected from a normal squad, but is strange for Kotowari Squad in particular."

The two of them looked over to see what reaction Yuki would give, but his eyes continued to focus on the screen in front of them.

Feeling worried for him, Kimura looked up at Sekai to see what he would do.

His expression was not good.

"Kuu! Kuu! Heeeeey! Kawa and Yuki are doing some staring things! What are they staring at!? Blood and guts, and boobs and butts! Yeah! They're the type to do that! Especially since one of them has a girlfriend now! Yay! I'm not the only one going down the NTR route anymore! Welcome to the club, Yuki!"

"Shut up, you."

A new sound filled the air.

Laughter could be heard cruelty below them, but Kimura saw the true impact of the crossdresser's words after that.

"Uh…"

Yuki blinked a few times before shaking his head.

With his eyes no longer on the screen, he looked around to confirm his surroundings.

Once his eyes landed on Kimura, he shrank down a bit.

"Sorry about that… I wasn't focusing and lost control of my Side Effect there."

"You lost control…?"

He gave a weak smile while nodding his head. It was far different from what she had come to know of him, yet it seemed to be genuine.

"Now's not the time to talk about that though. We need to keep commenting on the match."

"R-right…"

Kimura cleared her throat once. In her head, she gave a thanks to the crossdresser for what he had done.

As if he knew what she was doing, he turned to her to wave frantically. Arafune had stepped in to slam his first onto the crossdresser's head.

Next to her, Yuki straightened himself up and Sekai shifted in his seat.

 **White Fox:** "Toby may have gotten away from that, but that leaves Suzu and Take to deal with him. They can hold off for a time, but they aren't suited to beat him. His way of fighting splits them up to where they both have to defend form specific attacks. If either one of them messes up, they'll get taken out."

 **WorTri:** "Masataka isn't the type to just wait things out like that either. At least not when he knows he can win. His trion reserves are larger than theirs, so it would make sense that he would use that to his advantage."

 **White Fox:** "Suzu is a tank type, but that won't do much for her here. Likewise, Take is a heavy offensive type, so all he can do is attack what's coming at him. These things are difficult to get around when it comes to someone like him."

 **Manager:** "But those two should have an easier time escaping than Agent Awdry, right? They can keep their distance, so they just need to make sure they don't get too close."

 **White Fox:** "Normally, yes, that would be the case. The only issue is…"

Sekai nodded from Yuki's other side.

 **WorTri:** "He's fought Yuki so many times now that even that might be irritating for them. Hah. They learned from Yuki, but he had faced off against Yuki. In a way, they are perfect opponents for him. Ones he can beast easily because of how they were trained."

 **White Fox:** "I actually think they tossed everything out during their 'reset'."

Yuki did not make any movement as he continued on.

He was perfectly still.

 **White Fox:** "Yeah… At the start of the B-Rank Wars, that would have been the case. People who followed my lead and stuck to that without question. The perfect targets for someone like him. But as things stand, they aren't like that anymore."

 **Manager:** "Why do you say that?"

 **White Fox:** "Easy."

He moved.

Yuki turned his head to face Kimura proper.

 **White Fox:** "They managed to let Toby escape."

* * *

Hoshi saw light scattering through the sky.

… _Wow!_

The defense shields and the bullets striking them produced mutual destruction. The laser-like beams that flew parallel to them only added to the scenery.

Suzume caught all of the incoming bullets with defense shields and they both shattered.

A similar situation had occurred during their match against Nasu Squad and Katori Squad. Nasu had fired at a distance from the overpass they had been atop of.

Kotowari Squad had defended against it by cutting them down with the laser-like beams from Takeshi.

Thanks to Katori Squad's desperate fighting, Toby's charge, and Hoshi's sudden fall to the ground, they had successfully denied access to Nasu Squad.

Thinking back, her tendency toward doing strange things seemed to have begun there.

"But this is much different!"

The enemy was only targeting them this time.

Whether or not they were hit was entirely up to Kotowari Squad. From her seat at the monitor, Nakagami was quickly analyzing the situation and giving way for them to meet up as they had planned while they all moved to find each other instead of fighting losing battles.

Nakagami was perceiving and dealing with the situation on the map in real time.

 **JK:** "Yawn."

That yawn was concerning, but while Hoshi continued running…

… _Um._

As a support member, there was something she had to do more than the others headed toward new fights.

 **Prototype Star:** "Excuse me, Toby-kun!"

 **Lobo:** "Right!"

The fast paced Attacker had chosen to run along the ground and vacant narrow pathways after having made his escape from Ninomiya.

"Watch out for the third building to the east!" he shouted back at her.

She accelerated toward that third building.

She had used Fujin a lot since joining, but they were in a hurry here. Since her upperclassman and captain were already in the midst of fighting someone, she could not use that faulty prototype Trigger here.

She was confident in how quick she was on her feet. A lot of people were moving around a lot, from what she had been told, but based on unassisted running speed, she was directly behind only Shigenaga.

… _Okay!_

Her own acceleration style was different. She threw her legs forward, caught the stone pavement with her heels, and pulled her body forward.

Then she leaned her body forward.

"Support Hoshi is on the move!"

She ran.

A moment later, someone stepped out from behind the third building.

They wore a suit and tie uniform. It was an ambush.

… _I knew it!_

The enemy had more than just the bullets to stop them.

 **JK:** "Hoshi-chan! Attack! Attack!"

 **Lobo:** "That's not what we agreed on here!"

 **JK:** "But it's Tsuji-kun! This is the perfect chance for her! Even a support type like Hoshi-chan can win this fight! It doesn't matter how much stronger he is than her or how much faster he is! The fact of the matter is that she is a girl!"

 **Lobo:** "Oh crap… That's right."

 **JK:** "Damn right that's right! Mukuro-kun told me all about it! _Tsuji-kun is weak to girls_!"

 _Maybe I should apologize once this match is over,_ thought Hoshi, but she had to respond to things here on the scene.

She moved herself to within a few steps of the enemy.

She slid her Kōgetsu's grip back in her right hand to hold it closer to the front.

She stabbed it straight out much like a long sword but also held it below her arm. In that moment she got a good look at the enemy.

… _I am really sorry, Tsuji-san!_

The distance between them was covered easily, yet he had been able to spot her rushing at him.

Upon seeing her, she had expected for a counter attack to come. No matter how weak to girls he was, she would not think it would slow him down much.

So she was prepared for his next action.

And that action was…

"…Ah?"

He disappeared from her sight.

No, it was not something as amazing as that.

He had moved fast enough that it made it seem that way to her.

In reality, he had fallen to the floor, grabbed a hold of himself and-

_He's rolling!?_

Tsuji's entire body began rolling away from her as if having been kicked like a soccer ball.

Once he came to a stop a few feet away, he jumped back and faced her.

The expression he wore was hard to properly see in the pitch black night, but even she could tell that he was comforting his face in a strange way.

Holding out her hand, she spoke exactly what was on her mind.

"Um, Tsuji-san?"

"…Y-yes?"

He did not look directly at her, but she continued anyways.

"…Would you like for me to leave?"


	128. Ninomiya Squad

"Whoo, whoo! Shinnosuke-kun! Whoo!"

The sound of cheering from a single boy was followed by a strong one and weak one from two small dogs.

Next to the dog with the two dogs, Mukuro let out a tired yawn.

A few more seats away, a group of people were watching.

He had decided to stay away from those people, as well as the terrible group even further away, and yet he still could not be left alone.

"Are you not going to also cheer?"

"Why would I? Frooooooooom what I found out during the attaaaaaack, that guy is useless. He's even more useless when there is a girl invoooooooolved. Since Hoshi is a girl, he won't be able to wiiiiiiin, unless he gets support that is. But even then, he will stillllllll only be dead weight."

"The two fo you seemed fine enough to fight in the hall that time."

"Thaaaaaaat's because…"

"Hm? 'Because'?"

When Hisoka looked over, the expression Mukuro had on his face was one of confused annoyance. Or that was what she thought it was at least.

_It's rather hard to tell with him. He looks like he doesn't want to show emotion, but then throws it all out there. But I've only ever seen this when it comes to Shin-kun, so…_

She tilted her head.

_What exactly does that mean?_

Looking past the boy's lowered head, she saw Oshiro lifting the paws of Take and Krümel. So he could not be asked.

The group containing everyone else also seemed to be messing around a bit with each other, so she could not ask them either.

The last option was to go to the final group of upperclassmen, but…

"Heh heh heh~ C'mon, Tet-su-ji-kyun! Just a little wiggle will do! Yes, just a small wiggle! Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, like you do for the jiggle! Yes, like this! Shake it aaaaaaall around like Suwa-san is- Guwah!"

"Shut up already! You're already in trouble for NTRing the prez, so don't make things worse here!"

"But doesn't it make me a player if I manage to also NTR you too!? Guwah!"

"Alright, I guess I'll take him outside this time."

"Oh, try to make sure everything lands on where I already aimed. That way it's easier to clean up afterwards."

"Got it."

The crossdresser over there was being carried like baggage, so it might not have been the best time to speak with them.

People with overflowing emotions were not the best match for her when it came to conversations. They usually could apply both logic and emotion to their words, while she could only use logic for her own.

But this boy was different.

He seemed to have problems with his own emotions while being someone who used only logic in his actions. Questionable logic, but logic nonetheless.

"Because…"

Mukuro still could not find the words to explain himself here.

Oshiro was busy cheering with the dogs, so Hisoka felt it was on her to take care of this problem.

Particularly by patting Mukuro's head.

_Inukai-senpai usually does this to calm Shiro-kun down. Maybe that's just how this works._

It seemed to be the right choice since Mukuro only loosened his face and blinked.

He turned to her after a moment and narrowed his eyes.

Nothing needed to be said between either of them, both already knowing exactly what the other was thinking through their silent language.

And what she got from the conversation was…

_That was the wrong choice._

* * *

Tsuji threw his body backwards upon seeing the small girl move towards him.

There had been someone on the map and he wanted to see who it had been.

What he did not expect was for it to be Tsukiko's younger sister and Kotowari Squad's newest member.

The girl herself was nice and unlike those one who liked to mess with him, but that did not stop his own anxieties to surface upon seeing her.

Her charge at him had been noticed but it did not fully register in his mind. The only thing that he could notice was the distance between them shortening, so he had made a snap decision to curl up tumble backwards.

_This is just like last time…_

During the attack from Galopoula, he had thrown himself backwards once he saw that his opponent was a woman.

He had been sent to that battlefield because he could work together with Hisoka since Oshiro was busy elsewhere, but had not been told the specifics. To say he was thrown for a loop was an understatement.

Hisoka had to take charge and initiate the fight once more while he could only stay behind the corner, watching and worrying.

But unlike this time there had been someone else there for him.

_Well, he was really there because of Tsukiko-senpai. All he did was criticize me._

Tsukiko's younger brother had appeared so that he could fight alongside them.

While Tsuji was having his issues fighting against a woman, that younger brother seemed to have trouble keeping himself upright while in the presence of Tsuji himself. It was another factor that could have made them lose just because of him.

The problem was that this was not something he could overcome easily.

There was just too much built up for him to reach the level of trust he had with Hiyami and Hisoka for every other female around him.

Even this kind girl in front of him was no different.

_Taiyōko was right to mock me… To have something like this hold me back is just embarrassing and terrible._

As if to agree with him, the girl in front of him spoke.

"…Would you like for me to leave?"

_It really is bad if she is asking me something like that._

If it had been a guy, he would have felt a bit insulted by it, but thought nothing of it afterwards. But since it was a nice girl like this he could not respond and had no time to hold any sort of grudge because of it.

So instead, he only shook his head rapidly.

 **Slick Girl:** "We have a problem."

 **Inu:** "Did Tsuji-chan come across one of the girls?"

_The fact he knows that right away is kind of bad too._

**Slick Girl:** "Yeah. He's with Kotowari Squad's Taiyōko."

 **Inu:** "I don't know who to feel bad for in that situation…"

In all honesty, he could understand that.

Tsuji was pitiful here, but Taiyōko was a nice girl not knowing what was happening right now.

She had even paused in her advance to make sure he was alright.

That would get her killed right away, but it would not have been the first time it happened.

The logs had shown her doing the same thing during Kotowari Squad's match against Katori Squad.

This girl was just too nice.

Meanwhile, Tsuji couldn't bring himself to even respond to that niceness.

 **Inu:** "Well, I'll be there in a bit. Just try not to die, Tsuji-chan. Also…you should take a look at your Radar."

"Huh…?"

Doing as he was told, Tsuji took a glance at his Radar.

A dot blinked furiously as it moved closer to his location.

And once it was on top of them…

"I found you! Commence the march!"

A new girl sprang out from the narrow space behind him and fired her rifle.

"Another girl!?"

* * *

 **White Fox:** "That is what he said…"

 **Manager:** "…"

 **WorTri:** "Hah."

 **Manager:** "It appears that Agent Tsuji is having… _issues_ with his current opponents."

 **WorTri:** "He's bad at dealing with girls. Hah. Have fun tearing into him after this match, you degenerates."

 **White Fox:** "Sekai-san, that was a bit rude…"

* * *

Shigenaga rushed Tsuji without any more warning.

Her shout had only been overpowered by the sound of her rifles firing shots at him.

Her steps held power in them as he dragged out Kōgetsu from its scabbard.

The attack itself was easy enough to defend against, but the surprise of having to fight another girl was too much for him at the moment.

So the moment she approached him, he prepared himself to lose.

What happened instead was different though.

"Excuse me!"

A quick wind rushed by him before he could look over.

Hearing the sound of something colliding brought his attention behind him.

Turning around, he came to a strange sight.

Hoshi was using her entire body to push against Shigenaga as shards of shattered shields fell to the ground in front of him.

Shigenaga must not have been ready for the attack since she was holding Kōgetsu in a reverse grip while pushing back against Hoshi.

"Please wait until he has been able to gather himself before attacking!"

"This is a fight, little girl! You take whatever chance you can get!"

"I am still inexperienced, so I do not fully understand fights! Please excuse my rudeness, Senpai!"

"The name's Shigenaga! And that inexperience will not be forgiven!"

"In that case, please allow me to fight you, Shigenaga-senpai!"

The two girls were having their own shouting match right in front of Tsuji.

This was a perfect chance for him to attack, yet he could not bring himself to get any closer to either one of them.

"Tsuji-chan, look out~"

Hearing his voice being called, he moved to the side as shots came from behind.

The rapid-fire noise from a gun could be heard from behind him, but he did not need to look to know who had fired it.

The two girls had also heard the attack coming, but only one of them had been able to react.

Since she had been using her entire body, Hoshi could not move right away. Every part of her body was held in place because of her own attacking method.

The same could not be said for Shigenaga.

The rough girl lowered her blade while moving in for a turn.

Hoshi's blade came down, landing a cut on Shigenaga's side, but the girl ignored that.

She continued to spin while throwing herself to the side.

Shigenaga had managed to dodge the barrage of shots before they could reach her.

As for Hoshi…

"—!?"

A green shield appeared behind her as a body landed between her and the shield.

The brown hair that seemed more like fur blew with the wind as a full teeth grin was shone. A single canine tooth could be seen as the boy straightened himself up.

"Mad eat in time! Sorry, Sumiharu, but I cannot just let you take her out that easily!"

"Hahaha! Don't worry! It's way more fun filling you with holes than a nice girl like her!"

"In that case…"

Multiple sign frames opened in front of his knee and foot.

The moment Tsuji saw this, he moved.

Pulling out Kōgetsu, he straightened out his face while leaning forward.

He felt tactical feedback on the end of Kōgetsu.

"Tch. That damn Shinnosuke… Hoshi, back me up whenever you can, but let me focus on Shinnosuke!"

"Of course! And thank you!"

Tsuji knew what was happening.

Inukai and Shigenaga likely knew as well from their respective expressions.

They were all aware of his trouble with girls, so two of his opponents had made it so that he would not have to fight a girl.

Hoshi would fight Shigenaga while supporting Toby. Toby would fight Tsuji and Inukai.

The two of them were giving him a chance to fight.

.

_These pups are really too honest for their own good._

Inukai could not help the smile that came to his face as he fired at the falling Toby.

Instead of the two most mentally troublesome people of Kotowari Squad, they had come across the most likable members.

They had both come to an agreement on this battlefield that put them at a disadvantage simply because it felt like the right thing to do.

It was something that would likely get them taken out, but they had still chosen this option for themselves.

_Yuki, you better be watching carefully. I don't know the extent to what you went through, but this is what you wanted. They are making choices without you, aren't relying on you, but are still remembering their time with you. You made a selfish choice back then, but this is the end result. Don't look down on it or you'll just end up regretting everything._

That had been what caused the current chaos.

Seeing the familiar hollowness in Yuki's eyes a few days ago had been a shock. Something like that should not have been able to appear anymore, but it had.

Yuki had placed himself back into a dangerous space while forcing Minoru to do the same.

It may not have been intentional, but it had happened. Inukai had witnessed all of it and could not do much concerning it.

While Minoru he could talk to, Yuki was still a great distance away from him.

The entire time he had known the boy, he had tried getting closer. Even if it was just a step or two.

There were people for him that seemed to do that as easily as breathing, but he did not hold that against them. They just had a better affinity for Yuki.

But he did not stop.

Even now, he tried to reach that place.

He may never reach the same level he has with Minoru, but there was still a place he could reach. A deep part that could get him to understand what was going on better.

No matter how many times he had to try and mediate for Yuki and his captain, he continued to see both side's viewpoints. It was his place as someone who knew so much, but did not know everything.

_And I'm not the only one here trying to reach a place._

Someone had long since reached a place even deeper than he wanted while another one was pushed aside before he could even try.

His captain had also reached a special place, but it was not one that Inukai ever wanted to go to.

But for now…

_I will use these pups to reach the place. I'll even bring them with me. They deserve that much for everything they have been put through. So…_

So.

_You better be watching closely, Yuki!_

* * *

**White Fox:** "…"

 **WorTri:** "Something you want to say?"

Yuki held back his arm from moving again.

Having lost control of Side Effect already, he was making sure that he had full control of his body once more.

It would be bad if he couldn't do that much.

 **White Fox:** "Hah… It looks like Kotowari Squad has given Tsuji a chance to fight."

 **WorTri:** "Yeah. For someone like Shigeko, it must be infuriating. But that is what makes it worth it. For Taiyōko and Awdry, this only seems like something natural. Hah. But for someone like her, this is just some stupid, inexperienced kids messing around."

 **Manager:** "Admittedly, I don't know much about the Kotowari Squad members or Agent Shigenaga. So how do you think that decision will affect the battle?"

 **White Fox:** "It depends on how they take the fight. Toby is already difficult for Gunners, but Inukai has Tsuji with him. That close range ability will keep them from being taken out. As for the other one… Hoshi will need to be maintaining more of a defensive stance if she is going to be supporting Toby here."

 **WorTri:** "Hah. And for Shigeko, it all depends on who she has supporting her. Asagi isn't the support type, so that may cause a conflict of wants for Meishō Squad. If it's Ariake who is helping her, she will have a higher chance at taking out at least two of her opponents. Hah. That squad is made of offensive fighters, but Ariake is their main, best, and only support. But he does that job well."

 **Manager:** "That's right. Back when we were on the same squad, he was also the only support. During that time he was still new, so he was not the best. But he did manage to get us some wins because of his support. I can only imagine how much stronger he has gotten since then."

The two turned to Yuki for any reaction.

None came to him.

 **WorTri:** "In any case, Shigeko could also go for a full offense with one of her teammates. It would put more pressure on Taiyōko than she can handle, which will then force Awdry to move to help her. So if Meishō Squad goes with that plan, Ninomiya Squad will have an easier time picking people off."

* * *

"Haaaah… These guys really aren't giving me a good opening to attack here. Are they even human with those kinds of skills? Seriously, what kind of people just throw their attacks as defenses when they don't know there's an attack there to begin with?"

Mitsuteru watched as the amazing light show went on in the distance.

Shattering flower shields bloomed as Hounds crashed about the area. Straight line beams that gave heated sounds tore through the air while orbs of green light flew in arcs, lines, and circles.

It did not feel real, but he knew that what he was watching was a fact of reality.

For someone like him, firing a sniper rifle was already something out of the ordinary. Watching the lights that could destroy his body only made him come to realize how unprepared he was for fights with crazy people.

He took a breath before letting it out through his mouth.

The tension in his shoulders was released and his body sagged a bit.

"Still…"

The three fighting there were people he had his own grudge against.

Whether they were monsters from a different planet or just people so far beyond the norm that he could never catch up, he had to do something against them for him to release everything that built up over the time he had known about them.

Attacking them would give his position away, but that was fine.

They would forget all about him once he moved away from his firing spot.

"But to think that Misaki's Side Effect could also figure this much out. I figured she would use Shigeko and Seiji-san's movements to decide on what was happening, but to think she is able to see the entire battlefield for what it really is. Heh. Guess that just shows how much Kiyo-… No. That just shows how well she uses her Side Effect."

Bringing in someone who was not here felt much more like an insult than a passing comment.

"Well, I guess I can just leave her to Ninomiya-san then. I've already spotted Kotowari, so I might as well target him. So in that case…"

He sucked in a breath as he lined up his sight with the light show battlefield.

There was no tension in his movement, but he released the breath regardless.

He had been patient so far and this would be where he showed that patience.

.

Ninomiya did not relent on his attacks, instead he focused more on directing them properly.

Powering through these two opponents would not work due to their specialties.

If he relied on fast moving bullets then the blooming shields would block them in order to give the laser-like beams a chance to tear through him.

If he relied on power bullets then the laser-like beams would tear through them and give the Sniper time to attack him.

He had the advantage in trion, so he would use that.

The entire space behind him was filled with green lights as he prepared each shot. Simple commands were ordered for their speed and power, something that he was grateful for.

In his eyes, everything was set up in a certain amount of time, but he knew that it was different for anyone on the outside.

His attacks were meant to bring him to victory, so when he attacked it was a quick and clear decision. At times it even looked to them like he had not even created the attacks and that attacks had simply come at his signal, already being in motion before he even registered his own attack.

Of course that was not the case and he prepared the attacks.

The shining lights behind him followed multiple lines, but unlike before, they all converged to a single point.

There would be only one target for his Hounds instead of two.

Each one of the Hound shots flew through the air.

Some were stopped by the blooming shields while others crashed into laser-like beams.

But some had made it through.

Those remaining bullets crashed into one of the tall builds as the wind picked up once more.

In the harsh wind, he could make out a silhouette leaping from where his attack had hit.

Green particles floated into the air behind them.

The attack had hit.

"Now then," he said while turning.

Two laser-like beams were already moving toward him after having collided with his previous attack.

Defenses were a bad choice against the heated noise coming at him, but…

"—"

The two laser-like beams vanished.

An explosion went off, carried by the wind and sent towards him in place of the attack.

_If I'm right then…_

Not looking back at what had caused the explosions, he took light steps forward.

With a narrow space in front of and behind him, he prepared his next attack.

As he did, the narrow spaces began to fill up with sound.

And soon after…

"There you are."

A body was pushed in front of him.

Two great winds had appeared in these narrow spaces, forcibly pushing out anything within those spaces.

The space behind seemed to have contained nothing more than garbage.

The space in front of him was different.

It contained a body.

Around the body's neck was a scarf, and along its arms were straps.

"—"

He held nothing back as he fried at the body.

* * *

 **Manager:** "And with that, Captain Ninomiya begins his attack against Captain Kotowari! It looked like he was prepared for it, so his attack is already in motion while Captain Kotowari seems to still be gathering himself!"

 **WorTri:** "Masataka had probably figured out what was going on from the start and just knew how to use it to his advantage. Hah. The thing about this particular match is that the Operators need to be ready to modify every member's sights depending on who is currently fighting."

 **Manager:** "That's right. Doing something like that in mass is easy enough, so long as everyone's sights are the same. But with this pitch blackness, it becomes a hassle for the Operators since they would need to be constantly changing the lighting for their teammates. The lights produced by each Trigger is relatively the same, but the difference comes in how much they appear. A battle using Kōgetsu and Scorpion is easy since those blades will continue to stay lit no matter how they move. But gunfire is repeated flashing lights that could hurt someone's eyes if they have the settings wrong."

 **WorTri:** "Hah. How well do you think you could do in this situation?"

Before Kimura could answer, Yuki lifted himself up a bit to answer.

Neither one of them responded negatively to his action, so he went on.

 **White Fox:** "Kimura's usual processing rate is actually pretty high. I would say the moment the attack is made, she will have already figured out the right setting to use. And even if there is a new element added in, she could get it done relatively easily."

 **WorTri:** "Is that so…"

It was a statement more than a question, but Yuki responded to it regardless.

 **White Fox:** "We're talking about someone who enjoys taking in large amounts of data just for fun. Kimura here is the type of person to stack a bunch of books on top of each other, read through them all quickly, and still manage to find every important part of them."

 **Manager:** "I would normally take notes on the important stuff, but having use of our transmissions and technology in general is really convenient. I've been teaching Krümel how to swipe the screen when needed and he has started getting the hang of it. Recently he has even been keeping up with me. I'm glad I don't need all that paper anymore."

Sekai's relaxed expression changed, a rare sight for most people.

His eyebrows rose a little and his lips parted.

These two former teammates had just just gone on about something amazing as if it was an everyday thing and nothing was wrong.

His own squad's Kumokawa was well off as an Operator, but he doubted that even she could manage that much data without feeling exhausted.

_Back then, I never really interacted with their squad, so I don't know the full gist of what they were like, but this… Really, what were they like back then?_

His attention was quickly drawn back to the screen in front of them.

One of the former members of that squad had already begun fighting here.

So…

_What does that make him compared to them?_

* * *

Suzume gave a whistle. The sound was easily drowned out by the raging wind below her.

The trion leaking from her leg had been quickly dealt with, but it was obvious that it meant little in comparison to what was happening.

After having attacked her, Ninomiya seemed ready to either go for the kill or move to deal with Takeshi.

Then she had noticed a change.

It was a change in both Ninomiya as well as the surrounding area.

_No way… Has he figured it out already!? Honesty, this guy is something else. No wonder he's the only one Yuki-san sees an enemy._

The movement of walking forward showed her everything she needed to know.

He had figured out how to use the environment.

Each step taken put him in the right position to not be hit by the strong winds that would soon be coming through the two narrow spaces in front and behind him.

So instead of Ninomiya being hit by those strong winds, she watched as her own teammate was forced out due to those strong winds.

Before that had happened she had seen an explosion go off. The smoke it had created was carried by the strong wind from the narrow space behind Ninomiya.

The explosion had seemed random at first, but it was clear that it had come from the trion orbs that Takeshi used for attacking. The laser-like beams that had been fired from those trion orbs had been shot through and caused an explosion that resulted in Ninomiya's end back to be covered by smoke.

The sudden exposure to his enemy must have caught Takeshi off guard since all he had done to defend against the new attack was begin to move backwards.

_Oh honestly. These guys are making it hard for me to make my decision here. Don't look too shocked, Take. Moving forward instead of backwards. If you do that then I wouldn't have this hard of a time making up my mind._

With a sigh and a twist, she held herself against the edge of the roof.

Ninomiya had prepared power shots instead of ones reliant on speed. Her shields would do little against those and Takeshi could not fire his laser-like beams.

So as easily as breathing, she held herself in place and lined up her shot.

The target wasn't Ninomiya, nor was it one of the bullets.

It was the space between Ninomiya and Takeshi.

 **Honest Sister:** "Take, you don't need to aim or even fire. Just honestly make one of the orbs between you two. But make sure it's a far enough distance that you won't get caught in an explosion."

.

Ninomiya narrowed his eyes at the actions of his target.

At first he had only been moving back, too surprised to even launch his own offense or defense. But then he made a certain choice that put Ninomiya on guard.

He held out his arm.

In front of that arm an orb was created.

His own attack had already been halfway to reaching his target, but now the single orb was in between them and the target.

It was too late for any sort of attack, his Hound bullets would have reached him before any beam could be fired.

So creating the orb now felt like it was just a pointless use of trion.

With the violent wind only barely starting to subside, he wouldn't even be able to move that far back.

Teleporting was also an option, but Ninomiya was too well versed in how to counter that particular Trigger for it to be useful here.

So then what reason could he have for making that orb?

_Unless…_

Realizing what the new action meant, Ninomiya clicked his tongue as he turned his attention elsewhere.

Before his previous attack could reach the target, he released a new onslaught of bullets onto a different location.

As he did so, a flash struck down in between him and his target.

It struck the orb.

From there, a sudden flash filled the area.

The visual setting that Hiyami had set for him lessened the impact of it, but the light that filled his vision, although brief, had blinded him and faced him to move backwards.

The strong wind that had been coming from the narrow space behind him caught onto his leg.

As the new explosion filled the open space, Ninomiya was dragged along by the dying wind.

Each one the flying lights that he came from his Hound shots had been caught in the blast and were no more.

But…

 **Slick Girl:** "I confirm a hit."

A flash of light moved through the night sky, seeming more like a reverse shooting star than a simple light.

Before he could determine who exactly it had been, another flash came into view.

This time it was difficult to notice as he was pushed into the narrow space opposite of where the dying wind had been coming from.

But the target for that flash was clear.

A third light filled the air as it flew off in the same direction as the first one.

 **Slick Girl:** "…Trion signature is gone. Kotowari-kun has been taken out."

"But now by me."

**Bail Out.**

**Bail Out.**

* * *

**Manager:** "And with that, two members of Kotowari Squad have been taken out for the first two Bail Outs of the match!"

 **WorTri:** "Masataka must feel cheated right about now."

 **Manager:** "It seemed like Agent Misaki was going for a violent way of defending her captain, but it gave away her position to an already cautious Captain Ninomiya. Her loss is going to him. As for Captain Kotowari…"

A single point appeared on the screen next to a certain boy's image.

Kimura lowered her brows as she glanced over to Yuki.

 **Manager:** "Having been caught in the explosion, Captain Kotowari could not react in time to the attack coming from Agent Ariake. It was a clean headshot that had managed to take him out."

 **WorTri:** "Now I see. Hah. You guys had some pretty scary support back in the day, didn't you?"

 **Manager:** "While I am happy to agree with that, why do you say that?"

Mumbles of "She can't be serious" filled the room, making her look all around.

Her eyes landed on the crossdresser, who was waving at her, and the Arafune Squad Captain, who was maintaining a strong hold on the idiot.

Having figured out that his teammate was causing trouble again, Sekai bent down to lift up his shoe. Without a second thought, he threw it.

"Ow! What was that for, Sekai-chan!? That could have heard my head and actually put some brain cells into it! Then what would happen if I actually became smart, huh!? Huh!? Gyah!?"

"Sorry about him, you guys! Go on! I'll make sure to pound his skull in if he keeps it up!"

The way the crossdresser seemed to be smiling as he was repeatedly hit with the shoe was a bit concerning, but Kimura pushed that aside to focus back on the match.

 **WorTri:** "The guy really isn't anything special, that much is for sure. If he wanted to join the top Snipers then he would probably need another two or so years of training. But… Hah. From what I know, he is usually talking about Special Tactics with Yuba Squad's Tonooka, right?"

 **Manager:** "Now that you mention it… Yeah, even back then, those two were good friends."

 **WorTri:** "He looks like he has the patience for it, and mix that with the fact that those guys seemed to have forgotten he's even there, you have a pretty difficult person to deal with. Hah. I wonder if it's a Side Effect or just how he is, but to make even Masataka suspicious of what happened just shows that he's more of a player here than most of his squad."

 **Manager:** "The problem with that has always been that he can never get back-to-back points. Like we have gone over multiple times now: he's a support type. For him to go out of his way for this one point means that _he was deliberately targeting that single point."_

.

"Uwah~ When she puts it like that, it sounds kinda scary, don't you think, Tono?"

Tonooka gave no response.

With his eyes on the screen, he chewed on his lip while shuffling slightly in his seat.

From her spot a few seats away from him, Obishima gave a worried look over to her teammate.

Watching the match while others spoke around him was normal for him, but the expression and his movements were not something she was used to seeing.

"…Do you…want to…bring him over…?"

Blinking in surprise, she turned to face the line of boys on the other side of her.

To her immediate left was Midorikawa. Next to him sat Tomoe, who had Ema then a final boy sitting there.

The small group had come together upon seeing the final boy and Ema sitting in seats away from the larger groups.

When asked about their reasoning, Ema had told them that the other boy was not comfortable with a lot of people being around him, but he wanted to watch the match in the hall.

She had reached the same conclusion as Tomoe in that they could sit elsewhere. It was only when Midorikawa dragged them into the seats did they relent to watch the match.

And now that the match was underway and the vices filled the hall, Obishima found herself caught off guard that she had even heard the last boy's voice to begin with.

_Ema introduced him as "Tenryū", so I should make sure to call him directly when speaking to him. Right, it's just like Hoshi did for me, so I'll make sure to do that here._

Giving a smile to the last boy, Obishima looked over the boys between them so that her words could clearly reach him.

"It's fine, Tenryū-san. I doubt the trouble he is having is because of those upperclassmen. It's just…"

"…He is worried…for his friend…"

"Yes. Ariake-senpai comes over a lot, so I can understand why he's so worried."

"…Then he…is a good…friend…"

Obishima wanted to agree. It was the truth after all, but before she could, he continued to speak.

"…Nn… …You all are…"

"Huh?"

The questioning voice came from Tomoe who, up to this point, had been relatively quiet.

It made sense as to why since he had not been particularly close with any of the combatants currently involved with the match.

"Tenryū, I think you're looking too far into this. Only Obishima and Midorikawa are here to watch people. Tomoe was probably just dragged along by Midorikawa."

"Eh heh heh…"

"Don't just rat me out like that, Tomo!"

"As for me…"

_Huh?_

Obishima found herself starting to get dizzy.

Off to the side was her teammate, on the screen was her new friend, and a few seats down was Ema, who had just turned away from the rest of them.

 _That's right. He doesn't like Ninomiya Squad and has no real connection with any of the other three. Why_ is _Ema here?_

A small wave from the last boy seemed to have done enough to bring Ema's eyes back towards the screen.

Following his line of sight, she came across a certain face.

_Oh._

"I don't like Ninomiya Squad, so I want to see what Ariake-senpai plans to do to them. At the least, I want to see him take out that jerk. …Although he missed his chance and took out Kotowari instead."

"Oh, so you do know Ariake-senpai?"

"Hm. I wouldn't say we're friends or anything, but we have something in common. I have my own thoughts about the guy, but he's fine enough."

"…Ema is being…tsundere…"

"Eh!? Where did you hear that word!? Don't use it for me like that! Tell me who told you that! I'll make sure to let Kage-san know right away!"

"Tenryū isn't on Kage-san's hate list? I would have thought for sure he would be."

"He was at the start. But that was due to circumstances. Now it's different, so I need to let him know if anything comes up with Tenryū."

"Why do I feel like seeing them together would give me nightmares…?"

Obishima found herself nodding along with the sentiment.

The last boy's entire being seemed to contrast with the B-Rank Captain's, so even thinking of them in the same room felt like it would only lead to a downward spiral.

Her thoughts were cut off as Ema finished up his words while giving the screen a hard stare.

"Back to the topic here. I'm not really here as a friend. I'm only here to see what the end result is. After all…"

He let out a breath.

"Ariake-senpai still feels like he owes something to someone."

* * *

"Hah… I didn't think I would feel this down after having taken one of them out."

Smoke rose from the end of Ibis after a successful attack.

Mitsuteru continued to stay down even after confirming that he had gained a point for his squad.

The entire night was dark now that the distant lights had been extinguished.

Sound soft a different fight could be heard in the distance, but the lights from that location were far too light to be seen.

The Bagworm that he wore was black to blend in with the entire night. Even if the Operators could figure out the right visual settings for their squads, it would still be difficult to find him if he ducked his head and withdrew his legs.

It was these kinds of tricks that he had learned from his mentors.

_They can be terrible at times, but I did pick up some nice things from them. Yeah, like…_

What could terrible people teach a play person like him?

Only terrible things came to mind the more he thought about it. Each one seeming to be worse than the next and never looking like it would be going to a good place.

That was just how his mentors were.

_Um, should I be worried about myself? I guess it's a bit late for that though._

Resignation was the only out.

_Well either way, I should get moving now. Shigeko is mad again, so supporting her might be best._

"Alright then, let's-"

Feeling something pierce through his legs, Mitsuteru ungracefully fell to the top of the roof again.

The wind had died down and Kenzaide had long since modified their visual setting to fit their surroundings.

Looking down at his legs, he saw trion leaking from a hole in his right leg.

"…Eh?"

A sound rang out in the air. Without any wind to cover it up, he managed to notice it.

Instead of turning to face the sound, he moved his body to roll around the roof until he was flung off the edge of the building.

_Someone found me!? Even if they have visual settings right, they shouldn't be able to find me regardless of if I just fired!_

Using the walls of the two buildings, he made a soft landing in the narrow space.

Since the wind had already died down in the area, he did not need to worry about it suddenly picking up for a few minutes.

Using that knowledge to his advantage, he moved along the wall towards one of the open spaces.

Tilting his head against the edge of the wall, he looked over the side.

"—!?"

He immediately ducked his head as a flash flew past his face.

_Again!? My face should be hidden to the point that they shouldn't be able to see me!_

But they had.

One of his opponents had managed to find him and fire an attack against him.

At the start of this match there had been fourth Snipers, two of which consisted of him and his teammate.

One of them had been taken out by Ninomiya Squad's captain, so that only left three of them.

If he was getting attacked like this then it only meant…

 _Taichi!? Seriously, I'm being cornered by_ Taichi _!?_

He could feel some of his pride start to slowly rot away at the realization.

He had nothing against the boy and would not place himself on any pedestal, but it was only natural for someone like him to at least think himself better at sniping than one of the clumsiest people in Border.

 _Ah, crap! I forgot that he's_ just that weak _! He wouldn't forget me that easily! And in a setting I chose too!_

Each thought only seemed to rot away his pride even faster.

The night setting had been put in place to better hide him. Winds were thrown in to mess with everyone else. The narrow spaces and tall buildings were there for him to have a better chance at sniping. Everything concerning this map and its setting had been done so that his squad could have the advantage.

And then he was spotted and sniped by Taichi.

"Fine then…"

He was average in everything, including his pride and thoughts.

"If he destroyed my pride like that…I only need to do one thing in return."

So when a normal person's pride had been completely destroyed, what would become of them?

"I'll return fire and take him out! Right! I haven't had a sniper shoot off since those terrible mentors decided to use me for target practice!"

They became desperate to gain that pride back.

Mitsuteru took in a breath before releasing it using his entire upper body. Instead of coming from only one place, the air was blown out through both his mouth and nose.

"Let's go!"


	129. Suzunari-1

Suzume set foot on the ground after ruling off of the mat in Kotowari Squad's operating room.

She had been forced to Bail Out after a strong attack, but she gave no indication that she minded. She watched as Nakagami continued to look over the screen in front of her. Unlike Mei, she could not use the multiple screen put in place, so only the one directly in front of her was being used.

"Nn…"

She stretched and then spoke to no one in particular.

"It's honestly been a while since I've been taken down like that. I never actually like dealing with Shooters if I can help it since they can do trashy things like that."

Someone spoke to her as she removed her jacket.

It was Takeshi.

The boy had been taken out only seconds after she had been defeated and he raised a hand from the mat he landed on.

"Are you okay, Senpai? I didn't think that two of us would be taken out so soon."

"Hurrying things won't make this go by any faster. I will honestly admit that I didn't plan for both of us to get taken out like that, but that's just how things go."

"Do you think this will be a long match?"

Takehsi stopped just before and Suzume nodded.

"When people this strong gather, each battle will wreak havoc no matter the location. But this particular location puts a limit on how much everyone can move around to begin with. And…"

And…

"Later on, anyone who finds an advantageous position on that kind of location will use it however they like."

"…So we need to take a position from someone and go from there now?"

"No." Suzume smiled. "Once the fight has gotten to this point, we will see some more technical moves. While our last two teammates honestly have no need to worry about friendly fire now, the others will need to make sure they don't end up attacking themselves. …So about halfway through this match, I expect some individuals - and perhaps the entire battle - will call for a temporary cease-fire. …And that is what I am honestly worried about."

"…So you don't think those two will be able to take out enough fights before that happens?"

"If I thought that they couldn't manage that much, I would not have agreed to this plan in the first place. Good grief," said Suzume. "I wanted to go all out from the very beginning, but I couldn't do much since I needed to follow Nrasaka's orders here."

Suzume began walking in the middle of her statement.

And once she passed Takeshi by…

"Are you going to watch from up close now?"

"Takeshi, do you feel lighter now that you have been taken out?"

"Why does it matter if I do or not? Since I've been taken out, I need to help however I can over here. Your Side Effect is also limited to if you can see what's going on, so feel free to take a break."

"Being a squad captain honestly doesn't seem to be worth the hassle. …Now, you asked if I was okay, didn't you? Let's go."

"Wait!" Takeshi moved to catch up to her. "I said that you could take a break!"

"Foolish captain. I got taken out early on. That means I have no reason to take a break. Instead, we need to make sure those other two work so hard that they ask for a break."

"You plan to still guide them even without being there? What about your limits?"

"My Side Effect works with my own senses to witness what is going on, so I can't do anything too precise. So it's rather useless in this kind of situation. Of course, there is a different way to use it here, but I don't feel like telling you that."

"You can be kind of scary at times, Senpai…"

"I'm just an honest girl. Besides…"

Suzume gave a "heh heh heh" of laughter.

"On occasion, it is nice to show off for only your loved ones. Don't you think?"

That question brought Takeshi to a stop and Suzume reached a hand out to him.

Suzume rubbed the gray hair on that long haired head and laughed in her throat again.

"Heh heh heh… I'm honestly glad you're worried here."

"Of course I am."

Takeshi sounded exasperated as he walked ahead of Suzume.

Suzume followed behind him with a light step.

Without looking back to confirm if she was following him, Takeshi fixed his scarf to make sure his voice could reach both girls in the room.

"Let's go. We still need to help those two. …I figured something out after I got shot in the head. If you're right, and it aligns with my thoughts, we might be in trouble if we don't hurry and get ourselves some good points."

* * *

"Huh?"

Taichi looked down at the place he had fired for a third time now.

He could tell that his target had managed to dodge the second and third shots. From his position, it appeared to have happened instantly and a bit remotely.

Mitsuteru had seemed to turn off Bagworm when moving away from the attack.

But there was no sensible reason to do so.

"Why is he showing himself off!? Isn't he supposed to just be a support type!?"

No one answered his question. The situation simply continued with time.

And despite Taichi's question, he heard more noise coming from the distance.

Those had to be gunfire attacks. The reverberating noise bouncing off of the buildings were hard to make out with all the blowing wind obscuring it, but Taichi was a Sniper. He had been taught how to hear the difference and he could at least tell the amount of times bullets had been fired. His captain, who happened to be a Gunner, had made sure he could do that much while waiting.

The sound did not stop. With each consecutive attack, more lights filled the distance. And…

"Are you serious?"

The next thing he knew, more lights appeared to light up the night.

_...What is he doing?_

The new lights were coming from where he had fired, but there should be no reason for those to appear. So why would there be any lights there?

**Kuru-ma:** "It looks like he's about to use a Shooter-type! Be careful, Taichi!"

**Black Wolf:** "The urgency in your tone might actually make him freeze, Kuruma-senpai."

**Kuru-ma:** "Eh? But if I'm not urgent then it might make him think that it's not important. Anyway, he probably added it into his set this match. He doesn't look like he's used to firing anything other than a Sniper rifle. I want to fire at him, but he might end up tossing that thing haphazardly. That wouldn't be good for anyone."

Knowing his captain was safe brought relief .

… _But still._

How was he supposed to deal with this?

But Kuruma kept talking while oblivious to how he felt.

**Kuru-ma:** "Something has been bothering me about some of the people we're fighting. For now, Taichi, just try to get out of range of the attack. He might trace back the previous shots to your location, so be careful on how you move."

**Black Wolf:** "Where would it even be good to go?"

**Kuru-ma:** "Ah. That's true."

Taichi looked round as he listened.

Moving around the buildings meant going over the narrow spaces that seemed to gather wind into them at set intervals.

The wind had recently died down, but the breeze coming through could be felt even from the top of the building.

… _So is he going to fire?_

As he thought that, a flash shot through the pitch black.

The brightness and size told him that the Meteora shot had yet to be fired. Instead, Ibis had been fired and destroyed the edge of the building.

Pieces of the edge of the roof flew into the air upon impact.

Taichi counted himself lucky for having already moved away from the edge. Getting taken out now would put his work to waste.

**Taicchi:** "Oh, I get it! He doesn't fully know where I am yet! He's holding off on firing Meteora because of that!"

**Mi-Kon:** "But he was close to hitting you there. He's also traced back your shots and fired one of his own, so you should get moving now. The other two don't have time to fire at Ariake-kun since they are being lookouts for you to fire on him. So…"

So…

**Mi-Kon:** "If we want to make it a short-term battle, we need you to take out Meishō Squad's main form of support. You caught him off guard before and he let go of Bagworm, so this would be your only chance."

"Then," said another voice.

**Black Wolf:** "Should we just leave him over here and move on to someone else? Without Bagworm, he's more open than ever. The distance from the last fight also isn't that great. Ninomiya-san might get here while we wait things out."

**Taicchi:** "Kō-san, from what I saw, he was moving closer to the other fight instead of over here. …Ah! I can see you two now!"

"Oh?" continued Taichi while looking at his teammates.

The two of them had been relaying where to fire on Mitsuteru the whole time, but now he understood just how close they were to the upperclassman. It was still extremely dark, and the flash from Ibis was a dead giveaway, but even those were not needed to see where they were.

If they wanted, they could have also begun firing on Mitsuteru to gain a point.

**Mi-Kon:** "Do you get it now, Taichi? They can't move from their spot just yet."

"Oh," said Taichi when he figured it out.

If they came out of hiding, they ran the risk of Mitsuteru's teammates finding them. The remaining two had not been spotted yet, so that left them as unknowns at the moment.

And if they rushed both of them while Mitsuteru currently had an explosive next to him, they would only end up losing something to them.

To respond, they would need an extra piece to be able to counter against anything that came at them from a distance.

That put him on the frontline.

**Mi-Kon:** "Can't we just blast the Meteora before he fires it?"

**Black Wolf:** "Bad idea. That would only give away our location and might even get us caught up in the explosion if we aren't fast enough."

**Mi-Kon:** "Whose side are you on, Kō-kun?"

**Black Wolf:** "I'm on the current situation's side. Please just calm down a little, Kon-chan."

Murakami's words helped Taichi relax his own shoulders.

He could really feel the experience Murakami had.

… _Still, it's incredible._

He was only two years older than him, but he could follow the flow of the battle and he had fought multiple fierce battles already without assistance.

He wondered if he would be on that level in another two years. Or…

**Kuru-ma:** "Taichi! To your right!"

Just as Kuruma's words reached him, Taichi sensed a small light.

It did not come from the place Mitsuteru had set himself at.

Nor did it come from where the previous battle had been fought.

It was a much smaller but quite distinct light. It came from…

… _The big fight!?_

* * *

"What is Suzunari doing just sitting there!?"

Akane raised her voice while looking up at the large screen displaying the current match.

She also pointed toward the side of the screen where a large battle was happening.

"Taichi managed to score a hit on Ariake-senpai, so they should take the initiative here, right!? But they're hiding right now!"

"That's right," said Kumagai while crossing her arms.

Something occurred to Akane upon seeing Kumagai's breasts resting on her arms.

… _Oh, I didn't realize her boobs were that big!_

She was surprised to find this such a surprise.

Their size was hard to miss, so how had she managed to miss it before?

… _Because of Mogami-san!_

That woman had given her an impression that older women had extraordinary specs, so she must have lost sight of what the average really was. That was bad. That was the same as becoming so accustomed to expert techniques that she let ordinary techniques catch her off guard. Probably.

"Anyway, to get back on topic, why are they just standing there?"

"Well." Kumagai nodded with a perfectly serious look on her face. "I will ask someone real quick."

**Zaki:** "Jin, put it down! Put! It! Down! Now! Gah!"

"That was a bad idea."

"K-Kumagai-senpai, don't give-up so quickly!"

"Sticking with that idea would only lead to confusion."

"Fair enough," said Akane while noticing the fight going on.

"K-Kumagai-senpai! Who else can we ask!?"

"Um, Rei?"

"Sorry, I'm trying to do some touch ups on something here. Teruya-chan, you handle it."

"If you insist," said Teruya. "But I'm going to write it down so we can also listen to the commentary. Is that fine with you two?"

The two Nasu Squad members nodded their heads, Teruya doing the same.

**Leagues Above:** "I imagine it's about snuffing out the rest of their opponents. Look around the map."

.

Kumagai looked around the screen at each member fighting.

And she noticed something.

"All members of each squad have gone into battle at some point. All except for one."

The captain of Meishō Squad had yet to even be seen by any of the fighters. The second Sniper of the squad had fired before, so he had technically already joined the fight.

**Leagues Above:** "This is Meishō Squad's plan: Use their best from the start so that they can thin the herd before someone stronger comes in to fight."

**Mad Hatter:** "But is that really enough to win this match!?"

**Leagues Above:** "It is. Or rather…they probably set things up this way for precisely this reason."

"You see," continued Nasu as she joined the conversation anyway.

The sigh in her voice was obvious. She was not a fan of this tactic.

**Leagues Above:** "They have only been using Ariake and Shigenaga-san for offense in this match so far. In other words, they are dragging things out while keeping the other teams unaware of their other two members."

**Kuma:** "You mean they want to go for the entire match?"

**Leagues Above:** "Yes, like stalling out. So their opponents wear down for their other two members to gain points. This is nothing to worry about for people with a lot of trion, but it also puts everyone on a timer. Since they have been in the mid tier for a while now, stalling out even that much should count as a win for them. In a way, it's more of a personal win that could lead to an official win."

Also…

**Leagues Above:** "Those other two members create a problem for Suzunari in particular."

"After all," Teruya said without turning away from the screen.

**Leagues Above:** "They now run the risk of being spotted and attacked."

* * *

_This is actually bad._

Kuruma held up his rifle while looking around the corner of a building.

The narrow space he stood in was starting to fill back up with wind as time went on.

In the open space, Mitsuteru had yet to fire the Meteora at his side.

_We're held in place here. At first it was fine since we could tell Taichi where to fire, but now we can't move or we'll be found out. Him having that Meteora at the ready also stops us from firing. But this wind is going to force us out if we let it build up._

They could manage a distance gunfire and block using Murakami's Raygust, but it would draw the attention of everyone around them.

So what could be done here?

**Black Wolf:** "Kuruma-senpai, we need to move. Even if we get everyone's attention, we need to take him out and get out of here. …Or at least try."

**Kuru-ma:** "That's true, but…"

_Who would you be doing that for?_

It was natural to think he wanted the point in order to win the match, or just so they wouldn't lose badly.

But that didn't feel right.

Something was off about the entire situation, but that had not seemed to slow anyone down in the slightest.

_It actually feels like things are being sped up. Our situation is bad, but Kō is rushing things here. And it's not just him. Ninomiya taking out two people felt like he was rushing through his fight too._

Why would they want that?

Stalling out a match would be bad for them, but hastening it would only make room for mistakes.

And yet two top members of their respective positions were trying to race through the match for some reason.

Kuruma gave a sigh through his nose.

Now was not the time to think about those things.

Instead, his thoughts should be focused on what was in front of him.

**Kuru-ma:** "Alright, we will go for it. But attacking the Meteora seems like a better option here. Kō, I'll be relying on you to block the blast while I fire directly at Ariake."

**Black Wolf:** "Understood."

**Kuru-ma:** "Taichi, you can be the one to fire at the Meteora. If that doesn't take him out then the gunfire will."

**Taicchi:** "Got it! Should be easy enough since the thing is so bright!"

"Wait…"

Kuruma widened his eyes as he realized something.

Murakami was getting in place while Taichi would be moving into position.

_If it gives off a massive glow that Taichi can see the area around it then it should have been enough to attract others. In which case…_

"Guess we got found out."

He turned on his heel and brought up a Shield.

Multiple bullets struck the shield.

Upon impact they burst and caused smoke to fill the entire narrow space.

**Kuru-ma:** "They were using the Meteora as a signal! Taichi, fire-!"

Without any warning, Kuruma felt his body start to drag towards the floor.

The weight of his arm had been raised to the point that he could not keep himself upright anymore.

_Lead Bullets!?_

A flash of light came from behind them as the wind continued to pick up in the narrow space.

It blew through the tight alleyway and blew away the smoke that had been created by the first round of shots.

There was nothing after the sniper fire.

Taichi had missed.

He felt the weight of his arm lessen substantially after Murakami had run up to cut off the appendage.

**Black Wolf:** "What now? This place is bad for us since he can fire more Lead Bullets at us!"

**Kuru-ma:** "We'll move back from here! It's better if we go face off against Ariake for the moment! Just make sure you're on full guard!"

More black bullets came at them from the other end of the narrow space.

Thinking quickly, Kuruma lifted his rifle to take the attacks.

Before he could feel the weight added on to the rifle, he dropped it while bringing out a second one.

A voice soon came after doing so.

"Kuruma-san, you get it. We're weak people compared to a lot of people here. Isn't that right?"

.

The voice echoed through the narrow space, making it difficult to tell just where it was coming from.

The one it belonged to was clear though.

Meishō Squad Captain Meishō Seiji.

"We need help when it comes to fighting. Like right now. You needed Kō-kun's help, and like when you fought Shigeko. You needed him for defense that time too. But you are better at actually leading your squad than I am, so you have that over me. But…"

Seiji's voice began to become more clear as he went on.

It echoed around them before starting to gather in a single location.

Murakami was the first to react by moving in front of him.

"One of my teammates kind of wants some revenge on some people here. One of those people is the one defending you right now. _So I only plan to defeat Kō-kun."_

At the other end of the narrow space stood a single figure.

His posture was straight and the hands holding guns were aimed directly at them.

Kuruma felt himself freeze for a moment at the tone he had just heard.

There was no hint of joking in it and he only spoke as if truly angered by something. The normally relaxed and smooth voice was filled with something indescribable that would have made his blood run cold if not for being in a tiron body.

Then that figure began to open his mouth again.

"Just kidding~"

The next thing that happened felt like a blur.

A powerful light filled his vision as Murakami moved forward to block it.

The shot crashed into Raygust with a great amount of force that it seemed to crack the defense formed Trigger.

But it did not break.

Raygust remained intact and Murakami held strong.

Kuruma looked from the figure to Murakami to confirm that what he had heard had not been a mistake.

"Kō-"

Then a second shot came.

As powerful as the second one and just as heavy, it broke through Raygust with less resistance this time.

Using the cracks that had formed as a target, the shot had shattered the entire Trigger as it moved on to take off Murakami's arm.

* * *

"Gotcha with that one! Tsu isn't the only one who can fire back-to-back Ibis shots! Thanks for not going Full Guard or that would have been pretty embarrassing for me!"

**2Truths1Lie:** "Good shot there, Shinichi-kun."

"My talents aren't wasted, you know! I'll make sure to get us a point by taking out a fellow fourth!"

Asagi smiled to himself with Ibis already positioned for another shot.

Firing now may get them another point, but it would guarantee that he would be traced from it.

The first two shots had been easy enough to cover with the wind funneling through the narrow space and Seiji covering him, but a third shot would make it so that those factors did not matter as much.

So he would wait.

**Daybreak:** "Sorry for holding you back like this, Shinichi-kun. I know you would prefer the other fight over this one."

"It's fine. Nana would probably get on my case if I was over there anyway. Besides, this gives me a chance to join in on a fight with two other Snipers! Although…you don't really look like a Sniper right now, Tsu!"

**Daybreak:** "Hahaha. Yeah, I really am just that pathetic, aren't I?"

_That's not what I said!_

It was a bad habit for his friend to be self deprecating when taking charge. While it didn't happen often, the times it did were the times this side of him showed.

Compared to the rest of them, he was the most susceptible to this.

_I'm pretty much at my best at all times. Nana is too self disciplined to feel that way. Sei is pretty laid back. Kaka is…well, he's weird in his own right. But Tsu kinda just takes it at face value when leading._

He was a normal person after all.

Expecting extraordinary things from him would put pressure and tension on him that would only degrade him.

This match had already deviated from what he had planned, but that did not seem to put any more tension on him than normal. It was something that Asagi found strange, but did not question.

Any questions could come after the match.

If his friend could remain focused on the match with how normal he was then it was up to the abnormal ones of the team to make sure he could reach the end.

"Right! Next shot will be a point for us!"

* * *

Seiji watched as Kuruma and Murakami began to move back.

The wind was still building up in the narrow space, but they had chosen to move towards Mitsuteru and his Meteora instead of towards him.

In comparison, he was the best choice to move towards due to being pretty weak compared to his teammates, but right now he had his squad's second Sniper right behind him.

_I'm pretty weak, but Shigeko and Shinichi are strong. But we only have one support. So what happens when that support decides to stop being a support?_

This was a showing for all of them.

One of the most normal people in this match had just taken a step outside of that normal world.

He gave a quiet laugh as he moved away from the narrow space.

"It's pretty scary."

Looking up at the pitch black sky, he noticed something.

"Oh? I guess it's time for that then."

A loud sound rang out in the area as the ground shook violently.

The light from the other side of the narrow spaces was no longer there.

"He fired, huh?"

**Daybreak:** "Kanji-kun, please get everything ready."

**Feeling Alive:** "Will do."

**Daybreak:** "Shigeko, please start moving now."

**Shige-ko:** "Fine."

**Daybreak:** "Shinichi-kun, you are free to do as you please."

**One:** "Got it!"

**Daybreak:** "Seiji-san?"

He gave another laugh at what he had heard.

**2Truths1Lie:** "Yes?"

**Daybreak:** "Thanks for putting up with this. I'll make sure to make it up to all of you afterwards."

"There's no need for that. This has been pretty fun to be a part of."

Facing Border's #4 Attacker without worry of getting taken out was something amazing.

Being in a match with Border's #1 Shooter was also noteworthy.

There were just so many things that made it worth the trouble of following through a quickly made plan.

"Even my acting got to be useful here. If anything, I want you to do some more planning for later matches. If you want, that is."

**Daybreak:** "I don't think Shigeko would want me to do that. Besides, Shinichi-kun likes to do his own thing and Kanji-kun has been going at full throttle this whole time. I guess the only thing I can't do normally is actually plan. Heh. I think it's because of all the manga I read."

"That may be true," Seiji said with a smile. "But this has still been fun. So let's keep up the pace, alright?"

* * *

Taichi could see it from his position.

The Meteora cluster had been thrown to the ground just as his teammates had left one of the narrow spaces.

From what he could see through his scope, Murakami had lost an arm and to create a new shield from Raygust.

Looking at his Radar, he noticed that Mitsuteru had activated Bagworm again. With no sign of him being within the new cloud of smoke it was clear to tell that he was running away.

_I need to find him!_

Moving his scope around he found that it would be near impossible to find the older Sniper. The sky was pitch black and there were no lights on.

Kon had changed their visual settings to see through the pitch black, but even that did little help.

_Did he change the color of his Bagworm or something!? Aw, man! That was our chance! I need to make sure-_

A flash.

Taichi threw his body backwards.

Something shot through the air above him, barely missing and flying off into the air.

Quickly pushing himself back to the edge of the roof, he looked through the scope to try and find where the shot had come from.

It had gone from the ground up instead of from the sky to the ground like the one that had taken Murakami's arm.

**Taicchi:** "Kon-san, can't you lighten up my sight a bit!?"

**Mi-Kon:** "Give me a minute! I'm still working on Kuruma-san and Kō-kun! The best from Meteora blinded the both of them!"

_This nighttime setting with the lights is really messing us up here! But it was such a fun tactic! It really makes me want to use it now!_

Something had been off from the start of the match, even he had been able to tell, but the setting had been something that he found fun. Like a game of hide-and-seek wherein the found get taken out.

He had been able to be one of the people to find someone with the help of his teammates, but that had been turned around.

The opponents were now the ones seeking while he was forced into the position of the hiding.

To make this game even harder those opponents had the advantage of making the rules here.

They set the location, the settings, the timing, and everything that gave them the advantage here.

Taichi was even less of a player here than the others given how well he normally did compared to them.

_This is really unfair! Shigenaga-san held her ground against Kō-san and Kuruma-senpai, so what kind of fairness is that!? They totally made things unfair for the rest of us! But..._

But…

_That's making this pretty fun! Ariake-senpai's hard to find, but it'll feel nice to actually hit him!_

There was no giving up.

His teammates had not given up and instead tried to get away from taking any more damage.

"I can't-"

Another set flew past his head.

A smile never left his lips.

"I can't hold them back, so I'll take him out!"

Lining up his scope, he could see the smallest amount of movement from where the second shot had been fired.

The movement came from a hazy black figure that would easily blend in with everything else.

"—!?"

With his finger on the trigger, he halted all movement.

Something caught Taichi's eye through the scope.

Pushing himself back again, he threw the hood of Bagworm over his head and held Egret close to his chest.

_Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad! Can't be seen now or I'll really get taken out!_

Realizing that his teammates could not see what he did, he was quick to let them know.

**Taicchi:** "N-N-N-Ninomiya-san in close to you guys! Watch out!"

Lights soon filled the pitch black sky.

Taichi looked over his shoulder to see where the lights were headed.

That was…

.

Murakami over his remaining arm before Taichi had spoken up at all.

The natural fighting instincts he had went off after confirming that Mitsuteru had managed to escape.

_Where is-!?_

All shields were put down from where they protected him and Kuruma from the blast of Meteora.

Focusing all of his attention to a single side, he forced his arm up to hold up Raygust.

At the same time, Taichi's message came through as a sturdy shield appeared between him and the lights that had come down on them.

"Kuruma-senpai, I'll hold out here as long as possible. Sorry that I couldn't be much help during this match. You and Taichi will need to be getting the points for the rest of the match."

More lights rushed them, forcing him to turn his body in order to face them.

The lights crashed into both Raygust as well as the focused Shield he had brought up. Each one of them made solid sounds that reverberated through the Trigger and into Murakami's arm.

Each one held power behind them with the faster moving lights hitting different locations of the shield.

"No, we can manage here with our new strategy. It worked against Shigenaga, so it should work here."

"…"

Murakami wanted to argue against that, but the words died in his throat.

Defending against more of the lights was possible, but it would get him nowhere.

If Kuruma stayed here, it would add offense to his hardened defense.

That was their new strategy.

_Oh. I get it now._

Murakami gave a hollow laugh as he shifted his position.

"Is something funny?" Kuruma asked while bringing out a second rifle.

"Not really. I just realized how much I'm being affected here."

Kuruma tilted his head, watching as more lights crashed into the hardened defense.

_I doubt he planned this far ahead, but looks like Ariake set up something nasty here. Hm. I guess I can use this opportunity to get back at that guy I call a friend._

The smoke around them began to be blown away with the wind that was now funneling through the narrow space next to them.

Using his shoulder, Murakami nudged Kuruma over to get away from the narrow space.

With the wind now pushing against them, staying near the narrow spaces was not an option.

_He's holding something back from me, so I'm actually kind of mad at him. …But this works out._

With the smoke out of the way, it became clear who had begun firing at them.

Even without his sight, Murakami was too familiar with these kinds of attacks from all of his time in Border.

Murakami lowered his body in front of Kuruma, held out his leg and arm, and waited.

This would be a chance for both him and his team.

"Tch. You learned the best way to block my attacks from that damn faker. …He really is-"

"At the time…"

Murakami spoke to the sudden voice.

He did not stop speaking even as more power shots stashed into Raygust and sent feedback into his arm.

"I was only messing around with my friend when it came up. I would still be doing this to block you, no matter if he was involved or not."

A sudden heart began to form inside.

It was not a physical one, that would not have been possible with his current body, but Murakami felt it start to grow in his mind.

Before him now was the enemy of his friend.

There was no real animosity between the two, yet he still felt that heat begin to rise inside of him.

"Oh…"

And realized why.

"This is the chance I didn't have back then."

* * *

Yuki could feel his body try to move in a way he did not want.

Watching everything play out to the current situation had started to make him lose focus once again.

With his Side Effect taking advantage of his loss of focus, he knew that he would start to make strange movements that made no sense to those around him.

And yet…

"I don't know what to say."

He spoke without letting his microphone reach his words.

Each word would not be meant for everyone to hear and be recorded. They were only meant for him to hear so that he could confirm something with himself.

Kimura and Sekai turned to him, noticing the words, but said nothing in return.

Should he thank them for that later?

_Regardless,_ he thought. _What am I supposed to say about this? I could just be overthinking this, but it feels too much like that time. Kō had not been around during the incident, so he couldn't do anything about it. He had to hear everything from me. But even then…_

How had he reacted?

The more he thought back on that day in the hospital the more he found it hard to remember the events that had happened.

Murakami likely remembered every detail of that conversation, no matter how small. His Side Effect would not let him forget it, so he would keep that memory for the rest of his life.

But Yuki could not even remember what room he had been in.

_I guess I just don't want to think about it. The incident between me and Ninomiya had to be told to Kō. Kō wasn't there, so I needed to tell him._

_No, I guess I didn't_ need _to tell him. He was just a convent person to tell without worrying about anything afterwards._

Yuki only knew how to be convenient for others, so thinking that Murakami was only convenient felt like a painful comment.

_I just hope neither one of them thinks of this as a chance to change that incident. Nothing can be done about it, so thinking that some can be done would just mess them up. I guess I do want to see Ninomiya mess up, but if it affects Kō then I would rather it just be a passing thought._

**WorTri:** "Hah. I guess we'll find out which is stronger: a strong offense or a strong defense."

**Manager:** "With one of his arms missing, Agent Murakami may have a hard time fending against Captain Ninomiya's attacks. But if they use the tactic they did against Agent Shigenaga, Suzunari-1 might be able to pull this off."

**WorTri:** "It will need accurate timing, but they have a chance. It's not zero, so that is already a plus."

Time was being given for him to organize his thoughts.

Kimura and Sekai were both keeping up with their commentaries while making sure none of their words could be directed towards him in the meantime.

But he knew that could not last.

Between the three of them, he would be the one best suited to speak of this fight.

His best friend was fighting with his captain against the only person Yuki could ever call an enemy.

Yuki knew how all of them moved just as well as they did themselves.

If he held back from saying anything then it would only put misleading thoughts into everyone else's minds.

"Hah…"

Yuki brought up his arm, focusing more so that his Side Effect could not force him to move.

Lifting his arm into the air, he took in a breath.

**Manager:** "Captain Meishō is also-"

"—!"

Kimura jumped up as the solid sound of Yuki's fist slamming into his chest.

_Oh, my bad. Sorry about that Kimura. Hey, don't glare at me like that! I had to do this so I can focus better!_

The glare from Kimura and muffled laugh from Sekai overlapped with each other.

Yuki looked over with an apology in his expression. It did little to quell her anger.

_Fine, fine, I'll do something more simple._

Taking in a breath, he thought, _Oh… Isn't this what Teru does?_

Before he could think about that any further, he released his breath.

The tension that had built up in his body was released, his shoulders falling down and chest deflating before moving back up.

It was an action he had copied from someone.

"Right then."

With his back now straight he faced the screen once more.

**White Fox:** "Suzunari-1 will lose if they go into the fight the way they currently are."


	130. Naki Shigenaga: Part 2

The strong wind in the narrow spaces were strange. That was the conclusion that Taichi had come to.

They would funnel through the narrow spaces, but not always in a single direction.

They would slowly build up, move through the narrow spaces, then blow out everything within the narrow spaces.

It felt like multiple wind tunnels that had yet to be activated.

Until they were.

Once those wind tunnels were activated, they created an impenetrable wall of wind that pushed everything back.

Wind that powerful made it difficult to get the timing right on when to move from a building.

Since the spaces between buildings were so narrow it made jumping over them relatively easy. Height played a factor as well, but not as much as the wind did.

Sometimes the wind would move from one end of the narrow spaces to the other, but other times they would carry a downward draft that would try to suck him in.

The worst times were when two opposing winds collided in a narrow space and threw all of the wind upwards instead.

When that happened it created an upward force that threatened to blow him high into the air.

Any other time it would have been seen as a fun experiment to try out, but now was not the time for it.

"—!?"

So then why did he find himself in this situation to begin with?

With his body far above the ground, he found himself being thrown all around by the wind that had lifted him up after having jumped from the building he had been on.

_I thought I got the thing right there! The wind wasn't that strong, so it should have been fine to jump! How did this happeeeeeeeeeeeen!?_

It had not been a simple throw into the air either.

The sudden colliding wind had forcibly pushed his entire body into the air with a spin. The spin had then turned into more of strange acrobatics that would have made professionals impressed.

Up became down and left became right before he could gather himself.

"This suuuuucks!"

With that shout into the pitch black, he continued his strange acrobats while being sent flying into the distance.

* * *

Shigenaga clicked her tongue and clamped her teeth together.

Each turn she made had been followed by a sword swing and an attack from her rifle, but…

"O-oops! Ah! There!"

Nothing got through.

"Move my foot here and…step!"

"No, no, no! More to the right!"

"Like this?"

"Exactly! Oh! Headfirst Fall!"

The girl she had been fighting was so inexperienced that it was giving her secondhand embarrassment.

All the movements had been sloppy and easily seen through. The only way she was moving around Shigenaga's attacks had been because of the falling dog's guidance.

Even while fighting two members of Ninomiya Squad - who had thrown some of their attacks her way - he still found time to guide this inexperienced girl.

_It pisses me off that they can work like this! This girl is even throwing shots over at those two to support him! What kind of crap is that!?_

**Daybreak:** "Um, Shigeko? Try taking a breath. Just a quick one. You should calm down a bit."

_You! Shut up! Whose fault do you think it is that I'm like this!?_

Regardless of her mental yelling, Shigenaga did as instructed.

While turning around with multiple sword strikes against the inexperienced girl's shield, she took in air.

It could not reach her real lungs, but that was fine with her.

Letting off gunfire with her turning, she released the air.

Shigenaga's arms continued to move while her legs carried her in turning movements, slamming movements, and circling movements.

But it was different now.

All tension had left her body with the breath.

Her movements, while being the same as before, were less stiff and much more nimble now.

_Right, I need to make sure I don't lose focus here. Even against an inexperienced person, I can still lose._

Lifting her body with each turn, she drew arcs in the air.

"Excellent instructions!"

"Huh?"

"But keep up with me now!"

The confusion on the inexperienced girl's face was clear.

But Shigenaga ignored it.

She had complimented the fallen dog on what he was doing.

But Shigenaga did so only because it felt right.

The inexperienced girl seemed to have realized that as well since her expression hardened.

But Shigenaga could only feel relief in that.

"Show me your inexperience!"

.

Hoshi knew that she was being supported much more than she was supporting.

The fight in front of her and the fight behind here were two different ones, although they did overlap at times.

Sometimes Toby's blades or inukai's gunfire would reach them.

Hoshi made sure to stay out of the line of fire, but Shigenaga took to those attacks like it was natural to do so.

The older girl threw herself into those attacks, batted them away, then focused back in on her.

Hoshi had seen something like this before.

It used to be a regular occurrence that made her feel bad.

After all…

_That is how a natural soldier fights…_

Her older sister had done that so many times now that she was certain as to what Shigenaga was doing.

The movements of both girls were fundamentally the same, but Hoshi could tell the difference between the two of them.

Her older sister had more power behind her attacks and that had become something more when adding defense and speed into it.

Shigenaga already had defense and speed in her movements. Instead, she decided to add power and nimbleness into her movements.

While her older sister only added more to have fun, this older girl was doing so because she needed to.

That difference had been keeping Hoshi unsteady the entire time.

Toby had noticed this as well and had been throwing his attacks in their direction to assist her.

But now…

"Right! Thank you for this opportunity, Shigenaga-senpai!"

The older girl had come to terms with something through her breathing.

Her movements were more than just simple reflexive attacks or shield breaking ones.

Each movement now carried a sense of want in them, all while never forsaking the basics that kept them balanced.

Hoshi could only respond in kind by organizing herself here.

The bad feeling had continued to linger in her mind, but this older girl's actions had lighted it.

So with new resolve, Hoshi made a certain action.

"—!"

She moved forward.

.

Solid sounds rang out in the area.

Shigenaga moved using only her toes.

Spinning motions were added into her steps as she swung Kōgetsu and her rifle in arcs.

The repeated sound of gunfire could be heard alongside Kōgetsu's thumping against a shield.

Hoshi brought up momentary shields to block the bombardment of gun and sword before moving to the side.

Her momentum was never lost as she rounded the shields to advance on her opponent.

Mimicking the movement of her opponent, Hoshi threw herself into a turn.

Two blades clashed, stopping both of them from turning any more than they already were.

"Kuh!"

Shigenaga pulled up her rifle and began to fire up close.

As she pulled the trigger, a blade came from the side.

The blade pushed against the rifle, throwing it off course.

Hoshi used the chance to duck under the gun and try to sweep Shigenaga's legs out from under her.

Shigenaga made a jump, loosening her grip on Kōgetsu.

The two girls rightened themselves before pushing off the ground to gain some distance.

"Asteroid!" they both shouted.

A cube of trion appeared, split into pieces, and flew forward.

A trigger was pulled that fired a shot forward. Smaller shots appeared in the air to follow the single one.

The two girls ran after their shots.

Shigenaga was the first to react by bringing up Kōgetsu.

The shot collided in the air, some going even beyond that and moving towards the other fight.

"Show me those Triggers you like to use!"

"Very well! Please receive them!"

Shigenaga held herself up as she moved forward.

Hoshi pulled out her Kōgetsu once more. This time she held it in a way that was only seen in the logs.

In the previous matches she had been in, Hoshi held her blade in a certain way to show the activation of one of her prototype Triggers.

Anyone could figure how she would move once she had gotten into the motion for it.

Shigenaga prepared for what was to come.

And as soon as they reached each other…

"Fu-"

"—!?"

Shigenaga made a movement to react just before the prototype Trigger activated.

But it never did.

"I take it back! You aren't so inexperienced!"

Hoshi had made it appear that she fell for the taunt directed towards her. Her actions had been the ones used when activating the special Trigger.

Yet the end result was far different.

Instead of activating Fujin, Hoshi had predicted the slash, took a leap into the air, and used the force of Shigenaga's swing as a springboard.

With a new force under her foot, Hoshi made a backwards leap in the opposite direction she had been moving.

Right to the other fight.

.

Toby smiled on the inside at what had just happened.

The entire time he had been fighting, his opponents had been Tsuji and Inukai.

In a way, they had been evenly matched. Although that was only on a surface level.

Toby could feel himself start to lose traction as the fight went on.

Inukai's ranged attacks could be dodged or blocked easily enough with his reflexes, but Tsuji had been putting more and more pressure on him.

The combination of the two mixed with supporting Hoshi had gotten him a few cuts along his body.

But that situation had changed in an instant.

"My apologies for not properly supporting you!"

Hoshi had made it back to them.

At the moment Tsuji's blade would have made another cut, Hoshi had thrown herself in the way.

She used her own blade to block the attack.

Seeing a new chance, Toby reacted by placing his hand on the ground.

With a new sense of balance, he threw his foot upwards.

Tsuji's blade was sent into the air by the kick.

"And then…"

Toby placed his other hand on the ground as he began to spin with his handstand.

Using his other foot, he locked onto Hoshi to push her back.

Nothing needed to be said for her to understand.

Following the push, she took a few steps back.

Gunfire from Inukai came soon after.

Each one of them collided with a shield.

Tsuji moved back to stand beside his teammate.

.

 **Lobo:** "Nice job, Hoshi!"

 **Prototype Star:** "Thank you very much! Although I do feel bad for spooking Tsuji-san like that."

 **Lobo:** "Don't mind. You're keeping true to yourself, so he won't have any hard feelings."

That must have been what she needed to hear as a sigh of relief came followed.

_Something is worrying me about this situation though._

Toby tightened his grip on the Scorpion blade he had created. Headfirst Fall would be difficult to use as one of the narrow spaces had already begun to fill back up.

 **Honest Sister:** "Heh heh heh. Foolish dog, do you need more time to win? Or do you honestly need Hoshi-chan's help there?"

The irritating voice of Kotowari Squad's Sniper came through clearly for them.

He felt like there was. A lot of things he needed today to her, but that would be saved for after the match.

For now, he would focus more on what was happening.

 **Lobo:** "It's pretty hard to deal with both Sumiharu and Shinnosuke by myself here. But we can't have Hoshi stop Shinnosuke since he can't fight girls."

 **Honest Sister:** "You two are honestly too nice. Just use that to your advantage and take him out. He's a pretty good support, so I doubt you would make it out of that fight without using a limb."

 **Lobo:** "I won't make Hoshi do that if she doesn't think it's fair to him."

 **Prototype Star:** "I am very sorry."

 **Colors:** "It's fine. We understand why you want it like that. Instead of those two, try and get Shigenaga to go after Inukai-senpai."

As long as Toby could handle Tsuji, it would be fine to involve girls into the fight. That had been what Takeshi was telling them.

Toby looked back at Hoshi.

The two of them were sliding along the ground, not wanting to stay in place, but not wanting to mov too far ahead.

 **Prototype Star:** "I can try and bring her back over here. But now that we are between both Meishō and Ninomiya squads, it might be difficult to not just have them use gunfire against us."

 **Lobo:** "Fine, we'll widen the space to make sure we can bring both sides closer to each other. From there it'll be a bit of a free-for-all, but that means we just have to have each other's backs, got it?"

 **Prototype Star:** "Understood!"

Toby heard the sound of Hoshi's footsteps moving back towards Shigenaga.

There was a need to move each person around properly, so he would wait for Hoshi to bring the fight with Shigenaga over to his fight with Ninomiya Squad.

"Shigenaga-senpai, please have a dual with me!"

He immediately turned around.

"That's not how you start the next fight!"

As he turned, Toby felt his body begin to move without any commands from his mind.

Starting from his head, his body began to lean backwards.

Knowing what the action was meant for, he lifted one of his legs into the air.

Since it did not go against what his body wanted, there has been no stagnation in his reflexive movement.

Toby threw his leg to the side as his body continued to lean back.

It came in contact with Hoshi's back, kicking her to the side.

"Crap! Sorry, but-"

His words died down as a flash of light tore through the space between the two of them.

.

Inukai watched in fascination as Toby reflexively dodged the sudden shot that had been fired.

More than just dodge it, he had managed to kick Hoshi out of the way of the shot as well.

It felt like a good time to attack the two of them, but the surprised look from Shigenaga told him that moving would only gain her attention.

So instead of attacking, he followed the line the shot was following.

And then…

"—!?"

It hit.

Tsuji had gotten shot right in the head.

"Crap!"

With Hoshi being as close as she was it was obvious why he had not been able to react in time.

The cracks running along his head began to grow as his body fell backwards towards the ground.

**Bail Out.**

The sound of something else hitting the ground in the distance could also be heard.

Turning towards the sound, Inukai lifted his gun. The Kotowari Squad members had also seemed to be surprised by the outcome as they also turned towards the sound.

"Ow ow ow ow ow ow… I got sent pretty far, didn't I? Wait! Did I hit!? Did I get the shot!?"

The sound had come from Taichi hitting the ground, they all realized.

The younger boy had quickly gotten up to check his surroundings and brought up his guard once more.

_What just…happened?_

It made little sense.

_Where did he even come from? Oh man, someone might not be happy with this result. It's pretty funny, and I know those guys will be going for the throat once this match is done, but damn does that suck. Now Kotowari Squad has the advantage in numbers here._

The fight had just made a drastic change.

Since Kotowari Squad still had two members left, they had to make a choice.

With that advantage, they could team up with someone else to take out the others.

But they could just easily become the targets and fight everyone else as well.

In his own opinion, Inukai would want to team up with them for the time being and simply fire at them if the chance appeared.

But before he could try anything…

"—!"

One of the two Kotowari Squad members had disappeared.

No, it was more like _he had covered a great distance in an instant._

Toby now stood at Taichi's side, hands on both of his shoulders.

_This might be another change coming up. The fact he didn't attack Shigeko or take out Taichi right there means that he is planning something._

But what would that something be?

Toby was unpredictable as things stood, so adding this new element could change the fight into something completely different.

And what came next from him only proved Inukai's thoughts right.

"Hey, Naki! How about you have that dual with Taichi here while Hoshi and I fight Sumiharu over there!?"

.

That could not have been right.

Shigenaga was sure that she had not heard the dog properly or else she would have already attacked.

But the way he was looking seemed to be the reality of the situation.

The entire battlefield around the had come to a halt with what had just happened.

"Eh!? Eh!? Wait, what are you talking about, Toby!?"

Taichi's nerves seemed to be getting the better of him since he had just realized that he had not been taken out the instant Toby got in range of attacking.

Shigenaga was also curious as to why the dog had not simply cut off the head of an opponent, but she made no movements yet.

"Huh? All I'm saying is that I want to make sure that we can take out Sumiharu over there before Masataka gets here. Or just as bad, your teammates. So do me a favor and fight with Naki for a bit?"

"That's not how things work here though!"

"I'm giving you a chance to score another point though. I could just take you out right here, go into a fight with Naki, and probably get another point with Hoshi's help, but I'm being a good guy here and giving you a chance to core another point for your squad."

"You're also giving me a chance to take a point here too," she added in.

The conversation made no sense.

_Well, this entire situation makes no sense either. And why is Inukai just sitting back there with Hoshi!?_

As if to answer her question, rapid gunfire could be heard coming from behind her.

Hoshi's footsteps had been added into the mix as well, letting her know that it was now just the three of them who had stopped.

_This is still really weird!_

But the two boys seemed to have been ignoring her inner turmoil in order to figure things out.

"So how about it? I'll owe you one. Do it for your pleading underclassman."

"Right! You're younger than me! Okay! I'll hold her off here so you can fight Inukai-senpai!"

"That's the spirit! And by the time that's all finished, you'll have the help of Mr. Tatsuya and Kō! So you'll get even more points!"

The amount of things wrong with that reasoning was amazing.

Shigenaga knew that there would be no chance of Taichi winning against her, especially at such close range.

It all felt more like a set up against Taichi instead of one to help him.

_Well that's fine either way. It just means a point for us then._

Toby had looked over at her and gave a look of understanding.

He knew what he was doing.

The dog had somehow managed to chance the situation of the battle in a matter of seconds.

"Bring it on!"

Now it was time for a simple duel for a single point.

.

As soon as the duel began, Shigenaga judged the distance between herself and her opponent.

They faced each other from 16m apart.

They stood in the pitch black ground as the wind turned to the east and the hardened ground was almost perfectly flat.

She thought there could be no better location for a duel. And…

… _He has guts starting without a greeting!_

In her life, a greeting always preceded a clash. Starting without that opening greeting was a way of showing true hostility.

Of course, she lived around strange people. She had a forgiving heart, so she made a mental note to not forget her own greeting after the battle.

"Here I come!"

She responded to his shout and started to take her first step forward.

But then…

"Hold on, idiot upperclassman."

Toby karate chopped the back of his head from his position directly behind him.

"Don't tell her to 'bring it on' when you're right next to me. That's dangerous for all of us. I might end up reacting and attack the both of you."

.

Inukai breathed a sigh of admiration as he watched Toby's lecture and fired at Hoshi from a distance.

He had his hands on his hips and scolded the older boy by clearly explaining what he should have done.

It was true the older boy had been careless earlier. It was probably a sign of nerves and fear rather than a desire to rush into battle. He had lost sight of everything other than his opponent.

… _He would have lost if the battle had continued like that._

After all, Shigenaga was abnormal.

A first step was meant to do more than just carry you forward. It lifted your body to put you into the pose to begin a sprint with your second step.

But with her first step…

… _She closed in on him quite a bit._

They were 16m apart and her first step had covered 2/3 of that.

So instead of a sprint focused on initial speed…

"Her movements are specialized for quickly approaching an opponent. I doubt her speed would have risen much with the second step."

After all, her hips were positioned low.

Running required raising the hips. Since she had not done so, her first step was not meant to prepare for a sprint.

In that case…

… _Her step was likely meant to bring her close to her opponent and immediately launch a stable attack._

She had jumped for distance this time, but she could also do it low and quick over a short distance.

"By staying low, her movements carry a weight and speed that isn't easy to stop. …I can see why Kō-kun and Kuruma-san were having trouble with her."

Shigenaga was a close-range fighter. Her primary weapons were her rifle and sword, but she also had the Hikigane-style Shield attack after having learned it from the Hikigane Squad Captain. By firing that at close range, she could hit people with a wall, but she needed to stabilize herself before firing a large shield at someone.

Circling around was not enough.

Firing that shield required the extra time and strength to balance herself. There was a reason she could normally do so without issue.

"She normally fights on deep battlefields where her feet are buried in something."

Inukai could imagine how the battle with Suzunari-1 had gone.

Each time, Shigenaga was sure to have used the strength demonstrated by this "step" to escape, control her body, and then attempt to circle around and attack them once more.

She was short and she was not using any significant acceleration Triggers.

That was a power and skill that only she possessed due to her former training.

But this time, she had jumped. Given that…

… _She must believe she has the advantage here._

But her usual movement technique might have cost her this opportunity.

So she had switched to the best method for winning here. But in that case…

"Toby is the most impressive one here."

* * *

… _I had originally thought he was just a delinquent who could think a little bit, but there's more to him than that. I realized that after getting to know him better._

Kitora thought Toby's timing had been surprisingly good.

Fights were often decided in the very first moments. Especially when there was a difference in skill or in a head-on clash.

Shigenaga had tried to settle it immediately.

She had gone in for a direct attack.

Had Toby smacked Betsuyaku because he really was concerned about being caught in the crossfire, or had he been trying to alter the timing of the opening clash?

"It's hard to tell."

But intentional or not, he _had_ altered it. He was lecturing the older boy now, but…

"'Listen, you need to pay more attention to your surroundings. Got that?'"

"'Y-yes, I get that.'"

"'No, you don't! If you did, you wouldn't have nearly dragged me into the middle of your duel! Look both ways before you start! Both ways!'"

The words had come from Yuki, who had been trying to keep some laughter out of his words.

And based on what Kitora could hear of that lecture…

 **Kuma:** "Am I being overly generous if I say he's trying to help him relax?"

 **Twin-Snipe:** "Shigenaga-san looks a little confused as well."

He apparently saw it the same way as her.

Shigenaga was an expert fighter. That was why she had tried to end it in a single attack. The longer the fight dragged on, the more their surroundings would be dragged into it.

But she had lost her chance to do that.

"'Okay.'"

Toby ended her lecture. He lightly slapped the top of Betsuyaku's head a few times while standing between the two combatants.

He stepped back out of the way while crossing his arms over his head.

… _This can't be fun for Shigenaga-san._

Her initial timing had been stolen from her.

This had been set up as best as it could for Betsuyaku.

He could now move at the same rhythm as an expert like Shigenaga.

And then Toby raised his voice.

"'Begin.'"

* * *

Inukai heard a voice and two distinct blasts of sound.

Taichi had put aside Bagworm in order to bring out Lightning alongside Egret and he fried both of them.

… _A quick draw!? Since when could he do that!?_

When viewed as a gun, Sniper Triggers were surprisingly troublesome weapons.

It was hard to see what exactly was happening due to Hoshi's shield blocking his attacks.

But from what he could tell, the fight had started and Toby was already moving closer to him using Headfirst Fall.

Taichi would soon become background noise, but right now Inukai was interested in how the boy had managed something like that with Sniper Triggers.

"Ah."

Taichi's voice was drowned out by a second and third shot.

He sent an attack from hip height on the left and right, which made for an attack that was not easy to dodge.

Shigenaga responded by moving forward.

How would she dodge the pairs of bullets as she advanced?

"Well done."

She lowered her hips, and tilted her upper body further forward, taking it below her hips.

The forward lean of her upper body eliminated her normal silhouette. It was a lot like…

 **Inu:** "Reminds me of how Mukkun moves at times."

 **Dino Boy: "** When he does it, he presses his upper body down in order to run. That means he is also raising his heels. Shigenaga-san is leaning forward to avoid taking a bullet to her upper body, so she keeps her feet flat on the ground so she doesn't fall forward."

_You know a lot about how he moves from just a single fight, don't you?_

It was interesting how they took it in opposite directions, yet it looked so similar.

But for Inukai, both Shigenaga and Mukuro's movements were food for thought.

… _For someone like Mino,_ l _owering the stance is difficult with his acceleration._

That restricted most of his evasive action to the horizontal directions. He could include the up-down axis by jumping into the air, but then the enemy could aim for him when he landed.

If possible, he wanted to help Minoru get a definite technique for dodging downwards. Because…

… _You can crouch down while moving forward. And then I can use that to deal with people like Toby here._

Swinging himself quickly to the left or right was an easy way to dodge, but that moved him away from the enemy.

At present, he only had one way to dodge while moving forward.

If possible, he also wanted to learn this forward-leaning evasion.

He was watching an example right this moment.

"Here I go."

A bullet passed by a bit above Shigenaga's lowered head.

Taichi took a certain action in response.

"Kh."

He stepped back.

He opened some space between them so he could fire on her again. He also further drew Egret and Lightning and fired them.

But Inukai had this to say about his decision:

… _Bad idea!_

* * *

 **Kura-uchi:** "The back step and gunfire were not a good idea. Because, well…"

 **TetsuG:** "Falling back doesn't really accomplish anything, does it? He should have, um…"

 **Mad Hatter:** "E-everyone really sounds like they want to help him out, don't they!?"

 **Life:** "So what was wrong with what Taicchi did? Hey, Akashi."

 **Secretary:** "Well, you see, Kirikari-kun, falling back only builds things up in a negative direction. For example, if you were fighting a user of dark summoning magic and they had summoned a portal to the abyss behind you, you would have jumped right into the void. The enemy can see behind you, after all. In other words…"

 **Twin-Snipe:** "SenSen-san!"

 **SenSen:** "Right! Jinsei? Since his opponent is advancing on him, falling back keeps him in the same situation he is already in. He already tried firing directly at her and she dodged it, right? So even if he fires again after stepping back, he is only repeating what he has already proven to be worthless."

 **Twin-Snipe:** "Then, SenSen-san, what would be the correct course of action?"

 **SenSen:** "At the very least, moving to the right would have been better. Because Shigenaga is carrying a rifle on her right side."

* * *

Shigenaga aimed her first attack.

The rifle on her right side was meant for use after approaching at high speed.

If she charged straight in at her enemy, they would expect her to use a close-range attack. Especially if she had lowered her hips.

But that was a feint.

Her first attack would be a rifle attack - equivalent to a canon blast using Meteora. The Hikigane Shield could be seen as her clincher, but there was a time lag between when it was activated and when it was launched.

The Meteora blast was weaker, but it could be fired instantly. It did have recoil, but since the stance to fire it resembled the one to launch a Hikigane Shield, she could use it as a pseudo Hikigane Shield and she was used to that stance.

So that was what she did.

She had charged in while staying low and flat-footed because she needed the stability to fire the rifle.

She had leaned forward in order to hide the rifle she was preparing to her right. However…

… _Kotowari Squad's Attacker did a really good job here!_

Shigenaga had been pulling out the rifle when Toby had stopped her initial step earlier.

Had her opponent noticed that or not?

She did not know.

But he had stepped straight back.

She knew he was an inexperienced fighter. He was a first year in high school, after all. When someone had yet to develop combat habits, their split-second decisions often became extensions of their movements in everyday life.

That was what had happened here.

Upon seeing his enemy headed straight toward him, he had stepped back.

That was a mistake. It changed nothing while she continued forward.

Besides, the double Sniper Triggers at his hips were drawn and fired diagonally upwards. If he aimed from hip height while drawing them, he would have difficulty immediately firing on an opponent ducked below hip height.

This was likely a quick attack attack style that he had learned from watching his Gunner captain.

A simple step was a bad choice against an opponent approaching along the ground.

He should have bent his body toward her a bit. That would have angled his hips and directed the muzzles toward her.

But he had instead bent back as a part of his step away from her.

If she had been right up on him, a sway back would have worked.

However, bending back from an opponent situated lower than him would only aim the guns higher. And for her, it also stretched her target in the vertical direction. So…

"Step 1."

She covered approximately 3 meters.

From that position, she fired a rifle blast so it would pass by his right side.

* * *

 **Tono:** "What're you supposed to do when this happens?"

 **Ai:** "Use a defense Trigger?"

 **Asano:** "That's what I would do."

 **Twin-Snipe:** "With the right movement, you can use an acceleration attack to fire a counterattack."

 **Leagues Above:** "Instead of cutting or slicing, I suppose I would stab at the opponent."

 **Mad Hatter:** "The Giant Breasts Defense if you're Suzu-nee! Or the Flat Chest Evasion if you're smaller chested!"

 **SenSen:** "That attack's small enough I would probably just take the hit."

 **TetsuG:** "Yeah, I'd say that's only a 0.7 on the 'owww' meter."

 **Kuma:** "Wh-why is no one suggesting just dodging out of the way!?"

 **Viper:** "S-sorry, but I think I would block it with some shots too…"

 **Kuma:** "No, that's different because it's you and you have great accuracy protecting you. And if you ever need to dodge something, just leave it to me."

 **Tono:** "You mean you would be her shield?"

 **Kuma:** "I mean I would move her out of the way! This is about dodging!"

.

Obishima saw Taichi dodge the attack.

… _Oh?_

But he did not simply take evasive action.

He tried to move out of the way of the Meteora blast by leaning back, but…

"—"

He fell right onto his butt.

.

 _Huh?_ thought Kitora as she took a second look.

Anyone at least at the top tier B-Ranks would have picked up a habit of reading the shifts in the battlefield. When watching someone else's battle, they would subconsciously construct a prediction of how things would go and then compare their prediction with the reality.

But this was not at all what she had predicted.

So she blinked once to throw out her prediction of the future. She had been picturing a certain outcome for about 30 seconds now, but she made an adjustment to rationally view what was happening before her eyes. And…

"He tripped?"

That was exactly it.

The boy had bent back too far and lost his balance. His legs had not kept up with his upper body.

His reaction speed was not bad, but he had not been trained in how to move. No…

… _He has not trained for or fought against an opponent on Shigenaga-san's level._

In normal training, no one would use a rifle blast feint. You might be taught that an enemy could make a surprise attack with their first move, but you would not be actively trained for it.

But that was what Shigenaga had done.

… _She assumed he was at her level and did not hold back._

If it hit, it hit. If it did not, it would act as a show of force. The attack was meant as a warning.

The boy had managed to react, but his initial reaction was of surprise.

He was surprised by what Shigenaga did and it caused him to fumble his response.

"Yes," said Kitora while aware her brow was wrinkling. "I recall some terrible upperclassman groping someone's chest when he should have been attacking her."

 **Green River:** "Tenryū says that it was an accident."

"If he had done it on purpose, would he have been beaten half to death?"

 **Green River:** "He says probably not. …If it did seem intentional, she would have asked why he had done it and he would have answered truthfully."

"That's terrible," she said while relaxing her shoulders and resuming her prediction of the battle before her eyes.

The boy had fallen. That had been a surprise for the onlookers, so…

"It must have surprised Shigenaga-san as well."

* * *

Shigenaga was confused.

… _This isn't good!_

This was a real battle. Their standings as a B-Rank squad relied on this fight as much as any other.

But this boy had rushed into the battle in a way a normal person never would.

Why was that?

She knew he had little combat experience. Nothing else would make sense when he was only first year.

She had taken his skill level into account, and yet…

"—"

His surprise and fall had made her rush some things too.

She was quickly reconstructing her thoughts after her predictions had been entirely shattered.

… _Kh._

Leaning forward as she advanced had been careless.

She would not arrive in time.

She had planned to use her Hikigane Shield while he was crouched down with hips low. She had even pulled her right hand back in preparation when she fired the rifle.

But the height would be wrong now that he had tripped and fallen.

She thought she should use her forward motion to make a kick, but…

"…"

The boy had not let go of the triggers. His fall had caused his half-drawn sniper rifles to bend and the barrels were aimed her way from the ground there.

His shots were accurate and she would be the perfect target if she approached while he sat looking up.

"Ah."

She heard his voice and the gunshot it triggered.

In that instant, she took a forceful action.

She used the recoil of the Meteora blast from her right side in order to turn around with a leftward spin.

That slid her exactly one body width to the side. However…

"His shots are accurate!

The high-speed bullet of Lightning raced by on her right just like she had expected.

It was too obvious.

And that was not exactly a good thing.

He was her enemy right now, but she felt his talents were currently wasted. His reaction speed was decent, but his lack of experience was a major flaw.

After his demonstration in previous matches, she had expected him to be a bit more experienced than this.

But he was not.

… _He must be an "always trying type" built up in training!_

Border was not particularly shorthanded. In fact, they had gotten many more people trying to join since the large-scale invasion and trained them properly. He should have been in Border longer than them, but for some reason he was still lacking this much. Even if he was a Sniper, the experience he was missing felt like too much.

 _Now,_ she thought while acting on reflex.

She had shifted herself left using a spin.

What came next would be a pain.

Her enemy had tripped, but he could still fire. She wanted to avoid getting too close.

She could always send out a Hikigane Shield with her right hand, but the rifle was active on her right side.

The rifle would get in the way if she swung her right arm down to hit her fallen enemy.

So what was she to do?

… _Circle around toward his head!_

He had fallen backwards, so he would have difficulty looking back in the overhead direction.

So while she put away the rifle, she only had to circle toward his head and launch a Hikigane Shield as she passed by.

The rifle was rotating a bit for the cocking phase to load a new bullet.

Her right arm was free by the time she was passing him by.

If she ran and spun again, she could diagonally launch a Hikigane Shield at him from her left side.

She could defeat him.

"Hikigane Shield!"

* * *

 **White Fox:** "Must be nice… Having a technique named after you."

 **Manager:** "To have someone go so far as to use your name in their attack. It really does sound nice."

 **WorTri:** "Hah. You two really are just as bad as the others. She asked for my help, so I gave it to her. Not my fault she took to that name."

Kitora realized she needed to update her battlefield predictions again, even while ignoring the trivial commentary.

Once again, something odd was happening in the Shigenaga vs. Betsuyaku battle occurring directly in front of her and yet behind a completely different fight.

… _Huh?_

It was something Kitora would never do.

Someone turned tail and fled.

* * *

Inukai saw the boy attempt to run away.

First, Shigenaga launched an attack on the fallen boy as she passed by above his head.

Just as she passed by and turned back toward him, she sent a Shield down at him.

She had already demonstrated her ability to lower herself to the ground, but making a backwards horizontal attack low to the ground was not easy. So she instead made a diagonal attack as a safety measure.

But the boy moved before it could hit.

He casually got up.

He did not spring up or roll. He simply sat up like he had just woken up in the morning.

"…!"

The Shield crashed into the deck where his face had been.

The destruction this caused pushed him forward in something of a roll.

"Wah!"

He was now turned completely away from Shigenaga. For an experienced fighter like Inukai, it was an impressively blatant attempt to flee.

… _Incredible._

He could Bail Out at any moment.

After all, showing your back was a tactic for _running away without fighting_. In other words, _he would Bail Out if he did not escape_. The boy likely did not understand the risk of forcing himself into that dilemma. Unless…

"Does he have a way of dealing with this?"

Just as he asked that, two actions occurred on the duel battlefield.

First, Shigenaga successfully stopped herself with the soles of her shoes screeching on the ground. She had turned back around toward the fleeing boy.

Second, the fleeing boy swung his arms.

"—"

He held both the Lightning and Egret that had been used as his Gunner-type offense. He barely had control over his arms and they wobbled on his shoulders.

He was panicking. That was clear from his forced movements, but…

… _How will this turn out?_

The two barrels fired behind him roughly 36 times.

.

The boy raised his voice as he ran away.

"Ah, ah, ahhh!"

The rifle barrels responded by hopping up with loud roars.

Waves of recoil ran through the rifles as 36 bursts of sparks were fired behind him.

He did not check behind him as he fired. Needless to say, these shots lacked his previous accuracy.

But that blind fire used its great numbers to create a barrage.

Meanwhile, Shigenaga had only just turned around.

She had no speed, but she lowered her hips and aimed at the running boy's back and hips.

"Hikigane Shield!"

She launched two horizontal attacks, one high and one low, to act as a barrier against the barrage.

The trion light shields caught the bullets as they sliced through the air and attacked the boy.

* * *

Yoshiko saw two supposedly incompatible actions fit together from the feed being sent to her by Border.

At first, the boy had tripped due to inexperience and Shigenaga had hesitated to launch her attack.

But now, Shigenaga was pursuing the fleeing boy.

"Their strategies developed naturally."

At the very beginning, the falling dog had stopped the flow of battle.

After that, the boy had naively sought a clash and failed.

Shigenaga had been forced to rethink her strategy twice.

But that had changed. The boy's flight had created the dual strategies of the chased and the chaser.

The boy had run away because he was inexperienced, but…

… _This only made things worse for him._

He was capable of running away.

But there was no surprise there. That meant Shigenaga could fight the way she wanted while pursuing him.

… _That may be why Shigenaga is fired up again._

Launching two shields so they covered her own view was overkill against such an inexperienced opponent.

"Yoshiko! That Shigenaga woman is pissed off, jeez!"

"It's nice having you around, Denji. I don't have to think about myself too much."

Nevertheless…

"Nevertheless, Shigenaga will win this."

 **Mad Hatter:** "Will she? I think he can manage a win if he struggles enough."

"And," said Akane.

 **Mad Hatter:** "Stacking two Shields on top of each other only blocks her view, right? She got a little too fired up in her rush to rid herself of doubt."

"Just watch."

As soon as Yoshiko said that, the actions on the battlefield fit together again.

In the path of the Shields, the running boy suddenly threw himself forward.

He did so without looking behind him.

* * *

 _I knew it,_ thought Kitora.

Most likely, that Sniper boy had not noticed the Shields behind him.

But he had guessed that there _might be_ an attack behind him, so he jumped forward.

That was fear.

Fear was felt by someone aware of their lack of power when they faced someone with power.

But there were two kinds of fear.

The first fear came from one's own sense of powerlessness.

And the second…

… _Comes from the great power you sense in your opponent._

When you felt the former, you would simply run away. But when you felt the latter…

"You resist."

If your opponent was powerful, you would run away while looking for a way to win.

You would never push yourself too hard. You would not display any foolhardiness that mistook recklessness for courage. You understood that your enemy was powerful and you would be destroyed if you stood up to them normally, so…

"Move!"

Kitora saw Taichi moving. He slid headfirst, but he swung his arms forward to catch himself as he landed.

The Shields passed by above him.

He had dodged them.

For an instant, his body tensed up and his jump lost some of its speed.

But the sniper rifles in his hands flew in an arc as he swung them forward.

"Is that your clincher!?"

Kitora saw one of the rifles disappear.

The weakest sniper rifle had vanished into the air, but a new one that held more weight and power came soon after.

* * *

Taichi was panicking.

… _What is happening!?_

None of this made sense.

No, it did make sense for him to attack an opponent during a B-Rank War match to gain some points for his squad.

But why was that suddenly happening here?

"Dammit."

He remembered a number of things.

He hated to admit it, but he was here to achieve a certain goal.

It was imperative he achieved that goal. He could not lose until he did so. These matches were critically important for him since they were also for Suzunari, so he could not afford a serious loss here. However…

… _What am I supposed to do!?_

He only knew one thing: he had Ibis in his grasp.

He had guessed that scary young woman behind him would attack him and he had been right. He had started sliding headfirst and he thought his next move should be getting up and fleeing to the right.

But he felt the weight of the sniper rifles in his hands.

On a simple suggestion, he had changed the placements of his Triggers and had forgotten to change them back.

It worked out here.

The way he had swung his arms forward was also how he controlled both Triggers.

… _Will it work!?_

He felt like it would.

If he set up the barrels while getting up…

"It'll work!"

.

Taichi made up his mind.

He would fight back. And with the biggest move he had.

That was his decision.

While sliding headfirst along the floor, he twisted his body around.

He worked his legs to rotate his body while still sliding in the same direction.

He was now on his stomach with his legs somewhat spread, which was…

… _A sniping pose!_

He faced forward to view the enemy.

He swung his arms forward in order to bring together the two long guns.

However…

"—"

It was no use. There was something between his arms.

No, to be more accurate…

… _It moved in between my arms!?_

Something butted in from straight ahead and he saw what it was.

As he quickly turned around and took a sniping pose, a thick white panel rushed toward him.

… _It's a wall._

It was a shield made of ether light.

It scored a direct hit.


	131. Toby Awdry: Part 7

**Viper:** "Ooh, right to the face, right to the face. And he's rolling, he's rolling. Is he out? Is he out? Yeah, he's out."

 **Tono:** "Nasu, that's not enough to qualify as commentary."

 **Leagues Above:** "It's on the logs, but I got it on video, so what do we do with it?"

 **Blue Widow:** "Could you give me a copy? I can reference it for combat training."

The inaudible "Bail Out" could be felt in their messages.

.

Sekai saw a terrible group begin discussing something dangerous off to the side.

A few seats down from him he could see one of the better agents give a pout alongside two dogs.

But what had caught his attention had been what the terrible ones were saying.

"Okay, let's do a history recreation for the punishment after his defeat. Since he just earned one of his future losses."

 **Demon Child:** "Eh!? You're going to writing on him!? That's all!? At least make some gnocchi come out!"

 **Life:** "He's still a first year in high school, so anything too harsh might scar him for life."

"Besides, doodling on the loser is a standard rule in the Far East."

"Arafune, that's only true in hanetsuki."

"Hey, guys? Doing it in ink is fine and all, but that kind washes off in water, right?"

That last comment came from the Senzai Squad Captain who had descended from the stairs, so there was clearly something wrong here.

Meanwhile, with the victor, Shigenaga on the screen…

"..."

The woman lowered her right leg but then raised it back up a few times.

 **Manager:** "That was really impressive. When Agent Shigenaga there launched the additional Shield, she needed to launch it horizontally from very low to the ground. She realized that would be difficult with her hand, so she immediately kicked it instead."

 **White Fox:** "Right. From the looks of it, that was an unusual case for her as well."

The way the woman was tilting her head and throwing test kicks into the air suggested this had been an adlibbed technique for her.

… _Pulling that off in battle requires both experience and the instincts developed from that experience._

There were some natural warriors who could get by without practicing. Yuki was more on that end of things. He had an instinctual knack for combat seen in his sense of fighting and other aspects of his fighting.

But even he had required quite a bit of experience before he had what it took to be a reliable fighter.

And the boy Shigenaga had fought lacked that.

Any experience, instincts, and strengths he had were not suited for the battlefield.

That was why he had lost just now. However…

 **WorTri:** "He misread Shigenaga's skill level. Or rather, he could not read it at all."

.

Akane thought back to the fight's final moments as she listened to her uncle's words.

"At the very end, Taichi tried to do something with the Sniper Triggers, but he should have run away again."

 **Still Young Girl:** "You could tell, Akane?"

"Yes," she confirmed.

Shigenaga had kicked the decisive shield because she had seen what Taichi was doing.

Because she knew he was trying to do something, she had stayed away and kicked the shield instead.

There had of course been some distance between them. And he had carelessly turned his back on her.

But that distance had worked in Shigenaga's favor.

It had given her time to act even though he was trying something.

Even if her kicked shield had missed, she would have been able to make another move.

Of course, the stacked shields she had sent out earlier had blocked her view. Akane had seen that as a good chance for Taichi to strike back, but…

"Yoshiko-san, you were right!"

 **Still Young Girl:** "Do you know why?"

"Yes! Even if Taichi tried to make a counterattack, he couldn't read the flow of battle. That was why it took him so long to make the decision and to act on it! …He tried to do something with the rifle barrels, but he should have done it while pretending he was making a slide!"

 **Still Young Girl:** "Yes, after sliding head-first and flipping over to a sniping pose, moving to either side becomes almost impossible…"

"But I bet he didn't know any other way to fight!"

And…

"He doesn't have a lot of close range combat experience! He did figure out he should counterattack while Shigenaga-san's view was blocked, but he didn't know he needed to do it immediately! …After all, once her view was blocked, her very next move would be to make another attack to keep him in check."

 **Still Young Girl:** "Sounds like you have learned how to view the battlefield."

"Not really," sighed Akane dejectedly. "I couldn't even try to do it in real-time. I can only say all this in hindsight."

* * *

Inukai did not react to the harsh shield bash from Shigenaga nor did he react to light flying in the sky.

What he reacted to were the sign frames that appeared.

During the entire encounter between Shigenaga and Taichi, he had ben held off from moving closer.

Toby took the brunt of the fighting by continuously circling around him while Hoshi provided support fire.

It was rather impressive that she had not moved forward.

She had stayed just out of his range while continuing to fire on him to take his attention away.

Toby had only been getting so far though, so it all ended up more as a stalemate than anything else.

But that had changed.

With Taichi taken out, that left Shigenaga alone.

Toby took that chance.

_I can't let them get this point!_

Reaching Toby or Shigenaga at this point would be impossible.

So instead…

_Hound!_

From his gun and from a cube behind him, Inukai fired.

The tracking shots from the cube moved in wide arcs while the ones from his gun moved closer together.

Hoshi stood in front of him, so the shield she brought up would only be able to block one of the volleys.

_Ninomiya-san and Kō-kun are over there, so I would like to get there soon. So even if it's only this one point, I'll take it to lighten the load._

There were there targets here.

Firing at multiple targets without support would not have been a problem if not for who those targets were.

Hoshi began creating small shields to lessen the impact of the shots as Toby and Shigenaga moved to clear a way from the shots.

Toby activated Headfirst Fall again before he could reach Shigenaga, so Inukai was sure that it was more of an evasive maneuver instead of an offensive one.

He had been proven right when Toby took a leap into the air instead of continuing on towards Shigenaga.

For her part, Shigenaga slammed her foot onto the ground.

A line was traced along the ground before a large shield sprung up from the ground to block the shots fired.

But…

"There."

The wind had built up.

When taking the leap, Toby had likely not noticed where he was moving and had thrown himself into the way of one of the narrow spaces.

The built up wind would push him to the side no matter what he tried.

All Inukai had to do was fire Hound at the right spot and Toby would end up colliding with it no matter where he tried to move to.

So that was what he did.

"—!?"

Yet nothing collided.

The Hound shots curved to track their target, but the target never came.

The wind had become nonexistent.

No, it was more like _the wind could not reach them._

.

Shigenaga could only be impressed with what she had just seen.

Inukai had fired an attack at the falling dog in time with the wind funneling through the narrow space behind her.

Instead of the falling dog reaching the shots as planned, he had instead continued his leap and placed his feet on something.

A wall.

But it had not been one of the walls on the buildings.

_That inexperienced girl created a shield that covered the entire opening so that the wind could not come through. It also worked as a platform for that boy, so now he can continue moving without losing his momentum. Clever._

The noise that had filled up the narrow space had exploded upwards with no other way to get out now.

The forceful wind that had gathered created a strange air current that Shigenaga knew would become dangerous if the shield was put down now.

So she aimed for the moment the falling dog would leap from the shield wall to escape the shots so that she could attack the inexperienced girl.

Both Kotowari Squad members seemed to be going at their own pace, dragging the rest of them along as they did so.

Stopping any more of that would be the top priority here.

The falling dog would need to deal with the shots rushing him, so that left the inexperienced girl to fend for herself at the moment.

_I just need to-_

**Daybreak:** "Shigeko, watch out!"

It was not ahead or to the sides that she needed to be wary of. Even behind her was nothing.

What she had been warned about was herself.

"Kuh!"

A cut appeared as a falling dog rushed by.

She had aimed for the moment he had moved from the wall, but that had been her mistake.

Doing something like that would only work for those who were on your level or lower. It could work with people who are at a higher level, but who follow basic fighting patterns.

The falling dog was not like that.

Kotowari Squad went at the down pace and forced everyone else to go at their pace or be left behind.

Shigenaga had been left behind.

She could not keep up with that sudden pace that was set by him.

Since she had tried to time herself with his next action it left her vulnerable to any other action he would try before or during it.

So the repeated sounds of sign frames shattering and overlapped with Mitsuteru's warning just before he had reached her.

The blade he had used was weak compared to her own, but it felt like it had not been meant for fishing her off.

They were his claws.

The falling dog used his blades as claws to tear into his opponents.

A tacit like this could be seen all over the place, but it had not been the tactic itself that made it so effective.

_It's the person using it that makes impressive results._

She clicked her tongue.

The falling dog passed her by before she could lift her rifle to return the attack.

His claws had gouged deep into her side and tore her right side apart before he left.

"Now!"

* * *

 **WorTri:** "Well that's that."

 **White Fox:** "Looks that way."

Kimura looked at Yuki and Sekai for a moment before looking back at the screen.

The attack Shigenaga had received looked like it would end her if not taken care of, but the two boys to her side were saying that it was over for her.

The Kotowari Squad Attacker had leaped away after using his claws to tear into Shigenaga. She had thought he would use a followup attack to go for her head, neck, or chest, but that did not seem to be the case.

With the Trigger she had seen Kanzaki use before, he had moved forward to where his teammate was holding off Inukai.

 **WorTri:** "She got too caught up in her preparations that she forgot to look and what is directly in front of her. Hah. That's the problem with being _too_ familiar with fighting."

"What are you two talking about?" she asked into her microphone.

Sekai must have thought it was too irritating to answer her since he only gave a sigh.

"Well," Yuki started. He gave her a look of pity, so she wasn't sure how to respond to that.

 **White Fox:** "Shigenaga had been thinking of her next actions, along with the actions of her opponents. That is fine and all, but getting too into that can lead to you forgetting to react to what is already in front of you. You can use Jin as an example of this."

 **Manager:** "Jin? Oh, because of his foresight, right?"

"Exactly," he nodded.

 **White Fox:** "I had even asked him about it before too. Apparently some of the losses he had racked up were because he had been so preoccupied with looking into the future that he couldn't react in time during the actual fight. That's basically what happened here. She had been so caught up in planning that she missed how Toby actually moved. Likely, he had actually noticed what she was doing and altered his own timing to throw her off too."

 **Manager:** "I see. Oh, but she looks like she is still ready to fight. Agent Shigenaga looks like the type to have Guts for long battles."

 **White Fox:** "That reference was kind of…"

The way he looked away as he mumbled made her want to hit him.

"Anyways," he turned back to her. "That doesn't matter at this point. She already lost because of that."

Instead of continuing his explanation, Yuki only pointed back to the screen.

Following his line of sight, Kimura saw what was happening.

The answer to her unasked question was answered shortly.

* * *

Repeated sounds of something hitting were heard in the area.

Along with those sounds, Shigenaga gave a "kuh" and Toby clicked his tongue.

"I wanted to go for her neck, but I guess I couldn't right myself in time."

"N-no worries, Toby-kun!"

Inukai smiled as the result.

His Hound shots had missed their chance to take out Toby because of Hoshi's intervention. The shield wall had given him a platform to push off of while not having to worry about the wind.

Now that he was safe from the narrow space, Hoshi had released the shield and wind had burst out from the narrow space in an instant.

Within that same instant, he saw it.

After Toby had leaped away from Shigenaga, she had tried to bring herself up to fire back at him.

But…

"Damn you all."

The Hound shots he had fired were tracking Toby.

Since he had moved to attack Shigenaga they followed this lead.

Toby had failed to deal the finishing blow, so the pack of Hound right behind him tore through her body.

Multiple holes appeared all along her body as the reigning shots were stopped by a sudden shield.

Cracks started to form on Shigenaga's body starting from the holes.

"—!"

And yet she still moved.

Maybe as a last act of defiance, or may because she was just that much of a fighter, she held up her hand.

After having used his claws to tear into her, Toby had continued on to pass Hoshi by so that he could attack Inukai once more.

Inukai had been quick to respond by lifting his gun to begin firing again.

"Hikigane Shield!"

But he never reached.

Two shields had been thrown towards them from the girl ready to Bail Out.

Inukai pulled the trigger of his gun to match that of the shields.

Toby had stayed closer to the ground this time, but there were now two shields coming at him from behind and gunfire from above. That meant he could only move to the sides or jump up.

Jumping up now would slow him down and move to the sides would cause him to lose his momentum.

So what he did was…

"Hoshi!"

He called out to his teammate.

.

Hoshi had already started acting against the attacks moving towards Toby before he called out to her.

So when he did call out to her, she lessened the steps she took by one in order to reach the attacks.

Toby was directly in front of the gunfire, so she could do little against that, but the two Hikigane Shields were coming from behind.

Out of the corner of her eye she could see Shigenaga's body begin to be enveloped in light, so she could not launch another attack after this one.

The force she had thrown the shields with made Hoshi think of two walls being forcibly pushed forward.

It was a double shield bash that was meant to first throw off the opponent before hitting them hard.

_In that case, I just need to slow them down! Stopping them might be too much for me, but slowing them down at least let's Toby-kun use his Side Effect to get around them!_

So with that in mind, she made a snap decision.

She made her own shields.

After having joined Border, she had been taught a few lessons by multiple agents. She had always been thankful for that, but the ones that stuck with her the most were the lessons given to her by the person she thought of as a third older brother.

One of the lessons had been on making snap decisions.

"Listen, sometimes you don't have time to think things through in a fight. Making a choice as soon as something comes up is important when fighting more skilled opponents. Planning things out is nice, but it is not always something you can do when you see a Kōgetsu or Scorpion moving right for your face. Do you get it, Hoshi? You aren't like your siblings, so these kinds of snap decisions are something you will need to build up over time. But I'm sure you can do it as long as you keep trying."

His word had been followed by a hand lightly rubbing her head.

Even without being a proper part of her family, he had always looked after her like she was his own little sister.

So anything he told her had stuck with her, regardless of how trivial or important it was.

This was one of the important lessons.

"—!"

She created multiple shields in the way of the two Hikigane Shields to try and slow them down.

They did little to actually slow them down, so she made another snap decision.

She copied what she had seen before.

Creating a shield in front of herself, she threw her leg forward to kick it.

.

With multiple things happening at once, Toby felt himself begin to stall.

His body felt like it was locking up and his speed was wavering.

There was so much going on.

But he felt no pressure.

Multiple attacks were aimed at him and Hoshi was doing her best behind him, but he did not feel like he was being pressured.

No, it was something different.

He was excited.

There had been so many things that he could respond to, but he was still stuck in his own charge.

The speed he had built up was now slowing because he did not think he could make it in time. If he was slowing down then it meant he knew he could go faster but had yet to do so.

There was just so much in this fight that he could do, but there would only ever be one of him. A single body that wanted to do so much.

All the excitement had caused this stalling.

_I need to do something more. After this match, I need to do even more to keep up with everything. I'll go to Ai for some matches. I might even be able to get Jun to join in. Oh, the Snipers have been a bit full of themselves. I can always go to them for some training too. It won't be as much as right now, but it'll still be enough for me. At least for now._

He knew his body was taking full charge since he could have these trivial thoughts while moving in to attack.

It was how his Side Effect worked after all. His body would move itself and give him time to think about whatever he wanted.

There was on difference this time.

_We are the only ones who haven't scored any points in this match. Take and Suzume even had to Bail Out early on. We're pretty maxed right now for some reason, aren't we?_

_No, I guess I won't say that. I'm always going at full force in fights and Hoshi never stops giving it her all. Takeshi can be a bit of a downer at times, but even he doesn't relent during fights. Suzume is just crazy. I have nothing good to say about her at all. But…_

But…

_We are still behind everyone. Yuki is still far ahead of us. At this point I don't care too much about catching up to him, and neither does Suzume. Takeshi cares about meeting him at that place so far ahead, so I feel like we should at least do that much. All I want to do is stay here. Stay in this place where I can keep interacting with everyone. Where I can move however I want without anything or anyone holding me back. Fights are great because they give you this kind of freedom._

He had heard rumors about a woman obsessed with fighting.

Fighting was enjoyable to him as well, but he knew that he was not the same as her. Even if he had not met her yet, he knew that they saw things completely different from each other.

After all…

_Fighting is my way of getting to know people. These fights are the best since they're organized, no one actually gets hurt, and I can go all out without worrying about anything else._

That was why he could feel sad knowing that he would lose in a few seconds.

His stalling was enough to cause him to lose here.

But that was fine.

Hoshi was still there.

She had helped him here in her own way, so he knew that complaining would only be an insult to her.

So instead of doing that, he made a choice.

_Alright then. Let's get you out of here._

He took full control of his body.

.

As two Hikigane Shield pushed through the air towards Toby, another shield had been kicked in their direction.

The kicked shield slammed into the first Hikigane Shield with a good amount of force.

At the same time, a light flew off into the distance.

**Bail Out.**

An impactful noise could be heard alongside the gunfire in front of the shields.

One of the Hikigane Shield had been struck by the kicked one and started to turn slightly.

The front Hikigane Shield was sent off course and now flew to the side so that it would crash into the nearby wall.

The second one made it.

Toby was pushed forward by the second Hikigane Shield.

"—!"

Or that was what should have happened.

With full control of his body, Toby turned himself so that his back was facing the oncoming gunfire while his front faced the second Hikigane Shield.

Multiple sign frames appeared at his knee and foot at the same time a scorpion blade appeared in his hand.

With a quick motion, he used the blade to cut off one of his legs.

With his remaining leg, he pushed off the ground.

Grabbing hold of the cut leg, he threw it into the air. The other leg was moved up to match the height of the second Hikigane Shield.

With the activation of Headfirst Fall complete, he moved forward in time to crash into the second Hikigane Shield.

The sound of his cut leg getting hit by the gunfire could be heard. It ran out parallel to the sound of him crashing into the second Hikigane Shield.

Toby looked to the side as he continued to push against the shield.

He looked at Hoshi.

She had understood what he meant and turned her back to him.

This was her way of telling him that she would leave this battlefield, but would make sure to get something in return.

More gunfire was heard from behind.

The direction it was aimed seemed to be in the same direction Hoshi was moving.

So with his foot still pressed against the second Hikigane Shield, Toby made another movement.

He jumped.

Using the second Hikigane Shield as a springboard, he threw himself into the air while moving backwards.

His back made an arc as he flew through the air.

From the air he could see the second Hikigane Shield continue forward. The speed it had was almost gone and cracks were already appearing all along it.

But it still moved.

The second Hikigane Shield moved forward into it, rammed right into Inukai, pushing him back from the force.

"Headfirst Fall. Scorpion."

With those words, a sign frame appeared at his knee while a blade appeared at his foot.

The blade was resale into the air before shattering.

Using the shattered blade as a step, he finished his arcing flight by landing on the ground, but not stopping.

He continued to fall while only on one foot.

He fell forward to meet with Inukai.

The second Hikigane Shield shattered as the same time Toby fell forward.

From in front of him, Toby could see Inukai stomp his foot into the ground in order to balance himself once more.

There was only a meter between the two of them now.

So with a final push off the ground, Toby brought out one of his claws.

"—!?"

But…

"Damn it!"

A flash tore through the pitch black night.

Inukai lowered this upper body to dodge it.

The flash pierced Toby's forehead.

**Bail Out.**

* * *

"Tch. Sorry for being so careless."

"It's fine. Mitsuteru got us a strong point here and it was because of your final attack."

Shigenaga clicked her tongue again.

She had wanted to do more than that, but she would take what she could get.

Taking out Taichi had not been much, but that combined with the point from Kotowari Squad made things even out to her.

"So how are the other two doing?"

"Hm. Fine, I guess. Our captain is keeping his distance while Suzunari continued the fight against Ninomiya-san. Shinichi has taken some shots already, but the threat of getting found by Ninomiya-san is kind of high here."

"So are they going to wait for Mitsuteru or will they be going after Inukai now that he is alone?"

"Huh? Mitsuteru won't be attacking Inukai?"

Shigenaga shook her head.

It was all too clear to her that he would not be doing that.

"He now has something else to worry about."

"Huh? But he and Shinichi are basically invisible on Radar and to the naked eye at this point. Ninomiya-san can probably take them out since he can just bomb areas, but that's only him."

"It's not that simple now. There's still one person in this match who is so inexperienced and so weak that there is no way she has forgotten about him. Awdry is at a pretty high level, so it's no shock that he forgot about Mitsuteru and got taken out because of it. But this girl is not that strong."

"She managed to copy your Hikigane Shield Kick though."

With a third click of her tongue, Shigenaga slammed her fist down on Kenzaide's head for a hard sound.

She looked at the screen to check on her teammates while pushing up her sunglasses.

_You guys better not get too sucked in with that guy's wants here._

* * *

"Maaaaaaaan! That was pretty fun. I guess you were right, Take. I completely forgot about Mitsuteru at the end there."

Suzume gave a laugh from her throat as Takeshi only sighed.

The two of them waited for Toby to make it over to the computer so that they could all see what was going on.

"Having Hoshi be the last one of us on the battlefield worries me a bit. But I see your reasoning behind it."

"I wasn't really thinking of a reason when I did that. I just felt like she would be the better choice to keep around. I can keep going in a fight, but ultimately I end up losing against either Masataka or Kō. I would get some hits in on the latter, but that's all. Really just shows Yuma's skills since he actually beat Kō. But Masataka's another thing. I can't reach for him with the way I am right now."

"And what about the others? Inukai-senpai was giving you some trouble there."

Toby furrowed his brows as he thought back to his fight.

There had been something off with the way Inukai had been moving, but he only realized that now.

During the fight it felt like things were normal, but now…

"Huh… He felt kind of…desperate? Like he wanted to stay in the fight for a long as possible."

"Heh heh. Foolish dog, that was just you. Not everyone loves battles as much as you do."

"No, you idiot. Not like that. More like…he had something to do but had to fight the rest of us first."

"What does that even mean? This is an official match, so of course he would have to fight whoever appeared before him."

Toby ran his hands through his hair with a loud noise.

"I don't know, okay!? That's just how I see it!"

His teammates looked at him with varying degrees of disbelief.

He wanted to smack the both of them right now, but he knew that would accomplish nothing.

Instead, he turned to the computer where Nakagami was typing away to provide information to Hoshi.

"Alright, leaving Inukai-san to the side, there's something I want to ask you three."

Without turning away from the computer, Nakagami spoke to them.

Her usually joking tone was lowered and sounded almost serious to them.

"That guy… Ariake. Did you guys do something to him?"

.

"Not that I remember. Actually, I think we have only spoken to him once since joining Border. Why?"

She gave a hum while putting something up for them to see.

It was the current points each squad had.

The sight of seeing "0" next to their total hurt a bit, but they still looked to the other squads.

"Two of the three points we lost and two of the points Meishō Squad got were from Ariake taking our Takeshi and Toby. I think he was aiming for your guys from the start, so I want to know if you guys harassed him or something to make him want to target you guys. Hoshi-chan seems fine since it doesn't seem like he's targeting her, but he went to the trouble of being near Ninomiya-san just to take out Takeshi."

"It's like Take said; we only ever spoke to him once. I don't really remember what any of us said, but it couldn't have been bad enough that he would target us specifically."

"I see…"

The trio looked to each other at hearing the dismissive tone.

Remembering things from before they became their current squad never put them in a good mood. Hearing that they may have caused even more problems than they knew would only make them feel guilty here.

Suzume gave a hum as she gently swayed her body.

Even with her and Toby still full of energy, the lingering thought of something they may have done before still stayed.

* * *

 **Manager:** "With that, Ninomiya Squad and Meishō Squad gain another point each."

 **White Fox:** "It was like we said with Shigenaga. There's no reason to go over it again, so we can just say she should be careful next time."

 **WorTri:** "Your kids are having a tough time this go around though."

 **White Fox:** "They aren't my kids, Sekai-san."

Turning around now would lead to a dangerous situation. That was what Obishima's instincts told her.

So instead of looking back, she faced forward.

"Boo! Toby lost way too easily there! Boo!"

"Midorikawa, you would not have made it through that either."

"Of course I could have! It's because he decided to go to Headfirst Fall instead of Grasshopper!"

"Doesn't it mean he's better than you since he's using a Trigger that relies on his own speed? Also, I'm pretty sure it's called Kiyome."

"Why are you being so harsh, Tomo!? Ema I get, but you're not like this!"

"And you won't admit you were wrong about the name…"

"Just ignore him, Tomoe. We know he won't stop for a while."

Obishima felt herself nodding along with the statement.

The fact Midorikawa had been as focused as he was already had them on edge, but they now realized that he was just watching their upperclassman intently. Likely to mess with him after the match.

_I should probably go with him afterwards. Not to mess with any of them! I just want to talk with Hoshi some more._

Saying how happy she felt that Hoshi was still in the fight might have caused Midorikawa to go more crazy, so she held her tongue on the matter.

Among their small group she knew that Midorikawa would make the most noise, but there had been someone else she was surprised to see so many reactions from.

_Ema has been making some faces during the whole match too. He isn't loud, but it's clear that he's really thinking about what is going on here._

At some point he had even switched seats with Tomoe.

Now with both Ema and Midorikawa next to each other, the two of them were giving their reactions to everything happening in the match.

Since she was on one side of them it was hard to tell how the last boy and Tomoe were reacting, but the latter would say some things at times.

She tried to look over Ema and Midorikawa without seeming strange.

Tomoe had turned back to the screen, saying something about how he didn't want to be around if his female teammate and Shigenaga interacted.

She could understand the feeling.

But past him, the last boy seemed to get even smaller as the match went on.

_Maybe because Ema moved over a seat? Oh, but Tomoe is at least trying comfort him. …Huh? His arm? Is he putting his arm around him!? Isn't this-!?_

She began to go red when thinking about the kinds of things she had heard about from Fujimaru when the older girl had been talking with Kotowari Squad's Sniper.

There were things someone her age should not have known about.

_This just like they were talking about! The "forbidden love"! And that's what they do when seated like that!_

Both older girls had apologized after noticing her being there.

They had gone on about like, "We should really not speak of such things around her! Hey, Suzume, next time censor some things! You never know when it'll happen again!"

She had been a bit confused on what they needed to censor since it didn't sound like wrapping an arm around someone else was all that bad. But that must have been something only an older and more experienced person could fully understand.

When she asked them as much, they had both stopped moving, patted her head, and said that kissing is the most any person should ever go to.

She had been confused, but there was some embarrassment that came with being told something like that when it concerned two boys.

The effect it all had on her still stayed.

_Um… Should I take a picture? I hear getting points with them is really good and can save someone. So…what do I do? But Midorikawa is jumping up so much that it will be hard to do that._

Even with her nerves acting up, she slowly pulled out her phone without being too obvious.

_Slowly. Slowly… Huh? Ema? Did he notice me? He's looking at me! It looks like he wants to say something! What!? Are you going to tell me not to? Please tell me that nothing is happening and that I don't need any "points"!_

He looked at her for a few seconds before turning to the other side.

He tapped Tomoe on the shoulder, gaining his attention.

Before she could confirm what he was doing, Tomoe turned to her with wide eyes.

_Huh? What did Ema tell him? Wait wait wait! Don't go red! Ema, what did you tell him!?_

She began to raise her voice to ask them what they were talking about, but both Tomoe and Ema stopped her with open palms.

The last boy next to Tomoe seemed just as confused as her since he glanced over to them all.

Tomoe and Ema curled their palms into fists and held up their thumbs. Red could be seen on their cheeks, but she had no clue what that was about.

"Alright! I guess I'll go along with Obishima and root for Hoshi-senpai now! She is always nice to me, so I'll keep rooting for her even if it looks like she will lose!"

Midorikawa's shout brought them back to the match.

Feeling her embossment grow with the seconds, Obishima put away her phone to look back at what her new friend was doing.

Off to the side, she heard Ema finally say something.

"Oh. It looks like we're reaching the end of the match now."

* * *

Each hit filled him with a sense of want.

A want to continue protecting.

Murakami would not say he was throwing his body around, but each time he saw an attack coming he would somehow make it in time to strike it down or block it with Raygust.

Kuruma's rapid gunfire continued as well. There was no hesitation or worry about if he would get hit or not.

Instead of moving back, the two of them moved forward while increasing the rate of firing from Kuruma.

"We're still not at the best range to fire, so please keep blocking, Kō!"

"Right! Just eave defense to me and-"

Before he could finish his response, a flash came.

The pitch black was nothing more than a thought to them at this point. Kon had been keeping up with the visual settings for some time now.

So at the sight of the flash, Murakami swung his arm around.

The flash slammed into Ragust.

Unlike the time before, Raygust was in motion. It was more accurate to say that Raygust smacked the flash away.

Kuruma moved forward from behind Murakami and threw his body towards the swinging arm.

With the force from his push, Murakami's arm was sent in the opposite direction.

A second flash came soon after the first one.

Murakami repeated his previous action in reverse.

The second shot was smacked away the same as the first.

Kuruma turned his arm without taking his eyes off of Ninomiya.

The single remaining rifle in his hand was now aimed towards one of the narrow spaces.

He fired.

"—!"

The gunfire rang out in the narrow space and Murakami knew there was a reason for that.

_Meishō has his Lead Bullets. We already got hit by that once. We need to be wary of a lot of people this time around._

All of their current opponents were long range or mid range fighters who could stay away from Murakami while still attacking.

That was what made him being here so important.

Kuruma was the way they would attack, but that would require him to lower his personal defense.

But Murakami made up for that by providing an impenetrable defense.

No longer would they need to rely on him alone for offensive power.

He could switch his position to better defend instead of attack.

And this was where he could show it off.

.

_I guess I didn't want to outshine Yuki or something. Well it's not like we were competing anyway. Our styles are way too different from each other._

He could bring up a seemingly unbreakable defense, but Yuki could escape almost anything.

Murakami found himself more steadfast in his fighting style and that opposed Yuki's reliance on different tricks.

Even their Side Effects seemed to want them to be as different from each other as possible.

While Murakami could memorize things in his mind, Yuki memorized them through his body.

While Murakami added more to his fighting style, Yuki created different ones.

While Murakami had managed to reach the top of Attacks, Yuki could not compare to anyone in any specific position.

It was just how things were.

And yet…

_He's still my best friend._

They got along well.

_That's probably why I feel like I need to be blocking as many shots here as possible. This is Yuki's only enemy. As his best friend, I need to show him that I can stay on the same stage as him._

No. That was not it.

Yuki never thought of himself as someone on the stage at all.

He would only ever think of himself as someone so unneeded that he did not even need to be remembered.

But that was impossible.

Even if he wanted that, there were at least two people who could never forget him no matter what happened.

One was Murakami - his most trustiest friend.

The other was…

"I'll take back what I said."

Ninomiya - the only person he thought of as an enemy.

"What did you want to take back?"

Even as they poke, Murakami continued to block the attacks that were coming from multiple locations.

His trion was beginning to run out, but he did not stop.

_I don't want to think that I've become as bad as everyone else, but good job, me! You're managing to really hold up the defense here! If I start laughing now then I really will have become that terrible. Oh, but Senpai usually pays more attention to the worst people. Would that be so bad? Hm… Yeah, I think I'm fine with staying the way I am. Anything more and I may end up losing to their lunacy._

He nodded his head to confirm with himself.

Kuruma's looked of worry could be seen from the side, but he waved it off as he held strong against a particularly strong attack.

_This power is pretty intense._

"That faker doesn't know how to do anything but run away and leave terrible things behind. You are still here and managing to block this many attacks. You can't learn anything from him."

_You aren't really in the clear, you know? You pick fights with him as much as he does you._

Saying that now would only lead to much more powerful attacks, so he did not bring it up.

He decided on something else instead.

"That's not true. There's still a lot of stuff I can learn from him. I already have, so it just shows I can keep learning new things from him."

"Then you know what he recently did."

"Is this something that is really eating at you right now? You of all people wouldn't be talking while firing like this otherwise."

"You just proved that you don't know. You wouldn't be talking like this otherwise."

"Fine! No, he hasn't told me about what happened recently. But I won't be pushing on on the matter. He already knows that I'll listen regardless of what it is."

Was it the tension that had built up between them that made both of them converse like this, or was it because they felt like they had gone back in time for a moment?

Murakami found it hard to tell between the two of them.

"Fine. I refuse to tell you anything since it is an important matter for me. But if that damn faker… No, he's not some simple faker anymore. That _unneeded existence._ If he tells you about it then feel free to confirm with me."

There was nothing warm now.

Everything in Murakami felt cold as he blocked another sniper shot.

The grip on Raygust tightened as he forcibly swung it to the side.

Before Kuruma could move forward to push his arm again, he activated Thruster to push his arm back.

Raygust struck down the second sniper shot with ease.

 **Black Wolf:** "Kuruma-san. I'm going to be using up more trion to strengthen our defense. Please make sure to keep firing. Don't stop."

 **Kuru-ma:** "R-Right! But Kō… Don't go ahead."

"It's fine," he said as he blocked more shots.

 **Black Wolf:** "I just want to finish this match as soon as possible now. After all…"

After all…

"I might end up charging at him if he keeps talking."


	132. Seiji Meishō

"Will you not be watching the match your squad is taking part in, Shitokei-san?"

Mei looked across the table she sat at to see Kanzaki standing before her.

The younger girl seemed to be in her trion body. It gave Mei a feeling like the girl was going overboard again for some reason.

_Well it isn't like I have any room to talk right now._

Along with her calculations, her energy had been pretty low for some time now.

After the fight against the Mouri Neighbors, she had taken time off to relax at random places.

All of the places she had gone to visit and relax at had been nice and comfortable, but…

_None of them felt right._

The Tamakoma, Yagura, and Suzunari branch offices had felt oddly hollow to her.

Red Lightning was very busy, so there would not have been any quiet there.

Kotowari Squad was busy with a match which meant she could not go to the operating room.

There were many other places she wanted to get to, but for some reason she had known that none of them would be what she needed.

So now she was here, in the Border base. Kanzaki stood in front of her as she was seated with apparently nothing to do.

"You don't really look like you're going over to watch. The rest of us are over there after all."

"I see you still refer to our former squad as 'us'."

"Yuki isn't the only person I still have feelings for. Right now even those feel mixed up, so going back to think other people feels kind of nice."

"Would it be any help if I were to say that Kimura and I also have feelings for the rest of you?"

"You're too honest and straightforward to lie, so that makes me feel nice. Oh, but you forgot about our last member."

"I did not," Kanzaki said with a light shake of her head.

At seeing her ponytail sway a bit, Mei unconsciously moved her hand to her own hair.

"Ariake-dono's feelings about the rest of us are clear enough. There is nothing to say when we already know he still loves us very much."

"To say something like that… Maybe confirming with him first would be best. After all, you and Kimura are still the same as back then, but the two of us are very much different. Whether that's a good thing or not…"

Mei gave a bitter laugh at her own mumbled words.

This was too new for her.

Her Side Effect was not making her think of multiple things at once and her feelings were becoming more clear as time went on.

"I do not need to confirm with him. It is clear in the way he is fighting right now."

"So you saw what he's doing."

"As did you, apparently."

"Indeed. And from what I can gather, we are all currently a mess."

Kanzaki did not give a bitter laugh with her words, so Mei thought it would be right to do it for her.

She did not seem to take kindly to that.

"Well you aren't wrong about that. I have my own issues with Kushikage going on right now. Yuki seems to have gotten himself stuck in some personal hole. Ariake must be feeling left behind and is taking it out on my squad right about now. You and Kimura seem fine though."

"That is not true. After having witnessed that woman for myself, I now realize just how much I am lacking. I have not spoken to Kimura about it yet, but Inukai-dono has told me about a conversation he had with her."

"I want to ask you what that was about, but I might get in trouble if I do."

"Very likely," Kanzaki said.

Who would she get in trouble with?

Both girls had that thought deep in their minds, but neither one of them dared say it out loud.

Mei began to run her hand through her hair as she thought about the conversation they were having.

Being there for her squad was difficult at the moment given everything that had been happening. She felt bad for not being with them, but there was no doubt in her mind that they would be able to manage fine enough with her.

They were not the same people anymore.

So…

"Kanzaki."

"Yes?"

"The match is almost over."

"Indeed it is. From the looks of things, Murakami-dono and Kuruma-dono are having a great time fighting Ninomiya-dono."

That had gotten her attention and made her raise her brows.

Kanzaki had reached the same conclusion as she did from the way her own brows furrowed down her face.

"I see…"

Would it be good or bad to say she found that interesting?

Under normal circumstances it would not have been much to note, but that was not the case here.

Yuki was giving the commentary for that match while both Murakami and Ninomiya had their own things currently going on. If everything overlapped then it would result in a fight that most would not think of until they saw it for themselves.

"Well then, I will be cheering for Murakami the entire way then."

"Likewise. I do not think Suzunari will win that fight, but I would like for them to at least take out Ninomiya-dono."

* * *

"Kō?"

"I'm fine. Sorry about that. I got mad for a second there."

At who?

Murakami loosened his grip on Raygust as he directed that question inwardly.

Getting mad at Ninomiya did not feel right, but neither did getting mad at himself.

So there was only one option that could feel right.

_I'm mad at Yuki. I'm mad at him for managing to get even Ninomiya to say something like that. That idiot…maybe I've been too easy on him. I should make sure to give him a good smack to the head for this._

It was a first for him.

Resignation and acceptance had been the things that Murakami came to associate with his relationship concerning Yuki. There had never been true anger or malice directed towards him until now, or vice versa.

_But that doesn't matter right now. I need to stay focused and keep up our defense. But…_

But…

_We can't stay here. Ninomiya isn't someone we can beat in our current condition._

Kuruma must have noticed this already from the way he was leaning towards the narrow space next to them.

The wind had just left it, leaving it relatively safe for the time being.

It would trap them between the two buildings, but it would also make their opponents more cautious for any traps they may set there.

**Kuru-ma:** "Kō, let's fall back for the time being."

**Black Wolf:** "Right, you start going and I'll make sure none of the shots reach us."

With that settled, they began to move.

* * *

Asagi saw Suzunari-1's actions from the scope of his Ibis.

To make sure he would not be found by Ninomiya he had made sure to run after every second shot he fired.

The first shot would always be to go through Murakami's initial block. That would then be followed up by the second shot that would hit.

Well, that was how it was supposed to be.

After the first time of taking off his arm, Murakami had adapted and did not simply block the shots anymore.

Instead of holding still t block, he would now swing his arms vertically or horizontally in order to redirect the shots. This lessened the impact of them since it sent the impact across a surface instead of a single point.

That would have been fine if not for the fact that Kuruma had used his body to swing Murakami's arm back around to block the second shot.

It was a strange system that worked solely for this kind of attack.

**One:** "Tsu! When are you getting over here!? My pride is getting more and more hurt from this!"

**Daybreak:** "I kind of can't go over there right now. Just manage on your own. You have Seiji-san with you, so you have more options than I do."

**2Truths1Lie:** "I can only do so much here. They have more range than I do, so my Lead Bullets are less effective here. And I'm no Yuba-san, so I can't exactly rush forward and fire. Besides, I thought you would enjoy being over here, considering who our opponents currently are."

What did that mean?

He had been joking about his pride, but the way Seiji was speaking had none of that joking tone to it.

This entire match had felt strange from the start and what his captain was saying only seemed to add to that.

None of them had any complaints with Mitsuteru being in charge for this match, although Shigenaga did have some thoughts on the matter.

Asagi had taken it in stride, but now that everything had built up to this point it was clear that there was more to it than just Mitsuteru wanting to be put in charge.

**One:** "Hey Tsu, are you fine with this?"

**Daybreak:** "Yeah, I'm fine with this. Taiyōko-san is coming after me, but she's making it pretty hard to properly aim at her. So I guess that's pretty fun."

**One:** "That's not what I meant."

**Daybreak:** "I know."

He added a "but" after and Asagi could hear the bitterness in his tone.

**Daybreak:** "The match is reaching the climax and the end, so I need to be ready to just let everything go and go back to just being Ariake Mitsuteru."

What did that even mean?

Mitsuteru was always Mitsuteru, but he was saying that he was not that person.

Asagi wanted to say something to that, but found that nothing would come out.

He had always thought himself close to his teammates, but there was always a clear difference.

Whenever it came to Mitsuteru, Shigenaga or Seiji were the ones he would go to.

There had never been anything wrong with that, but it always seemed that the most important things were never told to him concerning the older boy.

"Hah. Guess that's just how things are. Fine, I'll go along with it for the time being. Right now there's something else I need to focus on."

After another successful block by Murakami it was clear that the double shot attacks were only doing enough to have Suzunari-1 keep their guard up.

Through his scope he could see the way the duo was moving towards one of the narrow spaces that kept him from firing on them from his current position.

"Uwah… They are kind of trapping themselves there. Even if no one else goes in there, the wind will start to pick up."

Lifting his body with a start, he began to move to the edge of the building.

The narrow spaces in that area were lined in a way that almost all of them were facing the same direction.

All he would need to do would be to get in a position that let him see all of those narrow spaces as once.

Sniping them had proven to only be support fire in this case.

Like his teammate, he could wait things out until he got the perfect shot. Lacking patience was not a concern for him, but with the way Ninomiya's shots had been moving around the area, it was hard to find a clear shot.

So once he had found a clear shot he would take that chance and double up on that with his second attack.

"It does feel like I'm being led by that guy though. Maybe he's purposefully making an opening for me to fire on?"

In that case, Ninomiya knew where he was and that was a frightening thought.

Having Border's #1 Shooter holding his survival in his hands at all moments felt very oppressive.

_That can't be it. I've been making sure to hide myself. I might not be as good as that sneaky duo when it comes to hiding myself, but there's no way I've been spotted yet._

**Shige-ko:** "Hey, you've been spotted."

"What!?"

Had Shigenaga been reading his mind or something?

**Feeling Alive:** "Don't just tell him like that! It might make it seem like you were reading his mind!"

_Wait wait wait! The same applies to you, Kaka!_

**Shige-ko:** "Then how would you tell him?"

**Feeling Alive:** "That's easy!"

Was it really that easy they were taking so long to tell him?

Well, they were strange after all, so he let it slide.

Button he was curious as to what they meant.

**Feeling Alive:** "Alright, Shinichi, listen closely."

"What's up?"

**Feeling Alive:** "You haven't been sneaky at all! Ninomiya-san had your number for a while now and is done using you! Run, fool, run! …Or something like that. Do you get it, Shigenaga?"

**Shige-ko:** "Mm. Right. Hey Asagi, pay attention to what's around you and not to this idiot."

Doing as instructed, he took a look around himself.

The wind was picking up once more and seemed to be funneling back into the narrow spaces.

Throughout the entire match, the wind had been using the narrow spaces as funnels before dispersing at the ends of them. It had been what kept masses of wind from filling the more open spaces and what they had been using to snuff out anyone hiding in those areas.

Besides that, the pitch black that had been all around them remained lit up enough for them due to the visual settings that Kenzaide had set for them.

"Oh, but the stars look pretty ni-"

He blinked.

Stars should not have existed in that pitch black.

The only thing that should have existed in that pitch black was the faceless moon that would not be visible unless you looked hard at it.

"—!?"

But they were there.

And Asagi realized why that was.

"Crap!"

He quickly brought up a shield, but…

"Damnit!"

The "stars" he had seen all came crashing down on him like a harsh rain.

The harsh rain crashed into his shield, chipping away at it until they broke through.

And then…

**Bail Out**

* * *

"And there goes another one…"

"Um, that level of violence… Ninomiya really was just using him."

**Mi-Kon:** "That was pretty harsh of him."

The irony of Kon saying that after her treatment of Jinsei was not lost.

**Mi-Kon:** "That just leaves Meishō and Ariake-kun for that squad and Taiyōko for Kotowari Squad. Ninomiya Squad still has Ninomiya-san and Inukai."

"Inukai might be coming over here instead of going after Hoshi. With the way things are looking, she will be moving towards Mitsuteru since she knows she will have an easier time fighting him than the rest of us."

"Would it be good to go after her and Ariake then?"

**Mi-Kon:** "I would think not since that would leave Ninomiya-san and Meishō. It would be an easy point for Ninomiya-san before he moves to find you guys again."

"In that case," Kuruma said with his back turned.

**Kuru-ma:** "We can't beat Ninomiya. But without one of his Snipers backing him up, Meishō should be an easy target. His Lead Bullets are an issue, but only if we get within range of them."

**Black Wolf:** "If we add in the assumption that Inukai is coming over here then we should take Meishō out quickly and get out of the way."

Kuruma looked over at his Radar. The remaining two members of Ninomiya Squad could be seen moving with Ninomiya circling around some of the buildings.

Another person was also circling around, but his movements seemed to be avoiding the narrow spaces.

"Wait… Is that noise?"

Sure enough, distance sounds could be heard before they started mixing in with the building wind.

It sounded like…

"Buildings?"

.

Kuruma ran to the edge of the narrow space and held his back against one of the buildings.

Leaning his head over the building, he saw the open space that had connected some of the narrow spaces.

The open space was filled with smoke that started to move due to the wind.

The smoke had no single source and instead had been coming from multiple location

All of the narrow spaces lining the sides of it.

"What is he doing…?"

Meishō would be the one moving on this side of the narrow spaces, so he had to be the one causing all of the destruction.

But it made no sense.

_I thought they wanted to use the narrow spaces as much as possible? Why is destroying the walls and creating blockades at the ends of the narrow spaces?_

If he did something like that then the narrow spaces could not fill up with wind unless it came from above and dropped down into them.

Ones like he was in would still fill up since the openings were left untouched, but it would take longer for the wind to build up now that there were less spaces to go through.

So then…

"Why?"

**Mi-Kon:** "I get it!"

Holding his hand to his ear, Kuruma listened to what their Operator had to say.

**Mi-Kon:** "The narrow spaces were meant to flush out people when there were a lot who could be hiding. Since it's lowered down a lot there is almost no need for them. You two are the only ones hiding in them, so those spaces would only be taking the wind away from other places that could be used."

"In other words," she said.

**Black Wolf:** "He wants the wind to build up in the open spaces instead of the narrow ones. Doing that would either have us use an unstable battlefield or hide in one of the narrow spaces that is now safe from the wind."

**Mi-Kon:** "Right. But in doing so, you would be effectively trapping yourself for someone else to come in and attack."

That made too much sense.

It was a strategy that let the opponents feel like they were making a choice when in reality they would only be trapping themselves.

Kuruma understood all too well that strategies like these would be needed for weak people without their teammates. It was a quickly made plan by a single person who tried to maintain a place on the battlefield with people much stronger than them.

_Yeah, something like this is needed to make sure we remain here. If not for ourselves then for our squads. We are their captains who rely on our teammates, but also support them. From what I have been told about some of the other matches recently, Tamakoma has also reached that place._

There was someone else who couldn't do much on their own, but could be there for their teammates and try for them.

Each one of them had varying circumstances but they were all on the same level now.

That meant he needed to view them as other weak people who could make strong impacts.

And one of those people was doing exactly that right now.

**Kuru-ma:** "We'll move in on Meishō before the wind gets too bad. From there we can figure out what to do concerning Ninomiya Squad. If they attack us while we do this, I'll be relying on you for defense again, Kō."

"Leave it to me."

**Kuru-ma:** "Kon-chan, we'll both be relying on you to let us know when something comes up."

**Mi-Kon:** "Understood!"

_This is it. The last push for us in this match. I would like to say we can win, but that is unrealistic at the moment. Since that's the case…_

He began to move away from the narrow space.

Murakami followed right behind.

"We will get these final points to make sure we aren't left behind."

* * *

_That's not an expression I see on his face too often._

Sekai sat back in his seat without letting out a sigh.

What they were seeing was not something that could be considered irritating enough for him to sigh.

Suzunari-1 had begun to move again after realizing what the Meishō Squad Captain was doing and he found no fault in that.

**White Fox:** "So Suzunari decided to go after Seijin then. Yeah, that seems like the better option."

**Manager:** With Captain Meishō being alone now, it should be relatively easy for people like Captain Kuruma and Agent Murakami to gain a point from him."

**WorTri:** "I wonder about that. Don't forget that he has also done damage to Suzunari already with just his Lead Bullets. He's not on Miwa's level, but he managed that much. Hah. Yuki, you know more about him than I do, so anything you have to say about that?"

**White Fox:** "Seijin is actually kind of hard to categorize since his squad is usually there with him. Compared to others, Meishō Squad works with a semi-buddies system. Mitsuteru provides the support where it's most needed, but Asagi and Shigenaga are fine soloing most times. Seijin on the other hand needs the help of his teammates when fighting particularly strong opponents. At that point it becomes either Shigenaga or Mitsuteru."

So…

**White Fox:** "With Hoshi going after Mitsuteru, it means he can't go to support his captain. What we are seeing here is just a trick for Seijin to use since he has to solo this right now."

It was different from what he would do.

Since the amount of skill and experience between him and the ones fighting was clear, Sekai thought more about what a strong person would do.

But that was because he had not thought back that far.

_If I think back to when I was still green about this stuff then I'll come to realizations about what is going on. Being strong leads you to strong thoughts, but makes you forget about the time when you were weak. All people are weak at different points in their life, but they can easily forget that if they become too strong. It's a good thing to always be reminded of what weakness feels like._

That reminder came in the form of the two captains still fighting.

Both of them were showing what they can do even as weak people.

Meishō was forcibly changing the area to his advantage while Kuruma was using his teammates to better gain an advantage.

At the moment Sekai would have thought of going on his own and call in support when needed. Things like what he was seeing would be in times where he would need to think about that stuff, but otherwise they would matter little to him.

_Hm. Even the brat has reached a new place recently. If he keeps going at this rate then he will likely be someone I can rely on. But for now…_

There was something he needed to stop.

Something involving his youngest teammate.

It had begun to show more and more by the days, but it was only recently that he had noticed how far it had actually gotten.

"Hah."

_But I guess that's neither here nor there at the moment. I should just focus on the match and-_

An arm flew in front of his face.

"So irritating."

"Oh… Sorry about that, Sekai-san."

_I wasn't talking about you, idiot._

Sekai let out another sigh while moving Yuki's arm back down so that it was not in his face.

**WorTri:** "Well let's see just how this turns out."

* * *

Seiji moved with caution even as he fired Meteora at the ends of different buildings.

The narrow spaces would only give his opponents a chance to hide in those narrow spaces now, so he thought it best to make those narrow spaces into traps.

Enclosed spaces that would block out the wind but create an inescapable location when under gunfire.

The range of his own attacks was not so great when compared to his opponents, but even captured opponents would not be able to dodge them.

If they tried to leave those traps then the wind rushing through the main areas would keep them off balance.

His teammates had already done a good job at getting them points, stalling out their opponents, and giving it their all. Making into the top tier of B-Ranks for even this moment had been amazing. As their captain he felt a sense of pride as well as a feeling of wanting more.

To want more for them after they had tried so hard.

Even as a squad captain who had less leadership skills than his teammates, he still wanted more for them.

So that was why this would be.

This would be his showing of wanting more.

A selfish and greedy feeling that would let his thoughts reach out just a bit more.

And…

"—"

This would be his way helping one of his teammates get some payback.

Mitsuteru was no longer a part of his side of the match so it meant that he would not be able to get any more hits in on the ones here. His priority now was to focus on the girl who had decided to go after him.

Since that was the case, it fell onto him to get back at these opponents for his teammate.

He understood the meaning of the faceless moon and the reason for this map. It's settings had been decided on as a whole, but even that played its part here.

And now that everything had reached its climax, he would see it through to the end.

Even if help was now nonexistent, he could still do something.

This was it.

What he could do.

.

The wind in the open area blew harshly with no narrow spaces to move to now.

Kuruma and Murakami moved through that wind that blew in the opposite direction they were moving.

If they were not careful then their feet would lift off of the ground and move them away.

They saw their opponent use that to his advantage.

After lifting his foot into the air, he pushed off the ground in the direction the wind was blowing.

With the wind at his back, Seiji was propelled forward.

He pulled out one of the revolvers at his hip as he closed the distance between him and them.

Murakami moved forward with solid steps. He lifted Raygust up to cover for his captain.

Three repeated sounds were heard in the raging wind as shots were fired from the revolver.

Murakami held his ground against both the bullets as well as the wind.

From next to him, Kuruma fired from his rifle into the wind.

The speed and power of his bullets seemed to lessen as they tried to fight their way through.

Seiji once again lifted off of the ground with his next step.

Instead of moving forward, he turned to the side and let the wind carry him over to the side.

Kuruma followed him with his eyes while leaning his body to the side.

With his arm missing he could not give a full barrage with two rifles, so instead he used a shield to block the attacks.

The defensive power of Suzunari-1 had just increased at the cost of mobility and offensive power.

The two members knew this well so they moved to right themselves against the wind.

Seeing how they were moving, Seiji brought out his second revolver. With a quick finger, he pulled the trigger a total of four times.

Each shot fired moved straight through the wind.

He then fired three more shots from his first revolver in the direction he had come from.

Those shots curved back around as the two Suzunari members proper themselves up against both the wind and the bullets.

The impact for the four shots could be heard against the shield while gunfire followed after it.

The curving shots of Hound had come in contact with Raygust, not making it budge at all.

Kuruma fired without any reservation.

But when he did…

"—!?"

Seiji made a certain action.

.

_I'm really glad I asked Yuba-san for some help._

Seiji felt his body lift up for a brief moment before he put his weight towards the ground to steady himself again.

The shots fired form the Suzunari-1 Captain moved to chase him like his shots had come before with Murakami.

In repose to this he had begun to turn his body while moving lightly along the ground.

It was a sliding turn that Yuba had used before.

It had been done in the match against Kotowari Squad and Seiji had thought it would have been a good idea to ask about it at some point.

The specifics on it had been hazy due to Yuba not fully understanding how he had managed it either, but that had been why it was good to have an imagination.

From his time as an action, Seiji had come in contact with many people who had all sorts of imaginations. What they could add to scripts, scenes, or just moments were sometimes really amazing.

Some of his own ideas had made it into multiple movies.

When finding out that his squad mates had watched some of his movies he had been happy to point out different facts about the inner workings of production and show them what he himself had added into the scene or adlibbed.

The responses some of them gave had been rather amusing.

"I see, I see. Yeah, that looks like something Seiji-san would add it. Oh! But that part really does tie it all together."

"You adlibbed that? Hm… Why can't you show off like that during battles then? If you can do something like that on the fly then stop making me seem like some circus flunky out there!"

"Oh~ So this is one of Cappy's movies!? Wait, so does this mean you got a lot of autographs then? Wait, better yet! What kind of pictures did you get to take!? I want to see!"

"Does this mean your autograph is worth a lot!? Hey, hey, Seiji-san, can I get one!? …Don't worry! I don't plan on selling it! I just want to show it off whenever I get the chance!"

Seiji laughed in his heart when remembering their reactions.

_They are all such good people._

But they were also strong.

To keep up with them all meant that he needed to do things differently from how others would.

This sling turn was one of those things.

Normally he knew he would not be able to perform this kind of maneuver and get away with it, but the circumstances had been perfect for him to do it.

Using the wind as a pushing force, he moved his body along the ground as if gliding along it.

The wind pushed his body as he controlled the movement and placement of it. Once he had made a full turn behind them he could not feel the wind pushing against him.

Since Murakami had positioned himself to block the Hound shots, he was now creating a shield that prevented the wind from reaching him as he stood behind the two Suzunari members.

_Chance!_

Pulling up both revolvers he fired two from his left one and three from his right one.

Both contained Asteroid at the moment, but the difference between them had been in the way he set them.

Like Yuba, he had taken some liberties in how his revolvers would fire.

_Even if you can deal with the right one's power, the left one has the speed to catch you off guard most of the time._

To confuse his opponents even more, the right revolver could fire the Lead Bullets when the opponent thought they could block the regular bullets fired. To match that, the left revolver also contained Meteora and Hound in it to give him more options of attacking.

And now that was on display.

With both Kuruma and Murakami facing away from him, he fired on them.

From his left revolver came Meteora shots aimed at Kuruma and from his right came Asteroid bullets for Murakami.

The explosion from the former would carry in the wind and give him a chance to get back in a place where he could have his back to the wind.

But…

"Oh?"

The bullets did not make it.

They had been stopped by something.

And that something was Raygust.

.

Murakami reacted the moment he saw the familiar sliding turn.

Raygust was being held in place against the raging wind. It prevented the Hound shots from reaching him, but it also created a safe space for their opponent since the wind would not reach him as long as he stayed behind Raygust as well.

He made a choice at that time.

He moved.

Lifting his foot to the side, he let the wind carry him into a turn. He used his other leg to steady and anchor himself so that he would not go flying.

From there he moved Raygust around in the opposite direction the sliding turn was coming from.

The twin revolvers fired.

But he had made it.

Raygust was slammed down into the ground using two points at the bottom.

The wind tried to push it forward but could do no such thing as Murakami held it down.

The first shots to reach him had been Meteora.

The explosive Trigger exploded on impact and smoke filled the small space.

All around them, the smoke was carried by the wind. They could not see their opponent but the impact of the next bullets came.

Asteroid repeatedly struck the shield, but it got nowhere.

Kurkuma was still turning around from his position next to Murakami and could not provide any offensive power to the fight right now.

That left Murakami with one choice.

"—!"

Lifting up Raygust for a second time, he activated the Optional Trigger that went along with it - Thruster.

The Optional Trigger combined with the raging wind in the direction had sent him forward with more power and speed than he had expected.

The air and smoke were forced to the side as Raygust crashed not something.

That something had been Seiji.

Using the built up power and speed, Murakami swung his arm to the side.

Raygust was forced to the side by the action and took the surprised Seiji along with it.

The two collided with a nearby building with a sickening noise. Remembering something he had been told before about the way someone had used Raygust, Murakami gave a mental order to the Trigger.

Raygust began curving from the sides in an outward way. The top started to bend downwards as the bottom reached the ground.

It had turned into a dome that captured Murakami's prey.

And now that he had managed to hold the Meishō Squad Captain in place, he raised his voice.

"Now!"

* * *

**White Fox:** "That guy… Heh. Sometimes even I'm amazed at how his adlibbing skills have evolved."

**Manager:** "He really wasn't the best during negotiations. But I guess you can say that he is now the beast at this fight."

The full impact had hit Yuki and Sekai to the point that they needed to turn away.

Down below they could hear the more terrible people start tearing into Kimura without any hesitation.

The rest of the hall seemed to have come to the conclusion that they would just ignore it altogether.

**Manager:** "I thought that was a good one! I mean he is Border's #4 Attacker, so he should be good at-acting, right?"

The second impact reached the two boys hard enough that Sekai had to stand up for a moment.

A noise sounding like someone hitting their head on a desk was also heard, but no one dared to turn to the commentators.

"Hey Kawa, don't you think you should be apologizing to everyone here!? Just look at Yuki! The poor guy can't even lift his head anymore!"

Yuki slowly lifted his hand to say that he was still alive after the double hitter that had come from Kimura.

**White Fox:** "C-can we just… _please_ do some normal commentary."

**Manager:** "But I had a really good one on-"

"Someone stop her," the entire hall shouted.

Kimura only huffed and turned back to the fight.

What she saw was…

* * *

Explosive attacks reached the wall.

The entire wall began to crumble and fall apart after having been hit by close ranged Meteora blasts.

Murakami could feel Raygust loosen up with something holding it in place now.

With the wall now falling apart, he jumped back while pulling Raygust back and shortening it so that the wind would not catch it.

Once the wall fully collapsed, the two Suzunari-1 members looked down. Their guards remained up as they slowly moved around the rumble.

But as they moved closer, they noticed something.

The rumble was moving.

And soon enough…

"—"

The sound of something hitting the ground came.

Murakami looked to the side to see that the sound had come from Kuruma.

With his captain on the ground, he could see the reason for that had been due to the weights that had been placed on him by Lead Bullets.

"Maybe I should have gone with Asteroid. I thought you guys would have dodged though…"

The ruble moved a bit more and soon was tossed to the side.

The dying wind had taken the smoke along with it, but the rest of the wall remained on the ground.

Murakami could see Seiji slowly getting up as he spoke.

His body was partially destroyed and cracks ran along his face as he held a revolver in one hand while the other moved more of the wall away.

The Meteora blast he had used to escape the Raygust dome had done its damage to him.

"Alright, time to see what's faster. Me having to Bail Out or one of you forcing me to Bail Out."

As soon as those words left his mouth, Murakami rushed forward.

Transforming Raygust had been quick and activating Thruster had been even quicker.

By the time he had finished his swing, Seiji's head could be seen flying off.

"Yeah, I figured as much."

Both the body and the head were consumed by light before being sent flying off to the distance.

**Bail Out**

* * *

"Hahaha. Guess I got taken out pretty easily, didn't I?"

Seiji smiled towards his teammates while moving towards them.

Asagi smiled back while Kenzaide remained focused on the screen in front of him.

As for Shigenaga…

"I thought you wanted to get at them for Mitsuteru. What was the point of helping Suzunari like that?"

"Oh, so you noticed that? Guess I wasn't as subtle as I thought."

She narrowed her eyes from behind her sunglasses but said nothing else.

It was clear from the lack of response that she had reached the same conclusion he had during his fight.

That fact alone must have been what set her off in the first place.

"Sorry about that, Shigeko. But I wouldn't be able to do much more than that. I figured that Teru-kun would be satisfied if I at least took a point away from Ninomiya Squad, no matter if it isn't directly."

"You lost us a point here and basically handed one to our opponents. Even he would have something to say about that. So don't think I'll be letting you off the hook for that stunt you just pulled."

"Can I say that I wanted to try something new and get away with this?"

"It depends on how you think Mitsuteru will do now."

"Huh? Teru-kun? That should be obvious. Especially to you."

Shigenaga said nothing to that, but it was clear that she knew what the outcome was going to be here.

Asagi and Kenzaide had wisely chosen to not say anything and he couldn't blame them for that.

Giving another laugh, he made his way to the side of the computer to see what was now happening.

"Well I can trust him to get us the point I just lost us. That would at least put us in second place, depending on how my setup goes."

* * *

It did not end.

Kuruma knew what was coming next and so made a decisive action.

The weight that had been shot into him had been on his hip. Holding himself up from that became hard and the balance he already needed after losing an arm made it that much more difficult.

But he had seen it.

The figure standing beyond the rubble of the destroyed building.

Seiji's attack on the wall had cleared some things up for him and now he could see what he had been unable to before.

The figure beyond all of that who was holding a gun.

So with a last ditch effort, Kuruma lifted his rifle and aimed.

He fired.

Murakami had noticed the action behind him and followed along.

Instead of putting up any sort of defense, he fixed Raygust so that he held it as if throwing a javelin.

With a mutter of "Thruster" he threw the Trigger towards the direction the shots were going.

The figure held something up and the sound of gunfire could be heard as it moved to the side.

Raygust cut through the air but hit nothing.

The bullets that Kuruma had used made no notable sound either.

_But that just means…_

Lifting his gun once more, he aimed at a spot to the side of them.

And there…

"Got you!"

He fired.

.

Inukai would admit that he was surprised by the sudden decisiveness of the Suzunari-1 Captain.

He had managed to dodge the gunfire and thrown Raygust while moving closer, but he had not been ready for the Suzunari-1 Captain to respond to his appearance so suddenly.

It was clear that this fight had placed him on a new level.

Seeing that only brought a smile to Inukai's face.

_He was a special factor here and I didn't even notice that._

He had thought he would be the only one who could drag others out from the past on this battlefield, but the Suzunari-1 Captain's mere presence on this battlefield had kept both Ninomiya and Murakami from going back to the past.

That much he was thankful for.

But now a new problem arose.

_How am I supposed to escape this when I've already decided to attack?_

He had moved into a position where he could attack right after moving closer, but it also meant that dodging in that position would be difficult.

_I didn't think his would happen so I was just going for the kill._

No matter how he looked at it, the situation had worked out for the Suzunari duo.

Even so…

"I'll still keep going!"

Pulling the trigger on his gun, Inukai gave a rapid fire attack at the same time he received one.

But as he looked to see the results of his attack, he saw someone move.

It had been Murakami.

"Hahaha. Still wanting to be a protector here, huh? That's good."

He was soon filled with holes all around his body.

As if mirroring him, Murakami's body also became full of holes.

"Hey Kō-kun, keep thinking like that, got it? You'll need it to deal with Yuki."

Inukai saw his body begin to crack up from the attack he had received.

But more than that, he saw the final attack of this side of the match.

More bullets.

Unlike the ones from him or the Suzunari Captain, these ones had come from seemingly nowhere.

Their target had been the same as his though.

That meant the third point here had been taken.

And so…

**Bail Out**

**Bail Out**

**Bail Out**

.

Ninomiya stared at the wreckage in front of him.

Three bodies had turned into light before flying off into the distance.

Now it was only him.

Looking all around again he spoke to no one in particular.

"That brat… He should be fighting the last battle here in a bit."

The pitch black of the night was all that was left for him to see.

Kicking a nearby piece of the destroyed wall, he faced the sky with narrowed eyes.

"This will be the only time I wish for a Taiyōko to win."


	133. Hoshi Taiyōko: Part 4

Kumagai and Teruya leaned forward once they saw Hoshi finally reach her destination.

"Wow, Ariake really didn't move, did he?"

"He just wants to get this over with now. Although it's a bit unfair that he wants to end it while fighting a cute girl."

"No need to sound so jealous, Tonooka-kun. From the looks of things over there, Obishima might be bringing Taiyōko-san over to your operating room soon."

"I heard they became friends, so I might invite some people over to win some points."

"You know that you will have to run if Tsukiko-senpai and Murakami-senpai hear you say that, right?"

Tonooka only gave a shrug, but his eyes roamed up to where he knew Yuki was sitting.

He did not appear to have noticed what he said.

"Well regardless of that… Why are those two now paying so much attention to this?"

"What was with that pause there?"

He shrugged a second time.

"Kuma-chan and Teurya-chan want to see how Taiyōko uses Fujin here. They have both taken to using it, so this is a good opportunity for them."

"Is that so."

Maybe it was just a thing with offensive people.

* * *

Mitsuteru took breath as his final opponent arrived in front of him.

The wind that had been set for this map had moved through the narrow spaces and one space below, so it could not reach them too much from atop the building.

The rooftop was rather large and spacious, so he was certain he would cover it in order to dodge her attacks.

_Shigeko said she lacks experience, but the way she said it makes me worried._

_But wait, she's part of Kotowari Squad. Does that mean her inexperience is just something crazy again? If it is then I should be more cautious here._

He held up Ibis in preparation for an attack.

The girl shifted her feet and moved to grab the Kōgetsu at her side.

They were both prepared for this fight.

And so…

"…"

Nothing happened.

_Huh? I was waiting for her to come at me, but she didn't?_

Blindly running into someone else's range showed rashness and true inexperience.

This girl had done nothing like that, giving him the impression that she was not as inexperienced as Shiegnaga had thought.

_Right then, I'll just change my position to account for the distance._

Mitsuteru lowered his hips but did not let his knee touch the roof.

Sniping would have been easier if he allowed himself to touch the roof, but it would be difficult to dodge if his opponent was not taken out.

She must have thought the same since she followed his movement by lowering herself as well. Unlike him, however, she lowered her upper body along with her hips. Instead of being her knees, she leaned forward and spread out her leg behind her.

She was going for a rush attack.

_I can handle that much by myself. If I use Ibis as a guiding point then I should be able to even move her blade away from any vital spots._

This would be where their fight began.

She would rush him to try and cut him before he could fire.

In response, he would deflect the blade with Ibis and then use Ibis to right itself and fire on her from close up.

There were many other parts to this start, but he could adlib through those parts when they came up.

But for now…

"…"

Nothing happened.

His opponent remained as she was and he refused to move a muscle until she did.

_Huh…? What's going on right now?_

He had expected her to rush him, but nothing came.

"Um… Are you okay over there?"

"Ah? Oh! Yes, I am perfectly fine. Thank you very much for asking! How about yourself?""

"Huh? I'm doing…fine."

_Once this match is over I'll feel even better, but for now "fine" should be enough._

He nodded to himself while his opponent smiled kindly to him.

His parents had only had him and no other children, but he felt that having a younger sibling would be fine if they were anything like this girl.

"Wait!"

"Huh? Is something the matter?"

"O-of course it is! This is a fight! Why aren't you attacking!?"

She should have been ready to attack him as much as he was towards her.

But instead of rushing him like he thought she would, she had started to converse with him while still in a fighting stance.

He wanted to end this fight, but he would not rush at her when he had no idea what was going on.

That was why he had asked her that.

It may have been a stupid question, but she only continued to smile at him.

"Does this mean you are ready to fight, Ariake-san? You looked like you were in deep thought and I didn't want to interrupt you until you were also ready."

* * *

 **White Fox:** "T-too cute…"

 **Manager:** "Alright, Siscon, stop that already and pay attention."

 **White Fox:** "But look how cute she is! Hoshi is just too precious for this!"

 **WorTri:** "Hah. Just don't try and kill Ariake after this match."

 **White Fox:** "Why would I do that? He's pretty adorable too. The both of them are very much adorable. Hoshi maybe a bit more, but that's to be expected from her."

* * *

"Yuki-san sure is having fun there."

"Don't mind. There are only a handful of people who can honestly handle Hoshi-chan after all."

"I know that, Senpai. We're her classmates, so we know better than almost anyone how much of an impact she can make."

"Heh heh heh. But I know her on the level of a woman. That is honestly something you will never know. Unless you were honestly planning for a sex change. Is that it? Will I need to start seeing you as my sister now, Take-chan!?"

Nakagami let out a sigh through her nose.

Keeping up with these underclassmen had been more than she had expected.

The first time she did it had been fine, but she had been told that she would be helping them until an undefined amount of time.

This was the end result.

_But still…_

She saw why they still needed help.

A message displayed on her screen while the other three kept themselves busy attacking each other.

On it was the answer she had been looking for.

 **Wisteria:** "Those three had quickly and easily dismissed him back when we were under Yuki's command. It was just who they were at the time, but a lot of things had built up in him to where something like that would leave an impact."

They had not seemed to remember what they did, but the fact remained that they had done it.

Even if they had blocked it from their minds, or had just forgotten, they were still guilty for their previous actions.

So she did not hold back from telling them as much."

"You three. We need to talk about something here. I'll keep track of Hoshi-chan, but you three need to understand something while she is busy."

All three of them turned to face her.

A sign that they understood the importance of this now.

* * *

It made no sense.

There had to be a reason for this girl to act like this, but none came to mind.

_Is this what Shigeko meant when she said this girl was "inexperienced"!? This is pretty experienced to me!_

There was nothing false in the way this girl spoke to him.

Other people may use these sorts of tactics to catch their opponents off guard, but this girl was genuinely waiting for him to be prepared for this fight.

Only one thing could come to mind once he realized just how honest she was.

_She's similar to me in that sense._

Strong and skilled people would tend to forget that he was around due to his general presence of an overly average person. There had never been anything wrong with that and he had even started to use that to his advantage.

This girl was similar.

Simply by being herself she could change how people viewed her and how they reacted to her.

While he would be forgotten by the strong, she would give honest responses that made people lower their guards.

Unlike him, she would not take that chance to attack. The honesty that she showed prevented her from attacking while waiting for a response.

And…

_I want to help her with that._

She made others want to help, even if they were current enemies.

So with his mind made up, he nodded towards her.

"I'm fine now. This is still a match, so let's continue with it, okay?"

"That is great to hear! Let us begin then!"

Only a moment after she had said those words did movement come.

She rushed him.

.

Hoshi held her face straight while moving forward.

Her opponent had confirmed that he was now fine to fight.

She would not use up any more of his time and so decided to rush him with her hand on Kōgetsu.

… _This is it. The place where something will end._

From the very beginning, she had felt something off with this match. That feeling had only started to grow as the match went on and she came in contact with other fighters.

But now she found it.

The reason for that feeling.

_This will be the last fight of this match, so I should make sure to get through it quickly. I am not sure that I can win, but that is fine. I just want to confirm something here after all._

Her thoughts and her wants lined up perfectly.

All she needed to do was line those two up with her actions.

So she did just that.

With only her hand on Kōgetsu, she rushed forward without any thought of moving to the right or the left.

.

Mitsuteru saw the overly forward action moving towards him.

The girl held herself straight with her feet facing forward and body leaning towards him instead of upright.

Any damage he took would be stronger if she continued like this, but it meant that she had no intent of moving anywhere but forward.

For someone like him, who could fire in front of himself and still move to the side, this seemed too much like a suicide run.

If she was not such an honest girl then he would have suspected that she had some other motive for making such a forward rush towards him.

But she would not use tricks here.

That was just now how she did things.

… _Sadly that doesn't Mean I'm going to be facing this head-on like she wants. Snipers aren't supposed to be this close to the fight if they aren't as crazy as Arafune-senpai or Shinichi-kun. Urg. Why did I bother to be mentored by Arafune-senpai anyways? That was just hell._

But he had learned a lot from him, so there had never been any regret in that decision.

It had also helped him to understand how Attackers would move and how he should move when faced with one.

If this girl was inexperienced as a fighter but not in fighting then he would know what to do.

First was…

_Fire!_

Pulling the trigger on Ibis, he aimed for a non-vital spot. It would have done more damage since the girl had been protecting her more vital areas.

But…

"…"

She countered.

.

Hoshi saw the shot coming towards her but decided not to do it.

The power behind the attack and the speed of it had been what made her choose to face it head-on.

Since it only had power and little speed, she chose to match that power with her own.

The distance was too short to pull out Kōgetsu in time to count it, but she had learned something new in her previous fight.

"Shield!"

She pushed her arm forward as a concentrated shield appeared in the air.

Her palm struck the shield with power provided by her Trigger.

Shigenaga had been able to create two shields for this purpose and even kick them to win a fight, but Hoshi found that she could only focus enough for a single concentrated shield. Even the details of it were lacking in comparison.

But that was fine.

This was all she needed.

She forcibly hit the shield with the palm of her hand and watched as it pushed aside the air in order to reach her target.

The Ibis shot and the shield collided.

* * *

"She was able to copy it to that extent!?"

"Wow. Does this mean that Nana really isn't that skilled if her attack was easily copied?"

"Why you…! Get over here so I can properly beat you and scold you!"

Seiji smiled at his teammates.

He turned back to the screen with an interest shining in his eyes.

"That is certainly something though. To pull off even a single Hikigane Shield like that. This girl may be inexperienced, but she takes to things rather quickly. I wonder how Teru-kun will react to this."

* * *

Sekai watched with calculating eyes.

Yuki's younger sister had never once come in contact with him while Shigenaga had directly asked for his assistance. The older of the two had taken some time to reach the level of a double Hikigane Shield, but this girl had managed a single one only after a few minutes of having seen it.

_It's a lot less refined than Shigenaga's, but that isn't the point. I had guided Shigenaga through the entire process and trained with her on multiple occasions for it. The fact Yuki's younger sister had only seen it today and managed even that single one makes me wonder just how insane that family really is._

She had always been spoken of as the most normal of the family, but Sekai could see that even that was only true to an extent.

The single shield she had thrown forward had collided with the Ibis shot and had still maintained its shape and side. Cracks were running along it, but that may have been because it was so hastily made.

But it had served its purpose.

Now that the initial shot had been backed, Yuki's younger sister could move forward before Ariake could fire his next shot.

So he had chosen to not fire.

_Smart choice. Moving away from the attack is better than trying to take another shot. Even releasing Ibis was smart in this case._

He had likely thought he could bat away the Kōgetsu using Ibis, but that would no longer work now that his initial shot had been stopped without slowing her down.

 **WorTri:** "If he isn't careful, Ariake may just end up losing without knowing why."

 **Manager:** "What do you mean?"

Kimura not understanding the situation was fine since she had no combat training.

So he answered her without a sigh.

 **WorTri:** "His attack had been blocked and now he can't use Ibis to block Kōgetsu. Meishō Squad had seen the logs then they learned about Yuki's younger sister's prototype Trigger. It creates those ribbons on light that can be moved according to the user's whim. Something that has been recently discovered is that the ribbons can also be extended. That was thanks to Nasu Squad's Yūko."

"Did you hear that, Kuma-chan!? He praised you! Isn't that great!?"

"H-huh!? How is that great!? That guy is just as bad as Denji! A compliment from him might as well be a death flag for me! Can we ask him to take it back!?"

"But he is being nice for once! Just accept it and tell him thank you later on!"

"I refuse! I really want him to take it back! If Denji finds out then he'll harass me the entire time!"

He refused to take back his words at this point.

 **WorTri:** "If he is aware of that Trigger then he will become overly cautious of it and make a mistake. But in doing so he might not even realize that he made a mistake in the first place."

"That's right…" Yuki said from next to him.

It was nice to see some real emotion back on his face.

 **WorTri:** "A person's mind will tend to focus more on what they know and try to prepare for the unknown, but the opposite can also be true. If they are focusing more on the unknown, they feel as if they have already done everything to prepare for the known. In doing so, they become blind to possibilities and will not know what it is that had caused them to lose in the first place. I will admit guilt to that. The only thing here is that Ariake isn't that strong to begin with. If he was any stronger then it would be even worse and his focus would mix with some arrogance."

 **White Fox:** "That airhead would probably do that…"

Correcting him now would only cause the conversation to divert away from what they were watching.

So instead of doing so, Sekai only crossed his arms and faced the screen.

* * *

Hoshi saw the direction her opponent was moving and wanted to stop him.

Turning at this point would be difficult for her, so stopping him from doing so would be best for her.

The problem was how she would go about doing that.

She had already built up speed for her rush. Moving to the sides would weaken that speed and she would not be able to catch up with him at that point.

… _In that case._

She made a snap decision.

It would not be the first one she made in this match and that fact alone made her happy.

_Asteroid!_

A cube of trion appeared.

And then…

_Fujin activation in 10 seconds!_

Without turning her eyes away from the spot in front of herself, she fired to the right and left of her vision.

The cube of trion split into multiple pieces and flew straight.

Her opponent had been trying to move to his right, but she fired on both sides so that his left would not be an option either.

With both sides blocked he would have to fall back into her field of vision that was facing forward.

… _But that is not true! I realize there are more ways to deal with a problem instead of going back!_

Like moving forward while taking the attack.

She had done something similar by mimicking what she had seen Shigenaga do.

That was exactly what her opponent did.

.

Mitsuteru released Bagworm from his shoulders to bring up a shield.

He had been moving to the right when the girl fired Asteroid at him.

The attack had been a way to place him back in front of her, but…

_I've already seen stuff like that. You haven't felt true pain until you actually got hit with a double Hikigane Shield because you didn't want to move right or left. Those jerks even blocked my up and down just so they could record me getting hit in the face with that crap!_

There had been some pretty terrible people in his life and most of them happened to be a part of Border.

It was thanks to those terrible people that he had learned how to deal with these sorts of attacks.

Instead of trying to move back or take a shortcut through the attack, he had to block it properly.

Timing it just right would have been an issue, but this girl's lack of experience had made it easy to figure out when to move and when to hide behind a shield.

_The amount of bullets she fired is also pretty minimal. She's probably low on trion right now, so she can't make any big attacks for the time being. In which case, I should aim for her at the moment she is behind me. As long as I know where she will be, I can fire._

But wait…

… _That was what Shigeko had tried against that guy. That ended in her loss._

So.

_I shouldn't aim when she is behind me, but rather, I need to aim for the moment she is about to be behind me!_

As the Asteroid bullets hit the shield, he activated and brought out Egret.

Without turning around, he held the Sniper Trigger backwards and fired.

From what he had seen, the girl would have made it to where he had fired just in time to take the hit.

There was the possibility that she would block the attack. Her usage of the Hikigane Shield had proven that she can adapt rather well, which meant that she may be able to notice what was happening.

So he turned.

Mitsuteru planted his foot on the roof, pushed off of it, and turned this body around.

_Even if she blocks it, she would need to fix her position to chase me. So-_

She was gone.

The girl had vanished as a certain sound reached his ears.

"Crap! I forgot about that!"

.

Hoshi felt a bit of pride in knowing that she had surprised her opponent.

Since she had been moving forward the entire time, her eyes had been focused on what was directly in front of her.

The Asteroid attacks had been her way of trying to force her opponent back to a position in front of her.

Since that had failed, she made her next action.

_Teleport!_

A sound came for a single moment.

Her sight had been focused on what was directly in front of her, but all it took was a simple glance in the other direction.

So she moved her eyes.

Turning her head or her body would have taken too long, so she moved her eyes as far as she could and activated the Trigger.

.

In an instant, Hoshi vanished from where she had been running, only to appear directly next to Mitsuteru.

With her hand still on Kōgetsu, she pulled out the blade while acting the prototype Trigger she had created.

At the same time she did so, Mitsuteru forced his arm up to lift Egret directly to his side.

He fired.

The sound of a body being struck was heard from close range, but it had not been enough.

Ribbons of light bloomed from the hilt of Kōgetsu as he was pulled from its holder.

Three out of the five ribbons moved forward.

Mitsuteru activated Shield upon seeing the ribbons moving toward him.

The first two ribbons had struck the shield while the third one managed to hit his leg.

The ribbons became a blade that cut through his leg.

With his sense of balance now off, he began to fall to the ground.

Then he fired.

He pulled the trigger of Egret two more times.

The first one had shot through Hoshi's chest and the second one had shot her shoulder.

The final two ribbons of light began to move.

But unlike the first three, the two last ones did something different.

One moved around while the other extended straight.

Egret's trigger was pulled two more times.

One ribbon of light had cut off the arm holding Egret.

The first shot went through the arm holding Kōgetsu's hilt.

Another ribbon of light extended out until it came in contact with Mitsuteru's neck.

**Bail Out**

The second shot had reached Hoshi's head.

**Bail Out**

* * *

**Manager:** "And with that, the match is over. Both Kotowari Squad and Meishō Squad get a point. Ninomiya Squad is the one who gets the survival points though. Here are the totals after adding those survival points."

**Ninomiya Squad - 8 Points**

**Meishō Squad - 4 Points**

**Suzunari-1 - 3 Points**

**Kotowari Squad - 1 Point**

"Damn. Now that we're seeing it like this, Kotowari Squad really didn't do too well here."

"They gave away a point or two at points, but the start was pretty harsh for them."

"Still, Ninomiya Squad getting 8 points by the end is just crazy."

"Suzunari and Meishō seem pretty even from the looks of things."

Kimura had to agree with everything she was hearing.

By way of points, it had seemed like something had clearly been wrong throughout the entire fight for it to end up like this.

 **Manager:** "We will now go over the match and give our final commentary. A lot had happened in this match with there being four squads, two of which having four members in them. Please standby for a minute."

She looked to the side and saw both Yuki and Sekai nodding at her.

_Yeah. …There's a lot to say here isn't there?_

* * *

Hoshi hung her head as she made her way over to her teammates.

By the end of the match she had been able to get a point, but for some reason it had felt wrong to do so.

All that she could think about was the feeling she had been having the entire time.

But instead of being told anything, she had come to an unexpected sight.

"Well done, Hoshi-chan. We managed to get at least one point because of you."

Looking up, she saw the varying expressions on her teammates.

To the side of Nakagami, who had been the one to speak to her, Suzume had her arms crossed while holding up her breasts. The bitter smile on her face had been in her direction but had not been sent to her.

Next to them, Takeshi was looking down while covering his face with his scarf. The grip on it had been tight from the way the fabric was crumpling.

Toby had moved over to a corner, turned away from her. His shoulders shook a bit, but she could get nothing from that.

"Um… Thank you, but…"

"Huh? Oh, these three. Don't worry too much about it. They are just thinking about stuff."

Nakagami patted the spot next to her.

The usually high energy she had seemed to have settled down or the time being, so she took up the offer.

"Now, let's listen to what these guys have to say about the match."

* * *

"Hah… I guess that's that. We managed to come in second, so that's good to know. But…"

"But now you need to let everything go. Isn't that right, Teru-kun?"

Mitsuteru lightly smiled at Seiji.

His captain was looking at him with understanding. It was different from the questioning looks his teammates were giving him, but he said nothing.

There would no longer be a reason to say anything.

Everything that had built up over time would now be released like the breaths he would take when tension started taking over his body.

_Now that I think about it, I didn't take a breath during my last fight there._

What exactly did that mean?

Had he felt relaxed while fighting that girl, or had it simply been that his focus was elsewhere?

Either way, he knew that it meant there had been less tension during that time and it allowed him to score a point for his team.

* * *

 **Manager:** "Alright then. We will now go over the match. The map that had been chosen was Cityscape E, and the setting for it had been a lightless night with periodic strong winds. Meishō Squad had been the ones to choose the map and the settings. How did you think they did working with those?"

 **WorTri:** "They had clearly wanted the pitch black of night to be what helped them at the start. Ariake and Shigenaga had been using that to blind their opponents in order to attack them. Once that had started to wear off, they then used the wind to their advantage. Hah. By having the location contain multiple narrow spaces, they could funnel the wind in a way that could blow through those narrow spaces and less in the open spaces. The wind still reached the top of the buildings somewhat, so the Snipers had to be careful in how they fired. Hah."

 **Manager:** "Once these narrow spaces had become less helpful, they had been sealed off. That tactic had been done by Captain Meishō. Using Meteora, he started forcing the wind to take up the open spaces instead of the narrow spaces. But that had also been what helped him to almost get around the seemingly impenetrable defense Suzunari-1 had this match."

 **WorTri:** "Hah.I would say they used the location and settings rather well. Maybe even better than what we could see."

 **Manager:** "What do you mean?"

 **WorTri:** "You could see it in the way Masataka and Kō were moving. They did well to make it look the same as usual, but it was clear that something about the location was getting to them. The same applies to Inukai, but not on the same scale as those two."

 **Manager:** "Now that you mention it, it did seem like it was taking longer to take others out for those two than it normally would."

 **White Fox:** "…"

 **WorTri:** "But they aren't the only ones who used the location and settings to their advantage. There had been brief moments when other squads had decided to use the wind or the lights in order to gain the upper hand here. Hah."

 **Manager:** "Right, let's talk about them then. If we are going in order, Meishō Squad's rather forward start is something to note."

.

"It was more than just 'forward'. It was completely out of character for those guys. Maybe Shigenaga moving in like that was fine, but Mitsuteru was completely different."

Tonooka crossed his arms as he sat back in his seat.

Now that the match was over, he wanted to hear what the commentators had to say about his friend and the way he had been behaving.

 **WorTri:** "At first glance it had seemed that Ariake wanted to quickly take out the strongest competition in the match with the way he had fired at Masataka. That would have been smart, but the way he went about it was completely idiotic. Hah. From what I could see, it felt much more like he was trying to let out some grudge by attacking like that. The same applies to Shigenaga fighting Suzunari-1."

 **Manager:** "The strategies Meishō Squad had used during this match had been different from the ones they had used before. During the other matches it had been clear that they went with Agent Shigenaga and Agent Asagi as their main offense while Captain Meishō and Agent Ariake supported them from behind. This time those roles seemed to have been switched a bit. Agent Shigenaga had still been offensive, but Agent Ariake had also been pretty forward with his attacks."

Kimura knowing what Mitsuteru was like had been a given since they were once on the same squad, but Tonooka found himself a bit surprised by how the Hikigane Squad Captain had been able to tell what was going on.

"Looks like he was being pretty obvious, wasn't he? What do you have to say, Tono?"

"…I want to talk to him about it later on. It's not like him to go against his own style like that. But the way he seemed by the end of the match kind of tells me everything I need to know."

"So are you going to criticize him for how he did things here?"

He looked around at the expecting faces looking at him.

None of them said anything directly to him, but he understood that they wanted to know how he felt about the matter.

So he shrugged.

"I'm not going to tell you guys that. If I do then there's the chance it can reach those people."

.

 **White Fox:** "All of Meishō Squad was relying on something that some of them had no clue about. As a whole they did well, but could not properly find their footing since one of their Snipers had gone super offensive. That would have been fine if he wasn't their main support. They had been split up for the better part of the match and had even been given a point because of someone else's arrogance."

"But," Yuki added, even while ignoring the looks he was getting.

 **White Fox:** "They played the field well here. Even if it was handed to them, a point here still matters."

 **WorTri:** "Hah. That's right. They even showed their own personal skills during this match. Suzunari had seen that firsthand while Kotowari Squad had been the victims of correct timing."

 **Manager:** "Then let's talk about those two squads next."

 **WorTri:** "Hah. This was the first time we had seen a new strategy from Suzunari. This one had been relying on Kō's defense to support a full offensive from Tatsuya. That is not a bad idea at all. It had a new layer to their formation that doesn't rely on getting close to their targets. Hah. And the pros for that kind of strategy outweigh the cons since it also places Kō in a position to also attack if he needs to."

 **White Fox:** "Surprisingly enough, Taichi had been the first one to score a point for their squad. It may have been due to some confusion of the battlefield, but like I said: every point matters. He had messed up the moment he fell for Toby's nice words and took up the fight against Shigenaga. The likelihood of him winning that was way too low for him to make up for the difference between them. He should have thought that through and his teammates should have stopped him from doing that."

 **Manager:** "That is rate harsh considering his teammates were fighting against Captain Ninomiya and two of Meishō Squad's members."

 **White Fox:** "But it's the truth. Keeping track of all members of a squad is important on matters like that. Even more so for someone like Taichi. He is a Sniper, so having him fight a close range specialist like Shigenaga was just dumb."

For a second time, he added a "but" to the end of his sentence.

 **White Fox:** "He had done well enough for what he could do. There were a lot of flaws in his fight against her, but that can only lead to a new experience for him. As for their new strategy… It is also something that can only get better the more it is built up. From a lot of experience, I can tell you that Kō's defenses are some of the most airtight. If he is going full defense then there are not many who can break through. Add in Kuruma-san's ranged attacks and you have a mobile fortress that can only be added on to."

* * *

"Kō-san is smiling!"

"It's about time. I guess he can't resist a compliment when it comes from someone so important to him."

Kuruma could only nod in agreement.

He had seen the flaws in their planning during the match and felt that what Yuki had said was true.

It had been his job as captain to make sure that his squad is properly placed around the battlefield and to give them instructions when needed. Even if their new strategy had been praised, they had still taken more damage than any of them would have liked.

"Well you heard them. Adding on to this can only help us out. In a sense, they are telling us that we have reached the starting point of something good. So let's keep that up and build on what we have now."

The other three could only nod their heads.

_Still it's clear what his words mean for us specifically. It's because he's directing them at us that Kō is smiling like that. I don't know what happened between those two, but this might have helped them out a bit. I won't be holding up to anything, but I'll help however I can._

"You know, that whole pitch black thing Meishō Squad was going for was pretty cool! It sucked trying to find things without any sight, but it was amazing that it worked so well! I kind of want to try that now too!"

"Don't get your hopes up, Taichi. We don't know who we are fighting next. Think about the future a bit more before saying anything."

"Now, now, Kon. Letting him have some fun isn't so bad."

"Right! Kō-san gets it!"

For now he only had to focus on what they were being told.

This would be another starting point for them.

* * *

 **Manager:** "Now this just leaves Kotowari Squad and Ninomiya Squad."

 **White Fox:** "…"

 **WorTri:** "No need to hold back here. Give it your all."

 **Manager:** "Just make sure it's PG. I don't want to get into ruble for what you say."

 **White Fox:** "Okay. I will start with Ninomiya Squad then. And with that… They were their own mess here. They won, sure, but their captain was being an idiot, Inukai was trying to pacify that idiot captain too much, and Tsuji still has his issues. Hiyami seemed to be the only one doing everything right. Starting with that idiot… He let what had been happening get to him and that had mixed in with what he remembered because of the setting around him. You can say he was in top form, but I saw it clearly. The only thing that was really there was his body and his attacks. His mind was thinking about things that should not be involved when it comes to these things and he never puts any sort of heart into it, so that's the only thing that can be excused."

 **WorTri:** "It did seem like he was holding back at times."

 **White Fox:** "Inukai had been wanting to show something. I can say that it was my own fault, but he was basically doing the same thing his idiotic captain was doing. He was trying too hard on something that should not have been in the match in the first place. People might be thankful for that later on, but it was actually pretty insulting to the rest of the fighters who had nothing holding them back and had still lost to these guys. Next time he will need to remain focused don't he fight he's in instead of something that only involves him due to proxy."

.

"He is really laying it on hard."

Oshiro tightened his grip on the pup that sat in his arms.

Taka had remained in the seat next to him, but Krümel had crawled onto his lap the moment he felt his own start to tense up.

The feeling of his fur had a calming effect on him, but that did not stop the chill from Yuki's words.

"I see. Kiyo-nii must reeeeeeeeally care about them…"

"What do you mean? He is only giving harsh criticism on them without giving them proper advice."

"Yeah, it seems that way."

So which was it?

Oshiro knew that the younger Taiyōko brother was smart, but he was making little sense at the moment.

"He is really laaaaaying it on hard there. But if he diiiiiiiiidn't then it would be like letting them ooooooooff the hook with a slap on the wrist. And since I'm right, the neeeeext one should be…"

 **White Fox:** "Tsuji being held back just because his opponent is a woman is also something that stops them from doing more than they could have. But unlike those other two, this one isn't really something that can be resolved in a short amount of time. In that sense, he just happened to get unlucky with his matchup. But that then also falls on his teammates. That air headed idiot of a captain knew about this and yet remained in his fight against Suzunari. Inukai was at least there, but those two were saved by the good nature of Kotowari Squad. If their opponents had not been Toby and Hoshi then they would have at least lost Tsuji before he could do anything. In the end, he could only hold off those two, but that had at least accomplished something. Lowering their amount of trion is still something when compared to nothing."

"Tch. I can't deny that…even iiiiiiiif it is that idiot. But seriously, he's waaaaaaaay toooooo useless when it comes to females. Haaaaaave you two not done soooooomething about it yet?"

It was not like that. The issue was just so deep that even they, Tsuji's two best friends, could not fully clear him of his fear of women.

Hisoka seemed to understand that it was best not to answer Mukuro from the way she only turned to look at him.

Her silent words reached him clearly and had him relaxing his hold on Krümel.

 **Manager:** "My captain has said that he and Kobayashi have been trying to help, but that only resulted in Tsuji getting along with Kobayashi. I'm guessing that you would need to take each person one at a time to have him get comfortable around them for something to work."

 **WorTri:** "Hah. We all have our own personal issues like that. It may be a hindrance when it's a one-on-one setting, but these rank wars are done with squads. That means he needs to be able to rely on his teammates when matters like these come up, instead of his opponents' kindness."

He was glad to hear that they understood what was going on.

Then he heard it.

The next "but" that came from Yuki.

_He must really be conflicted with himself if he keeps doing that._

**White Fox:** "As much as I hate to say it, they have what it takes to make up for that stuff. Even if they weren't fully there, they managed the win. The points they had gotten were ones they had taken and were not handed to them. The skill they have shows why they were former A-Ranks and currently the top squad out of the B-Rank squads. As long as the rest of them can keep up with their idiotic airhead captain, I don't really see them going down in rank. But making sure that their members are fine during a match is something they should think about more often. Otherwise there will come a time when even the weakest person on the battlefield will be able to take them out."

* * *

"That damn faker. I don't want to hear anything about keeping track of teammates from the likes of him. He can't even properly take care of himself or the people around him. For him to speak about that stuff…"

"Okay, okay, calm down, Ninomiya-san. He is only saying what he is seeing. And he does have a point in certain parts."

The glare sent towards Inukai was a cold one meant for his enemies, but Inukai felt the full brunt of it.

Once the match had ended, his captain had been adamant in refusing to listen to what Yuki had to say about the match. It was another sign that things were still rough between the two of them.

_Well more than usual at least…_

Still, he put on a smile and tried to calm his captain's nerves.

This type of situation was not one that he could rely on Tsuji or Hiyami for. So he took it upon himself to cool the temper of his captain while he had the chance.

"The two of us were thinking about that incident way too much because we had both been there when it happened. But that had been in the past. We can't change it and Yuki knows that. He knows that as well as either one of us."

"That's not… I know that the past can't be changed. If it could then I would have a lot to do. But that damn faker is doing something other than getting over the past as a whole. He is trying to forget it and pretend that it never happened. As if the start for him had always been in that hospital."

"But that's what he's been trying to do the whole time, isn't it?"

"No. Up until now, he has only tried to _push aside_ the past. But now he wants to completely get rid of it. By doing that, he's also getting rid of everything concerning that past and making decisions based on what the current 'him' knows now. That's why what he caused with Minoru is…"

It was true.

Inukai knew it well enough too. What had been happening was due to Yuki wanting to get rid of all of the past so that he did not have any connections to certain people. In doing so he would be able to better act on situations that involved them.

But…

_That's only a selfish want that has no effect on those other people. They will still be who they are and do as they like. Him trying so hard for this only means that his own sight will be different during those situations._

"—"

Sometimes it was hard to have difficult friends.

Inukai was all too aware of that fact.

_At least I have Oshiro too._

* * *

**WorTri:** "And we reach the final part. Kotowari Squad, who had been doing well in the fights but failed overall."

 **White Fox:** "They are being too relaxed about these matches now."

 **Manager:** "I believe that comes from their former captain."

 **White Fox:** "No. I had tried to make sure their nerves were calm before matches, but I always made sure they knew that it was serious. They might understand that mentally, but their personalities are not ready for this kind of thing. It would be fine if they were in the mid tier, but they can't be giving things away at the top tier."

 **WorTri:** "Hah. That's true. While their first fight can be forgiven due to who the opponent was, they became too casual with the later fights. Taiyōko didn't take the chance to take out Tsuji, and Awdry had given a point away to Shigenaga. Hah. We all saw how fast he was able to move. Taking off Taichi's head would have been nothing to him. They had changed the interpretation of it, but the fact remains that he could have gotten them another point."

 **White Fox:** "The same applies to Hoshi. Looking past Tsuji, she waited for Mitsuteru to be ready during their fight. While that entire thing was adorable, it is also something that can't be overlooked. Those two are too kind and get attached to things easily. That may be viewed as a positive in a casual setting, but fights are different. Toby would have taken that point and the both of them should have used Hoshi against Tsuji. That way they could have ended with at least 3 points while Meishō Squad would have been down by two there. They aren't the only ones at fault though. Their captain should have also gotten them to move… Or at least, that's what I want to say. The fact of the matter is that Kotowari Squad works on a system of equality. Their captain holds no more power than the rest of them. So at the least, they should have put it to a vote and see what they should have done."

 **Manager:** "That kind of system is also not good for these sorts of things. Each squad needs a single leader so that they can take charge when it is needed. Having it so that everyone has a say is good, but not having a designated person to lead the way means that they will all clash at some point and that will cause confusion and delay."

 **White Fox:** "Right. These matches are not going to be against people so nice that they would decide to go with their ideas of fairness. Each squad will be looking for their own chances to win here. But…"

* * *

Hoshi felt herself starting to fidget more and more.

The words her older brother was saying were true and she knew it.

She had never had any sort of delusion that her personality was fit for fighting. Everything about her felt as if she should not have been involved with fighting actual people.

_I can fight, yes, but I know that I become too nice when it involves other people._

Maybe that was why Katori did not like her.

She saw how much of a poor match her personality was and decided not to like her because of it.

It made her sad, but looking over that would only be her way of escaping the problem.

So when she heard the final part of what her brother was going to say, she listened closely.

 **White Fox:** "That is only their personalities."

"Huh?"

Hearing the confused tone from her teammate, she looked up to see that Toby had made his way back over to them.

 **White Fox:** "Their abilities as fighters is not something that others can just give a passing glance at. Just looking form the start of the match, both Takeshi and Suzu had been able to properly assess how they should defend against that idiotic airhead."

 **WorTri:** "Hah. I had mentioned it before, but Awdry's speed is also something to note. And the way he tried to use Taichi to take out Shigenaga was fine in theory. Hah. They managed to barely skim the top tier, even with this loss, so my own squad has a chance to fight them. It sounds like it would be an irritation since they are doing so well. In particular, those two overly kind kids are the most irritating."

 **Manager:** "That's right. You had spoken about the way Agent Taiyōko had used her Shield in the same way as Agent Shigenaga."

"I actually wanted to ask you about that too, Hoshi."

"Um… I am not too sure what there is to speak about. I had only tried it and failed to properly fight using it."

Toby shook his head. Whatever had been going on with him before seemed to have passed since he looked at her with an expecting expression now.

"That's not the point. What mattered was that you tried it after having only seen it today. That also goes for you extending out Fujin. Yūko had barely found that out today, but you had been able to get it done right away."

"I-it's not that special! I-I only did what I had seen! Like a test run! I am still nowhere near the level of Shigenaga-san or Kumagai-senpai!"

That appeared to be the wrong thing to say from the sigh he let out.

The atmosphere around them had begun to lighten around the room again. Their upperclassmen had started swinging her body starting from the hips and the grip their captain had on his scarf was loosening.

 **WorTri:** "Shigenaga had spent a lot of time trying to work out how to best use Shield the way I do. She had come to me before for help and it took us a while before she managed to get it down to two shields. Hah. Taiyōko had only seen it today and yet she had been able to use it well enough, even by my standards. That's not to say she was insulting Shigenaga though. It is only going to show that she has a lot of potential if she is able to understand the basics of something like that so quickly."

 **White Fox:** "Hoshi has always been a fast learner. If you combine that sort of thing with any of the other three then it will be difficult to fight them. Well that only only applies to when they get better. At the moment, they are all still rather green when it comes to these things. But that only leaves room for their improvement."

Going from light to fluffy, the room had brightened up.

Everything that had built up from the simple feeling at the start of the match to how it had ended started to grow lighter. The weight of their words was still there, but it had not become overbearing.

Both corrections and praise had come in from them and they would take it to better themselves here.

"Alright! After this match we have a weeklong break! We're gonna get some things done during that time!"

"Right!"

It was now something for them to look at for improvement.

* * *

 **Manager:** "And that will conclude the commentary for this Round 6 match of the B-Rank Wars. Thank you for joining us today and giving your input. Any final comments you would like to add?"

 **WorTri:** "Just that I know there will be some irritating people being idiots once this is over."

 **Manager:** "Right… I think I know who you mean… And from you?"

 **White Fox:** "Everyone has something they need to work on, but it shouldn't be something that overtakes them. Moving at a steady pace will be best. Also, so matter what happens… _don't let anything go just yet._ "

 **Manager:** "You would finish on that… Well that is that. Once again, I thank you all for being here, and our two commentators for their input."


	134. Mitsuteru Ariake: Part 2

"Well now that we finished that…"

"Where are you going now?"

"Huh? Oh, I'm going to relax for a bit. Then I need to go talk to some people about some things."

"If I hear that you were causing another mess then I'll make sure to tell Akasora-san."

"I guess that's fair…"

Conversations were going all around.

"We didn't get to see her use it much this time around…"

"Did she know we came to watch her?"

"Huh!? I-I came here to root for-"

"Now, now, no need to lie about that, Kuma-chan."

"I'm not lying! And since when were you the type to give that kind of smile, Rei!?"

"Heh heh heh. I wonder."

Some of them sound more dangerous than what he had originally thought.

"That guy needs another lesson in what to do. Guess I've got to take up the mantle again. Oh, I can get Murakami involved too. Yeah, the both of them look like they need a good smacking to right themselves again."

"Wow~ Arafune is trying for something fun even as I'm NTRing him! That's just messed up! But wait! Does this mean he's trying for the harem route!?"

"Someone call the guards! Get them over here before I slam this guy into a wall!"

"Kabedon!"

Shobu had tried not to listen in on some of them, but the volume they were using was too hard for him to miss.

Upperclassmen could be weird at times.

Any worry he had felt had settled down once the match had ended.

His mentor had seemed to realize something during his commentary, so there was no longer a need to go to his side. Knowing that he was going to relax had made him feel better.

"Is something the matter, Tenryū?"

He had not expected anyone to talk to him as they were moving towards the stairs.

The three leading the line had turned back to see what it had been about, so he ducked his head and lifted one of the devices around his neck. It had been big enough to hide part of his face while his hair hid the remaining part.

"…N-no… …I just…don't know what…I will be doing…now…"

"Oh! Have a match with me then! I haven't fought you so I wanna try it!"

"Midorikawa, don't go harassing him like that."

"Eeeeeeeh? I'm not harassing him! He's Yuki-san's student, right? I just want to see how good he is!"

"And harassing him won't do anything to help."

"Midorikawa is harassing that kid?" someone had whispered off to the side.

"Looks that way," came the response.

"Isn't that Yuki's other kid? Does that mean Midorikawa is a goner now?"

"We should set up the funeral."

"Oh, but make it a small one. He's been kind of a butt to me recently, so I feel like that's only fair."

"That's just because you suck!" everyone around them said, turning to make sure the guy could hear.

It was kind of amazing how they could all come together for a mass tsukkomi like that.

Midorikawa's reaction was just as good with him being the boke here.

… _I thought that only…Yuki-san's age group…could pull that off…_

Apparently Border had become a hotspot for these kinds of things recently and he just just hadn't found out until now.

"Anyway…"

The one who had originally asked turned back to him with a confirming smile.

At some point in the match, Ema had switched places with Tomoe. That had meant that Tomoe would be the one in front of him when they left with Ema being between Tomoe and Midorikawa.

With everyone else focusing on their tsukkomi against Midorikawa, it left the two of them to not be noticed by everyone else.

"You said that you don't know what you will be doing after this, right? Well Obishima said she will be going over to meet up with Taiyōko-senpai and Ema wanted to go to his squad's operating room. I don't really know how close you are with them, but either option is probably better than trying to keep up with Midorikawa."

"…What about…you…?"

"Hm? Me? Oh, I was planning to go for some matches too. One of the senpais had messaged me asking if I wanted to go."

"…"

"So, um…"

"…May I…go with you…?"

Everything went silent.

Even the air felt like it had gone silent.

In reality, everyone had turned to see what would happen next with him.

It was all the more unnerving that they had cut their tsukkomi just to listen in.

"Sure…?" Tomoe had said while looking back at Ema.

Ema only shrugged as if this was nothing that major.

He was glad when Ema glared at everyone to mind this town business though.

"Yeah. It would be nice to have some company on my way there!"

No one was expecting him to smile at the response, but that may have been why he did.

It was small and almost unnoticeable, but it was there now.

* * *

That was unfair.

Mitsuteru could only think that it was unfair how he was being treated at the moment.

Once the match and commentary had ended, he had been hounded by his squad about his reasoning for certain things involving the match.

At first it had been days to get away from that, but the last words from his former captain had gotten through.

"That guy is all kinds of messed up. How am I supposed to not let everything go after I've already decided on doing just that? That's like asking a child not to mess around after giving them a bunch of candy."

But he was a good child.

He would do just that.

"Damn it all. I guess I need to hold onto these things for a bit longer. If he didn't know what he was doing then he would have just told me to let it all out."

Instead he had been told to keep holding on to everything he hated about his former captain. All of the negative feelings he had decided to let go of after the match needed to be held onto for the time being.

Ninomiya and Murakami had been a part of those feelings, but he felt like he could let those go now.

He had messed with those two during the match and they seemed to have had their own thoughts on the matter, so he felt like he should lighten up on them.

 **Black Wolf:** "Hey, Mitsuteru. …Wait, I never got permission to call you that. Sorry."

Speaking of them.

 **Daybreak:** "It's fine, Senpai. I'm just thinking of letting you and Ninomiya-san off the hook here. Any business I have with Kiyoshi-san is with Kiyoshi-san only now. I won't be dragging any of you into this now."

 **Black Wolf:** "That isn't really normal, you know? Most normal people would continue to feel like getting angry with anything having to do with something like that."

"Heh. Yeah, I learned that I might not be as normal as I thought I was."

The looks from his teammates had been amusing when he told them as much.

_Shigeko looked ready to punch me though, so maybe I should be more careful from now on._

That was fine with him.

She had always been looking out for him. Showing her that he had taken a step closer to her world had been his way of expressing his joy at being closer to her now.

 **Daybreak:** "Anyways. Sorry for the trouble I've caused, Senpai."

 **Black Wolf:** "That's fine. You aren't anywhere near as bad as some other people I know. I'm just glad you managed to get through the match."

It had been rough, but they had all managed to get through it all.

 **Black Wolf:** "Oh, and congratulations on making second. Just know that the next time we fight will be different. I will be in top form and won't be held back by anything."

"Please don't scare me like that, Senpai. Just seeing you today already gave me a heart attack. I thought I was looking at a wolf that was ready to tear into some throats."

He hoped that Murakami was laughing on the other end and so did the same.

They were on better terms now, so laughing like this would not be bad.

 **Black Wolf:** "Oh yeah. There was something I wanted to ask you."

What was that?

 **Black Wolf:** "If you happen to see them… As someone who cares about them, can I ask that you try to forgive Kotowari Squad?"

.

"Oh… Them."

Those younger ones who had been an insult to him.

The core three of that squad had been in the wrong so many times because of their attachment to their former captain. The same former captain he had once had.

They were being selfish in the way they thought, thinking that he had only been there for them and that he could not leave them. It had been disgusting to see once the disbandment had reached his ears.

But even before that, they had been terrible.

Kotowari Squad's core members had been arrogant, rude, and dismissive of anything that was not themselves or their former captain. When having met them, he had understood how they viewed the world and the things around them.

Each one of them had been bad on their own, but together they had been nothing but trouble.

After their initial meeting, he had made sure to stay away from them due to that fact. Word had still gotten around about them though.

There were some who liked them and enjoyed their company, but there were just as many, if not more, that disliked their treatment of each other. Always fighting each other, doing as they wanted, only listening to one person, and much more. All of it had reached him and made him worry for his former teammates.

So what would he do now?

Each member had been so different during the match than how they had been before.

Their newest member was also someone he had not expected.

The younger sister of his former captain.

The girl had been kind and caring, even while facing him as an opponent. Having her near people he felt disgusted with had been worrying, but…

"They changed. Even I can see that much."

Those three core members had not been the same as back then.

Movements had been more refined and their personalities had easily been shown in the way they moved to cover each other, even while selfishly taking the lead themselves.

Each one of them had seemed the same at a basic level, but how they held themselves while fighting was more than he had expected.

They were not the same.

He gave a sigh at realizing that simple fact.

"I guess I-"

"Mitsuteru! Heeeey! Over here!"

Someone called out to him.

"Foolish dog. You don't need to be so energetic. Actually, you might honestly scare him at this point."

The very people he had been thinking about.

.

The hallway felt more compact as the trio had made their way towards him.

_Three? So Kiyoshi-san's sister and their substitute Operator are not with them then._

Having these three be the ones to approach him had begun to raise tension in his body.

His shoulder started to lift and his muscles were beginning to tense up.

So he took a breath.

Taking in air through his nose, he held it in for a moment.

Then he released the air through his mouth with a "hah".

Most of the tension had left this body, but there was still something that he could not point out.

And once they had reached him…

"We are very sorry for the way we had behaved!"

What?

No way those three terrible people were bowing at him while apologizing.

The ones from his memory would never do something like that.

And yet…

"Low! Take, lower your head more!"

"I am… I'm just not used to doing this sort of thing."

"We are honestly trying to look professional here and you two are messing this up. I will make sure to let others know how much you suck at this."

"Lower your voice, you damn idiot! We still need to hear him! Ah! Now he's looking at us weirdly!"

"That's because you took a peak, you idiotic mutt. Next time you should watch yourself."

"(The hell did you say!?)"

The one in the middle had bounced up at the insult and turned to rub his hand hard on the one to the right.

This had been more like what he remembered.

But…

"You guys are weird."

Mitsuteru's eyes opened wide at the words that came from his mouth.

They had escaped before could stop them and now he was getting looks from the three of them.

The one to the right and the one to the left also lifted their bodies to look more directly at him.

"See!? Now he thinks we're weird!?" the middle said with a whine.

The one to the left started laughing as she wiggled around in place.

"Heh heh heh. But he isn't wrong. You two are honestly weird. You should be pleased that I hang around you two! Yes, this summit flower will even stay near two losers! Isn't that great!?"

"Senpai, you are also weird. Just look at what you're doing and saying."

He found them all weird.

But not because of how they were acting.

_Well that's also pretty weird too. But…_

It was how different they were from what he had heard and what he had already seen.

There had been rumors going around that they had gotten better, but he had not thought that it was to this extent.

The three of them were still fighting, but it was much more lighthearted than he had seen before.

It felt much more like how proper friends would act.

So he spoke up to them.

"You guys-!"

They turned back to him.

It was good that they would not pay attention. Unlike back then, they were now looking directly at him.

"Thanks for apologizing. It's kind of late for that though."

Their faces fell and their eyes turned away from him.

None of them were ignoring him, that much he knew.

"So let's make a fresh new start. How does that sound?"

Their reactions had been refreshing.

The middle one had been the one to respond for them. It was clear to him that the middle boy was the one who wore his emotions on his sleeve.

"Really!? Are you sure!? We were pretty much assholes back then! …Even if we don't really remember that much. But are you sure!?"

"Foolish dog, don't go ruining this for us."

"That's right. I don't want to bring us back to square one after what we just did."

Mitsueru felt himself smiling at them.

They were weird, that much was certain, but that was not a bad thing at all.

_I just learned that I'm pretty weird myself. Guess that's why I can do this right now._

A certain feeling came back up.

Up until now he had thought that it had gone away due to the events of his life, but that had not been the case.

Because he felt them here.

"Yeah, I'm cool with it. Besides, if we can get along then it means we're sibling students."

That one made him cringe on the inside.

"Or not… That sounds pretty sappy, doesn't it? Hahaha… Just forget I said that, okay?"

Sadly, he had soon elated something else about the three in front of them.

It first came when an arm wrapped around his arm.

Next was how a body crashed into him.

To finish it all, someone moved to his side.

"Heh heh heh! Too bad! That was extremely embarrassing to say and we won't forget it! You are stuck with us now! So please take care of us, A-ni-ki!"

"Yeah! We're not going to let you live that one down! Better get yourself ready! You're our big bro now, sucker!"

"Since this does seem to be the case… We'll also have to look out for you. Don't be too much of a hassle, okay? We already have the mutt for that."

"Eh…? Eeeeeeh!? Wait wait wait! What are you people saying now!?"

It must have been an infection that spread through them all since none of them said anything more on the matter and only started dragging him away.

Their voices began drowning his own out with conversations about nothing important.

"…"

But that was fine.

_If they're fine with someone not as weird as them, then fine. Guess I'll suck it up and let this go._

Because there was no reason to hold it in anymore.


	135. Interlude: Part 6

"So this is what it all looks like! Amazing! Who knew that it was so big in here! And look how many people are even here! Boss was right in that it would be worth the wait!"

Futoyuki looked around the large hall within the Border base that he had heard about.

His white outfit had made him blend in rather well with everyone around him.

Being the former leader of a group who specialized in blending in had also provided support to his image.

"Futoyuki, you should probably keep your voice down. You're attracting a good amount of attention."

"But look, look! This place is huge!"

"Yes, I know. I have been here before when transferring over."

"You were over here, Arisa!?"

"Y-yes! Sawamura Kyōko-san helped me out while I was over here."

The betrayal from that information was deranged out by his excitement.

Arisa seemed to finally understand that he would not stop and only lowered her shoulders.

"Oh~ Oh~ So many people here! Hm… Still, sucks that there's no one here who-"

Futoyuki felt himself stop when looking around.

In the sea of white outfits that mixed with his, there had been something to stop him from continuing his look around the hall.

A single black outfit.

"Isn't that…?"

.

Arisa had been nervous from the moment she entered the building with Sawamura.

The Yagura Branch Director had been the one who wanted to escort her and Futoyuki to Border's New Recruit Enlistment, but Sawamura had arrived before they could leave and insisted on taking them.

It had been a treat to see the older man get bullied into the decision by a woman smaller than him.

It also showed her just how crazy Border really was for a twelfth time that day.

_My stomach doesn't feel too good… But wait, you can't feel that kind of stuff while using a Trigger. So then am I imagining it? But that means I'm nothing but nerves at the moment. That won't help anything though! Akasora-san told me about what we can expect while we're here! I need to be ready for that! If I don't make an impact then I might get yelled at! I hear the branches around here are pretty brutal with each other on these kinds of things!_

She wrapped her arms around her stomach as she thought more about her current situation.

In doing so, she had missed the talking around her.

"Is she okay?"

"It looks like she might vomit."

"Can we even do that while using a Trigger?"

"Not sure."

"I kind of want to try now…"

Strange noises began appearing all throughout the hall.

She could not figure out the source of them, but they reminded her too much of vomit and that made her want to do the same right about now.

"F-Futoyuki… M-maybe we can-… Huh? Hey, where are you going!?"

Once she had the course to look up, she found that her partner had already started in another direction.

.

It had to be his imagination.

_There has to be some mistake. I had to have heard that wrong._

Hyuse felt a hand on his shoulder.

He would have normally batted his hand away and glared at whoever it had been, but the person was someone he knew well enough to where he would not do that.

"Hyuse, are you okay? I doubt it's from nerves that you froze up, so what's wrong?"

"…Nothing. I was just imagining something."

"Then it must have been something bad for you to freeze up like that."

The worst part was that Maki did not know how to joke and so his words had all been serious.

"I said it was-"

"Little Hyu! It really is yoooooooou!"

Hyuse could see it happen in slow motion.

The body that had been rushing him like a wild animal had appeared from within the crowd of people.

It moved quickly, but with purpose.

And that purpose was to crash into him.

Knowing that he could take the hit easily, he moved to push Maki to the side.

Once he had done that, he turned back to the body rushing him.

He spread out his arms and legs, lowered his body, and straightened his face.

"Wait wait wait! Don't do thaaaaaaat! Just move like a normal peeeeeeerson!"

It was too late.

The moment the body had reached him, Hyuse grabbed a hold of his waist and began to lift.

The momentum the body had from his run had added to the speed at which Hyuse threw himself back.

Holding his ground with his feet, he threw his entire back along with the body so that he almost created an arch.

Instead of flowing through with slamming the boy's head into the ground, he released the waist of the boy and watched with upside-down vision as the boy was sent flying in the other direction.

His body came to a stop once he had hit the wall with a solid sound.

Hyuse righted himself again and refused to look back.

"What the hell was that about!?"

"It was nothing. Nothing happened. You saw nothing. That crazy person that rushed me is nothing. Ignore his entire existence and I will do the same."

"Is that really something to say after throwing someone like that!? I thought you were just going to German Suplex him, but that was also pretty bad!"

"He deserved much worse."

"How can you make that worse!?"

.

Maki could only look between Hyuse and the body he had just thrown back without any issues.

 _It actually looked like he was used to doing that,_ Maki thought while taking another look at the body.

When he did so, he was shocked to see that the boy had gotten right up and began another rush.

Not wanting a repeat of what had just happened, he took a step forward and got between the two of them.

The rushing boy had thankfully slowed down his speed so that he would be able to come to a stop just before hitting Maki.

"Tch. You should have just ignored him," he could hear Hyuse say from behind him.

Sometimes it was hard to deal with the Neighbor.

"Futoyuki! You jerk, what the hell were you doing!?"

"He was rushing my friend here and got thrown into a wall for it."

Maki had instinctively answered the voice as he turned around.

The girl who had asked quickly made her way over to the other boy and threw his head down.

"I-I-I am so s-sorry for him! He had g-gotten the wrong person and did something stupid!"

"I didn't get the wrong person! And let go of my head! If I bow my head at Little Hyu like this then he'll just get an inflated ego!"

_Yeah, that is a possibility._

It had happened at the Tamakoma Branch already after all.

Letting out a breath through his nose, Maki waved off the duo in front of him.

"Who are you two anyway? And don't lie to me about it," Maki said, pointing at Hyuse. "I already know this guy's situation, so holding back will do nothing. Especially since no one should know about him."

"We're people enlisting into Border today and then joining the Yagura Branch right after. I am Misawa Arisa and this is Futoyuki. He is indeed what you think and has been allowed to join today."

"Takahashi Maki. Hatohara Squad. I'm here to watch out for Hyuse today, who is also enlisting."

At least one of the two could be a proper person.

The boy on the other hand…

"There's more to it than that. For you see, I am not some simple person. I also happen to be Little Hyu's best friend!"

.

Arisa could not help the dead stare she gave her partner. From the corner of her eye she could see Takahashi Maki give the same look towards him.

Futoyuki's words had made sense, but his entire being contradicted such a statement.

That must have been a hammered in nail though as the person called Hyuse turned to glare at her partner.

"He is a stupid, selfish, ungrateful, air headed, obvious, moronic, tactless, stubborn idiot. If you give him the time of day then he will start talking about anything that comes to mind. Maki, don't pay attention to him or you might become as stupid as him."

"Aw! I love you too, Little Hyu!"

_Is this a Border-authentic tsukkomi I am seeing!? Does something like this spread that quickly!?_

It might not have been since Takahashi Maki was not reacting to those words like a comedian would.

Her partner on the other hand seemed to be enjoying the time he had around Hyuse.

Even she could see that Hyuse truly did hate her partner, but she also understood when there was something under that.

Her former mentor had been the same way.

_Every time he spoke about Shinoda-san or Akasora-san he would get that kind of expression. He would always say he hated them for his own reasons, but he would follow it up when he thought I wouldn't hear him. Does that make him a tsundere? No, no, no, no, no. It's not like that. It's more like-_

Arisa placed her fist in her hand with an "o" expression.

"You two are just really close!"

.

Hyuse could feel his anger begin to boil over.

He had tried not to pay any attention to the idiot as he went on a tangent, but that had become difficult as he went on.

The more he spoke, the more Hyuse remembered a different time.

A time he could count as "happy".

And then that girl had gone and said something he would not like to think about.

"I guess there _are_ different forms of 'being close' to someone. Still, I'm not too sure that this is the case, Misawa."

"It's not?"

"It's not. Hyuse looks ready to go for the throat here, so I would say they aren't that close."

Maki's efforts here were appreciated.

He wanted to say something as well, but was stopped when an arm had made its way around his neck.

"Yup! Little Hyu and I are great friends! He doesn't like me, but I like him, so that makes us friends!"

"That's not how that works!" both Maki and the girl yelled.

"Of course it does! Because he kept responding to me and I kept going to him! Even with our circumstances being what they were, he still responded to me! Yup, if that isn't the sign of a friendship then I don't know what one is!"

"So you don't know what one is!"

Their snap comments had actually not been what he was expecting.

But he had been told that something like this was common in Border before leaving, so he thought nothing of it.

"At most, you can say this guy was my senior. But now he isn't even that."

"Huh? Why is that? Because you aren't wherever you come from?"

"It's because he is a traitor."

The arm around his shoulder had loosened a bit, but he refused to turn to the idiot.

"What do you mean by-"

"Arisa, just drop it. I'll tell you later."

"Well getting past that stuff, I guess… Does that mean you also have…"

Maki tapped the side of his head a few times.

Hyuse felt himself freeze up again and the arm around his shoulder completely dropped from its spot.

The girl must not have known about that either since she only tilted her head.

"Ha ha ha. I did. It was pretty great too."

An image flashed in Hyuse's mind for a brief moment.

"It was right here. Right in the middle of my forehead. Ha ha ha. I think you call creates like that 'unicorns' over here."

A smiling child with a single horn in his hand. A smile on his face and tears streaming down his cheeks.

"It became pretty annoying to maintain, I have to say. It was pretty fun to use against this guy though. Sometimes I would even use it to wake him up. Sort of like a fun poker that just happened to be on hand. He was pretty mean though since he would grab it and-"

"Futo! Enough!"

.

Maki looked past the boy to see the distance and angered expression that Hyuse wore.

It had already been enough of a shock to see him throw the boy and then speak the way he did to him, but raising his voice that way had been different. The only other time had been when they had fought and Jin had said too much.

But this was different.

It was someone he did not know who had apparently said too much.

"…I will be over there."

Silence filled the area around them as Hyuse had made this way towards the crowd.

The first one to break it had been the girl.

"I guess…you were on good terms if he called you by a nickname?"

It had been a nice try, but even the boy could not seem to find the energy to smile like he had before.

Instead he only shook his head and turned to the girl.

"That was just my original name. Back then my name had just been 'Futo'. The 'Yuki' part had been added once I left my home and… Well that's something I should say out in the open. Ha ha ha. Guess Little Hyu was right to yell at me.

_If that's true, why do you feel so hurt by it?_

He had not thought that he would find out anything like this form Hyuse, but Maki felt like he had made another step closer.

Even if it felt like a bad step.

* * *

The entire hall had been amazed by what had been happening, but no one dared to say a word while it had been happening.

Each person had been told that they would be given a set amount of time to take out a Neighbor made in the training rooms and then would see how well they did. The ones who took it down the fastest would be able to show their skills while the ones who could not finish in time would be weeded out.

During that time, two people in particular had done more than simply show off what they could do.

Talk had begun as two members had cleared the test with the second best record and one that had not been too far behind that.

"Figures you wouldn't be able to handle it," the one with the second best record had said.

"Don't be like that, Little Hyu. I'm just not used to these kinds of blades. Big Boss said I wouldn't be allowed to use what I copied, so this one messed me up," the other one had said.

And even while having such amazing records, they had not been satisfied.

This had resulted in the both of them trying against and ending up with records close to what they had originally gotten.

Now that all of the testing had been done, they were all held in the hall once more with two of Arashiyama Squad's members standing on the stage in front of them all.

But none of them could focus too long as their eyes continued to turn back to the two who had managed such amazing records.

.

"Don't be too sad about it, Little Hyu. I'm sure the one with the best record is some kind of monster."

"Pay attention or I will throw you into the wall again."

"Just be a little nicer and I will consider it."

Arisa shook her head while Maki sighed from his spot next to her.

Compared to the two boys in front of her, she had managed an average record with a little bit of effort.

Her accomplishment had been when she was told that her score had been relatively close to Yuki's.

At the time, she had only thought, _This means I am not that far from Sensei's standards. If Yuki-san was that close and Kei-san is a #1, I should be able to reach A-Rank well enough._

It was rather arrogant of her, but she had been told that it was fine to feel that way when she had rivals as strong as Yuki and Tachikawa.

But now that the testing had been done they needed to listen to what the Arashiyama Squad members had to say.

So moving forward with Maki, the two got between the boys and made sure they could not reach each other.

"Well then, most of the training sessions are done," Arashiyama had said from the stage. "Just as I explained earlier, anyone whose solo points reach 4,000 from training sessions and Solo Rank Wars will be promoted to B-Rank. Now, I'm going to go over some details on Solo Rank Wars, but there's one other thing you must do in the upcoming training course."

Arashiyama turned his head, gesturing for a man with dull eyes behind him to move forward.

He held out the tablet in his hand.

The man with a dull eyes nodded his head before backing up and looking back down at his own tablet.

He faced them all again and continued.

"Everyone in this room has solo points. And we set your starting points at 1,000. Normally what we do is evaluate your skills during a probationary enlistment prior to the ceremony proper, and depending on your performance, you get bonus solo points. It's standard procedure to help naturally skilled recruits get promoted to B-Rank faster. However, since you all enlisted during an irregular part of the season, we didn't have enough time for a probationary period."

So.

"Here's what we'll do. I want you to take a quick skill test."

Arisa felt herself tense up a bit at the sound of it.

Everyone around her had also been questioning what it was about, but she held backfire saying anything.

"That makes sense. With things being as weird as they are right now, speeding things along while being efficient is probably what's best."

The calmness of Maki's voice and the never changing expressions of the boys had been enough to calm her down.

So with a few deep breaths, she listened back in to what was being said.

"I'll have you separated into groups of five. And you will fight each other in a VR space. Anyone who isn't you is an enemy. You will receive 120 points for each enemy you take down. After the battle, we will reshuffle the groups for the next match. This will continue until each of you fights in four matches. The more people you defeat, the closer you get to B-Rank. I expect you to show us the best you can."

.

_This means I won't have to fight those crazy guys from before! Whoo! Go me! Wait… We'll be reshuffled afterwards. Damn it! That means I'll end up getting tossed around!_

Fuyushi cried inside while remaining passive on the outside.

From her spot near the stage she could see Suzaku standing behind Arashiyama, but his gaze was down on the table in his hands.

_The poor guy. He has to keep track of the transmissions during this time so they probably brought him here to make sure everything is fine during all of this._

Those transmissions had been important to Border so it made sense that Suzaku would be called in for checkups when there would be so many people around.

She herself had been sent some messages using Border's transmission while on her guest account.

 **White Fox:** "Try not to get worried, Rep. If you see any monsters there, try and stay clear of them. Oh, but if they are on the same level as us, you should be good."

 **Black Wolf:** "You will do fine. Probably. You asked us for help, so you don't have much to worry about. Probably."

 **Kage:** "Try not to choke, Class Rep. If you do, make sure there's someone there to record."

 **Pokari:** "We can stop by, if you want. Of course we'll go to make fun of you. So who is in for going to see her?"

That one had gotten too many responses.

But the worst had yet to come.

 **Manager:** "You won't have to worry about using the bathroom while using a Trigger. So stay focused on what you need to do instead of what you need to doo."

She had truly felt the pain from that one.

Everyone had thankfully gone on to choose Kimura as their next victim, leaving her relatively alone.

But one final comment had come in before she turned off her phone.

 **Shōgi Boy:** "Ignorin' those guys. You'll do fine, I'm sure. Don't sweat the small stuff and just do whatcha think is best. It helps ya get through the days with those guys after all. Anyways, I'll come by to look at how yer doin' after my match finishes, 'kay?"

Some of them had meant well, so she had focused on those ones going into this.

Now that she was here she could see that not all of them were meant to scare her.

In particular, the comment about monsters being here had not been wrong.

There had been two monsters who cleared the training with ease while she had struggled to make it into the two minute mark.

But that had been fine with her.

Like as was advised, she had stayed away from those monsters and focused on what she could do at the moment.

So here she was, finding herself mentally preparing for a free-for-all.

_If they're anything like how our class gets then I should be fine. But if I end up being in the same groups as those two monsters then I might just loosely mind._

* * *

To say life was unfair was an understatement.

Fuyushi realized the truth about reality the moment the first two shuffles had placed her in fights against the two monsters.

The first one had the boy who held the second best record. That time had been quick as she had not even managed to start her attack before he had taken her out.

After that, it had been just as bad. The guy had been kind enough, but his attack had been relentless. That alone had managed to overwhelm her before she could even try anything.

Thankfully, that had been the worst of it.

The rest of her fights had been normal enough with her winning some and losing some.

_And those guys do this daily? From what they tell us, they are even tops in certain areas. Man, what kind of crazy people are they?_

She knew the answer all too well but chosen to think that she had no cue.

Letting out a sigh, she looked around for someone.

During one of the matches, she had come in contact with a girl younger than her. At first it had been hard to tell if they were a male or female, but that had been easily cleared up once she began to speak.

The girl had also been relatively nice, if not a bit jumpy. Feeling for the girl, she had introduced herself and the two had hit it off rather quickly.

There was no sign of the girl anywhere.

Pulling out her phone, Fuyushi looked down to see multiple messages appear. Most were asking about how she had done while others were likely cursed threads someone was spreading.

_I'll make sure to beat their skulls in later one or that._

She opened the first few and found that they had been from her classmates.

 **White Fox:** "So how did you do? I can't really go see you right now since I'm actually taking a break."

 **Kage:** "At least tell us that there's something to hit you with when we get to class."

 **Black Wolf:** "I think Suzaku is also supposed to be there. You can go and ask him for something if you need any help. Oh, you can actually go to get your account properly set up now."

 **Pokari:** "I'm with Kage. Did you do something that can give us a good story for class?"

"Well at least two of them are fine enough. I'll make sure to give Kageura and Hokari some extra things to do after class."

Even as she thought of ways to get back at the two, she felt a smile begin to form on her face.

It only grew when she saw the chat name next to the words she was typing out.

 **Class Rep:** "Two of you can screw off. The other two are fine."

Instead of waiting for answers to her messages, she closed her phone and looked around once more.

She had found the girl, but there had been three other people near her.

Two of them had been the monsters she had seen while the third one was a boy in a special outfit that had an emblem on it.

"I guess not everything can work out," she sighed out. "I'll just talk to her later then."

* * *

"You use the panels to choose your opponents. Beat people with higher points gets you more points. Should be easy enough for the two of you. Misawa, you should probably stick with the ones who have lesser ones."

The new trio nodded their heads as Maki showed them what they needed to do to decide on who they wanted to fight.

Futoyuki folded his arms behind his head while backing out of the room.

"Guess I'll go get me some points. You wanna have a go at it, Little Hyu?"

"Are you sure you want to lose your points that quickly?"

"Funny, funny. Fine, I'll go take a look around for some people. Just try not to make anyone cry while I'm not around. Or better yet, don't be the one crying because you miss me."

"I have never done that and you have no proof of it."

Arisa and Maki only stared at the two of them.

Having dealt with them for this long, they had both come to terms that this is just the way the two of them interacted with each other.

There was clearly a past between the two of them, but neither one pried into that.

"I guess I should get a booth too. Akasora-san isn't rushing or anything, but I would like to reach B-Rank by the end of the day. Once we do that, we can form a proper squad for the Yagura Branch."

"Oh, that's right. The two of you are from there. Hm. I guess that means there is already a rivalry for your branch and Tamakoma."

"You would be surprised. There is already a good amount of those."

With that being said, Arisa gave a wave before walking out of the booth.

"So… Little Hyu, huh?"

"Don't you start too."

* * *

It was an unfamiliar place like this that made crowds stand out even more.

… _Will this…be okay…? …Can I find…him…?_

Shobu grabbed the devices around his neck as he looked up at the scores on the large screen. Tomoe and the upperclassman he had mentioned were standing in front of him, but they were not blocking his vision.

As for what they were talking about…

"That's crazy. If they barely entered today then that means they got a bunch of points right away."

"Even some of the C-Ranks from the previous season only recently got to B-Rank, but those two already made it without wasting any time."

His own two friends had been some of the ones who had "recently got to B-Rank", so he made sure to not tell them about this conversation.

Looking back around the screen, he saw those booths had been getting large amounts of points quickly and decided he would need to look at them to make sure he was right in assumption.

"Miura-senpai! Did something happen?"

The voice had been too sudden for him, so Shobu felt himself jump.

It showed how bad it had been since Tomoe had gone to make sure he was fine.

"There's been whispering going around, so we wanted to know what's up."

"Well, the thing is… Apparently, there are two new recruits who joined today, and they are already B-Rank."

"Already…!? It's not even been a day and they have already gotten that far!?"

"That's gotta be the fastest record ever, right!? Let's go fight those guys!"

"Hmm, I'm interested for sure, but…"

"They were C-Rank until a while ago," Tomoe said from next to him. "So they only have one Trigger each at the moment. They don't even have Shield yet."

"Oh, I see."

Would this be a good time to step in?

Taking in breath, Shobu lifted his hand, moving it away from the device around his neck.

"…One of…them…"

"Huh? Oh, Tenryū. How are you?"

Was it weird that he felt happy to be remembered like that?

… _No, no, no… …That is just how things go…_

Nodding his head in greeting, Shobu straightened his back a bit.

The encouraging looks from Tomoe and Sasamori had been helpful in building him up.

"…One of those two… …They are…part of Yagura… …If you want…to fight him…when he is ready…you can stop…by…whenever…"

It felt like inviting someone to his house, but that would have been too much for him if that had been reality.

This was just a way to connect people by letting them know when they could have a fight with someone.

"Oh, so he's a part of your branch? That would make sense then. You guys have some weird people there."

"Koarai, ssshhh! His uncle is the one who runs it!"

"E-eh!? Oh! My bad there, uh…"

"…Tenryū Shokubutsu…"

"You're that dragon Iko-san had talked about before!? Miura-senpai, you and Tomoe are helping to train a dragon who helped a lot around here!?"

"What are you saying now?"

At some point the rumors had gotten out of control and he was now a dragon. That was what Shobu got from what the older boy was saying.

"Koarai, leave him be. He's shy," Sasamori said as he turned the attention away from Shobu. "But getting back to what we were saying. We know that one of those two is form the same branch as Tenryū, but what about the other guy? What are we going to do about fighting him?"

"How about we all just use a sword? Don't bet our points. Maybe that would work?"

* * *

It had been amazing how quickly the fights had gone.

Maki had been there when Tokieda told Hyuse about the group wanting to fight him.

Each one had gone pretty quick with no one scoring even a single point on Hyuse.

They had all been clear wins.

Then came Sasamori.

The confidence he had shown at the start was clear, but it had only gotten him so far.

Compared to the other people who had tried, he had managed to get a single win and multiple hits on Hyuse. By normal standards it was nothing amazing, but it had been the fact that his opponent was Hyuse that made him stand out.

The final one of the group had been a small boy who had his eye covered by his hair.

Rumor had been going around about this boy, and his name had come up only a few times with Hatohara Squad. Other than that, Maki had no idea what he would be capable of.

What had been strange was the uniform he had been wearing.

_Either Kakizaki Squad added him on just today or he didn't have Kōgetsu in a slot before this._

The second one had felt more likely since there had been no news about Kakizaki Squad gaining a new member.

Once the next fight had started, it had been a strange sight.

The boy had looked fine with using Kōgetsu, but his actions had all been different from anyone using the blade proper.

Every time he moved it had been on light feet, but the weight of Kōgetsu had slowed him down and counterbalanced his actions.

This had resulted in only a single win for the boy, but…

_If he wasn't using Kōgetsu, it might have gone differently. The amount of hits he got in during his fights totaled more than the others. Even if he isn't used to Kōgetsu, he's used to fighting in general._

Once that had been finished, a voice had called out from the booths.

Koarai had been finding anyone he could to fight Hyuse.

The next three people had included Tsuji, who Maki had thought was with Hisoka and Oshiro, Ikoma, and Tachikawa.

Each fight had resulted in less wins than the previous ones with Hyuse only managing the win against Ikoma due to a breach of the rules they had set.

The Border chat had gone off right after that had happened.

 **Iko:** "Sorry, Chisato. I messed up and need to go on a trainin' arc now. Take care of the place for me."

 **Ortlinde:** "The place is in the Yagura Branch, so I don't need to do much. And stop being an idiot. If you have to go on a training arc then I have to go with you. I would be a failure as a girlfriend if I didn't get stronger with you."

 **Girls:** "Oh my!"

 **Kuni:** "It's getting pretty hot around here!"

 **Mi-Kon:** "I just turned on the AC, but it's still pretty bad."

 **Artist:** "Does this count as their honeymoon then? A training arc honeymoon that only they can have!"

 **Girls:** "Tell us everything!"

 **Koala:** "I found another one! Tachikawa-san said he would fight!"

 **Demon Child:** "Koala, I suggest you leave right now or else you will end up in a bad place."

 **Koala:** "Huh!? What's happening here!?"

 **Shobu:** "…Bad things…"

 **Decoy:** "There, there. No need to push yourself, Tenryū."

 **Ortlinde:** "So when are we leaving? I want to make sure that we get back in time to feed the frog."

 **Everyone:** "You were serious!?"

 **Iko:** "Trainin' arcs're serious stuff."

 **Shōgi Boy:** "Ya have a week, tops. That's when we need ya for the next match."

 **Iko:** "We should be back by the end of the day. Take care of the frog for us 'til then."

 **Shōgi Boy:** "I'm not takin' care of him!"

 **Ortlinde:** "Thanks for the help, Satoshi."

 **Shōgi Boy:** "Hah. Fine. Just bring me back a souvenir."

 **Ortlinde:** "Sure. Ask the others what they want to."

 **Koala:** "Um… Can you just say for a bit then?"

 **Iko:** "Sure."

Things like that may have been the reason why Maki chose to not focus too much on the chat.

Then there had been Tachikawa.

At some point during the mess in the chat, Tachikawa and Hyuse had started their own fight.

A single win was the end result.

Hyuse had managed to get a single win by catching Tachikawa off guard at the right moment.

That had seemed to be enough to satisfy everyone as they had called it quits and left the booth.

.

The first thing Hyuse did upon exiting the booth was spread his arms out.

His legs were then spread out just as far while his hips lowered.

The sound of someone running was heard and his reflexes kicked in.

Already beginning to bend backwards, he grabbed hold of the waist belonging to Futoyuki before bending all the way back and throwing the older boy back.

He hit the ground hard.

"Oh, so he did go with a German Suplex this time. I guess it would look bad if he threw him off from the railing."

Speaking of which, the railing had ended up in the way. The metal got bent after having collided with Furotyuki's head.

"I tried to stop him," Arisa said, walking up to them.

She pointed down below to a group of people wearing different squad uniforms.

"By the way, those guys are asking for House-san. They would have been doing the same for Futoyuki, but Tenryū Shokubutsu-san managed to stop that from happening."

"It's because they just fought Hyuse. They might still end up going for Futoyuki, so we all might as well head down."

After having gotten up from his bent position, Hyuse nodded along and started for the stairs.

.

"Hey, rookie!"

That had been the first thing to come from the loudest one of the group.

"You were pretty good out there! Who are you!?"

"Thanks for accepting our request."

Before he could answer, an arm had managed to get around his neck for the second time that day.

The culprit had somehow managed to get back up and make his way over them again.

"This guy is Little Hyu and I'm Futoyuki! Oh, oh! Boss Shobu, you're here too!?"

"…Yes…"

It felt strange hearing that kind of thing now.

Futoyuki's voice had carried to them all, but the respect directed towards the small boy he had fought felt strange.

Putting aside those thoughts, Hyuse shrugged off the arm on his shoulder before looking around the area.

_By taking advantage of the VR training system, everybody can continue their training in a safe environment._

_While their trion technology still has a long way to go…these technologies that are unique to Miden… They must be a huge factor in how they have gotten so many skilled combatants in a short period of time._

It was all different.

There was nothing harsh about the surroundings and everyone had seemed fine even after losing to someone new.

The group around him was a good example of not being sore losers.

Each one of them only smiled at him as they spoke and held no malice in having just lost to someone who only recently joined.

"It's different, isn't it?"

The voice had come from behind him.

Futoyuki had lowered his voice in a way that any fighter would when not wanting others to hear.

"Miden is this kind of nice place. I learned about that from my former leader. He came from this world and told the rest of us so many things. That's why we could settle here knowing that things had a chance of going well."

He gave a bitter laugh as he moved forward once more.

"But I guess you can't really trust what a traitor says, now can you. Sucks that you didn't get to see the Wanderers' 'greeting' for a second time."

Instead of listening to what he had to say, Futoyuki moved forward to stand next to the kid who had his eyes covered.

The words he had said remained in his head until someone broke through his thoughts.

The group around him still wanted to talk.

"Have you already decided on which squad you want to join?"

"If you haven't chosen yet, you should join ours."

"He already has a squad he's going to join. The same goes for those two as well, so don't bother asking."

Maki had stopped up next to him.

Even with the tone he took, the two who had asked him the questions did not bat an eye and continued smiling.

It was strange, this new experience.

But that was fine.

"Alright, Little Hyu! Time for us to have a match! I need to get more points than you, and the best way is to take them from you!"

So long as he did not have to deal with that too much.


	136. Masataka Ninomiya

"It's getting darker out, but I guess that doesn't matter much."

Ninomiya listened to Inukai from his seat at a table.

They were both in one of the general areas of the Border base. This was a few hours after their match had ended and their victory had been called.

They were both seated across from each other.

They had not simply gone there.

Ninomiya had wanted to check on some things and Inukai had just come from meeting with the Hogo Squad Captain.

Ninomiya had gone almost all the way home and had been told that there would be no one there at the moment.

He gave a sigh and backtracked to the base.

"I never imagined that someone else would bring up the past like that."

"Sometimes people need to tell you that you have a stubborn personality."

"No, I get that enough from the people around me."

"True."

Inukai seemed to accept that answer, but it was a mystery what meaning he had taken from it.

Still, he could only blame his own personality for refusing to let go of that past that held him back during their match.

… _What am I supposed to do?_

Should he rejoice? Should he argue his case for keeping that past in his mind and letting it get to him?

Everyone in the know understood the reason for him and Suzunari-1's ace to do what they did. That would be why Inukai had said nothing about it.

But it still bothered him on the inside.

"How should I put this?"

"Just say it however you can."

 _Fair enough,_ he decided while pretending to think hard on it.

"I don't like…"

This was something he had been thinking on for a while.

"I don't like how it feels like those of us there are being toyed with all over the place."

"Isn't that exactly what happened?" The other boy smiled bitterly. "Something comes in and sets things up to how they had been and puts us there. And we have to fight in that setting. So you had no choice but to work while thinking back to a terrible time, but then others from the same time show up and try to fight in that same setting. You probably wish that entire incident would just leave you alone, but there are people on that side who can even get things right by guessing."

"Not 'that' side, 'your' side. Don't act like you aren't a part of this."

"Eh, I prefer staying out of the more complex stuff and just live in the moment. It's such a pain otherwise."

"So you were thinking of it from my point of view?"

"That would be kind of weird."

"Then…"

Before he could ask why, Inukai explained.

"When something is too much, I try to leave it to, or shift it to, 'that'. I don't mess with it myself if I know it makes things worse. That's how I live my life after having met Oshiro."

"I hate that."

"Why?"

"Because it means you have people you can trust to deal with it for you."

Inukai looked over at him with eyes wide. That response had clearly come as a surprise. And…

"–––––"

For some reason, he hung his head and held his head in his hands.

Ninomiya wondered if he had said the wrong thing.

He was feeling kind of awkward, so…

"What is it?"

"Well, sometimes these weird truths hit you in the last way you ever expected. But anyway." Inukai pointed forward. "Look, he's coming."

Ninomiya looked over to see a familiar face moving toward them.

His face went into a deep frown.

"That damn faker."

.

Yuki nodded when the airhead called him.

He had already taken some hours to rest.

He had contacted multiple people to ask what they thought of what was going on.

… _Mitsuteru apparently understood what I meant._

He had decided to not let go of the past until Yuki had solved things himself.

That meant he had to wait.

He decided that Mitsuteru was a good person who deserved to hate him for everything that had built up.

While thinking about that kind of stuff, he had heard the airhead was taking his own break in one of the open areas.

When he had told his teacher he wanted to speak more with the airhead…

 **White Fox:** "Is Kaze here?"

 **Kaze:** "Yeah. I am right behind you, Yuki-san."

He looked back to check.

 **Kaze:** "Um, could you not turn around out of simple curiosity? It's a simple enough motion for you, but I have to run all the way around you."

 **White Fox:** "Hm? You don't have to stay behind me, do you?"

 **Kaze:** "Standing in front of a VIP would obstruct their words. That's why I always saw some of the guards move when my parents' boss comes in."

 _What an interesting way of thinking,_ he realized. But on the other hand…

 **White Fox:** "What if you need to shield them?"

 **Kaze:** "In my case, I would knock them down from behind. Then I would attack with Scorpion."

 **White Fox:** "Attack the VIP? Yeah, I guess no one can kill them if they're already dead."

 **Kaze:** "Attack the attacker!"

_Oh, yeah. Whoops._

… _I hate how accustomed to Border's rules I've gotten._

But Kaze asked a question about this.

 **Kaze:** "Yuki-san, is this that kind of person?"

 **White Fox:** "What kind of person?"

 **Kaze:** "One you think I should stand guard in front of you for."

 _That's the real question,_ thought Yuki as he made his way over to the airhead.

He knew the area around here quite well. He had walked it and he had viewed it from multiple angles.

He recalled that this person had fought him here all the time, and he called out to them.

"Idiotic airhead, you had a pretty annoying time, didn't you?"

.

Ninomiya responded to the faker while aware he was physically below the other boy.

"You look like your entire day has been annoying."

"That's right. I had to watch a terrible match with fools that I know too well. After that reminder to not think too much, I'll probably have to entirely replace my thoughts, reason, and wants."

"How are you going to do that?"

"Right. By bowing my head to Minoru and getting my ass kicked at some point."

The faker's words told Ninomiya something.

… _He's trying to change._

He had not been the kind of person who would come out and say he had to bow his head to someone.

For that matter, he did not have the personality for getting beaten in a fight either.

"Damn faker." Ninomiya spoke his mind. "This hasn't been easy for you, has it?"

"What is that sympathetic look for?"

"Nothing." He waved his hand back and forth. "Don't worry about it."

Besides, he had something else to say.

"Why not say it's someone else's fault?"

"No, I will pay for my stupidity myself. Because my actions were my own decision."

"Are you stupid?" The words left him on reflex and he leaned forward a bit. "Do you really think that's enough to settle this? Are you just going to abandon your continuing responsibility to all of the people you have ruined?"

"Then will you pay for it?"

"Why would I have to!?"

 _There's something weird about him,_ thought Ninomiya.

Not that long ago, the faker had spent all his time keeping all sorts of things to himself, but now…

… _I have no idea what he's trying to say._

He realized this bizarre behavior did not really have anything to do with whether or not the faker kept everything to himself, but that was not the point.

"Damn faker, did you get yourself brainwashed somewhere?"

"No, I didn't."

Inukai raised his right arm.

"What person would say yes to that?"

"Hm, that was a stupid question, wasn't it?"

But the faker tilted his head with a frown.

"There's something weird about you."

"That's my line." Ninomiya sighed and let his shoulders slump. "Besides, why are you still trying to do everything yourself?"

"Oh, that. Since you know as much as I do on a lot of things, I'm giving you responsibility for looking into certain things for Border. Oh, and I'm not asking you for help. I'm only deciding to be a bit lazy by giving you more to do. That starts in 5 seconds from now."

"What the hell is with you!?"

When he stood up, he felt a pang run through him and grimaced.

"Is the pressure of the position really such a shock? Well, you need to get used to it."

"Th-that was pain from a memory!"

"So," said the faker, "you're saying it isn't too much pressure? Then I'll send that information to the needed people via Umi and Border's transmission. Okay, done."

* * *

"Oh," said Suzaku while working with Kunichika who was holding up her phone to photograph the mess outside of one of the large match-viewing halls. "Kimura? Yukicchi sent a mail asking to have, um, the Ninomiya Squad Captain in charge of looking into some things in his place."

"Hm, but I'm buttering some bread right now, so it'll have to wait."

"Kimura, are you saying butter is more important than Nino-san?" asked Kitazoe. "And where did you even get that?"

Kimura ignored the last question then placed a slice of buttered bread and a slice of unbuttered bread in front of him.

"Now." Kimura placed a hand on the table. "Which would you prefer, Kitazoe? Choose one."

"W-well, in this case, I think the unbuttered one would be better."

"Oh, are you sure about that, Kitazoe?"

Kimura grabbed and lifted up the buttered bread. Jinsei approached from behind and swapped it out with a toasted slice. It was of course buttered too.

She held it up in front of Kitazoe.

"Now, which would you prefer, Kitazoe?"

"Th-the buttered one! Wh-what else could I choose!? Damn, I feel so defeated here, but unbuttered bread is just bread!"

It felt like Kitazoe had been working on his schtick lately.

Meanwhile, Suzaku noticed that Hitomi was only drinking some canned iced tea.

"Aren't you going to eat something, Hitomi?"

"Eating would make me sleepier. Sticking to a light snack and tea is the best way to get my stomach in order."

"Yes," said Ōji who was toasting some bread nearby. "Tea is wonderful because it tenses the stomach. If you drink some strong tea and eat some bread on a damp day, the tea soaking the bread will tense your stomach and improve your body's circulation."

"I see," said the girls while taking a note of that. "Oh, Kimura, what should we do about Yuki's request?"

"Hmm, what is the situation like with whatever he needs to look into?"

"Right." He raised his hand. "In the versus mode of Tale of Border's Best Idols, there's Yuki and two or three others, but the rest are filled with question marks."

"I wasn't asking about some video game!" _Hmm,_ thought Kimura. "I should probably have someone look into that."

* * *

"Netsuki-san, Hogo Squad's Operator has sent you an urgent command via Suzaku."

"What!? We're kind of busy at the moment, so what could possibly be so important!?"

"Right." One of the workers read the message aloud. "What did Tsukiko Yuki need to look into?"

"Isn't it a little late to be asking that?"

"Netsuki-san, why are you actually starting to investigate that for her?"

"You don't get it?" Netsuki narrowed his eyes to a glare. "If I don't do this, she'll demand I do something even worse. I could just ignore it, but she has more authority if she works with and uses Suzaku."

* * *

"Kimura, Netsuki-san just sent his response. Here, I'll give everyone else a copy too."

"Oh? That was fast. If you need something from the inner parts of Border, there's no one better than Netsuki-san."

Kimura quickly read what the message had to say about what Yuki was looking into.

… _They do indeed have a lot of stuff for him to look into._

This only told her the locations he would be going to, but based on that...

"Huh? Kawa, isn't this a full list?"

"No, look more carefully, Hitomi," said Kurauchi. "This list of locations might look full, but most of the places are listed as 'Quick Hotspot Locations'."

"I see," said Senshi while viewing Arafune's phone, but refusing to look him in the eye. "Instead of going to places that are close by or near the Forbidden Zone, they want him to look at the locations I mentioned before for tunnels. During the second large-scale invasion, someone had punched a hole through the ground from the underground up. There was some worry about that, but that's all I know about it."

"Did you try to look into that too, Senshi?"

"I really wanted to, but I instead went to other locations to make sure nothing was put into them. Mikado City has a surprising amount of underground areas that connect all over the place. I haven't gone through all of them, but the ones I did find were clear of anything but danger. I had to head back before I ran any risks."

It was amazing that everything had not collapsed on the unlucky boy there.

Kurauchi gave his back a few pats with a hint of bitterness. Kimura looked to the others, but…

 **Demon Child:** "The shoulder, the shoulder. Go for the shoulder, Kurauchi."

 **Kura-uchi:** "He's already tripped on the stairs five times, so I think this is enough!"

 **Demon Child:** "Keh."

 _Lack of sleep doesn't slow Hitomi down any, does it?_ thought Suzaku while Kurauchi looked to Senshi and spoke quietly.

"If you had gotten crushed by anything there, would you have tried to do something about that? You could have gotten seriously injured."

"But if that happened, I'm sure you would have managed to reach me, Kazuki."

"The underground is not visible aboveground," he said. "But while still above ground, I just know I would have found you wherever you were."

.

 **Life:** "Given his reliability, I bet he could have found him from any part of Mikado City."

 **Black Wolf:** "Yes, that line was weirdly convincing. Especially since SenSen would not have had to hide anything and would try to use his Trigger."

 **Ortlinde:** "I hate that I can't deny any of that due to not knowing the guy beyond fighting a car to a standstill."

 **Kura-uchi:** "Hey! Stop that! Don't twist my charming line to make me sound like a pervert!"

.

"Anyway," said Kimura while reaching an understanding of the current situation. "They want to make sure the underground or nearby areas are safe from Neighbor attacks. Which means…"

She opened a few tabs, displayed the locations chosen by the directors, and checked over them or filled them out. And then…

"This guy is not asking for help, so no one bother thinking about that. He just wants to get back at Ninomiya for being Ninomiya. But regardless of that, Suzaku, you handle the process."

"Oh, right," said Suzaku as he accepted them and checked them over. "These are official documents to be sent to the businesses too, right? Then who will handle the official process?"

* * *

"Netsuki-san, the Hogo Squad Operator has sent another job."

"What!? I just did a job for her!"

"See? This is what happens when you go easy on her."

* * *

"Kimura, they came back unbelievably fast and now we are receiving a rapid series of empty mails."

"Hm? Did Netsuki-san hit the wrong button or something? Sorry, Suzaku, but is there a punishment for this?"

"Hm." Suzaku placed a hand on his chin. "Harassing Border's transmission via mail would normally get your identity traced from the message and then a love letter of yours would be chosen at random and displayed on the network for all to see. Oh, but you can reach a settlement instead."

"That would be a little much right now. I'd feel bad for him, so stop it, will you?"

"I will inform our TSUBAKI it was a mistake and make a bribe of sake and a romance manga. Now, as for the documents…"

"Right," said Kimura. "I submitted them to the other directors and they were already accepted, so send word to that guy."

* * *

"Oh? Idiotic airhead, it was already accepted."

"Eh!? That was fast! If we sent that from any of us, the directors would have sat on it for around two weeks before finally getting around to it!"

"Hmm." Yuki crossed his arms in a satisfied way. "Our age group is pretty cannibalistic, so they know how to handle these administrative and delicate processes. Isn't that right, Inukai? I should probably send the thanks through the official route."

"Please leave me out of that situation…"

* * *

"Netsuki-san, The Yagura Branch Representative wants you to contact the Hogo Squad Operator and pass on his thanks regarding the job transfer."

"What!? _I_ did that! What is going on here!? How did _she_ get the credit!?"

"Netsuki-san, about 5 second ago, I realized you should probably just get used to it."

 **Manager:** "Hey, Netsuki-san, great work. That dumb idiot I use to call a captain sent me his thanks. In that mail you sent. Thanks."

"Netsuki-san." The worker glared at Netsuki who had fallen silent. "I have determined your life is over if you let yourself feel happy about her praise."

* * *

Ninomiya saw the faker nod.

"Well, there you have it, you idiotic airhead," said the faker with arms crossed in a dignified way.

"Wait, hold on, damn faker! Listen to what I'm trying to say!"

Things were progressing at an extreme rate.

… _Um, I'm doing a strange job for Border's directors now!?_

Putting him in charge meant he would not have defense duty, but that was neither here nor there.

"How are things changing so fast!? What is going on!?"

"First you tell me to listen to you and now you pepper me with questions?"

"Just tell me what is happening!"

"Fine," said the faker again before pointing into the outside sky.

The empty sky was turning a pitch black instead of a deep orange as night approached.

The residential area was over there.

"I screwed up all over the place and need to make amends."

"And you think you can do something like that by doing even more work!?"

"Oh? If you know I'm doing that, you understand this better than I thought."

"Ah." Ninomiya was dumbfounded. He had simply had a feeling this was headed that way. "You decide to change again and now you're not even sure how to do it. Are you stupid!?"

"Sorry."

When the faker apologized so directly, Ninomiya lowered his raised hips back on the seat.

Everyone around them had come to a screeching halt and Inukai had even thrown himself from the seat.

The faker had managed something that all had thought was impossible.

… _He is stupid._

Ninomiya knew things were over for him now that the other boy had apologized.

Because no matter what he said or did, the other boy would simply apologize.

"Listen, idiotic airhead."

"I don't want to hear it. Because I know you're just shoving your selfishness onto me!" He moved the arm past his shoulder to point out toward the city. "You have no idea what kind of shit you have done!"

"Sorry."

"Don't apologize!"

"Alright."

"And don't say alright! When did you get even more selfish?"

"This is why I'm leaving that stuff in your hands until I figure myself out," said the faker. "Even from this distance, I'm impressed that so much is intact. There is no way anyone can doubt your resolve to do something like this after everything."

"But…that was only possible because I was given a second chance."

"Probably so. I also like to think it's because I got involved, but that would be too messed up. Even for me. But from what I've heard and seen, you've never left his side or let him get beyond that point. Not until I came in with my own stupidity."

"Because if I had let it get that far at any point in time, I would have quickly done something even more regretful than losing that first time."

"You take everything so seriously."

Ninomiya just about retorted with "unlike you, damn faker" but held his tongue.

The faker was trying to move away again. This time to a place none of them would regret.

"You've gone insane."

"Yeah. I must have been exposed to a nasty influence since that day in the hospital."

So…

"I am going to get my act together as Yagura's representative and as a person so that I can make sure people like you and Kō don't have to regret knowing me."

"Can you even bring yourself to face the people most important here?"

"No. I wanted to contact so many more people in person or even by message, but backed out before I could press the send button," he said. "That means I am still 'Yuki' as well as 'Kiyoshi' while trying to move on. In all honesty, I have no clue when I will be able to manage a proper lifestyle at this rate. I might even go out because of this illness before that happens."

"That sure is convenient for you, huh?"

"Then will you try to fix me yourself?"

Ninomiya thought about that. He had a number of thoughts concerning the faker. After all, he was the reason for his own misfortune, Minoru's current misfortune, and many other people's misfortune. But that did not mean he wanted to try and fight what seemed to be happening, nor did it mean it would actually work out.

"It's not worth my time."

But this crazy boy in front of him wanted to reach them all at some point.

… _Oh._

Ninomiya mentally slumped his shoulders.

… _He hasn't really changed at all._

He thought he had accomplished something, but he was still influenced by that "I'm an unneeded existence" complex.

But one thing had changed.

"You're willing to admit that you need to be fixed."

"Hiding your weakness doesn't make you stronger. So instead…"

"Yes?"

"If you admit to your weakness, something amazing is bound to happen."

"So you want to take advantage of essentially a miracle?"

"I'm trying to take this seriously," he said. And, "Ninomiya."

Listen.

"Something is bound to break at some point. That's just how things are."

.

Yuki spoke about what had happened and what he had discussed in the past.

"At that point or sometime after, I plan on making sure I won't be able to be seen and make sure I won't be in anyone's way."

And…

"I will eventually be forgotten along with everything connected to me. Don't worry though, I'll make sure my sister… Yeah. My older sister - Kushikage. I'll make sure she is also out of the way. That way only the good people from our family are still around. So…"

"I get it already. So how about you get going?"

Ninomiya shrugged.

"I understand." He briefly hesitated before continuing. "You aren't someone important to human history. So if you see yourself that way, it's bound to end up with you just leaving without being noticed. As your enemy, I would like nothing more. But…"

But…

"As a person… I hope something amazing happens and someone kicks your ass. That way you can figure out what even children know at this point. Honestly, what have you been doing up until now?"

"Well," said Yuki while aware he could not look Ninomiya in the eye. "Lately…I've visited a local business and had the privilege of having Kuruma-san's protection."

"Are you picking a fight with me!? And wait, was that what you were doing during the incident with the sponsors!?"

Then a change came over Ninomiya voice.

"Oh?" he said in confusion. "Damn faker, you got to be protected by him?"

"That's right. My name was a failure, as expected. I did decently for the most part, but, well, you can call my entire time there an accident. All I really did was provide Kō with a wrecking ball. You hadn't heard?"

"I was following the end results, but I didn't know what exactly happened there. …That's not true. What I meant was that Minoru was the only one I thought was important."

"I see. I guess that is fair. Ōji Squad got to fight a car, we went to some more festivals, Akane got a lot of snacks, Sekai-san got a farewell party, Tatsuhito finally got a girlfriend and started rubbing it in everyone's faces, and he and his girlfriend fought a strange Neighbor a few times. One time she had even been as naked as you could get while remaining PG. It was probably Border's worst battle. We tried to work things out with as little fighting as possible, but I think we forgot to agree not to take things way too seriously. Luckily there had been an idiot there to set us right."

"I see." Ninomiya rested his head in his hand. "I thought nothing else would have been as important as Minoru's situation, but maybe that was just because I didn't want to view it as a whole. Still, you actually hanging _something_ is still a sour thought."

Ninomiya sounded a little disturbed, but Yuki had to admit it surprised him too. He had expected everything to fall apart because of his former name and some of the time he had been hiding behind the Suzunari members.

"Want to join in next time? Not with me of course. I might end up throwing you out of a high-rise after all."

"Isn't it better if something like that doesn't happen again?"

"That's why I said 'next time'," said Yuki. "Also, I know you'll want to make sure everything is fine if it involves someone important to you. Just as I am meant to get out of everyone's way, you should be the one in people's way. If someone wants to climb higher, you have to be the one to give them a reality check and make sure they don't get too full of themselves."

… _Probably so._

"Were you trying to get in my way by giving me the cold shoulder for so long instead of antagonizing me?"

"Now you're just getting a big head."

"Just some wishful thinking, that's all," said Yuki. "You will be in charge of some of my work for a while."

"Then I will just do better than you ever could." Ninomiya shrugged with his palms painted skyward. "Besides, that's the role of being your enemy and yet Minoru's partner."

.

Ninomiya thought about his current position between a loved one and a hated one.

… _I'm in the middle of something pretty crazy._

Minoru was someone he could say he loved and his sister had been a former teammate.

But then there Yuki, who was the only person he could truly call an enemy. He also had a sister. Two to be exact. Although only the older one was someone else he could hate.

In a way it had evened out with both love and hate having someone in those places and someone extending out from that.

"I've been pushed around because of knowing the both of you, but I don't really think that's too much of a bad thing."

"I doubt knowing the both of us so well would be that much trouble. If anything, it was probably because you have a terrible personality that people are against you. But more than that…" Yuki pointed at Ninomiya's chest. "They are probably thinking about how messed up you are for even thinking of breaking up with a good person like Minoru while his family member was here."

Inukai raised his right arm again.

"Which family member are we talking about here?"

"Right. I'm talking about Mirai here. Well, I guess that's the only one I can talk about since his parents and brother are…"

"I see," said Inukai. "I thought you were talking about his cousin or something."

.

Yuki found this sentence to be both confusing as well as shocking. He had heard stories about this cousin, but a name was hardly ever given.

"Who exactly are you talking about? If he has more family members then why haven't they come forward yet?"

"I mean, they've been around the whole time. But they look like they're going through their own issues right now."

"And how does that relate to this?"

What kind of issues would they have to be and how could they be related to all of this if they had not even come forward to help Minoru? It was a bit annoying to learn of this only recently, but there was nothing he could do about it now.

He remembered some people who had been as hardcore as family, but none of them seemed to any deep connections with the Hatohara family.

"I really wish you would just tell us already."

"If that's what you want, sure, I'll tell you. I just thought you would have known by now."

"Huh? Why?"

"Wait," said Ninomiya to stop the Gunner, but he continued regardless.

"Well," he said with a nod. "Mino has spoken about his family some, right?"

"Yes. At times, right?"

"Right," confirmed Inukai. "Depending on how you want to call her now, Takato Mei - or Shitokei Fuji - is the cousin of the Hatohara family."

* * *

Svantje looked over with a wary expression as Minoru came into the operating room.

"Oh, you got a haircut. It looks nice. But shouldn't you go find Taka?"

"It's fine. He is with Oshiro and Hisoka. Hisoka probably told you, but they plan on visiting the Yagura Branch. That's where _my cousin_ is after all, so they should be there for a while. Haru might tag along with them too." He spoke with a dull tone and his eyes felt hollow. There was a clear difference from before, but the general feeling he gave was the same. "But I guess I should try and meet up with her at some point. I want to make sure she is better now. …Even if it's just slightly."

"If you say so…"

"Don't worry about it." Minoru glanced over. "I can at least do some things since I'm already over here."

* * *

"Mei is…Minoru and Mirai's cousin?"

"Don't look so shocked. It's the truth."

"Inukai, I think that's why it comes as such a shock," added Ninomiya.

But Ninomiya had something to say to Yuki who was hanging his head in silence.

"Just think of that as a starting point to this new place you want to reach, faker. This just means you need to try harder to figure out what exactly is going on with all of us. That way we can make sure we are on the same page and not destroying each other."

"I suppose so," weakly said Yuki.

Ninomiya saw him release a deep sigh toward the ground and decide to speak.

"Whoever you are right now, what kind of environment are you trying to make here?"

"I wish it was that easy to explain."

Yuki then looked to the sky outside.

At some point, Mikado City's sky had grown fairly dark. However...

"I wonder what's going to happen in the coming days."

**Author's Note:**

> I am planning to split this story up into smaller ones and put it as a series. There will be a bit more added to those than what this story has. Mostly for the parts up to Aftokrator and the invasion itself. So feel free to wait for those or just read this story to know what will happen.


End file.
